Top 5 Freelance Writing Questions I Get Asked The Most

Are you one of the many freelance writers who have asked me if one of these many questions I get every week or the same questions I get week after week thinking nobody else has these questions, or have you reached out to me thinking that people think different stuff? Because you know, once you reach six figures, things magically change or that you know, as a freelance writing coach and a freelance writer mentor, there's like some magic thing that I can give you or some magic question that someone hasn't asked.

And I think it's so interesting with these questions that I get them week after week after week. And there's like this thing that freelance writers are like really nervous about being, that they have questions that other people don't have or that they are, um, like they're dumb questions or something where they get on there and they're like, Hey, let me just ask you this cuz like, I don't wanna ask it in a public place cuz like other people will think I'm dumb and it's, it's just not true.

These are the same questions I get all the time. So we're gonna go through them from five to one this week. Instead of doing one to five, we're doing 'em back. Um, so we can go to the most asked question I get all the time, which I think might surprise. You bet. So let's just get rolling and I've got some two wiggle bugs over here.

5) How do I get started as a freelance writer?

One is in Lick Town and one finally laid down . So we'll do that later. We'll do a little, another P date later on. But let's do this. So let's go from five. All right. So number five here. Wait a minute. Is that in the right place? It's not in the right place. Boo boo. There we go. Okay, so let's go to number five.

Hey, Vicky, always love the. Number five. The number five question I get asked all the time is, How do I get started as a freelance writer? And I have notes, that's why I'm looking over here. I wrote notes. So number five question I get all the time is, how do I get started as a freelance writer? And I just find this, that other people are so scared of asking this cuz they're scared of looking like they don't know what's going on, right?

Like, how do I actually get started is a. Question, right? What are the steps I need to take? What are the types of things I need to do? What do I need to put in place to actually get my freelance writing career going? And I find it so interesting that people are just afraid to ask to show that they're starting at square one.

All of us started at square one. Even me, I started at square one. I had no clips, no clients. Everybody starts there. Um, it's, it's just part of it. Even if you have a writer who started as a staffer and then you know, has clips and stuff from their, you know, their full-time job, they still started with no clips or very few clips when they started a full-time career.

All of us start with no clips, no clients, or even learning how to get clips in clients. So I'm gonna answer this too, How did I, how do I get started as a freelance writer? So I have a playlist here in YouTube. So if you go to the How to Get Started as a Freelance Writer playlist, that will also give you a bunch of videos about how to do this.

And I'll link to it below. I'll put it in the description. Um, but when you're getting started as a freelance writer, you kind of have to learn a couple different things. And this is something I take my course students through like pretty thoroughly. Um, it's kind of like, where are your knowledge and experience?

Like where can you kind of dig into that? And then what kind of niches do those translate into? And I know that there's this thing that we often talk about is like, do I niche, Do I not niche? And I often find that freelance writers who, um, do start off as generalists, it's because they already have very experience.

They have a lot of different things that they can pull on. I did it. So for me, starting out with niches gave me direction to focus on clients, right. Who do I actually send an LOI or a pitch to? Or who do I reach out to or what kind of direction do I need? And I think when you're starting out, having direction is really important because, um, you lose momentum really quickly and you can feel very dejected and you can get rejected a lot.

But if you end up having a list or you end up having an idea of like, Okay, how do I kind of keep going? Where do I go next? And I like that for niches. I think if you take your knowledge and experience and translate. Um, into something that makes sense for you, like a, a niche, then you can start doing the next step as you get started, which is making your list of potential clients.

So you can go look for lists, you can do a Google search, you can use Crunch Base or Tech Crunch, or you can use the Forbes, um, the Forbes lists, or you can use the Ink 5,000. There's all these different ways, ways to find lists. And then you're gonna narrow those down by revenue, right? So then you're gonna narrow them down by startups.

Need to have that three to 10 million in revenue at. And regular businesses need to have five to 50 million in revenue. It really depends on the niche. Like some niches, they have 5 million and they spend most of that on marketing. Some niches, they need to have like 40 million just to keep the company going in that niche.

And then the extra 10 million, let's say they make 50 million in revenue, is for marketing. It really depends on how they do the marketing spend. Then you're gonna send those lois and pitch. Um, your letters of introduction, your lois are how you connect, like, connect with businesses. You send them out via email or emails on LinkedIn.

You wanna connect with more, uh, types of clients in your niches. And then you kind of wanna like keep your system going. And this is something that, um, I go over with my students a lot, like how to actually scale that system. You just wanna rake today, you just, you just like over there wagging your tail, having a great day.

Now you can see like his, his messed up eye. Like that left eye is the one that he's had trouble. But he's like 16, so we're doing our best. Good job, Barry. So then you're gonna really wanna scale that system. So what you wanna do is get really good. at figuring that out. Get really good at identifying better clients, and then you're gonna change that system and scale it over the long term.

