Whattup, it's Ning here.

I knew a copywriter who was $200k at 19 years old yet still felt afraid their clients would wake up one day and think they were a fraud.

Imposter syndrome is RAMPANT in the copywriting world...

And at nearly every stage people are:

- Comparing themselves to people "better" than they are (Translation: they've just been doing it for a longer time)

- Terrified of not being good enough

- Scared of taking action because they feel like they’ll fail (in reality, failure is good and it’s a necessary learning experience)

- People pleasing their clients because they have a scarcity mindset around money and getting clients

- Self-sabotaging their own progress / success because their mind keeps yelling at them... You're a fraud! You're a fraud! You're a fraud!

If this is you - I want to give you 3 tips to defeat imposter syndrome and improve your mindset today. 

Let’s get started…

Tip #1: Close Your Eyes And Talk To Your Inner Child

All...

Let's face it:

Some day a prospect will say that your prices are too high for them. 

When this happens you have three options:

1) Walk away

2) Accept a lower price 

3) Negotiate

I don't like option 1 because it reinforces a "giving up easily" mindset.

And the only time you should accept option 2 is if you desperately and urgently need the money. 

However...

If you want to make the big bucks, you should negotiate. 

"Easier said than done, Ning! How am I even supposed to do this when they rejected my initial proposal?" 

Let's take a step back and look at the facts.

Why does the business owner want to work with you?

Because they believe you and your copy will help them fulfill their desire.

What's their desire?

To make X amount of money.

To make this amount, they are willing to part away with as much as Y.

If you ask for more than Y, they reject your offer.

Here's what your prospect is thinking inside their head when you present them your price:

"I want to make...

I used to think there was a right and wrong way to approach business owners.

But recently I discovered there's also a HORRIBLE way.

I'm not talking about spamming people with canned messages.

I'm talking about approaching business owners with a know-it-all attitude that makes you reek of inexperience and bad manners. 

Here's an example of a cold outreach message:

"Hey, your sales letter is bad and makes you lose lots of sales. I'm an experienced copywriter and I'd love to help you fix it. Are you interested?"

^ Yes, this is an actual message copywriters send to business owners.

The person sending it is rude, no questions. 

But they also displayed their ignorance. 

Read this part again:

"Makes you lose lots of sales"

Really now?

Does this person have access to the business's numbers?

Did they chat with someone who works there?

Heck, did they see the numbers on a crystal ball?

There's the old saying "assuming makes an ass out of you and me"

Well, in this case assuming...

Are your clients marriage material?

Meaning, are they great people you should keep working long-term with...

Or are they only good for a one-time fling?

If you're unsure, today I'll give ya some much-needed clarity.

We'll rank your clients from 1-3 in the following categories

• Time
• Stress
• Money
• Learning
  
• Reputation

Tip: Be clear-headed before ranking. 

If you just argued with a client, wait 1-2 days - you'll be more honest and less emotional. 

Cool?

When you’re done, you want to take a long hard look at your ranking.

Ask yourself if staying with this client is congruent with your goals..

Or you have to drop them to achieve what you want faster.

Let's see an example:

• Time - You're their main copywriter so you have to constantly come up with new ideas for emails and ads. Every once in a while you'll have to write a VSL (video sales letter) script on top of everything else. Finding and working with new clients is impossible. Score: 1
• Stress - They are super laid-back...

(Listed In Descending Priority Level)

Yo, it’s Ning. 

I’ve seen, reviewed, and given feedback on tens of thousands of pieces of copy at this point - and I see the same mistakes over and over again. 

Whether you’re publishing your copy…

Submitting it for review…

Or getting coaching feedback…

Run through this checklist first. 

Your copy will look far better and your conversions will skyrocket.

These apply to ANY piece of copy (emails, ads, VSLs, landing pages, etc.)

1. Do you grab my attention in the first 10 seconds? Does the first line make me want to read the second line? Is this more interesting and attention grabbing than a cat meme? If not, rework your opening. This is the most important part of your copy - thus, it should be where you spend the majority of your time, focus, and energy working and reworking. 
   
