#25 Sheila Gonzalez: 0 to 20k Twitter Followers Within a Year.

[0:00] thank you so much for accepting my
[0:02] request for this interview sheila thank
[0:04] you so much for asking me
[0:06] we've been connected for almost three
[0:08] months now and i have watched uh you i
[0:11] listen to you in many spaces i'm highly
[0:14] impressed with what you do and how you
[0:16] interact how you contribute to different
[0:18] things so i felt like it would be great
[0:21] to interview you for my podcast every
[0:23] time i talk to somebody um
[0:26] either a person or a situation that
[0:28] shaped their career and their life so
[0:31] that's what i try to to
[0:33] extract from all these uh
[0:36] interview and i hope my hope is that uh
[0:39] people who will listen to this
[0:41] will learn that
[0:43] their life and their career is like 20
[0:46] 30 years
[0:47] and there are many things will happen so
[0:50] just keep going
[0:52] oh yeah and how long have you been doing
[0:55] this
[0:56] um so i've been writing for about almost
[0:58] three years uh this is about six months
[1:01] old okay
[1:03] cool yeah
[1:05] very nice all right so we will start
[1:08] with i wanted to give you an opportunity
[1:10] to talk about what you do why people
[1:13] should contact you
[1:14] and uh
[1:16] how you can help them the elevator fish
[1:19] um well i'm a freelance copywriter i
[1:22] consider myself a generalist not a
[1:25] specialist
[1:26] um i wanted to be
[1:28] um
[1:29] in the
[1:30] digital marketing niche
[1:32] but
[1:34] it hasn't happened that way i had
[1:36] clients all over the space in different
[1:38] fields so um even though i have digital
[1:42] niche
[1:43] in the digital niche marketing um
[1:46] clients i do a bit of everything
[1:49] and basically i write
[1:51] every kind of different type of
[1:54] marketing copy
[1:55] um
[1:56] i am
[1:58] a strange kind of copywriter because
[2:00] even though i'm a direct response
[2:02] copywriter
[2:04] i haven't been um judged so much by the
[2:07] metrics um it's just that people like my
[2:09] writing and
[2:11] i do or all sorts of landing pages email
[2:14] sequences i've done sales pages
[2:17] um i do a lot of ghost writing for
[2:19] twitter as well
[2:21] so that's what i do but what i um i like
[2:24] to consider myself um a writer for i
[2:27] just infuse um a little bit of soul to
[2:30] the brands so i like to
[2:33] my writing is basically just infuse a
[2:35] little humanity to to brands to stale
[2:38] facts and figures and bring that emotion
[2:40] to to everything they do so that's
[2:43] basically what i do every day and um i
[2:46] this is my side hustle i do it on night
[2:49] and weekends because i do have a nine to
[2:51] five as well
[2:54] i can understand how difficult these
[2:56] side hustles are
[2:57] what you wanted to become when you as in
[3:00] high school actually when i was in high
[3:03] school i always wanted to become a
[3:05] writer
[3:06] because i remember i'm from puerto rico
[3:09] and the native language here is spanish
[3:11] so my spanish teacher
[3:14] always told me that i was going to be a
[3:16] writer because she
[3:18] really liked the way i wrote and i
[3:20] remember she even some
[3:23] registered me in this competition this
[3:25] writing competition short story and i
[3:28] and i i wrote for that and she was like
[3:31] very inspiring and and telling me that i
[3:34] should write
[3:36] but um i think that
[3:38] society and the family and the status
[3:42] quo push you to certainly aspects of
[3:46] traditional things that you should do
[3:48] because
[3:49] as as you know writing is not something
[3:53] is like
[3:54] everyone considers it to be a hobby not
[3:57] a a full-time job so i went to school
[4:01] and i went to the safe route and i
[4:04] studied biology because i i wanted to
[4:08] um
[4:09] to become maybe a doctor or um to do a
[4:12] master's degree in biology or or working
[4:16] in a pharmaceutical company something
[4:18] like that
[4:19] so i did that but i remember that when i
[4:22] was um
[4:23] finishing the last um the last year of
[4:27] of the bachelor degree
[4:29] i was really bored with it and everyone
[4:31] was having a really great time and i
[4:34] remember i was doing um
[4:36] i think it was a microbiology lab and
[4:39] everyone was doing these jokes about
[4:41] bacteria and everything and having this
[4:44] great time and i i wanted to kill myself
[4:46] because i was so bored i hated it
[4:49] and um
[4:50] i said um that was like the moment i
[4:53] said i don't want to study biology
[4:55] because i really don't like it
[4:57] and
[4:58] i i took a course by then because i i
[5:01] was just finishing and i wanted
[5:04] an mca
[5:05] i took an advertising course
[5:08] in just finishing the bachelor degree
[5:10] and i love that that class
[5:13] and when i graduated i said i'm going to
[5:16] do my master's degree in advertising so
[5:18] i did my master's even though the
[5:20] bachelor degree is in biology i did my
[5:23] master's in advertising
[5:25] but um i i always wanted to write
[5:29] but i never did after i finished my
[5:31] master's degree i tried to get jobs in
[5:35] advertising
[5:37] but by that time in puerto rico um we
[5:40] were the first um
[5:42] the first class that graduated with a
[5:44] master's degree in advertising in puerto
[5:46] rico so every door that
[5:49] i i touched and my friends as well um
[5:52] they said that we were overqualified so
[5:56] nobody wanted to give us a job because
[5:58] we were overqualified
[6:00] and i remember that i got a call for a
[6:04] pharmaceutical sales um job and i know i