So when you're getting started, really what you wanna do is get everything going. Work on your website, make sure you, you know, kind of craft it for ideal clients. Work on your LinkedIn and if you don't wanna do a website yet and you feel overwhelmed by that, definitely get your LinkedIn profile going. So get the LinkedIn profile, get it all set up to answer your potential.

Most pressing pain points. The LinkedIn about section is not about you. The experience section is not about you. It's about how you can help your clients. This is a big mistake a lot of freelance writers make is they're like, Let's make everything about me because I need to tell me how my SNE skills work, right?

We don't wanna tell everyone about all of that stuff. We wanna show how our skills solve problems. We wanna show how our skills are actually really important. To moving our clients forward and getting, um, getting them the sales and the link, uh, not the links, the likes and the comments and the clicks and all that stuff that they're looking for, right?

So those are the kinds of things that we kind of wanna get going with. And since we're, I'm giving a general overview here, but I'll link to those extra videos in the description. Um, but yeah, the deal is that as you're getting started, basically you just wanna like start letting everybody know that you exist and it takes a while.

Um, and for me, when I think about that, it's the train thing. And I tell my students this all the time, and I told this on live stream, you have to shovel the coal. You have to put the coal in the train, and it takes a long time. It can take two miles for a train to get up to speed, right? And so you have to keep shoveling the co cold.

But once the train is up to speed, it takes like another additional several. To actually slow the train down. So once you shovel the coal, get the train going, it'll go, you know, it'll do its thing. You'll have a system, you'll have a process, you'll have inbound leads, you'll have outbound stuff you do, um, and it'll kind of chug along in its own way.

4) Do I have to use social media as a freelance writer?

So the number five question is always, How do I get started as a lance writer? And I will link to that playlist in the description. All right, number four, not number six. Maybe I can get myself together today. Four. Number four, I woo. I've got a Woo machine over. Number four question I always get is, do I have to use social media as a freelance writer?

I think this is so interesting. That means. When I started as a freelance writer, that like wasn't a thing. Like you would kind of flew around and do a little bit of LinkedIn and like, it wasn't like a thing where they're like, Oh, everyone's saying you need to market on Instagram, or you need a Facebook business page, or Google find my business, or whatever.

That's, that's not a thing. Um, I think it's so weird that there's this pressure from I I did you just lick me? What a good girl. There's this pressure from other people saying like, You have to use social media or else you don't. I know plenty of writers who do not use even LinkedIn, they don't use any social media, they don't use LinkedIn.

Go back to your Haba hole place. Thank you. Um, and they still get a bunch of clients, like they're overloaded with work. Go back to your haba hole. So I think that this idea that we're pressured to use social media is nuts. Like you don't have to use social media. I definitely, um, am a big, big fan of LinkedIn.

We all know that, right? I talk about LinkedIn all the time. I talk about LinkedIn Premium. Um, I talk about how, you know, I do a lot of my lois and connection requests, right? I do emails and I do a bunch of connection requests. Good boy. Um, and so I am a big fan of LinkedIn, but I don't see LinkedIn as social media.

I see LinkedIn in a very different way, and oftentimes when people ask me about LinkedIn, they're like, Oh, I have to post all the time. No, you don't. No, you don't. Don't do that. What you should be using LinkedIn for is to find new clients. You should be using LinkedIn to find new clients. Do your marketing and kind of like ghost level it like the only time you have to really, like, if you really want to, and I didn't do this for years, if you really wanna show up on LinkedIn, every time you get a new clip, post about it, tag your client.

Talk about how great, go back to your huddle hole. You sat I, I have a trio in my hand. And they're like, they're like, Oh, that must be for me. Sit. Good boy. Yeah. So the thing is, is like post, if you get a new clip, tag your client, but that post should be about how you, your, um, how working with your client was awesome and that post should be genuinely that you had fun doing the project and genuine stuff.

And it shouldn't be . Hey Maria, I just said t e a t o S. Maybe Whisper will come by . Um, So yeah, like post about that and then when you get a new client post about that on LinkedIn and that's it. You don't have to post on LinkedIn all the time. And I post on LinkedIn all the time because I figured out how to preschedule stuff.

Like I use, um, the Canva, um, social planner and, uh, I used to use tsu. You can use Sprout Social, you can use a bunch of other tools for Instagram or a bunch of other tools for. You know, Twitter and stuff and prescheduled stuff, but I only do that because I have the time and space to do that now. I didn't for a long time.

And you need to focus on the things that move the needle most. And when you're playing around on social media, most of the time people get sucked into a social media hole and they like, they're like, Whoops, an hour went by and I got stuck into reels or tos, . And um, you know, I think that it's just really important to.

Yeah, Sales Navigator is super important. Sales navigator I think is really great. So if you have the extra a hundred bucks, do it. Do the sales navigator. You get 50 in mails a month. It's really easy to do your marketing. Um, yeah, and you should also post on potential clients posts, but that's later in the process.

So if you're getting started or you're worried about using social media, you don't have to use social media. You, you, you should embrace LinkedIn. Uh, I definitely think that I've had several students that are like fearful of LinkedIn or they hate LinkedIn and they end up loving it. And I have other students that like try LinkedIn.

