Share the lesson behind your judgment.

Unpopular opinion: Copywriters don't need "experience" in your field. I know. Controversial. But stay with me here. When you hire a copywriter, you're not hiring a subject matter expert. You're hiring someone who knows how to take complex information, understand an audience, and translate it into words that move people to act. That’s the skill you're after. The research is part of the job. A good copywriter will interview your team, dig into your customer reviews, study your competitors, and come out the other side sounding like they've been in your industry for years. That's not a hack, it's part of the craft. Some of the best copy I've ever written has been for industries I knew nothing about before the brief landed in my inbox. (As someone who has written about fashion, film, tech, cars, sports, food, medicine, beauty to name a few.) The obsession with "industry experience" often just means you end up with someone who writes the same way everyone else in your space writes. Uniqueness stands out, as all good copy should. What you actually need is someone who can think clearly, write persuasively, and ask the right questions. The industry knowledge? They'll get there. Faster than you think. So before you filter out that copywriter who doesn't have your specific niche on their CV, ask yourself: are you looking for a writer, or a consultant? Because those are two very different hires.

I pitched a $24k job. They came back with $10k. And I, a literal Pricing Queen, who coaches other freelancers on exactly this situation, sat there thinking about how I could make it work. Doing the mental gymnastics of what I could do to make it work... Then this literal badass of a woman at the retreat I just wrapped up said four words that stopped me cold. This woman made $1.2 million in the last year. Not "I had a good year" money. Actually life-changing, I-built-something-real money. And she does not waste time shrinking her business to fit someone else's budget. She heard my situation and said: "Do you want to be rich or do you want to be right?" They are not your client. Next. I know this. I teach this. I have said this exact thing to students who come to me spinning their wheels on a low-ball offer, trying to reshape their whole service to fit a budget that was never going to work. And still. I needed to hear it from someone who lives it. That's the thing about being in a room with people who are further ahead. It's not that they know secrets you don't. It's that they say the thing you already know with zero hesitation. No negotiating with themselves. No "but what if I just..." Just: no. Next. Sometimes the most expensive thing you can do is say yes to the wrong client.

72 refund requests in my inbox. Bus Aunty's first batch was a complete disaster, and it's 100% my fault. This is what happened. Last November, I thought I'd cracked it. Found suppliers on Taobao selling the exact E-ink display I needed. Cheap. Available. ✌️Perfect✌️ I assembled 80+ units and shipped them out. Seven days later, the first message: "There’s something wrong with the screen". I convinced myself it was a one-off defect. Maybe software. Then the second message arrived. Then a third. Fourth. Fifth. I was on a work trip in Taiwan, frantically coding firmware patches at midnight. Convinced I could fix it remotely. Ran every diagnostic test. Nothing worked. Every single screen was faulty. The suppliers I trusted sold me garbage, and I didn't order samples to verify. By December, nearly every device had failed. I spent weeks emailing customers, processing refunds, apologising. Only 8 people kept their units despite the defect. Hardware doesn't forgive shortcuts. There's no patch for broken electronics. No "move fast and break things" when your product literally breaks. Bus Aunty now uses authentic components and actually works. But this failure taught me more than any success could. So here's my advice: Don't follow me if you're looking for overnight wins. Follow me if you want the unfiltered truth about building hardware as a solo founder. #HardwareFounder #BuildingInPublic #StartupFailures