[6:08] knew those jobs paid really well
[6:10] and i had my bio on bachelor degree in
[6:14] biology and i said well why not and
[6:17] that's what
[6:18] i've been doing for the last 15 years
[6:23] so that for mystical job
[6:26] yeah um
[6:27] i've changed i changed quite a lot of
[6:30] companies and actually i'm in oncology
[6:33] sales right now so i i that's my nine to
[6:36] five actually
[6:38] and um but
[6:40] two years ago
[6:42] um i remember that i wanted to
[6:45] use my um my master's degree in
[6:48] advertising because i've never used it
[6:51] before i did sales and i did marketing
[6:54] but i wanted to do a role more in-depth
[6:58] in marketing and advertising so i had
[7:01] this um
[7:03] business unique director and i wanted to
[7:06] apply for a job as a digital marketing
[7:10] marketer in the pharmaceutical company
[7:12] that i was working
[7:13] and i knew that i had all the
[7:15] qualifications for the job and when i
[7:17] went to talk to her and i said that i
[7:19] would like to apply
[7:21] her answer was awful she told me that um
[7:25] basically
[7:26] those were the big leagues and i wasn't
[7:29] a mature so um that i really shouldn't
[7:32] apply because i
[7:35] she she basically told me that she
[7:37] wouldn't even give me the chance to
[7:39] interview for that role because i i
[7:42] didn't
[7:43] i didn't stand to part with with what
[7:46] the job entail
[7:47] so i was so pissed about that and i was
[7:50] so angry because i knew that i had
[7:52] better qualifications that the
[7:54] candidates that she was actually
[7:56] interviewing
[7:57] that that was the inciting moment that i
[8:00] said oh forget it um i don't want to
[8:02] work for anyone um i hate this and i i'm
[8:06] going to start to write and
[8:08] that's how i started in copywriting so
[8:11] two years ago two years ago i started um
[8:14] taking a lot of courses and
[8:16] certifications in marketing copywriting
[8:19] and all sorts of things
[8:20] writing professionally i've been writing
[8:23] for a year okay but that that incident
[8:26] happened two years ago i think yeah yeah
[8:29] and i i heard that in one of the
[8:31] conversation we was having in in one of
[8:34] the tutorial space and i was so
[8:36] impressed by that i admire you for that
[8:39] that you didn't take somebody's word by
[8:43] heart and
[8:44] you know why i'm saying that
[8:46] because
[8:47] maybe 10-15 years ago when i wanted to
[8:50] become a manager a similar type thing
[8:53] happened uh you would reach out to
[8:55] either your supervisor or some colleague
[8:58] or you share your aspiration and they
[9:01] they would uh make a comment that
[9:05] is not so
[9:06] encouraging
[9:08] right
[9:09] and
[9:11] now i can see
[9:13] that because of those comments
[9:17] i delayed
[9:18] to apply
[9:19] i felt like i'm not ready and and now i
[9:22] can see that the other side of it at
[9:24] least in my case
[9:26] i
[9:27] didn't feel ready and i was expecting
[9:29] other people will show confidence so i
[9:31] can feel confident i wish if i can go
[9:34] back and say no don't even ask other
[9:36] people unless you feel confident unless
[9:38] you act confident and uh really feel
[9:41] like from inside that you are ready
[9:44] it's hard for other people to show that
[9:46] confidence in you so
[9:48] um i hope
[9:51] i can teach that now to other people who
[9:53] are me 15 10 years ago and i think
[9:57] together we can do it
[9:59] yeah
[10:00] but um
[10:02] you shouldn't feel bad about that
[10:03] because i think that we mature with
[10:07] with pain with the struggles with time
[10:11] and um i think you were younger
[10:14] and
[10:14] many people will have responded the same
[10:17] way as you so
[10:19] you shouldn't take that by heart
[10:21] and here you are
[10:23] after two years uh you have more
[10:26] followers
[10:28] and you have more reputation credibility
[10:30] than whoever she has hired or whoever
[10:35] even her herself right
[10:37] so
[10:38] i really admire you for that and i
[10:41] uh congratulations
[10:43] oh thank you so much thank you
[10:45] yeah um
[10:47] sometimes the things that we see as
[10:49] something really bad in the moment
[10:52] is a blessing in disguise because i was
[10:56] in my comfort zone i was doing what i've
[10:58] done for so many years that i did in
[11:02] autopilot
[11:03] that is pharmaceutical sales that's
[11:05] something that i know and
[11:08] i think that i i do really well because
[11:11] i've been doing it for a long time and
[11:14] um that moment was like
[11:18] the something that catapult
[11:20] that way for me to start writing
[11:23] that was
[11:24] what i was supposed to do since high
[11:26] school so i was
[11:29] not wasted because i like my
[11:31] pharmaceutical sales job
[11:33] but i spent all this time that i could
[11:36] have started writing and i waited so
[11:38] many years and if if it wasn't for her
[11:42] maybe i wouldn't have been writing yet
[11:44] so i want to dig deeper if that's okay
[11:47] with you yeah so
[11:49] uh i don't know if you remember but you
[11:51] had that conversation
[11:53] that day
[11:54] how did you feel what happened what was
[11:57] going on after that
[11:59] um
[12:00] i was
[12:02] feeling really
[12:04] first of all angry
[12:05] disappointed
[12:07] and i felt stuck i feel like um oh my
[12:11] god am i supposed to do this job for the
[12:14] last for
[12:15] so many years from now
[12:17] so i felt really stuck
[12:20] and
[12:21] then i i like you that comment like
[12:25] started to work on your cycle in your
[12:27] psychology and