They're like, Noah, social media is not for me. And they just stick to email, which is fine. Don't sit on her. Okay. You can eat my finger if you want. Um, The , the whole point is that you are, um, you are using the platforms to move your business forward. So if all you're doing is doing your marketing, do that, you can worry about social media and a following and all that stuff later.

Like that is a way different ball game than I, Everybody's licking my hands now. You guys are sassy. Um, it's a way different ballgame, so you do not have to use social media. You don't have to get on Twitter. I hate Twitter, so I never go on there. I, I think I even have a Twitter thing and I, I don't know, I might have canceled it.

I don't remember. Um, but I don't go on Twitter. I never go on Facebook. I have a Facebook page, but I haven't been on there in years. And, um, there's just, man, I think you should spend time where you already spend time in LinkedIn is one of those places where a lot of people. End up spending time and it's good time.

So no, you don't need to worry about social media. Yes, I said Trios, . Yes. I said T R E A T os, but I said trios and everybody just got 'em over here. They're both sitting next to me right now. That's the beauty of the live stream is they, they're just got some two wild Broncos in here who are like, Please give me more snacks.

Um, yeah. Marie also says this, So Sales navigator will also tell how long it's been since a person has been on LinkedIn. That's super important, right? So if you send an email or you send a connection request, if someone's taking forever to get back to you, you're like, Oh, they're just never on LinkedIn.

3) How do I get better clients?

I'll send them an email instead. Poof. Problem solve. So sales navigator is totally worth the money if you have it. All right, four. Let's go to three. If I can figure this out. There we go. The third most asked question that I get is, how do I get better clients? This is something that I find is a really good question, but also depends on who I'm talking to.

So sometimes when I'm talking to writers, um, no whisper, can't read, whisper can't read. She just hears me say it like she knows my voice. Um, how do I get better clients? Depends on where you are and what's going on. It's not just a magical solution of like, here's four things to get better clients. And there are some things that go across niches, but I feel like a lot of times when you're getting better clients, you kind of have to figure out like, who is your client first?

Like, are you working with a lot of startups? Are you working with a lot of large companies? Are you looking to do strategy? Are you looking to do consultation? Are you looking to do blog post or. Case studies or white papers, like a lot of your better clients comes from understanding who your best client is, what types of content they need, and then figuring out who those better clients are for you.

That's a really important thing, and this is something that I go over with my students, my freelance writer, Wealth Lab students a bunch, because it's not about just like the general better clients, and it's not about money. It's not about like, who can I get Will that will pay me a dollar? That isn't like longevity, that's just a temporary, you know, thing.

So yes, you do wanna look for clients that do pay better. That's, you know, obviously we're talking, you know, money's important. Um, but the other part is that we have to understand who our ideal clients are, like, Over the, your freelance career, who has been your best clients? Or if you're just starting out, who, what would you like your client to be like?

Do you want your client to, um, email you like regularly? Do you want your, um, ideal client to, uh, have a big pipeline of work? Do you want your ideal client to just be kind of a temporary thing? Because really you just are trying to get into a new niche, so you, Oh, shoot. I gave you the wrong one. Here you go.

Or you want something kind of like, Okay, I just want a a one client in this new niche so I can have a clip and move on to somebody else. The idea of better clients is just, it's so different depending on where you are in your career and also the niches that you're in. So when you're getting better clients, I would step back and think about, Okay, cool.

Like what's going on in my niches? What type of content is growing? What types of things are changing? Then I would go, and I do this all the time, go look at other writers in your niche. What are they focusing on? Are they doing a lot of white papers? Are they doing a lot of blog posts? Are they doing big campaigns?

Are they doing more email drips? Are they doing content strategy? Go look at what the projects are that they're working on. And then you're like, Oh, better clients need these higher end things, and then you need to learn how to do them to offer them to those clients. I'm not saying rip clients from other people, like I'm saying, saying this, Don't rip clients.

You're looking for ideas. Only you're looking for like, okay, they worked for a SAS startup with 10 million and that SAS startup with 10 million needed content strategy. Okay, so I should start offering that, or you're looking at All right. This Ink 5,000 company has 20 million in revenue, and it looks like they just hired a marketing director, and they're putting out all of this new content, including case studies and white papers and eBooks.

Okay? So that's something that I need to pay attention to in order to figure out what my ideal clients are going to need help with and what I should start writing my copy about and thinking about what I should offer these better. Because a lot of times writers are in this weird soup. They're in this weird soup where they're like, Oh, if I just change everything, then I'll magically get better clients.

Like, just tell me where to find the better clients and I'll just have them. That's not how it works. It's not how it works. Hey, Vesna, welcome in. We have missed you Veda, but sna, you have been a busy bee. You and Marie and everybody. You know, you guys have been busy bees and I really appreciate this. I'm just gonna give a quick shout out.

