Why openness is essential to copywriters

You see number 6. I see number 9.  

I see a wise grandmother. You see an old lady. 

I agree. But I disagree. 

Every day, we see or hear conflicts. 

As copywriters, we can’t help but become willing spectators to this unending parade of polarizing phenomena.

And with these flat, rectangle tools on our hands, it’s easy to become a participant in that parade. 

While we have the freedom to express what we believe is right, this privilege often leads to a trap. 

This accessibility, I believe, can hinder us from truly extracting that sweet nectar of a winning idea. This blocks us from truly tapping into that scheme that turns people from customers to believers of the brand.  

This is where practicing openness comes in. 

What openness means 

According to Bob Deutsch, openness is one of the essential elements of living a creative, fulfilling life. 

Openness, however, is not just being transparent or saying yes to unplanned road trips. 

It’s also about being open to big changes. Your most feared possibilities. Mistakes.

To us copywriters, openness should mean being able to actively acknowledge ideas with which we necessarily disagree. 

By practicing this openness, we can become better copywriters. 

Practicing openness is not similar to losing our beliefs

This is not what practicing openness is about.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t be firm with our beliefs or hold ourselves back from voicing out our opinions. I’m not saying we should change our beliefs overnight either.

However, when we’re too solid with our beliefs, it creates a bubble. This bubble envelops us, preventing us from becoming a vessel for the message we want to communicate to our audience. 

To prevent that from happening, we must practice openness.

How practicing openness helps copywriters

Practicing openness can let us see things from multiple angles. 

As a result, we can easily accept that our audiences are complex, multi-layered beings. 

With that mindset, we can ask the difficult questions. We cannot be complacent anymore since we’re open to people disagreeing with our ideas. And we can be okay with that because we have cultivated openness at a grassroots level—ourselves. 

Consequently, we can write copies that do not represent what we believe is right—instead, we can write words that deeply resonate with our readers and their problems.

It’s not easy but we have to do it

Being too firm with our beliefs will hold us back from truly getting to the bottom of the truth—to the best possible idea we can generate. 

Practicing openness won’t be a walk in the park, though. It’s going to be difficult.

However, like a bitter pill we had to swallow when we’re sick, we have to gulp this down to get better.