3 Ways to Create Schedule Freedom as a Writer
Feeling bound by working way more hours than you want, and feeling like you didn’t sign up for 80 hours weeks as a freelance writer? I’ve been through burnout and rest cycles over the last 10 years and came up with a few major ways to create more schedule freedom week to week (the kind you were thinking about when you started your business).
If you want to work fewer hours and enjoy more time off, hang out on this livestream to learn the exact steps to accomplish that, how to make more money with your shorter schedule, and how to think ahead when it comes to schedule and work hours.
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3 Ways to Create Schedule Freedom as a Writer
Are you feeling stuck and bound by your freelance writing schedule? Do you feel like you didn't really sign up for these like giants 80 hour weeks or that when you got into freelance writing, it wasn't really about just writing things that you loved or working with clients that you like, but also having some schedule freedom?
Right. That's the whole point. A lot of us go freelance is that we wanna make sure that we actually have schedule space and we actually have schedule. So today what we're gonna talk about is how to actually do that. How to actually put things together, how to actually get schedule freedom, how to put all of our stuff together so we can earn more and fewer hours.
That's the really important part. So we wanna make sure that we're talking about a few things. We've got our friends here today. There he is, he's sleeping. Charlotte is outside. Sunning like an alligator. So. . Once she decides that she wants to come back in and be part of our group , she will do that. We are always on like Charlotte time, so if you're ever wondering, like , if you're ever wondering like who controls who, Charlotte controls us all.
That's the deal. All right, so let's talk about this. Let's talk about number one. Uh, well actually we're gonna do it backwards today. We're gonna do it backwards today. And um, I wanted to put something in here where we remember to talk about runway. So today is the last day. To join runway. Today's the last day to sign up for, um, my five day live bootcamp.
So we're gonna have a different topic every single day. We're gonna have a live class every single day for an hour. The live class is at 12:00 PM Pacific Time, 2:00 PM Central, 3:00 PM Eastern, and 7:00 PM gmt. I like the wave. Um, and we will be, um, having recordings for all of the classes. You're gonna have a community as well, uh, to ask questions, to talk to other students.
I'll be in the community every single day, and you'll also have the opportunity to have a bonus masterclass on the Friday after. So on April 7th, you're also gonna get a bonus masterclass on the topic of your choice. We're gonna vote on that as a community. So it's a $49 class. It's five days. Um, it's a live class every day.
Everything's recorded. You get to ask questions. You'll have a community, um, you'll have all the support that you need, and you also get to vote on a topic of your choice for a class. So that I think is pretty cool. So it's 49 bucks. Today's the last day to sign up. If you go to mandy ellis.com/runway, you can check.
And if you have any questions, you can always send me an email@mandymandy.com and I'm happy to answer them. But today's last day is sign up, so hop to mandy.com/runway if you're interested in that. I think Charlotte might be at the door. I think I just heard her. Hold on. Are you at the door? Hello. Welcome.
Um, nice of you to join us from the outdoors. Why don't you come sit here on your. Oh, okay. Go ahead. You can get under the blanket. Go ahead. Come on. You wanna be on the blanket? Okay. She's here. Well, she's sort of over there. Can you go back to your Thanks? Thanks for joining us today. We're so glad you're here.
From the outdoors. Good job. All right. We officially have our friend here. She's here. She's joined us. There she is. Y. . We've already bored her. She's already bored with everything I've had to say. Sorry, Charlotte. I try to be interesting, but sometimes I'm not as interesting as you are . Okay, let's talk about number three.
We're gonna go backwards today in our, um, in our 3, 2, 1 for our three things, our three things to create schedule freedom. . So number three. Oh, she's on the move. She's on the move. Hi. Oh, you wanna sleep over there? Okay, cool. You can do that. All right, so there are number three thing Here is something that I tell my students all the time, whether they're my Wealth Lab students or what I'm gonna tell my runway students, which we're gonna go into depth more on this topic, but this is kind of the general broad brushstrokes on that, is that when you're creating Schedule freedom one, you have to know what your ideal schedule is.
There's a lot of times where. I end up talking to writers and they have no idea what their ideal schedule is. They have no idea what that looks like. They don't plan a year ahead. They don't have five year kind of plans or, uh, at least like a vision or an idea of what they want their schedule to look like.
So one, you have to define what that looks like for you. Two , you gotta know that you can't plan your work two weeks ahead. You have to be planning months in advance. So three to six months is what I always tell my student. . And I feel like that's a good way to look at what's kind of coming in. And then there's this bigger picture idea of what deadlines you have, what money's coming in, how things are going out, um, what kinds of things you can think about adding.
And a lot of times I talk to writers, this is, this is a thing, like I've talked to writers that are brand new, freelance writers, brand new, just starting their. , um, to people who have been swirling in kind of that 30 to 50 K plateau and they all are like, oh, I have work for two weeks. I've had this conversation so many times.
