About
Am I the right mentor for you?
Once upon a time, there was a frustrated freelancer.
No matter how hard they tried, they just couldn’t attract their ideal clients.
They were highly skilled, qualified and knowledgeable in their field. They acted honestly, ethically and with integrity. And they added lots of value to the businesses they worked with.
But they just weren’t getting the clients they should.
Sound familiar?
Like me, you probably hit the freelance life with high hopes and bags of enthusiasm only to find it wasn’t all sunshine and roses.
And now you’re here, reading this page because your business just isn’t quite where you want it and you’re experiencing one or more of the following problems:
- You aren’t attracting enough clients
- You aren’t attracting the right leads
- You are always busy but aren’t earning as much as you’d like
- You’re trapped in a feast and famine cycle
- You’ve followed all the usual marketing advice, but nothing works
- You’re on every social media platform but rarely get enquiries
- You have clients you don’t enjoy working with
- You don’t get enough of the work you love
- You take on low-paying work just to cover the bills
- You are constantly chasing invoices
- You keep getting ghosted by people
These are all common problems freelancers face, and there are plenty more on top. But the good news is they are all problems that can be solved. And I can help you solve them.
About my mentoring style
“It’s funny. I didn’t read your other recommendations in detail before leaving my own, but read them afterwards. How wonderful that many of the recommendations say similar, that your direct approach it what we loved. You tell it as it is and give such actionable advice. That’s exactly what someone needs from a mentor.”
The above is copied from a message I received after thanking a client for leaving me a recommendation on LinkedIn. I could tell you about my mentoring approach myself, but I think she sums it up pretty well – I’m direct, I tell it how it is, and I give actionable advice.
My goal with every service – whether it’s a 90 minute session or ongoing mentoring – is to move you one step closer to where you want to be. It really is that simple.
So how do you know whether I’m the right person to help you get results?
Well, we won’t know until we talk, and that will only happen if you make it happen.
But here’s what I can tell you. If we do go on to work together, I will put all my effort into helping you get your business where you want it to be.
And that means I will be honest – sometimes brutally so. I am a say-it-how-it-is, straight-to-the-point, no-bullshit type person.
I won’t stroke your ego, pat you on the head or tell you you’re doing great if you aren’t.
I will be direct. I will be passionate. I will ask some difficult questions.
I’m not touchy-feely. This isn’t about mindset and empowerment, unlocking your potential or harnessing your inner light. This is about doing things in your business that get you the results you want.
And when you start getting the results, your confidence will grow. And your mindset will change. And you’ll fall back in love with your business.
Most importantly, you’ll start getting more of the clients you want.
I know first-hand how frustrating it can be when your business isn’t quite living up to the expectations you had. I have been that frustrated freelancer.
I also know how hard it can be asking for help. I was crap at it. I was stubborn – wanted to do it all myself just to prove I could.
So even when my business was making me miserable, I kept plodding along, waiting for that pivotal moment. The moment when everything would click into place, and I’d have the business I always wanted. I worked hard, was good at what I did, and got great feedback – it would all pay off eventually, right?
I read endless books and articles and invested small amounts of money into personal and business development. But I still struggled to take my business to the next level.
And then I realised that if I wanted to grow, I needed help. Because there is only so far you can take your business by yourself, then it’s time to get support from someone who actually knows how to get you where you want to go. And investing a few quid here and there just doesn’t cut it. You need to really invest.
So I bit the bullet and invested in a mentor. It did the trick. I fell back in love with my business and started moving in the direction I wanted to go. My only regret is not getting help sooner.
Don’t make that mistake. If you aren’t happy with your business, take action now.
If I’m not the right mentor for you, find someone who is. Because I promise you, having someone in your corner makes a huge difference.
