#067: Am I a Credible Source of Freelancing Advice?

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 there and thank you for joining me for episode 67 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 to the six figure level or the part time equivalent. As a quick reminder, you can find detailed show notes for this episode by going to b2b launcher.com episode 67 so happy new Year. Wow. It is unbelievable that another year has gone by. We are halfway through this decade or close to it and you know, it's exciting. It's exciting to start another year. I'm not a believer of this notion that hey, the new year is the place when you should make changes. I think there's opportunities to make changes and do amazing things at any time during the year. The best time is the time you decide to change the time you decide to do something different. But there's something refreshing about starting a new year. There's something refreshing and I don't know, there's this feeling of hope, of possibility. I used to feel kind of depressed actually, first week or two of the new year when I worked for somebody else. But now that I'm self employed, you know, my thinking has changed on this, my attitude has changed dramatically and what I wanted to do to kick things off this year is avoid the traditional goal setting type episode that I think everyone's going to be doing out there. You know, I've touched on this before. I have a few shows where I've discussed goal setting in my approach which continues to evolve my approach for goal setting. So I'm not going to touch on that. Instead I'm going to touch on an issue that, that it's been bugging me a little bit, to be honest with you. It's something I've been wanting to talk about for a long time, but I haven't had the opportunity to do it or I wasn't sure how to approach it. So what I've decided to do is just to kind of come right out there, address this huge elephant in the room and hopefully start some dialogue with you guys on the show notes page in the comments area about this just to kind of get your overall feelings. I've gotten several notes over the past few years from listeners on this. I've responded, I've had some email conversations with some of you, but I think it's important we get this out into the open. I think you can basically summarize this issue by saying that there's lots of coaches and teachers out there especially you see them a lot in the world of freelancing. And I know you've seen quite a few kind of spring up over the past five years or so. I mean, gosh, I've been one of them. I started doing this, I started teaching and training in early 2008. So in Internet years, that's a long time. But it really isn't that long ago, you know, considering some of the teachers and leaders in this freelance community that, who have been around for a long, long time. But the issue here is that you're starting to see more and more people who don't have a lot of experience who are providing advice or some people who no longer have freelance clients and they're teaching and coaching kind of full time. And what I'm seeing, and some of the feedback that I've gotten from listeners is that this trend gives off the impression that the only people making money as a freelance writer or copywriter are those who are teaching. And in fact, when I think about that, it reminds me of the gold rush in California in the 1800s. I read somewhere that for a long, long time the people who were making the most money were the ones selling the shovels and the equipment and the advice on how to find gold, not those who were prospecting for gold. So it's, you know, it's reminiscent of that. And you know, I think that's, that's a fair comparison. I think it's a fair question to ask. So what I wanted to do here is I wanted to come clean with you guys. And I've done this before on and off in some other shows, but I wanted to address this in a little bit more detail and just tell you a little bit about me, what I'm doing, what I'm planning and let you decide, you know, what you think and how you feel about this. But I think it's important in order for you to form an opinion from, for me to be very transparent with you and give you more detail. So, and I think that's, that's going to help. Now I went into much more detail on my story to, of how I got to where I am today in episodes six and seven of this show. So B2B launcher.com episode six and forward slash episode seven. It's a two part series that will tell you my story. So I'm not going to go through that here. But here's what I will tell you first of all today here, as we enter into 2015, about 90% of my income comes from teaching, training and coaching. And that was the case when I did episode six and seven. So I mentioned that there, but it's still the case today. I will tell you that I love, love, love, love to teach. I really, really do. It wasn't something I ever planned, but as I kind of fell into it, as I started experimenting with it, and again in early 2008, I realized that I have a passion for teaching, for training, for coaching. And as I look back in my life, I realize that the seeds have always been there, you know, the clues for the fact that I was a good teacher. I wouldn't consider myself an outstanding teacher, but the fact that I was a good teacher and I enjoyed the process of teaching, they've been there for a really long time. And, you know, so as I do more of, shows me that this is something that I want to do more of. I love to write, don't get me wrong, but I love teaching, training and coaching even more now. I want. And again, I'm trying to be very transparent here because I just want you guys to understand my motivation. I will tell you this. I could make much more money writing for clients full time than I do teaching training and coaching today. I really could. I know that this business can kind of give off the impression that, you know, that people like me who have kind of moved into a different field and are out there selling training courses and training programs, coaching and so forth, are making a killing. But you know what? The fact is that this is a tough business. There are a lot of costs that people don't realize. There's a lot of frustrations that a lot of people don't realize exist. And there's some disadvantages, I mean, that are out there. And I didn't realize until I started taking this much more seriously. But I will tell you this. I've thought about this many times before I could. It's not an income thing or solely an income thing because I could earn more money today in less time writing for freelance clients. So just know that now, 