#022: Seven Tips for Developing Stronger Self-Confidence

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia. Hey everyone, thanks for joining me for episode 22 of the High Income Business Writing Podcast. I am your host, Ed Gandia and this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to take their writing businesses to the six figure level or, or the part time equivalent. You can find detailed show notes for this episode by going to b2b launcher.com episode 22 the number 22. So if you're doing yoga or making chicken noodle soup or hiking the Appalachian Trail right now, as you're listening, don't worry, I got you covered. You can always come back to these notes for reference. So today we're going to be talking about something that I don't think is addressed enough in this business. And I'm talking about the issue of self confidence and more specifically, developing strong belief. Belief in what you're doing, belief that you will succeed, belief that what you're going after will materialize. And I really do believe that a lack of self confidence, a lack of belief is the biggest silent killer among freelance writers today. And I actually think it's the biggest silent killer of any enterprise or worthwhile endeavor. But of course you guys are freelance writers. So I want to keep this specific to your situation. And you know, when I was preparing for this episode, I was just thinking about why this issue is not something we addressed as often as we should. Why don't we talk about belief as much as we should? And I came up with a couple of reasons. One of them is I think it's kind of an intangible, right? It's how do you develop belief and how do you know if you have strong belief? I mean, it's not tangible, it's inside of you. And it's also hard to define specific steps that you can take to develop belief. I mean, you either have it or you don't at any given time. And I think we've all experienced or we've had the experience where we've gone from kind of being a little depressed, a little down, a little low in self confidence, to something happening that immediately triggers a high level of belief, a high level of confidence. But it's hard to pin down what caused that. I mean, how can we manufacture that situation if we're down? If our self confidence is down, how can we artificially, if you will, kind of get ourselves back on track and I mean immediately, because sometimes we have to Perform. We can't afford to be down for two days because we're just feeling blue. So that's what we're going to talk about today. How can you do this? How can you turn things around pretty quickly? And I'm going to share seven tips for doing this, this and seven tips that I've specifically that I've used myself and I continue to use. And I'll tell you more about that here in a minute. I wanted to first mention when I became aware of the power of belief and the importance of having a strong sense of belief, faith and self confidence. I think it really started to happen in high school. I really had low self confidence as a kid and you know, I didn't do extremely well in sports. I think a lot of it came from that. And just, you know, I just felt kind of average in high school. And I remember when things turned around because it happened pretty quickly. It was the middle of my sophomore year in high school when I. I don't know why. I remember I was studying for a social studies test and I remember stopping what I was doing and suddenly realizing how much I had shortchanged myself in school. And I looked around and I thought about the other kids in my class and I realized that they were no better than I was. I'm not saying I was better, but the whole time I had assumed that everyone was pretty much better and I was just kind of average or below average. And I accepted that truth. Whether it was consciously or subconsciously, I don't remember. But I know that I was accepting that. I got mad, I got mad at myself. I said, these people aren't any better than I am. And let me tell you, things turn around for me very, very quickly. I was a B minus student and I went. And by the end of that year I went from B minus to a very solid A. And I was accepted into the National Honor Society at the very last minute my senior year, which is something that I decided to make a goal. I wanted that. Interestingly enough, the head of the National Honor Society for my school was a math teacher who just hated me. She really had it out for me and I am sure she did everything she could to keep me out, but she just couldn't ignore it. So anyway, my point here is that that's when I began to realize the power of changing your outlook on things and about yourself and what's possible in the power of developing strong belief because that really can change everything. This further developed when I was in college and I'll just share this experience and we're going to go into the tips. But in, in college, I, halfway through my, my college years, I started selling water filters. Yes folks, I sold water filters and air filters and this was a company that was doing network marketing. So here I had to like, you know, go after my friends and family and you know, try to get them to, and I just buy water filters, but also hopefully join my team. And man, looking back, this is a really rough period of my life because I had no money. And the little bit of money that I did have, I went ahead and bought some inventory so I could sell and so I could get people to join my team and I failed. I failed miserably. And you know, I remember thinking that the reason I failed, and I still know that this is so true, is that I didn't really believe that it could happen. You know, I saw other people succeeding in that business and I wanted that really bad. But deep down inside I didn't think it was going to happen for me. I just didn't see it. So I went through the motions and I did my very