My business journey: The short version
Since I’m asking you to trust me with your business, I guess I better give you an overview of my experience:
- Started freelancing as a copywriter in 2014
- Went full-time self-employed in 2016
- Incorporated Make Your Copy Count Ltd in 2017
- Delivered training to a wide variety of businesses and organisations
- Published my first book in 2018
- Started offering marketing consultations in 2020
- Started mentoring other freelancers and business owners in 2021
- Published The Freelance Fairytale in 2022
- Launched LS Mentoring in 2024
But I guess the most relevant experience is that I built my business from scratch so I’ve been there done that when it comes to understanding the ups and downs of working for yourself.
I’m not selling some get-rich-quick scheme – I offer years of knowledge and first-hand experience. I’ve built a business that gives me the lifestyle I want, and now I help others do the same.
Buy the Book
Despite the title, The Freelance Fairytale is not a fluffy bedtime story. It’s packed full of practical advice to help you create a business that makes you happy.
Strategy Sessions
Book 90 minutes with me and we’ll figure out some easy actions you can take to fix the gaps in your marketing and sales process so you can attract better clients.
Ongoing Mentoring
Tired of trying to slay the dragon alone? Want a business mentor who knows how to get you where you want to be? Let me help you create your happy ever after.
My business journey: The long version
I’d rather not talk about me – I’d rather find out more about you. But I also understand that you don’t want to trust just anyone with your business – and you shouldn’t either. There are plenty of fake gurus out there who claim they can help you transform your business without any evidence of having done it themselves.
So if you’re the kind of person who wants to know exactly who you’re going to be working with before you invest your time and money, this section is for you.
It’s an honest account of my business journey from day one to the present day.
A tiny bit of background
I won’t bore you with my full life story, but it makes sense to provide a little bit of background so you have some context. I promise I’ll keep it short.
Way back in 2003, I packed my bags and headed off to Mallorca to work a season in Magaluf.
One season turned into nine, working in different resorts in Spain, Greece, and Bulgaria. In 2009, I met my husband and we spent our summers working and our winters travelling the world.
In 2012, I decided to move back to the UK, and after a lovely couple of months travelling Australia (where my husband proposed), I settled in Leeds where I’ve been ever since.
We’d decided it didn’t make sense for both me and my husband to be out of work, so he went back to do one more summer season, while I found a job and somewhere to live.
When I moved back to the UK, I had no job lined up and no idea what I was going to do. The only person I knew in Leeds was the friend I was renting a room from.
I’d always loved writing so I decided to enrol on a freelance feature writing course. Meanwhile, I got a job managing business centres.
After completing my course , I wasn’t sure about my next step, so I decided to start a blog.
While researching how to start a blog, I came across a copywriting course.
I had never heard of copywriting, but it seemed to involve selling and writing. I was good at both so I enrolled.
I decided to set up a basic website so I was ready for business once I’d completed my course. But things moved faster than I expected.
I’d only completed one assignment when I received a message on Twitter inviting me to a networking event.
And that’s where I met my first client…
2014: First client
I set up a drag-and-drop website under lisaslatercopywriting.com ready for when I’d completed my course. I thought it would be a good place to publish a few blogs and practice my skills as they developed. The Twitter account was created for similar reasons – to start building a following ready for when I launched.
When I received an invite to a networking event, I panicked.
I wasn’t a copywriter. I’d only found out what a copywriter was a couple of months earlier. There was no way I could rock up to a networking event full of business owners and call myself a copywriter – they’d know I was a fraud.
But what if…?
What if I did go? What if I met someone who did need help with their copy? What if it was an opportunity to meet some experienced business owners and get some advice on how to get started?
The venue was a five-minute walk from the office building I managed, so I could still make it to work on time afterwards.
And worst case scenario, I could just talk about my day job. I could talk about serviced offices and meeting room hire – those were things I knew about.
So I took a chance on myself and accepted the invitation.
And that’s how I found myself at a BNI meeting at 7am on a Tuesday morning.
You can’t underestimate the role that good timing plays in business. And it played a huge role for me that day.
I got talking to a marketing consultant and he just so happened to be in the process of creating a new website. He was going to work on the copy himself but was willing to give me a chance.
So a few days later, I went to his office with a notebook full of questions and ideas, then spent weekends and evenings working on his copy.