[12:29] um i started to think um maybe i'm not
[12:32] prepared for this maybe um
[12:35] she's right
[12:37] maybe i should prepare more and that was
[12:40] what inspired me to start taking
[12:42] certifications and
[12:45] i
[12:46] started to take um
[12:48] digital marketing courses and i took um
[12:52] the american marketing certification um
[12:55] i took it and passed it as well so
[12:58] um i started to prepare
[13:00] maybe because i i believe the lie that
[13:04] she told me that i wasn't prepared
[13:06] but it in the long run it's helped me a
[13:09] lot because now
[13:11] i feel like
[13:13] i i have all the skills and knowledge
[13:17] that i need obviously is i it's
[13:20] something that you have to work each day
[13:22] and you keep learning
[13:24] but it was something that in the long
[13:26] run really helped me i'm assuming it
[13:29] took some days or weeks a month for you
[13:32] to kind of get over it i don't remember
[13:35] exactly but i um
[13:38] i think that i was so angry and i wanted
[13:41] to um
[13:43] prove her wrong that
[13:45] i think that within the first like two
[13:47] days i started to look for information
[13:50] about um um digital marketing course
[13:53] and i am
[13:55] like two days and i enrolled really fast
[13:57] in one that was free that was the first
[14:00] course that i took that is the google
[14:02] digital marketing course that is 40 hour
[14:05] course
[14:06] and i took that and after that i
[14:09] immediately enrolled in other courses so
[14:12] um i i didn't
[14:15] spend a lot of time ruminating about
[14:17] what she said
[14:19] um i consider myself to be action
[14:22] oriented um i'm not a really like
[14:25] planner i don't like a lot of planning
[14:28] i'm just in the execution part that's
[14:30] that's for myself
[14:33] awesome so within two days like within
[14:35] one week he was you turned that um
[14:38] sadness into actions and then once you
[14:40] took action he was flying
[14:43] yeah
[14:45] so what happened after you you did all
[14:47] these courses how did you reach to the
[14:50] point where you have 21 000 followers on
[14:52] twitter
[14:53] well um
[14:55] in
[14:56] in
[14:57] january
[14:58] 2021
[15:00] i took um the first copywriting course
[15:03] and i ended with a complete portfolio a
[15:06] whole sales funnel
[15:08] and i wrote for a digital marketing
[15:11] brand
[15:12] and um but after that i had
[15:16] the knowledge and i have the whole
[15:18] portfolio but you start from scratch so
[15:21] i didn't have any clients
[15:24] so i
[15:25] i i remember that by that time because
[15:28] um i took the course with alex catoni
[15:31] and she said that one of the ways that
[15:34] you could get clients it was to build a
[15:36] personal brand but um she was talking
[15:40] about instagram because she um she
[15:43] mostly uses youtube and instagram
[15:46] and um i remember i don't like instagram
[15:49] that much because
[15:50] i i think that is more vanity oriented
[15:53] and i'm sorry for those that love
[15:56] instagram but it's not my personal
[15:57] preference
[15:59] and um i
[16:00] remember that i
[16:02] i tried out twitter because i said this
[16:05] is not um
[16:06] photos of people
[16:08] and it's just thoughts so um i remember
[16:12] i started on twitter as everyone else i
[16:15] suck i didn't have any idea what i was
[16:17] doing and i started to
[16:19] to post tweets about copywriting
[16:22] but um
[16:24] you learn
[16:25] in the way
[16:26] along the way um
[16:28] when i started putting those tweets i
[16:31] got zero likes
[16:33] and that hurts that hurts your
[16:36] self-esteem because you say oh my god i
[16:38] i suck so bad i'm not gonna keep posting
[16:42] but anyway i kept posting but i i didn't
[16:45] do it as constantly i just did it three
[16:48] times a week or something like that
[16:50] but i remember that
[16:53] very early on um i started
[16:55] like posting on may or june on twitter
[17:00] and
[17:01] maybe by june or july one person
[17:04] approached me and said oh i really like
[17:07] your tweets
[17:08] can you help me um i'm going to launch a
[17:12] a product it was um
[17:14] a fintech product and he wanted me to
[17:17] write some blog articles and do his
[17:20] homepage and i was like wow
[17:24] this person has so much faith
[17:26] because i've never written for anybody
[17:31] i didn't tell him that that he was going
[17:33] to be my first client
[17:35] because i wanted him to believe that i
[17:38] was very professional but i was very
[17:40] honest with him that i was a new puppy
[17:42] writer he just didn't know that he was
[17:45] actually my first time
[17:47] so
[17:48] um but something that helped me i
[17:50] remember that when i checked the copy
[17:53] that he had already i said
[17:56] i can do something better than this
[17:58] because the the copy wasn't that good
[18:02] and um that was my first try and because
[18:05] i had
[18:06] that person that trusted me
[18:10] inspire me to write more constantly on
[18:12] twitter because if he like just one of
[18:15] my tweets maybe other people will like
[18:18] it
[18:18] so um i started posting more constantly
[18:23] i remember in august 2021
[18:26] i joined the tweet 100 challenge with j
[18:29] claus
[18:31] and i think that was
[18:33] the main point there where i started to
[18:36] get traction on my account
[18:38] because every post that you did you you
[18:42] use the
[18:43] hashtag twit100 the tweet 100 hashtag
[18:47] and it that gave you a little bit more
[18:49] exposure because that there were a lot
[18:52] of people doing the challenge
[18:54] so
