Episode Transcript
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Nicole Morton (00:02):
Welcome to the copy table, the podcast for copywriters who want to get new ideas and inspiration for building and scaling a business you love.
Erin Pennings (00:11):
In this podcast, hosts Grace Fortune, Nicole Morton, and Erin Pennings bring new topics and guests to the table every single episode.
Grace Fortune (00:20):
We're spilling the beans on how you can use your interests and expertise to define what's success means to you and take steps to achieve it. Welcome back to the coffee table. Today, we are turning the spotlight on Nicole Morton and taking a deep dive into her copywriting business. We're going to go behind the scenes to see how Nicole developed her approach to copywriting, found her audience, and unlocked her secret sauce. And we can't wait to dive in as Erin and I interview her.
Erin Pennings (00:50):
So, Nicole, it's your turn. And I can't wait. So, can you tell me a little bit? You've done some really cool things, and I want to know, now that we've unlocked kind of your road here, what do you see as your secret sauce?
Nicole Morton (01:09):
I did not know that I had a secret sauce until spending time with you guys and our peers in our mastermind group. So one thing I want to say before we get started on this journey is that your secret sauce is often sometimes what you take for granted. And we are notorious for thinking that things that are easy are not valuable. So you may just actually be staring your own secret sauce right in the face and not even be knowing it. So, that being said, my secret sauce is creative thinking and pattern recognition. So what that looks like in practice is seeing underlying messaging and giving people permission to see what they intuitively have built into their problem. What does that look like?
(02:05):
If you have a decision on how to approach a project or your business, and you're in your own head, it helps to have an objective third party who's invested in your success to try and help you flesh out the details and the nuance in what you're trying to uncover. And that could be in your own business. That could be on a project that you're working for. That could be when you're ready to pivot. That could be when you're ready to birth a new idea, this poor little naked baby bird of an idea into the world. And I think my innate creativity, my ability to understand, I joke that I'm the squishy empath of the group. The words behind the words you're trying to tell me is what I can hear.
Grace Fortune (02:48):
I would 100% agree with that. Being in our mastermind together, the think tank, you very quickly stood out and became known as the human decoder ring for that reason, because you have this incredible gift for getting to the heart of not even just the problem, but you have the ability to get to the heart of the situation and shine a light on things that need to be shone, a light on that other people might not necessarily see or really feel like acknowledging. And I want to highlight something that you had said right at the very beginning, that our secret sauce is often something that we take for granted. I've heard so many times when people have an ability like that shone one of the first things they say is, oh, that's easy. Anybody can do that.
Nicole Morton (03:34):
That's exactly right.
Grace Fortune (03:35):
And that's absolutely 100% not true. Not everybody has the ability to literally shine a flashlight on very specific things. To use an example from when you and I had a strategy session together, Nicole, you helped me make my framework right, and you were able to shine a light on what I call my mental brain dumping. And you just had this ability to make things come right to the forefront that needed to be highlighted. And not everybody can do that, just like not everybody knows marketing strategy or launch like I do. And I just think that's such an important thing to know for anybody listening to this. If you're wondering about what your secret sauce is, look for the things that you find intuitively easy.
Nicole Morton (04:24):
That's right. Things that you are surprised that you get compensated for. Like things that you're shocked that people will pay for your brain droppings. That's more than likely your secret sauce.
Erin Pennings (04:35):
And if I can shine this back on you, Nicole, I would say you also have this innate ability to see things three dimensionally with not a whole lot of information. And the example I can give is coming up with my own framework. I was telling you what it is, and you're like, nope, within less than a minute of explanation, of half baked explanation that was not at all concise or coherent, and you were able to take my words and flip it into something that truly 100% was three dimensional. So I want to know, I may be putting you on the spot here. And if that's the case, answer it however you will. But how did you develop this ability to see things in this 360 miles high view?