I must have done a good job, because following that project, he referred loads of work to me, and is still referring work to me over ten years later.
I often wonder if I’d have ever gotten around to launching my business if I hadn’t accepted the invitation to that event.
2015: Motivation
My main copywriting project in 2015 was writing 250-word product descriptions for a branded merchandise company. I got paid £3 per product description, and I could do them at a pace that suited me.
It wasn’t the most exciting, interesting, or creative project but it was flexible and easy.
I was getting married that year, so when I was struggling to motivate myself, I’d get the holiday brochure out and open it to the page of the resort we’d picked for our honeymoon. I’d remind myself these product descriptions were paying for it. I guess that’s the closest I’ve ever had to a vision board.
I still don’t know how I managed to fit all those product descriptions in alongside course assignments, training runs, wedding planning, a full-time job, and other copywriting projects. But I did it.
And while I wasn’t making millions from freelancing, I earned enough to pay for my honeymoon and a few other nice treats.
More importantly, I gained the confidence I needed to make the leap into full-time self-employment.
I’d (naively) thought I would wait until my freelance income matched my salary before leaving the ‘security’ of a full-time job. But I quickly realised the only way I would be able to make a full time income from copywriting would be to commit myself to it full time.
I loved my job, but I wanted to know whether I had what it took to build a business on my own.
So in December 2015, I handed in my notice and the countdown was on to turn ‘Lisa Slater Copywriting’ into a full-time endeavour.
2016: Full-time freelancing
March 23rd 2016 was my last day as an employee. On March 24th, I became full-time self-employed.
The pressure was on.
Until then, my freelance business had been a side-earner. It wasn’t my main source of income so everything I earned was just a bonus.
But now my business had to earn me a living. It had to pay my share of the mortgage and bills.
I had saved a little from my last few pay packets to get me through the first couple of months, but I needed to start earning pretty sharpish.
Easier said than done when I didn’t have much of a plan.
I had a couple of clients, but not enough to make a full-time salary. I needed to find more.
I decided networking was the best place to start. After all, it worked really well for me on the first attempt. So less than two months after leaving my full-time job, I joined a local BNI group and started generating copywriting clients.
Rollercoaster life
I’d love to say self-employment was easy. It wasn’t. I smile to myself now when I see newbie freelancers talk about it being a “rollercoaster” because that’s exactly how I described it in my first year.
I say “first year” – it was actually my third. But there’s a massive difference between freelancing on the side and freelancing for a living.
And there’s one particular day that sticks in my mind as a great example of just how much of a rollercoaster it can be.
It was one of “those” days. I don’t know specifically what had upset me, but I was suffering from major self-doubt, feeling completely out of my depth, and wondering if I was really cut out for freelance life.
After a bit of a cry, I pulled myself together and checked my emails. In my inbox was a message from a lady in New York needing copy for her new website. A couple of messages between us, and she decided she loved what I had to say and was happy to go ahead.
I was over the moon. Dancing around the house. Six months into self-employment, I was already landing clients around the globe. Check. Me. Out.
That day perfectly represents those early days as a freelancer – you can go from the depths of despair to complete euphoria within minutes (and vice versa).
It’s not for the faint-hearted, that’s for sure. You live in a constant state of uncertainty, and if you don’t learn how to get used to that uncertainty, it can break you.
But despite the horrible lows in that first year, everything felt exciting. Everything felt like an opportunity. Every success felt like a huge achievement.
I made a profit. I made enough to pay my share of the mortgage and bills. I felt like a huge success.
2017: From sole trader to limited company
One of the things that stuck with me from that first year was the idea that being self-employed and being a business owner weren’t the same thing.
Being self-employed meant you had created a job for yourself. You could earn a good living doing that job, but your business didn’t exist without you.
Being a business owner meant having a business that worked without you. You could take time out of the business and still earn a living.
When I started freelancing, I had no plans or goals for my business. I just wanted to find out whether I could make money working for myself. But that idea that I wasn’t a “proper business” got under my skin. I decided I needed my business to be more than just me. ‘Lisa Slater Copywriting’ wasn’t going to cut it anymore. It was time to get serious.
