#049: Eleven Things High-Income Freelance Writers Do Differently

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. Thank you for joining me for episode 49 of the High Income Business Writing Podcast. My name is 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 the part time equivalent. As a quick reminder, you can find the details shown us for this episode by going to b2b launcher.com forward/episode49 before we get to this week's material, I had a couple of quick announcements that I wanted to sneak in. Now before I forget, and the first one is that this week marks the one year anniversary of this podcast and I just wanted to thank you guys for supporting this show over the past 12 months. I feel truly blessed to have so many loyal listeners who take me with me on their walks or workouts or daily commutes or while they're working in the yard or garden or whatever. When I started this show last April, I really didn't know what to expect. It was more of an experiment than anything else. But truly, your comments, your emails of praise of encouragement, your stories of the results that you've achieved by applying what you learn here, you have no idea how happy that makes me. And that's really the mission that I had and the vision that I had for this show. And even then I really didn't think it was going to be possible. This is really exceeded even my wildest dreams that this show has. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you so much for your loyal support, for sharing this content with friends and colleagues, and for your amazing ratings and reviews in itunes. You guys are just the best. Finally, we have a sponsor for this week's show and it's my completely revised training program, warm email prospecting 2.0. And this is the program where I show you how to prospect for clients using simple short your very effective emails that get response and lead to paying work. It's been my most popular program ever and this is the first time I've offered it in over 11 months. Last time was May of 2013 and I pulled it off the market back then after I wrapped up enrollment because I wanted to completely revamp it and that's what I've been spending my time on, on and off for the past 11 months. And I have to say, this updated version is just awesome. It really is. It's much more streamlined, it's easier to consume and digest. It includes more fill in the blank templates, easy to follow visual process maps nearly 30 new email script samples, most of them from students of the program. Six proven templated strategies that you can start implementing right away. There's a new lesson on phone follow up, which I did with my friend and colleague Elise Bennen of Marketing Mentor. There's a newly revised information on complying with anti spam laws. I have 10 new and proven warm email archetypes, if you will, and I explain which specific situations each is best suited for. Here's a really cool part. To celebrate the new release and upgrade of this 2.0 version, I'm offering the program for 43% off the regular price, but only for a very limited time and you can learn more about that@warmemailprospecting.com by the way, if you're a previous student of the original WARM email prospecting program, I have a very special upgrade offer for you and to learn more about that, just send us an email@supportarmemalprospecting.com and we'll forward you the details. So with that, I have a great show lined up for you today. It's just me. Just me today. And it's I'm going to be talking about a topic that I've been thinking a lot about lately actually for the past few weeks. And it's a topic of what makes some freelance business writers more successful than others and specifically B2B and commercial freelance writers and why are so some of them continually successful while others just kind of go up or down or they can't seem to kind of break out of, you know, kind of those those lower levels in terms of income. And I've been intrigued with with this topic for a long time and just really success in general. So I'm constantly asking myself these questions all the time when I see disparity. But today I wanted to share what consistently successful business B2B or commercial writers have in common. And as I said, I've been thinking about this lately. I spent a few days giving this question some serious thought during my daily walks during my morning journaling, and I wanted to share my findings with you. And by the way, I'd love to hear your feedback in the comments section if you agree, disagree, if you have some other ideas. Have you seen some other patterns in your business among your colleagues who are doing well, whatever. Love to hear it. I don't think this is necessarily a complete list, but this is what I condensed it to that I really believe that this is probably most of it. So let's get to it. And these are in no particular order, by the way. So these are, I kind of grouped them a little bit, but they're in no order. They're not in order of importance in any way. Okay. Number one, high income business writers are very clear on their positioning. They've taken a stand and they've clearly defined what they do for whom, what makes them different. Many have even defined a niche or specialty. And this isn't necessarily a must. And you guys know that I am a big proponent for starting where you are. And when you're starting out, you don't need to declare a niche or a specialty, not at all. I think it's a huge misunderstanding. But as you progress in your business, it's only natural to start looking at patterns, start looking at where you might have developed some areas of expertise, track record and so forth, and start specializing a little more. I mean, I think at the end of the day, if you really want to maximize your earnings, you should seriously consider developing some sort of a niche or specialty. And many high income business writers have done just that. They also don't waste time selling the value of great copy or content to their prospects or clients. Rather they're selling to the converted. And that's a huge point. I'm telling you. I see a lot of writer websites that just go on and on and on about the value of great content and copy. And you know, if you're having this problem, we need more sales and to have more sale and they just go on and on and they're building this business case. And I mean that, that's a beautiful argument for someone who doesn't get it. But you know what, this is not the kind of business where you can afford to sell that value all day long, all week long. You just don't have the resources, you don't have the time. There are enough people who get it to preach to those who don't. So number one, high income business writers tend to be very, very clear on their positioning and it comes across in all their marketing communications, including their conversations with prospects. Number two, high income business writers view a high income as a reality. They expect it. You know, they don't stress out about volatility in income or the bargain basement market or downward pressure on fees from global competitors. You know, they're not in that world all day long. I see a lot of people who struggle. They're constantly worried about that. And I get these emails and comments and in some of the posts that I put out there. And you know, my gosh, you know, this is just. The world is coming to an end, you know, downward pressure on fees and does it exist? Absolutely. But what you have to recognize, and I touched on this in a previous podcast, I'll include a link in the show notes to that. But you have to recognize that there are different segments of the market and you're talking about a bargain basement segment that frankly you shouldn't be playing in, at least not long term. You know, does it make sense sometimes to start there? Yes, sometimes it does. But you have to break out of there. And I think what tends to happen is a lot of that pricing pressure and a lot of those challenges really stay contained in those lower levels of, of the pyramid. And you know what, here's what's happening too, is not only do they expect a high income, but high income business writers are telling themselves a very different story all day long. I mean, they are just thinking differently, they talk to themselves in a different way. It's kind of like, you know, you expect your car to start up every morning when you crank it up. You know, I remember and I've owned some really, really crappy cars in my life when I was young, you know, high school, college. I remember one of my biggest concerns every morning was, is my car going to start up today? Am I going to be able to make it to work on time because of my car? In, in I was telling myself a different story and I was basing it on the reality, you know, that I saw it. To me that was a huge concern. High income business writers are like, you know, like if you have a reliable car, you're not thinking about whether or not it's going to start. You would just expect it to start. You know, just like you expect the light switch or the light to come on when you flip a switch on the wall. It's the same thing. They're telling themselves a different story. That is, that is a huge, huge difference. Number three, high income business writers have a high degree of self respect. And by that I mean that they realize that just because the work that they do comes relatively easy to them doesn't mean that it's low value. So they don't spend a lot of time worried about, oh my gosh, you know, am I a fraud? I think that's a very common feeling. I think we've all go through this on and off, you know, especially if we, when we get really, really good at something and we get a lot of, we get paid very well for it we start wondering, you know, if we're, if we're the real thing, you know, if we're truly adding value and there's a conflict. And I'm not going to get into, you know, where this comes from and all that. I'm certainly no expert in that area, but I think high income business writers, the ones that I've met, the ones I have coach and I deal with and I've gotten to know better, they realize, you know what, there is high value here. And just because it comes easy to me doesn't mean that it's a low value task, low value deliverable. They realize that this is a skill that few people have and it's worth something and it's actually worth a lot. And because of that they quote high fees for the work. I'm not talking about unreasonable, I'm talking about high fees, proportional or proportional or commensurate to what the value they deliver to the client. And they don't feel bad about it, you know that they go out there, they put it out there and they do it confidently and they get these fees. They really do. Number four, high income business writers have a high degree of respect for their clients. So number three was they have a high degree of self respect. Number four is they have a high degree of respect for their clients. They, because of that, they deliver their work on time every time as promised. They take pride in their work, they deliver quality work every time and they take pride in that. They take pride in delivering a great service. By great service, I'm talking about taking care of the client, being professional, being courteous at all times. Now that doesn't mean being stiff and being boring. You know, you should always be yourself. But I'm not, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about always coming through, always doing what you say you're going to do in treating yourself and your client with the respect that both of you deserve. It also means bringing ideas to