Vesna and Marie have been fantastic. They've been welcoming new students, They've been getting on the ball, getting everything done. Um, they've been really killing it, so I'm doing a big shout out for them. And they've had a bunch of things going on, right? Like, they had health things and they had weather things, and they had this thing break, and then they have all this other, There's so many things going on and they're still going after it.

So I'm big shout out to Vesna and Marie. And of course I'm always gonna shout out Vicky, cuz I, cuz I always feel really good when Vicky comments the wave. I don't know what it is, but every time she gives me the wave, I'm like, we're ready to go. Vicky's on the ball. So shout student shoutouts today. . All right.

Um, let's, Okay. So better clients. It's not just like there's a magical pool. Yes. Canva has a, a, a, Yes. . So, um, Vesna, if you go to, can. If you go into Canva on the left side, right? Like if you go on desktop, on the left side it says content planner. It's not called like a calendar. It says like content planner or something dumb.

That doesn't make any sense. So go to that, and then it's a big calendar, and then you can just schedule, like you click the plus button on a day and then you just schedule the post. It's super easy. Yes. More waves. Thank you, Vicki. Um, yeah, Vesna, go in there and play around. Um, and it's, it's called Content Planner.

It's, it's all the way at the bottom and I, it's a Con Canva Pro feature maybe. I can't remember. Um, they've kind of changed a bunch of things recently in Canva, so I would double check. But yeah, the. If you can, Canva Pro is like 130 bucks a year or something. Uh, it's totally worth it cuz I've saved 300 bucks by not doing Hootsuite anymore.

And Hootsuite was always buggy. I wanted to love Hootsuite. I swear I wanted to love tsu. I heard so many good things about it, and it just was so, it had all these issues that drove me nuts. Just like WordPress. I wanted to love WordPress. I wanted to fall in love with you WordPress, but you made everything so difficult.

So I had to leave for Squarespace . So, um, here's the, The better client pool. Like doesn't, that's not a thing. Like you don't, you don't just like magically find like an oasis of better clients. Like when people ask how do I find better clients? Or how do I get better clients? Right? There's a bunch of different things that you have to do to not only find them, but to secure them.

And you need to know more about your niche and you need to be really good at explaining their problems. And this is something that I think is really important. So Simon Cenek talks about this, right? And we talk about this in depth in the. Is that as you kind of, um, if you can explain your client's problems to them, they automatically think you have the solution.

That's how you get better clients. If you can explain what your clients struggle with, they will give you all their money because they think you can solve it, and you can, because you understand what the problem is. And if you know what the problem is, you automatically can figure out the solution. Don't forget that.

2) How do i get paid then make more money? And how do I price X project?

All right, number two, the number two most asked question. Good Bena. Try it out. Let me know how, how it goes. The number two asked question. Also, if you feel like this has been helpful so far, give it a thumbs up if you wanna learn more about building a hiring freelance writing business, or you just wanna learn how to build a freelance writing business in general.

Subscribe. Let's do a update. Can you guys go to your haba holes like you guys are just like stalking me right now. Can you go to your ho hole? Please? Go to your ho hole. Use all your, use your rusty marble. There we go. We did it. Good job. , we just call, you know, Bo is, uh, Bo is ultra geriatric now. He's 16 years old, so we just call, you know, he's, uh, yes, Camba Pro is amazing Vesna that it's free, it's included in there.

So go find it. Um, Camba Pro is definitely worth the money and it just, the planner is way better. You don't have to pay anything else. So we call those little rusty marble, like his little brain , rusty marble, cuz he has a few like memory problems. . Good job buddy. Um, and good job. Hi five. Good girl. Uh, so we just call it his rusty marble.

So if you ever see me talking about Bo and his rusty marble, I'm just talking about his, his uh, his last brain cell that's working along. You know, that's what happens when you get to be an old dog. You kind of forget things and your brain doesn't quite do what it's supposed to do. And we're all trying our best, aren't we?

Barry, over here. Good job. I thought I. Okay. Good girl. Alright. Good job. You're showing off today, Charlotte. Showing off. All right. Ready? Woo. Woo. Oh, we missed try again. Good girl. All right, Barry, you ready? Barry? I would try have you try to catch it, but I just think that's out of the question at this point right now with your eyeballs.

All right, so the number two most asked question that I. If my phone will participate and give me my notes, , the number two most question, uh, question I get the most often is, how do I get paid then make more money, which is BA or like, how do I price a project? So here's the deal. How do I get paid is a bunch of different things.

You need to have a contract, You need to agree on payment terms in that contract, and you need to get an upfront deposit. Most of the. Magazines and certain businesses that have editorial departments that operate like magazines will not give you an upfront payment. Um, but most businesses will give you an upfront payment, so make sure you do that.

That's how you get paid. You need to have something to make sure that there's money coming in first, right? That they, that they can actually pay for it. A lot of writers are like, Oh, I'll just write more and then, um, they'll owe me a bigger invoice. And then you're like, No, if they're not paying you to begin.

