Nikita Morell on niche-ing down and being an expert

Rachel Smith: Hello and welcome to The Content Byte, a podcast for freelancers who use their words to make money. I’m Rachel Smith, a freelance journalist, copywriter, and content producer. I’m also the founder of Rachel’s List, a jobs board and community for Australian writers and other creatives. 

Lynne Testoni: I’m Lynne Testoni! I’m a journalist and content writer as well. Rachel and I are your weekly co-hosts, and every week we bring you all kinds of tips, tricks, and some fabulous guests to help you make the most of your freelance business.

This week we are discussing a topic that is always a big one in the freelancing world. It’s all about niching. 

Rachel Smith: Yes, and especially we’re talking about niching, going really deep into a niche, which is interesting because I kind of consider myself a generalist, but I’ve started to niche in what I actually do.

So that’s a way to niche as well. Today’s guest is very strategic about her niche, and it seems to work well for her. I’m looking forward to chatting to her!

Lynne: Yes, it’s Nikita Morell. Nikita works with architects on their content, and it’s a specialisation that’s really served her well. Why don’t you tell us a bit about Nikita before we start our conversation?

Rachel: Sure! Nikita Morrell is a copywriting and messaging strategist who works exclusively with architects, specialising in websites. Nikita helps solo practitioners as well as small and emerging architectural practices with their positioning, brand, messaging, strategy, and copywriting, and she’s the founder of Architects Workshop, which includes comprehensive masterclasses to help architects leverage ChatGPT and step-by-step toolkits to help them write their ‘About Me’ pages, project descriptions, and more.

Welcome, Nikita. Great to have you! 

Nikita Morell: Thank you for having me. I’m excited to chat!

Rachel: It’s so interesting that you only work with architects and architectural firms, and I know a little bit about the backstory, but tell our audience what inspired you to make that your specialisation.

Nikita: I started back in the day in big brand marketing with L’Oréal and firms like that. And then I moved into architecture publishing. That was really interesting to see it from the media point of view. And then from there I went in-house to an architecture firm and it’s quite a large architecture firm in Australia and in that firm, I started their comms and marketing department. I was kind of just sitting there and thought, I could be doing what I’m doing for them, increasing their brand awareness and things like that for a lot of other firms.

So, I just took a bit of a risk and did the jump, and I just started my own business. So, this was back in 2016 now. I’ve been nine years running my own business, writing and copywriting for architects. 

Lynne: Wow! Was that always your focus or do you do other things, or has it evolved and got more and more specialised over the years?

Nikita: Definitely Lynne. When I say it started with architects. I’ve always kind of serviced architects, but in the beginning, I was definitely a lot broader. I did almost all creatives. I did textile companies, I did artists, interior designers, the whole lot. But as time has gone on, I just feel like I’m getting more and more laser focused, which is really interesting, and I guess my level of knowledge is getting deeper and deeper in the architecture world as well. 

Rachel: Wow! So, does that mean if you get someone who’s not in that architectural world or even just slightly aligned with that world, will you say no? Are you at that point? 

Nikita: Look, I’ll let you on a little secret. Although outwardly, I definitely say that I am exclusively for architects. In the last few, if the right firm comes along and I feel like there’s a good fit, then I have service. For example, I just recently did a facade specialist company that wanted a really out there brand voice. Sometimes, archie adjacent software companies, I will take on a project every now and then.

Rachel: Tell us a bit about Architects Workshops. How did you found that and, how do architects learn from it? 

Nikita: I found that a lot of architects wanted to hire me for my services, but just didn’t have the budget. A lot of them were emerging or they’d come straight out of university, and they didn’t have the marketing budget to hire a specialist. That’s kind of where the idea came from. I thought, how can I make it more accessible? So, I created the Architect’s Workshop and originally it was just interactive PDFs, and it had an about page blueprint, one about biographies, one about blogs, awards submissions, and they took me a long time to put together, but it was just a document that they could take and just DIY it themselves. That’s where the idea came from but since then, it’s definitely evolved. 

Lynne: You do workshops and things like that too?

