If you don’t know what to write your newsletter about this week (or if writing anything for your business makes you wanna scream) today’s episode is exactly what you need.
What do “The Unlikely Game Changer,” “The Embarrassing Moment,” “The Necessary Reframe,” “The Truth Comes Out,” and “The Unexpected Transformation” all have in common?
They’re the topics inside Sara Noel’s Swipe File (*affiliate link, out NOW) for October!! And in this episode, she’s giving you a FREE, behind-the-scenes walkthrough of how to use it. Yep, you’re getting a front-row seat inside Sara’s squirrel genius brain as she turns one of the topics into a ready-to-go newsletter idea you can send today.
And that’s just the opening act.
Because Website Girl came to overdeliver, and once she gets going every every sentence is a strategy, and every tangent a mini masterclass. And this conversation is overflowing with copywriting tips & newsletter strategies, that’ll make you want to open a blank doc before the episode’s even finished.
Before we dove in, Sara had to pass the freak audition. Here are her three qualifying factors:
When I asked Sara how she does it all — simultaneously being website girl, having a squirrel brain, and rewriting her own website — her answer was simple: messy action.
She doesn't overthink anything because she knows everything will work out. You can't research your way to success. You can only get there by doing something. She's very action-forward, very blunt, very "if I want that, I'm gonna go get it."
If she stopped to think about all the things she had to do, maybe she'd struggle more. But she doesn't think. She just does.
The problem is that people treat brand voice guides and messaging documents like rules. Sara's not saying those aren't valuable — she creates them for clients. But when you look at them too closely, that's when it becomes a problem.
Every single time she works with a client, she asks them to explain their offer like she's five. And they proceed to give her the best explanation ever. Then immediately after, they say, "Oh, but I can't say that."
Sara's response? "Bitch, why?"
They give her every excuse: it's not professional enough, it needs to be more polished, people won't understand. And she's like, that is the point. People think there are rules about what you have to say, especially with website copy.
But there aren't.
On her sales page, she literally wrote "It's time to say fuck you to stuck you." There's no reason she can't say that. It's the most clear way to explain what she means, it's something she'd say in real life, and it's something she's happy to say on a podcast.
Sara just launched something that solves the exact problem of not knowing what to write.
It's called Swipe File — a monthly long-form content subscription where she gives you five specific topics, then three newsletter angles and three blog angles per topic. The topics have names like "The Unlike the Game Changer," "The Embarrassing Moment," "The Necessary Reframe," "The Truth Comes Out," and "The Unexpected Transformation."
Inside each topic, she shares newsletter and blog angles that work for literally anyone. For example, one angle is "The hill I'd die on until I didn't" — where you share a dramatic story about something you believed strongly, then the moment you changed your mind and what made you shift.
For each angle, she gives you seven subject line ideas per newsletter angle and seven headline ideas per blog angle. That's 31 pieces of content for $31 a month. She picked $31 because that's her birthday, but it accidentally also includes 31 things, which is pretty perfect.
The swipe file isn't just about giving you topics — it's about making newsletter writing so much easier that you actually send the damn thing.
One of Sara's most asked questions is: how do you always write these stories and tie them back to business tips?
Her answer is brilliant. You need to find the common denominator feeling between the story and the tip.
She gave the example of being at a networking event where someone bought her a drink. He came back with eight ounces of straight vodka when she'd asked for a vodka Sprite. It was disgusting, but she felt so awkward that she had to drink it because he'd spent money on it and was looking right at her.
That feeling of guilt — feeling like she had to use something she hated because money was spent on it — she tied to people who don't update their websites because they paid for a template or copywriter. Even though their copy or design is ugly and doesn't work, they feel like they have to use it because they spent money on it.
The trick is thinking: how does this story make me or my audience feel? And then: how does this feeling relate to the specific tip I want to share?
That's how you connect any story to anything.
A newsletter is your weekly communication — usually an email with the same format or sent at the same time each week, sharing the same type of content every time. Sara shares one marketing tip once a week. The email itself is the full work product. You read it, you got the information, you don't have to do anything beyond that.
A sales email is selling something. Your goal is to drive action to a specific spot — usually a sales page. You're either explaining what the thing is or addressing objections to joining.
For her Success Story group mentorship program, Sara sends sales emails to a specific segment of her list (copywriters who are good candidates). Each email has one goal: get them to look at the sales page. She's not trying to convince them in the email itself — she's giving them the information they need to decide if they want to learn more.
The frequency depends on your launch. Sara's Success Story launch has been almost four weeks long because she knows people have questions. They need to see case studies, understand how she can support them, and usually talk to her before making a decision on a big investment.
For something smaller, like her Main Character Moment course and template collection (which teaches you how to write about yourself), she'd probably send around 15 sales emails during the launch period.
The key is understanding that weekly newsletters give you 52 chances to talk to your ideal client versus 12 if you send monthly. You want to be top of inbox, top of mind. If you show up inconsistently, people forget about you.
