A Crash Bang Re-Beginning

 “The greatest glory in living lies not in never failing,
but in rising every time we fail.”
– Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa
and anti-apartheid activist

In Issue #179

Editor’s Note: Today’s essay is a follow-up to Copy Protégé Issue #158 where Mindy McHorse told you about her struggles with getting her career going. It appears Mindy is over her woes and things are really starting to take off. Read for yourself; I think you’ll like it!)

Main Essay: A Crash-Bang Re-Beginning, Part I
by Mindy McHorse

You may remember the letter I wrote Krista two months ago (shared in CP Issue #158). In it, I detailed some rocky challenges I had faced. How I nearly chucked out the copywriting dream in favor of returning to a commonplace grind in the corporate world. How that plan backfired and left me flat on my fanny, a little confused but ultimately sure that copywriting was the only path for me.

Krista had encouraged me to share my story, suspecting I wasn’t alone. She was right, of course, and the outpouring of fellow copywriters who had braved similar setbacks was tremendous. Frankly, I was knocked on my fanny again, but this time from gratitude. I’d never really been the type to publically talk about hardships, thinking it couldn’t possibly do me any good. Ha! Wrong again.

Today I want to share the happy ending – or rather, new beginning to this story.

After I resolved to keep on plugging away at the dream, two events took place in my life that opened my eyes up to why I stumbled. I realized my struggle wasn’t due to lack of ability to learn good copywriting. Instead, my own half-humble, half-vain thoughts had stymied my motion.

“Joe-Vitale-Wisdom” helped me realize the half-humble part. At last year’s Bootcamp, Joe spoke about a point in his life when he’d reached what he called an “income ceiling.” Try as he might, he couldn’t move beyond a certain point in his earnings.

After a lot of internal reflection, Joe realized he was actually facing a self-imposed ceiling. He’d reached the point in his earnings where he made as much as his parents did, and he realized he felt bad about going beyond that.

Joe had to work on his own self-limiting thoughts to convince himself that it was okay to make more than his parents ever did – that’s what they would want for him, in fact. After he reached that realization, his income shot up past the ceiling and kept on going (into the millions, if I remember right).

Joe’s story led me to my own breakthrough moment. I realized one of the things holding me back was guilt. I flat-out felt guilty for the great lifestyle I was leading.

Most of my friends have only recently landed full-time “real” jobs. They’re busy navigating the stresses of climbing corporate ladders. They put in long hours and miss time with new spouses and babies, consoling themselves with the fact that they have a 401k and steady paychecks.

My older friends, relatives, and even my parents methodically put in time at jobs they like but don’t love. Most of them have tolerated this pattern for 20+ years…the ever-present promise of retirement is what makes them carry on.

But there I was, at only 27, living my dream job, getting to build my schedule around my family, and answering only to myself. Fair? Didn’t seem like it. So to take the edge off my guilt, I’d point out negatives when anyone asked about my career: “It’s solitary, you know…self-marketing can be tough…never know what’s around the corner…etc, [insert sad story here].”

Sure, once or twice I mentioned how happy I was, how lucky I was despite all the work…and then I watched my friends’ faces cloud over in envy. That was hard to bear.

With my newfound Joe-Vitale-Wisdom, I realized for the first time I’d been limiting myself based on what those around me had achieved. I ended up focusing so much on the hard stuff, I convinced myself it was too good to last. So when my corporate opportunity came up, I thought, “Welp, this must be it. It’s been a good run.” Fortunately, I was dead wrong.

And you know what? Despite everything, I know that those who care about me are truly happy for me. They applaud and encourage me, even if they do grumble about their own challenges (then again, don’t we all grumble every now and then?).

Here’s a cool twist. A couple friends have lately confided that seeing me go after my goal makes them want to plunge ahead with their own dreams. I can’t wait to watch them soar.

My take-home lesson: Once I let myself feel good about my own success, my writing world opened up and assignments began to rain down. In fact, since my version of “the awakening,” I’ve been steadily success-bound. I even had to turn a client down for a project because I’m just too busy! (Let’s be real though, people. It wasn’t because I’m booked up through December…it was because he needed a 3-day turnaround and I was booked through the end of the week.) Still…it felt good!

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Reminder: Call for Submissions

I wanted to remind you that Monica and I are inviting you to join people like Mindy and share your lessons, challenges, and successes with us. As Monica mentioned, every week we will highlight a guest essay in one of our issues, and then the other will still contain an original essay from Monica or me.

Copy Protégé has grown into a community where new and aspiring copywriters can share their joys as well as their fears—and we love it. Plus, you’ve written us to let us know how much you’ve enjoyed the guest essays we’ve shared with you over the past couple of years so we want to keep it going. You’ve heard from Laurie Cauthen, Mindy McHorse, Ed Gandia, and many others. Now we’d love to hear from you. Send your submissions to admin@copyprotege.com. (There is no pay available upon publication, but there is lots of glory, and a link to your website and/or your email address.)