You're not gonna get a bigger invoice, you're getting $0 right now. So getting paid is also about having things set up. So I love dub sodo. That means that I do all my invoicing, my client management, my appointments, my to-do list, my financials. All of my stuff is in dub sodo. And if you can, Set up your systems to get paid.

And if you're just starting out, try harvest. It's a lot less complicated. I had harvest for a long time. Um, use Harvest to send your invoices. So do that. That's how you get paid. Make sure you have a contract and agree to things. Um, the other thing is that when you're making more money or how you price a project, those things go together, right?

How do I price this project? Well? What's your experience and knowledge? Are you bringing more value to the table? Do you feel. After doing all these projects, you can charge more because now you're bringing a lot more, you know, value, experience, knowledge, uh, useful data or um, time tested like techniques that you've had with other clients to charge more.

And when you're kind of doing, um, the, how do I price a project thing, That's why here we're gonna put. That's why I made the free pricing guide mandela.com/pricing guide. It's my free pricing guide. I just updated it. It has a whole bunch of, um, stuff in it for, um, content strategy and different types of content projects.

Um, and it gives you a lot of information about like how to actually price things or how to deal with weird situations with your clients. Super helpful. So if you go to um, mandela.com/pricing guide, you can grab that. It's. Ah, one of my students, my other students is here, Uh, Shaista. I've been practicing it, so I say right, Shaista.

There we go. Shaista is here. She is, um, rocking and rolling and doing the marketing, rolling out all that stuff, and uh, she's just like diving in. That's the coolest thing is like when I get students like her that are just like, I'm ready to go. I wanna do all the steps. Let's do it. And even though like we haven't even really started the course, she's like doing all this stuff already, which is amazing.

Um, Okay. Back to money pricing thing. So if you're worried about pricing a project or if you're worried about how to make more money, you have to start somewhere. That's why the guide is there. I give you the pricing guide to kind of figure out where you are in the bubble and then, or at least the rates that I'm collecting, I ask people all the time what they're charging.

So I woo. Um, the thing about making more money is really also having the confide. To charge more. It's also about understanding what other people are charging in your niche for that project. Um, it's also about understanding I woo, giving me all the licks. It's also about understanding the value of content over time.

So this is something that I talk about a whole bunch, um, is that your content lives on, right? Your content lives on for years and years, and. After you work with the client. So after the client no longer, you're not invoicing them, you stopped working with them, all that stuff, your content still brings in leads and sales.

Your content lives on their websites for like 10 years. I still have articles that are bringing traffic and sales and likes and clicks and comments to, uh, clients I haven't written for in years and years and years, and it's still bringing. Um, so I think that , Yeah, Marie. Try it. Try that one again. . Um, so I think that you kind of have to have confidence.

You have to understand what's going on. You're in your niche. You have to have at least some kind of ballpark from other freelance writers. Um, and you really need to understand that like what you're charging for is not a one time transaction. Um, your one time transaction might be on your side where you're like, Yeah, it should be like $800 for this thousand word blog post.

But they're gonna use that thing to, like, I've talked about this in the masterclass. The free masterclass was if your client makes 15 million and there is one. So I, I did a live stream on this. I'll link to it below. But, um, there's one article that a company wrote where they got 15 million. If that company uses one of your articles that makes them 15 million, they're not gonna give you any of that $15 million.

Okay. , you need to remember the value of your content. Obviously don't charge a million dollars for that , sorry for that one piece of content. Um, but the idea here is that your content can bring in a lot more money than the $800 that they're giving you, right? So don't think transactionally, remember that that content brings them a lot more.

That's why a lot of people are doing content marketing. That's why there are a lot more people seeking out freelance writers or seeking out freelance content strategists or freelance content marketing writers or whatever. Um, We'll, we'll all get it. Just, we'll all get it. We'll get your name. I don't know why, like my brain, like, I don't know if we've ever talked about this, but when I was little, I had like minor dyslexia.

So like sometimes when I read people's names, my brain is like, Oh, it's actually spelled this way. And then when I look at it later, I'm like, Wait, that wasn't how it was spelled before. So, um, I always apologize if I say people's names wrong because like my brain just is like, No, let's switch the letters around and do this

Um, So that's the deal. When you are getting paid, then you're making more money. You kind of have to know those things and remember that getting paid and making more money is more than just raising your prices. It's understanding the value long term of your content. Don't think transactionally and understand what other char, what other lance writers are charging in your niche.

That's really helped, uh, really helped me a bunch. And, um, if you're going through your projects, look at what you've been charging. Do you feel like that, like you're not getting bitter over that? If you are getting bitter over your prices, you should raise them. You're, that's, you're doing it wrong. All right, so the number one question, the number one, and maybe I'll click the right button this time, Mandy, get it together.

1) Can I do it? Can I really make it as a freelance writer?

Mandy, get it together. Okay, So the last question, the, this is the most surprising thing that I get asked all the time, and I don't know, um, I don't know why this is number one, but it always surprises me when I get it and it's the most common question I get, and maybe it'll surprise you. The number one question I get asked all the time is, Can I do it?

