“I’m just not sure that this is good enough.”
I keep having the same conversation with TpT sellers and entrepreneurs that I coach. They know that they need to start emailing their list, or writing blog posts, but they’re not sure that what they have written is worthy of being sent.
In my coaching sessions I keep running into ‘imposter syndrome.’ It’s common for all of us, especially when we’re just beginning our journey (whether it be we just started our business or we’re just beginning email marketing or blogging).
Here are some things that I communicate with my coaching clients to try and help them overcome this hurdle.
Defeat it with Self Talk
First, let’s call it what it is. We’re struggling with something internally. It’s not real. It’s just that voice in our head trying to deter us with negative talk.
The way to overcome this is to replace that negative talk with positive talk.
Zig Ziglar recommends you look at yourself in the mirror and make statements of value to yourself. “I have value to share with others.” “I am bold, confident, yet humble.” “I have powerful words to share.” “I can do this.”
For Zig Ziglar’s daily positive affirmation challenge, click here
For a great read on overcoming overthinking and negative self talk, read John Acuff’s book, “Soundtracks.”
Remember How We Become Proficient
When Neil Patel, digital marketing expert, is asked for advice on becoming a professional blogger, he always responds, “Write 100 blogs, then ask me.” Mr. Beast, professional YouTuber, says the same thing about making a living creating YouTube videos.
As teachers, we know that repetition is the key to success. My math students will only become better when they practice the skill repeatedly. You, as a blogger or email writer, will only get better by writing emails and blogs. So write them. And then send them, or hit the publish button. By doing this, you will naturally improve.
When do you Want to Make your Mistakes?
When we are learning a skill, it’s common to make mistakes. It’s also common to stink at it.
When I was first learning to surf, I was terrible. I couldn’t catch a wave, couldn’t stand up on the board, and when I finally did, it was a short ride.
The same is true with writing. My first blogs and emails were terrible. I remember spending long amounts of time writing a post, but when I look back at them, they are very short. And bad!
But the great thing about those first emails and blog posts was that nobody read them!
I had the privilege of honing my skills and perfecting my craft with very few people reading it. So very few people saw my mistakes or digested my subpar content.
But even though few people were reading them, it was beneficial for me. It helped me become a better writer, and it built up my confidence. And, despite my awful writing, people actually liked what I was saying. And as my writing improved, they liked it even more!
I tell my mentees all the time, “If you stick with it, your list, your readership, is going to grow. Soon you’ll be speaking to thousands. When do you want to write your first posts? The ones with mistakes. The ones that aren’t polished. The ones where you’re learning the skill. Do you want to send those first emails to tens of people or to thousands?”
So start writing and publishing today! It’s okay that very few people are reading it. In fact, it’s to your benefit. Because you will gain the benefits of practicing the skill, without the high risk of lots of people seeing your work while you’re in the learning process.
Low Risk, High Reward
Besides what I mentioned above – about how writing now with low readership has a low risk – it also has the potential of a high reward.
You never know when you might write something that strikes a chord with your readers. It might go viral, or get you a bunch of followers, or even generate a bunch of income.
I’ll never forget when I was in the early stages of this digital journey, when I logged into one of my income generating platforms and found utter shock. I normally made several dollars on this platform each month. But this one summer afternoon, I logged in to see over a thousand dollars worth of sales! I was shocked. I remember talking to myself out loud, in my living room, “Is this right? What happened? Where? Huh?” On and on I blabbered to myself like some confused madman wandering the streets.
Something I had written had gone viral. And it was correlated to something I sold. Which benefited from the traffic… immensely.
You might write something that has this same impact. But it won’t happen if you’re not writing and publishing (or hitting send on your emails).
Taking the Feedback
I think a lot of the fears associated with finalizing our writing comes from the fear of negative comments.
Let’s begin by saying that this could happen.
I’ll go one step further and tell you that when you start having a larger reach, you will get negative comments. You would not believe the things people have said about me because of my posts from Rethink Math Teacher, where I share strategies on how to reach your lowest students. I have a large audience and a large reach, so the haters come out of the woodworks and get to their keyboard warrioring.
But what do we do with the negative feedback?
Some of the negative feedback can be constructive. Maybe I do have a typo that needs to get fixed. Thank you for letting me now. (That’s my attempt at humor, I know how to spell “know”).
Or maybe it’s not valid. Not worth your time. So you ignore it.
Or maybe it helps you get better reach.
Did you know that social media posts get better reach when there’s high engagement? So people leaving negative comments will actually help the post get better organic reach because the algorithm sees all the comments and registers it as engaging content. So maybe you let the posts help you grow your reach.
Regardless, the negative comments should not deter you. There’s not much it can do to harm you, except what you let it do to you inside your own head. That’s where you go back to those positive affirmations or replace those negative thoughts with positive soundtracks like we mentioned above.
What You Should Do?
The advice I am going to offer in the next paragraph should not surprise you. But if you’re reading this, it’s exactly what you need to hear. It’s the advice I constantly give to the people I coach.
Publish it.
What you wrote is good. I know it is.
Not only that, the act or writing it, and publishing it, is going to help make the next thing you write even better.
Hit the send button. Publish that blog post. Put it on social media.
Whatever the next step in your journey is. Take it!
Yes, you can work on your copywriting. I have a great course on it if you’re interested.
Yes, you can have someone edit your post or check it for formatting.
But above all of that, publish your post. Send your email. And keep writing.