It dri, it's like, it drives me nuts a little bit. Cause I'm like, how are you surviving for decades on two weeks of like this cycle? It's just exhausting. Like, I don't know how you do it. And so you can't just say, I have work for two weeks, or I have work until the end of the month. We have to be thinking about three to six months.
so that that drives our marketing, that drives our lois and pitches, that drives who we talk to. That drives like all the stuff that we have in our business so that we have more space if we know what deadlines are coming up, if we know what kinds of things are happening with, um, our money and our time off schedule, right?
That way, planning three to six months ahead makes it a lot easier to have schedule freedom instead of this constant panic of like, I need work, I have to do all this. . Um, so we have to plan further ahead, and that goes in conjunction with three, which is your time off, right? You should be scheduling your time off for the year.
This is what I do is in January, I pull up my dry erase calendar. Um, I actually need to update it, but um, I put it in my, I cal in my Apple calendar on, um, my computer and I mark off all of the time that I have off for the whole year, and this helps me make sure. No one can schedule calls. I actually have book time off.
I can tell my clients ahead of time that I'm actually taking this time off, um, and I have space to do all the things that I wanna do, but also give myself rest time. So those first three things are kind of in a group as far as like actually giving ourselves schedule freedom. It's like you have to know your ideal schedule.
You have to plan three to six months ahead, and you have to make sure that you have this big picture view so that you have all your vacations set up for the. Because I'm telling you, and I've said this before on this live stream, no one cares that you're taking five business days off. And even if you took off six weeks through the year, what is that?
Six times, 30 days off like a month over the course of a year? No one cares as long as you, um, notify your clients ahead of time and you work your work around it. You're like, oh, I can't take a deadline that week, but I'll take it two weeks later. Or you, like, I always do this thing. , I'll get a bunch of work done way before I'll say, Hey, I'm taking time off.
Let's kind of get ahead. So then when I get back, we're ahead. Or when I, before I take time off, I'm like, Hey, what can we do? Like, how do we schedule the time after that? Like how do we bulk up work after I get back? So it's all done in the same time period. Right? It's not that you're missing a week, it's that.
putting a little bit more work sometimes on the front end of your vacation or the back end. And it's not hard. It's not hard to do. Yeah. There's a little bit extra sometimes to do, but if you're planning way ahead, it's not hard to tell your client like, Hey, let's do six blog posts instead of four so we can get ahead.
Right. Not hard. So that's kind of our first clump, number two when we're talking about this stuff. And I think. , um, when we're kind of going over our schedule freedom and when we're thinking about making money with a shorter schedule, here's a few examples. Like I have friends and I know other six figure freelance writers who work part-time, so they make six figures on 20 hours a week, right?
That comes from a few different things, right? Like retainers, right? They have regular retainers, and then they also make sure that they're kind of scheduling these retainers. , like on an ongoing basis. So a retainer could be that you work for an online publication and you write four articles a month at an X rate, and you just do that constantly.
Like your contract is like, we just continue until we're done. Right? So that could be something. Or you could have a regular retainer where you're doing content strategy or a regular retainer where you're doing, um, a clump of work. Like they give you 5K a month and every month they're like, here's a bunch of deliverables.
What can we get done this month? So you tell them and you just do that every. So do you have retainers? Are you seeking out ongoing work? Right. This is really important because if you have ongoing work, everything becomes more predictable and if it's more predictable, then you're able to create more schedule freedom because you know kind of what's going on.
When I notice that freelance writers don't have schedule freedom, a lot of times it's that they just don't know what's going on. Like they're not organized with their calendars, with their deadlines, their to-dos the financials in their. Um, they're not paying attention to all the important things that actually make your business run well in terms of systems and processes, right?
So in order to make more money and less time, you have to be super organized. You, this is why I love doa. I use DOA all the time. Um, and I have an affiliate code. If you sign up for Dos Soto, um, you get, I think, uh, 20% off your first month or year if you use code, Mandy. Um, so you can use that, but you also get to use DSA for free for your first three clients.
So you can use DSA as long as you don't have more than three clients for. . Um, but it helps you organize every piece of your business so that you're able to plan further ahead. And as we see these plans and as we see these retainers and our work kind of going in a more predictable fashion, then we're able to actually get more time off.
So like instead of saying like, I can't do that today. I have a deadline, which I've said a million times, , um, we have more space to say like, yeah, I need to go to the grocery store. Yeah, I can drop stuff and we can do that this afternoon. Um, let me see, like if I can, you know, add some extra time off or I wanna take a three day weekend.
Like you, you need to create more schedule predictability instead of running around all the time with this. Like, oh, I think I have a deadline here and I think I have this and I'm not sure about that. Um, these retainer type agreements are great and they're not that hard like to find. You just have to make sure that you're getting the right revenue for your clients, that you're actually asking the right questions for ongoing work in your client.
And that you're syncing up with these companies that are on the same path as you. Like they're regularly creating content. And I think a lot of writers miss that. They're just like, what is the project right now? Okay, let's do that cuz I need money. Instead of thinking like, what's my long-term plan? Does this client align with that long-term plan?