Nikita: Now I’ve got the toolkits, but I’ve also got masterclasses. I recently did one on how architects can use ChatGPT to write project descriptions. The difference is, those masterclasses, like that ChatGPT one took me more than nine months to put together. I had architects test it before it went live. I had an AI specialist come in and look at it to make sure that I had everything in place. I’m not an AI specialist in any means, so I wanted to make sure that all the gaps were filled. It’s got masterclasses and tool kits. I think that’s pretty much it at the moment, but definitely room to expand. 

Rachel: Do they pay one fee for access to the whole workshop, or do they cherry pick what they want and buy like that?

Nikita: Yeah, exactly. They just cherrypick. Sometimes certain things work in bundles. I’ve got a ChatGPT 101 that works perfectly with the project descriptions. I’ve also got one a masterclass on how to write testimonials, but not only how to write them, but how to ask for them. And it’s full of everything I do. I try and make it as actionable as possible, and I try and give architects everything they need because as we all know, they’re very busy people. I give them just cut and copy draft emails that they can put into an email and ask their clients to get a testimonial with the right questions.

Lynne: So interesting! One of the things I love about you, and we’ve talked about this off-air, is that you get quite opinionated on LinkedIn, which I think is really fun and we are connected.

I know from your newsletter that you’ve had some blowback from architects. Do you think is the LinkedIn style and the topics you do, is that strategic? It’s designed to get cut through and attention, and particularly because, well, we love architects, but they can be on the egotistical, opinionated side themselves.

Nikita: I’ll be really honest; I never intentionally go out there to be provocative and to take architects offside. I think also sometimes it’s just how I am as a person. I can just say things that I’m later going, oh gosh, maybe I shouldn’t have said that. But I think the thing for me is, it’s not like I spend hours and hours on each LinkedIn post. I write a LinkedIn post every day, and I don’t often have the time to schedule them ahead of time. It’s just really, me jumping on LinkedIn and very candidly just having something that’s at the forefront of my mind.

For example, one that’s gotten a lot of blowbacks, is that I often talk about how architects love to talk about the passion and the craft of architecture, but at the expense of not looking after their businesses and treating it like a business. It’s kind of like money and marketing and profit are all dirty words in the architecture world. You know, you should be talking about how you’re helping the community and the built environment and all this. But look, at the end of the day, they are running businesses and so there are topics like that, which I feel that maybe might come across as quite abrasive and direct, but it’s not intentionally meant to be like that.

Rachel: Do you remember any particular posts that really, you know, ruffled feathers? 

Nikita: Look, there’s been a lot and interestingly, sometimes it’s not even about copywriting or marketing or anything. I had a post where my photographer, my personal brand photographer took a picture of me leaning back in a chair with my arms up, and that ruffled a lot of feathers. Architects, kind of shot at me and said, ‘well, you should be standing there with your arms crossed looking at the camera, this is not very professional.’ 

Rachel: I love how they tell you how your brand marketing is supposed to look. 

Nikita: I’m on a huge mission, and this is probably one of the biggest things with my business, is what I want to change and bring about in architecture industries. I want to show architects that you can have personality and be professional at the same time. Professionalism, what is it? It’s a whole spectrum. I try and say to architects, you can have a bit of humour and wit in your copy and it’s not going to take away from that professional quote unquote kind of look and feel.

Rachel: Talk to us about your newsletter. I’m a subscriber and I think it’s a bit of a masterclass in storytelling because you take an anecdote or a story and then you wrap it back around to your audience. 

Unpack that for us, how you come up with your stories and how that storytelling style works as opposed to other styles of email marketing. 

Nikita: Firstly, I love writing my newsletter. I think that people avoid it, but I think I’ve made it into something that I’ve really enjoyed doing and it’s one of my favourite parts of running my own business. And I think it really comes down to this quote by Ann Handley that I once read and I think it was something along the lines of, ‘focus on the letter’ part of newsletter.

When I sit down to write a newsletter, it is me just writing a letter to my audience and I do treat it like a one-on-one conversation. So yes, I tell lots of stories about my personal life, and my family and things that have happened and it’s interesting, I guess the whole point of these stories is it does create an emotional connection and last year I was invited to speak at the AIA national conference in Washington, DC. I flew over and it was just so interesting. I had random people come up to me and ask, how’s your husband Kieran going with the kids at home? And I just looked at them and was like, sorry, I don’t know you, but you know my husband’s name and I realised they’ve been following me and following my stories. I almost approach my newsletter, like almost like a sitcom. There are characters, my husband’s a character in there and I’m a character. And I guess the main thing is I want everyone to open that newsletter, read it, and then close it and almost like find out one new thing about me and build that. I think that builds a lot of trust and for every newsletter I send out, I get at least 10 to 15 responses and replies and look, it’s not a huge list. It’s a very small list, but I think it’s that engagement that I really feel gratitude towards. 

Rachel: I would love to ask, do you put everyone you work with, do they automatically go onto that newsletter or is it more of a drawing in new leads and they have to opt in? How does it work in terms of building your list? 

Nikita: You’ve actually just made me think. I don’t think all my clients are on there. 

Rachel: I don’t put mine on my newsletter either. It’s more for new people.

Nikita: That’s exactly right. I’ve got lots of different lead magnets and I spent a lot of time, for example, last year, I launched the architect’s website library, and I’ve got 120 plus examples of real-life architecture websites. They’re all categorised in about page bios and they’re all annotated and it’s free. So, if an architect’s just sitting down and needs inspiration for their about page, they can go on to this library and take a look. That’s one way people get onto my newsletter list. I’ve got a guide. I studied 663 websites. I put on my findings in a guide. I’m always trying to think of new ways and value that offer value to architects as well. 

Lynne: So interesting. I think Nikita, one of the things we like, you’ve been a journalist, and we are big believers in using those transferrable skills into new niches, and you seem to have done that really well. Do you think journalists in particular are skilled but may not realise the other areas they can step into? 

Nikita: Definitely. I mean, the thing is, especially in the design world, but journalism and copywriting, they are very different. And I think sometimes on the outward surface you think it’s writing, but it is a very different style of writing. And I think journalists, they’ve got such good research skills. I feel that’s a big skill is being able to get down and really uncover certain things. I think that can definitely be transferred, understanding your audience, who you’re writing for, and a lot of journalists, I think make for excellent copywriters. 

Rachel: What would be your advice to journalists who want to step into copywriting more? How did you learn your craft? 

Nikita: I always say it’s an art and it’s a science. I’ve done courses on consumer psychology. My background was in marketing. Its marketing, its consumer, its sales, its selling, it’s that using the right words to sell. That’s the whole point of copywriting is to elicit an emotional response. To get people to take action. Whether that’s buying something or calling you or whatever it is, but I think it’s even just doing a basic copywriting course, I think Belinda Weaver has a really good one, but just starting off, dipping your toes, just seeing how it is. I think journalists, you already have the writing skillset. So, it’s just really, fine tuning the sales angle.

Rachel: How much of your work is writing copy these days and working on the workshop or the masterclasses? 

Nikita: I still do client one-on-one client work. I’ve just actually introduced a website design arm of my business too. I had a lot of architects coming to me, and then I would write all this copy and then it would never see the light of day because they just didn’t know how to upload it, or they were embarrassed about the design of their website. So, now as of last year, I’ve just become a bit of a one-stop shop. They come to me, I can do the design and the copywriting, and we can just get it up a lot quicker. I spend time doing that, but in terms of content, my LinkedIn content, even though I’m doing it a lot, I don’t spend too long on it. I try not to overthink. I try and just put things out there. I think over time, because my time is so limited, I’ve just realised it’s something is better than nothing. I am a bit of a control freak like we all are and a bit of perfectionist, but I’ve learned, I think, I don’t have an option to procrastinate.

Rachel: I definitely think I’ve kind of evolved into that, done is better than perfect philosophy. I used to be more agonising over everything. 

Lynne: I know that architects are like a lot of writers. We speak to a lot of writers, and they want to create a website, and they keep putting it off. It’s surprising how often we have people on the podcast, and they say, I’ve been working on my website, because we want them to put it in the show notes and they still haven’t done it and they’ve been working on it for two years. Do you find architects like that? They plan to do a website, and they just don’t get to it because it’s too hard.

Nikita: I think there’s so many roadblocks, especially for writers as well as architects. You know that portfolio piece of, do I put samples of my work up? And then for architects, a lot of it’s not photographed, or I’ve only got renders and I don’t know how to talk about this or, the client doesn’t want me to put their house on my website, what do I do? There’s a lot of roadblocks to getting that website. But I have seen some fantastic websites that have just featured one project and told that one project so well, and I think it’s just putting something up there that doesn’t have to be perfect. That’s the beauty of websites. It can be edited over years and not just trying to do it all yourself. I think that’s the other big thing is, I’ve got a website developer, a designer. You can’t sit there tinkering. That’s just my opinion, is sometimes your time, you don’t realise how much that’s worth.

Rachel: I want to zero in on what you’ve just said about how they might not have the visuals, or they might not be able to put a photo up of the house that they’ve worked on. I’m about to work on a site for a builder at the moment, and he’s got no social proof, no pictures or anything. How do you manage that situation? Because obviously as the copywriter you want your words to see the light of day, but when the rest is slowing it down, how do you manage that? 

Nikita: As in if I’ve started to write it and then they’re not able to give me the stuff. It happens all the time. As a copywriter I’ve learned to have very strong boundaries as well. For example, before the client, or sorry, after the client signs the contract, I send them a welcome pack and in that welcome pack is a one-pager that is what I expect from you, what you should expect from me. It very clearly lines out, even times to get back to emails. I’m going to give you 48 hours to respond, et cetera, et cetera. I didn’t use to do that, but since I’ve done it, I think now it just starts the project off on the right feet. I’m very open. If I don’t have your images by a certain day, then we’re going to put in placeholders, stock images. We will train you on how to upload your own images when you’re ready. But the project is essentially finished. Or another thing I’ve just started to do is a pause clause where I say, no worries, we’re going to pause it, but to restart it, it’s going to cost you X amount and we have to lock in that day. It’s just also helping me and my schedule, so I’m not just waiting and then everything comes at once.

Lynne: Oh, that’s a good idea. 

Rachel: They’re great ideas! How did you come to making those decisions? Was it things were happening, and it was just annoying and so you’d write it down and go, I’m actually going to put a clause in place for this, or how did you reach a point where you had that welcome pack and had all those clauses in place?

Nikita: I think it’s just happened over time, really. It’s, as you said, something would just keep happening again and again and look, it’s not their fault, things happen with projects, but it was just I am also running a business, so how do I protect myself from these things so it’s not so awkward, because I can say, that pause clause, why don’t we put it in place? So, it’s not surprising them or anything. I think it’s good for them and it’s good for me as well. It lets everyone off the hook, on the same page. 

Lynne: I deal with architects a lot too, and I find that they’re really focused on the visuals. How do you get them excited about the words because I had an architect the other day who has a beautiful website and she said, it’s just not getting found and I looked at it, amazing visuals, and she only had about 15 words on every page. I thought, I think there could be a reason. How do you get them because they’re not word orientated, are they? 

Nikita: No, and that’s a lot of what my content really focuses on is that education around words. So, there’s a few things. For example, in a lot of my presentations when I’m presenting to architects, I always show them the same image. And it’s of this man, looking out this window and there’s this beautiful timber ceiling, and I have the same image, but two different captions. One of the captions is ‘she left him’. And you know, you just see this man, you’re like, oh gosh, is he ok? What’s happened? Why did she leave? And then the second, same image, but I’ll have another caption saying, exposed timber beams.

I say to architects, look, I bet by reading the different words, same picture, it’s elicited a different emotional response. You know, one, you’re thinking about the man and his story, the other one, your eyes go straight up to that exposed timber ceiling. So, I’m trying to educate them that words, they directly get your attention when you’re looking at a project. They tell you what to look at. They give the project context, and they can tell a story. I think it’s really important. I also tell architects, realistically, how many people actually physically experience your work? You know, it’s not like you can knock on some random’s door and say, hey, do you mind if I just take a look around because I’m thinking about using this architect?

You wouldn’t do that. It’s about saying, if they can’t physically enter your spaces and fill them, how can you create that feeling with words. And that’s where I teach them, weave in different senses. Don’t just rely on what you can see. On your website, when you’re in that space, what can you hear? What can you smell, what do things feel like? I think it’s that education around that piece as well. 

Rachel: You must have clients that start out really reluctant and think they know it all and then at the end they’re like, we love you Nikita, this is amazing!

Nikita: Sometimes, I wish! I mean, as you said, and very gently, I’ll say there’s a lot of egos in the architecture world. So again, it’s me filtering out the types of architects I do and don’t want to work with as well. But it’s always so lovely to have one that’s just embracing, brand voice and all of that. 

Rachel: Can we touch on that? How do you filter out the pitas. We call them, the pitas, the pain in the asses type clients? 

Lynne: Do you have a way of spotting the red flags? 

Nikita: I think to be honest, if you hop onto my website, you’ll see very quickly, my personality, I believe comes out quite quickly on my website when you read the words. I feel like that immediately is a turnoff for a lot of architects. They’re like, I don’t like her vibe, whereas other ones are okay, I want to work with her. I feel like that’s a good kind of first impression and hopefully it filters out. There’s a picture of me doing the splits on my website. It’s hidden, but it’s there, so a lot of architects are like, oh, no, no. And then I do, I attract some really, really great clients, which, I’m always happy about too. 

Lynne: Do you think niching down, as you’ve done, has brought you more business and allowed you to charge a premium for your services?

Nikita: Yes, definitely. And I think, one of the best pieces of advice I ever got when I was a younger copywriter was try and be the only copywriter in the room, and I feel by going to these big architecture conferences in America, I have been able to position myself as the only copywriter in the room and I do feel that that helps me position my services and price accordingly as well. 

Rachel: I just want to go back to a pricing question because you mentioned the pause clause and then they pay a fee if they want to restart the project, which is genius because we all end up in that position sometimes where a project stalls for whatever reason. How do you arrange your pricing? Do you have pricing milestones? How does a project work in terms of payments for you? 

Nikita: Sure. I guess have different services and for each of them I get 50% upfront. So, before it kicks off, I call it a commencement fee, and then 50% at the end, often I’ll break it up with website copy and website design. They’re treated differently because it might be staggered, but normally it’s 50%. If they’re a small client and they just say, we can’t do that for whatever reason, then I can do another, payment plan for them. I’m quite flexible on that, but I definitely get a percentage upfront. 

Lynne: Good idea.

Rachel: What if the project stalls and they’ve paid you the commencement fee, but you’re at the end nearly and they stall the project. So, the pause clause comes into effect, and you are 50% out of pocket. Does that happen sometimes? 

Nikita: To be honest, by the time, I keep the projects trying to move pretty quickly and I don’t deliver the final copy until I get that last remaining 50%. It’s like you make that 50% payment and then I’ll release the copy. A lot of the times, if they’re that close, they just want the copy, and they haven’t got it. They’ve done all the work, they’ve paid, so usually that’s enough motivation. 

Lynne: I’d love to talk about technology a bit because you mentioned AI and ChatGPT. Has it made an inroad into your work, or do you think that personality that you’re bringing to copy, does that mean you are needed more than ever?

Nikita: I feel I don’t really use AI for myself to write. But I do feel that it is a tool for architects, hence why I’ve kind of pushed myself, because they’re busy and at least it gets something on page. In my masterclasses, it’s not like I’m teaching them how to use AI. It’s more like I’m teaching them the fundamentals and foundations of copywriting and how to apply it to AI and how to use it in the right way. But in terms of technology, I definitely think AI has helped me, do smaller things. I’ve just been learning about AI agents that can help me glean research. For example, it can go onto Reddit threads and find out what the pain points of architects are at the moment. I’m using it almost as a tool to make my research a little bit quicker and better at the moment, is what I’m predominantly trying to use it for. I haven’t mastered it, I’m not techie, but I feel like it’s interesting and I’m happy to experiment.  

Rachel: Something that our audience loves to find out about is how to fill their pipeline, how to maintain like a steady cash flow. Do you have any tips or strategies that you use or perhaps you’ve gotten to that stage where you no longer need to worry about it because projects and leads are always coming to you? 

Nikita: They are coming to me now, but what I would recommend, and this is what I did is to don’t put all your eggs in one basket. In terms of doing services, I’ve got a tiered service offering now. I’ve got, as I mentioned, the Architect’s Workshop, which is all do it yourself. Then I’ve got a done with you, short six-week course where I help architects who don’t have quite that budget to work with me one-on-one. But we get their website messaging done in six weeks, and that’s in a group, and then there’s the one-on-one.

What I’ve done is diversified my offerings. If the leads aren’t coming in, we’re having a slow month, then I can shift focus and start to push my masterclasses and I use my newsletters to do a lot of my selling or LinkedIn. Mm,  

Lynne: What does a typical week look like for you?

Nikita:  At the moment, it shocks people, but I’m only really working six hours a week. Four kids under seven and I’ve got a baby. At the moment I just get Thursdays to work, which, what has really helped me, I guess is another thing is that a lot of my clients aren’t in Australia. A lot of them are in the US on the eastern side. I can work early in the morning. A lot of my mornings, I wake up at 4.30 or 5 am have meetings before the kids wake and then, I’m looking forward to that chapter in my life where I can just have like a whole day to dive really deep into certain things. But at the moment it’s just not that way. 

Rachel: You’re lucky your baby isn’t awake at 4:30. Mine used to wake at quarter to five, and we would go and watch Brum. I don’t know if anyone remembers Brum, but it’s a show about a car that he would just sit there and watch Brum, like five episodes, and then we’d go back to bed.

Lynne: But it’s good to think how time zones can work in your favour. 

Nikita: Oh, they can, definitely. I don’t think my business would be where it is right now if it wasn’t for us living in Australia and being able to tap into other time zones. 

Rachel: We talk to a lot of copywriters, but it’s really interesting the split between copywriters that work in different time zones or work. A lot of them have done overseas masterminds and then scooped up clients or made connections in those masterminds, which means a lot of their leads come from the US where there are other copywriters that work solely with Australian businesses. I always think that’s really interesting how your business evolves in that way. Is that the case with you? 

Nikita: I was, but I don’t think that was the reason. I was in a US mastermind, which I think where I got the confidence to kind of say, okay, I can work outside of Australia. I think that, and then COVID hit, so I was online and global. My Architect’s Workshop products are all in US dollars. Now the UK, I think there’s architecture’s everywhere.

Lynne: Because that’s quite interesting that you’ve sort of gone deep and into a niche, but because your actual geographic market is big, there’s a lot of potential clients out there for you.

Nikita: The competition is definitely getting bigger. I would say every day there’s more and more architects who want to transition out of architecture and move into comms or journalism or copywriting. In the last five years, my competition I think has increased tenfold. It’s been bigger and it’s good. I mean to me that just means that they’re educating our audience more. So, it means that, architects are understanding the value of words. 

Rachel: You mentioned before that you are not techie, but we do have a question that we ask their favourite tech tips or the tools they’d be lost without. So, do you have any? 

Nikita: Recently, last year I set everything up on ClickUp. But ClickUp is my go-to now. I’ve got automations and when I’m only working six hours a week, I don’t have time to be writing emails. I hired a project manager for 10 hours a week and she helps me manage my ClickUp. That’s one tool that I could not live without. Another is ActiveCampaign for my newsletters. I’ve, again set up my welcome sequence and all that in there, and also Figma, which I use for my LinkedIn graphics as well. 

Rachel: Oh, interesting. Wow. This has been really interesting. Nikita! Thank you so much for coming on. Tell us where everyone can find you. 

Nikita: Oh, thank you for having me! I guess on LinkedIn as discussed today, you can find me, I’m sure. You can find me on there. Otherwise, I’d love you to read my newsletter and of course I’ve got my website too.

Lynne: Oh, fantastic! We’ll put the links to all of those LinkedIn websites, the whole thing in the show notes, so you can head there to find out where you can connect with Nikita.

Thank you so much. It’s been really interesting. I love it! That’s it for this week. We’ll see everybody again next week!

Rachel: See you guys. Bye!

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Credits:

Connect with Nikita via LinkedIn, or through her website at https://nikitamorell.com/ 

Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com 

Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au 

Rachel’s List www.rachelslist.com.au 

If you have questions you’d like us to answer in our next Q&A episode, just send them here.

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Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co