[18:55] it kind of amplified your tweets and
[18:57] that was i started getting followers not
[19:00] a lot of followers but i started getting
[19:02] followers
[19:03] by september
[19:05] i took sahil bloom's audience building
[19:08] course
[19:10] so he basically he basically teaches you
[19:13] how to write the hooks for the tweets
[19:16] um the distribution and
[19:20] that helped a lot and also um
[19:23] he basically um built this community of
[19:26] the people that took the course
[19:29] and we became like a family like friends
[19:32] and we have this channel
[19:35] and every time one of us posted we um
[19:39] interacted with those posts and
[19:41] amplified it so that was the second
[19:44] thing that helped me grow a lot and that
[19:46] was in september and after september
[19:49] that was when the account started to
[19:52] grow and grow and
[19:54] thankfully it's been it's been doing
[19:57] well but there's no secret my secret is
[20:00] that i write consistently every day i
[20:03] show up
[20:04] i usually post three times a day so
[20:08] that's that's basically the main recipe
[20:10] just stay consistent and show up every
[20:13] day
[20:15] we'll come back on this how do you
[20:17] manage all this when when you get this
[20:19] first client
[20:21] how did you come up with the pricing did
[20:23] he suggested price or you came up with
[20:25] it what happened
[20:27] no i came up with it but um
[20:30] we had uh from the course that i took
[20:33] with alex catoni she gave us a pricing
[20:35] guide
[20:36] for when you are a new copywriter so i
[20:38] had that as my guide
[20:40] um i also um downloaded the um
[20:44] aw
[20:46] awai
[20:48] guy that um usually um
[20:51] american writer association um guides it
[20:54] has all the prices too
[20:56] so um i i use those as my guides to to
[21:00] charge but obviously you are new you
[21:03] don't have any testimonials you don't
[21:05] have social proof so basically those
[21:08] those guys give you a price price range
[21:11] so i always went
[21:13] with the lowest one because i i i didn't
[21:16] even
[21:17] of course you want the money but i just
[21:19] wanted the testimonials and the social
[21:21] proof
[21:22] so that that was how i set my price and
[21:25] i went really really low
[21:28] are you happy with your journey so far i
[21:31] am i'm really happy i think i've been
[21:35] blessed
[21:36] and
[21:37] like i say i haven't been writing for
[21:39] that long just a year and in a year
[21:42] i've had i had a lot of clients
[21:46] and i i've done uh real
[21:49] different things and
[21:51] different copy assets and
[21:54] i have so many opportunities to write
[21:57] for great people for example right now
[22:00] i'm i'm writing for um a marketer a
[22:03] digital marketer that i really admire
[22:06] and when he approached me i was i can't
[22:09] believe he wants me to write for him
[22:11] because i admire this person for so long
[22:15] i'm also i've written for hobspot that i
[22:18] i never in a million years i thought
[22:21] that i could write for them because
[22:23] hotspot is a huge brand so um in a year
[22:27] i think that um i've been more than
[22:29] lucky and i'm super happy with with my
[22:32] journey so far
[22:34] and i love to write and i'm happy
[22:37] writing so
[22:38] i'm i'm really really glad how it's
[22:40] turned out
[22:42] and all these opportunities are coming
[22:45] to you rather than you approaching them
[22:48] they are coming to me um i
[22:52] oh um i like i don't even have jet and i
[22:55] know that's that's not something that is
[22:58] right i should have one but i don't even
[23:00] have um a web page yet
[23:03] um i get approached through the amps all
[23:06] the time so all my clients right um
[23:08] approach me
[23:10] i don't i don't use any job or or i
[23:13] don't have like i said the site so they
[23:16] get up i get approached through direct
[23:19] message what did work for you i mean did
[23:21] you try to find out um yes i fast um
[23:25] and
[23:26] they always point to some tweet that i
[23:28] did that they lost
[23:30] usually it's a thread
[23:32] um
[23:32] for example i remember a sales spread
[23:35] that i did
[23:36] and that got me a client
[23:39] i um one just one single tweet that i
[23:42] did that got me another client so they
[23:46] they are they always tell me it was this
[23:48] tweet or it was this red um or maybe
[23:51] i've been following you for a few weeks
[23:53] or a few months and i like your writing
[23:56] style and that's why i approach you so
[23:59] they they do tell me why so before we
[24:01] jump into the next section i wanted to
[24:03] ask you if somebody's starting today
[24:05] like me what would you advise first of
[24:07] all if you don't have that many that
[24:09] much time to write original tweets
[24:12] first of all you should
[24:14] add value to
[24:15] other people audience
[24:18] you don't necessarily need to build your
[24:21] audience right away i think that you can
[24:24] like steal someone else's audience and
[24:27] just by providing value and real value
[24:30] is not that
[24:32] let's say that in your case
[24:35] like you're saying you're new writer so
[24:37] if your niche is going to be about
[24:39] writing copywriting marketing
[24:42] just look for the biggest accounts in
[24:45] your space
[24:46] and when they do a tweet just try to add
[24:50] value to that tweet
[24:52] um and it's not oh i love this oh this
[24:55] is great that doesn't add any value to
[24:58] to that person or to that person's
[25:00] audience just
[25:02] amplify that tweet just by adding your
[25:04] own voice and more value and