best. But you know what? I realized that if I, and I realize it's too late, unfortunately, but I realized that if, if I didn't see it, if I didn't see myself winning and in achieving the goals that I'd set out for myself, it wasn't going to happen. So these were two important turning points in my life because, you know, it had nothing to do with the grades or the filters or the money I earned. But it's what really caused me to realize the importance of developing this strong belief, you know, as self employed professionals. And that's what we are, we're self employed. It really is all up to us. Which means that we can't afford to stay at a low level of self confidence and belief most of the time. We have to learn how to cope effectively. So I want you to. Before we get to the material, I want to remind you of a couple of things because I think this will make you feel a little bit better about this. First, I think it's important to accept that your belief in your self confidence will always be tested. That's always going to be an issue. Okay, so let's just face up to the fact that you know this. I wouldn't say that it's always going to be a struggle, but this is going to be something you're going to be dealing with at some level for the rest of your life. And you know what? That's okay. I think the Key is to not fight that. I think the key is to learn how to tame those fears and doubts, that uncertainty and to accept that it's going to happen. To accept that, you know those doubts are going to come in, those fears are going to come pay you a visit and just learn how to deal with it. I think trying to keep fear and doubt and uncertainty away, it's only going to invite more of that in. Fear attracts fear. So just keep in mind it's going to happen. You just, you know what, that's fine, accept it, deal with it. And by taking that attitude, I know I found that it takes the power away from, doesn't feel overwhelming. It's like the fear starts kind of going away because it feels powerless. If fear feeds on fear. So I'm not, I refuse to give it the time of day. Sometimes it catches me by surprise. And yes, for a little bit I am fearful, I am doubtful, I get down. But then I said, you know what, I'm not, I don't have time for that. I'm not going to accept it. I know that I'm only feeding that fear and I let go of it and the fear kind of starts withering away. Okay, so with this whole issue of developing stronger self confidence, developing stronger belief, I will tell you this is a big topic. There's plenty I could talk about here. I'm certainly not the expert on this topic, so I'm going to be, what I'm going to be sharing with you today are it's just based on my experience, you know, I'm constantly learning about this topic. I pay a lot of attention to it because I think it's so important. But what I'm going to give you here is not a comprehensive list. This is just seven of my favorite tips for developing. I wouldn't call it unshakable belief, but I would say semi unshakable belief. And the reason they're my favorite seven tips is because I should tell you that I still struggle with this issue. And these are tips that I find very useful. I use these ideas all the time. And by doing this show for you and by gathering this information and putting together these notes, I'm also doing this for me when I talk about this. It's a very important self reminder that that I need to pay attention to these things and that I need to have very effective strategies for dealing with them. Because again, these are going to be a day to day reality for, for all of us and I'm certainly not immune to them. All right, so let's talk about the first tip which is recognizing that you don't have to become an amazing writer or to earn a six figure income in order to improve your self confidence. So now the tips I'm going to be talking about here, by the way, when I talk about fear and self doubt and self confidence, I'm not talking just about those of you who are starting out. This, this is, we all face this at all points in our journey. It's just all relative, right? So if you're just starting out, the fears you're going to have, the confidence issues you're going to have are going to be different from those of a person who's been at it a while. That other person is just dealing with a different set of self confidence issues. But you can translate this tip to whatever point you are right now in your career. So the whole idea is, look, just recognize that you don't have to be just incredibly amazing. You don't have to be the very best in your field or be earning all this money in order to improve your self confidence. You don't need all these external things to give you the validation and to give you the acceptance and the feelings that you think you need in order to get rid of this negative behavior in order to boost your self esteem. Successful people in all fields, all industries are regular people. I know that sounds, I don't know, a bit trite and kind of a cliche, but you know what, it's so true. Folks like Steve Sloan, White Gordon Graham, Peter Bowerman, Bob Bly, Michael Stelzner, all these guys that many of you are very familiar with, these are kind of the, I know they hate to be called gurus, but these are kind of the, to me, these are the people that I've always looked up to. These are people who have done very, very well in the field of business writing. You know, I've gotten to know all of them and let me tell you, they're all regular guys. And I know I'm not mentioning all of them, there are many more out there who I admire, but all these are regular guys and gals and I now see that very clearly. I, you know, a lot of people look at me and go, oh my gosh, you know, all the success you've achieved, Ed, this is so amazing. Of course, you know, it's easy for you, it's not easy for me. As I mentioned, I experience self doubt all the time. And I don't want to speak for these industry leaders that I've told you about. These very Successful business writers, but I suspect that they experience self doubt and have self confidence issues many times. We all do. If I waited until I felt ready and fully confident and fearless, I would never take action. So the interesting thing, and this is kind of a paradox, you become more confident and develop greater belief by acting when you're not 100% ready and when you're not 100% sure that this is what you should do and this is when you should do it. Interestingly, when you take action, even when you're not 100% ready or 100% sure, that's when the self growth comes in. That's when that self growth happens, which is what develops that self confidence in that belief. So it's interesting. You can't have it if you don't take action and in the face of fear. So you need to take that action even when you feel you're not ready. So keep that in mind. It's a very powerful concept. And every time I tell myself, yeah, but this is an exception. There are no exceptions. Holds true every time. All right, the second tip is to find the strength, your supposed weaknesses. I think many of us look at successful writers, successful people, and think that we're supposed to be just like them in order to achieve success. And that's simply not true. The specific elements in gifts, talents that made them successful, that's their truth. That was their path, their formula. So let me give you a couple of examples. What do I mean by that? Well, Bob Bligh, for example, so he started as a copywriter, freelance copywriter in the early 80s, and he achieved very quick success. And he did certain things to get there. What he did and the way he did it and the success he achieved and the path that he took, that was his path. So don't try to duplicate any every single part of his formula, thinking, well, if I do this, then I will get the same result. This is not a recipe for a cake. You can't just take the recipe, copy it exactly, and be assured that you will get the same result. It doesn't work that way. Now you can borrow ideas, you can certainly borrow, copy and modify things to fit what you're doing today and where you want to go. Absolutely. I mean, that's, you know, this is what we teach all the time, what I teach, and this is what you learn from other people. But trying to recreate what somebody else has done and believe, believing that you need to have these same exact gifts and talents and attributes in order to achieve the level of success you want that is just absolutely not true. Part of the reason that these people have succeeded is that they were true to who they are. They were true to themselves. They were aligned. Everything they did was aligned with their personality and their likes and dislikes and their skills. So you need to find what these things are for you and live your own truth and follow your own path. So don't have to buy in. You don't have to buy into this idea that you have to have certain skills, certain attributes, certain talents and experience or personality. That's another one I hear about a lot. Oh, but you know, this person has this personality and I'm not like that. They're more of an extrovert. I'm more introverted. You don't need any of that. Be yourself. Be yourself. So don't try to be anybody else. You don't need a sales or marketing background. It's another one I hear a lot of. You don't have to have a journalist background. You don't have to be. You don't have to go to a journalism school. You don't have to have certain schooling or certain degrees or be a certain age or have a certain personality. Be yourself. Your biggest gifts are within you and be true to those gifts. I'm not the best business writer out there. I say this all the time. Not even close. I also don't have a lot of the attributes that great writers are supposed to have. Things such as attention to detail, ability to write very quickly, ability to create powerful imagery in my writing. I look at other writers who are very, very good in those areas and I can't help it. I envy those who have those skills. They make it look so easy. But I have to remind myself that by focusing on the strengths of other writers, I'm taking my focus away from the attributes and strengths that make me unique, valuable. So don't look at me. Don't look at others who are doing well and wish you had what others have. You already have what you need. It's inside you. What I would urge you to do is just to make an inventory of these strengths and remember that they don't need to be writing related. These strengths, these attributes, these stories about your life and about your background, they can be about anything. They could be about your career, of course, but they can also be about different experiences you've had, other skills that you have that are not directly tied to writing but make you uniquely qualified to work with certain clients. Let me give you a couple of examples from my own life. I love business. I don't know how to explain it. I just love commerce, I love free enterprise. I'm a champion of capitalism. I think it's the most amazing economic system ever devised. Does it have its flaws? Absolutely everything does. But I think it's the closest thing to, and I hate to say perfect because there's no such thing. The closest thing to perfect that there is. And I get excited when I see commerce happening and people doing well because it's not about the money, it's about the self growth, the professional growth that happens to everyone when the pie grows. Okay? This has always been in me. And when I started thinking about my attributes and my background and my skills, I remembered that this has always been the case for me. I had a candy store out of my garage when I was eight years old. Okay, and that story is just. When I think back, it's really quite remarkable that an 8 year old kid would have had the motivation to do what he did. I mean, honestly, I surprised myself because it just doesn't even seem to be me. But I was eight years old, I had a tutor one summer and this lady had a son my age and I noticed I would go to her house to get tutoring and her son had a candy store. And I say candy store. He just basically had, I don't know, maybe 10 different varieties and he sold it out of a card table in his garage. And the kid had basically grown tired of the store. And I mean, he just told me this, I forget how we, you know, we became friends. And he told me, I'm done with that, I'm just tired of it. And I, I offered to buy the existing inventory from him. I mean, who does that? What 8 year old kid does this? So I did, I borrowed money from my parents and I bought what he had. Now I told my parents I want to do that, I want to have a store out of my garage. That just sounds so awesome, right? To most kids that would be something that would last maybe a couple of days. They get tired of it. Not me. I bought that stuff. It was like a Friday and I was going to start on Monday. This is again summertime. I couldn't wait. So you know what I did? I took all the candy that I bought from this kid and I sold it door to door in my neighborhood that Friday afternoon. Within two hours, sold. Gone. I paid my parents back and I was able to use the rest of the money, plus another small micro loan from my parents to buy more inventory. And the store was a huge success. I mean, I was so Young guys. I couldn't even subtract fast enough or accurately enough to give people change. I had a. I remember a notebook that I. I would use to do the math. And there were no calculators back then. My dad was an engineer. He had a calculator. He had paid a fortune for it. This is in the 70s, so people couldn't. I couldn't give out change fast enough. I had a line on my driveway of people waiting to buy candy from me. I would. You know, when. A couple years later, when I didn't do that anymore, I would make popcorn and sell popcorn on the sidewalk in front of my house for fun. Okay. I would sell greeting cards door to door because I thought it was just fun in. You know. What's my point here? Well, my point is that there's a story there. There is. That is a huge clue of who I am. There's a love business there, a love of commerce, as I mentioned. And I get that same feeling today when I talk to a new client about their own business and about how they do, what they do, why they're better, the strategies they've implemented. It really gets me excited, and it enables me to bring a fresh perspective and a fresh voice and a really powerful angle to their marketing communications. But I think it comes from that. I think it comes from my love business and commerce and business strategy. Okay? That is my truth. My point here is you shouldn't try to duplicate that if it's not who you are. You need to. Your whole strategy and everything you do needs to be very well aligned with who you are, your background, experiences, and so forth. All right, so moving on. Tip number three is to be like Forest Gump. Forrest Gump is one of my favorite movies of all time. And the reason I like it so much, I mean, you know, it's a funny movie. It's. It's. It's. You know, you cry, you laugh. It is a good movie on its own. But I think the lesson contained in that movie is so powerful that I. Every time it's on tv, I watch it. So here's this guy who wasn't intelligent enough, and I use intelligent under quotations. He wasn't intelligent enough to know what's possible and what's not possible. So he was sad and he was tired and angry, so he started running. And he ran across the country from coast to coast, not once, but several times. And of course, those of you who have seen the movie know exactly what I'm talking about. He went to Vietnam and he rescued something like 12 or 16 members of his platoon in the middle of heavy enemy fire. He met the President of the US a couple of times, two different presidents. He launched the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company when everyone told him it was absolutely useless and hopeless to do so. And even after months of zero success, he kept at it, and he succeeded anyway. I think sometimes we just know too much. And here again, I use know under quotation marks. We think we know too much, and that knowledge hurts us. It doesn't help us. We think we know what's. What it's going to take. We think we know what's possible. But, you know, sometimes we just have to be more like Forrest Gump, and we have to forget about that. When I look at back at my successes and life and business, I think the reason I got to where I was and the reason I achieved certain levels of success is because I didn't listen to anybody. I didn't know any better. I just did it. I mean, going back to the candy store example, I didn't know that you're not supposed to do that at 8 years old. I just bought this kid's candy, and, heck, I couldn't wait till Monday. I sold everything door to door. I mean, I didn't know that you don't sell door to door. I didn't know that that could be embarrassing. I didn't know that rejection is bad. I didn't know that I didn't know how to subtract fast enough to give people change or subtract accurately enough to give people accurate change. I didn't know these things. I got caught up in the excitement, the journey, and I just did it. I just. To me, it just felt real every time. On the other hand, when I haven't achieved a goal or gone after something, I realize when I think about it that I didn't do it. Not because I wasn't capable, but because I just knew too much. I just knew that that's not what you're supposed to do, that I could get turned down, that I could fail, that all these bad things could happen. Therefore, I didn't take action. Or if I took action, it wasn't my very best, or I held back, something along those lines. So tip number three, be like Forrest Gump. Just bring back that childish nature to your game, to your business, and forget about what everybody else would say. Just do it. All right, Tip number four is called what would Tony Do? And this needs a little bit of explanation. This is kind of an extension of the be like Forrest Gump idea. And here's. Let me set it up this way. Think about someone you admire, someone who would have no trouble overcoming the fears and hesitations that you might currently have about whatever it is that you're fearing. Someone who would just act anyway and make it happen. So let's say a friend, a relative, colleague, some guru, you admire, anyone, doesn't really matter. But make sure that it's someone who you know would handle the specific challenge that you're facing right now with grace and with real success. So I want you to picture that person like let's say you were able to outsource this problem to them. Or let's say that they were facing the same problem. And I really want you to think about that and close your eyes and visualize what they would do if they were faced with that same situation you're facing. What would they do? How would they act? And then what would they tell you if you were to share these same fears and doubts with them? Another way to think of it is imagine having a conversation with this person you admire, someone who you know would overcome this no problem at all. You're sitting down over coffee with them and you're asking them for advice. What would they tell you? So for me, I'll just tell you right out who my people would be. I think of Tony Robbins and you know, I like Tony Robbins. I think he's an amazing person. I find him to be very motivational. And I don' know why, because he's not my favorite, you know, guru or anything. But many of the problems that I have, I just imagine sitting down with Tony and either sitting down with Tony or seeing him tackle the same issue, seeing him in my shoes and visualizing what he would do. And the answers come to me. I know exactly okay, this is what he would do. So why don't I do the same thing? So it gives me the courage. The late motivational speaker Jim Rohn is another one, just a very wise man. And I think about what he would do in certain situations and suddenly I get clarity. Suddenly I get clarity. I either now know what to do or realize that by doing it, it's not as fearful as it seems. Another person that I, that I imagine having a conversation with or taking action for me is just so the, the, the ones I gave you are kind of people that, that I don't know, right? These are gurus, these are people I don't know. But I have a friend many of you know Pete Savage. He is one of the co authors of the book I wrote the Wealthy Freelancer. And Pete and I are very good friends. And he is an amazing guy. He's got some gifts and some strengths that I don't have. We complement each other very well. And there are certain situations where I imagine Pete facing them. And I ask myself, what would Pete do here? So I don't know if he's listening. But, Pete, if you're listening to this dude, you've helped me out a lot. And I suddenly get that clarity. I've seen other people who will, myself included, you pray to God, or you pray a series of saints or even deceased family members. I can tell you, and I know this is starting to get a little weird, but just bear with me. My dad has this beautiful belief. He truly believes that he has an army up in heaven that is always there willing to help him out and to give him answers and courage. And all he needs to do is ask for help. So in other words, these are all his parents, his grandparents, and all these family members who have been long gone. And he really believes that if he's facing a challenge, all he's got to do is ask and this army will come through for him. And you know what? It doesn't really matter if you believe this or not. My dad believes it. I believe it too. I happen to believe this. I have a slightly different version of what he believes, but it works for him and it gives him that strength and courage when he needs it most. So, you know, the key thing here, and the lesson is ask for help in whatever way is right for you. And have that imaginary conversation with your friend, colleague, with God, with a saint, a deceased family member, you know, whatever your beliefs are, totally respect that. But have that conversation with them or see them facing the same challenges that you're facing right now. How would they break through that? Low level of belief, low levels of self esteem. What would they do? The answers are there. All right, number five, see yourself already there. We're talking here about visualization and seeing yourself breaking through these fears and doubts and lack of belief and doing the thing anyway, doing the thing you fear and achieving what you set out to achieve. Your subconscious mind doesn't know the difference between something you imagine and visualize in something that you're actually experiencing. And that is a very powerful fact. This has been scientifically proven, it's documented. You don't have to take my word for it. You could look it up. If you know and understand that, then anything is possible. So I'm talking here about visualizing yourself closing your eyes. And just visualizing yourself as best as you can, already there, or doing the thing, or breaking through that fear in having the confidence to do it, in doing it well and without any problems. I will admit that this is hard for me to do. Sometimes I find that my mind is racing so much that I start the visualization process and within a couple minutes my mind starts wandering off. Here's what I found, you know, two, three, five minutes is enough. You don't have to visualize for 30 minutes or an hour. And I think that's where a big part of the problem was for me for so many