Don’t make this mistake when trying to break into copywriting…

Okay, kind of an embarrassing story. But I don't want this to happen to aspiring copywriters, so I'm just going to set my ego on a shelf for now...

I talk a lot about how it took me 9 years to break into copywriting. Part of the reason was... self-inflicted.

It came down to two myths I believed:

1️⃣ I thought I needed fancy credentials or household-name clients to have anything portfolio-worthy. If I didn't have a national campaign for Dove in my portfolio, then no one would care about my work.

2️⃣ I thought people would just ~see my potential~ and give me a shot (without me applying). Like my talent would give off an aura or magnetize opportunities to me. I was just waiting to be discovered by some marketing director who happened to be shopping in my store 🤦‍♀️

Both of those beliefs kept me stuck and miserable for way too long.

When I became the head of a content department and started hiring writers, do you know what I DIDN'T care about?

❌ If my applicants had household name brands in their portfolio. I wasn't even checking that the samples were paid gigs.

That s#!t didn't matter. Just 1 thing did:

✅ Their writing ability.

I was looking for a few specific things:

⚡️ Great hooks and headlines

🔥 A point of view, an original idea, or a hot take

🤓 A good handle on English grammar and syntax

Once I scraped my first portfolio together, things changed. I landed my first staff writing job and the rest is history.

But that was 4+ years ago. Are all the bells and whistles totally necessary anymore? Short answer... it's nice to have them, but you can get a workable professional-level portfolio off the ground with way less effort.

After working on my own and dozens of clients' portfolios, I've refined it to something easy to set up and maintain. I call it the "Portfolio Dashboard."

The template is available inside my Copywriter Portfolio Starter Kit free resource. It's got literally everything you need to set up a Google Drive portfolio and start writing today.

Let me know if it helps!