Sometimes working with a new copywriting client is like starting a new friendship. A friendship that could become so much more. When I hand over the first draft of their copywriting, it can feel like I’m handing them my heart.
It’s agony. Delicious, wonderful agony but agony none the less. Will they like it? Have I captured the spirit of their business? Have I taken it a step further and turned that spirit into copy that is some kind of wonderful?
Sometimes, the answer is no. Sometimes, the first version isn’t quite right and it can feel like my heart has been stomped on by a stiletto. Ok, so that’s a bit dramatic. I try not to take feedback that personally but I always want to nail it. When I don’t, I’m disappointed…. In myself.
But do you know what? A little rejection is good for the soul.
I mean, if I nailed it every single time, what motivation would I have to improve?
No one likes being rejected or criticised
FACT. If you get paid to be creative, you can’t afford to take it personally. In fact, how you handle “feedback” determines how successful you can be.
It’s natural to feel a bit crap when you haven’t nailed something first time. I know I do. But blaming your client is arrogant. Crawling into a hole is pointless. Giving up on your dream is, well, it’s just self-destructive.
It sounds like a cliché but setbacks really are opportunities. Opportunities to be awesome the next time around.
How quickly you can learn from your situation and apply that lesson regularly will determine how often (or how rarely) those setbacks happen in the future.
There are lots of stories of successful failure
Winston Churchill failed the Royal Military entrance exams twice and Walt Disney was fired for lack of imagination. Margaret Mitchell’s ‘Gone With the Wind’ was rejected by 38 publishers before it finally got accepted. Similarly, J.K. Rowling had Harry Potter turned down by a dozen publishers and it was only printed after one publisher’s eight-year-old daughter begged her father to do so.
Happiness is process-driven
Although I don’t really mean happiness. I mean contentment. Trying to achieve a permanent state of happiness is a fool’s errand, if you ask me. I aim for contentment.
To try and avoid a negative mindset lingering, I try to ensure my copywriting and customer service processes are flexible enough to handle new lessons. I’m always tweaking my process from the first enquiry email to the final invoice, improving it so I can better handle new situations I come across.
My goal is to become better.
When it comes to copywriting specifically, I remind myself that revisions are a natural part of the copywriting process. I tell this to clients but sometimes I also need to remind myself.
I also consider why I haven’t nailed it. Is it because I missed something in the brief? Have the requirements changed a little? Could I do with brushing up on a particular copywriting skill? Or maybe clarity was achieved when my client had something to actually review. Some of those things I can control, some of them I can’t.
Above all else, I try to be kind to myself.
I’d love to know how you handle feedback, rejection, criticism… call it what you will. How do you dust yourself off and jump back into the game?
Belinda
13 Responses
It’s funny… I share that sense of disappointment when the client comes back with changes, but also second-guess myself when they love the first draft and don’t request ANY changes at all (“Really? Are you sure? Or was it so bad that you’re just trying to get it over and done with as fast as you can so you can find someone else to fix it because you don’t want to hurt my feelings?”).
Neurotic? Me?
Not much.
The changes which slide like water off a duck’s back are those where the client has decided to add more information, or something quite technical needs further clarification. No hurt feelings there.
The ones that do sting a little are where they’re just not happy with your creative process, such as when you’ve created a dozen or so taglines and none of them seem to hit the mark. Of course, this is the time to go back to the client to see which is closest to the direction they’re after and why the current versions aren’t working (communication is always the key)… but you still can’t help but feel a little disappointed in yourself for not nailing it first time ’round.
That said, once you DO nail it, the feeling is magical and worth all the self-doubt and rethinking.
It’s a good thing we’ve got thick skin 🙂
Hi Anna and thanks for baring your soul!
I think we’re very much alike. I love nailing it first time but I do have the little voice asking, are you *sure* you couldn’t make it better? haha I think that’s good though. I think once you rest on your laurels, quality starts to idle.
The feeling of nailing it at a concept is utterly addictive and a big reason I’ll keep doing this for a long time yet!
I just had a client yesterday ring me because she had been sitting on something for a while – and didn’t want to upset or offend me. I kind of knew I had missed the mark (she wanted heaps of different keyword phrases etc that I struggled to make flow), so wasn’t surprised. But she was so apologetic I couldn’t feel too rejected. Anyway, I’m doing it over, and we have narrowed the keywords…it happens. Sometimes, the right words just come. And sometimes client/copywriter is just a bad fit. We can’t be perfect all the time – and I think perhaps we are our own worse critic.
(Related to this is that fact that when I was a journo I sometimes forgot I was actually writing for real people, rather than for other journos)
You raise a great point Nicole. I had a few clients who I realised, later, felt awkward giving me honest feedback so I working a bit of a blurb into my process.
It basically explains that they have two rounds of revisions and assures them that there is plenty of scope to make sure the copy is “just right”. I also give them some guidance on how to give great feedback and prompt them for their honesty. It’s their copy after all!
And you’re right… we can’t be perfect all the time. As long as we can communicate with each other, we should get there in the end!
Thanks for commenting.
it’s a similar process with design – and I feel that it can be hard to fully visualise what some clients wants first time round. Which is why we have revision processes! I think often clients have just a vague idea of what they want, but it’s the process of the first draft that helps them to clarify the direction that they want it to go in. And also, it’s easier to work together once there’s a tangible product to discuss and go over.
Thanks for sharing the design side of the coin Cathy!
I understand what it’s like to know what you want once you have something to work with. I think I’m like that, especially with design stuff (as I consider myself to be graphically challenged) … but it can sure add some kerfuffle into the process!
I enjoyed this post so much. It made me remember the copy I wrote for an event organiser once. She rejected all of it. I was stunned and confused. How could I get it so wrong? A week or so later she rejected a stunning website design from the best web designer I know. That helped a little. It happened years ago but I can still recall the ouch factor.
Ah thanks Julia!
When you don’t even get a to work to a happy resolution it would hurt even more! It’s a lesson to remember that some clients will never be happy. A hard lesson though!
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Whenever I am really pleased with someone and someone stomps on it, Its hard not to take it personally. Thankfully not had too many horror clients and sometimes I chuckle to myself and say its not me it’s them lol. I know we shouldn’t but some people will never be happy. i refuse for them to steak my joy. 🙂
I’ve often learned more from failure than from success. I think everyone has. It’s just that it isn’t any fun.
Belinda…
Exactly. With creative industries, people think entry is easy, obv their ideas rock.
But it’s really about not easy at all, and in many cases (like blogging) it comes down to persistence, and leveraging small success into bigger ones.
Take a “social media manager” position for example. The average Joe says “hey, I could do that!”
But to really do it successfully you have to have infinite good ideas, always be ahead of your brand, and not to mention have years of experience and a reputation.
Not exactly a walk in the park, any of this.
And I could imagine Copywriting is even harder…
Greg
Thanks for commenting Glenn. I bet you often hear, ‘oh but it’s easy for you. You’re creative.’ Err no.
I love your idea about leveraging small success into bigger success. It’s also a matter of training your brain and that’s when a little rejection can spur you onto to aim a bit higher. It’s all too easy to get complacent!
hi belinda, nice piece. it does not feel good when the client rejects all 20 name suggestions for 8 separate events. but well, this article helped a lot to help me understand. the point is, im not allowed to interact with the client as im working in-house for an ad agency, and the client works with project owners for the separate events. it totally complicates matters here, and i get feedback that my suggestions for names suck. ):