The one thing my community shares with me over and over again that we can probably *all* relate to:

“It’s hard to feel like I have anything helpful or unique to say when there’s so much out there!”

“So much out there” meaning…

• your community
• your competition
• a bit of both
• digital noise, in general

If I’m being honest, that just breaks my heart.

Not because I know exactly what that feels like, but because I know how much room there is for YOUR voice in the world.

So I want to share a lil’ story with you.

In January 2017, I had just discovered The Copywriter Club podcast.

Lo and behold, the first episode I listened to was with Laura Belgray, who I had never heard of before.

(But incidentally, was a copy celebrity.)

And she mentioned a creative writing workshop she was running in Cinque Terre, Italy that summer.

I remember crossing the street in the rain, earbuds popped in and bumping into someone because I stopped dead in my tracks.

Something deep inside me was reacting with a HECK YES.

Not just because I’ll take any excuse to hang out with towers of garlicky tagliatelle all day —

But because I’d just quit my marketing 9-5 job at a university, one year into building up my copywriting business on the side and…

Don’t get me wrong — business was good. My clients were good. Everything was… Good.

The problem was, no one really knew what the heck I was doing unless they were referred to me directly.

(I know. I wasn’t marketing my marketing business. This irony is not lost on me.)

I realized that I’d been waiting for a moment to explore my OWN voice.

The fact that someone else (and a castle, ciao!) would hold space for that *and* make me better?

The idea of a writing vacation ft. Aperol Spritz at sunset?

The knowledge that I wouldn’t gain the confidence unless I took a chance on myself?

I was sold.

Because here’s the thing…

Writing in our OWN voice isn’t easy.

It’s vulnerable. It starts and stops. For the perfectionists, editing while you’re free writing is a constant challenge.

There’s no deadline timer around that says, “you have to master this by October 21st, 2023 or you suck!”

There’s simply no real urgency to figure it out.

But that fear of trying to find “the right thing to say” lingers and bubbles up within us over the years, and it makes a dent.

In our confidence *and* in our businesses.

For a long time, honestly, I felt like no one cared what I had to say, too.

But one plane ticket to Pisa + stopover in Florence + a train ride to Riomaggiore later…

I was shocked to find that only a few days of writing in my voice gave me permission to speak up.

Being surrounded by people who were trying to do the same thing helped me see that we *all* struggle with this.

(And I’m a copywriter!)

I waited until the last day to read some of my work out loud. And boom — I walked away with three clients.

In fact, the very company that partnered with Laura, Italian Fix, hired me a year later to write their content and emails.

Suddenly, so many opportunities were coming my way organically…

And my work transformed from good to GREAT.

The fact that I showed up for myself and activated the courage to share my words with the world — instead of being behind-the-scenes for everyone else — attracted my dream clients, community and sparked conversations I never knew I had within me.

Three years later…

Writing emails to my list? I still look away when I press “send” sometimes, because I worry if people will care (or unsubscribe). But I do it anyway.

Sharing on Instagram? I might double, triple check my captions and edit the copy for 20 minutes before posting. But I do it anyway.

Writing my About page? It took me a month to finally finish it and get personal while showcasing my value. But I did it anyway.

Taking all these micro-steps took my business from:

• e-intros to dreamy cold leads showing up in my Instagram DMs
• clients that haggled over pricing to a 3-month waitlist
• serving everybody to niching down + recognizing where my sweet spot was
• sporadically posting to holding intentional space to write something fresh every week

But I wouldn’t have grown into the business owner I am today if I’d stayed silent.

If you take anything away from this post:

Know that writing your own copy is really like *any* new skill we try to learn — an instrument, driving, cooking, perfecting how many scoops of raspberry gelato is *enough* to hit the spot…

It just takes practice.

It doesn’t have to follow anyone’s style, but your own.

Yes, it can still be scary to know what that is.

But most importantly, it requires that you get out of your own way so that you do it anyway.

Plus, it helps when you’re surrounded by like-minded people who want to see you succeed.

And since I know how crappy it would have been if I had continued to stay silent…

(I would have probably still been managing social media accounts for financial firms *shudder*…)

My creative writing membership >> The Tide Pool << was created to hold that space to access your voice.

After showing up consistently for the next year – I know folks who join us will finally believe that they have stories worth sharing.

Even if it still freaks them out to put their voice out in the world, they’ll do it anyway.

Later — I hope they’ll recognize that it was the catalyst to take their business writng from good to great, too.

So, if you’re tired of holding back and pressing “publish” on, well, anything…

Hop on the waitlist so you can snag early bird access.

Because if you’ll let me, I wanna turn up the volume on what you’ve gotta say.

And if you’re going to be figuring out on your own for a while…

Remember, there’s room for EVERYONE.

Most importantly, no one has your unique perspective on anything.

If they did, you probably wouldn’t be running your own business or serving the unique audience who listens to you.

Sometimes we don’t need to hear it from anybody else.

We just need to hear it from YOU.

And a couple of times, at that.

You never know who’s listening.

But make sure you’re there, when they are.

Signing off this one by handing you the mic + espresso for liquid courage.

xo

Zafira