Nicole Morton (05:20):
I think a lot of it is my experience. So we've touched on this earlier that I came up into marketing and brand development through the product development route. So you had to literally start with nothing and build a physical product, market it, sell it, and then do it all, wake up the next morning and do exactly the same thing again. So you're starting from nothing and do that for long enough, then you get in the habit of looking for patterns, of looking for nuance, about working within boundaries, giving yourself unlimited opportunity within a structure. And that suits my mode of thinking perfectly. Applying that in a format that applies to a business solution or a marketing solution or product solution, all of it boils down to answering a simple question. How do I take this mess and make it something?
(06:17):
So I think it's putting in the reps, and maybe that's the easy way out. Maybe that's the weenie answer to this question. And if so, I apologize. But that's the only way I can attribute this, is that between my training, and I will say, being able to make seemingly disparate connections makes sense, because I am a treasure trove of useless knowledge. Like, I'll have pop culture references or historical references or science or something, and being able to make those two things stick together that seem like they shouldn't work, but they do. That's just how we roll here.
Erin Pennings (06:53):
Well, and I think that speaks to the hidden connections between everything. And if I can draw my own little parallel of two disparate things. Nicole, what is so cool about that is that everything in the world is connected through these strange, tangential. That's right. Whatever it is. And so it may not be logical, but that doesn't mean that you haven't encountered these people or these situations. The best way to equate it is having all these different social groups and then figuring out how people actually know each other through ways that you wouldn't have ever encountered.
Nicole Morton (07:28):
Yeah. It's six degrees of Kevin Bacon in the real life, right? That applies to everything 100%.
Grace Fortune (07:37):
That's so true. Oh, my gosh. I love that so much. So, I have to ask, how did this secret sauce lead you to what you're doing now? And maybe can you share just a little bit about how you apply that to your business now?
Nicole Morton (07:52):
I love the process. The process of concept generation and development is exactly my wheelhouse. And so I joke that it doesn't matter if you're making promos or pizza or popcorn or porsches. The process is the same, and it works really well for how I think. So it doesn't matter that 25 years, Kokoff, 25 years ago, I was making porcelain dolls from illustrations. Today, I make brands out of ideas and philosophies and values. The process is exactly the same. It works beautifully for the way my brain works. And so what I like to do is help people distill the essence of what they're trying to say into a medium that can be communicated outwards. And for me right now, that happens to be copywriting, brand development and brand strategy. I love it because the process is replicable, but it's not static. And that lights me up like crazy.
Grace Fortune (08:57):
I think that one of the keys to making a successful business is to make whatever your secret sauce is into something replicable. You can't just try reinventing the wheel and doing something different every single time. Otherwise that's just like a huge time suck and time waste.
Nicole Morton (09:15):
Yes.
Grace Fortune (09:16):
So I think that's a really important thing to highlight, is to do whatever you're doing in such a way that you can replicate it and deliver similar, maybe not exactly the same results to whoever you work with.
Nicole Morton (09:29):
That's right.
Grace Fortune (09:31):
Having a bit of flexibility and openness to make little shifts and little changes when you do need to is also very pivotal.
Nicole Morton (09:38):
Yeah, you have to be nimble because there's always factors that you can't account for. There's the nuance that you have to be mindful of, because again, let's loop back to the beginning. People don't necessarily feel like what they bring of value. What they bring that's easy and natural for them is of value. Being able to make a conversation around that and an argument around that to support a buying decision around that is the crux of the problem and also the solution.
Grace Fortune (10:11):
I couldn't agree more.
Erin Pennings (10:13):
Nicole, so I wanted to jump in here and I want to ask a little bit about from your perspective, how does this work? How does this six degrees of Nicole Morton of product development, how does that all work? When someone comes to you, can you walk me through what that looks like in any given.
Nicole Morton (10:40):
You know, it starts with a conversation. It starts with a deep and nuanced conversation about what your goals are, what your vision is, the hills that you're willing to die on. I think it was Mike Kim that talked about how you determine what you love, what breaks your heart, and what makes you angry. Like tap into those three wells of emotion and then applying a framework around, you know, you have to talk about the know. There's two things that you have to talk about. You have to talk about how you get from point a to point b. So that's the process. And then you have to see what the before and the Cinderella scrubbing dress and then the ball gown, the transformation.