2014, this past year, it was a trying year in my training business. I earned more, we grew considerably. But I also reinvested much of the increased profits into the business. I brought in more people. I reinvested in the way of time and resources. So my own time I spent creating new programs and I worked much harder than I have in previous years. I will tell you that I am not incredibly happy with the balance that I had in my life in 2014. It was difficult and I found myself putting more time and effort into this business than I had originally planned. And in fact, I have already decided to make some significant changes in 2015 in order to regain that balance because that is important to me. Some of you who have been following me for a while know that I'm not a believer in constant work life balance. I think it's unrealistic to believe that you can always be in balance. It's natural to be off balance. In fact, most of the time you're going to be off balance one side or the other. But what you really need to be mindful of is over the short term is okay, it's natural, it's expected, in fact, it's the, it's the norm. But over the long term, over the course of several months or a year or even longer, it's not healthy. And looking back at 2014, I realized, you know, that's, that was not healthy. So I'm going to be making some significant changes this, this year. I haven't defined all those changes yet, but I'm working on that right now. I'm defining it and I will tell you that part of it, and this is an important thing too that I need to communicate to you guys is part of it will be about less access to me. So 2014, I was way too accessible. I responded to almost every email. You know, I try to help as many people out as I could and I will not be doing that this year. And not because I don't want to, but because I can't. That my business has grown to the point where, or I cannot do that, I cannot do that well, do a quality job putting programs together, do a quality job working with my group, coaching and one on one clients and at the same time do a good job at home raising my kids, spending time with my wife, taking care of my health, taking care of my mental health and just taking time to just be, you know, just quiet time. I can't do it all. So I will be less and less accessible this year. Some of it will be, some of these changes will be fairly significant and very fast. But that, that's one area where I'm definitely making some changes. So, but, but let's go back to the main issue. So here's a question. If I spend 90% of my time, let's say, teaching, training, coaching, am I still a credible source for relevant, valuable and results driven information, ideas and strategy? And rather than Answer that question directly, because I could. But let's reframe the issue. I think it's important to do that. Let's say that a restaurateur opens an Italian restaurant in your city that just goes crazy. It takes the city by storm. It's extremely successful. Maybe not overnight, but over the course of a year or two, it is the hottest restaurant in town, extremely successful. You have to wait weeks to make a reservation to be able to get a table. And it's all the talk, right? It's the talk of the town. And they raise their prices, but it doesn't matter. They keep filling seats and they're doing extremely well. So let's say that this restaurateur, after a few years, starts shifting most of his focus on consulting. So over the course of a few years, he starts doing more consulting with other people who are trying to start or grow their restaurants. Now, his restaurant remains open, and it's a one, one shop, right? Restaurant. It's not a chain. He's got one location, and he keeps that open. But he now spends most of his time working and consulting with new and established restaurateurs to launch and grow their businesses. Now, is this individual credible at this point? If you're looking to launch or grow or improve your existing restaurant business, would you see this individual as someone who could help you? And I'm willing to bet that for most of you, the answer would be yes, right? This is someone who has done it. This is someone who has done something very, very difficult in a fairly short period of time. Not only that, but his success in a. In a business that's very fickle, that's very variable, and fads kind of come and go. He's got, let's say, five years under his belt, and his restaurant is still killing it. You'd probably want to work with someone like that if you had the opportunity. So here's how I personally look at this question. Then going back to, you know, am I a credible source of good information, good training, teaching and coaching? Here's how I personally look at this question. When I am personally looking for help, I ask myself some very simple questions. Number one, can this person help me solve this specific problem? And I will have a specific problem in mind. Whether it's something very granular or an area of my business that I'm looking for help with, doesn't really matter. But I've defined something. You know, I've defined the area or the challenge that I need some help with. So can this person help me also Number two, has he done it himself? And I'm going to say he. But it could be she. Doesn't really matter. Has he or she done it themselves, right? Have they solved this problem themselves? If not, has he helped others solve the problem that I'm facing? Or has he helped them dramatically in the area where I'm looking to make improvement? And that's important because sometimes it's not for me. It's not about, have you solved this specific problem before yourself Many times. I don't really care about that. But it would be just as important to know that you have helped others solve this or a very similar problem. And then finally, can this person bring a unique perspective to the table? So what do I mean by perspective? Well, can he help me see things I'm not seeing? That's what I would be thinking, right? Does he have a vantage point that's that I don't have right now or that I haven't been to or haven't looked at my business from? Has he worked with enough people to understand more than just his own experiences and to know what's truly possible and how to get there? You know, that's important. So I want to know if this individual, in this case, let's go back to the restaurateur example, right? He's had great success with his restaurant. Now, I know he's been consulting with others and he's helped several people achieve great results. And just knowing that, okay, maybe I have this specific problem that I don't think he had when he was