FEARS THAT HOLD YOU BACK FROM BEING YOURSELF IN BUSINESS (#1: "I AM NOT ENOUGH")

There are a few things that set We Write You apart from other copywriters we’ve encountered - the way we conduct meetings over bars instead of boardroom tables, Kamina’s penchant for double denim and Mick’s addiction to making puns.

​But the main thing that makes the We Write You experience so special is that the way we write for you is driven by our desire to give you permission to be yourself, in life and in business.

We’ll say it again. The number one value that drives We Write You is the desire to give our clients permission to be themselves.

The problem we hope to solve is that most people don't know how to translate their personalities and real-life quirks across to their business. We’ve worked with people who are incredibly engaging in real life - insanely fun, or funny, or really gifted in unexpected ways. We’ve worked with people who have really touching or bizarre stories about how they started their business.

But when we read their existing business websites, the copy is dry and vanilla. It doesn’t make the business distinguishable from any other business in the same industry.

And we think that’s a real shame. Because it’s a basic principle of marketing that people buy from people. If you’re presenting yourself in a way that’s really standard - professional but with no outstanding details - and relying on your product or service to sell itself, it won’t. Even if your product is great, your potential clients will shop around to see if they can get it somewhere else for slightly cheaper. Or from somebody else whom they like slightly better.

So it’s crucial that you’re the person that your target clients like the best. It seems simple. But it’s hard to do. Why does it feel so icky to be yourself online?

We’ve noticed that most of our clients are holding back from being themselves online out of fear: fear of sounding unprofessional, fear of not pleasing everyone, fear of not sounding ‘right’. So we wrote this for you. Consider this your permission slip to be the heck out of yourself online. It’s okay to be you.

Over a series of posts we'll be addressing several fears that come up over and over again in our conversations with clients. For today:

Fear #1: “I am not enough.”

You know when you go to a website and the business talks about itself as though it’s an enterprise that has a team or multiple employees: “We do this”, “We offer that”, “We believe such and such”.  But if you do a bit of digging around or you actually deal with the business you realise - there’s no “We”.  It’s just one person!

This is one of our pet peeves (we’ve talked about it before, in this post). 

One reason the false “we” sucks is that it’s not fair on your customers or clients, because it’s not clear.  They should know exactly who they’re dealing with.

The second reason (which is a much bigger deal) is that when you call yourself “we” in an effort to sound bigger or more professional, you’re telling yourself a lie: I have to pretend to be more than I am, because I am not enough as I am.

We’re here to tell you: you are more than good enough on your own!

You can proudly own the fact that it’s you, just you, all you.  If you can’t own that on your website copy, you’re just telling yourself over and over again that you’re not good enough.  So you have to stop that, right now. Transform your business copy so that it says: I am good enough.  It’s just me, I’m doing it all by myself, and I’m more than good enough. I’m amazing.

Action steps for conquering the fear of 'not enough':

1. If it’s just you, say “me”.  Go through all of your website copy, your social media interactions, catch yourself when you’re writing emails, and make sure that you’re saying “me” and “I” instead of “we” and “us”.  
2. Have your name on your website. Have your name in your email address, if you can. Make sure that when people contact your business they know who they’re going to get.
3. If there is more than one of you, of course you can say “we”. Just be clear, at any given time, about who your customer is dealing with when they interact with your business online.
4. Never ever ever use “they” when you’re talking about your own business. Say “we produce this” or “I achieved that”. It’s not “them”.  It’s YOU. Own your awesome. You are enough.
   
   

Extra steps for high achievers:
Do you want some totally free, no strings attached feedback on your website copy? We can do that.
Do you want to sit across a table (or a bar) from us and work with us on website copy that will make you sound like way more than enough? Get in touch with all your questions or a no-pressure chat about what we could do together.

P.S.
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