The EPIC Origin Story of My Email Marketing Agency
I stared at the $200 check sitting in front of me. After 32 hours of work, several rewrites and 2 major overhauls all I had to show for my last project was 200 bucks.
A year ago I was happy someone was actually paying me to write. But now, the time I was sinking into my copywriting business wasn’t paying off anymore.
I thought, “Is this it? Am I ever going to make any real money freelancing?” After spending a year and a half trying to “make it” as a freelance copywriter I felt like I’d failed. I held my head in my hands and wondered, “Should I give up?”
Ping! I looked down at my phone to see an email from Chris Orzechowski, “The end of One Person Agency???”
Full stop.
I’d been saving for Chris’s One Person Agency (OPA) program for months and now he’s pulling the plug? What gives?!
It turned out Chris was announcing the upcoming OPA cohort may be his last. “Of course! The one class I knew I needed to grow my business was going away,” I muttered.
I instantly started making excuses, “Maybe he’ll change his mind and bring it back,” I thought, “there’s no way I can invest $5k right now.” Shaking my head I dropped my phone and started working.
Then I saw it again, that darn $200 check. “How long can I keep this up?” I wondered. I was already working full-time and freelancing at night and on the weekends. So it wasn’t as simple as work harder to make more money.
I needed to become an asset my clients couldn’t do without. And I knew if anyone could help me get there, it was Orzy. I looked back to Chris’s email.
For some reason I couldn’t shake the feeling I was supposed to be in THAT cohort. I decided I couldn’t wait until I was “ready” any longer. This was my shot and I wasn’t going to blow it. I joined OPA and never looked back.
I recently finished Chris Orzechowski’s One Person Agency (OPA) program. OPA helps freelance copywriters build a one person marketing agency.
The program challenges freelancers to change their mindset towards business. Together Chris and Angie Colee help freelance copywriters solve their biggest business problems.
Most freelance copywriters struggle to ever become a valuable asset to a business. Instead, they sit at the “kids table” while the grown-ups talk marketing strategy and share results.
Sound familiar? I was stuck in this cycle too. I wanted more control over the strategy side of email marketing. But I didn’t have the skills or confidence to do it. OPA helped me with this in two major ways:
- It changed my mindset towards client work.
- It gave me the tools I needed to become an email marketing strategist.
It only took 10 weeks for me to go from frustrated freelancer to one person agency oasis. In this blog post I’ll share everything I’ve learned from the One Person Agency program.
Schedule Everything
No duh, right? Believe it or not most freelancers don’t have a good handle on their work schedule. Before I started the OPA program my work “schedule” was all over the place.
While I managed to get everything done on time, I needed more organization. I spent way too much time doing tasks that drained my energy which only made it harder for me to do my best work.
Effective time management is a huge hurdle many freelancers never even get over. Using a scheduling software has worked wonders for me.
Now I can get more work done in less time. The thing is, when you aren’t in control of your schedule, it will control you. So, you end up rushing from one task to the next and your work begins to suffer.
Sticking to a fixed schedule has made a huge difference in my results. Through OPA I learned how important it is to focus on doing things that energize me.
Helping ecommerce brands get epic results using email marketing gives me energy. So, by leaning into that I’ve been able to put out my best work in record time.
Going Beyond Email Copy
Before OPA I focused on writing email copy for businesses. This worked for awhile, but I wanted more control over the results of my email marketing.
I knew how powerful email automations could be in a business and I wanted a piece of the action. But the problem was I didn’t know enough about automations to begin using them.
Thanks to OPA I don’t have this problem anymore. I’ve learned the ins and outs of the best email automation softwares like Klaviyo. Now I have the skills to create email campaigns and sequences that get epic results.
Adding this skill alone has made me a valuable asset to the ecomm brands I work with in 3 ways:
- I audit their current email marketing strategy
- I write compelling email copy for their brand
- I set up and implement email automations that unlock exponential growth.
My one person agency is your all-in-one solution to growth with email marketing. With a few simple email automations you can raise the AOV of your best customers and increase MRR across the board.
Here are a few examples of email automations I now use to help ecommerce brands increase sales:
Welcome sequence
Cart abandonment
Browse abandonment
VIP
Review-gathering
Win-back sequence
Combining these automations with compelling email copy solves many common problems ecomm brands face.
Becoming The Problem-Solver
One of the most valuable things OPA gave me was clarity. Now I can quickly identify which problems an ecommerce business has.
It sounds simple when you think about it but if you can’t identify the problem, you’ll never be able to fix it. OPA gave me the skills I needed to become the problem-solver ecommerce brands need.
I even learned how to solve problems in my own business with the lessons I learned from OPA. It turns out some of my biggest problems came from working with clients who weren’t the best fit for me.
So now I’m crazy specific about the types of clients I work with. This is helpful in two ways:
- I only work with clients who are a good fit for me
- I’m able to help my ideal client get epic results with email marketing
Discovering problems is one thing, actually solving them makes you an asset to a business.
And a solution is only as good as the implementation that follows it. Knowing which tools to use helped me get there. OPA taught me how to create a toolbox I can use to find and fix the problems my clients have.
Acing Client Acquisition
Ask 10 freelancers what they struggle with most and 9 of them will say client acquisition. Trying to solve this on your own can cost you an insane amount of time and money.
I’ve spent a small fortune on copywriting programs without ever learning how to actually get clients. Now I know exactly how to get and keep clients coming through the door.
There is no quick fix and you won’t have a full roster of ideal clients overnight. But thanks to OPA I have a simple framework to follow that helps me work with my best clients.
If you look around my website you’ll see how simple it is for clients to apply to work with me. This one step makes it easier for me to connect with my ideal clients.
Once Chris shared his process for onboarding new clients I was blown away. I love how simple his approach is and the results speak for themselves.
Onboarding new clients doesn’t have to be hard. Chris showed me which tools to use to make new client onboarding efficient and painless. My streamlined onboarding process saves time and gets clients results faster.
After taking on a new client it’s time for the real work to start. OPA helped me create a basic framework for getting client work done.
This framework guides my process so I can get repeatable results for my clients. And when the hard work is all done, I have a simple off-boarding process to wrap things up.
My new process keeps the client happy, wraps up the project and leaves the door open for future work. But how do clients find me in the first place? Creating a system that brings my ideal client to me makes all this possible.
Embrace The Long Game
Many freelancers want a quick fix to build their business. If you fall into this camp then OPA isn’t for you.
One of the main things I re-learned from OPA is the importance of publishing content. Many freelancers get so caught up in doing client work they stop creating their own content. This is a BIG mistake.
The truth is creating valuable content helps prospects and shows them who I am. Over time this creates a pipeline of qualified leads who know what I do and want to work with me.
I’ll be sharing valuable content that helps your ecommerce brand achieve EPIC growth. The best way to get access to this content is by joining my email list. I send out the latest email marketing techniques and strategies you can use to grow your ecommerce brand. Click the button below to join:
I want to give a huge shoutout to Chris Orzechowski and Angie Colee! Thank you for all the knowledge and insight you’ve given to me. You helped me build the foundation I needed to finally grow my business the way I’ve always wanted.
I’m a proud OPA graduate and here’s my badge to prove it:
