What's a Waste-of-Time Freelance Gig and How Do They Hold Your Business Back?
Have you ever found yourself in the middle of a freelance writing project pondering, “This is just so not worth it.” This is what happens when we get sucked into waste-of-time gigs, and it affects our mindset, view of our worth, and ends up holding our business growth back.
For this week's livestream, we're going over attributes of waste-of-time gigs, how you get sucked into the quicksand, what to do if you find yourself in this situation, how you can get out, and how you can stop holding your business back with these types of projects and clients.
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What is a Waste-of-Time Freelance Gig and How Do They Hold Your Business Back?
We have all had those gigs that end up turning out where you have all these thoughts where you're like, this is not worth it. I gotta get out of here. Abort got to leave. So today we're going to talk about our waste of time gigs, and we're going to talk about what they actually are and how they hold your business back in a bunch of different ways.
So these are kind of an interesting. Concept because how do you know it's a waste of time gig before you get into it? Well, we're going to talk about that and we're going to talk about what to do once you realize you're like, oh shit, I stuck now. So we're going to talk about that too. So here's the deal when you're talking about a waste of time gig, right?
1) Attributes of Waste-of-Time Freelance Gigs (Pre-Contract/Contract and Proposal/Working Relationship)
We're going to talk about basically like what that means, what is an attribute of a waste of time gate? And we're going to do the first one. So. Where's my number one. There we go. Let's get it together. Okay. Um, first also look at these guys. Look how cute she is under that blanket. All you see is her little way aligned.
You just see her little, I like move it around in there. Hey, creeper. She's just like I'm super snug, right? Sheriff says, I love your shirt. It says, it actually says Nama, stay home with my dog. So I know like some part of it, you can only see part of it, but it says no, stay home with my dog. This is one of my favorite shirts.
Vicki says, this will be fun. It will be fun, Vicky. It will. It's. I hope all my live streams are fun, but this one should be especially fun. So here's the deal. Let's talk about attributes of waste of time geeks. So number one is. This is pre you signing contract. This is pre before you get to good girl, before you get to anything where you're like, oh crap, I'm in the middle of writing this thing and it's not worth it even better.
Yeah, I know it. You didn't see it. It's just like the framing. Yeah. It says non-state now I'm gonna stay home with my dog. There we go. I'm gonna stay home with my dog. All right. So, uh, Where was I going? Oh, pre so here's the deal. This is like kind of some red lights, some red flags that pop up. Uh, Hey Marie, welcome in.
Yeah, the pumps are here. Tommy is not in this room, but he's downstairs. Um, here's the deal when you are looking at a gig, right? Here's some things that might make it a waste of time when someone treats you like an employee. So the first thing is totes adorbs. Yeah. When someone starts treating you like an employee, I can almost guarantee you that gig is going to be a waste of your time because they're going to make you roll through all these things that they make employees roll through.
And you're not an employee, you're a contractor, you're a freelancer. You end up becoming part of this weird ecosystem of like, you must gain my approval. No, no. Um, so w when you get on a call with someone and they're like, well, how, tell me how your, uh, What was it like, tell me like, um, why I should hire you, right.
Like, tell me why I should hire you or like why you're valuable. And then you're like, what? Like anytime you get on a call with a potential client and it starts feeling like a job interview, I can almost guarantee that thing is going to turn out to be a waste of time gig, because as you start going through the process, They're going to start doing all these employee mentality things to you, and you're going to be like, why is this happening?
Like what's going on is because it's a waste of time, gig abort get out. So the first thing that kind of happens is they start asking you weird job interview questions. Well, what are your flaws? What are your weaknesses? Um, and then they start saying things like, how will you prove to me that this is. I don't know, like, that's a dumb question.
How am I going to prove to you that it's worth it? I don't know. You have different sets of standards than I do that doesn't make any sense. There's these weird things that happen with these waste of time gigs, where you start feeling it almost immediately, but then you're like, sh gut be quiet. You're like, don't do that.
Um, and what happens is you kind of ignore it and there's a, there's a bunch of reasons we ignore it. Right. I've ignored it for money because I need the money. I've ignored it because I didn't know that. I've ignored it because I'm like, ah, maybe this person is just being weird. Uh, I've ignored it because I came from corporate and I was like, oh, this is normal.
We all do this now. Uh, there's a whole bunch of reasons that you ignore it, but these are kind of those learning experiences that really bite you in the book. Like you're like, oh my God, I'm never going back. Jumped through this hoop. Yeah. That's the other thing too, is the next phase is kind of like, there are other questions, uh, or like as you start working, right?
Like when they ask you to jump through hoops or they asked you to do weird stuff, pre signing a contract, that's one phase, then you get to the proposal contract stage and you're like, oh, this is where at again. So what ends up happening is they are like asking a lot of weird questions or like not normal questions, like weird questions.
Uh, that just don't seem to apply to this project or they send you a contract that is way too out of bounds. Like it's it's for every contractor ever. And they won't budge on you saying like, Hey, this doesn't apply to me. And they're like, no, you definitely need insurance for zoos. Because one time we had a petting zoo and you now need to have insurance for that.
Like, there's weird stuff that happens. So you get to this contract phase and you're like, that's. So there's a lot of weird back and forth, strange negotiations. Like they're treating it like almost a salary employee where they're like, Hey, you need to like negotiate with me. Like you need to play this game with me.
