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Take Ownership of Your Work

Writer's picture: Molly SimkissMolly Simkiss

When I was just starting out as a junior copywriter, my job was to write product descriptions.


Persuasive, long-form sales copy. Paragraphs, extolling the virtues of each item that landed in my queue.


At that point, it was all I knew how to do.


Then one day, about a year or so into my career, I was asked to work on a flyer.


It was a kind of copywriting I had zero experience with, but was given the chance to do because someone, somewhere had confidence in my writing abilities.


I was young and unsure of myself and just sort of grateful for the opportunity. 


So when the intake meeting happened, I just sat there and listened.


Most of the discussion was around design.


Copy was an afterthought, and I received very little in the way of direction.


But I was afraid to speak up, so I kept my mouth shut. Again, just…happy to be there.


I did the best I could with what little direction I had, and sent a first pass to stakeholders for review.


As you can imagine, it didn’t exactly go well.


How could it? I had no idea where the copy needed to land.


All of a sudden, out of nowhere, the project manager showed up at my desk and put me on blast, LOUDLY, in front of the entire copywriting team. (Please don’t do this. If you have constructive feedback for someone, always try to have a private conversation.)


I’m not gonna lie. It sucked. It was embarrassing.


But it reminded me of a very valuable lesson that I had learned previously, but since this was new territory, had not applied to this particular situation—and that was to take ownership of my work.


Here’s a reality that, as a copywriter, you will be faced with your whole career.


You will often get very little or non-specific direction unless you ask for it.


There are exceptions, of course. And I’ve been lucky enough to have worked with many professionals who understand this and offer the tools you need to do your job well.


But at the end of the day, it’s going to be up to you to:


  • Ask questions.

  • Get clarification.

  • Understand the goal of the messaging.

  • Stay within character counts.


From that day on, I vowed to myself that no matter what, I would always ask the questions that needed to be asked. At the end of the day, that’s my name on that project. It’s my reputation as a writer. And one day, it will be yours, too.


So, the biggest lesson I can give copywriters who are just starting out is this: raise your hand. Send the Slack message. Hop on that video call. (Ugh, I know. Do it anyway.) It takes less than 10 minutes. And in almost every case, the person you’re speaking to is happy to answer your questions. They want the project to succeed! 


And remember this: when people see your copy, they’re not going to know that you had hardly any information to work off of. The only thing they’re going to see is the end result.


What do you want people to remember about the copy you were responsible for?


Ask the questions you need to ask.


Take ownership of your work.


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