I don’t know about you, but I love the “poll” feature on Instagram. It is such a fun window into your life and opinions, and recently I’ve started using it, every week, to see how you are feeling about your messaging and marketing.

This week? You weren’t feeling good at all.

60% of you said: “It’s a drag. I have ideas, just tired.”

27%: “It’s the most *crying emoji* thing for me this week.” 

7%: “I feel stuck in every way.”

And another 7% were feeling inspired and full of ideas.

That’s a total of 93% of you that are feeling stuck.

What should you do?

Of course I can tell you (and I will!) that a copywriter can take care of allll of this for you. And if you’re in a place where you’re ready to just hand it off to someone else, I would love to chat with you.

BUT I also realize that sometimes it’s not a good time. Maybe you can’t afford a copywriter, or just feel frustrated because you know you’re *capable* of writing and executing your own messaging/marketing copy, but somehow you just can’t get the inspiration to do it.

FIRST OF ALL. IF ANY OF THESE ARE YOU,

I absolutely do not believe you should just “push through.”

By that I mean, what you’re doing is obviously not working well. Sharing your offers and how you can HELP PEOPLE AND MAKE THEIR LIVES BETTER should absolutely not be like pulling teeth. 

Does that mean it’s not hard work? Nah. It is! But it shouldn’t be miserable.

I don’t know what you’re like, but I feel full body dread sometimes. I want to be anywhere but here, I wish I could just shut down my business, all I can think is, “Ughhhh I hate this.”

If what you’re doing is not working, it’s time to try something else. I feel sure of this the longer I am in business. Consistency is good, but if it is forced and fake, it probably won’t do much. CHANGE IT UP SOMEHOW.

Some ideas for how to change it:

 Whether you’re stuck writing your website, or just an instagram post, I will keep preaching these to you for the rest of my life I think.

IT’S OKAY TO STOP AND REST. 

One of the myths in business is that you will miss everything if you don’t jump into the fray immediately. It’s not true. Take your time. Inspired quality is what you need to aim for.

Move where you work.

Go somewhere that inspires you—a fav coffee shop, a greenhouse, your deck. Set a timer for ten minutes and get your ideas out and develop one. If one strikes you, run with it. If not, just stop if you want to! Get in the habit of not forcing it. Often I need to just go for a walk or run… and I give myself the option to not keep working when I’m done, but usually I feel refreshed and inspired with a new idea.

Let your people ask you questions

Use those questions to build off of. Use question boxes on Instagram, conversations, etc., and notice what people ask you.

Swap places with another brand.

Go to a website of a product or service that YOU are interested in, and notice what you look for, what questions you have. Then translate those into what the same version is for your own business. Write from that perspective. I think often we forget about our clients perspective and just approach everything from our OWN perspective.

Set up a fun atmosphere.

This is similar to moving your location, but seriously. Ask “If I could be anywhere right now, what would it be?” Then try to emulate that (or elements of it) in your work space, if possible. Even if you wouldn’t choose to be copywriting, your atmosphere can help so much! If the lake with coffee sounds fun, go there. If it’s your desk with a favorite candle and your favorite sparkling drink, do that. I think we can make ourselves stuck sometimes very unnecessarily when slight changes would bring back the inspiration.

Stop trapping yourself

Along with the timer thing I mentioned earlier: don’t tell yourself that this task will last forever. Say “I’m going to work for a half hour and then take a break.” Often we get stuck because we feel trapped. If you take away that loooong tunnel you’re looking down, it helps any “word claustrophobia” you might feel.

So to summarize:

If you feel exhausted and wrung out thinking about your marketing, JUST CHANGE WHAT YOU’RE DOING. DON’T PUSH THROUGH.

Stop. Rest.

Move somewhere else

Invite questions

Role play as your own client/potential client

Make your atmosphere delightful.

Make sure you know you don’t have to work on this forever.

And finally… 

Start from something.

Go looking for phrases that you can tweak and play with to inspire your own thoughts. Use a template. Take something you’ve written already and just swap out every word for a synonym. It might feel elementary, but often you then can use parts of it in your finished product!

To wrap this up:

I actually just made a HOME PAGE OUTLINE PDF for you!

It’s a short outline that tells you what the main sections of your home page should include. It’s a launching point for any creative website. Here’s the link.

Okay that’s all! Much love. Comment questions etc.