From Shrinking to Standing Tall: How Jill Reclaimed Her Voice and Empowers Women to Own the Room

Personal Growth
Written By Jill P.

There’s a distinct moment, one that almost feels electric, when a woman realizes she doesn’t have to shrink herself anymore.

Jill Pavlov has built her life around that realization. Through Copy POP!, her brand voice coaching and improv workshop company, Jill helps women show up, speak up, and say what they came to say. But her mission didn't come from a place of innate confidence. It came from years of silence, self-doubt, and a long personal battle to reclaim her own voice.

This is her story: one of healing, self-expression, and helping women everywhere remember just how powerful they really are. 

in memory of Meg and Vesper
for always seeing the beauty in everyone around them

The Two Jills: Spotlight Star and Silent Observer

As a child, Jill Pavlov was a fascinating contradiction. At family gatherings, she directed and starred in homemade plays, demanding the lead role, with a particular video involving pushing her little brother out of the way during a solo performance now immortalized in family lore. Yet, outside her inner circle, she felt invisible. In classrooms, she stifled sneezes just to avoid making noise; she navigated the world by keeping her head down, afraid to take up space.

“I had these two versions of myself,” she says. “The one who lit up in performance... and the one who felt unworthy in the real world.”

Like so many girls raised in a culture of "be quiet, be good, be pretty," Jill internalized the message that she needed to be smaller—not just physically, but emotionally and energetically. The older she got, the harder it became to reconcile her inner boldness with the never-ending external pressure to be perfect.

Seventeen Years in the Dark & the Neuroplastic Shift

By the end of high school, Jill’s internal battle had manifested into an eating disorder—one that would last 17 years.

“When I look back at that time, the thing that I think about most is just that feeling of not being worthy of anyone's attention or time,” she recalls. “I had these huge dreams, but I never felt worthy of them. I was taught not to brag, not to be ‘too much.’ So I’d hold back. I’d wait to be discovered instead of putting myself out there.”

The disordered thinking wasn’t just about body image. It was ultimately about her self-worth, fear of failure, and the belief that if she couldn’t do something perfectly, she shouldn’t do it at all. The years of trying, slipping, getting help, and relapsing were exhausting and deeply isolating. What finally changed everything for her was discovering Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)—a method rooted in mindset reframing that finally clicked.

“I’m a very logical person,” she says. “So when I started challenging those automatic thoughts of, ‘I’m not good enough,’ ‘I shouldn’t post that,’ ‘I’ll never be chosen’… something shifted. And I’ve spent the last seven years literally retraining how I think, every single day.”

The Science of the Shift

Reframing an automatic negative thought is more than just positive thinking; it's the scientific process of literally changing your brain. Every thought, belief, and behavior is wired in the human brain through neural pathways. When you engage in a thought pattern for a long time, like 17 years, those pathways become entrenched "superhighways." They become the default thinking pattern we automatically use because it's so familiar.

Credit: Lone Star Neurology

CBT's technique of consciously challenging and redirecting thoughts utilizes the brain's incredible property of neuroplasticity. This is the ability of the brain to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. Every time Jill chose to challenge the thought, "I’m not good enough," and replace it with a more logical, gentle thought, she was essentially redirecting traffic away from the old, worn "superhighway" and laying down a new, healthier "side road." With enough repetition (seven years of daily practice in Jill's case!), that new side road can become the dominant, automatic superhighway instead.

From Mental Lifeline to the Power of Play

That daily mental practice of noticing the inner critic and gently redirecting her thoughts became Jill’s lifeline.

"You know, it's just talking to yourself," she says. "And it's so hard in the beginning because your mind has been trained to think a certain way for so long. I mean, it's still hard for me even seven years later. My therapist once told me those thoughts are like a barking chihuahua… they don’t necessarily stop barking—they just get quieter.”

With therapy and daily thought reframing, she also began to immerse herself in healing tools: morning routines (she is fiercely protective of her mornings!), daily movement, romanticizing daily rituals, meditation, and, most surprisingly, improv. Improv was the missing link, reintroducing her to play, spontaneity, and her inner child.

