Fear of failure is the main obstacle that stands between you and your goals. This is the anxiety you feel when you imagine the terrible things that could happen if you don't achieve what you want. Anxiety causes you to stagnate or give up. Therefore, success largely depends on our ability to cope with this fear.
How to stop him from getting in your way?
Reaction speed and mobility in obtaining information
Copywriters never dreamed of deadlines for a journalist, especially a newspaperman. Finding a topic, photos, experts for comments, and then putting it into 10 kilos in 8 working hours is a common thing. You involuntarily become a walking scanner, capturing with your peripheral vision everything that could ever be useful.
You are a writer last, the main thing is to quickly analyze, pull out names, facts, conversations overheard on the subway from the bins of your memory. Get information in any way. Nobody cares what kind.
The option “I called and didn’t get through” or “The press service of Ukrbytsnabshvab requires an official letter on a form with three signatures” does not work. By the time you call and compose the necessary letter, the newspaper will already be published. Get through either as a carcass or as a scarecrow, find a loophole, outwit, pretend to be a fool, but do what is required. Speck.
How to use.
Even if there are more than enough sources for the text, and a Google search returns dozens of articles, think about how you can look at the topic from a different angle. Squeeze the search engines to the last drop, fish out ideas for style, format, unexpected opinions and views. Get information from anywhere you can get your hands on. Gradually, your eye will learn to cling to the right words, numbers and phrases in seconds.
If quotes from the greats are appropriate in the text, choose relevant, strange, funny ones. And so that their authors are known to everyone, and not just to aesthetes from Chelyabinsk.
To read “Top 5 articles for SMMers”
For complex, specific niches, searching on YouTube works great. Out of a dozen trash videos, you will probably come across a creative and original one. Ideas from which will definitely add readability to your text.
The advice of experienced people will also work: interview your friends about the topic, make posts in specialized groups, write a personal message to your colleagues. Yes, there is a risk of running into silence or an icy reply, but when you have a goal, reflections disappear.
Flexibility in dealing with difficult people
Every day a journalist communicates with a lot of different characters. Their demands and claims can be published in a separate collection to intimidate naughty children. If a psychologist or gardener, whose comment threatens you with protracted neurosis, can be quickly replaced, then some comrades who are desperately needed for an article cannot be sent to the garden. And then pure acrobatics begins: a somersault, another somersault, a transition into the splits and a jump over the goat with a “swallow” exit.
If you freak out, you won’t last long. If you follow his lead and do everything he wants, the text will not be accepted.
A good journalist is always a brilliant communicator: he quickly obtains unofficial information about the hero, asks open-ended questions, gracefully weaves elements of small talk into the conversation, gives compliments, feigns delight at certain phrases (especially those that the hero will probably demand to be removed from the text). You have a task and you complete it. From the outside it sometimes looks cynical. Alas, this is also part of the profession...
How to use.
Comments from copywriting groups are full of advice not to work with inadequate people and those who don’t know what they want. Of course, this is a personal matter for everyone. And there can be no rules here. But let's face it: clients who are correct, generous and who appreciate the work of a copywriter are much less common than... others.
At the Olga Shevchenko School of Internet Marketing, where I studied, two large sections were devoted to communication with clients. It seemed that we were armed to the teeth with the skills necessary for successful freelancing. Do as you were taught, and you will be happy!
The first two clients who ordered me texts for landing pages demolished this harmonious system brick by brick. Now I use journalistic communication skills. This allows you to quickly immerse yourself in the topic and understand the tasks. Even those that are not obvious to the client, but are important.
How to get rid of fear?
If we summarize the material described above, we can conclude that the cause of all our troubles is not so much in fears as such, but in a lack of understanding of our fears. If we are overcome by fears, the first thing we should think about is: what exactly is bothering us?
As Hippocrates said: a correct diagnosis is half the cure .
In the case of fears, correctly identifying the source of our fears usually means 100% recovery.
Here I recommend being very attentive to your diagnoses, since the fears of our mind are overwhelmingly indirect. And the criterion for the accuracy of their determination may be precisely the internal state.
Fear is not a monster that hunts our souls, it is a faithful servant that does its job conscientiously. His task is to warn in time, our task is to establish mutual understanding.
PS Let's sort out our fear
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Ability to do interviews well
For a long time I did interviews with stars for a popular publication. It was pure freelancing, which I did outside of my main work in newspapers and magazines. The fees in that publication were very worthy. No, not like that: the most worthy in Ukraine.
- How can I get a job there? asked one colleague. - Nothing complicated! I chatted with the artist for an hour or two, listened to his stories, wrote everything down, and such money for one text!
And I was very surprised that, it turns out, you have to negotiate with the stars yourself. And be able to communicate in the most inappropriate places: from the women's toilet to the stuffy hall of a Soviet sanatorium. And that you can’t prepare all the questions in advance, and that at any moment the star’s mood can deteriorate, and that for 30 minutes out of 40 allotted, the star can talk about the meaning of life and think out loud about the acting profession...
To view “How to write emotional posts in infostyle”
You lure out everything you can, abruptly change the topic of conversation, let him talk, and then everything works out. Then you take the transcript of the recording and build the text from semantic blocks, like cubes. Delicately interweaving the speech and personal characteristics of the hero, giving the dialogue that same Tone of Voice. Pure drama without pity for the superfluous.