[25:07] that will be my first step
[25:09] the second step is of course you should
[25:12] try to um start to write your own tweets
[25:16] on single tweets
[25:18] and um
[25:19] you have to do it consistently and the
[25:22] way to learn how to write tweets is just
[25:25] by following the accounts the bigger
[25:27] accounts and
[25:29] there's a a reason and a cadence and a
[25:32] wordplay for for twitter and you just
[25:35] have to figure out and you will figure
[25:37] it out if you analyze the people that
[25:40] have a lot of followers you will see how
[25:43] they're right why they write
[25:45] and for example you will always see in
[25:48] the single tweets that there are two
[25:49] main parts for us for a single tweet
[25:52] it's going to be your hook is the first
[25:54] sentence but this the last sentence is
[25:57] equally important because i think that
[26:00] the last sentence is the one that um
[26:03] gets you the retweets
[26:04] the first sentence is the one that
[26:07] gets people to read it but the last
[26:09] sentence is the ones that is going to
[26:11] get you a retweet
[26:13] so um just study those big accounts for
[26:16] example um i remember that when i
[26:18] started i
[26:20] i remember
[26:21] studying jk molina's tweet writing to
[26:25] riches um amanda natividad i love her
[26:28] content those sort of people that that
[26:31] know twitter really well and do well
[26:34] blake amal those type of accounts i just
[26:37] studied their tweets
[26:38] to get a sense of of what works on
[26:41] twitter
[26:42] and just modify it to my own voice i'm
[26:46] not going to play your eyes because that
[26:48] that doesn't work
[26:50] and
[26:51] people will notice but that will be my
[26:54] second uh advice to do that if you want
[26:57] to improve your tweets just look for
[26:59] people in your niche that tweet
[27:02] consistently
[27:03] and just try to analyze those tweets to
[27:06] see what is working and what is not
[27:08] great advice thank you how you manage
[27:11] all this how your day typical day or a
[27:14] week look like
[27:17] a disaster
[27:21] people um listening or or people that
[27:24] are going to see this i don't advise
[27:27] anyone to follow this
[27:29] because it's not sustainable
[27:31] and
[27:33] um for example my typical day i get up
[27:36] at 4 10 in the morning to go to the gym
[27:40] i get um i go to the gym at five o'clock
[27:43] in the morning
[27:44] because that's the only chance i get if
[27:46] if i don't go at that time i won't go in
[27:49] the day so i go um at five then i come
[27:53] here and i do breakfast and take my kid
[27:57] to school i'm a single mom so i have to
[27:59] take him to school
[28:01] i live in school and i go to my nine to
[28:05] five and
[28:07] it's really demanding nine to five
[28:10] then i go pick my my kid at school
[28:13] i come here i study with him and when i
[28:16] finish studying with him i start writing
[28:19] and i write
[28:21] um i
[28:22] almost every night i write for two or
[28:25] three hours so um i almost every day
[28:29] just sleep for hours and i know it's not
[28:31] sustainable and it's not something that
[28:34] i
[28:34] i
[28:36] will tell people to do but it's what uh
[28:40] is the only time that i have because um
[28:42] i have a lot on my plates so that's my
[28:44] typical day and on weekends i write to
[28:47] for my for my clients the weekend is for
[28:50] client and other days is for you for
[28:52] example my single tweets and my dress i
[28:55] do write them mostly at nights
[28:58] or on the weekends i on on the weekends
[29:01] i try to write my dress or my or try to
[29:06] to write the single tweets for the weeks
[29:08] although i don't necessarily
[29:10] can do that every time sometimes i just
[29:13] do it daily
[29:15] um but i write for my clients at nights
[29:17] on weekdays at night and on week on
[29:20] weekends
[29:22] okay i forgot to ask a question around
[29:25] the platform so you focusing on twitter
[29:28] but i'm sure you thought about
[29:30] medium.com there are 100 other sites you
[29:33] just focus on twitter i just focus on
[29:35] twitter i don't use any other um social
[29:38] media site why because i
[29:40] i definitely don't have the bandwidth to
[29:43] take any other i've thought about
[29:46] linking because i think audiences are
[29:48] more similar and
[29:51] the type of content that i post on
[29:53] twitter maybe i can post on linkedin but
[29:56] i don't have the bandwidth to
[29:59] because if you post on on a platform you
[30:02] have it's not just the posting you have
[30:04] to answer the comments and interact with
[30:07] people that um
[30:09] that follow you and that like your
[30:11] comment
[30:12] so if i use another platform it's going
[30:15] to take me a lot of more time even
[30:17] though if it's the same content i will
[30:20] have to engage with the people that
[30:23] follow me on the other social side so i
[30:26] don't want to go crazy and i don't have
[30:28] the bandwidth to do them
[30:30] and there are tools that allow you to be
[30:32] central and push to multiple platforms
[30:35] but i don't know how the interaction
[30:37] looks like there
[30:38] yes there are tools but um i'm an
[30:41] advocate against that because i hate
[30:44] cross posting
[30:46] i think that um no one should use cross
[30:49] posting
[30:51] there's a certain
[30:54] art or rules to every platform
[30:57] and even though the content might be
[31:00] very similar for example for from
[31:03] twitter to linking
[31:05] um you should always tailor that content
