Meet Antrese

“I keep getting emails telling me how much people like my work and how much it means to them.” — Antrese Wood

“I could do something with this”

When Antrese, a lifelong painter, left Los Angeles for Argentina, she also left behind a network of artists who supported her passion. “Suddenly, I didn’t have anyone to talk to about art,” Antrese recalls. “And I really missed that.”

She decided to create a new community online and started a podcast to help painters get past their creative blocks.

Little by little, her podcast developed a following. “I realized I could really do something with this. It wasn’t just a side hobby.”

But she didn’t know how to grow her podcast.

“I had no idea what I was doing. I knew it was important to collect emails and create a following, but I figured I would figure it out later.”

“I sat there like a deer in the headlights”

So she dove in right in — and struggled.

When Antrese sits down in front of a canvas, she always knows what she wants to paint. She thought that effortless intuition would carry over to writing copy that convinced people to join her email list, too.

Unfortunately, she found that wasn’t the case.

”When it came to writing, I just sat there like a deer in the headlights. I had no idea what to write.”

On top of her writer’s block, Antrese believed her writing needed to be perfect before publishing. Instead of rapidly testing new ideas for her opt-in copy, her perfectionism kept her email list growing at snail’s pace for months.

“I’m not a writer. I’m an artist”

Then Antrese read Ramit’s emails about Call to Action. At first, she had doubts.

“I’ve done other writing programs before and they didn’t work for me. I was worried Call to Action would be another one I didn’t follow through on. I thought, ‘I’m not a writer. I’m an artist. That’s for other people, not me.’”

But as she kept reading Ramit’s emails, Antrese became more and more interested.

“And I had this realization: Taking a person from reluctant to excited is exactly what copywriting is!”

She knew that if Ramit could instill this desire in her, he could teach her how to write copy that would inspire artists to join her email list.

“I decided, ‘I need to do this.’”

“Now I know exactly what opt-in will nail it with readers”

Right away, Call to Action showed Antrese specific ways to talk to her podcast listeners, and then echo their hopes, dreams, and fears back to them with compelling opt-in copy.

“I started to talk more and more with my audience. When people would say they loved my podcast, I’d ask: What was your biggest takeaway? What have you learned from it? What have you changed in how you work based on our conversations?”

This way, instead of sitting down to write with no direction, Antrese knows exactly what opt-in copy will “nail it.” All she has to do is use what her listeners have told her in their own words.

Even better, she no longer feels pressured to write perfect copy. She knows how to make it good enough and then move on.

“I’ve never experienced an online community this strong, supportive, or engaged”

What surprised Antrese the most, though, was how powerful the Call to Action community is.

“I have a group of friends I can call anytime when I’m scared or don’t know what I’m doing, and they’ll say, ‘Hey, here’s five things you can do.’”

In the past, Antrese felt uncomfortable when podcast listeners told her how much they loved her work.

“My response before Call to Action was like, ‘Gosh, thanks, that’s so sweet.’ Sort of like I was kicking the dirt.”

Her friends in the Call to Action community helped her not only overcome this psychological barrier but transform it into a business asset.

Today, she’s far more comfortable talking to her listeners and considers them a “massive goldmine” of feedback for growing her email list.

“When people email me compliments, I talk to them, I engage them, I ask them questions. That way I’m getting enormous amounts of feedback about what they want, what they need, and where they’re at.”

“I know exactly where I’m going, and I’m confident”

In the past, Antrese would read about some list-building technique and think “OK, that’s a cool direction” and start trying it. Then she’d hear a new idea — “Oh, that’s shiny, I’ll go over there” — and change course again.

With this haphazard strategy, she struggled to get 800 subscribers to join her email list.

But just 7 months after starting Call to Action, Antrese has more than 2,000 email subscribers — and she knows exactly what to do to keep that number climbing.

Do yourself a favor

We flew Antrese into our NYC studio to share her story in person. Check out the full interview below, where you’ll learn:

• What Antrese writes in big, bold letters at the top of each new document to instantly crush writer’s block (2:12)
• How she felt after going from “good enough” opt-in copy to speaking in her audience’s exact language (2:53)
• How she used the email copywriting techniques in Call to Action to sell her products over the phone (4:07)

How to write mouthwatering copy without actually writing anything

Call to Action helped Antrese go from thinking “I’m an artist, not a writer” to writing copy that grew her email list to 2,000+ subscribers.