Can I really make it as a freelance writer? Like people get in my inbox and they ask me like, I'm worried that I'm not good enough as a writer to make it. I'm worried that I have no opportunities to make great clients, that other people can make it and I can't. Or, um, do you believe I can actually do it?

People, I have no idea who they are. I've never talked to them. They've never been on a live stream. They've never been a student of mine. And they send me an email and they're like, Can I do it? And I'm like, I don't know, can you? And then I'm like, Wait a minute. Why are you asking me? Like, you gotta believe in yourself.

You gotta believe in you. If you don't believe in you, you're never gonna make it cuz you have to believe in. Or else we're all gonna be in trouble. So I find that so interesting that they're, they are asking me also someone they don't know, right? Like they, they know me from the live stream, or maybe they know me from, um, Oh no, we almost just lost all the trios.

Um, oh no. Now I said it. , Um, they know me from the live stream or they know me from my weekly emails, uh, or from the course or, or, um, from hearing about the course. But then they email me like, Do you believe in me? And I'm like, You should believe in you more than me believing in you. Right? Like, you've gotta do this right?

No matter how many tips and strategies and cool stuff and templates, um, and master classes and calls with experts and. Stuff that I give you, it still comes down to you. It still comes down to, do you believe you can do it and I can cheer you on. I'm like one of the best cheerleaders out there, and I was a cheerleader when I was small,

But you know, I'll cheer you on. I'll give you all the stuff. I'll give you everything I know how to give you. Right. But, It's not gonna change your own belief in you. You have to believe in you. So when I get this question, can I really do it? Like, do you believe I can do it? And it's not just like, can freelance writers make six figures or can freelance writers make enough money?

Even nowadays, I'm like, Yes, of course. It's not that. It's like, can you, do you believe in me to do it? And I'm like, Yes, I believe in yes, but you have to believe in you. So me believing in you is like, of drop in the bucket. You gotta fill the bucket. So I find that so interesting that, that they're asking me to believe in them so they can believe in them.

But me believing in them doesn't actually help them believe in themselves. Like it becomes this thing where they're like, Man, I'm racked with self doubt. I'm losing all my confidence. You know, what do I do? And it's like you gotta believe in yourself. Like you have to believe that all the things you're doing in your business are moving it forward, That you are trying really hard, that you're doing the best writing that you can, you're putting out the best quality.

That you can right now in the timeframe you have, and this is something I talk about a bunch with my students, um, and with a bunch of other writers is like, we have deadlines. We can only do the best writing we can with the skillset we have right now within our deadlines. That's it. You're not gonna have six months to make something happen.

And most of the time, if you are, it's like a giant white paper and it takes forever and that's the best you could do . So you have to come up with this idea that you have to understand the idea. You are doing the best you can with the timeframe you have in the deadline you have, right? With the skills and abilities you have right now.

And you can always get better. You can always become a better writer. You can always get more skills. You can always work with better clients. You can always do that stuff, but there's nothing that you can do outside of yourself to actually believe in you. And I think that's, that this is like, um, there is a big difference between self doubt and there's a big difference between imposter syndrome and there's a big difference.

Um, all the other things that we can think about as freelance writers that we really struggle with, like even mental health stuff. This is even outside of that. This is like the core belief that you can do it. This is the core belief that despite all the odds and despite all the difficult stuff that you're really gonna put in your best effort, and you're really gonna try, You have to believe that.

You don't have to believe that everything's gonna work out. You don't have to believe that everything is gonna be magic in daisies because it won't, There will be hard parts, but you have to believe in you. You have to believe in. Like, and I always love, um, this idea from Brendan Burchard where he says, You have to believe in your ability to figure things out.

And that really got me through a lot of dark times, even like even recently where I was like kind of worried about a bunch of stuff. I'm not as worried, I'm not worried now, but I worry too in my business, um, there was a bunch of things where you. Even in the dark times, I'm like, I know I can figure this out.

I know that after all the things I've been through, I know I can figure it out. Maybe it won't be immediate. Maybe I'll take a long time. Um, maybe things will be more difficult than I think, but I know in the end I'll figure it out. That core belief, I think, really builds a lot more confidence and self-belief because what really happens is all of the things I've ever catastrophized, all the things I've ever worried about in my business have never come.

There is always another client. There is always a bigger paycheck. There is always more stuff you could be doing. There's always, always, always right. There's always stuff. And every time I worry and every time I'm like freaking out about it, it's like after I worry shortly thereafter, I'm like, Oh wait, everything worked out.

Like nothing I worried about happened. And that's happened to me over the last 10 years. I've been a freelance writer. I, I had way worse anxiety in the beginning. You know, we've talked about that . So, um, and you know, like I talk about getting therapy and um, taking medication and all that stuff. Um, because if I'm gonna like do quality content, I need to be in the right frame of mind.

