Jessica Cates

Be honest with your client (and with yourself) about what's realistic, given your resources and bandwidth. When you built the initial delivery schedule, were the available resources (ex, freelance writers) and the volume of scheduled deliverables promised in alignment? If not, you may be overindexing on what's possible with your current team.

Stop pitching your product or service and start pitching how or why your product or service makes life easier for the buyer. Leading with 'what's in it for me' will help you build trust and will give you the power to connect with landing page visitors in a meaningful way. When people feel seen and understood, it speeds up the buying process. Need help with positioning? Work closely with your sales team and connect with customer success to identify the most prominently shared pain points, then make a list of all the specific ways your solution reduces or eliminates those challenges.

Pay attention to AI and get curious about it! It's not going anywhere, and like it or not, you need to learn how to embrace it. Treat it like a tool, not a threat. Learn where it can help you save time and add value to your process. Copywriters who adopt this mindset will come out ahead.

Time blocking is critical—especially if your projects require a lot of context switching. Schedule specific time into your day for a particular project and be disciplined about spending time on just that task. Turn off chat notifications, get away from your inbox, and put your phone in the other room. It's also important not to force progress if you're not in a good state of mind to create great content. Some days, your creative juju is strong. Ride the wave and make it a super productive day. Other days, every word can feel like a battle. When that happens, don't force it! Pivot to a different type of project if possible. Giving yourself enough lead time makes it easier to have the wiggle room to shift priorities when needed.

When you're looking for opportunities, share your status with your network and message coworkers and leaders you worked with at prior companies. I've done this successfully multiple times. By reconnecting, I got to hone my chops on lots of different topics and content types, and my contacts got to work with someone they already trusted to produce quality work. Win-win!

Know that someday, you're going to read something that you wrote five years ago and think that it's pretty terrible. That's not a bad thing! It's a sign of growth.