the table. You know, I see a lot of high income business writers that I know are always thinking of ways to help their clients and to add value to them. And they think about their clients even when they're off duty, so to speak, right during non working hours and they come up with ideas. And just because the idea came on a Saturday afternoon doesn't mean they don't write it down and approach the client about it on Monday. You know, they really do take care of their clients, they really care about them. And because of that they tend to develop peer to peer relationships with Their contacts at these clients. And rather than the opposite of this is that subservient approach or mindset that I see many low income writers adopt, which is, you know, that I work for them, they are above me, I'm serving them from a lower point. And that's not a healthy mindset. The way I've always looked at my freelance business is we're equals, we're equal here. I'm delivering value for value. I respect you, you respect me. When I notice that there's no respect coming back to me, that becomes a problem. Okay, and we'll get to that. By the way. Number five, high income business writers are mindful of their productivity. They recognize that their most important non renewable resources is their time. You know, and many of them do things like setting working hours, planning their days, planning their weeks. Being mindful about their time and how valuable it is doesn't mean that everything is structured, but they're a little bit more structured than the average freelancer. And you know, they are really focused when they do work. They do focused work because they recognize that, you know what, that's going to impact my income, that's going to impact the quality of work that I deliver and I don't want to spend my free time doing work. And so they create walls around their work and they make sure that when they're at work, they focus on their work. When they're at home, when they're with their families, when they're with their friends, they focus on their family and friends. This is not always easy to do. Okay? And I'm not saying that high income business writers are perfect at this. Many of them really struggle with it, but they're mindful of it and they try to work at it. And you know, when it comes with tools and technology to become more productive, I've noticed that many of them view these things as what they are. They're tools. They're tools to boost productivity. They're not the end goal. As opposed to a lot of people who are really into gadgets and they just, they adopt or they try to implement or they buy these tools for the sake of buying them and for the sake of having them. When in reality what these things are supposed to do is they're supposed to enrich our lives. They're supposed to, you know, give us more time back, they're supposed to make us more efficient, more effective and so forth. So there's a, it's a slight but very important difference. Number six, high income business writers tend to go after corporate clients now, it doesn't mean that 100% of their work is corporate work, but over time, in most cases, it's a big chunk of their work, It's a big chunk of their income. The reason is simple. This is where the budgets are. This is where there is a consistent need for content and copy. Are there other markets that have a lot of potential, a lot of need? Absolutely. I'm not saying that this is the only way to go the corporate market, but folks, corporate clients need a ton of copy and content. They need it consistently, especially if the products and services they sell are new, expensive or complex. They're just, they're hungry for it, they need it, they have the budgets for it, they're ready to pay what it's worth, and they don't have the staff to get it all done. Now the other thing is that of course, since they're working for the corporate market, these high income business writers aren't the type that look at corporations as evil. Okay? If you have a problem with corporations, if you think that businesses are evil, you're going to have a conflict. This is going to be a problem. Okay? So these folks tend to really admire their clients in many cases, and many of them even go beyond that. They really get into what their clients are doing. They get into their businesses, they find it fascinating. And I think part of that is because many of them tend to be very curious people who love to learn and they develop passions around their clients, businesses, or maybe they come in with that passion and that's why they're focusing on the specific niche or industry or specialty. Okay, but the bottom line is many of them are going after corporate clients, either exclusively or a big chunk of their income is coming from the corporate market. Number seven, high income business writers are not afraid to let go of clients that can no longer afford them. You know, your value as a freelance business writer should increase over time. You'll develop more experience, you develop more knowledge and so forth. These things that you acquire over time are worth something. And if you're not continually looking for better paying clients who are well aligned with your business and your values, of course you're doing yourself a disservice. And if you're afraid to let go of a client who can no longer afford you because you feel a sense of loyalty or something along those lines, I urge you to think twice about this. Now listen, I'm not saying that money is the only factor, but other factors are not in place and the money is also not there. You gotta ask yourself what's keeping you there? What's keeping you there? I find that these things go hand in hand. Usually when they are unwilling to pay you what you're worth. And I'm not talking about a slight difference. I'm talking about, you know, you're worth twice as much and you're getting twice as much elsewhere and they're paying you half. There are other problems. You know, these are typically not the clients who are also dream clients in every other way. They usually don't respect you. They're usually a problem when it comes to communicating or getting you paid on time. Not all these factors are coming to play, but I bet many of you will agree with me that usually when the money is always an issue in a big way, there are other problems there as well. So ask yourself, what's keeping you there? If you have a client like that or a couple of clients like that, what's keeping you there? Is it a self confidence issue? Is it fear? And I'm not talking about in the short run. Sometimes in the short run I get it, we have to work with clients to bring in a little bit of cash, but you know, we hope that that's not going to last forever. I'm talking about when it does last forever, when it's been five years and you're still wondering what you're doing there. Okay, number eight, high income freelance writers focus on lifetime client value. They're not looking for one off projects, one off opportunities. I've seen some exceptions where the business model is such that, you know, they charge enough for that one project and let's say it's a ghost written book, okay, as an example, and they charge enough for that that they can make it profitable, they can make it work. But those are the exceptions. I found that most high income business writers are looking for longer term clients. In fact, part of their qualification process when they're looking at a potential client is whether or not this prospect has long term needs. You know, can they grow, can they possibly create some sort of an informal partnership? And by partnership I'm talking about where you're their go to writer, their go to content strategist. You know, they always ask themselves, can I go deeper into this account? You know, can I start doing work for other marketing managers in this organization? For some of the other PR managers, you know, is there, are there other PR directors in other divisions of the company? Because what happens is you gain institutional knowledge in that client as you learn more about their products and services, their client base, their prospect base, their customer base, your Time invested per project drops and it starts dropping dramatically. Sometimes it could drop to half of what it used to take you for that same type of project when you started out with them. And as your fees remain the same and even go up gradually, that means your internal hourly rate for that client skyrockets. This is huge. I think this is one of the nuances about high income business writers. A lot of people don't understand this can change your business in a huge, huge, huge way. Do not underestimate the power of starting to look at your prospects and your clients in terms of lifetime client value and not so much on the today. I need to fill my capacity, I need another project, I need to pay bills. Okay, those things are important, but you also need to take kind of a long term strategic view here. Number nine, high income business writers go after high price projects. You know, you're not going to earn a high income consistently doing a ton of $200 projects. You know, you need a good mix that includes several high value projects every quarter or at least once one of them a month. And I think there are a lot of reasons for that. It's exhausting to have to do, you know, enough two to $500 projects to make a decent income over the course of a year. But I think there's, there's also, and this is partly related to that, there's a fixed cost to onboarding a client and taking on a new project. There's a certain amount of headspace required to kind of submerge yourself into something new. And if the project is only worth, you know, a couple hundred dollars, you're not going to cover your fixed costs, your actual physical hard costs and the cost of, you know, that headroom, if you will. Right. Let alone your variable costs. So it's very important that you start bringing in. I tell you, my business changed dramatically, I tell you, when my income skyrocketed. And I was still doing this part time when I started doing white paperwork. So I was doing okay, I was doing just miscellaneous thing, web copy, I was doing brochure work. I was doing a lot of brochure work for a specific client and things like that. And then a lot of one off, you know, $500 projects, that sort of thing. But the moment I started doing white papers, and I want to say my first white paper was 3,000, $3,500 or something like that, it was like, it was something like three times the, the amount or the fee than my highest paid project to that point. And interestingly, it didn't take me that much more now. It did take me a while just because this is the first white paper I had done, the first formal white paper. I had written them before. I didn't know they were called white papers when I was employed, but this is the first one I did for a client and kind of finding my way through it took me a while, but when you kind of extract that wasted time of learning something new, it was like, I mean, gosh, this is three times for not three times the amount of work. And as I brought in a white paper every other month or so, which didn't take me long to kind of get into that rhythm, my income shot through the roof. So it just, it's, it's a huge, it makes a huge, huge impact. Going after high priced projects. They don't all have to be high priced, but you have to bring those into the mix. Number 10, high income business writers value and leverage their relationships. You know, there comes a point in your business where if you haven't already done so, you have to start leveraging your