Podcast Summary: The Copywriter Club Podcast
Episode 466: A New Kind of Copywriting Business with Krystle Church
Host: Rob Marsh
Guest: Krystle Church
Date: September 23, 2025
Overview
In this episode, Rob Marsh reconnects with copywriter, coach, and educator Krystle Church to explore her journey from running a successful boutique agency to burning it down and rebuilding her business around scalable offers, group programs, and community—not client services. Krystle shares her hard-won insights into aligning your business with your life, recognizing misalignment and burnout, the practical steps behind creating and validating digital products, and why niche offers and audience identity can be more important than skill alone. This episode offers honest advice for experienced copywriters considering a business reset or ready to leverage their skills beyond client work.
Key Discussion Points and Insights
1. Why Burn Down a Successful Agency?
-
Krystle’s Agency Experience
- Ran a micro agency with writers and educational offers post-2021/22.
- Felt daily overwhelm, loss of freedom, and personal time.
- Main responsibilities ballooned, leading to burnout.
- “I was trying to be everything to everyone... I just realized, I can't do this anymore. Like, and I don’t want to.” (Krystle, 09:01)
- Regularly asks herself: "Where do I want to be in 3-5 years?" and adjusts her business accordingly.
-
Burnout Warning Signs
- Snapping at loved ones, relentless work hours, loss of joy, and an unchanging “groundhog day” life.
- “I wanted business to be fun.” (Krystle, 12:26)
2. The Value of Realignment
- Reevaluating Revenue Streams
- Analyzed which offers were truly profitable (courses and programs much more than client work).
- “It was so much more profitable. Obviously, profit margins for selling a course versus paying a writer to do a project, it’s very distinct. And the time spent was very minimal.” (Krystle, 15:21)
- Began redirecting energy away from the agency to education and scalable products.
3. Designing Scalable Offers
- Restructuring Her Flagship Program (Freedom Found Collective – FFC)
- Narrowed niche: from general entrepreneur support to helping copywriters launch and scale digital products.
- Used “big paper exercises” (brainstorming on large paper, teaching-day style) to reimagine FFC.
- Emphasis on quality, small groups (3-5 per cohort), aiming for high value with minimal time requirement.
- Focus remains on mentorship/education for more advanced copywriters; expansion plans include products for those not yet ready for FFC.
4. Guidance for Copywriters Considering Digital Products
-
When Are You Ready?
- Don’t jump too soon (“Nobody’s going to tap you on the shoulder and anoint you...”).
- Have a repeatable track record; more than just one-off success.
-
Product Development Advice
- Identify what clients love from your current work—what you’re known for, what could translate into digital templates, resources, or proprietary processes.
- Niche focus often yields more success than targeting other copywriters.
"Start thinking about what are you doing right now that clients are asking for that could be replicated in a one to many fashion or automated..." (Krystle, 21:39)
-
The Niche Advantage
- Most successful copywriter-created scalable offers are sold into niches—less noise, more demand.
- “Almost all, probably 90% of the most successful... are not selling to copywriters...they’re selling into a niche.” (Rob, 26:17)
5. Offer Validation & Launch Strategy
-
The Debut Launch Method (Case Study: Juno Community)
- Focused “waitlist” style launch to validate demand.
- Used strong identity-driven messaging (“Juno Woman”) rather than feature lists.
- Target: 20 founding members from a list of ~55, closed with 22.
- Personal invitations sent to select candidates; positioned as an exclusive identity, not just a product.
- Price and cohort size adjusted to the offer’s time and transformation requirements.
“The way I sold Juno trained the members inside of Juno to then be the perfect members for Juno.” (Krystle, 38:38)
-
Identity-Driven Sales Approach
- Messaging centered around the kind of person who joins (ambitious, collaborative, forward-focused) instead of only outcomes.
- Led to more engaged, aligned community membership; approach applicable to both course sales and client work.
6. Email List Building and Email Marketing
-
Core List Building Strategies
- Social media visibility and curated event collaborations (e.g., Copywriter Collection Giveaway) are primary drivers.
- Lead magnets tailored to her audience.
-
Approach to Email Content
- Prioritizes storytelling, identity, and relationship-building in emails, not just pitching.
- Planning runway ideally 8–12 weeks before launches, but flexible as needed.