And you're like, no, I became a freelancer most specifically a freelance writer, because I don't want to play all these games with you. I don't want to do that. So then as you go along, you start doing the work. Right. And you hear things like I'll know it when I say. Mm. Hmm. Abort leave get out. So this is the worst thing that I've found with red light clients is they say, I'll know it.
When I see it. Even someone who may not be a great client, they at least can give you some kind of idea. Here are five examples. Here's this thing that I think is useful. Uh, let me tell you about what I'm looking for. Like, they have some kind of structure information example to give you, so you can say at least like, okay, I did what you said.
When you start hearing I'll know it. When I see it, that's a waste of time gig because they don't know what they're looking for. So how can you create it? And they won't know it when they see it. That's the problem. They have this idea in their mind of like, it will just inspire me. Like it's like, it's like they go to an art gallery and they're like, I'm not inspired.
Bring me another, like it's, it's not like that. So anytime you end up getting in this situation where someone. Is saying I'll know it when I see it or, um, they can't explain to you why your work needs help. Right? Like they're like this work isn't right. And you're like, why? And they're like, I don't know.
Um, that's a big problem. If you start getting edits from them, that don't make any sense. Like they're often another world, uh, like a lot of times you get edits and they, they totally make sense. You're like, oh, I see, you know, I should have done this. Okay, cool. I'll go off and do it. But there's times where you get edits and you're just like, ah, Why, why are you doing this?
That's another thing where it's like a waste of time, because if you keep working with these clients, and this is kind of the crux of it, if you keep working with these clients, what ends up happening is you become bitter. It takes a toll on your mental health. You really hate working for them. And then you're like, well, I need the money.
It just becomes this big. It becomes this big shitty festival that you just have to keep going to. So this really impacts your day to day. It kind of makes you feel bitter like the bitterness and the unfairness and the frustration that you feel with a waste of time gig is like the roots start going out into other parts of your business.
And this is really, really a tough thing. So the waste of time gigs, that's why we got to get out. Once we start realizing all these things. Cause if you keep working with. The bitterness, it flows out. So the other thing that happens is you're getting these edits, right? You're getting these edits and you're like, what is going on here?
Uh, so if you get on a call with them, right, that's the time when you start getting these edits, you get on a call with them and you're like, what, can you explain this to me? And they're like, no, you should notice, know how to do it. You're the writer, another, another problem there. Right? That's another thing that makes it a waste of time.
Gig is like, they're wasting your time by not being able to explain how to help you make it. This is a collaborative process. That's why I very much, um, talk to my clients in terms of partnerships, in terms of teamwork, this is a collaborative teamwork environment. It's not just like you hire me. I go off and do it in the dark.
And then we both hope that I guess what you wanted, right. That doesn't work. Uh, when someone gets on, like, let's say you get on a call with them or they can't explain their edits or they're like, you should just know. No, we got to get out of there. That's a waste of time. It's wasting everyone's time. It's not just wasting the person who got on the call, right.
Your client and your time. It's just a whole, like the whole point is that we're creating content. That is quality stuff for an audience. If that person. Doesn't know what their audience needs. Right. They don't know how to actually reach that audience. Why are we creating this content? And that's the whole point.
Someone, your client should be able to look at the content and say, here's why it's not working for our audience, or here's why it's not working for our goals. If they can't do that. And they say things like you should just know, because you're the writer or like, then that's a big problem. That's a big. So as you're going through this process, things just kind of keep building.
This is kind of the attributes of working on these like pita clients, right? P I T a pain in the ass and there's some, there are differences between a waste of time gig and a pita gig. So we'll go over that later. But the waste of time gig is like, as you go along, you just keep getting this feeling of like, ah, like, and you don't want to work on their work and you don't want to talk to the client and you don't want to do the edits and you don't want assign the.
There's all these things that happen. And you have to kind of learn these stopping points as you go along. And sometimes this hurts. Like I can tell you from experience, I've been in many wasted time gates and it hurts sometimes when you lose them, because you didn't realize that you were in a waste of time gig, you just slowly got more and more bitter.
And then over time that client like was like, Hey, we shouldn't work together anymore. And you're like, wait, no, come back. Uh, and it's just, it's like a bad relationship. And you're like, no, don't leave. Uh, but then you kind of learn like, oh, I shouldn't have been in this anyways. So let's keep going with attributes.
The other thing is that, um, after things are published, let's say you get through edits. Let's say you get through this whole writing process with them. And then they're like upset that it doesn't get certain results. Like it's not immediately on the first page of Google or it's not, I'm doing all this stuff.
Like they have a deep misunderstanding. Of what content does, how long it takes to do that thing. And then how SEO works, how audiences work. Like there's this thing sometimes that happens with waste of time gigs, where the client thinks that as long as they're publishing something, like if you publish it, they will come.
That's not a thing, that's not a thing. Um, they ha you have to have them understand that, publishing it and promoting it and sending it to an email list, building an email list, sharing it on social media. Sharing it around their channels. That's the key. Right? And then the SEO stuff comes in later on.
Excuse me, because that takes a while. It takes a while for the Google spiders to find it, it takes a while for the Google spiders to rank it. It takes awhile for everything to kind of flow in place. Right. And that's all the web traffic stuff. And there's other parts that go with it. Right. It's not just publishing on the blog.
It's like changing other things on the site. Right. The whole. Site. If the site is really dated and not getting updated, except for the blog, that's tanking the blog. That's a problem. Uh, there's a lot of different factors that go into it. So if you start seeing this after effects where they're like, Hmm, uh, it's not magically solving my problems.
