Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Krista Frahm. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Krista, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

My previous experience was working in hospitals and rehabilitation facilities as an occupational therapist.

The patients needed therapy so they could regain their strength & independence to leave the hospital… but nobody actually wanted to do therapy. (It’s hard work.)

Day after day, patient after patient I would get the same excuses and “reasons” why they couldn’t work with me.

I quickly learned to tie the therapy that I was offering to their intrinsic goals in order to increase participation in therapy, and help them actually get better and out the door.

Everyone wanted to “get out of the hospital” but nobody wanted to “do therapy.”

They were unable to see the connection between the daily therapy tasks and their long-term goal of being home again. I had to explain it and show them… step by step how they’d reach their goals. Only then were they willing to take the first step.

I also had to learn to use their language and words in order to connect with them. My clinical jargon and test scores meant nothing to them. I had to get to know them and how they spoke so I could reflect those words back to them and inspire action.

I also had to paint the picture of “what will happen if you don’t take action now” — which was typically long-term hospitalization or moving to a nursing home (which I can tell you isn’t anybody’s goal!)

As a clinician I learned how to read situations, connect with people, understand their surface level and deeper goals, reframe solutions, and adjust my language. I use every single one of these skills daily as a copywriter now. It just took me awhile to realize it!

Krista, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am Krista Frahm, a direct-response copywriter, mom, occupational therapist, and nature lover.

I live for big transformations – whether that’s taking someone in an ICU bed and working until they walk out the front door of a hospital… or supporting a healthcare course creator to FINALLY craft a sales funnel that helps their course sell and deliver real health improvements to thousands of people who had previously been burned by the medical system.

I worked in healthcare for a decade and enjoyed most of it. But a move to a rural community, lack of childcare, and the you-know-what virus prompted me to shift my priorities – pronto.

I worked for 2 healthcare companies when COVID started… but one shut down quickly and the other said, “don’t expect any work for the foreseeable future. We don’t have patients so we can’t pay therapists.”

Just like that, I was unemployed and had two kids at home – so I decided it was time for a career pivot.

I found copywriting through my volunteer work where I was writing social media captions, donor letters, grant applications, and blogs for a non-profit. A parent nonchalantly said, “you write great copy” and I started Googling until I found what “copy” was.

About a month after learning what copy even was, I started a copywriting business. I invested in training, mentorship, and software because I knew if I was going to go in… I was going all in.

One thing I never had the opportunity to do as a clinician was become a specialist. I worked in rural and underserved communities which required me to be a “jack of all trades” because I saw EVERYTHING. (At some jobs, people would drive 2-3 hours to see me… so you better believe I’d treat whatever issue they were having instead of turning them away.)

I spent a year being a generalist copywriter… and then I discovered my passion for direct-response copy. Sales pages, email marketing, funnels, and paid ads – I was hooked.

By specializing, I knew I could deepen my knowledge and provide a bigger transformation for my clients.

I currently write for clinicians who are stepping beyond the “way it’s always been done” in healthcare and who are helping people regain health, vitality, and wellness with their online offers. Clinicians are just as frustrated with the broken healthcare system as clients are. Clinicians are packaging their knowledge into online programs, which allows them to help more people and break the glass ceiling at the same time. (Most clinicians have hefty student debt from 7-12 years of school, and clinical salaries are decreasing each year instead of increasing – it’s absurd.)

I write sales pages, email sequences, and provide marketing strategy so these passionate clinicians can (finally) step out of the cage that traditional healthcare places on them and help people achieve their health and wellness goals to the fullest extent. (Not a 15min visit where the doctor is tied to the computer the whole time.)

While there are a lot of copywriters, there are not many who focus only on direct response copy for clinicians and have professional experience in healthcare as well. Clients often say they’re glad they don’t have to explain the nuances of healthcare, professional ethics issues, or why their course is so desperately needed. I also have a decade of stories (often nearly unbelievable stories) from hospitals, rehab facilities, and patient’s homes to pull from so I can make client’s copy come to life.

I am passionate about supporting clinicians as they create new ways to help clients… and I’m also passionate about the clients themselves who can find specialists and finally get the support they otherwise haven’t found.

Ways to work with me include The VIP Sales Page Service, sales copy consultation, and custom projects for email sequences and funnels. I use frameworks and processes, yet I always customize it to each client’s individual needs.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When I started my business, I was juggling sporadic on-call shifts at the hospital (for weeks they’d say they couldn’t give me any work… then suddenly they expected me to be able to come in for multiple days in a row even though schools were closed and we had no childcare.)

I eventually resigned completely because I couldn’t leave the kids home alone, I couldn’t find childcare, and the unpredictability was causing a lot of anxiety.

In the midst of building my business we decided to pull the kids out of school completely as well. One of our kids was already homeschooled and the other is neurodivergent but had been enrolled in school. The unpredictability and changing expectations/social norms were wreaking havoc on his mental health and education. We didn’t know HOW we were going to homeschool him, but we knew we had to get him off Zoom and away from the chaos of the classrooms.

Now I was learning a new skillset, building a business, and fully responsible for the education of two youngsters.

It was a lot to say the least.

We had family meetings about how we wanted to structure school and why I also needed uninterrupted time to work. Eventually we found our rhythm (although saying it that way oversimplifies it and doesn’t share all the tears, late nights, second-guessing curriculum choices, and uncertainty that we were doing the right thing… but we did indeed make it through.)

At some point I realized I was essentially running two businesses. I was running a copywriting business and I was running a small school. I had to choose and order curriculums that fit each child’s needs, teach those curriculums, and modify lessons as needed. (Thank goodness I had all that occupational therapy experience to draw from as well!)

We re-enrolled both kids in a small, private school for the 2022/2023 school year and they are thriving. We are 100% grateful that we homeschooled during the season we did… and we’re 100% grateful that they’re enrolled full time now.

There is a season for everything, and some seasons are a LOT harder than other seasons. We made it through that rough season and somehow thrived instead of only surviving.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

When I became a copywriter I didn’t really care what I wrote about.

Home decor, frogs, curriculum, sensory toys… I could write… but I didn’t emotionally connect to my writing.

I can’t pinpoint exactly when it changed, but at some point I realized there were unqualified people selling shallow solutions while clinicians with incredible depths of knowledge were falling miserably short when selling their online courses/programs/memberships.

The more I looked, the more I saw this happening – and it lit a fire under me.

I realized it all came down to their marketing and how they were positioning the solution to the problems.

It’s kind of like this:

Clinicians were saying, “I have some therapy for you. Come buy some therapy to improve your health.”

Meanwhile, the other course creators were saying, “I have your ticket out of the hospital and back home so you can do the things you love and stop being bothered by all these clinicians walking into your room every day.”

Which one would you buy??

I realized clinicians didn’t know any better and they were afraid to sell in any other way.

It’s now my goal to help clinicians market and sell their online offers in an authentic, ethical, and lucrative way.

Creating innovative solutions and packaging them into online courses and programs helps people all over the world have access to the knowledge and transformative power of a specialist.

My mission as an occupational therapist has always been to increase independence, dignity and quality of life for my clients. This is now my mission for my copywriting business as well.

My writing helps impactful programs and online offers sell so that people can experience more independence, dignity, and quality of life.

Same goal… different medium. :)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kristafrahmagency.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristafrahmagency/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KristaFrahmAgency/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristafrahmagency/