Before I became a professional copywriter, way back in the olden days of August, I worked for a company that sometimes suffered from an identity crisis. I would respond to someone’s query with a fairly sincere, “Yes, we can do that.” And then I would go back to the office and we’d say, “Man, how are we going to do that?”

This identity crisis that small businesses sometimes face may have two causes:

1. The business leaders don’t really know what they want to do, and they attempt to be everything to everyone, or
2. The business leaders aren’t representing themselves honestly.

I write copy for several small organizations with tight budgets. They say, “Beth, we need a one-page flyer for our upcoming conference.” I know what they want from me is a one-page flyer with graphics and bullets and their logo, etc. No matter how many times I say, “I can help somewhat, but I’M NOT A GRAPHIC ARTIST,” they still want the graphic piece. And I give it a try for them, pulling elements from their other flyers and their website into MS Word and doing what I can. But I am not a graphic artist, and I say so.

I’m also not a public relations firm. Several clients want me to be able to produce press releases and distribute them to media contacts I know personally. I don’t know any media contacts. I certainly can’t promise someone’s piece will get anywhere. And I say so.

And I’m not an expert in search engine optimization or website critiques. I have opinions, sure. But I’m not an expert. And I say so.

I’m determined to present myself honestly both professionally and personally and to try to avoid my own identity crisis. This fall has been tough in terms of dealing with relationships with people who seemed to misrepresent themselves, starting with the ex-boyfriend (personal), continuing on to a professional acquaintance (professional) and topping off yesterday with a note from a longtime friend who said his girlfriend is intensely uncomfortable with our friendship and he has to stop chatting (personal and sometimes career related).

In these situations this fall and a couple more, I found myself looking at the person in question and saying, “Wow. You’re not who I thought you were.” My resolution is to make sure I stay honest so that neither Avenue Z nor Beth Ziesenis is ever the subject of that observation.