In January 2017, I made the transition from sole trader to limited company and incorporated Make Your Copy Count Ltd.
I invested in a new website – a “proper” website. I got a fancy new logo and fancy new headed paper, and branded pens and a pop-up banner.
And on April 1st, I started trading under my new company name.
Launching a new service
I’d learnt a lot in my first year, but I also spotted an opportunity.
There were lots of business owners out there who needed copy but didn’t have the budget to outsource it or the skills to do it themselves.
But something else was missing too – a general understanding of how marketing and sales worked.
I’d always worked in sales-focused environments. Even when my job wasn’t solely sales, I was involved in selling.
But I quickly realised not everyone has sales experience. And I think the biggest mistake new freelancers and business owners make is underestimating how much of working for yourself involves sales and marketing.
It doesn’t matter how good you are at the thing you do – you have to be able to convince people to pay you for it.
So I decided to launch two training workshops.
The first was Blogging for Business. Although it focused on blog writing, it was more about content marketing in general. The stuff I taught could be applied to all kinds of content.
I hosted the first workshop for free. I invited a handful of business owners – people I knew would get value from it. In return, they provided feedback that I could use in my marketing.
My second workshop was Write to Sell, which covered the basics of copywriting.
Before launching the first Write to Sell workshop, I was asked by someone in my BNI group whether I’d deliver it to some of his team. He ran a web design agency and wanted a handful of his employees to brush up on their copywriting skills.
This was great for two reasons. Firstly, because it gave me a chance to test the course content and make sure my timings were right. And secondly, because I’d never thought about offering my training as an in-house service.
It seems pretty obvious that I would offer it to full teams rather than simply inviting individuals to pre-scheduled events. But, for whatever reason, it didn’t occur to me to offer this service.
It just goes to show that you can miss really obvious opportunities when you’re too close to something.
I delivered that first in-house training in August and hosted my first workshop in October – I had ten people in attendance.
But something else exciting happened too.
A lady who attended one of my Blogging for Business courses worked in prisons as a tutor. She taught the business class and thought my courses would be great for her students.
And so, in November 2017, I spent two days in a local prison delivering a revised version of my workshops to two groups of inmates – the English class and the Business class.
I did try and get into other prisons in the area, but I never managed to connect with the right people, so it never went anywhere which was a shame as I found it really rewarding.
2018: Getting published
Towards the end of 2017, I wrote a series of blog posts – The A-Z of Blogging. Each blog post focused on a different letter of the alphabet – A is for Analytics, B is for Backlinks and so on.
A client told me how much she was enjoying the blog posts. She suggested I turn them into a book. I knew a publisher, so I had a chat with him and we agreed terms. I reworked some of the content, added to it, and let the publisher take care of the rest.
I joke now that I wrote that first book by accident. And I kind of did because it never started out as a book.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s good – I put a lot of time and effort into the content. But it’s not the book I want to be known for. I don’t really promote it any more – I don’t think it’s a great book or that it’s my best work (although maybe it was at the time).
My second book was much more of an achievement – a much better book – and something I’m far more proud of. But back in 2018, having a book on Amazon felt huge.
Meanwhile, things were ticking along nicely. Most of my work was still coming through referrals from my BNI group and in October 2018, I took over as president of the group.
I was increasing my profits year on year. I was developing my skills. I felt confident calling myself a copywriter. I was even outsourcing some stuff.
But I wasn’t achieving my goals.
2019: Stuck in a rut
What can I say about 2019?
It was a frustrating year.
I felt like I was doing everything right and still not getting where I wanted to be. Everyone else seemed to be smashing it, while I was getting enquiries that went nowhere, prospects that pissed me around, and clients that didn’t really value me.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom – I still had some lovely clients. But I didn’t have enough of them. And I was working long hours on projects I didn’t particularly enjoy, and earning nowhere near what I should have been.
BNI was taking up loads of my time and effort and the return on that time and effort was no longer enough to justify my membership.