[31:08] for every platform so for micros posting
[31:11] is a big no-no
[31:14] i hate it
[31:15] i think this is
[31:16] your focus and um
[31:19] it's been a year and a half almost and
[31:21] you've been focused on this platform i
[31:24] think that's one
[31:26] big reason for your success
[31:29] i give you my example i started making
[31:31] clips to post to twitter
[31:34] instagram and tick tock so that other
[31:37] people can see and come here and
[31:39] obviously this is all a big distraction
[31:42] it's a lot and you have a nine to five
[31:45] so
[31:46] that's doing a lot with your full time
[31:48] with your writing
[31:50] you still find
[31:52] a time for joining all the spaces on
[31:55] weekend
[31:56] i've caught a little bit on the spaces i
[31:59] was doing do two regular spaces on
[32:02] saturdays one at one and another one at
[32:06] two
[32:07] ast
[32:09] but um i've cut back on those because
[32:13] um i was
[32:14] i was doing too much and
[32:17] i was i am
[32:18] my sanity and i was brown so
[32:22] i decided to start cutting
[32:25] a lot of things because um i was
[32:29] sleep deprived and trying to juggle
[32:32] everything so
[32:34] i it would it got to a point that i was
[32:37] um
[32:38] i wasn't feel as maybe excited about
[32:41] everything because i was too tired so i
[32:44] i i'm trying to dedicate um i write for
[32:47] my clients on the weekend but um i i try
[32:51] to
[32:52] do as little spaces that i can because i
[32:56] i don't want to
[32:58] and you said you only sleep four hours
[33:00] right that's what you said for how long
[33:02] you've been doing this
[33:03] for a few months
[33:06] for a few months
[33:08] no it's not every day of course um
[33:10] sometimes i i get more more hours but
[33:13] i would say that's the standard my
[33:16] standard on the weekdays
[33:18] i try to catch up on the weekends but
[33:20] you know that doesn't work um so i try
[33:24] on saturdays and sundays get a little
[33:26] bit of more sleep but
[33:28] um i'm just
[33:30] i'm just giving this like two more
[33:32] months because like i say it's not
[33:34] sustainable i'm just going to finish
[33:37] with the clients that i have and from a
[33:40] few months from now i'm just going to
[33:42] take uh like half the clients because
[33:45] i'm going out of my mind
[33:47] how do you manage your time i i work
[33:49] with deadlines i know some people don't
[33:52] like them but i'm deadline oriented so
[33:55] i have to give myself deadlines because
[33:57] if not um
[33:59] the job won't get done so um
[34:02] and i try to do um deadlines that
[34:05] challenge me not um so on so loosely
[34:09] that it's like not having a deadline no
[34:12] i i give myself deadlines and and i do
[34:15] it in writing in my proposal so um so
[34:18] far i have stick to every deadline for
[34:22] my clients
[34:24] i hope that i can keep doing it um for
[34:27] me is something very important because
[34:30] that
[34:31] um you don't have to be the greatest
[34:34] writer in the world of course you have
[34:35] to write well but if you are a countable
[34:38] person
[34:40] that's what your clients are looking for
[34:42] and that's something that is not easily
[34:44] found everywhere
[34:46] so um i try to be as accountable as i
[34:49] can to to keep my clients happy
[34:52] do you do any kind of uh block hours or
[34:56] um
[34:57] like some some people use pomodoro type
[34:59] thing because some people use those four
[35:01] blocks
[35:03] no
[35:05] sometimes i i've tried to use the
[35:07] pomodoro and i have a chrome station
[35:10] that is basically the pomodoro technique
[35:12] um and i've used it and it's really good
[35:15] but um
[35:16] like i said i don't have i i know a lot
[35:19] of
[35:20] of other writing writers that are my
[35:23] friends i have all these productivity
[35:26] hacks and everything
[35:27] i
[35:28] i don't i don't work like that i just
[35:31] have a deadline and i know that i have
[35:33] to do it and i just sit and write and
[35:37] keep writing
[35:38] or doing research or whatever i'm doing
[35:41] that's how i work um i i i just get it
[35:45] done i don't have
[35:46] i don't have a choice but
[35:48] i don't use
[35:50] those hacks and productivities because
[35:53] i think i'm on school
[35:57] do you use any application or a list a
[36:00] paper list for your task list
[36:03] um i use um i i like to to use my
[36:06] notebooks and i have everything written
[36:09] down i'm uh i use handwriting i know
[36:12] i'm really no this is amazing this is
[36:14] beautiful i'm really old school i'm old
[36:17] you don't need all these because it's
[36:20] needed by the people and people like me
[36:22] that if i'm doing something and then i
[36:25] easily get distracted to open my twitter
[36:28] or facebook or something and and in
[36:31] seconds you you see that 15 minutes or
[36:34] 30 minutes are gone
[36:35] yeah and you don't have i mean you your
[36:37] discipline already
[36:39] to
[36:40] to
[36:41] just focus on work and you're not
[36:44] being distracted by other things so i
[36:46] think you don't need that's why you
[36:47] don't need other other tools
[36:49] yeah um i i i still have a lot of
[36:52] improvement to do because
[36:56] the phone is a huge distraction and
[37:00] i try to hide the phone but sometimes i
[37:03] just keep it on my side and
[37:06] it deters everything that you are doing
[37:08] so i think that i have to still um
[37:11] improve in especially with the phone to
[37:14] help my productivity
[37:16] and phone as in phone call or
[37:19] social
[37:20] so twitter twitter because i don't i
[37:23] don't use any other i don't
[37:26] i really check my facebook i i rarely
[37:30] use instagram and those are the two
[37:33] social sites that i have on social media
[37:35] i'm linking i have it but i don't use it
[37:39] as often as twitter so
[37:41] it's just twitter
[37:43] where do you see yourself in like two
[37:45] years or five years
[37:48] wow that's a that's a hard question
[37:50] because
[37:52] i'm sure you've been thinking about it
[37:54] right especially between your full-time
[37:56] job and this um
[37:59] yes um
[38:02] it's for me it's my copywriting agency
[38:05] is doing really well so
[38:08] um of course i've thought about um just
[38:12] investing full-time on the copywriting
[38:15] agency
[38:16] the thing is that i do like my nine to
[38:19] five so it's a difficult decision to do
[38:22] and
[38:23] but um maybe i stay with both but i
[38:27] think um i would like to
[38:31] my my
[38:33] goal is to amplify my copywriting agency
[38:36] i'm trying to bring other people to
[38:40] distribute the work because i do have a
[38:42] lot of work right now
[38:44] and i would like to have other um
[38:46] writers helping me and maybe just i'm
[38:50] just tackling more than administrative
[38:52] side and having other people help me
[38:55] with the writing so that's what i see
[38:57] myself doing two years from now
[39:00] um maybe um
[39:03] monetizing my audience um
[39:06] in a different way um and i hate that i
[39:09] i don't i hate that we're monetizing the
[39:11] audience because it seems so
[39:13] transactional
[39:14] so um
[39:16] not monetizing but maybe
[39:18] um because
[39:20] right now um and i must sometimes
[39:23] through the dms actually it's been
[39:25] increasing the the the people that are
[39:28] asking me for a course on copywriting
[39:31] so maybe that's something that i want to
[39:34] um
[39:34] to explore down the line
[39:37] and
[39:38] not just writing but maybe consulting
[39:41] copywriting and everything so that's
[39:43] where i see my journey two years from
[39:46] now but i definitely will keep growing
[39:48] my copywriting agency and i plan i plan
[39:52] to bring other people to work with me as
[39:54] well that i have hired somebody to help
[39:56] me with my writing
[39:58] so i can focus more on the video side
[40:02] and it's an offshore person and
[40:06] she was able to match
[40:08] to how i think and i write and
[40:12] so she does all the research on all the
[40:15] the
[40:16] the groundwork and then
[40:18] i can go back and still
[40:21] do the fine tuning
[40:23] but sheila i'm in the exact same boat as
[40:25] you
[40:26] um
[40:27] i love my full-time job
[40:30] and
[40:31] i've been growing in that job for
[40:34] last many years some senior manager
[40:36] there
[40:37] and
[40:39] i get to work with like 50 people 100 uh
[40:42] 50 people within the department plus
[40:44] another 50 outside the department and
[40:48] we recently have had a big go live
[40:52] um and
[40:53] [Music]
[40:55] i get to play a major role in that like
[40:58] i've worked with almost 100 people
[41:01] and i was able to contribute to what
[41:04] they were doing by
[41:06] again connecting the dot bringing people
[41:08] together and making sure we are working
[41:10] on the highest priority item
[41:13] um
[41:14] so
[41:15] it's so fascinating
[41:18] you don't want to leave that but at the
[41:19] same time
[41:21] you have this other thing right
[41:23] and uh
[41:25] this will not become
[41:27] big until you
[41:29] you i mean you you're living in two
[41:32] boats
[41:33] and i get scared
[41:36] of
[41:37] thinking that what if if this big too
[41:40] big
[41:41] i will have to leave this right i and
[41:46] i can echo to what you're going through
[41:49] yeah
[41:50] it's
[41:51] i i don't have an answer for that
[41:53] because it's a difficult decision but i
[41:56] think that we are lucky
[41:58] because if we like or nine to five plus
[42:01] or side hustles i think we are more than
[42:04] lucky because i don't know the statistic
[42:08] right now but i think it was like seven
[42:10] seventy percent of people hate their
[42:12] jobs
[42:13] so if we have two jobs that we love we
[42:16] are
[42:17] above the statistic and we are very
[42:20] lucky
[42:21] that's so so good great you're right
[42:25] you gave me a completely new perspective
[42:28] yeah wow
[42:30] people hate their jobs and
[42:33] we have two and we love both so um i i
[42:36] think that
[42:37] this is a glass half full type of thing
[42:41] okay
[42:43] all right so moving to the next section
[42:45] i wanted to ask you
[42:47] is there any question that i have not
[42:49] asked but you want to answer
[42:51] i don't think so i
[42:54] i just get asked a lot um the number i
[42:57] there are two questions that i get asked
[43:00] every day on the dms
[43:02] and one is how do i start copywriting
[43:05] the second is the resources that i need
[43:07] to start copywriting
[43:09] and the first question i always tell
[43:12] everyone there's no one-size-fit-all
[43:15] answer to how do i start copywriting
[43:18] i have a lot of copywriter friends and i
[43:21] don't think that
[43:22] we all started different ways
[43:25] so i think that what works for me
[43:28] doesn't necessarily work for another
[43:30] person but to start copywriting you just
[43:33] need to want to learn because there are
[43:35] so many free resources and i've put
[43:38] two very good resources on twitter the
[43:41] one the last one that i did it was 21
[43:43] free resources to to learn copywriting
[43:47] and the other one was the resources that
[43:50] i actually used to grow my skills as a
