How to Control Your Freelance Writing Competition
Is the freelance writing market so saturated that you need to control other writing competition? What about when you see 500+ or 1,000+ writers apply to jobs you see on LinkedIn or various job boards? How do you actually control the freelance writing competition that's out there?
In this week's livestream, we're going over how this control affects your business, the over saturation or under saturation of freelance writers on the market, the amount of work out there for freelance writers, and if job boards reflect the true freelance writing market.
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How to Control Your Freelance Writing Competition
Have you ever thought if I can just control the competition in freelance writing or if I can just get in there really early to this job application that it's going to work out great or if um, you're looking at all of the Posts and all of the stuff that's out there They're talking about how the market is so over saturated and there's so many writers and ai's taking our jobs Um, this live stream is for you.
So this is something that I think is pretty funny where we all think that we can control it. And the secret is you can't, you cannot control your competition. You cannot control other people. You cannot move on in your business. If you're worried about competition. We're here to be comrades. We're here to help each other.
We're here to build friendships those are the things that have really helped my business is having other people who get my business who also want to Grow their business who want to share things who want to help other people build stuff So when we're thinking about controlling our freelance writing competition, I always think it's funny that I get these questions like well What do you do when the markets oversaturated or?
What do you do if like everyone has more experience than you or? Like how do you actually control the situation and if you can't you can't um the other thing I often get is like How do you control like how do you get someone to answer you like what do you do to make someone answer you or? What do you do to make someone else do this thing right make your client or make another writer give you a referral or?
Become part of a writer's agency like how do you make that happen you can't force anyone to So that's why I think it's always crazy when we talk about this. And I think this is an important thing to talk about because this happens like later stage in your journey. Like in the beginning, a lot of freelance writers are like, um, like worried about certain things, but this is like getting to the next level.
So usually when you're getting to the next level or when you're kind of, um, thinking about how you want to change your business or thinking about different types of clients, the immediate like deflation, the, the, the balloon deflation happens when people start getting into this. Whole like saturation too many people are applying all this stuff So we're gonna go over that today and I think this is gonna really help kind of break it down We also have a couple we have a question we're gonna do at the end.
So stay tuned for that Charlie's here I don't know if I fixed the camera, right? There it is. There she is. Oh She's like I'm on camera. Give me something Charlie Charlie is you're interested to ear up you I like your lip gloss You look super shiny today You ready for snacks? You look so funny. You look like you're, like, on, on patrol.
Hi, Jennifer. Give me a high five. Give Jennifer a high five. Give her another one. Oh, okay. That's good enough. Good girl. Good job. Okay, so number one thing. Let's talk about number one. Right. So number one is like, you do not have control. You have zero control of other people, what other people say, what other people do, when they respond, who replies to what, um, what types of job things are there, the market, whatever.
So I want to make sure, hold on, I got to fix my little mat. So you want to make sure that while you're kind of doing this stuff, That you understand the, the continuum, right? You understand the continuum. Hi, Vicky. Hi, Bara. Um, you want to understand the continuum of freelance writing. So when I got into freelance writing over 10 years ago, the same stuff was said.
It's been said. Like, it's so tired now. Um, this is something that I feel like when I start talking to people who I'm either doing, like, the wealth lab or we're doing runway or we're doing coaching or on the live stream. That they're like, well, what do you do now? It's like it's the same stuff It's the same thing like the same kind of mindset and the same kind of fears and the same kind of like it seems like It's a magical reopening, right?
Like there's like this. Oh, but now it's different. No, it's not. No, it's not Um, we make this joke. Hey besta. Yay ready for the weekend So, um, we, we have to remember the continuum of how this works, right? So when we're looking at this stuff, like I was joking just yesterday with my wealth lab students about how we have the cockroach of professions, right?
This was someone like this, I figured it might've been Jennifer, but someone said, basically I was like, this is what writing is one of the oldest professions. Okay. Writing is one of the oldest professions. We have like the cockroach of jobs and we are in more in demand than ever There are more writing gigs out there really good ones.
It's not just that people are creating more content It's also that can you catch this? It's also that more people are focusing on quality content more good clients don't want you to use ai They want you to use your noodle to connect with other people Right. So there's like this thing that happens when We, there's like this continuum that you need to know about.
Like writing is very old. It's very long. So if you're just looking at the last few years, your continuum is too long. Like even if, I always kind of like to go through kind of a digital transformation. So when I'm thinking about controlling competition, or I'm thinking about the continuum of writers, or I'm thinking about like how this kind of stuff affects my self esteem or my mental health, I go back to this idea, and I think this is important.
Okay, when paper, like, we'll just go back kind of at the time period, like, you know, when papers were, right, there used to be either three papers a day, right, a morning paper, a midday paper, and an end of the day paper, that turned to a twice a day paper, that turned to a daily paper, and then everything, right, became online, and now it's exploded, there's content 24 7 all the time.
So there's this continuum where like papers changed, right? The amount of newspapers that came out Changed, but the content only grew. The other piece is like people getting afraid of computers. So they're, they have typewriters It's, they're like the, the internet, right? Just changing to a computer was like a thing.
Then the internet came and they're like everything's gonna be a disaster now that writing's on the internet. And then, um, SEO came, right? Then everyone's like, SEO's gonna ruin everything! And then now AI is coming. Like, you have to think of a big, long continuum. Oftentimes I find that this is a critical error.
People have their continuum like a year to three years. Like, at best. Like, they're not thinking in decade spans. You have to think in decade spans because things are cyclical, okay? The economy is cyclical. These things are normal. Writers have survived every horrible good girl, you caught it. Writers have survived every single horrible thing, and that's not coming from controlling competition.