That that means you're basically climbing a mountain. Like you're climbing this imaginary mountain basically. And even if you get to the top of imaginary mountain, It doesn't exist. You're like, oh crap, this doesn't, this isn't real. And then it's just like all of these expectations that are unrealistic.
They are not logical. And they're not based on anything that content is really based on. Right. Quality. Um, the audiences like helping the audience being helpful. Um, and I actually shared this video the other day with my students, my freelance writer, wealth lab, students from pat Flynn, who talked to. Um, I forgot.
I always forget his name, the guy who owns H reps. So I share this with my students and it basically tells you like, this is all the important stuff. Like it has to be quality stuff, right? The content has to be quality stuff and it has to help your audience essentially. Like it has to be something that people will share.
Something that actually helps them something that. Worthwhile, like that's kind of the whole goal. That's what makes it shareable. Now, if we've gone through this entire process with your client where they have not participated in the parts that make it shareable and important and quality and helping the audience now, we're kind of at a disadvantage.
Once we get to the end point, once we publish it and all that stuff, you look you today, you look great. Um, now we're kind of in a, in a downward spiral. The other thing that happens is then the con the client's like, well, we've only published one piece. Like we should just wait and see what happens now. No, that's not how it works.
If you publish one, that's not actually going to help. So there's all of these things that pop up along the process where you're like, this is a waste of time. I really want to get out of here. Like my brain is melting. I have to leave. So at, at any of these points, start putting up your little radar, being like boop waste of time, waste of time.
This is kind of a really important thing where you have to start noticing this over time. These are the attributes that I think kind of get you into it through the writing. The employee mindset thing. Um, the, the process of the contract and the proposal, the actual writing, getting a content brief. If they even give you one, the editing process, the questions, um, the publishing part, the understanding of the content versus SEO versus ranking it versus getting attention versus marketing it, all that stuff, all these things kind of build together.
There's other attributes of waste of time gates too. So the other parts of waste of time gates is that you start realizing. Actually I'm going to make this too. This is too. So hold on first, we're going to make this a two and then we're going to do quick pup date. So let's see he's over here. There he is.
He's he's underneath the blanket and she's over here sleeping. Oh my gosh. No, I'm not giving you anything right now. Go back to this, like. And I'm having a nice, quiet live stream for once without you barking at me. And I'm, I'm just gonna like, pretend that you're, that you didn't know that I'll do that later.
Okay. So here's the deal. Uh, if I grabbed them in blankets, they like go to sleep and they like go be quiet for a little while. Sometimes like they get spicy. Don't look at me like that. All right. So here's the second part is there's other attributes that happen, right? You start working on your other projects and it affects your other projects.
2) How Your Mindset and Mental Health Start Painting a Bleak Freelance Picture
So you start feeling bitter and your start, like it's really hurting your mental health, right? So you start feeling bitter is number one, which I've already talked about. The other thing that has. Um, here in number two is that you start losing confidence. This is a really big key for waste of time. Gigs is you start losing perspective on the good clients that are out there because you start living in this bubble of this waste of time gig.
And you're like, oh no, all clients are like this. I shouldn't be a freelance writer. Waste of time gigs. You will know they're a waste of time because they start chipping away at your self-confidence. They start chipping away at the fact that you feel good about being a freelance writer or that you are a good writer or that you can get other great clients.
They start making you feel really bad about yourself. And I've noticed this in my own stuff, because I know that this is like a long-term thing. So if you work with this client for two months, three. You start feeling like this is the only thing that's available and you start feeling like, man, I really do suck at my job because this one other person has told me, I suck.
Let's erase all the other people that have told me I'm actually good at it. Let's just focus on this one person who's told me I'm really shitty. It really starts to play with your mind. And it really starts to activate the self-doubt activate imposter syndrome, uh, activate any kind of like anxiety that you have or depression like it's it can be very true.
Um, and for me, it's kind of going back to like, don't make your client's problems, your problems, but when you're in a waste of time gig, they like your client's problems are your problems. And then you get really like, Ooh, it's a very, like, it's like a slow sludge that like gets around. So the second part is that if you start feeling bad, pay attention to that, if you start feeling like, man, I really do suck because this person's telling me I suck.
Or man, I really. I'm not good at SEO or I'm not good at following directions, or I'm not good at answering questions or I'm not, I don't understand their audience. And this is when they've given you basically zero information to go on. Like, here's a good example. I've written for like, uh, like hospitality, like restaurants and real estate audiences for like almost 10 years.
I still want information from you, my client about those audiences, because everybody's audience can be a little bit different, right? Some people have an audience where they're like, yes, our audience is millennial and gen Z home buyers, but we only want first time home buyers. We don't want all of them.
And then we want only first-time home buyers in the state of. Like there's a bunch of things that they should be able to explain to me. They shouldn't come in and say, oh, you've been writing about real estate and restaurants for 10 years or eight years, however long, uh, you should just know this stuff.
Nope, Nope. Every company is different. Every magazine is different. Right. You need to kind of know these things and that's part of the. So if I start feeling bad about myself after 10 years, eight to 10 years of writing about these things, that's a big problem. That means something something's going wrong here.
That's a waste of time gig there they're projecting maybe their own insecurities and their own issues onto me. And then I'm being activated or it could just be, they're not projecting anything. And just by doing this. In general, I'm starting to feel really bad about myself. That's a big problem. Anytime you start senior like mental health, being a problem, uh, your mindset being a problem, your, um, your self confidence, your self doubt, your imposter syndrome, all these things.
That's a problem. Waste of time. Gigs will often make you feel like you can't ever work for anybody else. Who's a good client. They, they, they leave you in this, like, Aluminum foil bubble where like, yes, it's thin enough for you to get out, but you're like, I didn't even know I could get out. That's the waste of time.
That's when you live in this area where you are losing perspective on who you actually are as a writer, the things you do well, the clients that you actually helped the audiences, right? The ideal target audiences that you help and the things that you bring to the table, that's a big problem. Um, they, it starts kind of like.
Shrinking in on you. So if you start noticing that kind of stuff, where you have a lot of negative, self-talk like more so than usual. Like for me, it was like, I always had a lot of negative self-talk I don't really have that as much anymore. I've been working on it. Um, but the, what I noticed in myself was like, that would really escalate, like the negative self-talk would escalate a lot over time.
And then I'd be like, man, like, I don't remember saying that to myself before, or I'd be like, man, You know, loop that kind of stung and that's from like your own mind, it's these ways of time gigs really start hindering your ability to like see beyond. So that's the second thing I want to point out in a waste of time.
Gig attribute is that they really start to affect you personally and how you see yourself. And the clients can say really harsh, mean things about like how you suck at your job, because they didn't give you anything. Like it's not collaborative. They're just telling you, you suck because. They're expecting it to be like a mechanic shop where they take in their car and they're like, change the tire.
You should just know how to change a tire. Cause you're a mechanic and you're like, Hmm, writing doesn't work like that. So that's the second thing I want to say. Anytime you feel that that's kind of the atmosphere you're working in abort, get out that's problem. Um, high grumpy. Do you want to come up here and say hello?
I'm gonna squeeze you. Oh, Nope. Not today. All right. Let's do a quick pup date because I've got an, I've got an angry beaver here. Come on angry beaver you back up. You know what I should do, Charlotte, I should bring your log up here and then you can log away. I got, you got to go back to your rabbit hole all the way I got.
I got no, he got it back up here. Ready? I will the tree. I'm going to put these behind you and I bet you're never going to find them. They're over. There they go. She's sitting on one right now. Alright, can you high-five good job. Other than the job, we're just going to let the, uh, we're gonna let our geriatric friend sleep in his little blanket, Hobbit hole over there, just cause you know, all right.
Here's one you're sitting on it. There it is. All right. Okay. So let's go on to our next point here. Uh, if you ever have any questions, you can always pop them in the chat. And if you're watching this later, Um, let me know about your waste of time gigs. Like, let me know what you noticed in them. If there's attributes or things that you're like, oh man, that was the worst.
Like put that in the comments below, because I'm always interested in other people's perspective on what is a waste of time for them. Uh, there's always time things, right? Like a waste of time. Good could be that it takes too much time to do it. Like they expect too much for the money we're in. Um, but put that in the comments below.
And if you feel like this has been helpful so far, give it a thumbs up. If you feel like you want to learn more about building a fun and sustainable hire new freelance writing business subscribe, let's go on to number three, peeps. Hold on. Number three. If I can put it on the screen, there we go. Number three.
3) How You Get Sucked Into the Waste-of-Time Gig Quicksand
Okay. The number three thing that we're going to talk about is getting sucked into the quicksand. So when you get, when you have these wastes of time, I will just tell you sometimes it's very easy to get sucked in. It's almost like this weird thing that happens. So sometimes with waste of time, gigs, people will shower you with compliments to get you on.
And then they will preach you shitty. It's like a weird, abusive relationship where they're, they like, love bomb you, right? They're like, oh my God, you're the best ever. And then when you start working with them, they're like, you're the worst thing that ever happened since sliced bread. I like sourdough Owens.
Life's right. You know? Um, and so you get, can get sucked into the quicksand of a waste of time gig very easily. Don't beat yourself up over it. Okay. This happens to everyone. This has happened to me many times. It's part of the process of learning what you do and don't want in a client. And it's part of the process of picking up on these things over time.
Sometimes it can be very subtle and sometimes it can be very obvious. It's the subtle ones that like sneak in there. So sometimes when you get sucked into the quicksand, it's like the, the client does a 180, like you start working with them and everything seems to be going good. And then all of us.
They're like, we hate everything and it's usually because like one of their, they presented it, right. They presented your content to the board or to the CEO or to somebody else. And that person was like, this is garbage evens. And Stevens is like, this is garbage mandate. Right. So that's the problem. Um, and that's just kind of like a miscommunication problem.
It's not that the content is bad most of the time. Right? It's not that you're a bad writer. It's that there's miscommunication on what you should have. And what you should say and how you should talk to that audience and what kind of tone and style they want and how they want their SEO to beat all of those things.
So it's really easy sometimes to get sucked into the quicksand, don't beat yourself up over it, but start writing these things down, like start paying attention to like that didn't make me feel good. I felt really bad when this happened. Uh, I noticed that I start, like at month two, I started feeling like I was never going to get out.
Oof. Uh, I noticed that month two, that I felt really bad about my writing ability. I felt like there would never be another good client, like write these things down and it will become obvious that you got to get out of the quicksand. So here's the deal it's easy to get in. Sometimes it's easy to get out.
That's why we have these outs in our contracts, right? Our contracts have things like freelancer and client can get out of this contract with 15 days. Notice. That's why we need it. Yeah, board member impression sometimes can be a problem. Um, and then, uh, the other thing is like, if you need the money, right?
Like this is something that's really easy to get sucked into the quicksand because. Gigs that pay really well, that are horrible to do. Uh, they pay really well. And then you're like, oh, they're paying me a lot, but this is terrible. I don't want to do this. Um, the issue here is that you're like, man, I really need the money.
Here's how to solve that and get out of the quicksand, do your marketing. Okay. Do your marketing. This is the only way that you can replace clients. And it's always a number of. If you realize that you have a waste of time gig, you need to start doing a ton of marketing so that you can replace them. And so you have choices on who you replace them with.
This is really important. I will, you want to come say hello when I can say hello? She's like, no, no. So your marketing, I can pick you up. If you want. Your marketing is the key to getting out of these waste of time. Gates. You have to go back to your house, the whole good job. Hey go. Good job. All right. So when you mark it, you then have potential to get a new client, you, or many new clients.
You also are laying the seeds for later. Let's say you sign another gig where you're like, this is a waste of time. Um, then you're like, okay, cool. I still have options. So you're marketing, sending those LOI. So those letters of introduction and your. That's how you get, get out of it. You have to replace that client because I know, I know that this was the case for me.
Oh, did you find the extra Frito in my hand? It's so funny. Um, you, you have to have some other option. I know for myself that there's long stretches of time where you're like. Like, um, as you're growing as a freelance writer, you're like, I need the money. Like I need, I need to do this. And that comes from replacing.
And the only way to replace is to market so that you get more inbound leads or not inbound leads. So you get more potential clients so that you have the options open and that's really important. So anytime you feel like you're stuck in as quicksand, do your marketing, do you want to be on, you have to go back there.
I got all the way, all the way. Good job. I don't know. I don't know. Otherwise know good job. It could be so cute. Charlotte, how did you get to be so cute. Varies. Just like out to lunch now you gotta give me up. Yeah, there you go. Good job. All right. Uh, which number? This one. All right, so let's talk about our other stuff.
4) How to Get Out of the Situation and How You Can Stop Holding Your Freelance Business Back
If you have any questions, you can always put them in the chat too. All right, let's talk about number four. Here we go, number four, I feel like this is easier now that I have the numbers to like, separate out what is say. So at least there's that. All right. So number four, here, let's get out of this situation.
So how do we get out of this situation? Um, and then we're going to talk about holding our business back. So how do we get out? Well, number one, this is why our contracts always have a 15 day out or whatever you want to have it in. So sometimes if you have a long contract, You have a six month contract, you have a 30 day out where you're like, Hey, client or freelance, or can just send an email, like notify them that they want out of the contract with 30 days.
Notice I like 15 days. Um, Hey, Vezina. Welcome in. So that's why we have our 15 day or our 30 day out is because when we realize it's a waste of time gate, or when we realize that this isn't working out or that our mindset or. Or our self-perception or like our work is just, it's just a whole mess. That's why we have an out in our contract.
Number one, that's the most important thing of getting out of this situation? Because what I have learned in my 10 years is that, um, educating your client on stuff, doesn't work with a lot of wasted time geeks. Like they're not interested in learning. They're not curious. They're not trying to make the relationship.
They're just like, you should just do it. Like it, it is not helpful to spend time and effort to educate them on. Like, we should probably do this, uh, this may help. Let's talk about this. Like, they don't want to do that. They basically just want to take the work off their desks and slide it onto your desk and then move on with it.
That's a big problem. So for me, I found that the out is most helpful, but then if you don't know, right? Like let's say, you're looking at your you're out in your contract and you're like, Hmm, I don't know yet. Well, start writing things down, write down how you feel about this gig, how you feel about doing the work.
If you feel frustrated doing that work, or you hate doing that work or. You don't want to do it, or you don't look forward to it, or it's like a rain cloud following you around. You should probably get out of it or you need to do your marketing. So you get a gig to replace it. But the deal is that there's.
Place of uncertainty before you kind of figure it out. So if you start getting in this place where you're like, Ugh, I don't know about this gig. Start keeping a list. Like I, you know, start your notes app, or start a word doc or a Google doc and just make a bulleted list of like weird things that are happening or stuff that's going on.
And then you can review it. And every time you open up, you're like, man, this list is getting a lot longer. Get out. So this is the number one thing is always having, Hey Susanna. Welcome. Um, the cool thing is that we have our 15 day out in our contract, which helps. Get out of waste of time gates. This is something where it's like, if it really is harming, like if it really is very triggering for us, or it's like making you really anxious, like this is something that has happened to me where I'm like, oh my God, they hate it.
I'm going to have to do all this stuff. I have to stay up all night and I have to dah, dah, dah, dah, and then you're not sleeping. And then you're not really eating because you're so stressed. And then you're like anxious about like, are they gonna like it this time? It becomes all about like getting their approval.
And that's a big problem. If you start seeking a ton of approval from. That's a big issue. Like you definitely want your clients to like your content, that bar none you want to deliver for your client. Actually, you want to over deliver for your client. You want them to be happy. Uh, but if you start realizing like, you know, like that, you're like actually seeking like people pleasing, right?
You're like, please love it. Please love it. Like, you know, that's not healthy. You got to get out of there. And that's, you know, I've told my students that it's my freelance writer, wealth lab students in my coaching students. This. Um, there's also like, this is how I can actually, this is a good connection point.
The reason I came up with my paper, my origami paper boat metaphor in my mind is because of this is because of waste of time gates. So I'll tell you about my origami paper boat. So every time. Submit work. I have this image in my mind, I'm like on a beach and I have this little origami paper boat. It's the size of a softball.
And I take this origami paper boat, which is basically the assignment that I'm turning in. Right. It's the visual representation. Um, I take it to the ocean and I let it go. And I'm like, okay, cool. So I'm going to let this go into the ocean. And, um, you know, this is the ocean of uncertainty, which is submitting your work.
You never really know what your clients are gonna say. You just, don't like, especially the first time around. Um, so you, you just let it go. And for me, it gives me the sense of peace of being like, I know I worked really hard, this origami paper boat, or this article or case study or whatever is very intricate.
I know I put my best effort into it and I just have to let it go. I have to let it go into the uncertainty of someone else's inbox of someone else's perspective, someone else's. And for me, that's why I came up with it was, I was stuck in a lot of gigs that were, um, some of them were fun and some of them weren't, some of them were a waste of time and some of them weren't, uh, and it was just a lot of churn.
And I realized like, I can't be seeking 10 other people's approval, but when everybody's opinion is different and everybody's stuff is, is this web of people pleasing? Right. So I came up with this thing of being like, I have to have peace with myself in turning in my work.
Your second DERP. Um, I have to have peace within myself turning in my work. Like I have to get to this, this place I have to get to this place. Of acceptance basically. And this feeling of like, I know I did my best job. Like I know that the piece I'm turning in, I was not lazy. I didn't cut corners. I didn't waste time.
I didn't do all this stuff. Like I worked really hard. I did what you said. I followed the rules, like the, the content brief. I paid attention to all the little quirks. I paid attention to your audience. I did all this stuff. Like I came to this point where I was like, I have to feel good about the effort that I put in about the, the detail I put in about the conscientiousness that I put in, and I have to let it go out into the ocean of other people's opinions.
And that's what happens with waste of time. Gigs is like, you create these like little metaphors where you're like, I have to let go of all this other stuff. And that's what you learn from waste of time. Gigs. I have to be confident in my work enough that when I come across a waste of time gig, it then becomes more obvious to me because I feel more confident about my work.
So when I start feeling like my confidence is being chipped or that, um, uh, my, uh, mental health situation, like, you know, my stuff is my mindset's being triggered or I'm feeling really bad or. You know, telling me how bad I am. You have to have peace in yourself that you're like, no, I worked really hard.
Like, I feel really good about this work. That's when you're like, ah, I'm in a waste of time gig. I got, I got to get out of here. Okay. Um, the last thing is that, um, about how to get out of these situations is to just learn over time. We all make mistakes. Like I have made so many mistakes, which is why I do a lot of teaching is.
I'm, uh, you know, you ever hear that thing where people say like, teach from your scars and not your scrapes, or like teach from your scars and not your cuts or whatever. That's when I'm doing is like I'm teaching you from all of the scabs and all of the scars that I've gotten over the years of like mistakes that I've made that I hope you don't.
And I think that this kind of situation is like, you're going to get into them. You're going to make mistakes because that's part of the learning process. It doesn't mean you're bad at your job. It means you're learning how to run your own business. And the things that make me think it's an, a waste of time gig may not be the same for you.
Maybe it's just a different perspective. Right? So I think that coming to the understanding that you're going to make mistakes, you're going to end up in waste of time. It's part of the learning process. The deal is that you learn how to get out of those quicker, or you don't get into them in the first place, but you shouldn't beat yourself up because you got into a waste of time gig and you shouldn't beat yourself up because you, oh my gosh, I should've seen this sooner.
You can't possibly know that was something that I used to do to beat myself up. Oh my gosh, you should've known you. Should've known this. You can't. No, you can't. No, you have to get through these things where you start realizing them in real time. Like you said, When you're learning about waste of time gigs, a lot of it is tine site is 2020.
Like you look back and you're like, oh, I shouldn't, I shouldn't have gotten into it. But the more times you have this hindsight, the more times you look back and you see the mistakes, then it becomes real time where you're like, oh, I remember this from hindsight, six times, I gotta get out of here. Like, it becomes more, uh, easy to spot.
It becomes more, um, Part of your process of vetting clients. So don't beat yourself up. It's going to happen. It's still going to happen to me. Like I'm going to knock on wood, but you know, it still happens to me. It's just that it's different. And it's part of the learning experience. All right. Let's do a quick pup date real quick.
All right. Are you ready then? We're going to talk about number five. We're going to talk about the last thing. All right. Many. Are you ready? Can you go back to your hub a hole since you're sitting here? I got I don't. I got one more. We though. Let's show him your skills. High five high five. Good job. Nope.
There you go. Alright, Minnie, can you catch this one? Good job. All right. Did you catch it or did you lose it? I thought I thought good job. Okay. Ready? What'd you? Three dog. Good job. Okay. And it's so quiet with just one dog. When the other dog is. Crashed out in a corner. Like he's still crashed out over there in his little, like that's him inside the blanket.
Like he's just sleeping in there. That's why I put the blankets in here. Cause they, they really liked to have sheets and blankets that they can Nessel into. That's just like kind of their thing. And Charles, like, why are we talking about him? She's like, I'm the cutest you are though.
All right, let's go back. Whoop. Um, Maria says. As one of Mandy students, I still make oodles of mistakes, but instead I go into circle and many of the other students helped me get through them. Yeah. I mean, that's the benefit of the community part right. Of the course is. When we, when these weird things start happening, we're like, wait a minute.
Is this a waste of time gig? Like, should I get out of here? You can go into the wealth lab and you're like, Hey, a weird stuff's happening, help. And then we're all like, oh my gosh, like get out of there. Or we're like, eh, this is, this client just might be a weird, a weird person. You know, feel it out. Let's talk about last thing last year.
How do we stop holding our business back? Right? The deal is that you start holding your business back when you don't recognize these things. When you keep repeating the same mistake over and over and over again, this is kind of like, um, you know, that, I think it's an Einstein quote, where he says like, you keep doing the same experiment over and over expecting different results.
That's the problem. So you start holding your business back a lot of times when you don't realize that you're making the same mistakes. That's why I always say write it down. Like if weird stuff's happening. Or something. I don't know something's going on, write it down because that will make it obvious.
Then you have a thing to keep referring to. So let's say you write things down and then you're like, wait a minute. This reminds me of this old gig I had. That was like not a fit for me. Go look at your list. Oh my gosh. They're the same abort. So the part that happens when you hold your business back is that you don't realize this repetition of a mistake.
So you got to pay attention to those things. The other thing that holds your business back is that when you get into these waste of time gigs, and you start feeling that chipping away at your confidence and the chipping away at all the things and making you feel more self doubt and more imposter syndrome, that's holding you back because why are you going to go out and market yourself or be positive about your business or share your.
When you have a client who's dragging you down, right. It's holding your business back because you're afraid that you're going to get more of these clients, or you're afraid that everyone else is going to think you're a bad writer or you think that there's no more good clients out there. Or, um, you think that, you know, man, like you start putting these things into your personal identity, right?
You start saying like, oh my gosh, I am a bad writer. I am this. I am. So all of those things really start affecting how much action you take in your business. Right? So, yes. Hello, have you woken up? Are you ready to join us? We'll just let you kind of like marinate over there for a second and figure it out until you're ready.
Maybe not. I'll give you one. See if you want it. Anybody, can you catch it? Oh, you're so far away. There you go. Good job. You want another one? Good job here to go. Thanks for rejoining us. Very good girl. So you have to start paying attention to these things because it starts affecting how much action you're going to take.
So when you feel insecure and when you feel like you're not good at your job, and when you feel like you're a bad writer or that there's not many good clients on. That doesn't feel very motivating for looking for more work, right. Uh, if you're getting paid really crappily at your current thing, and they're like, this is the best you're going to get, that's not going to make you feel very good about taking action.
So the thing is that you have to make sure you're not holding your business back by your mindset or like things that are going on with your mental health, from a gig. So the gigs will make you. Hold back, they will make you nervous about sharing things or marketing yourself or getting your name out there, or, um, thank you for the pant licks.
Um, or, you know, just the idea that there are more people out there who are willing to pay you better and treat you well for your work. So it all becomes kind of like this self-imposed fence. Like the more you work with waste of time gates, the more you start building the fence. How far you're willing to go.
And you start building all of these limits. Oh, well, I can't do that. It creates all of these very low limits of like, what's possible for you. And this can really like really hold your business back. So you have to kind of start taking an objective. Look at all of these things. Like, is this harming my self-confidence?
Is this making me feel like there's no other options out there? Is this making me feel like this is the best I'll do? Is this making me feel bad? All this stuff. That's all of that stuff is. Right. It's all the ecosystem of how you put yourself out there and take action. Because the worse you feel about yourself, you're not going to start pitching places and feel confident about like, I'm going to get at work.
I'm going to get a job. You have to start feeling good about like, no, I can do better. I can get better with people who treat me like clients who treat me better. I do do good work. Um, I do follow rules, like examples. I do follow content briefs. I, you know, it's right. We're back to the boat is like you have peace in the fact that you worked hard, you put in your best effort, you follow the directions, the best you could.
And then you sent your workout into the uncertainty ocean of other people's opinions. Right? So when you're kind of looking at all this stuff, that's why I like keeping lists because the list is just like a collection. And when I can look at the collection, that's a lot stronger than like the constant bus that drives through my head with negative thoughts.
If I have a list, then I can stop holding myself back because I can just refer to it and be like, oh wait, Mandy, you're getting in this hole again. Don't get in the whole week. Um, the other thing is that start noticing that like start picking up on the fact that you're really using a lot of negative self-talk or that you're starting to really feel a lot of bad things about yourself.
And like, is that coming from this. Is that, um, changing the types of clients that you go after? Like, you're like, oh, I can't go after that big client, because I'm already working with this other client and they say I'm really bad. So if I go up a tier, you know, that's going to be really hard. And what I've found is like the bigger Mike, like most of my clients that were bigger or the clients that I really honed in on, like, this is the right client for me, like.
Um, the right type of niche and the right type of, uh, content and all this stuff. Those were way easier than people who are really small clients doing really small things, being very nitpicky. So, this is kind of an interesting concept where people like writers often want to go with these smaller gigs, small businesses, people with like four employees, they want to do these small things.
Cause you feel small. You're like I can handle this cause we're both small. But the problem is that those bigger companies have the infrastructure and the budget to pay you well and give you specifics on what they want, which makes everybody happier. So the deal is. You don't want to go for small and small.
You want to go for like, even if you feel a little uncertainty and even if you do feel a little small, you want to go for someone who's going in the right direction that we want a buddy buddy with someone who's going in the right direction. Who's creating content who has an idea of what's going on, who can explain things to you who can work as a partnership with you.