years. Just close your eyes and even if you can just get a minute or two in of that and feel it. The trick is if you, if you read about this stuff, the experts tell you you have to feel it because that adds more power to that thought. And again, what you're trying to do is you're trying to agitate your subconscious mind. The more feeling you can activate. So in other words, feel, feel already doing it and doing it well. Achieving that goal, your subconscious mind will find a way to make it happen. For me, the best time to do this is early in the morning. I have a morning routine where before anybody in the house wakes up, it's just me, it's my time. This is my time to get centered, to set the tone for the day. This is my gratitude time. This is my writing time, this is my meditation time. And this is my time for visualizing, even just for a couple of minutes. Another idea that I have along these lines is to find some songs that will disrupt your negative or self defeating train of thought and immediately get you excited. There are certain songs that I play for myself and I usually have to play them very loud. They really lend themselves to being played loud. And these songs get me pumped up. They make it easier to feel and to live the actions of what I want to do confidently and with grace. And the effect is almost immediate. I have several songs, I'll tell you about one of them because this song was almost one of my theme songs. And I was just getting started in 2003, 2004 and I still had my day job and I knew that I was going to be a freelance. A successful freelance writer making a great living as a self employed professional. Bigger Than My Body by John Mayer. That song came out, I believe in 2003. So in 2004 I was playing the song to myself all the time. Sometimes I would be singing in my head, but it really helped if I could listen to it. Loud my headphones and. And every time I played felt like me. It was me, not John Mayer, singing it. And I was expressing myself. I was just talking about the hope that I had inside me, the fact that I was bigger than what you could see from the outside. I was bigger than my body. And if you looked from the outside in, you couldn't really tell, but there was so much inside me and I was already this very successful writer. You just couldn't see it yet. So that song was an anthem for me for that whole year. 2004. There's some songs that I use today that, my goodness, the instant that I play them, my attitude, my feelings just change immediately. So find those songs and use them. Use them to get you in the right state of mind. Tip number six is to get yourself some quick wins. Those of you who have been following me for a while, you've heard the a few times before, you know that I'm a big fan of just getting some quick wins, getting them as quickly as possible. And I got this idea from a software client of mine, a freelance writing client of mine, who a big part of their business model was to work with clients in implementing this multimillion dollar software system. And it was designed to be used in manufacturing plants. And their whole thing was, our biggest goal is to get the client some very tangible quick wins and significant in size as well. And they, to be more specific, they always wanted to get the client when they turn on the software within the first week, they wanted to get the client some very significant tangible wins. And he just called them quick wins. He knew that if the factory floor workers who are using this new system, and they were very cynical about it and, you know, because now everyone, right, if you have to learn something new, I mean, who wants to do that, it disrupts their workflow. It just, you know, they got to learn something new, they got to spend time learning it, and it's just painful. Nobody likes change. They knew that if they could show the factory floor how it would make their lives easier and they could show it to them almost immediately, that the change in attitude would be drastic. Same thing with management in the C level suite. If they could see an immediate impact, not the whole impact, but an immediate impact that was tangible very quickly, the motivation it would create would be amazing. So I've adopted that strategy and it's been a game changer for me. If you're going after something big, it doesn't matter what it is. If it's big for you, I really believe that you need A quick win. You need something that will give you the fuel you need to get going to get over those early humps. Because if the goal is too big, the overall goal, and let's say your overall goal is to getting to the six figure level, but right now you're averaging 40,000 a year and you want to get to 100. It just seems like it's so far away that you could easily stumble, you could easily face some obstacles that are going to set you back. So I would say, look, if Your goal is 100, but you're at 40 right now, I would find some win that if you were to get, it would get you very motivated and only you know what that would be. So let's say that I don't know. Well, I'm making 40 and the reason is that most of my gigs are, you know, about $500 on average. My writing gigs are average about 500. So I got to do a lot of them. And even then I can only, you know, get to 40,000 a year. What if he just said, look, I'm going to set a goal to land a project that's over $1,000 and let's say that you have rarely done anything over a thousand dollars. Well, set that as a quick win, as a goal, as in a near term goal, and work very hard. Forget about a hundred thousand a year, forget about that. Just worry and put all of your efforts on getting that thousand, fifteen hundred, two thousand dollars project and focus on that. And I guarantee you, first of all, you'll get it faster than you think. And also the motivation they will give you will be remarkable. This is not a new concept. If you look at weight loss programs like Weight Watchers, Atkins, South Beach Diet and all these programs you see out there, a big reason why they are around and they continue to be successful is that they understand the power of quick wins. If you've ever gone through any of these, you'll know that they really focus on getting you that first 10 pound loss. Like they really want you to focus on losing those first ten pounds. They know that if you could see a ten pound loss fairly quickly, like in a month or two, you will stick with it. But if it, it's grueling and if it, if you lose, like let's say, you know, if it takes six months to lose those first ten pounds, the chances of you quitting are really, really high. So set yourself a quick win, go for it. It's going to provide you with the fuel you need to get on that super highway. Of success. And it's going to give you the protection you need to avert negative downward spirals. Again, the gig, or whatever the goal is doesn't have to be great. It doesn't have to be the big gig that pays all the bills, the huge client. It's not about that. It's about enough. Something that will give you enough motivation to really fuel your fire. You know, my first few clients and gigs were not big, they were not prestigious. The clients were very demanding. Some of them were not very nice. But those wins gave me the motivation I needed to see that this business was real, that I could make a go of it, that I could become a successful business writer. All right, and moving on to the last tip, tip number seven. Accept that your victories. Accept. May not materialize exactly the way you originally envisioned them. When I started out as a business writer, I thought that I was going to be writing lead generation, copy, sales, copy and lead generation campaigns for clients. So in other words, campaigns that would generate potential clients, those are leads or that would sell something directly. That was what my experience was when I was doing this. As a salesperson. That's what I was very good at. And I just thought that this is where the demand is and that's how I visualize myself doing. So I always had this image in my mind of writing this kind of copy and putting together these campaigns for clients. But it didn't happen that way. I would pitch clients or prospects on these projects and the ones who responded would say, ed, that sounds great, but listen, what we really need help with is this white paper. And we want to write a white paper on X. Can you do that for us? Is that something that you'd be interested in first? I didn't know what to say, but I just said, sure. I'd never written a white paper before. Somebody else asked me for case studies. You know, what we really need is this. Thanks for approaching us about some lead generation emails. But what we really need is a series of case studies to showcase some wins that we've had. Can you do that? Sure. Sure, I can do that. And before I knew it, this is all I was writing. So I went out to try to write sales materials, sales generating materials, lead generation materials. But instead I ended up writing the content that supported these lead generation and sales campaigns. So I was writing white papers, case studies, articles, sometimes web copy. I wrote quite a few websites, and for a while there I felt like, okay, well, yeah, I'll keep doing this, but this has taken me away from my path and the way this is supposed to manifest. And then I realized one day, my goodness, this is 95% of what I'm doing. Not only that, but I'm doing it very well. And I'm getting paid a lot of money. And at this rate, I'm making the equivalent of a six figure income by doing this on the side while I keep my day job. What's wrong with that? I like it. I like my clients. I'm making good money. I'm very good at this. What's wrong with that? Had I really stayed focused on the fact that, no, no, no, it can't happen this way, it's got to materialize this other way. This is, this is not what I set out to do, I would have ruined everything. Now, if you end up doing something you just don't like, that's different. But keep in mind that what I was doing, I really enjoyed. I just never thought that it would materialize this way. International Freelancers Academy, this podcast, this was not part of my master plan. I mean, when I became a freelance writer, I thought that's what I would be doing. And you know, a couple years into it full time, once I've been doing it full time for a couple years, I realized that, you know what, I have something to teach. I have something that others need to know about. I spent a lot of time and made a lot of mistakes transitioning from a full time employee to a full time freelancer. And when I was doing this, I couldn't find any information out there that showed me the way. I want to write something. A book, an ebook, Something that will show the path, will show other people that path, other people who are in my situation back then and will show them how to make that leap safely with less risk, faster. And so I wrote an ebook. I just felt compelled to do it now. Yeah, you know, I was excited about the income potential, I'm not going to lie to you. But it was mostly because it just felt right. I wanted to do it. I wanted to get that information out there. And you know what? It also sounded fun. So I put it out there and that thing took off. This ebook took off completely. And it ended up leading to a blog called the Wealthy Freelancer. Some of you are familiar with that. It's no longer around, but it. Because it turned into a book with a major publisher. And that book led me to International Freelancers Academy. I founded that with Pete Savage and now the High Income Business Writing Podcast. I never thought that I would be doing these things. I've just kind of followed the flow in. I've let my business evolve organically and I just followed what