It's not coming from like I saw this job ad has this job ads didn't exist a few decades ago Right, like you couldn't just go on linkedin and apply to like 50 jobs in a day. You'd have to like physically Submit paper you'd have to go to the office You'd have to mail something like there this amount of stuff that's there Is so vast.
I just think it's kind of like the Concern becomes competition and like how difficult it is instead of saying how many seeds am I planting every day for my business, and how am I focusing on the right clients, and how am I not participating in the cattle calls, right? So when we're thinking about this, like, they're, the more we focus on, and this was, I'm telling you from experience, like, I have, that's like, I used to be a very big control freak.
I am still a control freak about some things, but I used to be much more, like, if I could just control this thing, and I just do this, and like, I just, mm, mm, mm, you know, I just want to put it in the little box and squeeze it, right? So if I could just control this stuff, right, what ends up happening is I'm like, trying to focus on other people doing stuff, right?
When will that editor get back to me? When will that business reply to my LOI? How, how is this, you know, is the email getting opened? Which no one cares if it's getting opened. We only care about replies. No one cares about that. Like, the likelihood that your email would be undelivered... Would be like a technical error, and it would be really uncommon, like something's wrong, like you set up your email system wrong, or there's some, like you're doing something that clearly makes it go into spam, like, it, the undeliverability of emails is super low, so like anytime someone's like, oh, it's must because they're not, you know, no one's answering because they're not getting delivered, that's just like, 1 out of 100, like 1 percent of the time something's fucked up.
So when we're looking at that, I wanted to control everything. I wanted to know like, what's, when's someone gonna get back to you? Like, what's, what should I be waiting for? You shouldn't, you shouldn't wait for anything. You have to plant the seeds. Your job, your only job, is to stop worrying about everybody else.
And put your eyes on your own paper and figure out how am I doing better than before? How am I doing better than last month? How am I doing better than I was last year? How was I doing better with actually getting lois out the door? Oh, sorry bean. Hold on gotta go fetch it now Here you go. Good girl. Your comparison needs to be to yourself and not other people.
You can't control what they're doing So this affects your mental health. I can tell you. This creates burnout. It creates self esteem issues. It creates imposter syndrome, self doubt, um, all of the stuff. Because you're focusing on, like, how do I prevent other people from taking opportunities, which is just scarcity.
That's just scarcity, right? If you're focusing on controlling your freelance writing competition and you're trying to, like, mmm, you know, like, get them to do something, you can't. Like that's not your business. Your stuff is doing controlling what you can control, right? Sending your lois or pitches. So lois letters of introduction, right?
Sending your lois or pitches Making sure you're planting seeds in your business every day um, and then like your um, Your ability to figure out who your best client is right putting on that new pair of glasses So this is like it can be for me. It was very like harmful Like I spent a lot of time being like oh I'll just build my friend's business or oh i'll try to do this thing or like And instead of focusing on my own stuff the minute I finally started focusing on my own things and what I was doing to drive My business forward and focusing on the clients that made sense for me Like who was my best client doubling down on that that's when things started to pop off and started to get figured out We can't spend this time Worrying about like who's gonna get back to us when our job is to plant the seeds and I was just you know I was just talking to um, one of my friends yesterday We went to lunch and it's the same we have you know It's always the same story.
You have to plant the seeds like if you don't have money and clients That's a problem. You don't have a business and the way to have money and clients is you have to plant the seeds There's no other way around it Like there's no amount of like pushing people into something or competition or whatever you have to go after it and get it So there's always this kind of idea that I think of control where it's like we want to be successful We want to make hey karina Um, we want things to work out But you can't like the example I always give is i've had answers to lois in literally five seconds and five years I'm not I can't wait five years, right?
So if you're thinking about like what people are doing how they're built, excuse me building their business, whatever What that business is doing what the editor is doing what the magazine's doing you're missing the whole point Like you're missing the whole point that you have to keep kind of chugging along like you have to put wood Right, you have to feed the train, right?
I always kind of think of like the train from um back to the future where like they're putting all the colored Pieces of wood like they're green or red or whatever and they're putting them in there That's what you're doing as you're kind of figuring out like this piece of wood does this this piece of wood does that?
And you have to keep kind of doing that right? The more you do that the better your train runs, right? Your train will run for several miles like you can Um, this is a thing where like, uh, you can't, if you wanted to, like, you're so busy with work, right? You don't do marketing for a few months. Right? The train's still moving along because you planted all these seeds.
And I think it's like this. Think about it more as like, um, you know that, um, Sorry, Benny. That John Maxwell quote that says consistency compounds. That's what you should be thinking. It's not that like you have a collection of a hundred seeds and you're like waiting for those to grow. It's that you're like, here are a hundred, here's a hundred more, and a hundred more, and, and you keep doing that, right?
You have irons in the fire. And eventually those work out right but they compound over time So someone who didn't need your help three months ago could need your help now But you've already continued sending your lois or continued sending pitches and you're getting stories picked up, right? That's the piece I think is really important.
I see there's comments. So um Yeah, it's not that the jobs are hidden. I don't think it's that they're hidden It's that like there's a lot of stuff where like you need to be the active person digging for diamonds Like we can't worry about everybody else We can't worry about what stuff's going on. We have to actively dig for the diamonds.
We have to be the ones to send the LOIs and find our clients and all that stuff. Um, Albert says, I used to write for quite a few newspapers during my career. Newspaper journalism is the essence of competition. I mean, it is when you're a staffer. I think it's different when you're a freelancer. I think the newsroom atmosphere is different because you're like competing for that paper's space.
