“If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too…”
When Drs. Clance and Imes first coined the term ‘Impostor Phenomenon’ in 1978, the scope of their study concerned high-achieving professional women who struggled to recognize their own credentials and value.
But does impostor syndrome still apply today, when any of us can validate our performance in real time thanks to algorithms, data and peer ratings for every action we take? If you’re a copywriter, the answer is certainly yes.
Why Copywriting Is a Fertile Ground for Impostor Syndrome
Copywriting is part of the creative industry. That makes it hyper-competitive, high-pressure, and ripe for rejection. There’s a relentless cycle of pitching for new business and presenting concepts to clients, without the security of truth or certainty. There is no ‘right answer’ to aim for, but there will probably be some forceful egos and significant obstacles to overcome.
At some point, even experienced copywriters with a strong portfolio can find themselves doubting their own skills. For those starting out, breaking into an industry where constant rejection is the default setting can make it extremely difficult to be confident.
The Secret to Overcoming Impostor Syndrome
Some of the most openly confident copywriters and creative colleagues you’ll come across often turn out to be the ones who are most riddled with self doubt. So the first step to overcoming impostor syndrome is to remind yourself of one thing:
It’s not your problem.
Well, it’s not only your problem. In fact, it’s common, par for the course, practically de rigueur. Don’t chew yourself up assuming you’re the only one in the room with doubts. Use it to challenge yourself.
To borrow a famous maxim, if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.
Top Tips to Tackle Text-related Terror
1. Learn from mistakes
Impostor syndrome stems from a fear of being wrong, or being ‘found out’. But failure isn’t your enemy. If you can treat each embarrassing situation as an opportunity to learn, however uncomfortable it might be at the time, you’ll be fortifying your skills in the long term.
2. Compare yourself against you, not others
Stop watching those high-octane, chest-thumping videos on YouTube from the Masters of the Marketing Universe, or scrolling through LinkedIn ‘humblebrags’ about people’s latest achievements. Nobody shares their doubts for clout. The only person you need to measure yourself against is you - whether it’s last year, last month or yesterday. And anyone can do that.
3. Remember that in the end, nobody knows anything
Not everyone who belittles your ideas or knowledge is a) right or b) better. If you find yourself on the receiving end of ridicule, or you’re struggling to complete a simple brief, remember that even the so-called experts are getting it wrong most of the time. Consider the following:
The average Click Through Rate for Facebook ads is 0.89%
Over 82% of advertising is completely ignored.
Reebok encouraged you to cheat on your girlfriend, Nivea announced that ‘White is Purity’ and Pepsi made the Kendall Jenner ad.
So your worst work is still a long way better than efforts from the best in the business.
Try to remember this too when it’s your turn to climb the ladder. You can become a director without becoming a dick. Be measured with your own criticism and never tear down what you can’t fix yourself from scratch.
Confession Time: What I learnt from My Worst Experiences
“You have done this before, haven’t you?”
These words (from the director who had hired me just a few weeks before) confirmed that I didn’t have impostor syndrome. I genuinely wasn’t good enough. I was out of my depth, clinically incompetent, and unlikely to see the end of my probation period.
But I had willed those words into life. From the very first meeting in that company, I knew I was neither skilled enough to do the job nor passionate enough about it to learn what I didn’t know. I had been distracted by a generous salary and a well-known name - and now I was dreading Monday mornings from Friday afternoons onwards. Did it show? Let’s just say that self-doubt and incompetence oozed from my frequently sweating pores.
I still can’t look back on this brief period on my career without wincing. It was terrifying and embarrassing. But it’s over - and it’s stopped me from ever putting myself in the position again.
Top Tip: If you can underpromise and overdeliver, you’ll surprise people. If you overpromise and underdeliver (to quite an astonishing degree), your boss will ask, “You have done this before, haven’t you?” in a meeting, in front of everyone, on Monday morning. Overselling yourself is OK. Scamming people isn’t.
I had set myself the goal of becoming a magazine editor by the age of 30. This time I was ready, smashed the interview, glossed over any reservations about the title and found myself in the ‘hot seat’ just a few months ahead of my deadline. What could possibly go wrong?
Hubris mainly. I was so desperate to impress that when it came to the simple task of setting out the content running order, I didn’t stick to what I knew from years of experience. No, I ripped off and tweaked an idea that I had seen in a pretentious lifestyle magazine and presented it with a flourish to the advertising director.
I remember her exact words (that followed an awkward silence):
“Have you done this before?”
Top Tip: With credit to Dave Trott, stupid people think it’s smart to make simple complicated. Impostor syndrome is when you mistakenly think you’re simply not good enough, not when you think you’re too good to make simple mistakes.
You might think that one of the key requirements for editing a sailing magazine would be a lifelong passion for sailing. Or at least a basic knowledge of the fundamentals. I had neither. In one of my first conversations with a group of liveaboard cruisers, I discovered that:
a) sailors do not ‘park up’ their yachts overnight when crossing the Atlantic.
b) cruisers do not sail by day and live ashore by night. In fact, they live on their yacht (and most rarely sail).
This story has a happier ending - because this time I didn’t care. I didn’t have impostor syndrome. I knew that it would take anything from years to a lifetime to know as much as the people who read the magazine, so it really didn’t make much difference whether I was Ellen MacArthur or Ellen DeGeneres. Instead of bluffing it, I focused on what I ‘had done before’, which was write and edit, not sail.
Top Tip: Change the problem. Find the value you can add, not what you’re missing. There is nearly always something you can contribute that comes from your own set of unique skills and experience.
Now that I’ve reached the end of this blog, I’m already beating myself up about it not being good enough. I know - the bounce rate is going to be horrible and everyone will be laughing at my time on site. But hey, I enjoyed writing it. And I hope you’ve found it useful too.