- Finds long, story-rich emails often get the highest responses.
"Honestly, some of the emails that I think people are going to think are way too long...are the emails that get the most replies.” (Krystle, 45:05)
7. Thoughts on AI in Copywriting
- Recognizes AI threatens some low-level work; many companies now rehiring copywriters to fix AI mistakes.
- Uses AI mostly for editing, idea generation, or operational tasks—not primary content.
- Believes copy and strategy rooted in human understanding remain superior.
- “If you can be a thinker, if you can solve problems, you’re going to be fine...positioning yourself as a strategist...” (Krystle, 50:18)
8. The Lasting Impact of Business-Focused Training
- Early experience in Copywriter Accelerator instilled the importance of operating as a business owner—not a freelancer.
- Foundation of mindset and autonomy continues to influence her decisions.
9. Future Focus: Building Community
- Main goal is expanding "Juno" into the premier female copywriting community, prioritizing quality, deep connection, and mutual support.
- Plans to cap membership for intimacy and value.
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
- On Overload: “Rob, if you saw my calendar a few years ago...my life began every single day at 6:30 in the morning...and I’m finishing at like 9pm at night...and being really, really stressed while I did it, again, trying to be everything to everybody.” (Krystle, 11:37)
- On Courage to Change: “That's a really, really hard thing to do, is to start to say no to good money that's coming into the business...I had to learn how to say no to that.” (Krystle, 09:49)
- On Finding Alignment: “At a certain point, I just realized, I can’t do this anymore. Like, and I don't want to. Like, do I want to be sitting in this version of my business in five years?” (Krystle, 09:01)
- On Product Timing: “Nobody’s going to tap you on the shoulder and anoint you, say you’re promoted and now you get to be a course creator...” (Krystle, 21:19)
- On Niche Offers: “Almost all, probably 90% of the most successful...are not selling to copywriters...they’re selling into a niche.” (Rob, 26:17)
- On Offer Validation: “People saying that they'll pay and people actually paying are two very, very different things...you want to validate the offer idea.” (Krystle, 30:16)
- On Building Community: "We created Juno more around the people inside...the sale, the validation for us was, can we get the people to say yes? ...built around women and connection and community and people with similar aligned goals and ethos." (Krystle, 32:44)
- On AI: “It’s still not as good as us, Rob. It’s still as good, thank goodness, because we still have jobs.” (Krystle, 47:16)
- On the Accelerator’s Influence: “You need to think like a business owner, not a freelancer...that put me ahead of the curve already.” (Krystle, 52:16)
- On the Future: “We want to make Juno the number one female copywriting community out there in this space...to do them justice and to say, okay, I told you, this is what the program, this is what the community is going to be.” (Krystle, 54:14)
Key Timestamps
- 03:54 – Krystle describes burning down her agency and finding new alignment
- 11:34 – Krystle discusses burnout and warning signs
- 14:55 – The process of reassessing revenue streams and shifting focus
- 17:43 – How FFC (Freedom Found Collective) was restructured and why
- 21:09 – Advice for copywriters thinking of digital products (timing, ideas)
- 25:50 – Niche vs. “for copywriters” offers
- 28:40 – Validating your first scalable offer: the Juno launch
- 32:14 – Setting launch and validation goals (waitlist, founding members)
- 37:22 – The power of identity-driven offers and messaging
- 40:31 – List-building strategies that work
- 44:10 – Approaches to email marketing and storytelling
- 46:13 – AI: fears, realities, and practical applications
- 51:39 – Lessons from the Copywriter Accelerator and business-owner mindset
- 53:56 – What’s next for Krystle: building Juno into a standout women's copywriting community
Final Thoughts
This conversation provides a blueprint for mid- to late-stage copywriters ready to escape service-client dependency, realign with their own ambitions, and build products or offers rooted in authenticity and genuine demand. Both Rob and Krystle stress that such shifts demand grounded self-awareness, strategic validation, and the willingness to focus on delivering true value to a well-chosen audience. Burnout, misalignment, and missed opportunities are common, but with careful planning and a focus on identity, copywriters can create businesses that are both profitable and joyful.
Where to Find Krystle Church
- Website/Newsletter: krystlechurch.com/copyclassroom
- Instagram: @krystlechurch
- LinkedIn: Krystle Church