feels right and with what's aligned with my values and with the value that I feel I have to offer and the gifts that I think I can. I can give to others and share with others. So I've seen this many different times in many different flavors. I've seen writers go down this path and the business writing path and end up being consultants where they don't do much writing at all. But they. They find they. They love that path and just. It was complete coincidence. And I don't believe in coincidences. But just the way it turned out, they couldn't have planned for that. They just followed the flow and that's where they ended. And they're extremely happy. I've seen others go out on their own and then get this amazing job offer from a client and you might say, oh, gosh, what a waste. Not necessarily. They would have never gotten that amazing dream job had they not gone out on this path because the reason they became visible to this employer was because they were freelancer. So, you know, and it's it. That was their truth. That was another point. Going back to what I said earlier. That was their truth. Or I've seen freelancers go down the business writing path and find themselves in a completely different direction, but in a very exciting direction and very exciting path. Once they get started in something that they never even imagined they would end up doing. And sometimes it's just the shift is very slight and that's okay. It doesn't really matter. The point is, you just don't get hung up on the fact that things have to happen a certain way. It's not always going to happen that way. That goes not just for your career, but also for your life. This is something that I've experienced several times, and I'm experiencing it right now. My wife and I had this dream about owning this house. And we had a very specific description of what this house would look like. You know, we started having kids, and then she went to school and we funded her school, and I started my business and all these things started happening when we had a second child. And financially it just. It just wasn't happening. You know, we'd almost kind of given up on it because we just thought, well, it's just not going to happen. And, you know, I had this thing in my head that, well, I guess it's. It's just not meant to be. But I didn't give up on it entirely. And I just I kept visualizing myself in this specific type of house and thanks to a series of events that I honestly can't even explain, I could have never dreamt up the way this happened. We recently built that house that we had dreamt about and we're actually in the process of moving. And I'm pre recording this, but as this is being published, we're in the process of moving right now. And let me tell you, the way this played out is truly amazing. If we ever have a glass of wine together or a cup of coffee, and if you're interested, I'd be happy to tell you the story because it's a lot longer and some of it is pretty personal. But again, I think this happened because I wasn't. I stopped believing that it had to happen a certain way. The way that it happened was completely unexpected. So don't get hung up on how things should happen. Just have a dream, visualize and just let go of the method. Let go of the way that it's going to manifest. Focus on the bigger goal and the feelings associated with getting there and having that goal and attaining these goals, whether short term, whether small, whether long term and big. It doesn't matter. And it will happen for you. Well folks, that's it for this week's episode. I appreciate you listening and tuning in. I wanted to remind you that you can grab the detailed show notes to this episode by going to b2b launcher.com forward/episode22 and I had a couple of quick announcements before I signed off. I'm giving away my pricing guide in my master fee schedule and this is something I've never ever given away before. It's part of some of my coaching programs and it's the document and the information that I use in my own writing business with my own writing clients and I've been using for years. I've updated it many different times and I've decided to just give it away to the community. You'll find pricing ranges for 32 different writing projects in there, along with some basic guidance on how to use this information when quoting writing assignments. It's absolutely free. We just got to register to in order to grab it. And you can do that@b2b launcher.com when you do that, you'll get immediate access to that pricing guide. And then I'll occasionally send you about every week or so some free training ideas and insights that I don't send to anyone else. And of course you can always unsubscribe from these mailings so don't feel obligated to stay on if you're not getting any value. You can always unsubscribe, but the pricing guide is completely free, no strings attached. And by the way, feel free to let others know friends and colleagues who you think might benefit from this information. Please send them to b2b launcher.com so they can get their own free copy of that guide. If you enjoyed this episode, I would be very, very grateful if you shared it with friends. And an easy way to do that is just to use any of the social media sharing buttons that you'll find on the episode page on the Show Notes page. Or you can go to btb launcher.com Love also would mean a ton to me if you gave me a quick rating or review on itunes. And the easiest way to do that is just to go to b2b launcher.com iTunes and I wanted to send a special shout out to Srangle and Jay Moser for leaving me a review last week. I truly appreciate you taking the time to do that. So this brings us to the end of the episode. I am your host Ed Gandia. Thanks so much for listening and I hope you have an awesome day. The High Income Business Writing Podcast is a production of B to B Business Launcher. Learn more@b2b launcher.com.