I felt stuck in a rut. It was two steps forward, one step back. I had fallen out of love with my business.
It was time to make some changes.
After my term as president finished, I left BNI. I needed to focus on my business.
I started working with a mentor too. I was sceptical about it – I’d always seen mentors as a luxury I didn’t need. They would just tell me what I already knew, so what was the point? But I had nothing to lose and something had to change.
That first mentoring session was eye-opening.
“I never see you posting on LinkedIn.”
“I stopped posting on there – it wasn’t working for me and I got fed up with it.”
“But how can you tell other people to be sharing content on there if you aren’t doing it yourself?”
He was right. And so I started using LinkedIn again. But I started using it more effectively than I had in the past.
A couple of weeks later, I went to a networking event and three different people commented on my content. That gave me the boost I needed to keep going with it, and it paid off. LinkedIn became my main source of new clients.
I still wasn’t completely happy with my business, but at least I headed into 2020 with renewed motivation.
2020: Turning point
2020 started well – I was feeling positive. In January, I delivered training to a marketing team all the way down on the south coast, I was booked to speak at an event at the NEC, and I’d started working with a mentor. Then lockdown hit.
Luckily I had enough money in my business to keep me going for at least six months. As it turns out, I didn’t need it. Despite the global pandemic, 2020 turned out to be a good (and profitable) year for me.
Going online
I’d had a Write to Sell workshop booked in for the week after the first lockdown started, so I delivered it via Zoom instead. It wasn’t as good as doing it in person because attendees didn’t interact as much, but it worked.
I ran a couple more online workshops that year, but eventually, decided to pause them indefinitely. I’d given them three years – it was time to try something else.
I had plenty of time on my hands during the first few months of lockdown, so I recorded an online version of Blogging for Business.
Another thing I did during lockdown was launch my monthly Content Clubs. This was an idea I’d had for a while but had never done anything with.
I ran Content Club for 13 months then let it come to a natural end because I was focusing on other things by then. Plus, it didn’t make me enough money to justify the time I was putting in. But I might bring it back one day because I loved it (and so did the members).
Back on track
When lockdown hit, I was worried (like many businesses were). But as it turned out, 2020 ended up being the most profitable year I’d had up until that point (and it kept getting better after that).
I felt more in control of my business. I was falling back in love with it and I finally felt like I was getting somewhere.
2021: A new direction
I’ll be honest, 2020 and 2021 kind of merged into one – I’m sure most people felt that way given the constant hokey-cokey of lockdowns. But 2021 was another positive year for me.
I don’t know quite when it happened but at some point between 2020 and 2021, I realised that I didn’t want a “proper business”.
I just wanted to earn good money doing the thing I loved for people I liked.
For so long, I had been working towards someone else’s idea of what successful looked like. It was the reason I had struggled to make my business work. I’d let the idea that I wasn’t a proper business distract me from what I wanted from my business (and life).
I was holding on to the copywriting work because I thought I could build a team of copywriters – that was how I could scale my business and make it work without me.
But what I really wanted to do was the other stuff – the training and mentoring. And I loved doing that – I wanted to do that. I didn’t want to build a team. I didn’t want to manage a team of copywriters.
A new mentor and a new perspective
I started working with a new business mentor. The first mentor gave me the kick up the arse I needed to make a change, but the second helped me take things to the next level. He helped me figure out what I really wanted and taught me how to build a business that worked on my terms.
I stopped promoting ‘done for you’ copywriting services. I knew that I’d never make the majority of my income from training and consulting if I didn’t make it the main focus of my business.
I launched Borrow my Brain – my 90-minute marketing consultations.
I invested in new video content.
I got a new website – one I had more control over – and I rewrote all the copy.
I created a lead magnet – my ‘Get Copy Confident’ email series.
I started an email list and started sending daily emails (I gradually cut down to four days a week as seven was tough to manage).