Do they have ongoing work, whether that's project based or retainer based? Um, and how do I kind of slot that in? Like how do I then kind of organize this more predictable schedule around other. . And for me, I think a lot of times, um, when we're talking about making more money, when we have retainers or when we have a more predictable schedule or when we have more organization, it's easier to make more money because you can see more things.
The greater visibility allows you to then see more stuff, right? You're able to see so many, like your financials, your to-dos, your deadlines, your calendar, um, all of your clients, what's incoming, what's outgoing? Um, what types of stuff you're running, what types of, uh, retainers and monthly work you have going on.
That visibility just allows you to work less hours because now you have tools and systems taking over, but you also are working less hours cuz you have these like, ongoing work things. And again, this is about really, um, being particular about who you're onboarding as a client and not just taking whoever comes to your inbox or whatever kind of random stuff you're doing.
So that's really important to know. The other thing about the shorter hours and making more money is also learning that you need to go up to different projects. So, um, we are thinking about our, um, We're actually, this should be number one. I shouldn't add this. This should be number one cuz I, this should be included in the number one section.
So let me move on to number one. So number one, the number one thing that I think people need to get, um, ways to create more schedule freedom as a freelance writer is to make sure that you're moving up to these bigger projects. You're actually moving along. A lot of times I see writers get stuck in blog posts or articles and they just repeat 800 to a thousand word articles all the.
and it's just really, really, um, stressful and it's really, really tough to do. But if you move up to these bigger projects now we have more stuff going on. And again, this goes back to asking your clients when you're doing your marketing, you do more marketing, so you get to be more selective with your clients, right?
Then you get to be picky about what projects you take on. These are all in the same kind. . So as we get these bigger projects and we kind of get over the fear of moving up or get over the fear of doing some projects that we haven't done before or doing more complicated projects, which like a lot of times, um, writers think that case studies or white papers or email drip campaigns are super complicated and they're not.
they're not super complicated. Um, they're, they're using a lot of the skills that you already have, right? They're using a lot of the skills you already have and it's just feels complicated cuz you haven't done it before. But once you do two of 'em, you're like, oh, this is like riding a bike. It's totally fine.
So we have to get over kind of the mindset fear of moving up to bigger projects. We have to make sure that we're actually doing these bigger projects. So we actually create schedule freedom, right? We actually get the schedule freedom from doing bigger projects that take more time, and then we get to take more hours out.
So we are like, I already know that this retainer or this big project. Um, or this ongoing work is gonna take up three weeks so I can take this week off, or I know that this will only take half my week, or I can work the mornings and have the afternoons off. Like these all come down to being like doing the marketing right, making sure you're doing the marketing so that you get to be picky about clients and you're doing enough marketing.
And we always talk about this, right? 50 to 75 Lois a month. And if you can't do that, do an hour every single day. . So just do an hour every single day of sending Lois, making your client list, cutting it down by revenue or, um, making your list of publications, working on pitches, connecting with people in LinkedIn, all that good stuff.
Hey, Vesna. Um, so we wanna make sure that we're kind of getting through all of those different pieces, right? All of that stuff from marketing. So that's all done now when we send our lois out, we have a more, um, we have like a filtered bunch that we're sending them to. Then we. Hello. Um, then we have our, uh, whoever answers us, right?
But if we're sending these more filtered Lois, then we get usually more answers cuz we have a more dedicated bunch and then high squeak. Um, and then we're able to like, have more answers, right? We get more answers cuz things are more targeted. Then we get to be picky about who we take on as a client and what types of things we do.
Um, and all the stuff that we're. we are doing in terms of work, like now we get to ask these questions and we're like, well, I have four different potential. And I only really need two clients, right? Or I only, you know, based on this work, I don't really wanna do the two, two, uh, scopes of work that these other clients sent.
So you get to be a lot pickier right, about who comes in the door. And then now because we're pickier, we get to pick bigger projects or ongoing work or retainers, or we get to be, um, a little stiffer in negotiations. Like, let's say you don't wanna go down in. or, um, let's say you don't wanna do quick turnaround or, you know, you have a lot more options.
I think Schedule Freedom is really about having more options. Like, because you have more options because of all these other things you're doing in your business. Now you get to, hello. Now you get to actually make, I know you want a snack go, you actually get to make, um, choices that are more informed and you have more options.
So you can walk away from things or choose not to do. , um, or you can, um, switch types of work that you're doing or, um, you can make sure that you're kind of getting on that ideal schedule and you're getting closer. So the other thing that goes here in number one is that this is a transition period. Okay.
Ready? We're gonna do transition, period. Okay. Go back to your haba hole. Thank you. Sit good. Cha. Here you go, buddy. Oops.
Good job. Good job. Snuggle Fran. All right, ready? High five other one. Good job. All right, Barry. You ready? Oh, we're not getting your high fives. We'll just do that here. Go buddy. It's right here.
Good job.
All right. Can you back up? Back up. Can you back up ? She's like, no, I'm in the right spot. Back up. Back up. I know. Go back over there. No, close enough. Close enough. Okay. So remember that when you're getting schedule freedom, especially if you are already running a freelance writing business, it's a transition period.