launching and growing his own business, his own restaurant, but has he helped others solve similar problems in their own businesses? And if the answer is yes, that's important to me. I also, with by perspective, I'm talking about creative thinking and creative problem solving, critical thinking. You know, is this someone who can think critically and can come up with creative solutions, or is this someone who all they have are cookie cutter ideas, you know, kind of take it or leave it, I don't know anything else. Is this person a good teacher? You know, will they. He or she helped me understand ideas and solutions at a deeper level. That's important to me because I've met plenty of great thinkers out there and good consultants who are not good teachers. And I want someone who can communicate this to me in a way that not just that I'll understand it, but I can internalize it and then execute. I will also ask myself, will this person take the time to understand me, to understand my business and my specific situation before prescribing possible solutions and then finally, will this person help me come up with solutions in a collaborative fashion? Right. I don't just want someone to preach at me. I want someone who could make me think and who will bring the best out of me, who will help me come up with solutions on my own. Because sometimes the answers that I have are some of the best answers. I just don't know I have them. So how can this person help me get those answers out of me? Now, obviously we're talking about a hypothetical situation here. These are questions that I ask myself if I'm going to be working personally with someone, either in a group setting or one on one. But, you know, a lot of these questions still apply. If I'm going to listen to somebody's advice, even if it's through a podcast, a book, a video series, a course, it doesn't really matter. The big issue is, is this person someone who can help me solve a specific problem? Have. Has he done it himself? If not, has he helped others solve similar problems? Does he have a unique perspective he brings to the table? Is he a critical thinking thinker, a creative problem solver, that sort of thing? So based on that, how do you think I'd rate a teacher or a coach when A, he has only his own business to pull from, his own very specific experiences, in other words, or B, he has a broader set of experiences, insights and examples to pull from? I think you know the answer. I mean, for me, B is a little bit more attractive. Now, don't get me wrong, it's great to learn from those who still practice their craft every day on a full time basis. Absolutely. But I also think there's great value in learning from those who don't necessarily practice their craft every single day for other clients. And I felt the need to address this elephant in the room because I'm not seeing this issue addressed anywhere, at least not this openly. And I really believe it has to be because there are a lot of people out there offering advice, a lot of people training, teaching, coaching, and there's no right or wrong here. And I hope this is not coming across as me knocking and anyone I am not. I think this is a decision you have to make. But the one thing I want to make sure you avoid is falling into this trap of, well, if they're not doing this all the time, every day, then they have nothing they can offer me because that is simply not true. And I hope that I've given you some questions to ask yourself and some food for thought to decide if that is true for you or not. So, you know, it's, let's kind of take it to a different industry because I think this whole thing is unique to freelancing into other similar businesses in that for some reason people get kind of all bent out of shape when they see someone who's offering advice, yet this individual is not currently practicing this thing every day in their own business, you know, because they've kind of moved on to something different and their, most of their business is in the area of giving advice on teaching, training and coaching. So let's, let's talk about a different industry where it doesn't work that way. And that's sports. When you think about many of the best coaches and trainers out there in virtually any sport, they either never played professionally or they don't currently play, right? Have you seen a coach who's a full time player there on the field? Well, not in professional sports, not that I am aware of. I'll give you some statistics here. Major League baseball in the U.S. 83% of managers on opening day in 2014, this is the season that just passed, played in the major leagues. That's a pretty high percentage. But notice it was only 83%. Still, it wasn't 100% or even in the 90s. In the NHL National Hockey League, 60% of the head coaches reach the league, right? That they, they were at the league stage playing professionally, only 60%. And in the NBA is even lower. It's only 43% of coaches played professionally. The NFL National Football League is the lowest, only 19%. Specifically, six of the 32 head coaches that were heading into the 2014 season played professionally in the league. Vince Lombardi, in fact, who is widely considered to be the greatest head coach of all time, never played in the NFL and neither did Bill Walsh or Paul Brown and some others. Now it's even more pronounced in golf. I was doing a little bit of research on golf and specifically swing coaches, and the overwhelming majority of swing coaches were not professionals on the tour. In fact, here's what golf professional Phil Mickelson had to say about his own swing coach a few years ago. And I'll quote here, what has been important to me working with my coaches, whether it's Butch or Dave, is that they give me all the information and advice from their years of experience and then help blend it into my approach and the way that I've been doing things. And that's what makes it work because it's collaborative. So, you know, my point here is this. Everyone's going to have a different way they learn. Everyone's going to have a different personality, everyone's going to have a different set of challenges. But to not seek the advice of someone who's not in your specific situation today or who wasn't in that very specific situation a few years ago, I think it's a little. It's a little shortsighted, in my opinion. I think you can learn from a lot of different people, even if they haven't had a specific experience themselves, because, number one, they probably worked with someone who had that situation or they've probably heard of something similar and they know how they tackled it themselves