(11:20):
So those two things, if you have that conversation, then you can give your prospects the tools that they need to be able to get to yes. It's a simple conversation that has extraordinarily deep meaning. And like I said, I can hear the words behind the words. I joke that it's toddler logic, right? It's not, do you want to wear your mittens? It's like, do you want to wear your red mittens or your blue mittens? I give you permission to be messy and show up and then dress it up in a conversation that makes sense.
Erin Pennings (11:49):
Going back to the things that you find easy, that everyone else, it just blows their mind and then I'll turn things back to you, Grace.
Grace Fortune (11:56):
Yeah, no, my mind is blown officially. So I think that's amazing. I love that. So the next question that I have here is, what do you want prospects to come to you for?
Nicole Morton (12:07):
I love to sit down with people that are in their own way because they're so invested in the process and they have put the work in and they're dedicated to the outcome. I'm equally enamored with the product development process and as I am with the brand development process and at its heart it is the same thing. So I love to work with people who are either ready to level up, they're ready to pivot, they're ready to launch something brand new and need the support and encouragement and tools and tactics that they need to make that a success. Perfect.
Grace Fortune (12:44):
And how has your business changed over time? Just to a refresher, how long have you been in business now? And how has your business changed over time from when you started to what it looks like now?
Nicole Morton (12:55):
Okay, so you have to go on the wayback machine with me. So my background is in marketing and product development and brand management. And then I had pivoted to a completely different career change in my twenty s and thirty s into education and then stayed home with my family and then went back into the workforce in my late forty s? And so I've had two very distinct business paths in my career that ironically are exactly the same in two different environments. But when I went, I had to choose do I go back into education or back into marketing? And I thought, you know what? So I'll try this writing thing. I'll try this content development thing. And so my thought was that if I churned out enough words at x number of cents per word, I can make a living of this thing.
(13:44):
And I'm a decent writer, but I'm a great strategist. And I had forgotten about that part until someone literally sat down with me and said, excuse me, ma'am, what you do is not what people can do. Again, what is easy you think is not valuable. So I'm a decent writer, but it's the least impactful thing that I bring to the table. So my business has evolved from strictly content writing to copywriting to copy strategy to brand strategy with a smidgen of product development in there. And it's all been a big circle of coming back to myself, which, that lifetime movie right there. Let's talk about that.
Grace Fortune (14:28):
Okay, I'll call you out on that. How have you changed with your business?
Nicole Morton (14:32):
Oh my gosh, that's such a good question. It's the realization that what I have brings value. I am really good at showing up. I'm really good at showing up and being supportive. Grace, you and I have that a lot in common, that I'm just here with my pompoms on and I'm ready to just cheer you to victory. And I cannot help but interject someone will say, oh, I can't do this, or this doesn't make sense. Or I tried this and I'm just like, well, how about x? Or how about z? And everyone's like, wait, what?
(15:07):
And me realizing that what I have to bring to the table has value, I think that's the thing that's changed the most in my business, that I can stand amongst my peers, who I am absolutely fangirl on all the time, and know that I have just as much to contribute. That's just as valuable in its own right. And finding where all those intersections are in our community has been just an awful lot of fun.
Erin Pennings (15:35):
So here I am, fangirling over Nicole Morton. Speaking of fangirling, but I want to know, because of this full circle journey, I loved your tin can question that you gave Grace when we did her episode. If you could put a tin can to your ear, current you, and then to past you at a couple of different junctures. One, when you started your business, when you went through this cycle, and then again before back to when you first began your career, what would you say?
Nicole Morton (16:10):
I would tell past me to be myself and show up as my messy, authentic, weird, creative, vulnerable self right away. I won't say I wasted. I spent at least a good year and a half of my business development in this incarnation, trying to fit my experience into someone else's mold and find success. That's my own doing for sure. I have nowhere to lay that anywhere than at my own feet, figuring out how to show up in my own way with my own perspective and my own lived experience. I would tell my past self to lean into that immediately.
Erin Pennings (17:02):
And what if we can extend that into the future? What do you think future Nicole will tell today, Nicole? Or what do you hope she'll tell you?
