"Belief-- with enough of it, we can achieve just about anything; without it, we're essentially paralyzed, blind, and disoriented, and any shot at success is pretty dim."
After I read that sentence, it stayed with me for a long time. Because it's true. If we don't believe we can do something, we won't. Without belief, it's too easy to give in to life's stresses and take a path away from our dreams, hopes, and desires.
In copywriting, as with many other dreams, stepping away from the path towards success is easy. We're often distracted by pressures all around us...sometimes even other opportunities.
I should have entered into freelance writing full-time years before I did. What stopped me?
- Family obligations: I felt selfish and guilty that I wanted to give up a 'real job' to pursue something that had no guarantee of working out.
- Friends in Need: Seems that every time I managed to quit a job or that job's time ended, a friend of mine needed help. My friends operate their own businesses. In this way, I ended up with another day job, often turning into many hours when I ended up managing the businesses for my friends.
- Bills: Creditors don't wait for you to make the money. They want their payments now.
- Lack of Savings: I just kept waiting for our situation to get better so we can have a savings to take over when I didn't make money.
And, of course, all these involve fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of taking risk. Fear of finding out whether or not I would actually do what it takes. I already knew I had the ability and I knew where to get the training to start me off. But copywriting on the job is a lot different than freelancing. In freelancing, you have to rely on yourself to be all things in your business: CEO, manager, boss, bookkeeper, typist, secretary, file clerk, etc. If things don't get done, you only have yourself to blame.
And when you know your household's future is relying on your success, it increases your stress.
- To build the belief in myself that I would actually carry out my obligations as a copywriter, I had to overcome the reservations and realize some things.
- There are no guarantees in life. Nothing is guaranteed. Even the most secure day job can up and disappear without warning.
- I must learn to say "No". For me, it was saying no to the job offers and keeping on the path I set before me.
- Bills are always going to be there. They are never going to go away, so if I let those stop me, I'd never step out and work for myself. My bills were a lot lower than other copywriters had when they first stepped out into their careers. I had to realize that if they could do it, so could I.
- Our savings situation needed a change in order to improve. None of the day jobs open to me in our area would allow me to make that change. But making it in copywriting would.
Knowing how to write. I have written all my life, creating and illustrating my first story book when I was eleven. But you may not have that privilege. Understanding and believing that you can write good copy does not come from your writing experience. It comes from how much you are willing to learn. Are you ready to learn how to write a sales letter that will increase sales? Are you ready to learn how to write as you speak? Are you willing to self-study and increase your writing skills as you go along?
Better yet, are you ready to NEVER stop learning?
Even A-list copywriters are learning new methods and techniques for reaching their prospects and their clients' prospects every day. People change all the time and their response triggers change with them. A good copywriter will understand this, and be willing to learn something new about writing copy.
Not sure how to start marketing yourself. This is the biggest fear to get over, but it's also the quickest one to get through once you set your mind to doing it. This is where the motto "Just do it" comes so useful. Still, some people are so immobilized by this fear that they can't get through it on their own. Perhaps you haven't had any telephone experience. Maybe you're an extreme introvert and you need to learn to control that side of you before you begin.
If possible, I suggest getting into a coaching program for marketing your services. If not, don't overdo it. You need to push yourself to market yourself, but you need to do it at a pace that is beneficial to you also.
First, understand what you need to do. Take a course on marketing your services...it may be part of your copywriting course. Go over the instructions until you have them in your head. Read other copywriter's blogs and find out what they do. Join a copywriter message board and get tips from copywriters already in business. Copywriters are a great bunch of people. It's easy to make friends and we enjoy helping one another. Many senior copywriters also give programs or sell products to help new copywriters know what to do and how to tackle the fear of self-marketing.
Second, learn how your future clients' market their products. Study marketing. A copywriter is also a marketing consultant much of the time. It comes with having to know how the project you're hired for will fit into the client's marketing program. Use your resources of blogs, boards, and courses for leads to other resources that teach you the current marketing trends.
I'm a big advocate of self-study. For me, the more I learn, the more confidence I gain, and the less scary my fears are. Once I arm myself with knowledge, I'm able to face that fear.
There's plenty of free resources out there. Use them to get started. Find books that deal with an area you're fearful in and buy them or borrow them from your local library. Make it a habit to study a little each day, even if you can only spare ten minutes. Ten minutes of confidence building will dispel twenty minutes of fear.
Maybe you have no experience at making business calls on the phone, and do not feel good about making them. That's all right. There's a great old saying "practice makes perfect". Well, maybe not perfect all the time, but at least pretty darn good. Study your materials for what you need from a client to do the job and make yourself a flexible script to use on the phone. Some say to read from scripts - I don't; I can't. I can't role-play a call either. But having notes in front of me remind me of what I'm supposed to be covering and what I need to know.
But do what you need to do when you make the phone calls. Just give yourself the confidence to face the fear and believe in yourself. (Personal note: I'm experienced at telephone business calls, yet loathe this part of marketing... And so do many others. You'd be surprised.)
One way of growing confidence and belief in yourself is to talk to others about copywriting. Meet people in the community and talk about how you're a copywriter and what that entails. Meet some business owners. Granted, if you live in a small community like I do, they may not be potential clients for you, but they are good to practice talking about copywriting with. (Later on, I may go through how these people can actually become good clients for you too.)
Even though I could go on and on about this, I'll close with one, extremely important note: You must BE a copywriter. You must learn to think of yourself as a copywriter, call yourself a copywriter, and express confidence in that to others. In order to believe in your ability to make a career as a copywriter, you must believe you are a copywriter.
Do not say 'aspiring copywriter' or 'I'm learning how to copywrite' or 'I'm becoming a copywriter.' It's I AM A COPYWRITER.
From now on, when you wake up in the morning say "I am a copywriter." I don't care if you've just started to learn what a sales letter is. Start now, and it'll give your belief a boost.
I am a copywriter. I am a copywriter. I am a copywriter.
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