But I think when you're doing freelance and especially with so much stuff online, like I know I have, uh, You know, I have a student who writes for the Washington Post and she has a whole bunch of stuff going out and there's online content and print content Um, and I think the news room is different than working as a freelancer where there's lots of different types of opportunities Yeah train I always love the train yeah, so this is the thing is you have to think about it that way Karina says, I hear you, I'm not waiting on whether or not someone answers, but it's true that some of the other people in the industry don't take you seriously at the start.
I guess, but I don't care about that. Like, I honestly don't give a shit. Like, if someone doesn't take you seriously, they're not your client. Like, they, they're not your client. Like, there's, it's not that other people are doing, like, we don't care what other people think. We care what our clients think. We think, we care about the people who answer us, right?
We care about the editor who gets back to us and is like, Hey, whatever. And it's not, I have a hard time with that because I know people, Like, I know people who got their very first clip. They were not writers. They were just, like, they were, they had not written before. They pitched something to the New York Times.
They got it published. They pitched something in the Washington Post or Travel and Leisure or every, like, big publication. I know people that, who got their first clips there. So, like, I have a really hard time. With like the people not taking you seriously when I know people who like had Zero experience like they had never written before they pitched an idea.
I got it published like That, for me, is the action taking part. They took the action. They wrote a great pitch, right? They learned how to write a great pitch. They learned how to send something out. They learned how to put things together, right? So I feel like when we're kind of thinking about our freelance writing business, it's not, we don't care about other people's thoughts.
No one cares like I don't I don't care what I do care about is like my potential clients thoughts I do care about my clients like what they're thinking. I do care about what my editor says, right? But people i've never met who don't know me who judge me or who do whatever fine What I don't care like it used to be a really big problem for me It used to really affect my mental health and my mindset but I don't care anymore because I learned after sending thousands of these lois and working with a ton of clients and doing a lot of different types of work That those people either aren't your client, they're not ready to work with you, that publication isn't actually a fit for you, Um, or like, we can't control what other people think of us.
So like, it's really kind of... Um, I, I, focus on your own stuff, like focus on building your own confidence, focus on taking your steps forward and when someone answers you, then we can focus attention on them and kind of say, Hey, like, can we kind of figure this out? Like, is this a good fit for both of us rather than worrying about what everybody else is doing?
Right? Mm, mm, mm. Vicky says the hidden job market is a good starting point, but freelancing is different than a job. I just feel like the It's totally different freelancing is is way different than finding a full time job. We are not operating like that at all This is why We'll go actually, you know what?
Let's let's go into this since Vicky brought it up. So let's talk about two real quick What do you think, Charlie? Yeah? She's still sitting there. Look at your little mermaid legs! You ridiculous little stuffed animal. You just look like a little sad Eeyore toy. Oh my gosh. Look at you. You're so funny. Good girl.
You're catching things. It's been a while since you've been able to catch things. Do you want some blanket? Do you want some blanket on you? There you go. Now you can be kind of warm while you sit there. Okay. So let's talk about two then. So let's talk about the oversaturation, undersaturation, whatever, of the market and also jobs.
So, whenever you're thinking about, like, getting a full time job is a, like, a totally different beast. And I found this out the hard way. So, like, when I started freelancing, I was like, oh, it's just, like, a full time job. You write a cover letter, uh, you apply to all the job boards, like, you need to find more job boards because those are opportunities.
No Like calls for pitches. Yes. So if you find a database or a newsletter that's talking about calls for pitches Yes, that's something good because publications putting out calls for pitches Uh is really helpful for magazines way different than when you're sending lois for businesses. So When we're kind of looking for a regular Nine to five job.
That's a whole different totally different process than a freelance writing client. So a lot of times Um people focus on these cattle calls, right? So i'll have students where wealth lab students or runway students right where they will talk about how they're like Oh, the market is saturated I read some article that said like there's too many freelance writers and it's just like That would be the case forever like that doesn't make any sense, right?
There can't be too many freelance writers That doesn't make sense because that would mean that by some point in history 50 years ago We would have already meets met saturation for freelance writers, right? Or when seo came out or when computers came out or when the internet came out or when? Papers went to a different frequency, right?
That's just a crazy idea. Like there's not too much The other thing to think about is like there is a large like this is one of the dirty secrets of freelance writing is there Is a large portion of people who say they're freelance writers who? Ghost their editors who don't turn their work in who get paid and run who do shitty work There's a big portion of those right so us being good at our job being respectful of our clients list Like you know getting paid and doing the work doing a good job Is like what we're supposed to do, right?
That's what we think we're supposed to do But there's a bunch of people who just don't do it Like i've heard horror stories horror stories from editors where they're like, yeah We had this big feature and someone just flaked like they just stopped answering emails. They just ghosted them So this is kind of this Idea where there's this fear that there's too many freelance writers But then you're missing the point where there's a whole bunch of our population that doesn't do a good job Like you're missing did you get it?
You're missing the piece where you're like, you're looking at a large number You're like, oh the number of freelancers is you know, a million people, whatever it is. I don't know. Hi goo. Good girl Um, you're looking at this number of a million freelancers rather than understanding that saying you're a freelancer and actually making like actually working with clients actually making money actually moving forward and growing your business is a much smaller number.
So when you go to these cattle calls, right, which I don't recommend like every once in a while there might be a good girl you're so soft today. Um, there might be a cattle call like and by cattle call I mean like you go to linkedin and I did this the other day There's two things that I looked at on linkedin There was a post that said they paid 50 bucks an hour for freelance work and in less than 24 hours They had like over 500 applicants.
That's a cattle call Uh, the other one was that there was a company that was hiring for six figures So the freelance writer or I mean the it was a full time position where they were paying six figures And it was like 100, 000 for a content marketing writer, uh, for a full time position. And, uh, they already had like, I, I saw it within like three minutes, you know, like you get these things on when I just happened to be on LinkedIn and it popped up, um, and it had like 30 applicants in like three minutes, right?
These are cattle calls. We don't want to be going to those. Those are not how we find our best clients. Every once in a while you might find someone who's a good fit, but you wouldn't be reaching out to them. You wouldn't be applying there, right? You'd be doing something else. You'd be sending that LOI. So whenever we're thinking about competition and mental health in our mindset, when you start worrying about the over saturation or the under saturation or the good freelancers and the bad ones and the ones who ghost and don't do good work, right?
That, you can't control any of that. You can't control who becomes a freelance writer. You can't control, like, who wins a Pulitzer. You can't control all this stuff, right? Can you go back to your hobbit hole? Thanks, friend. Good girl. And when we're worrying about other people, or we're worrying about the market, that's not growing your business.
That's not finding your way. And there's always room. There's always room. There's plenty of work out there. Sorry, Bean. There's plenty of work out there for you to... You ready? Oh, sorry Bean, that was a bad toss. For you to get good clients, remember that you need like three to five clients. You don't need all the clients.
And everybody else having three to five clients, like there's plenty of places that have more than one freelancer working for them. There's plenty of different types of clients. And as usual, my clients are not your clients, right? Everybody has a different specialty. There's plenty of stuff out there. But the deal is, the deal that you make as a freelance writer is you have to go dig for it.
You can't worry about everybody else and what they're doing at competition and all that stuff You have to go dig for it. You have to go find it You have to go figure out who your clients are. You have to make the lists. You have to cut things down, right? That's your job. Your job isn't isn't to worry about like like if it's you know, like, um, What's it like future tripping right?
Is it going to be worth it? And what if it doesn't work out and what about everybody else like? Those were the worst things that I ever did and they never came true So I would like worry about all this stuff that never happened Once I put my eyes on my own paper and once I stopped comparing, which I, so just, I still compare, I still do this stuff from time to time.
That's just, I think it's normal as you move to a new level and you feel like a small fish in a big pond, you compare a lot. It's still normal, I just cut it off a lot sooner. So, I used to do it quite a lot. So I'm, I'm telling you that this, like worrying about everybody else and the what ifs and the future tripping and like, Um, that isn't worth your time and energy.
It actually removes that time and energy like physical emotional mental Uh focus and energy from the stuff you need to get done, right? So we're sitting in the poop soup worrying about everybody else instead of just being like, you know What i'm gonna take that percentage of energy the 30 of energy I would spend on competition and what everybody else is doing And job boards and all this stuff.
I'm just gonna do that in making my list Finding my ideal clients sending my lois or making my list of magazines understanding who to pitch What kinds of pitches are they looking for? That's where your energy is way better spent Um, I can't I can't just tell you that enough Um, we can't control other people.
We can't worry about the market Um, and if anything, you should know that anytime we're in like economic stuff, it's always a cycle. So for example, I got, when I, um, graduated school, it took me like, obvious I'm wearing it today. Actually. Um, it, when I graduated, it took me, um, Like what was it nine months ten months to find a job?
What was it? Yeah, like nine months. So I start I was applying to hundreds and hundreds of jobs. I finally got a full time job, right? So I was like, thank God and then like a year later They were like we're gonna lay you off and I was like, oh shit And so that's when I started freelancing because I had always wanted to freelance but I was like, hey I kind of need to like do it now, but that kind of situation was like this Um, post 2008, right?
Like it was right after that. So it was 2010, 2011, and everybody was still worried about the job market, right? So it was 2010, 2011. Uh, it people were worried about the job market even past 2013, even past what? I left my full-time job in 2014. Then everybody kind of calmed down for a little bit and now everybody's all upset again.
Right? Then the pandemic comes five years later. Right? Or six. And that, so, these things are cyclical. They happen all the time, right? There's the Great Depression, there's all this, just, just all the shit, right? The, unless we're in the 80s doing a ton of coke, having a great day. So, different time then. But like, there's this, this is why I think the, the, I don't worry about that stuff because it's, yes, it affects us.
So like, let's stay, state that. It does affect us. Freelance work goes up and down. But it doesn't go up and down based on the economy. It often goes up and down based on what you're doing and what other kind of like trends you're seeing so for example, like um your Free like this is a good example. Um when the pandemic happened all my work got shut off everything everything shut off for months I had friends who were like so busy with work.
They were like burning out like it was they were stuffed with work, right? These are the kinds of things where like everyone's like, oh, there's no work. Perpetuating the idea that there's no work isn't helping anybody and it's not true. There's plenty of work out there. I'm still getting inbound leads from people asking for help and, um, uh, like wanting to move forward with certain content projects.
I know the work is out there. There's this, like, idea that if we believe that, like, that means we don't have to take action, right? Oh, well, there's no work so, like, I don't have to actually do anything because there's nothing there anyways. And it's not true. Work goes up and down. It doesn't always match the economy and I can tell you that from Um, like the people who started freelancing before me and had their best years ever over the recession Like they had a lot of work.
This is kind of having to do with who's your ideal client. What niches are you in? How is your work going? How are you doing your marketing? So I have seen at almost every point where things have gotten fucked up where people have figured it out And it's not just like special circumstances. It's a wealth of people It's more of a mindset and dealing with what they can control And understanding that if your usual pool of clients, right your usual pool of clients isn't working You need to go to a different pool.
You can't just keep pumping that oil rig, right? You're just like, where's the oil? You need to go somewhere else. There's no more gold in them hills, right? So you got to kind of understand the analysis of your business. That's the important piece Versus how's the market doing? What's this thing? Whatever and I I will say like there is Uh economic changes with work.
So when the economy changes Yes, there are businesses that will hoard money and not do freelance work and bring everything inside. That's totally true. But On the other side of that, there are businesses where they, so businesses are hoarding other businesses with more revenue or with more, um, marketing budget.
