Julie Cabezas is the founder of Copy Crimes, an agency providing persuasive copy for provocative brands through website copy, email marketing, guest blogging, sales pages, publicity pieces, social media content and more.
Julie is an acclaimed conversion copywriter to high-performance experts, coaches and savants in design, education, tech and the arts.
Her clients appreciate her ability to copy their voice just hours after meeting them, relieved to have finally found someone they can trust to whom they can "outsource" their copy — someone who understands the power of their message and the nuances of their style.
The Challenge
“I’ve been an entrepreneur since 2013, and I specialize in high ticket sales, personal brand voice and conversion copy — essentially it is selling on paper,” Julie says.
Copy Crimes, which revenues over half a million dollars a year in sales, was founded in 2019. Julie ran her business alone for a while before hiring a full-time employee who took on a marketing and eventual sales role.
“I was taking on all of the admin, communications, project management and scheduling,” Julie says. “And it was sort of normal for me that I didn’t realize what an added stressor, burden and inefficiency that was.”
As a fan of Michael Hyatt, Julie stumbled onto his book, Your World-Class Assistant.
“I read the book and I was like, ‘Ugh, this would be so nice,’” Julie remembers. “And believe it or not, it was almost a year before I reached out to BELAY after reading that book.
“My first thought was that I was going to work with [someone] who was brand new and wanted to learn and grow. I would have someone to mentor — and of course, it would be less expensive.
“So I hired several young women to work for me who hadn’t had any experience and ran into a ton of issues, mistakes, roadblocks and communication challenges. It felt like every request was a favor.
“I was going around and around and would let them go and then hire someone else and train them and let them go. It was this revolving door, and that was challenging because you want someone who’s gonna make the load lighter and not heavier.”
“Finally one day I was thinking about it and I was like, ‘You know, I should just go with the best of the best. Hire someone with experience. Hire someone who’s been trained,’ and the book popped in my head. I remembered there’s a little story at the beginning of the book about BELAY.
“So I found the information and set up a call.”
Enter BELAY VA Erica Stevens.
The Solution
Julie, unfortunately, experienced a lot of pain points before hiring BELAY — specifically with scheduling and spending too much time on project management.
“[I didn’t have] enough time to serve clients and do my best work because my plate was just full with other things,” Julie says. “If I feel like my clients are waiting for something, it really bothers me. I can’t really clear my head and focus on the creative work at hand until I feel like they’re taken care of.”
Once Julie was matched with Erica, they were able to hit the ground running with resources from BELAY.
“There were a lot of resources that were available to me that were provided by BELAY,” Julie says. “I didn't have to do a bunch of homework, but I had plenty of ideas and ways that I could start laying things out for her.”
“BELAY helped me to be clear with what she needed to do.”
The Result
“One big thing I learned from Your World-Class Assistant was not to be shy about adding personal tasks,” Julie says. “In corporate, you keep your personal life very separate from your business life.
“It was really nice to read that in the book and then to ask Erica to help. She’s basically my house manager as well. She shops for my home. She manages all of the contractors, house cleaners, maintenance people and all of the appointments that come up.
“There’s not just the business side. It’s also this huge weight lifted on the personal side as well.”
Erica has also taken on project management for some of Julie’s clients along with her client gifting, scheduling and onboarding.
“In the old days, you finish your work week and then your weekends are full with those little tasks that you have to take care of like paying bills, ordering things and running errands,” Julie says. “And now most of that — everything that's digital — can be handled by Erica, and she can do that during her normal work week.
“My weekends are freer. I'm more relaxed on the weekends. I can play more and have more fun.”
Erica’s hours have ramped up, and she and Julie have grown into a strong, well-oiled machine of a partnership.
“It’s very important for my client experience to be elegant and have that nice high-end feel, so it’s wonderful to have someone giving that client attention,” Julie says.
“I love having peace of mind, more spaciousness in my calendar, more organization, and a sense of being excited for growth versus overwhelmed.”
Meet the Specialist
ERICA STEVENS
Virtual Assistant