2. Do you make a singular big, bold claim or promise HIGH up in the copy? If not, do so. 
   
3. Do you show me a NEW...

Many believe that there are only 3 qualities necessary for becoming a great copywriter:

1) Good copy

2) Delivering on time

3) Pleasant to work with

However, I'd like to add a fourth quality.

It's one that can easily add an extra zero to your bank account.

It's not a skill you develop after decades of studying and hard work.

In fact, it's something I'll teach you in a few minutes...

...and you can start applying by the end of the day.

I'm talking about...

Viewing yourself as a business partner

Instead of just delivering copy, you always look for ways to help the business grow or tackle pressing issues.

(You literally behave like a partner who gets a headache when something bad happens hahaha!)

"Sounds cool, Ning, but how can I do that?" 

First, gain a solid understanding of the business. 

Discover as much as possible about their offers, numbers, customers, urgent problems, goals for the next 6-18 months, etc. 

Next, flex your creativity muscle and come up with...

A while back I asked what questions ya have about writing emails. 

One of the most common ones was: 

How do I come up with ideas?

Many copywriters think they need creativity to come up with lots of ideas. 

But I got good news for you.

As the great copywriter Eugene Schwartz said:

"There's no such thing as creativity. There's only connectivity"

He went on to explain that only God can create something out of nothing. 

The rest of us mortals need to tap into pre-existing material for generating ideas - aka connect something with something else.

How can you do this? 

Allow yourself to go down as many rabbit holes as possible when doing research. 

Let's say you're a financial copywriter. 

These days, there's a lot of noise around the Chinese economy and how bad it is. 

And as a copywriter, you can use what's happening in China.

How?

As I've said in the past, one of my favorite places for research is Reddit.

You can get the specific language your...

A while back I reviewed an email without a subject line since the writer forgot to include one.

I gave a tiny tip on subject lines but I only scratched the surface. 

Today we’ll dig deeper.

As you know, if your subject line doesn’t grab attention, people won't open your email. 

When this happens, even an amazing email will generate zero sales.

So you must practice till you become a subject line gangsta. 

How? 

If you're a beginner...or you don't have a lot of confidence in yourself...you should tap into existing material.

One of my favorite sources of inspiration is cover blurbs on magazines like:

• Time
• US Weekly
• Men's Health
• Cosmopolitan
• Country Living
• and more

Magazine blurbs are great attention-grabbing copy pieces.

They have a couple of seconds to grab your attention...trigger curiosity...and stimulate your interest glands enough to make you buy the magazine.

That's hard in our short-attention-span world! 

The people who write those blurbs...

A few days back I heard from a struggling writer.

She wants to pivot to copywriting, but currently works 12 hours a day 6 days a week.

So she's stuck.

She wants to find copywriting clients but her job has her pumping content 72 hours each week.

Today, I'd like to tackle the mammoth in the room:

These are a lot of hours.

Something doesn't make sense to me. 

I'm not suggesting she's lying...

But as anyone who writes for a living will tell ya, you only have so many productive hours in a day. 

The best copywriters write 2-3 hours and call it a day.

(We might hit 8+ hours if we're under a tight deadline but that's an exception)

However hitting 12 hours/day, 6 days per week?

Nuts. 

Here's what I believe is the issue:

This person has experienced some kind of “block” that messes up their word output.

So I wanna pose 3 questions to her and anyone who struggles with their writing speed.

The answers to those questions can help you discover what your block is.

1. Do...

I always tell new students:

Get your first client any way you can. Deliver kick-ass work. If the client is happy, you will have more gig opportunities with them. 

Now, here's the tricky part:

Many times, the business owner will not come up with opportunities. 

You will have to come up with those gigs out of thin, digital air.

You also need to prove why a gig is a smart idea...and (ideally) show ways for the client to spend minimum time on it. 

Let's see an example:

Suppose you're writing daily emails for a business coach and they have two offers: 

1) one-on-one coaching for $3,000/month

2) 12-weeks group coaching for a one-time fee of $497

They also have a big library of trainings for coaching students. The library consists of 3 parts - client acquisition, positioning, and growth strategies.

Let's also suppose that the main offers have started fatiguing. 

The business owner would love to get new clients, but they're unsure how. 

Plus they got...