How to use.
The first conversation with a client on the phone, an oral brief - essentially the same interview. In my opinion, adherents of exclusively written briefs make their work more difficult. Or they don’t receive adequate initial ones.
In an oral brief, you need to listen to the intonation, see whether the person is ready or not to discuss the USP, target audience and alignment. Usually the situation is clear from the very beginning, and then you have literally 30 seconds to understand his level and build a further conversation taking into account all the nuances. At the same time, let the client save face without bombarding him with terminology.
Elegantly change the topic of conversation if the person is going in the wrong direction.
Give examples of solutions to similar problems in the form of a short story. Throw in metaphors if you don’t know the terms, but keep the timing. In general, as Tatyana Gmyrina says, “brief into shreds”!
A classic interview works great for boosting a client’s personal brand. But evaluate yourself soberly: if you do not master this format, but simply post 10 questions and answers on a website or social network, the effect will be exactly the opposite.
If you're not sure, don't use it.
The same goes for live broadcasts: you must admit, it’s impossible to listen to 95% of dialogues without tears. And many experts lose their followers on this.
The power of fear
It would be appropriate to mention motives here.
Motives are divided into two categories:
- achievement - desire for reward
- avoidance - the desire to get rid of any kind of trouble or danger.
What type of motivation do you think is most common in our society?
Avoidance very clearly shows the power of fear in human society. Due to the fact that fear and avoidance are identical concepts, fear is the leading motive that forces a person to act.
Action and inaction are rooted in our fear. It is like a control center to which we regularly and unconsciously turn for permission. If it is calm there, we confidently move towards our designated goals; if there is excitement, we begin to hesitate.
This is not accidental, as already described above, it is fear that is responsible for our safety, it sharpens our perception and caution. He sees everything and hears everything; some shamans use fear to enhance their insightful abilities.
Unfortunately, fear often manifests itself in our negative actions. To be more precise, almost all of our negative manifestations, such as anger, envy, arrogance, greed, capriciousness, deceit and so on, by and large, are derived from our fears. Fear is just an instinctive reaction of our body to a threat from the outside, and our mind determines this threat, and anxiety can serve as an example of this.
Talk simply about complex things
This is one of the key skills of a journalist and editor. Most media are designed for a wide audience, and those who have not mastered the art of explaining clearly will not get into decent publications. Well, to convince you completely, look at the requirements for writers in the vacancies. In every second they are persistently looking for those who can understand the complex simply.
Half of the terminology of the same medical experts is incomprehensible to a pensioner, farmer or mechanic. It is not easy to break through the ninth wave of paperwork from officials and public utilities. And you need to convey their words in an accessible way, and also come up with a catchy title.
Features on the cover of a magazine or the front page of a newspaper are the topic of separate planning meetings, where all editors spend at least an hour being creative. The cover is a showcase on which the sales of the publication depend. And a vague quote in a title like “Theater is my life” is unacceptable in principle. In order for the magazine to be bought, the quote must be specific, perhaps taken out of context and paradoxical.
For example, “Petya Pupkin admitted that he spent the night with homeless people”, “At the age of 12 I washed cars for racketeers” (my real title for an interview with Alexei Chadov), “A monster settled in my house” (in the text this could just be a piece of a phrase about naughty cat or dog).
How to use.
To write clearly, a copywriter does not have to delve into the topic down to the details and nuances. It is enough to grasp the essence and try to convey it as best as possible. Replace complex terminology with synonyms, do not bring down an avalanche of adverbial phrases on the reader, and present them in short sentences.
To read “How to get rid of water in the text and write only to the point”
Let the text rest, then mercilessly go over it with the sculptor’s chisel. If you have enough patience, repeat shortly before the test. If the topic is very specific, give it to your husband, girlfriend, or colleague to read.
The real magic wand for this kind of work is metaphors. It’s quite difficult even for a strong pro to come up with them. Life hack: write as it is written, sketch out any associations, even the craziest ones. Then weed out what is unnecessary.
For example, in the landing page for an expensive course for successful women who are looking for men of equal status in Europe, I used the following metaphor:
“It’s very difficult to find a needle in a haystack. This is the time of pricked hands and despair, when it seems that everything is in vain... We will look for the “needle” using a powerful metal detector. Which will save time and definitely find what you need.”
In the text on the women’s tour to the Seychelles, I included Iron Arnie’s catchphrase: “I’ll be back,” you tell the Seychelles.”
And here are the metaphors of the famous blogger Yana Metelkina: “Quarantine has brought our perception system down to basic settings. My life has not become a waiting room. Rather, it has become like a boiling cauldron of ideas, analysis, rethinking and content generation.”
And finally, the genius of metaphors Oleg Batluk: “You don’t go into love with a rider. It’s just that divine shangis descended into my life together with my wife. Lucky.
Love is not an identity, it is a rhyme. Each one remains with its own root, united by endings.”
Or: “After all, babies’ hard drives record while they sleep. And their built-in microphones are even more sensitive than those of the Yandex speaker.”
References to scenes from films close to the target audience work great to evoke emotions. But the accuracy must be sniper-like, otherwise there will be no effect.
It’s useful to get into the habit of writing down good metaphors in notes on your phone. Books, articles, posts, videos - scan everything for successful techniques and metaphors. And just practice this skill regardless of your current job.
