How to silence the imposter syndrome “dump truck”

At roughly 3:15 this morning my eyes shoot open in a flash of panic.

But … it’s not for anything related to copywriting.

No, no. I’m awake because of something much worse.

The angry, loud garbage truck picking up the weekend trash haul from below my apartment.

Unfortunately, I live on the side of the building near the trash room, and these panicky 3 am wake up calls have become a regular occurrence.

Later this morning, I was browsing r/Copywriting when I came across this post:

“Imposter syndrome alert! So my boss at the marketing company I work for has gone from only giving me proofing and editing tasks, to now having me completely rewrite new content for both of their websites, blogs, email campaigns, etc within the last month. I’m loving the work and I’ve only ever gotten really positive feedback from them… but I’m kind of tripped out that I’m being trusted with these big tasks with such little experience on my hands.”

Between you and I, the feeling that I had this morning when I woke up in a panic from the noise of the trash truck is not very dissimilar from the feeling this Reddit poster is experiencing right now.

It’s that shocking feeling that floods you with liquid anxiety in an instant.

Of course, I’m talking about imposter syndrome.

And I will tell you something that most copywriting teachers will probably never tell you.

Even after 5 in the copywriting industry, I’ve never stopped having this issue.

I’m a senior copywriter and I manage a copy team, yet I still struggle with feeling like I’m not actually qualified for any of it.

Maybe it goes against the “rules” of teaching copywriting to tell you this, but it’s true.

Thing is, while I still experience this feeling regularly, I’ve also figured out way to properly deal with it.

At least one that works for me.

The main thing is developing or following a proven process for anything I do related to copywriting.

It’s why I love — and take — so many courses. And it’s also why I think copywriting formulas (while flawed) are so effective. I even credit the P-A-S formula to helping me launch my career.

So if you’re anything like me and you deal with this too, my advice is to develop or follow a proven process to fall back on whenever that imposter syndrome comes snapping at 3 in the morning.

I think you’ll be surprised at how quickly it can quiet the … dump truck.

And for more trash-silencing ideas, you can sign up for my daily emails here.

David Patrick