Starting a business is hard. And having enough runway to get off the ground is a big part of whether you succeed or fail. Content creator and author of the Hey, Freelancer newsletter, Blair Sharp, is our guest for the 416th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast. Blair shares how she made sure she had enough runway to figure things out when she launched her business. There’s a lot in this episode, including Blair’s story of giving up alcohol. Click the play button below, or scroll down for a full transcript.

Stuff to check out:

Blair’s website

The Copywriter Club Facebook Group

The Copywriter Underground

Full Transcript:

Rob Marsh: This podcast episode is all about what I like call runway. And maybe the best way to explain what I mean by that is a comparrison of your business and an airplane. It takes energy to get an airplane of the ground. The pilot needs to spin up the engines, the aircraft has to accelerate, the wing flaps need to be adjusted to get “lift” so the aircraft rises. And because all of this takes a bit of time… you need a runway to move down while it all comes together.

Your business is a lot like that. Most businesses don’t take off like rocketships. They need runway while you figure a few things out and get the momentum to take off. It takes time… so having a long runway can really benefit your business.

Hi, I’m Rob Marsh, and on today’s episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast, I’m speaking with content creator, part-time psychometrist and author of the Hey Freelancer newsletter, Blair Sharp. The way Blair has built her business is the perfect example of using a runway and time to figure things out, instead of just leaping into the unknown and hoping for the best. It’s a model that a lot of freelancers could benefit from. So stick around as she lays out how she’s made it work for her.

Before we jump in with Blair…

Tomorrow,  October 9 is the day of our next members-only training on how to create a lead magnet that not only helps you grow your list, but attracts your ideal clients and buyers, not just people looking for a free download. Our guest Kennedy from Email Marketing Heroes will be sharing a totally new way to create lead magnets that create buyers. That’s how he describes it.

If you want to build your own list or you want to be hired by clients who need help with emails and lead magnets for their own lists, you need to see this masterclass. And the best way to do that is to join The Underground at thecopywriterclub.com/tcu. As a member you’ll have access to dozens of expert trainings all focused on helping you attract more clients and get stuff done. I promise, you can use these trainings to build your skills and expertise so you can raise your rates and earn the living you deserve from your copywriting or content writing business. So jump in at thecopywriterclub.com/tcu today.

And now, let’s go to our interview with Blair…

Hey Blair, welcome to the podcast. We want to start out by asking how you became a content writer, actually also a psychometrist, I think is… Yes, you said it correctly.

Blair Sharp: Most people don’t know what that is or know how to pronounce it.

Rob Marsh: Okay, so psychometrist and you’re the author of the Hey Freelancer newsletter. Yes. And so yeah, let’s dig into that. How did you become all of these things?

Blair Sharp: Yeah, right. Well, it’s kind of a long story. And whenever I tell it, I don’t really know, like, where should I start? We’ve got 60 minutes here. So I’ve been a psychometrist, which means I test people’s thinking. So I work at the Mayo Clinic. I’ve been there. I’m in Rochester, Minnesota. I’ve been at that job for just over 10 years. So I just hit my 10-year mark. And I started writing for a local parenting blog, just on a volunteer basis, in 2019. And really enjoyed it, just as a little hobby. I was doing a lot of essays, some things in the community. And it was kind of like a nice other mom. It was like a mom blog, basically. And so I started there. 

And then I slowly started like, dipping my toe into other kinds of writing and writing for other other places, just kind of one off things. In 2020. Then I decided to also go into Instagram a little bit more outside of my personal Instagram. And I created an alcohol free Instagram account, which is there’s a whole space for every kind of Yeah, content, right? Like online, there’s there’s a space for everybody. So there’s a whole like sober Instagram, a sober section of Instagram, I guess you could say. And so I quit drinking in 2018. That’s kind of like the background of that. But I started wanting to tell my story about that and just have it resonate with other people, because that’s kind of a hard thing to do. So I started doing that. 

And then that’s what led me into more mental health writing. And I connected with different brands and companies and did some essays and did some topics about alcohol and sobriety and mental health and things like that. So that kind of got me into that lane, I guess. Um, and I’m still working full time. I’m also a mom, so I’m doing all the things. Um, so it was a very slow, like it felt kind of easy now that I’m looking back at it. I think I was a little stressed at the time when I’m doing all these different things. Um, and Instagram was just for fun. You know, it ended up being, I did make a little bit of money, right. With like brands and things like that. Nothing too, too wild, but, um, I wrote an essay, I guess it was an op-ed for Scary Mommy, which is a parenting website about my decision to quit drinking back in 2021, I think is when I wrote that. And that was the first time that I was like, whoa, I could really like, like scared mommy’s a pretty big platform. 

So I was like, wow, I could really write for these big name brands and things like that. So that was my first like, aha moment, like, maybe I should try this a little bit more, like keep going and learn how to pitch places, learn how to um, how, how to be a writer today, you know? Um, and so I did, I did that again, slowly, just like one off things, um, started making a little bit of money. Told my husband how much money I was making to prove that, Hey, I could maybe like, you know, less than my hours at work. And so I did that again, slowly, um, here and there, um, my supervisor would let me have days off and things like that. And so I eventually wanted to go part-time at my work. And I put in for that. And it took about a year to actually go part-time. In that meantime, I was still kind of dropping my hours and working less. I was still writing and making money off of it. At some point in there, too, I started calling myself a writer. There’s that moment. I’m not formally trained. I have a psych degree, which is very good for writing, actually. And so I then once I dropped part time, which is about a year ago, so I’ve been doing almost a year, a year in October. 

Yeah. So now I kind of I feel like my day job is now my side gig is kind of what I feel like. You know, I have insurance, of course, like that’s a problem for a lot of, you know, small business owners, independent writers. So I have insurance through there. I have this dependable work. Um, just last week I worked an extra day just because, um, I, a few of my contracts ended recently. So I was like, okay, I’m going to come in tomorrow. And they’re like, all right, we can use you. So it’s really nice to have that backup as, um, Just in those times, just in case. Um, cause I’m not very, I’m not very risky anymore in my, you know, old age. 

Rob Marsh: Old age.

Blair Sharp: I was a little bit more risky, hence the alcohol free story. But now I’m a little bit more risk averse, you know, a family and bills to pay need health insurance, which I could get for my husband too. But, um, you know, it’s just Nice to have that background just in case.

Rob Marsh: Yeah. I love the way that you build your story or the way that this developed, because as we said briefly before we started recording, there are a lot of copywriters right now who are looking for something to augment what they’re doing with copywriting. It’s hard to find clients. And AI is a challenge in all of the things. That’s not to say that there aren’t tons of opportunities out there, because there are. But while you’re going after those opportunities, it’s nice to have a stable, you know, either a permanent client or an employer who can help with some of those hours. I like to think of it as extending the runway. You know, if you’re going to start a business and you’ve got, you know, $10,000 in the bank or whatever, that’s your runway. And when the money’s gone, if you haven’t figured it out, now you’ve got to, you know, go back to work or you’ve got to