It could take. Or it could take a year, it could take a while. And I've, I've seen this happen where, um, freelance writers are like, oh my gosh, I'm just gonna magically get scheduled freedom and everything's gonna be great. No, no. What happens is we set up a bunch of different processes so that we are getting closer to it, and then we eventually get there.
So just like a lot of things that we do in our business, this is gonna be a transition period where you're switching things over, you're identifying more clients, you're being careful about your market. Um, and then you get to be really picky about what comes in and what code comes out and what you wanna do and how long that work is and what you wanna take and what you wanna turn down, right?
So all of that stuff is a transition period, and it takes a while so, A lot of it too is that you're setting up these systems and processes and you're becoming more familiar with those. So as you become more familiar with the tech platforms that you're using, or as you become more familiar with how you're setting up your new schedule or just saying no or turning things down, right?
As you get more comfortable with that, things start transitioning. So it's not this immediate thing, like there are immediate things to get your time back, right. Switch to a lot more automation, switch to a lot more systems that do things in the background while you. Hey Getty. Um, you wanna make sure that you're, um, using tools that help you get your time back already.
And a lot of times I see writers not doing that. They're just doing so many things manually that the, the biggest kind of like overnight thing is just switching to tools and processes and programs and platforms that actually give them time back by getting rid of all the manual stuff they've been doing.
Hi flu. You're spicy today. So that's one thing. But the other part is like when you're marketing and you're making a transition and turning down work and you're being more particular and you're understanding pricing and you're getting more retainers, you start getting more confident and then like putting your schedule freedom in place with your boundaries and your time off, um, and what work you're doing , like all of that stuff kind of starts falling into place.
So it's not immediate and it never will be because it's a transition in how you run your business and your mindset. and how you're looking at your clients and your work. So when you're making that switch, keep at it. Like there's something that I feel like a lot of freelance writers give up. They're like, it's never gonna work, and it's been like three days
Um, but you have to really hang in there and keep putting those things in place, keep marketing, keeping, making sure that you are, um, paying attention to how your schedule's organized so that you can take on those bigger projects so that you. , uh, like automate a lot of those paper pen processes or slow processes you've been doing or that you're able to be more selective about clients.
The schedule of freedom is really about choice. Like, it's really about getting the choice of do I wanna do this or this? Do I wanna take this project or do I wanna week off? Or do I want to work at this project at a rate? I don't feel good? Or do I wanna do this other thing? Right. There's a lot of different choices that we end up making, but the more choices that we have as freelance writers, the more schedule freedom we can create.
I know that there's a lot of different, um, advice on this, and I know there's a lot of different things that people suggest to get schedule freedom, but I always feel like when I'm talking about this, it's to the, it's the people who are already overworked. It's the freelance writers who are already. Um, well like working way too many hours and they're just all over the place and they really just wanna have some kind of rest time.
And like I said, the biggest one is just tools and processes and systems. Putting things in place like do Soto, I don't care if you use Calendly or Harvest or Fresh Books or PandaDoc or DocuSign or Hello Sign, um, which is now Dropbox Sign or Asana or whatever it is. I don't care. Todoist or if you use.
Cascade or if you use Notion, I don't care. You need to have some kind of organizational, kind of water flow style work flow that you have, waterfall workflow, um, that helps you keep track of things so that your mental space goes towards your work. Finding the right clients, getting those ongoing projects and creating that schedule of freedom.
It's not just, um, it's not just like this magic formula where everything's gonna work. . Um, but I also feel like creating schedule freedom is about actually creating it. You have to make it happen. It's not just gonna happen on its own, especially when, um, I know for me, I still struggle with this, but I really struggled in the beginning with feeling like I always have to do something.
Like in your freelancing business, you're gonna feel like there's always something to be done. There's always something that happens. There's. A client thing or an email or an invoice or a project or a deadline or a something. And so you feel like you can't relax cause there's always something going on.
But that's kind of like a mindset thing that we work through. So I really struggled with that and I dealt with that with my mindset and it gave me more schedule freedom cuz I didn't ruminate on my rest time, right? Like I didn't finish work and then ruminate on a ton of different things. And like I said, I still struggle with this.
I'm not. Um, at it, but I still, I, I do a lot better than I used to. So, as you're kind of thinking about that, remember that you're, you're a human, right? You can only do human things and that there will always be something to do cuz you're running a business, right? We're running a business. So there's always stuff to be done.
We could always done it better, stronger, faster, sharper, more edited, better. You know, there's nothing that I, that you're gonna turn in as a writer that you're gonna feel is a hundred percent great. . Every once in a while you'll get a piece where you're like, this is a hundred percent great. I feel super, super great about it.
I feel really awesome. But it's rare. Most of the time you're like, Ugh, I wish I could have tweaked this, or I wish I had more time, or I wish I had a, you know, a longer deadline. There's always gonna be something like that. Um, and that kind of reflects back to our schedule freedom, right? It's not gonna be perfect, but we can at least get more time and there's always something to be done.