Nicole Morton (17:13):
I hope she'll tell me. Good job. But I think know laying the foundation of building a network of this very diverse lived experience, background, specialties, because you just never know where these amazing sparks are going to come from. You might think that you don't have anything in common with someone in the financial sector, but lo and behold, at some point you're going to get a client or you're going to get a project or you're going to be biding on a contract that requires that you have some subject matter experience. And I don't mean it to. That sounds very transactional, and I don't mean that too. But you've got to sow these seeds everywhere. And I think one thing I do really well is show up.
(17:59):
I think what future me is going to be proudest of is building my network and maintaining these relationships and finding ways to give and receive, but give more.
Erin Pennings (18:08):
I don't think it's ever an issue of you giving more, Nicole. I think you give as much more than you get from in any single situation. Yeah. Like I said, fangirl over here, there's so much that you bring. And so I think, can I tell you what I think future you is going to say?
Nicole Morton (18:28):
Oh, I hope so. What a badass I've been. Look at all the things that brought me here that I've done. And to your point, I don't think it's transactional. I think it's a matter of those hidden connections that we talked about, the six degrees, how all roads lead you to this point. And I can't wait to see what the point that this road leads you to next.
Grace Fortune (18:53):
Yeah, no, hard, same.
Erin Pennings (18:55):
Love. Love across the board.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Yeah, no, I am also a huge Nicole Morton fangirl. So, yeah, 100% agree with what you said, Erin. So we kind of touched on this in the last episode. Let's get into what we wish everybody knew about Nicole.
Erin Pennings (19:12):
Yeah.
Grace Fortune (19:12):
Number one for me, Nicole, you are an absolute badass. I would want everybody to know that about you. I would want everybody to know just what a freaking genius you are when it comes to creating something from nothing. Kind of like what we touched on earlier. Like I said, in like ten minutes, you took a piece of junk framework that I thought was literally never going to see the light of day that I thought was going to be absolutely terrible. And you helped me make it into something that works and that people know about. People know about my framework now, and I directly attributed that to 15 minutes with you. That's all it took. So if anybody wants any of that kind of goodness, come to Nicole Morton for that, no questions asked. So that's what I would want people to know.
(20:01):
And also, you are probably, like the sweetest person in the world...
Nicole Morton
Erin Pennings (20:10):
If only they could see us now, literally our faces. But no one can see my face at the moment. Just a photo. So what I want to tell the world about Nicole is how absolutely kind, authentic, and genuine you are. Doesn't matter where anyone else is in their know, you're just there. You meet them wherever they are, whatever that means. And sometimes it makes you an absolute saint, I think. And at other times, it just shows how much you do care that empathy really matters. And I think that ties into your secret sauce because of your empathicness. I think that's part of what enables you to see the big picture, because you can pick up on all the other things.
(20:57):
And just like I said about Grace, if anyone asks me about Nicole or if any opportunity comes up, I'm like, oh, my gosh, you have to talk to. Do I just word salad about how awesome you are, what you've done for me, what I've seen you do for other people, and it's like, you've got to talk to her. I could have the Nicole Morton instead of a roast. It would just be like the love.
Nicole Morton (21:19):
So my cup runeth over. Thanks, guys.
Erin Pennings (21:23):
I guess my big takeaway is all roads have led you to this point, and there's so much further to go till you're a household name. And I think it's going to happen.
I hard agree there. Hard agree. So, Nicole, now that we've made you redder than a tomato with blushing...
Nicole Morton (21:41):
I am, I'm so pink right now.
Grace Fortune (21:43):
So tell everybody how they can find you.
Nicole Morton (21:46):
My website, nicolemortonagency.com. I'm pretty much Nicole Morton agency everywhere on the socials. Dump your mess on my table and let's get something amazing made.
Grace Fortune (21:58):
Awesome. All right, well, I want to thank everybody for joining us at the coffee table. We're Grace fortune, Nicole Morton, and Erin Pennings. And we will see you next time.
Nicole Morton (22:07):
Bye, everyone.