They don't even necessarily have to have more revenue, sometimes they just have a bigger budget. They're like, sweet, uh, 57 companies went down, let's try to get their market share with more content. So they create more content because these people are holding back. You need to go find them. They always exist.
They always exist. And I think it's like this crazy idea where, When we look at such a short period of time, you're not looking at the continuum. You're not looking at this big long continuum of how writing has evolved and changed and how long it's been around, how much people like stories, um, how much we don't need to worry about what everybody else is doing.
And I, you know, like I'm starting freelancing at like, like one of the worst times, right? So it's like 2010, 2011, uh, I get my first job. I started my freelance business, um, in, uh, 2013. And uh, you know, there's just like so many dicey situations that I feel like I just don't worry about it anymore. Like I, I just don't worry about it.
Yeah. Sometimes you're going to take a hit. Yes. You're going to make more, less money. Yeah. I agree sometimes. Yes, you're going to have to work harder. Yes. Sometimes you have to send more LOIs than usual, but if you have a pulse on your business, there's work, there is work to be found, there is stuff to be done.
Um, and like I say all the time, especially when there's layoffs, that work has to be done, right? So people get laid off at a business. Having a freelancer do it is cheaper than a full time employee. They oftentimes find freelancers to get that work done, which is great for us. Not so great for the people being laid off but Um good for us in our business.
Let's talk about three real quick. So Um, let's talk about three. I'm hoping that this is making sense I'm hoping that we're kind of seeing look at you just sitting there Um, i'm hoping that you're seeing like that. Yes, there are things that impact us But it's not to the degree that everybody tries to make it out to be.
And this is something where like, sometimes I think I'm crazy when I'm like, I shouldn't say that. But then I go talk to all my friends, or I talk to people who make a ton of money, and they're like, yeah, that's like what I've seen. Yeah, your revenue might go down. Yeah, you might see work dip. But there's work.
There's always stuff to be done. So, I feel like, Doug, you're doing great today. Can you give everybody a high five for all the stuff you've taught? Yeah. How about the other one? Yeah. Good girl. Good job. So I often think it's more of a difference in mindset. It's, it's instead of letting changes control you.
And instead of worrying about competition and instead of doing all this other stuff, you are, you're worrying about your own things, your own trends in your business and getting Intel from that. So let's talk about three. So there's a ton of work out there for freelancers I'm actually going to make three and four the same one So there's a ton of work out there for freelancers like that.
That's always that's always the case. It may not be the Like it may not be like these golden years all the time I think that's the thing is like there's this perception that there should be golden years all the time And when it's not the most Excuse me when it's not the most then it's the worst, right?
So if it's not at historically high rates and everything, you know There's blah blah happening and everyone's writing about like, oh my gosh Flooded with work that if everyone's like, yeah, it's a little bit lower the panic ensues So the panic ensues from like, it being a little bit lower than historic levels or, you know, all this stuff.
That's like the weird thing, right? Instead of understanding that it's gonna go in a cycle, it's gonna go up, it's gonna go down, it's gonna hit historic highs, it's gonna hit historic lows, you know, all that stuff. Instead of worrying about that, you need to focus on your own piece of paper. You need to focus on how your business is, is going.
How is your business growing? Are you making more money or are you working with better clients? Are you moving towards the projects you want to work on? Those are the pieces that matter. Those are the pieces you can control, right? And I think this kind of idea of like, is it the best? Well, if it's not the best, I shouldn't do it.
It's just like insane. Like it's never going to be the best all the time, right? It's never the everything. I kind of think of it as like, this is just kind of like a test of ingenuity. Like, now I'm getting a new puzzle, I need to be able to figure it out. So like every time you kind of get in these kind of situations, and sometimes there'll be times where everybody has work and you have no work, and everyone's like, what do you mean?
There's tons of work. Everybody has work, except you. Right? This is why it has to be on your own paper, because it doesn't really matter what's going on everywhere else. Everybody could have work except you, right? So like it's this, I always see it as like this test of ingenuity of figuring out this new puzzle.
Okay, if I'm not getting work and my old stuff isn't working, what do I need to fix? What has been... My best client or what kind of stuff has changed or what kind of stuff do I need to go after or? Have I been riding in this plateau for too long? Like have I been kind of you know The very common one is blog posts people just get on the train of blog posts and they're like They just stamp them out And then at some point they're like, how, you know, like this is nice, right?
Being on the train of like, uh, uh, retainers and regular revenue and like, that's nice, but it's boring, right? They're bored of writing 75 blog posts, right? They're bored of doing this stuff. So I feel like it's kind of this natural transition where you have to kind of figure out a new puzzle. That's part of owning this business.
So when we're kind of looking at like job boards or the market or stuff, that's not a reflection of freelance writing work. I haven't seen that be the thing. Yes, there are more postings for freelance writing work on job boards like LinkedIn and stuff. That's totally true. There's more, it's more and more regular to see freelance postings than when I started where there were like very few.
Um, but that's not really where our clients are anyways. Those clients don't understand how to work with a freelancer in the first place, right? So like the people that reach out to you, right? They're your inbound leads. They're just reaching out Hey, I want to work with you. They're searching for a freelancer They're already like hey, I need to reach out to this person one on one instead of putting up a job posting, right?
So a lot of times when you get those job postings, they can treat you like an employee They can be like, oh, this is just another employee. Like they just happen to be a contractor, right? That's not how it works. So we're already kind of in the wrong camp, right? We're already in the wrong pool With someone who wants to treat us like an employee not like a partner With a situation that doesn't make sense for our business.