Jill realized improv wasn’t just a performance technique. It was a true life technique, one that taught her to trust herself, respond in the moment with a confident "yes, and," and stop overthinking everything.

She also learned to let go of her past self: “Teaching people how to treat you was another thing that took me a long time to finally realize… I realized that when I walked into a room, people weren't necessarily seeing that nerdy high school Jill. I don't have to be that high school person. No one knows about that person, except people in high school.”

“That’s when it hit me,” she says. “This wasn’t just something that helped me. This was something I could use to help other women, too.”

The Entrepreneurial Turn: The Birth of Copy POP!

Jill founded Copy POP! after leaving her corporate copywriting job. Initially, it focused solely on brand messaging. But two years in, she was asked to lead an in-person improv workshop for female entrepreneurs—and the company's direction changed forever.

“I tailored a few classic improv exercises to business and pitching, and I’ll never forget what one woman in the workshop said to me afterward. She said, ‘I was always taught to be seen and not heard.’ And it was that moment that cracked something open in me.” 

She began to feel a fire ignite. “I love that I'm using this pain and seeing past all the things that we (as women) were taught in society of having to be smaller or more silent and being like, ‘actually, no, women need to be much louder.’”

 

“Whoever you are, as soon as you walk into a room, you can decide who you want to be. You can decide that you are worthy of people's attention, time, and respect as soon as you walk in a door.”

 

It became clear: the work was no longer just about brand copy. It was about confidence. It was about voice. It was about making women feel seen and powerful in rooms where they so often were taught to disappear.

“That was when Copy POP! became what it is now,” Jill says. “A place where women don’t just find the right words, they find the courage to say them.”

The Mission: Helping Women Own the Room

Today, Copy POP! helps women clarify their message, embody their voice, and show up fully in the spaces that matter—whether on stage, on camera, in a client meeting, or online.

Through a three-month, 1:1 brand voice coaching program, Jill guides clients through deep dives on mindset, audience, and communication strategy rooted in authenticity and impact. She also facilitates dynamic, improv-based workshops for corporate teams, founder groups, and women-led communities.

Her favorite part of her job? When she sees firsthand how women transform throughout the process.

“They go from hiding behind being perfect and polished to perfect Instagram captions to unapologetically owning their expertise in front of live audiences. And the best part? They don’t just sound confident—they feel confident. When you own your confidence, it's just such a cool little party trick to be able to walk into a room and be like, ‘Yeah, I'm that bitch.’”

 

“You don’t have to keep being the version of yourself that played small. You don’t have to wait for someone else to see your magic. You get to show them.”

 

The Decision to Stand Tall

Jill’s story is a powerful testament to what’s possible when women stop believing the inner critics in their minds and choose to stop shrinking. She also acknowledges the power other women can give us in our own journeys, simply by encouraging us.

“My friend Meg was the ultimate hype girl. I met her in recovery at the inpatient treatment center where I went seven years ago,” she shares. "Meg always greeted you with a compliment and made you feel like the best version of yourself. She passed away last year, so I actively make a choice to live ‘double’ for her; I want to honor her memory by being the ultimate hype girl for all women, because that's what she was for me.”

“Another woman is my late friend Vesper who I met while filming a TV show. I'll never forget the last day of filming, and she was just like, ‘There's something deeply special inside of you that I can see.’ She made me feel seen in the way that I have wanted to be seen my whole life. Like finally someone saw me as a star. And I think it was because I was really starting to put myself out there in full force.”

The impact that the relationships Jill has built with other women—and with herself—has her feeling more rooted in who she is than ever before. Her mission is clear: help women feel comfortable in their own skin, confident in their message, and capable of taking up space—not just in business, but in life.

And that's the kind of confidence that can’t be faked—because it’s been earned through years of courage.

✨ Learn More or Work with Jill

📚 Jill’s Recovery and Mental Health Resources

Jill P.
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