That's what we want. It's okay. If you feel small inside and you've been beaten up by waste of time, gigs and clients who are like. It's okay. It's it's um, it's an exercise in like building confidence to go after these bigger clients or go after clients that are a better fit for you. They don't necessarily have to be bigger in terms of name or bigger in terms of revenue.
It's just that they actually have the structure put in place, right? Like there are companies that have 25 to 50 employees instead of four, um, or they're companies that have, you know, 10 million or 20 million in revenue instead of 750,000. Um, all of these things kind of work together. So I think when you're looking at this stuff and you're holding your business back, take a chance.
Like if you really feel like you've been holding your business back and you've been in a lot of waste of time, gigs, take a chance on going after some bigger companies in your niches. I bet that one of them will get back to you. And if you do sign them as a client, it will be the easiest thing. Like I've told my students this, my coaching students and my freelance writer, wealth lab students.
This is like my best paid work has been the easiest stuff I've ever done. The most difficult work I've done was like the 20 cents a word kind of stuff. Like I've been paid very well sometimes for my. And it's like the easiest thing in the world. It doesn't take me time at all, because we're working as a team.
When you work as a team, the work is really easy because you have a, a connection point of like, this is what I need to do. This is how I need to get it done. This is their expectations. Poof, it's really easy to do. It's really hard when someone doesn't want to pay you that well to do this work and then gives you no framework to work in.
That's the pain. Hello? Um, Marie says the cowardly lion. I do believe in spooks. Oh yeah. I remember this. Yeah. It's kind of like that. It's kind of like that. So the deal is that when you're kind of going through these things, pay attention, use your business, you know, look at your business objectives. What's going on.
Keep a list, pay attention to what's being triggered in. You pay attention to what kind of thoughts are coming up and don't, don't ever, I'm going to pick you up and squeeze you. She doesn't want to be picked up on camera. So whenever I do it, she's like, okay, I'll be quiet. Um, I hope that one of the things that you take away from this is that you always leave a little hole.
Like you might be in your little aluminum bubble, right? You might be in your little glass bubble of working with all these shitty. I always leave a hole in that bubble. Like, you know, imagine there's like a little hole of possibility. Uh, that whole of possibility is like your actual future. If you close that hole and you're like, there's never anything.
That's a problem, but I'm hoping that you always leave up. There's always a possibility of something working out. There's always the possibility that someone will take a chance on you. There's always a possibility of getting a better client. There's always a better possibility of someone paying you more.
If you keep that hole of hope and possibility open, and you are, you're like I can do it. That keeps you from getting trapped in these waste of time gigs for a long time. You know that there's something better. You, you know, that it's out there. You know, other people are doing. Don't close off that whole of possibility.
That's really important. You want to come up here and say hello? Or I'm a squeeze. You, gosh, you're such a little, you're such a little like, but sometimes can you go over there? Go to your habit hole and sit very, can you catch this? Can you see it ready? 1, 2, 3 dog. Good job. I can't believe it. Okay. Other one.
All right. If you, this has been helpful so far, make sure to give it a thumbs up. You go. All right, bow. Ready? 1, 2, 3 dog. Good job. Um, if you feel like this has been helpful, give it a thumbs up. If you feel like you want to learn more about building a fun and sustainable and high earning freelance writing business subscribe.
All right. Ready buddy. 1, 2, 3 dog. Oh, we were so close. Can you find. It's over there somewhere. Okay. Well now we're on a mission to find the lost, um, is it behind the door? Well, we may have to go on a mission or maybe stuck in the door. Hold on. Emergency tree. No rescue. Okay. Wiped out all. It's stuck in the corner.
Okay. Wait, you get good job, buddy. Good job. Well, that was a treat. Treat emerging. It was close everybody. Alright. I think that's all I've got. So if you have any questions or anything, that's popped up as I've gone over this and you're watching this later, always feel free to leave a comment. I always answer questions.
Um, I always make sure that, you know, if you leave a comment that I respond to always make sure to say hello to everybody. Um, so if anything. You know, you can always leave something down there. Um, and I'm also interested in like, what have you done with your waste of time gates? Like what did you notice in them?
Was there any particulars that stuck out that I missed? Was there any way that you got out of it besides your contract? Um, always feel free to leave a comment. I'm always interested in that stuff and I always appreciate everybody hanging out. I know there's a bunch of people that hung out today, so thanks for hanging out and.
We had a lot of pup dates today, but, uh, yeah, I think, I think that's all I've got for today. Uh, we're here every Friday at noon. So we do live stream every Friday. These guys are here. Mostly by choice, but also not by choice. Uh, but they're here just to hang out and do some updates stuff. Cause they're cute.
Um, but yeah. Oh, and last thing is, uh, last two things is if you ever have a question or topic you want me to answer in a live stream, always feel free to put it in Mandy alyce.com/question and. If you're wondering how to price your work so you can get away from waste of time gigs and get to better clients.
You can always pick up my free pricing guide. It's at Mandy ellis.com/pricing guide, and that is totally free. And I updated all the time. I'm actually about to update it because I had Daisy, which, um, I don't know if she's, I don't think she's here today, but Daisy asked me to update it with something which I'm about to do.
So, um, many ells.com/. And you get all the updates. I've updated it like four times. Uh, and we're about to update it for the fifth time. So I think that's it. I hope everybody has a good Friday and a good weekend, and I hope this was helpful. And I will see you next Friday.
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