or how they worked with someone else to overcome that challenge, or. Or number three, and this is so important, they're not as emotionally involved in the challenge as you might be, and therefore they can see things you can't see because you're too close to the problem. Have you ever noticed how easy it is to give someone advice on their relationship? You know, maybe you have a friend who's having problems with their spouse or their significant other, boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever, and they come to you for advice, and, you know, to you the answer is very obvious in many cases. I mean, it's, this problem has a very clear solution, but this person can't see it. Why? Because they're emotionally involved in the situation, just like we all are. I mean, it's a human thing, right? So keep in mind there's different levels of perspective and value here that a teacher, trainer or a coach can give you. It's not just in the very kind of left brain activity of this. I was in your situation, or I am in your situation right now, and here's how I solve it. Specifically, steps A, B and C. Now, going back to Mickelson's quote, let me read the last part of it. He said, they give me all the information and advice from the years of experience and then help me blend it into my approach in the way I've been doing things. And that's what makes it work, because it's collaborative. So note that Mickelson values their having worked with many other players in many different situations. And he also understands that his swing coaches are not there to tell him what to do. Instead, he blends the advice that he gets from them and their insights into his own approach and the way he's been doing things. And that's an important point because, you know, even if the only way you and I are working together is by you listening to some of my podcasts, not even all of them, but just the occasional podcast. Does that mean you have to follow the advice to the T? Does that mean you know you have to do things in a certain order, that you have to implement everything I give you? No. You know, the magic of this is you can implement what is most relevant to you in a certain situation and in a way that works with the way you do things, in the way that works within your business, in your industry. You have to be the one to determine that. Obviously, if we work together a little bit closer in a training program, a group coaching program, or even one on one, then the level of collaboration would go up. In fact, collaboration is a key tenet of the way of my programs and the way I work with folks when we're working in a small group setting or one on one because it is that important. I'm not there to teach and preach. I'm there to, yes, to teach, but also to guide and to lead. So let's go back to the original question. Am I a credible teacher, trainer and coach? Even though only 10% of my time and my resources are spent working for my own freelance clients? And that's about right. I suspect it'll be about the same in 2015. It might even go a little bit less. I might even spend less time working for my freelance clients, of which I have two who kind of come and go. They're, they're smaller or they're worker sporadic. But I'm not working for them all the time. And I hope the answer is yes. I hope that you, you now understand why I believe that I am a credible teacher, trainer and coach. Of course you can form your own opinion. I really don't believe you have to be a full time freelancer to help others and to help others in a significant way. And again, I think someone like me, I can bring a unique perspective to the table and a unique set of insights by working with so many different people. The fact that I work with so many freelancers exposes me to a lot of ideas, a lot of situations, a lot of unique challenges that I wouldn't have had on my own if I just stayed kind of in my own practice and doing my own thing for my own freelance clients and did the occasional coaching or training. Now again, I'm not for everyone, nor do I want to be for everyone. But if what I've shared here resonates with you, I hope you'll continue to invite me into your inbox, into your smartphone or your mp3 player. It really would be an honor. So how can I help you improve Again, I want to make some changes this year, but here are some ideas. You can listen to my podcast and I hope you're subscribed to both of my shows if you're not aware of them. I have two shows. I have the High Income Business Writing Podcast which is the show you're listening to today, and I have Smarter Freelancing which you can check out as smarterfreelancing.com I occasionally put out free or very low cost resources which I invite you to to check out if they're right for you. I put out classes and training programs throughout the year as well as group coaching programs and the occasional one on one experience or at least in a very small group setting. And I'm going to be doing less one on one. Actually almost no one on one in only a handful of small groups here in 2015. So there's many ways we can engage in many ways that I hope I can help you, but I hope that I've given you some things to think about as you're considering my advice. Listening to other individuals who have ideas to share and could help you, but you felt maybe a little weird about the fact that they weren't doing the freelance thing full time. So that's it for this episode. And again, I wanted to remind you that you can grab details show notes@b2b launcher.com for forward slash episode 67 and again, happy New Year. I hope you as excited about 2015 as I am and that you've taken some time to reflect on all the good things and experiences that came your way in 2014, all the things you learn, what you want to accomplish and experience in the coming year, all that good stuff. If you haven't taken the time to do that and I'll tell you, I'm not done yet, you know, decided to I had some, some work I had to wrap up here during the holidays and I wanted to spend the rest of my time with my family. But if so, I'm planning on actually continuing that here in early January. And if you haven't done that, take the time to do that kind of reflection. It really is extremely helpful. You don't have to set goals, you don't have to create resolutions, but creating some space to reflect on the good, the bad and the ugly. Very, very important. And I don't think we do enough of it. I know I don't do enough of that. Not, not as much as I should or I want to. So folks, 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.

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