contacts, your clients, your friends, your colleagues to get better results faster. And what do I mean by that? What do I mean by leveraging them? Well, I mean that the Pareto principle still applies here. And you know, it's that 8020 rule, right? And if you're spending a ton of time and effort prospecting, for example, as you grow and get better known, you have to start shifting that effort to higher leverage prospecting. You know, it can't be a struggle every time. If you've been at this for two, three years, it shouldn't be a struggle. You should be getting to a point where you're getting higher leverage because you're able to leverage word of mouth, you're able to leverage referrals, you're able to leverage your reputation, thought leadership and so forth. So, you know, again, there you're valuing your relationships and you're leveraging those relationships. People start spreading the word. People are happy to give you referrals. You still have to ask for them. But you know what, you've heard this before and this is true, very, very true. In this business, relationships really are everything. I wish I could tell you that there's a magic wand that, you know, you can do this all on your own. And it's very difficult sometimes for us who are more introverted to accept that, you know, because that when I say relationships are everything, that might sound like I'm talking about going out and networking. I'm not talking about that. You know, People you've had, clients you work with clients. Right now, people are happy with your work. It's about leveraging that goodwill that you've built up over the years. And right now it's lying dormant. You're not really squeezing every drop out of that value you can. And this is really about looking at that kind of latent goodwill, if you will, and extracting value from it. And I'll tell you, here's a good measure of this, because I know that sounds a little bit nebulous, but a good measure of whether or not you're truly valuing or leveraging your relationships is when your main contacts at some of your clients keep hiring you as they move from one company to the next. So they leave the company where they started working with you. A couple months later, they're calling you from their new employer. They have a very similar position and they need your help. And when that happens more than once, you know you're onto something. You know that you've built that goodwill. You know that you've done some of the other things we've talked about here. You know that you've developed that great respect for them, that you've gone above and beyond that you've added value, that you've thought about their business, sometimes during off hours, you know, and you've come up with ideas and you try to be more than just a writer. That's what I'm talking about. Finally, number 11, high income business writers do not rest on their laurels. I've coached some very successful writers over the past few years, and I'm amazed at how seriously they take their personal and professional development. You know, it's not, I know it seems this way, right. But when you're at a point where, let's say you're not making much money at all either because you've struggled over the years and you can't seem to break past that, or you're just starting out, you've only been at it for a while. There's always a feeling that you're working your way to something. And then once you're there, everything is great, everything is rosy, and it's just everything kind of snowballs. And you don't. You no longer have to really work that hard. And while it's true that some things become easier, you never ever get to a point where you can just completely rest. There's just no such thing. High income business writers love new challenges. They love to learn new skills. They love to find better ways of doing things. They're curious or naturally curious. They're into self improvement. And you know what? They also don't build mind being vulnerable enough to admit that they don't know it all and that they can sometimes use some help because they know that they're too close to their problems, you know, and they might not be able to see the solution. They're too emotionally involved. We're all in that position. So they don't mind, you know, investing in their businesses, investing in their future, because they see it as just that, it's an investment. So don't think that you'll ever get to a point where you can just take a rest and just let it all come to you. That point never comes. Now having said that, when you do get to that point, it's not like it's a struggle. You know, it's more fun, you're working towards it, you're continuing to grow, but at least you've taken care of many of your basic needs and necessities and you're no longer running on fear. It's a lot more fun at this point. So that's it folks. The 11 things that high Income Business Writers do differently. I again, I would love to read your comments on this. Get your feedback if you have any other ideas, if you agree, disagree, whatever you've seen, whether you're high income business writer yourself, whether you know some people who are doing very, very well, you've noticed some patterns. Include that information. Your comments in the comments area below on the Show Notes page. Would love to start a really good conversation here. And again, make sure to check out my completely revised warm email prospecting 2.0. You can grab it for 43% off the regular price for a very limited time, so check it out before the offer expires. All the details are at Warm Email Prospecting. That brings us to the end of the episode. I am your host, Ed Gandia. Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have an awesome day. The High Income Business Writing Podcast is a production of B2B business launcher. Learn more at B2B launcher dot com.