So if we wa, if we waste all of our rest time or our time off by worry, Um, over what we didn't do or what we have to do or what's messed up or what deadlines are coming, right? That's not really gonna help. Yes. Woo. Would you like to be participated? Would you like to participate? Could you go back to your haba hole?
You have to go back to your haba hole. Charlotte is all on time off. She has ultimate schedule freedom and she also has dog, dog mom schedule where she just tells me what to do all the time. There you go, buddy. Good job. Barry's doing great today. Oh, let's see. Here we go. There they are. Woo. Um, you high fives?
Good job. Good job. Ugh, Barry started his day super late. Today we have this new thing where Barry gets up somewhere. Uh, Bo gets up, but somewhere between, um, I'm gonna fix, see if that'll fix it cuz like the light's all messed up. . So Barry started this new thing where he gets up at like somewhere between 11 and noon and we have to start his day.
And, uh, he's just on the retirement plan. He's almost, he's, he is almost 16 and a half. He's like about a month or so away from being 16 and a half . So we kind of just let him, you know, do his own thing. And, uh, he got up in time for the live stream today. We got him all fed and got him up here and . So he is, he's living the little retirement.
He's doing the best he can. Charlotte just like is running around all the time. Charlotte's like always trying to boss everybody around and she's always like, all upon it. She's, she's the boss of the house. I, someday I'll get both of you on camera. I, I, I, every once in a while I do. Getty says I'm burnt out on daily life and feel sleep deprived.
Yeah. Getty. But you're also going through a really tough part of life. I know that we've talked about this before. . Um, and there's also this thing with schedule freedom where sometimes you're going to have to deal with your personal life more so than your business, right? I feel like Getty, if you're burnt out in daily life, I think we've, this is something like you're going through a really tough time.
Like there's a lot of stuff going on, um, that you and I have talked about that is really difficult. So, The, whenever you can kind of sneak some moments away just for you, um, just to spend some time by yourself, even if it's just an hour a day or 30 minutes or just something, you know, maybe late at night, like this is something that I did and do.
When I feel like I'm really overworked or I feel like I don't have a lot of schedule freedom, I end up doing, uh, revenge bed. , which is a thing. I didn't know it was a thing until I found it one day, but revenge bedtime is basically like, you know, you should be going to sleep but you like stay up super late, like doing whatever, just cuz you feel like you haven't had a lot of freedom just in generally in your day.
So if you can find like an hour at night when everyone is asleep and everyone's quiet, just to do whatever you'd like to do, read or watch tv or just be by. Find some kind of hour or some kind of space every day, especially if you feel like you're burnt out with every single day. Um, and you're sleep deprived.
That's another thing too that um, uh, therapy is really helpful for me is kind of like reworking that, like when I'm really feeling like I'm doing a lot of stuff in my business or I have a lot of things going on personally or whatever, like when I go to therapy, I can kind of sort it out and be like, okay, like deep breath.
Let's kind of try this other stuff. Oh my goodness. Go back to your ha. , go back to your haba hole. Nope. Go back to your haba hole. Nope. You gotta go back to your haba hole. So I know that you have a lot of stuff going on and that's also kind of the schedule freedom, is that we are gonna go through parts of our business where our personal life takes over and where our business life takes over.
There's, I don't really see a huge balance where all the time you get to spend all this time on your business or then all the time you get to do this, there's always stuff going on, right? You're a human being who has relationships and purple. and other people that you wanna spend time with. Um, and I feel like it's kind of this, um, mishmash.
So sometimes you're gonna have to spend your schedule freedom, time on personal stuff. Um, I've been through plenty of times in my business where I've had to take personal time because I'm burnt out or there's other personal stuff going on where I need to take time off or need to step away from stuff.
Woo. Go back to your Hubble hole. No, go back to your Hubble hole. Woo. You're spicy today. Go back to your Hubble hole. Sit. Stay there. Okay. Um, and if you're feeling that way, so like one is like therapy helps with that and there are a lot of like, um, low cost ways to do therapy nowadays. Um, but there's also, uh, just taking time out for yourself and understanding that there's going to be times of life.
And those times could be long, it could be months or years where there's just a lot of personal stuff going on that you have to attend to, and that's just kind. That's, that's unfortunately how times are, are going. And it's not wrong, and it doesn't mean that you, um, you're like not doing your business.
It's just that there are a lot of things that, um, go on personally that we have to take care of just instead of our business sometimes. Okay. Um, business says, um, , hold on a second. Business says I worry and ruminate a lot, and that makes me feel exhausted and I won't, that I worry that I won't be able to finish, um, the work because I, he hesitate to schedule it ahead of time, mainly because, um, I'm afraid I'll get a massive rewrite.
So unplanned work and then I'll be behind before I even start the next client project. Yeah, so this is an interesting thing that I used to do this too. So what ends up happening is like your future tripping, right? This is what I learned in therapy is like you're future tripping. So you're not taking action now.
So like you're worried that if you schedule this work, then in the future there's gonna be more work that you didn't plan, and then it's gonna throw off your schedule and you're gonna have to do all this stuff. So here's what I ended up doing, is you just assume there's going to be, I don't know, one to four hours of extra time.