I’d always toyed with the idea of starting an email list, but never made it a priority. This was mainly because email marketing wasn’t my preferred way of being marketed to. I’d often subscribe to emails and then end up deleting most of them without reading them before unsubscribing a few days later. But I managed to overcome my preconceptions about email marketing and gave it a go. And guess what? I got (and still get) business from it.
From mentee to mentor
After working with my mentor for a few months, I felt so much happier with my business, and so much happier in my life.
I realised it was possible to make good money doing the thing you love for people who are great to work with. I was doing it. And I wanted to help others do the same.
So towards the end of the year, I launched my mentoring programme. It was a few weeks before I got any serious interest, but in December, I got my first three sign-ups.
2022: Happy Ever After
My mentoring programme was originally focused on copywriting and marketing. I wanted to give freelancers and small business owners the skills and confidence to attract and convert more of their ideal clients. I’d finally figured out how to do it and was in a position to teach others.
But I quickly realised that my mentees were facing a lot of the problems, challenges, and frustrations I’d been facing pre-pandemic. And I could help with that too.
I’d got my business where I wanted it. I was genuinely happy. But it hadn’t happened overnight. It wasn’t like the fairy stories you see on social media. There are no magic beans.
If you want your happy ever after, you have to be the one who creates it, just like I did.
And that’s where the idea for my book – The Freelance Fairytale – came from.
The idea for the book started developing way before I decided it would be a book. But gradually, ideas came together and inspiration hit.
I started writing it in July and published it in September.
This book is probably the thing I’m most proud of in my business, and the feedback has been brilliant.
Would I have liked to have sold more copies? Yes.
But even if it’s never a best seller, people tell me it’s really helped them improve their business and that’s good enough for me.
2023: Relaunching Write to Sell
I started the year with a clear plan – I would focus solely on the mentoring. There would be three clear products – my book, my 1-2-1 sessions, and my 12-week programme.
But I got sidetracked when I was contacted by the owner of a marketing agency I know. He asked if I did copywriting training. I said I did. And in February, I delivered Write to Sell to his team over two days.
I had forgotten how much I loved doing the in-person training. And how good the content was. So I decided to relaunch Write to Sell.
I wouldn’t run the workshops, but I’d offer it as team training. And I’d make an online version.
Shortly after relaunching it, I got a booking to deliver Write to Sell to a marketing team over in the States. Unfortunately, their budget didn’t cover flights, so I delivered it over four days via Zoom.
I love doing copywriting training and I genuinely do think it’s the best skill you can develop as a freelancer or small business. But refocusing on Write to Sell meant I slipped back into the bad habit of trying to market too many things at once.
Rather than focus on mentoring (which is the thing I love doing most), I was promoting my copywriting courses and team training too. I was trying to market too many products and services to too many different audiences.
So I gave myself a slap and got myself back on track.
2024: Launching LS Mentoring
My business was no longer working as one business. There were two clear elements – the copywriting training and the business mentoring.
I decided it was time I separated out the two parts of the business.
Make Your Copy Count is the perfect business name for the copywriting training, but it doesn’t reflect what I do as a mentor.
So, I needed a new website – LS Mentoring.
It might not be the most catchy business name, but it isn’t restrictive either.
And it means I can have a site dedicated to helping freelancers, coaches, consultants and small business owners who need a bit of support and guidance.
And that brings us right up to today. If you’ve read this entire page, then thank you. I hope it gives you an insight into who I am so you know I’m not some fake guru trying to sell you magic beans.
And if you’re still not sure whether I can help you, why not drop me an email or message me on Facebook or LinkedIn. It’s just me in the business, so it’s me that will reply.
If you want your business to change, you have to be the one to take action. So take action – let’s start creating your happy ever after.
Buy the Book
Despite the title, The Freelance Fairytale is not a fluffy bedtime story. It’s packed full of practical advice to help you create a business that makes you happy.
Strategy Sessions
Book 90 minutes with me and we’ll figure out some easy actions you can take to fix the gaps in your marketing and sales process so you can attract better clients.
Ongoing Mentoring
Tired of trying to slay the dragon alone? Want a business mentor who knows how to get you where you want to be? Let me help you create your happy ever after.