I need to have the right mindset, and I can't be living in anxiety town. It just makes it so I can. I just have trouble typing and thinking. Right? Anxiety kind of cl clouds your mind, but the deal is that you have to believe in you. And even if you don't wanna believe in you, believe that you can figure it out.

Believe that you will put in enough effort to figure it out. And if you don't put in enough effort to figure it out, that's something that you're gonna have to deal with, right? That's gonna be the painful consequence of like not trying, right? So, I always believe in you, . I always believe in my students ability to figure it out.

I always believe that my students can can go do it because. They're, they often think these things that aren't true. They come to me and they're like, My writing sucks. And they're like, Can I send you a sample? And I'm like, Sure. They send me a sample and I'm like, It's great. Move on with your life. Stop worrying about that.

Like your content is wonderful. You'll make it. Yes. I'm sure There's like a few things in here that are trash. I have stuff in my writing that's trash. I've been writing for 10 years. It's part of the process. It's working it out. It's a creative field. It's not black and white. We have to tweak and figure it out as we go along.

Every time someone's like, I'm terrible at this. I'm like, Send it to me. Send it over. And every time it's not, It's, I've never met a writer where I thought their stuff was bad. Never. I've never met someone where I've read their stuff or they sent me something where they're like, Can you just look at this or check this thing, or whatever like that.

That's never happened. Nothing bad has ever happened. Um, I get their stuff and I look at it, or they're like, Oh, I haven't written an X amount of time. You know, here's a clip I wrote 20 years ago and here's a clip I wrote recently. And I'm like, They both look good. Stop worrying about your skills. You're doing great.

Um, so I can believe in you all day long. Sun up, sun down, you know, whatever. Rain, rain or shine, but, When it's raining for you, can you believe in you? That's the important thing. And like I said, I'm always like, when I was making this, um, putting this together for the live stream, and I was like, All right, let's kind of think about, Cause I always write 'em down, right?

I write down like what people ask me, right? Like, I have a log, um, I have a big, big notes of it. And that's the thing they ask is like, can I do it? Like, can I become a freelance writer? I don't know. Can. Like, Right. Like, I'll cheer you on, but you have to believe that you can. Right. You have to believe in you.

So I hope that that part was really helpful because I really struggled with a lot of that, um, when I was kind of coming up and when I was kind of like figuring things out. Um, and I, I think a lot of writers think that they're way worse than they are. Like, you are not terrible. You're not like, like I said, like all, everybody who sent me a clip, I'm like, this is.

Move on. And if there's someone who sends me a clip and I'm like, This needs work, I will tell you how to fix it. And then that improves it for the future. So every time I've had an editor where someone, where they came back to me and they're like, Ooh, you need to fix this. That made me a better writer. So if you send me something and I give you feedback, it doesn't mean I think it's bad.

It's like I'm trying to help you become a better writer. And I'm usually like, pretty gentle. Like I kind of, you know, sandwich it all around. Um, but I, I often feel like, You have to kind of get that feedback. That's what writing is. You have to get feedback to get better, but you also have to believe that you're doing a good job or you're at least trying, right?

So Shta says, You are someone we all look up to. So I think they're looking for a reason to continue, um, because I think they know they can, but they don't understand there's no such thing as quick money. That's a good thing. So maybe they're, maybe they're looking for confirmation that like believing in their themselves is like a good thing.

So maybe that's why they ask it, um, is that they're like, Hey, I wanna believe in myself, but like, can you kind of just give me the little bit of like last thumbs up, like five stars on Yelp and I'm happy to do that. Um, . But yeah, like there is no such thing as quick money and you gotta put the time and effort in.

There's just that, that's bar none. You gotta do it. But when you put in the hard work and money, things will come out. Like things will always work out. Um, let's see. Marie says, I think some of the people are, are asking about the, if they can do it, they're looking at so many scams out there and say that you can make money.

I'm wondering if this is one. I never thought of that , but that's a good point. Yes. There's a bunch of like weird writer scams where they're like, Make $5,000 a day from home. And you're like, What? Yeah. Uh, this is not that. This is not that. Um, and I will always be honest about the process. Like it ta it takes.

But if you have the right systems and processes and you like figure it out and you're really trying and you like, are actively putting yourself out there, oh my gosh, you've got like a six inch drooled dangler. Ew. And we're out of tissue so we can't wipe it off. Oh gosh. Please don't get it on me. . Um, yeah, the scam thing I guess I never think about, but.

Yeah, don't fall for the scams. You have to put in the sweat equity. Um, and this is definitely, you know, my course is, I mean, not one, but it's weird that I would have to say that. But yeah, if they're asking me if they can do it, um, you could definitely do it and then, you know, avoid the scams. Anything that sounds like cheesy and weird.

It, it is cheesy and weird. Uh, there are days I think there are no more words. I've used them all and then whisper and I go for a walk and calm down. Yeah. I do the same thing. A lot of times over my writing career, I'm just like, I have to get outta the house and I go walk the dogs or like I do it in the middle of the day.