[43:53] copywriter
[43:54] so you have youtube's channels you have
[43:57] podcasts you have blogs you even have um
[44:02] you have courses that are free you have
[44:04] like neville medora's copywriting course
[44:07] he has a short free course it only takes
[44:10] like 40 minutes but you get the
[44:12] fundamentals
[44:14] and
[44:15] you got the digital marketing
[44:17] certification from google garage so
[44:21] that's an awesome resource and you get a
[44:24] certification that is valued and you can
[44:26] use it in your resume if you want it so
[44:30] um i think there's so many available
[44:33] resources right now for anyone who
[44:36] wanted to start copywriting
[44:38] so that there are no excuses maybe
[44:42] um you don't have necessary
[44:45] the the budget to do a really expensive
[44:48] course because sometimes copywriting
[44:50] courses can be a bit on the high end
[44:53] side
[44:54] but there are so many amazing free
[44:56] resources that you don't really have to
[44:58] pay a course if you don't want to
[45:01] so just start um just start writing
[45:04] and my number one advice for anyone um i
[45:08] think twitter is the best platform to um
[45:12] learn copywriting because you only get
[45:15] 280 characters so it will teach you more
[45:18] than any course because you have to
[45:20] learn conciseness and you have to learn
[45:24] um psychology consumer behavior you have
[45:27] to learn um
[45:29] triggers hooks so
[45:31] just start writing on twitter and you
[45:33] will learn copywriting
[45:36] i will add one more thing is to focus on
[45:40] one platform or one thing you cannot
[45:42] just do copywriting in youtube and tick
[45:46] tock and
[45:48] ten other things
[45:50] um i think that when you're starting you
[45:52] have to focus just on one platform on
[45:56] one area
[45:57] when you
[45:58] um have grown your skills to a certain
[46:02] level then you can diversify to other
[46:05] platforms because in the end it will
[46:07] help you but when you're starting out
[46:09] that you don't quite get the platform
[46:13] you just have to focus to get really
[46:16] good at that one
[46:18] my last question what is your message to
[46:20] the audience
[46:22] my message to the audience is that
[46:24] there are no timelines
[46:27] that you can do anything that you want
[46:29] and change
[46:31] your life what you're doing anytime
[46:34] because for example um i think twitter
[46:38] is so much advised if you're in your 20s
[46:41] and
[46:42] if you're a young guy or a young girl
[46:45] and whatever but what about the people
[46:47] that are in their 30s in their 40s and
[46:50] they still don't have all their life
[46:52] figure out
[46:53] so i think that my message is that there
[46:56] are no timelines the timeline you make
[46:58] the timeline and you make it work for
[47:00] whatever
[47:02] so if
[47:03] if you are not satisfied with the way
[47:07] your life is going your career is going
[47:10] the best time to change it is right now
[47:13] i did it it was and it has worked for me
[47:16] and i'm so happy right now writing so if
[47:20] anyone is feeling that they don't have
[47:22] the excitement or the joy that they need
[47:25] in their life in their career or
[47:27] anything
[47:28] the time to do it is just right now and
[47:30] you can do it anybody can do it and
[47:33] there are no
[47:34] expectations of
[47:36] when to start or what to do just
[47:39] go with your god and do what you're
[47:41] meant to do
[47:43] that's an awesome advice
[47:47] thank you
[47:49] and i forgot to ask you um
[47:51] did you know noel before or you met him
[47:54] in twitter i met him in twitter
[47:57] we were actually introduced by another
[48:00] friend he's um he's bernie
[48:03] he introduced us because he i remember
[48:06] he saw me at the end he said um crazy
[48:10] thing i just met another person from
[48:12] puerto rico and i was like yeah because
[48:15] in i haven't met a lot of puerto ricans
[48:18] on twitter and he told me do you want me
[48:22] to introduce um to introduce the two of
[48:24] you and i said uh he told me he's a
[48:27] copywriter as you and i was like
[48:29] puerto rican and a copywriter that's
[48:32] that's weird
[48:33] and um he did introduce us and we become
[48:37] friends and no elisa dear friend he's
[48:40] great he's an amazing copywriter so much
[48:44] more experienced than me so
[48:47] i think he's great and he's been a
[48:49] blessing to having as a friend on
[48:51] twitter and in real life
[48:54] his story is so fascinating he is he's a
[48:58] person who
[49:00] has gone
[49:01] through a really tough phase in like for
[49:04] eight nine years
[49:06] i did the interview with him that
[49:09] interview is where i went deep and deep
[49:13] uh into his story and and i told him
[49:15] that that a story will help so many
[49:17] people
[49:19] um he's an amazing guy one of the
[49:22] kindest people
[49:23] um i think that
[49:25] the struggles
[49:27] the people who have the most struggles
[49:29] are usually the kindest people so
[49:32] that's noel in a sentence for you
[49:35] thank you so much sheila it was a fun
[49:38] conversation i admire you a lot you know
[49:40] that
[49:42] and and
[49:43] thank you so much for the time today
[49:45] uh now thank you for taking time to um
[49:48] talk to me and appreciate it and i wish
[49:51] you so many blessings and just keep
[49:54] growing and doing what you're doing
[49:56] because i think that you're going to do
[49:57] great so thank you for having me
[50:00] good night
[50:01] good night take care thank you
[50:16] you