Just, just assume. You are gonna have to do edits or you're gonna assume that someone's gonna send something back and you're gonna have to put in extra work. So when business says yes, future tripping. Yeah. So just assume you're gonna have edits so that when you don't have edits now you either have extra time or you just move along with your life.
So for me, it's like sweet, I don't have to do anything extra and I move along with, So when you're like, the other thing is that you're assuming that you've did done such a shitty job that you're gonna have a massive rewrite, which is super unlikely. Like I think I've only had to do massive rewrites like a handful of times in 10 years.
Like something that really was a massive rewrite that was a total diarrhea soup, right. So your massive re your fear of massive rewrite is really like, I'm, I'm not good at this, right? It's imposter syndrome, it's self-doubt. It's like, I've done sh such a shitty job. They're gonna hate it and I'm gonna have to start all over again and do all this work all over again.
and that's just rarely the case, right? So this really isn't about getting a massive rewrite and it's not about your schedule, right? These are kind of going back to like, I'm not worthy, I'm bad at my job. Like I'm never gonna do this, right? Every time I do it, it's never gonna be right. So I always will have to do a massive rewrite and bena as someone who's seen your work a bunch of times, like you do really good work.
And I don't just say that just to like give you like the. Candle on your birthday cake, right? Like light your, you know, that kind of stuff. I'm saying that because. It's diligent and well done. And I think that when you're thinking about this stuff like this is, a lot of it is like every single time you're worried that it's, it's gonna be a huge diarrhea soup every time.
And even if you, like, even if you, um, , even if you 100, like the likelihood that you 100% of the time would screw it up is just not. Like, right. We talked about this before. Like ev, even a blind squirrel finds a nut. So if you, even if you could give yourself, today's your birthday. Happy birthday, vea. Oh my gosh.
Wow. That's funny. Happy birthday Vena. Um, um, I hear you. Woo. Um, when, oh, man, I, I lost my thought. Hold on. Um, oh. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut, right? So even if you gave yourself 1%, like 1% of the time, I'm gonna kill it. I'm gonna get it right. . Like once you start believing that you can get it right, 1% of the time, you can start believing that you get it right.
2% or 50% or 60% or 99%. Right? So the, just think about it statistically, and I think this will actually help you because of the science stuff, , but um, think about it statistically, like there's just no way that a hundred percent of the time you would get it wrong and a hundred percent of the. , you would have to do a massive rewrite.
It's just not the case. It's not, it's, you can't, that's statistically impossible. Even a blind squirrel finds it out. Right? Which isn't the case like pretty much every time I've seen your work, like you've done a fantastic job. So the rewrites are just, I don't, I think that would be kind of a rare thing, but you need to believe that me believing it doesn't change.
You know? It doesn't change how you feel internally. . So when you're thinking about this stuff, give yourself a statistic like, I could probably get it right 50% of the time. Okay, well now let's just go with 50%, right? 50 out of 50. Basically a coin flip, whether I do a good job, right? That will eventually be like, okay, I've done this so many times now, like I'm definitely getting it right.
70% or 60. So at least give yourself like neutral ground of 50 50, then you can move on to like actually believing in yourself. Right? So for me, when I really struggled with this stuff was giving myself a neutral, like, okay, if I coin flip it, I'm probably gonna get it right, 50%, right? Or if I coin flip it, I'm probably gonna be in the general ballpark.
So if you can get to a neutral place, then get to the place of confidence that'll help you kind of move over. And I know you put another comment, so hold on a second. She says, you said, to be fair, when I schedule it, it all works out because I have the extra buffer. So I know it's irrational, but the worry does become a time waster.
Yeah. Or end up being a time waster. Yeah. I mean it, that's the thing is like you have the extra time. It's more like dealing with the mindset part, right. It's just like taking a deep breath and it's like, um, sometimes I tell myself like, Hey, let's just see how it works out. Instead of ruminating and worrying and being really anxious.
I tell myself like, let's just see how it works. , uh, I, there's, there's all these catastrophic things I've, I've imagined before, and none of them have come true after 10 years in this business. I've been in some pretty rock and hard places, uh, times, and it's always worked out. It's e every single time, like there's always some way to figure it out or some way to fix it or some way to, or something that comes along or some stuff.
There's always so, So whenever I think that to myself, I'm just like, every time I've either taken a leap in my business or every time I've catastrophized it, like the leap always worked out and the catastrophe never did . So like it is irrational, but it's also like the tape you play. Right? So it's the tape you've been playing for like.
20, 30, 40, 50, 60, however many years, right? It's the tape you've been playing or it's, you know, family stuff that you've been, were told when you were little or like things that your teachers told you are like something that got cemented in your mind and you just keep playing that tape. . The tape is more like telling the tape, like, Hey, let's just see how it works out.
You can play this tape all you want, but give me a chance to just see how it works out instead of us kind of like falling into the hole of like all these horrible thoughts. So try that. And then we talked about the stop thing before. . Um, yes. Future tripping. And then she said, um, then you said, that's so true.
