Grant writing feels intense for a reason—and it’s not just the competition. Most researchers are unknowingly writing their proposals from a place of fear, confusion, and guessing at what reviewers want. In this video, I show you why anxiety quietly sabotages your proposal… and how to fix it by finally understanding what triggers your reviewers (and what excites them).
If you’ve ever felt the “black cloud” of grant pressure, repeated rejections, or the sense that reviewers are impossible to satisfy, this will make a huge difference in how you approach your next proposal. I’ve gone through this and can very much relate. I also figured out how to do it differently, and I will show you one way to reduce the anxiety.
In this video, you’ll learn:
- Why the unknown is the real driver of grant-writing anxiety
- How fear pushes you into bad writing habits (data overload, defensiveness, or going too minimal)
- The real reason proposals get worse—not better—after each rejection
- What “frame clash” is, and how it silently turns reviewers against you
- How to use frame meshing to align your idea with a reviewer’s perspective
- Why identifying offensive and defensive frames before writing can transform both your clarity and your confidence
This is the approach I wish I’d had when I was a new faculty member getting rejection after rejection. Once I learned how reviewers actually think—and how to avoid tripping their defenses—everything changed.