Sara's been having conversations about being scared of sounding like a girlboss.
Boss babes of the internet have made it hard for people to trust anyone with online education because people have been burned. The "get my $27 formula and make six figures tomorrow" era really did a number on all of us.
But the difference is that girlbosses are pushy. They push people who don't really need the thing to buy it anyway. Sara doesn't do that. She's not gonna tell you to pull the trigger if it's not right for you.
When she talks about her offers, she's specific. "If writing about yourself feels like pulling teeth, this is the thing that's going to fix it." She's not saying "Hey bitch, you suck at writing about yourself, you need this thing to change your life."
If someone messages her saying they don't have money right now and asks if she'll sell it next month, she's not gonna be like "Yeah, but how much money could you be making if you bought this now?"
She's just going to say: this is the thing that fixes this specific problem. If you have this problem, this is the thing for you. And she'll say that a hundred different ways in hopes that it resonates with someone who's feeling that way.
You're not annoying when you're fixing something for someone. People probably already want what you're selling and don't even know you offer it. It's your job to tell them so they can buy it from you. If you're the right person to solve their problem, you're doing them a disservice by not talking about it.
Designers love to say that copy should come before design, but they don't always stick to it.
Sara thinks designers should require clients to have their copy. Every time she's said this and gotten pushback, the designer says "Well, my clients just won't do that." But accepting less than you deserve means working with clients who won't give you copy, or who give you shitty copy, or who want to use their old copy even though they're updating everything else.
Without final copy to use, you can't design appropriately. Then the client has edits, changes their copy, and you have to redo your design. Everybody's crying and the project took three times longer than it should have, with so many revisions you got scope creeped.
There's no website copy solution that cannot be solved. There's no excuse to not require copy other than wanting their money now and not wanting to work with people who are at the level they should be at to work with you.
Beyond that, letting designers do their thing is huge. Sara wireframes her website copy docs so they look exactly like a website should. As long as the designer designs with the copy in the appropriate order, she doesn't really care what it looks like. If she said the image should go on the left and they put it on the right? She doesn't care. Love it, queen.
As long as the headline came first, then the subheading, then the intro, then the mini about section — and there's only one H1 per page — she's happy.
The issue is when clients don't value both aspects of the website equally. Usually, they value design more than copy. It's shitty when you pay thousands for design, but it doesn't work because your copy is saying bullshit. Your $10,000 design got people to scroll and stay there because it's visually appealing, but if you're not saying anything of substance, no one's clicking.
Same thing in reverse. If you spend big money on website copy but don't invest in design (or at least put effort into it) people are gone before they even have a chance to read the words.
You need both pieces for your website to work.
For Sara's "I said what I said" moment, she dropped this: anyone can achieve anything if they're audacious enough and want it badly enough.
There's enough free info about anything out there to teach yourself whatever you want. There are enough people in the world willing to help you get there if you're good at pitching and relationship building.
If you want it, you can have it. Period.
She doesn't care how insecure you are, what your level of skill is, or your level of privilege. If you want it badly enough and you're willing to go get it, it might be harder for you than some other people — privilege does play a role. But you'd still be able to get there.
You're not all fighting for a slice of the same pie. You can all bake your own pie and eat it.
And if you don't ask, the answer is always no.
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✦ Keep listening to us on Sara’s podcast Point Of The Story: “Cold Pitches, Freak Magnetism, and a Brand Worth Using with Eva Couto”
✦ SWIPE FILE: Never worry about what to write on your newsletter again (*affiliate link)
✦ MAIN CHARACTER MOMENT: Confidently write about yourself in EVERY situation
✦ SITE SERIES SPRINT: An actually-easy-to-understand, self-paced website copywriting course
✦ SUCCESS STORY: 3-month group mentorship program for copywriters (*affiliate link)
✦ WRITE YOUR SITE: Co-working calls to help you start & finish writing your website
✦ WEBSITE COPY TEMPLATE: Wicked easy template for writing your website copy
✦ COLD PITCHING GUIDE: How-to guide to help you send the best, most professional cold pitch emails in the game
✦ THE COLOUR CIRCLE: Bring the Canva design you’ve been (over)fiddling with for hours
✦ Sarah Kleist, Sara’s Website Designer
✦ Mathilde Langevin, Sara’s Brand Photographer
✦ Smart, Pretty & Awkward newsletter, by Molly Beck
✦ The 3-2-1 Newsletter, by James Clear
✦ Follow her Instagram
✦ Check out her Website
✦ Subscribe to Tuesday’s Table Of Contents
✦ Listen to the Point Of The Story podcast
✦ Say hey on Instagram
✦ Get my Uncaged emails
Website Copywriter
Over the last 5 years as a Brand & Marketing Designer, I’ve helped freaks like us design their unconventional brands so they can step onto the main stage & own their weird. Because if you wanted to be, look or sound like everyone else, you wouldn’t be where you are today. Now it’s your turn.
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