“Pitching is hard.”
“I am scared to meet with clients.”
“I can’t become a copywriter.”
Do any of these sound familiar?
The patterns we create by feeding our brain certain narratives is the ultimate roadblock to our success. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
What we tell ourselves has a huge impact on what we believe—whether we notice these narratives or not.
On this episode of the Build Your Copywriting Business podcast, Nicki and Kate are digging into some of the ways they get in their own ways.
But as Nicki and Kate’s stories demonstrate, what we believe is often not only not true, but not beneficial to what we want to do and where we want to go.
As they share their stories of self sabotage, Nicki and Kate are also sharing ways you can start to notice these patterns and break the cycle of self sabotage—in your career and in your life in general.
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Looking for closed captioning or a transcript? Watch the episode on YouTube!
A Sneak Peek at the Episode
[03:04] We all create our own problems. But there’s good news: we can control that. We’re also our own solution. A lot of us don’t realize that we are getting in our way and to what degree we’re getting in our way, because a lot of it is habitual.
[09:50] When you’re saying to yourself, “pitching is hard,” you’re labeling something. As soon as you say it, you are reinforcing it. And when you stop and think about it for a second, well, no, wait a minute, is pitching really hard? Objectively it is not.
[14:46] When you say, “I can’t,” it shuts the door. It says, “this is impossible. Whatever it is, I can’t do it, it’s impossible.” And your brain goes, “oh, okay! It’s impossible. Let’s focus on something else.” But if it’s possible for someone else, then it’s possible for you. You just may not want to learn how to do it, put in the effort.
[23:10] Consistency is the key—with pitching and with learning copywriting in the first place. How many days a week can you actually devote to learning?
[24:00] Take a moment to think about the stuff in your life that you label as “hard” or “scary.” Is it maybe discomfort versus being hard or scary? As people, there are things in all facets of life that make us uncomfortable. Talking to strangers, asking somebody out, having a conversation with a spouse, all of this kind of stuff.
[25:18] We can make it more comfortable just by doing the uncomfortable things more often until we look back and go, “oh, hey, look at that. That used to be tough for me. And now it’s not a problem at all.”
[26:40] Even admitting that we are feeling discomfort, being uncomfortable, can be challenging for some people. We’re not used to doing it because we feel like we should present this kind of perfect face to the world. We need to be honest with how we’re feeling.
[27:59] Your brain does everything it can to keep you in that comfort zone, to discourage you from trying something new, to discourage you from stretching. But we have to identify that and work around it.
[29:26] The brain loves answering questions. So, when you can, ask questions that get you good results. Swap, “why do I suck so much?” for “how can I do this more effectively?”
[31:00] If there’s an opportunity you want, start pursuing it, even if it takes time to get there, which for some things it might and just life happens. None of us are perfect by any means, but boy, do we have such great opportunities to grow. Such great opportunities and they come up every single day and you can tell what they are ’cause they make you uncomfortable.
Must-Hear Takeaways
As with every episode, we highly encourage you to listen to the entire conversation! But here are a few of the highlights:
“Nothing’s really hard if you break it down. It’s just what level of passion, or how badly do you want to accomplish something? Why did you get into this field in the first place? And remembering why that’s so essential, because it’s 100% percent doable.” – Kate
“Our brains are built this way so that we don’t have to do. We automate a lot of our thinking, but unfortunately as humans, a lot of the thinking we have automated doesn’t benefit us. We have these things that are still built into our brain. And when we just let these programs run, we make life so much more difficult for ourselves than we need to.” – Nicki
“These arbitrary things in our head. But I’m stretching myself little by little and stretching where my comfort zone is, pushing those barriers out a little bit. That’s how we grow as people, as copywriters. The sooner that you can start making changes, even if they’re so tiny to get there, you will get there. I think about where I was a year ago and there’s no way I could imagine where I am now, but I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t pursue different opportunities that came up.” – Kate
“Don’t believe everything you think. Examine the things that we say to ourselves and just be willing to be a little uncomfortable because all of the best things in life, come from the other side of that discomfort.” – Nicki
Related Links
- When to Be in Client-Finding Mode
- Frustrated, Disillusioned, and/or Procrastinating? It’s Time to Go to War
- [BONUS]: Finding Confidence Learning Something New
- BONUS Laser Coaching: Build Confidence & Overcome Imposter Syndrome as a Copywriter
- Episode 162: #1 Secret for Copywriting Success
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About the Build Your Business Podcast
Ready to turn your love of writing into a successful copywriting career?
Join professional copywriters Nicki Krawczyk and Kate Sitarz to get the tips, tools, and training to help you become a copywriter and build a thriving business of your own. Nicki and Kate have 20+ and 10+ years of experience, respectively, writing copy for multi-billion-dollar companies, solopreneurs, and every size business in between.
Whether you want to land an on-staff job, freelance full-time and work from wherever you want, or make extra money with a side hustle, the best place to start learning is right here.
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Last Updated on October 30, 2024
