Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Alethea Tyler, Founder of Copy with Spice, located in Longmont, CO, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I turn words in wealth, AKA copywriting! Whether it’s a website, sales page, or email copy, I help creative entrepreneurs blend their fabulous personalities with strategic storytelling so their dream clients read their copy and realize they’ve found exactly what they’ve been searching for. My clients are badass women who have been in business for a few years and are ready to launch a product or course or create a polished website with copy that sells their stuff but also sounds like them.

They’ve reached a level in the business where they’re looking to attract a certain type of person, and they’re also ready to invest in a professionally designed and written website that they’re proud to send people to. They’re really freaking good at what they do and want website copy that shows off their expertise without sounding sleazy or robotic. And that’s exactly where I come in, with copy that showcases their skills, sounds like them, and converts their dream clients and customers.

Tell us about yourself

In October 2021, a mere few months after graduating college with a degree in Creative Writing, I quit my waitressing job at a tequila bar and started Copy with Spice. Well, it was actually Copy That Gets Clients back then. While I have always been a writer (I wrote my first book in the 4th grade!), I had no idea what copywriting was or how to do it. But I threw myself into blogging and started to figure things out from there.

The more I learned about copywriting, the more I fell in love with it. Good copy requires an understanding of what drives people to buy something, an ability to boil a big idea down to a digestible and enthralling string of words, and a knack for infusing it all with someone’s personality and/or brand voice so it grabs people’s attention and makes them like the brand or person selling.

What motivates me each day to do what I do is the knowledge that so often, people have brilliant ideas and things they feel called to share with the world but no idea how to communicate them. I get to be their translator, helping them make sense of the core message they’re trying to get across, adding in the spice of their personality, and mixing in what the person on the other end wants to hear. Copywriting builds the bridge between someone who desires something and the person selling that exact thing. And it’s truly an honor to have such passionate and talented people trust me to help deliver their message to their people.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Honestly, it’s all the little things. It’s someone reaching out to tell you they like your content or someone sending you an email about how you inspired them to explore becoming a copywriter. It’s the reviews your clients write about how you helped them take their gibberish and turn it into something that felt like they wrote because it’s so spot on. It’s having someone come up to you at a conference and ask you if you’re the Copy with Spice girl because they recognize you and your brand from Instagram.

And it’s my clients. My clients are by far my biggest accomplishment as a business owner, not because they pay me (although I’m all for getting paid), but rather because they trust me, they support me, and they often end up being close friends. I’m certain that I’m doing something right because of the incredible people I attract my way.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

Believing in yourself even when there’s no tangible evidence that what you’re doing is making an impact. Oof. That can be so discouraging, especially in the beginning when you’re pouring in so much time and effort and you do not see any results. It makes you question your abilities and your worth and makes you jealous of those who seem to be finding easy success. Learning how to continue believing—no matter how delusional you feel—that things will work out while sitting in the discomfort of things not currently being the way you want them to be is a vital skill to learn in business and in life.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Don't wait until you're ready. There's no such thing, and if you keep telling yourself, "I'll do it when I've learned enough or I know exactly what I want to create," you'll never get started. Just like Rumi said, "When you start to walk on the way, the way appears."
  2. Turns out everything they say about mindset is totally true. When I started my business, I thought I could just work really hard and find success but building a business has required so much more than that. It’s been far less about balancing money and churning out good content and more about going within myself to face the things I had run away from in my past. Building a “successful” business involves learning how to overcome self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy because YOU absolutely must believe you can do it, even when there’s no proof that what you’re doing is working.
  3. Pick something you can’t wait to learn more about. To grow your own business, you’re going to have to spend a lot of time learning about the industry you’re in. So don’t pick something that sounds boring but could make you a lot of money. Choose something you’d like to fall down a rabbit hole of learning more about; that’s how you become an expert in any given industry. And if you start with something and along the way realize it isn’t something you’re interested in after all, don’t be afraid to pivot. Lean into your curiosity. You never know what things you’ll uncover that you love.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://copywithspice.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/copywithspice/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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