So it's our job to go dig those things out and it's it's I just don't even Pay attention to job board stuff Like i'll go and look at it and I will hear from people talking about it And I will listen to my students and I will listen to people checking it out but that to me is not the factor that influences my business whether there's a ton of job board things or the someone's writing about the freelance market like Um, I more think about it one of the one of the ways I think about it that I think is a good mindset is like Um, kind of like the NFL, someone's always coming to take your spot, right?
So the NFL is like every year there's a new group, a new fresh group, you know, you're getting older, you've had injuries, maybe you didn't have your best season, maybe you're not the greatest of all time. Someone's coming to take your spot. Your job, right, is to do your best work. It doesn't actually mean that someone's taking your spot, right?
That's not actually competition. The idea is to, the mindset idea is to push yourself to be your best. It's not that you're like fighting for a spot and need to keep it like an NFL roster. This is kind of the verge off between freelance writing and NFL, right? They only have so many spots. We have an infinity amount of clients that we could go after.
We only need three to five. So the veer off is like understanding that you need to be at your game You need to put in the work you need to kind of do the stuff in your business that makes sense You need to be pushing things forward. You need to kind of Pay attention to be getting better in your job to get to the next level.
We're not kind of sitting around Um, and worrying about what everybody else is doing, but we should be worrying about getting better, right? Us getting better with our writing, us getting better with marketing, um, spending more time on things that matter in our business, or fixing our schedule so we have time for different things like this goob right here, like taking her for walks, or spending time with family, oops, um, or taking vacations, or taking time off, right?
So you kind of have to have this idea that like you need to be evolving, right? This is the growth mindset That's kind of the nugget that we're taking from the nfl, right? It's not that like you're losing a spot. It's that you need to keep evolving. You need to keep learning You need to keep this growth mindset So that your business gets better so that you can focus on the things that matter in your business and stop worrying about what everybody Else is doing.
Okay And I think like Whenever I feel like this was a thing I put in the newsletter, right? And if you want to get my weekly tips and tricks Which so I have a newsletter that goes out on mondays, and then we do the live stream on fridays Grab my free pricing guide mandyellis. com slash pricing guide.
It's totally free You'll also get my weekly emails and you'll know the live stream topics So you can submit questions ahead of time if you want, um on monday, so we're we're kind of like What I want you to walk away from this is like, the evolution should be a natural part of your business. So when I was kind of starting out, I keep a couple of things in mind still now.
So like, I'll tell you, so one is like, even a blind squirrel finds a nut. My dad told me that he's been telling me that my whole life. And I was like, that's dumb. But then I started realizing when I really felt down about my marketing or I really felt down about like, I'm not going to get another client.
I was like, even a blind squirrel finds a nut. And I would just do like, I'm like, okay, I'll just do one last push. And then boom, everything would figure itself out. So that's one thing. Two, we have to keep that growth mindset because evolving in your business is a normal thing. We want to keep doing that.
That's how we become better writers. That's how we don't get stuck at 30 to 50k in revenue. That's usually the plateau where people are not evolving anymore, right? So we want to make sure we're doing that. And then the other thing I keep in mind is what I told Karina. There are people who have zero experience who got in the best publications or who got a great contract or whatever, right?
So I always keep that in the back of my mind is like somebody else did it like with no experience with no knowledge with No, nothing. They wrote a pitch or they worked it out So they got a great contract with the client their brand new freelance writer with nothing going on, right? They they have no idea of how to run this business and they still figured it out So whenever I'm like, I have so many years of experience, how can I figure this out?
I'm like, somebody else was able to get it done, right? Somebody else got in, got some of the best bylines out there. Like, I think I can figure it out, right? I, I can figure it out. Instead of being like, I'm an idiot, right? Um, I have this idea now of, like, that I can figure it out. Like, there's, there's, there's some way to figure this out.
So those are things I think to keep in mind. Now we're going to do question, we're going to do one question just because of the, what we're at with time. So we're going to do one question now and one question next week. So let me do a question real quick. Um, so question, you can submit questions anonymously too.
So this is, uh, I'll first give you the link. So you can go to mandiellis. com slash question and you can submit a question for the live stream or you can submit something anonymously if you would like, uh, or you can submit a topic you want me to cover. So this one's anonymous, so this says as a new i'm still here, um as a new medical writer and new freelancer It's difficult to know where to start.
Please. Uh, could you touch on? The focus I need as a brand new writer. I've shifted to writing and have no clue who my audience is or where to direct my services or I understand networking. People are not as friendly as they make themselves out to be. We're not all competing against each other or um, and offering a helping hand or connection would be all a person needs to get started.
So this is why I want to talk about this question. Good girl, Bean. Um, I, it's exactly that. We're not competing against each other, but also, we, I don't expect anything from anybody. I don't expect other people to give me a helping hand. I don't expect people to, um, to, I have to rely on them to give me something.
I know if I plant enough seeds, And I know if I put enough irons in the fire and if I connect with People on linkedin who are my potential clients as well as other writers. Uh, just in general and in my niche that works out I'm, not worrying about like the the helping hand or like i'm not worrying about what other people are doing I don't like when someone does something nice.
I am pleasantly surprised. I'm like, that's great You know, like I expect people to be kind but I don't expect people to give me stuff or to offer me things or Um, think about it like, you know, as competition. I'm going to take this out so it's shorter, but, um, It's not that we're trying to rely on others.
So when you're getting started, the key thing here, hold on, um, Can you go back to your hovahole? When you're getting started, it's kind of what I talked about in the beginning. If you don't have clients and money, you need clients and money, right? Yes, we can put up systems. Yes, we can do all this stuff. And those are the things we go over in the Wealth Lab really extensively, right?
