Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Amanda Kern. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Amanda, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
Not only do I earn a full time living from my creative work as an SEO copywriter, but I’ve doubled my income from when I was working a 9 to 5!
I’m part of a generation that was told we had to follow a cookie-cutter professional path—go to college, get a job, work for some corporation until you retire—but that doesn’t work for everyone. I got a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Educational Studies, and I taught high school English for 9 years.
After a few years of this, I felt completely stuck. Teachers can either become principals or stay in the classroom until the day they retire, and neither of those options felt right for me.
So I started forcing myself to think outside of the box. I wanted to switch things up and do something that brings me joy every single day. It took a ton of visualizing and soul searching, but one day it hit me: I want to be a writer. In first grade when my teacher asked everyone what they wanted to be when they grew up, I said, “writer.” I used to spend my free time in elementary school writing “books” about unicorns and vampires. Writing has truly been my dream job since the very beginning!
Day one was the hardest part—that’s the day where you actually have to get things in motion and put yourself out there. I knew I needed a portfolio of work, so I started a digital magazine about art (I love art—and when you first start writing, you have to write about things you love or else your talent and passion won’t come through).
After work and on the weekends, I went around town to art galleries and exhibitions interviewing artists and writing about their work. A few months later, I had a really cool website full of writing samples and started sending proposals via gig websites for all kinds of writing jobs. I’d say, “I write for a digital art magazine, check out my articles,” and it worked! Clients were intrigued. They read my samples and liked what they saw.
I tried a little bit of everything until I found what I liked. I wrote steamy romance fiction, I interviewed Broadway performers for promotional pieces, but the thing that stuck out to me the most was copywriting for businesses.
It was unexpected—I didn’t think copywriting was going to be something I enjoyed so much. But the more I learned about copywriting, the more it felt like the right fit. I took courses from other successful copywriters, read books by industry leaders, followed other copywriting creators, and pretty soon, I had a skill I knew businesses would pay top dollar for.
Sure, it helps that I have a degree in English and I taught the damn subject for 9 years, but copywriting is definitely a unique niche of writing that requires study if you want to be a true master.
Getting those first few steady clients was hard. I sent proposals day and night. I’d wake up and lay in bed sending proposals. I sent proposals waiting in line at the grocery store. I sent proposals from the bathtub. I eventually quit teaching and gave myself 3 months to build up a full-time income—otherwise, I would have to return to the classroom and start from square one.
Eventually, after a ton of rejections and non-responses, I built up my client list and added some nice copywriting pieces to my portfolio. Once I got the first few clients and positive testimonials, it became easier and easier. I cut it pretty close, but I replaced my teaching income with copywriting clients just in time for my 3 month ultimatum.
But copywriters are a dime a dozen these days, so I quickly realized I needed something to help me stand out if I wanted to build my business into something sustainable. That’s when I added the SEO factor to my business. Businesses often think they need to hire a whole SEO agency to optimize their websites, and sure, if you’re a giant corporation, that’s the right move.
But small to mid-sized businesses don’t need to spend six figures on an SEO agency to optimize their content. They just need a copywriter who can double as an SEO strategist. After many courses and some mentoring from a few successful SEO agencies, I started offering SEO strategy along with my copywriting services.
That’s when things REALLY took off for me. Just adding one cross-over skill helped me stand out miles above my competitors.
The one thing I wish I had done differently from day 1? I wish I hadn’t waited so long to learn about the art of running a business. I wish I had started my business with the understanding that someday, I intended to scale it into a full-blown agency. Because I thought small, my business stayed small for a long time.
Now, I’ve taken some courses on how to run a business and I’m changing up my operations and planning as though I’m a multi-million dollar corporation. That way when things really start to pick up for me, scaling will be a breeze. Think BIG—think like you’re already successful, and your business will shape up that way.
I like to joke now that I’m unemployable. I’ve caught the entrepreneurial bug, I live a life of complete freedom, I make every executive decision, so I can’t fathom going to work for someone else ever again.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m your classic millennial-turned-rebel—did the college thing, did the 9 to 5 thing, woke up one day and had this Neo-from-The-Matrix moment where I said, “no, I can’t do this for another 40 years.”
I founded Emerald Creative Content, a boutique content creation agency, in 2021. My agency specializes in search engine optimization (SEO) and SEO-friendly content creation. Think website copy, blog posts, and social media content.
Small businesses really struggle to compete with big competitors in search, but the beauty of Google is that you can’t buy you way into the organic search results—you have to EARN those top positions. How do you do that? With incredibly informative, helpful, well-researched content that users are dying for.
Most SEO content sucks—it’s robotic, repetitive, and doesn’t help users solve their problems. That makes my job easy. I find keywords that are easy for my clients to rank for, that match their target audience’s queries, and I make content better than anything that’s already ranking.
I’m really proud of the services I provide for two reasons.
1) Small businesses NEED affordable SEO copy and content—they can’t afford to drop six figures on an SEO agency AND hire a talented copywriter to help them convert their audience. It’s truly my honor to solve this problem for my clients, many of whom are women and minority owned small businesses who have just as much of a right to succeed in their niche as all the other guys.
2) What I provide is innovative—there aren’t a lot of Emerald Creative Content agencies out there. Most agencies lean into PPC or other paid ads. Ads run, then once your ad spend is gone, that’s it. You got what you got. The beauty of a well-written blog is that it lasts FOREVER. One high ranking blog can literally drive traffic to your website for YEARS. That’s all my agency focuses on: creating bomb-ass content that will pay for itself time and time again after you hit post. This is invaluable for small businesses who have to spend every single dollar wisely. Every service we offer, including social media management, has an SEO spin on it designed to improve your rankings and build your website’s organic traffic.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
A lot of people sleep on this strategy: there is such power in networking within your local community. It’s easy to compare yourself to people with tens of thousands of followers from around the world on social media and get caught up in vanity metrics.
But the real way you build a reputation for yourself and your business is one on one, through conversations with real people in the real world. I joined a bunch of networking organizations in Columbus where I live—the Women’s Small Business Accelerator, the National Association of Women Business Owners, the Columbus Chamber of Commerce, and a co-working group called Haven Collective. I attend as many events as I can to meet new people, exchange business cards, and make new connections.
Over time, I’ve gotten opportunities for speaking and teaching about what I do. Other chambers of commerce and professional organizations now invite me to speak to their members about my expertise, and those opportunities lead to new opportunities.
Yes, my social media following is growing, but these aren’t random followers coming across my content by chance. 80% of my followers are people I met in real life. That means they engage frequently and share my content, which helps grow my reputation exponentially and organically.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
The best source of new clients is my network.
Yes, I still have profiles on gig sites, I have a website, I post on my socials, but those real life relationships and networks bring me the most business.
Referrals are incredibly powerful—nothing is more convincing than hearing someone you already trust recommend a service to you.
I know my target audience really, really well, and I know where to be so that we can run into each other organically. Women-owned small businesses are my jam, so if there’s a women’s entrepreneurial event happening in my city, you can bet I’ll be there meeting as many people as I can.
Contact Info:
- Website: emeraldcontent.com
- Instagram: @emeraldcreativecontent
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-kern-a96ba2224/