I'm afraid I'm gonna totally mess it up. . Yes. Um, yeah, I mean, just statistically, um, yeah, this, so that's the thing is like, there's a couple ways to do it, right? Statistically, it's impossible. You can't get it wrong a hundred percent of the time like that. everybody. Right? Right. Always think of it as like even a blind squirrel, you know, finds a nut.
But the deal is also that you could get it right probably 50% of the time. There's also people who are worse writers or better writers than you who have the same stats, right? So there's writers who are better writers than me and worse writers than me. Even though I've been writing for like forever, there are still people who will always be better than me and always worse than.
And they're getting the same chance, right? They're getting the same chance to get it right. And it's just like, I can think about it statistically of the blind squirrel finds a nut or the 50 50 coin flip, or I can think about it as the tape and being like, Hey, This is kind of my old thoughts on tape.
It's just like, I just think about it as a tape, like those old police recorders just because it reminds me that it's so dated. Like these thoughts are like so old. They're on like this, you know, cassette tape. And so I then say to the tape like, Hey, let's just see how it works out. Let's just like, not panic, let's see how it works out.
Um, and just, you know, figure it out from there. There's another thing too that I picked up from Brendan Burchard, um, where he talks about, you know, just believing in your ability to figure it out. You don't have to know everything. You don't have to be perfect, but if you believe that you can figure it out right, then what's the problem?
If you tried your best and you tried to figure it out and it didn't work out, that's going to statistically happen sometimes. That's just part of being a human right. It's part of running a. . But if you actually go in there, uh, with saying like, Hey, you know what? Maybe I made a mistake or maybe this was a diarrhea soup, or maybe I did have to do massive rewrites, right?
Maybe you did, but you learn a lot from that experience, and you can move forward and you can figure it out. You can learn a lot more from the stuff that you screw up on, right than you do from just being perfect. So a lot of times, um, when you, when you don't get edits, okay, you're gonna be fired from this room if you're gonna be sassy, okay?
Go back to your hava hole. Nope. Go back to your hava hole. Hold on. You dropped some part of your treat here. Okay? Go back to your hava hole. Nope, nope, you can't hang out here. If you're gonna bork, you can stay over there. Thank you. Here's some pets. Okay. Lay down. Thank you. So, yeah. You can think about it.
No. Go back to your hava hole. Do sass. Sit down, lay down. Lay down. Alright.
Um, oh, let me go to what you just said. Yeah, so it's, it's the old tape, so whatever version, I don't care if you have to use like one of those old, uh, , what are they called? Not a gram phone. Like the, you know, the thing that they had in the twenties? Like, not, not like the record player, but like the, whatever it was called.
Um, but just imagine like some old thing talking to you. Like those thoughts are old thoughts. They're not new, they're just being dug up, right? So all of those old thoughts are dug up pieces of music and thoughts from your past. They're not new stuff that you're just coming to right now as you work on this project.
Um, so think about the old tape and think about saying like, Hey, old tape. Like, let's just see how it turns out. Like we can just give it the neutral. Like, Hey, let's just see what happens. Let's just see what happens. Um, I'm not like this in other aspects of my life and think I'm in my own head too much.
Yeah, I mean, there's a couple things, right? So the important thing is, we're, we care a lot. So what, for me, when I think about this stuff, and maybe the same thing is true for you, Vesna, is that you, you're, you really want it to work. You like it. It's something you enjoy. It's something that's fun and it's really important to you.
So then you put a lot of pressure on it, and then you put a lot of shellac of old tape on it, and then you like, it becomes this multi-layered thing because it's super, I. So, because it's super important and because you care about it and you want to do a good job, go back to your hava hole. Did you just get poked at something?
Um, then you put all this extra pressure on yourself and it becomes, your business is like this really easy, fertile ground for all of your old stuff to just pop up. Go back, go back to hole. I know. You just wanna bok at me. Lay down. Lay down. Okay. So think about it as like your business is a, a really, um, a really, it's like a farm where you have to like till it and pay attention to the soil and like take care of it.
And it's a really easy way for all of these old thoughts to come up because you're doing a lot of hard stuff and you're breaking a lot of stuff that, um, from your past you wouldn't have tried. You have to do a lot of things as a, an entrepreneur and a. Excuse me. If you're a freelance writer, that's new and difficult, right.
And a lot of other businesses aren't like that. Like a full-time job is not like this at all. , right? Um, a full-time job, unless you have a certain type of job, I wouldn't say all, but the, unless you have a certain type of job, a lot of it is like execution and kind of learning every once in a while. But with freelance writing, you're learning all the.
Constantly, like I'm still learning all the time now, um, in aspects of all aspects of my business, my freelance writing business, my coaching business, freelance writer, wealth lab, or runway, or my one-on-one students, like anything like that, or my templates, like all of these different areas of my business, I'm still.
learning a lot of things about them, and I think that's something that really helps in freelance writing is being a constant learner, but it's also a kind of a burden sometimes where you are digging up a lot of old thoughts as you get into new stuff and try new things. Hmm, hmm. Yeah. Yeah. You want it to work.