And those are things that we go over in Runway. But your job is declines in money. Like that's your job So your focus should be on sending those lois learning out learning how to send a good letter of introduction to a business And learning how to send a pitch to a magazine and your job should be to make those lists, right?
You're making lists of potential clients in your niches. You're cutting them down by revenue I always give the revenue ranges like startups need at least three to ten million to be a in funding Um to be a viable client and then mid sized companies need five to fifty million in revenue to be viable And that just means they have a budget right viable just means they have a marketing budget or they have a content budget So that they can pay you good rates Your clients may have more than that, right?
They may have 20 million as a startup or a hundred million as a mid sized business That's part of sending those LOIs to figure out who that is, but your job Especially when there's a lot of work in medical and biotech and life sciences and like that kind of stuff Is to start making lists of companies and start sending things out and start figuring out who's answering and who's creating content Because there are businesses Um, and I always, Vesna's here, so I always use her as an example because hers is a good example, so like if I was, if I'm in biotech, sometimes biotech companies need a hundred million dollars just to start doing marketing because they have to set up the factory and the facility and the lab and the testing and the blah blah blah.
Uh, so they need a huge pile of money just to then start doing marketing. So it really depends on your niche. It really depends on like what's kind of going on. So, um, I feel like, oh, you know what? My chat didn't move. So I like missed all these things that you guys put in here. Sorry. Now my chat, like just updated.
Okay. I'll get to all the comments. Um, So in any case, um, when you're starting out as a brand new writer, that's your job. And I always get asked this. So let me tell you, this is where my templates are. So my cold email, my LOI templates, my contract templates are all here, mandyeles. com templates. So if you go there, you can get the ones that I actually use to get clients, the scripts that I use to connect with people on LinkedIn, all that stuff.
There it is. Hold on. Um, now I missed all these comments. So Vessa says, Um, I didn't have experience in writing when I got into this. If anything, I figured quite the, the, I figured the opposite. People look to me for advice and I have to figure it out quickly so I formulate it to get back to them. Yeah, we're not really the expert most of the time.
Most of the time, we're, um, most of the time, we're, uh, doing research and we're putting things together. Eventually, right, like, I've done this long enough, I've ridden that bicycle that I can give expert advice, right? But, um. It's, it takes a while to get there and most of the time your job is to figure it out.
Yes, content mills are saturated because it's terribly bottom of the barrel. I totally agree with that, Vicki. Um, the internet and social media did change a lot of things. Albert, I totally agree with that. Um, and things have, you know, it's, it's changed a bunch in terms of, um, Yeah, the amount of content created.
Oh, yeah, yeah, Karina, there's plenty of like people have ghosted the best publications people have ghosted the New York Times and the Washington Post and the Boston Globe and Uh, Chicago Tribune, and Travel and Leisure, and Connie Nass Traveler, like all the best publications, or whatever you think the best publication is, Yes, they've ghosted them, they haven't turned in their work, there's a crazy amount of that stuff that happens, yeah.
And there's like writers that will just, yeah, Albert says the same thing, yeah, like, it's just, um, It's a thing like it's a thing that happens and it is something that deters some people from working with freelancers because they have a Couple bad experiences where freelancers freight flake on them. He go bean Bar says have you heard of a unique value proposition?
Yeah career coaches often talk about this in terms of job competition Yeah, that's what I'm going over when I often talk about your website and LinkedIn, right? So like when we go through stuff in runway or if we go through stuff in the wealth lab, that's your unique value proposition. I'm asking you like, what are your skills?
What are, what are your niches? Like how are you helping your clients get wins, right? Or we're talking about like, what are the things that make you unique as a writer? Those are your, I'm teaching you that without telling you that's what it is. Because if I start introducing that concept, it's like, it becomes really complicated really quickly.
So if you break it down, but yeah, the unique value proposition is how we're putting together our LinkedIn and our website. Yeah, this is like kind of, yeah, I think that, I, I just think of the 80s because like, one, I've been watching too much of The Price is Right on Pluto TV, so, like, they're doing the late 70s and 80s right now, so like, they have all these, you can just watch The Price is Right for 24 hours a day on Pluto, uh, and they're in the 80s right now, and the 80s is just like a well known time when there was, it was just crazy, like, things were crazy, so I feel like that's a good kind of, Um, marker for like kind of, um, talking about when there was like a wealth of stuff.
So I always kind of use the 80s as, the 90s, you know, parts of the 90s, but also that. Yeah. Good job, Charlotte. Um, yeah. She does do high fives. Um, she also does like other little things. Um, hold on a second. Let's see if she'll do it. Hey, Charlie, are you willing to do some things? No? You a little tired? You just do a little high fives?
Yeah? Okay. Okay. Not right now. We'll try again later. She'll she does a couple other things that I trained her to do But yeah, so the deal is like yeah, there's a whole bunch of things that come into it like there are things that change with technology and all this stuff, but Quality writing I feel like always works.
It always works and our job is to plant those seeds, right? Like that's our that's our job. If we're not planting seeds, then we're screwed like we don't have any work coming in There's no like magic fountain where like if you drink from it, you get work forever. Like that's, that's not a thing. Um, yes, our biggest competition, I think what Jennifer's saying is like our own mindset.
It's true. Like I've seen writers who I know that they're capable and skilled. And I've told them that like 85 times, okay? Like I know writers who I've said like, I've read your work. I know your, your work ethic. I know what you're thinking. I can see how your mind is working and you're going to do great.
And they just like won't do anything, right? Like that's a fear thing. That's a mindset thing. So they're more competing with their own mind rather than like Having all these things where you're like, hey, you can do it. Like look at all this cool stuff You've done look at all the stuff you're bringing to the table, right?