Um, and it kind of helps me, you know, just step away for a while and then come back to the paper or the page, I guess is not paper . Um, Marie says one of the great things about the wealth lab is we all talk about what doesn't work and what does, and it's good to hear from others. Yes. That's something we do a lot in the community as we go through the modules, but also as we go through our businesses.

So even after all the course material is. We often, like, I often share things, my students share things of like, I'm doing this, I'm not doing that. Um, this thing has been really working well for me. This thing hasn't, and everybody's kind of in a different, um, there, everybody's kind of in different niches, so we're kind of learning like, okay, maybe we should try this a little bit more or that, Um, and that really helps because it makes your business better.

You can start focusing on something that might make more sense for your business rather than what you're doing now. Do, do, do, do. Yeah, we do go all through that. Um, yeah. No matter where we are, we're all going, we're all going through a bunch of different stuff. Yeah. And, you know, uh, last thing I'm gonna say here on the live stream, and if you found this helpful, give it a thumbs up if you feel like you wanna learn more about building a, hiring, freelance writing business, or just getting started with freelance writing, subscribe.

Last thing I'm gonna say is I still have self-doubt. I still worry about things. I still worry sometimes about can I do it or like, am I gonna make it or in whatever sense make it is. Um, or like, you know, I struggle with believing in myself too. Like even though I've been a freelance writer for 10 years, even though I've built a six figure business.

And even though, And even though, And even though, right. All of that stuff, even though most of the time I'm really. I still struggle, uh, like with this stuff. It's just part of kind of growing and scaling your business. It's part of getting outta your comfort zone. It's part of putting yourself out there.

And I find that the more that you're kind of pushing yourself, the more you might feel that because you're really trying to grow. Right. But I wanna let you know that like there are times when I still feel that way too. It's not this thing that just like magically goes away after you hit a certain client or a certain number of like amount of income or hit a certain milestone.

These are things you actively have to work on to make sure that you are working on your mindset and believing in yourself and figuring out like, okay, why do I keep coming back to this one thought that's really a hangup and that kind of stuff that really, um, you gotta noodle through it and work on. Um, Marie said, I had one place tell me they could give me work and make $5,000 a day, but I had to pay them $500 for an evaluation

Um, and I had to pay them a thousand dollars a month to join. Well, it sounds like all that is, is you're getting other people's money from already buying into that, which is a pyramid scheme basically. Right. , so not good. All right. Um, last thing I'm gonna say is so big thank you to, um, everyone who has dealt with this.

We've had like a teachable tech issue and they know about it. So if you have been trying to enroll in the course, which is open, today's the last day, it'll be open till 4:00 PM Central. Uh, we had some tech gremlin get us, uh, but Teachable knows about it. So if you go to mans.com/enroll, mostly it seems like most people are okay, but then there's like a chunk of people that have been having.

So it, the course is still open. You can still enroll until 4:00 PM Central today, and then it will close until April, 2023. This is the last group of students that gets into the post-course community for free and gets the masterclass library for free. Both of those things will become a paid part of the paid membership later because there's too many things I wanna do, and keeping my groups connected is like not allowing me to expand things cuz then it's too much for new people coming in.

It's like, So here's the deal. Um, if you have any issues when you're trying to enroll, just send me an email, but most people should be okay. So Teachable is aware of the tech stuff. We're expanding enrollment until today at 4:00 PM so today. September 16th at 4:00 PM Central Time. So if you go to mans.com/enroll, you can still, most people can enroll.

If you, for some reason can't enroll, just send me an email. We'll figure it out. It's all, it's getting solved. Yeah, the tech gremlins got us. I don't know what's going on. Well, Teachable is figuring it out. So Teachable's working on it. They know about it. I've mentioned like the multiple different issues that are going on.

So Teachable's working. But we still have enrollment. Freelance Writer Wealth Lab is still open. It'll close, uh, at 4:00 PM Central today. It will not reopen until April, 2023. Um, and this is the last group of students who will get into the post course community and get the master classes for free. And if you have any questions, send them to me.

Just write me an email. I'm happy to answer them. All right, so I hope that this was helpful and I hope that you learned a lot from the questions that I get asked the. Um, and I hope everybody has a good Friday. I hope to see you in the course and community if you feel like it's a fit for you and, uh, the Bears.

Of course, there's, there's Barry. Bo says, I, he hopes you have a great weekend. Let's give him a trio just cuz he is sitting there. Bo your eye looks so weird. Oh, you would still have your six inch dangler. Could you guys see that? Oh, very, very not your best moment in your 16 years. You know what, Barry, you're still beautiful and I love you.

You're still a wonderful little specimen with all your little dangler. There you go. Good job, buddy. All right. All right. We all hope that everybody has a good Friday and a good weekend. We start the course on Monday, September 19th, so if you are looking to enroll, now's the time. See you on Monday. Well, I mean, I'll, I'm in the community now, but if you wanna join the course, I'll see you on Monday and, uh, hope everyone has a good weekend.

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BusinessMandy EllisSeptember 16, 2022