All of us have someone we dream about writing for. Maybe you’ve even reached out to them before. If they brushed you off or just didn’t reply at all, you may have had a few thoughts come to mind:

“They don’t like me. They like other kinds of people.”

“They’re out of my league. I’ll never be the kind of writer a company like that wants.”

If you’re assuming there’s some secret sauce that gets people hired that you don’t have, give up on that idea. First of all, if you’re feeling rejected, you’re in good company. Think of Harrison Ford being told he didn’t have the stuff to be a great actor or Lionel Messi getting cut from his high school team because he was too short to ever be great or Steve Jobs getting fired from his own company. Clearly, getting rejected is not an indicator of future success.

Bounce Back

Here’s an image I want you to get in your head. Remember those life-sized standing inflatable “Socker Bopper” punching bags you played with as a kid. The bottoms were filled with something heavy like water or sand so when you knocked them back with a swift punch, they’d stay anchored and spring right back into place. That’s the goal!

A lot of people stop bouncing back. They get tired. They get down on themselves. So carve out your niche by being the one who keeps bouncing back. A lot of things are out of our control—our upbringings, our physical appearance, the talents we are born with, but the degree of our persistence is not out of our control. You can be the guy/gal who gets noticed because they stay resilient.

If you get the snub and automatically assume that it’s because other people have more God-given copywriting talent than you do, consider that copywriting is a learned art. Sure, some people may show up with natural writing talent, but that’s a small piece of the equation and not a deciding factor. Here’s what makes the difference:

• Patterning your copywriting after other really good copywriters
• Taking copywriting courses to build out your toolkit with proven methods and hacks
• Believing you’re just as good as anyone else
• Presenting yourself well
• Bouncing back like a punching bag

Resilience Strategies

So let’s go back to our original scenario. You get rejected by your dream client. How are you going to bounce back?

1. Think like a copywriter. In my RMBC online copywriting class, the R stands for the research you do to get to know your target audience—their wants, needs, and pain points. Your dream client has pain points, too. They’re getting too low of a click rate on their emails. They’re not selling enough product. They’re not filling up their webinars. Bounce back and show them how you can address their pain points.

2. Prove your worth. It’s not that a prospective client doesn’t like you, it’s just that they don’t know what you can do for them—so prove it. If a sagging ROI is a prospective client’s pain point, show evidence that you can improve it. Go back to past clients and get quantifiable proof that you made a difference. Can they vouch for how you boosted Average Order Value by XX%? Get it in writing and share it with your dream client.

3. Give freebies. Maybe you’re new and don’t yet have stats to back you up. In that case, step in with a free service. Write a killer sales email and send it to the prospective client. Explain why it would boost ROI over and above what they are currently doing.

4. Use different avenues of communication. Not everyone responds to email so if yours didn’t get a reply, try reaching out in different ways: LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook. If they are active on social media forums, join in the discussion to get your name in front of them.

5. Get face time. It’s hard to trump the power of an in-person encounter. If you know your dream client is speaking somewhere or participating in a fundraiser or hosting a workshop, arrange to attend and take the time to introduce yourself afterwards.

6. Try alternate contacts. Can’t get a foot in the door with the company owner? Try the marketing director or some other official at the company.

7. Ply your network. The great thing about being involved in a mastermind or some other networking group is that you can connect with a guy who knows a guy. If everyone in the world is only 6 degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon, chances are you’ll be able to find someone who can connect you to someone at your dream company. Need help growing your network? Join our Copy Accelerator mastermind.

Don’t be the one who goes down on the first punch. People get rejected because the prospective employer doesn’t know what they can bring to the company. Your job is to bounce back and let them know how you can make their company better and more profitable.

And if you’ve exhausted all the avenues to land a job with your dream company, remember that there’s not just one great company to work for. Move on to another company that is ready to appreciate what you have to offer—then prove to that first company what they missed out on.