So that's kind of yeah, it's usually your own mind Um albert says nfl is a good analogy I'll take it further and say as a freelancer you want to be in the playoffs and hopefully win championships Uh, work wise you want to be Kansas City, not Detroit. Yeah. Yeah. Or like the Eagles or something. But yeah.
So like you, you want to make sure that you are like going to the Pro Bowl, right? You're going to the Pro Bowl, not every year because not every year is going to be great and there's somebody who's going to have a better year, but you should be like at the stage where you're going to the Pro Bowl, right?
Like you're kind of getting that together. And yeah, bestness says yep, they need a boatload of money This is what it means understanding your niches and understanding your clients, right? So her clients need a boatload of money my clients when I work on them with content strategy or brand messaging or messaging and positioning they need uh, Their series b and series c 20 to 50 million, right?
Her companies need over 100 million I learned this the hard way through real estate was I the brokerages that I that had money to pay for Quality writing right? They had the budget. They needed over 100 million in revenue and they're just such a small amount of them There's not enough Um on a regular basis to make that work So then I changed how I do real estate to work with different businesses But this is part of learning your business This is part of not worrying about competition and understanding who's your client how much money they need to have Um, okidoki cool Um, whenever you guys send emojis, like sometimes I get emojis and sometimes I just get a bunch of question marks, so it's like sometimes I can't, I can't see them just as like a thing.
Um, yeah, this thing too, so like there's a lot of rejection, right? So we deal with a lot of like, whether you're an author or you do poetry, fiction, nonfiction, journalism, content marketing, content strategy, whatever, we have to be determination, like determined to, Excuse me to do that, right? So like there are plenty of authors who have written a ton of books and finally got one published right or they wrote them and No publisher would take them.
So they went to like 55 publishers and finally got it published, right? There's always this piece where like we can't really worry about who's gonna reject us. We're looking for like the next win. Like I, um, I have students who, um, one of them buys a cake. So like if she gets a hundred rejections, she'll go buy a cake because it's about the effort that you're putting in, right?
It's not about being rejected. It's about all those next steps you get to your next win or client or article or thing getting published, right?
Yeah, yeah, it's exactly like we we have to like kind of do both things Yep So our job is kind of like to put the the wood in the train get the train going But we kind of have to drive the train and do other stuff like maintenance We don't always have to do everything at once, but we definitely have to be more multi Like we have to wear more hats.
Charlotte, you don't even like hats. Oh, no Oh, almost fell over. Yeah, good girl. You're so sweet. All right. Can you catch one more for everybody before we hop off the live stream? Yeah, vicky send more lois or get more, uh, send more pitches and see if people will reject you and then buy cake All right, charlie.
Can you catch one more for everybody? Good job. Good girl. Okay. So I hope that this has been helpful. I hope this is something that makes sense And I titled it that way because I often get this question I often get asked like how do I control other people and they may not say it that way But they'll say like well, what do I do when a hundred thousand other people apply to this job?
Or how do I make someone answer me? How do I make someone respond to an LOI or how do I make an editor answer my pitch or how do I? Control someone else's behavior or force someone's to change their behavior. You can't you can't yes Harry Potter was rejected like 23 times or 25 times and then it finally got published.
So yeah, that was uh, that's what happened Yep so Hi squeak. Hi squeak. So you want to kind of keep those things in mind you want to focus on your own piece of paper Oh, whoa, you haven't made that noise in a while. Good girl Um, you want to keep your eyes on your own paper, stop worrying about what everybody else is doing, put your irons in the fire, send your pitches, work, work, work.
On your mindset being that like you're filling up your field with seeds or that like I always imagine this like blacksmith kind of like Witch's cauldron with like a bunch of like those like twisty metal pieces of iron from like a construction site I always imagine like that filling up right and if I can envision that there's more Opportunities out there because I'm filling up the irons in the fire, right?
Like they're boiling away in this little pot getting all hot and stuff That keeps me motivated rather than worrying about how many other people are taking irons out of the fire or what other people are doing cool Okie dokie. So I hope this was helpful. We're here every Friday with a live stream at noon Central Time.
Minnie is usually here She's like making all these dino noises down here because she wants more snacks, but we're here every Friday Um, like I said, you can grab my free pricing guide and you'll get my weekly tips and tricks email as well. You go to mandelous. com, it says pricing guide, totally free. I update it regularly.
If you want to submit a question, you can do that through mandyellis. com slash question. We'll go over it like the one we did today or topic. So there's plenty of times where we've done lots of topics submitted by people. And if you want my templates, so if you want to get these cold emails, these LOIs out the door, and you want to have templates that actually work, templates that actually get responded to, go to mandyellis.
com slash templates to check it out. So I'm hoping, yeah, good. It was helpful. Great. Fantastic. Yeah. Um, uh,
Vicky, what does that mean? I'm still not so sure. Competition is much of a thing at the level we're supposed to be at. I don't know what that means. Like you should be, basically just think about it as like your eyes are on your own paper. Like, the competition as you go on as a freelance writer, like the longer you're a freelance writer, the more stuff you write, the more clients you work with, the better you get.
There's less competition anyways because people stop. People change their mind. They do a new career. They don't want to do freelance writing or, um, they are, you know. Um, or they, you know, quit or whatever. So I think, um, as you kind of go along, there's less competition. As you get better, you know, you're kind of in a, a league, in a different league.
Okey dokey. I hope everybody has a good weekend. I hope everybody enjoyed it. The little like Charlie show. Oh, you were answering albert. Okay Cool. Okay. That makes more sense All right Uh, if you feel like this was helpful give it a thumbs up if you want to learn more about building a high earning freelance Writing business without overwhelm or burnout subscribe. I will see you next friday. Have a great weekend. Bye Oh, I hit it. Okay, cool. Good. All right. Bye everybody
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