A couple of days ago, I was reading Daniel Throssell’s email and he got this question from one of his subscribers:

Here’s an #AskDaniel:

I was thinking about the (your?) insecurities as a copywriter.

I can imagine one being not seen as a “real” copywriter, because you, to my knowledge, don’t have any direct response controls like a package, promo, magalog or whatever.

(Obviously you have major client wins like for Scott Pape.)

Yet that’s what most copywriters brag about: having controls, increasing conversion rates by a bazillion percent, etc.

Is that something you struggle with mentally?

(Now, I don’t expect you to publicly reveal your insecurities or whatever. I just wanted to ask you this question, since it’s a thing I actually do kinda struggle with myself.)

–Phil N. Secure

Before I give you my personal take… 😏

Here’s is Daniel’s response…

I do not have an iota of ‘insecurity’ about not ‘having any controls’ or ‘increasing conversion rates’ or anything.

For starters, I could argue that actually, I hold 100% of the ‘controls’ for a rather successful direct-response business — my own.

There is no copywriter, no matter how good they think they are, who can do better than me at writing copy for my business.

And I don’t mean just optimising for conversion rate — but for ALL the things I optimise my business for, like lack of refunds, customer quality, customer satisfaction, customer results, customer retention and other things which are far deeper than the simple gross sales figure that most copywriters crow about.

For another, I’ve built — from the ground up — one of the most powerful and high-quality lists in the copywriting niche over the past few years.

I could launch a new product today and have literally hundreds of people buy it with a single email.

What’s more, I get daily feedback on my skills.

I send an email every day, and it is a very rare day I do not wake up to new sales in my inbox.

It’s kind of hard to feel like I don’t know what I’m doing when the money keeps stubbornly coming in like that.

Now I’m not just saying this to talk about how confident I am.

Because your question was, obviously, about how you — and other copywriters — can overcome such insecurities.

Which is why I chose the above examples to illustrate my point:

Most of my confidence as a copywriter has come from building my own business.

Yes, I was involved with some amazing stuff with the Barefoot Investor, and I am grateful for the resume accomplishments that gave me.

But ultimately, building my own business has given me irrefutable proof that I know what I’m doing.

Which is why I have always, ALWAYS advocated for copywriters to treat their own business like one of their clients’ — and invest their energies into creating a website, opt-in form, welcome sequence, emails, and offers for their OWN list.

Because your own business is the ultimate sandbox — you get to test absolutely anything you want, and claim 100% of the credit (and the sales!).

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El Copy Goat’s take?

The guy's initial question is stuck in 1985 and Daniel is thriving in 2025.

I see this all the time (and have literally felt this myself).

In fact, my first payment as a copywriter was NOT FROM A CLIENT…

It was from selling my OWN stuff!

Candidly, I didn’t even think about trying to land clients, beat controls, create promo packages or anything like that when I started…

Instead I…

*Wrote on Twitter

*Sent a daily email

*Created an eBook in Canva

And wala…

I made a couple hundred bucks as a newbie copywriter selling my own stuff.

Which to me, was better than working for free for some roofing company or whatever to write emails just so I could “build my portfolio.”

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BUT THEN…

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After a couple years of writing copy for myself — I felt that insecurity.

Am I really a good copywriter if I can’t write for clients? If I don’t hold a control? If I can’t apply my skills in the “real world?”

So I ventured out as a freelancer to get a couple gigs.

I wrote email copy in the eCom space AND ABSOLUTELY SLAYED!

But it didn’t help me feel more or less like a copywriter.

It just scratched the itch of this 40-year-old concept that copywriters take clients, beat controls, and repeat until rich.

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But we ain’t in 1985 anymore…

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If you don’t WANT to cold DM clients, build your portfolio with free work, or hustle on Upwork…

You don’t HAVE to.

You can… and you can make great money doing it…

But if you’re like me (and Daniel) and you enjoy WRITING FOR YOURSELF… your own passion… niche… products… without chasing clients.

Reply to this email with the words “CopyCreator”

I’m cooking up an idea that I’m not ready to share publicly yet, but would love to get your feedback on.

Your friend,

Alin “CopyCreator” Dragu