Um, so I didn't want to find out that I'm terrible at it and can't do it again. Yeah, I mean, like I said, the, the, um, The thing I think in my mind is like, there's always people that are better and worse than me. So if there's someone worse than me, succeeding better than me, I can figure it out. Right? If there's a writer who, whose content is worse than mine, doing better than me, which there definitely is, um, , then I can figure it out and I can do it.
Like you can figure it out. Like I said the other thing too. Yeah. Your full-time job isn't like this. Yeah. The other thing too, to remember is, , um, that, like I I've read a lot of work, right? And I'm not like telling you Vesna, that your work is great just for fun. Like, it's not like I, I do enjoy making your day and I do enjoy like, you know, um, that you're getting good feedback and that like you're doing fantastic work for your clients.
But it's not something where like, . I would just say it just to say it right. That's the thing that I feel like is really important with feedback. As writers, we have to be honest with our feedback. So if it sucked, I would've told you . And if I'm like, Ugh, you really need to improve this, or like, can you read these three white papers?
Or You need to try this, I would've told you that, but I did it right? That means you're on the right track. That means you're doing a good job. And I'm not saying. My opinion is like the gold standard. I'm just saying that like I have enough experience and I've read enough stuff to know like your stuff is good.
So I hope that you're like putting that in there with the tape. Like put that over the tape like, hey, and I've had my work reviewed by multiple different people and they said it was good , so like, come on. . I think that's the, the piece of the tape that's the struggle is like just getting to neutral. Like for me, with my tapes that I was running, and I still run some of them.
um, is that you have to get to this neutral place because if you get to neutral, then you can hold two things. True. Like, I can suck and I can be good at the same time. Right? So you, I, for me, getting to neutral, and this was like, there's like a hair somewhere. Um, this was part of therapy is understanding that two things can be true at the same time.
And it's still a struggle for me, um, with a bunch of things in my life. But two things can be true at the same time. You can suck and you can be good. And this is the same thing with Schedule Freedom, right? We can have schedule freedom and not have it, right? We can have it sometimes and not others. Um, hey Siesta.
So we're, um, , we are getting to neutral just so that we can hold the two thoughts, right? Then once we can hold the thoughts of I'm good and bad at the same time, right? Or I do good things and you know, not great things at the same time, then we can start dropping off the, the shitty stuff. Then we can start getting more confident and spend more of our time in like, Hey, I'm doing this.
I'm great. I can kill it. Like these are great things I'm doing. So getting to, we don't wanna just hold the bad. We wanna hold good and bad, then we can get to a better balance of more good than bad. Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay. Hello? Can you go back to your HaBO hole please? Thank you. Oh my gosh. You put your butt down.
No, go back to your hava hole. She's so strong. You're so strong and sassy and funny. Ah. Here you go, buddy. All right, snort. Can you go around for everybody around Charlotte? Around? She's like, no, don't make me Charlotte around. Come on around. Come on. I know you're there around. Good girl. I know that wasn't on camera, but she still did it.
Good girl. Okay, back up. Go back on your haba hole. Go back to your haba hole. Good girl. Sit high fives. Good job. . If you're wondering why I always run her through the ringer, it's because she is, uh, she needs like to work more for treats. Otherwise, she just like gets amped about treat, treat, treat, treat. So she needs to like work for them so that she, you know, this is why she barks at me.
Right. Okay. So this has been helpful. Give it a thumbs up if you feel like you wanna learn more about building your, uh, freelance writing business. You adore subscribe. Last call is runway. Today's the last day to sign up for runway. You can go to mandy ellis.com. Um, don't you start dot mandy ellis.com/runway to sign up.
It's a $49 class. It's five days of live classes together. We also have a community, um, that you're gonna hang out in. And, um, you will get all the recordings, you'll get everything, you'll get your questions answered. And we're also gonna have a bonus masterclass the following Friday, where you get to pick the.
There's also the chance to win one-on-one coaching. I don't think I mentioned that before, but there's also the chance every single day whoever shows up live will have a chance to win a one-on-one coaching session. Five, one-on-one coaching sessions will be given away. That's something I never do and haven't done before, like giving coaching sessions for live stuff.
Um, so that's an opportunity that's available and um, if you have any questions, you can always send me an email. Mandy mandy ellis dot. But if you go to mandy ellis.com/runway, today's the last day to sign up. It's 49 bucks for the live class. We're doing a new topic every single day. Um, so if you're looking to launch or level up your freelance writing business, this is the class for you.
And, uh, I hope that this was helpful today. I hope it kind of. Like, you kind of saw me go through the different things about schedule freedom and what you need to do to get that done, but also like how we kind of like, I'm working, you know, with SNA about changing the tape and our mindset stuff and those things that I'm talking about with SNA go into your schedule, freedom, that mindset stuff that you struggle with, whatever your flavor is, that also affects you getting to the schedule that you want, you getting to the clients that you want and really building a business that you, uh, you.
Okay, so we're here every Friday at noon Central time, and I'll see you guys next week and hope to see you in runway. Bye. Super helpful. You're welcome.
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