This is a YouTube video titled '#229: What a 17th Century Dutch Painter Can Teach Us About Outsourcing' featuring Ed Gandia as the host of the High Income Business Writing Podcast. The episode, recorded in July 2024, is a shorter, insightful talk where Ed shares tips on scaling a writing business by outsourcing work to other writers, illustrated with a historical example of the 17th century artist Sir Peter Lely's systemized approach to painting.
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. Welcome to 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 earn more and less time doing work they love or better Client this episode is a little different and much shorter than usual rather than my typical 45 minute format. Today I'm sharing a quick tip with you and this is part of the regular audio insights that I publish for my private coaching clients. I just thought you'd find it helpful.
So here we go.
I hope you enjoy it.
The biggest objection I hear from writers about hiring other writers as subcontractors to do some other writing for them is that no one can really write these pieces the way they do. I know I certainly made that argument for years, especially after trying out a few writers myself. But the thing is, that's not necessarily true. This situation is not a binary yes or no situation. In other words, it is a good thing. It is possible or it's not possible. And while there are many elements to making this kind of arrangement work, the first step in scaling your business with other writers is understanding that it's entirely possible and you have to think about it differently if you do attempt it. There's a great story about this in the excellent book by Mike Michalowicz, Clockwork and In Clockwork, Michalowitz tells the story of the 17th century German artist Sir Peter Lely. Lely painted Baroque style portraits and when he moved to London, he quickly became the most sought after portrait artist in Europe and the official painter for the royal Family. What I find impressive about Lely is not really his talent. He was good, but certainly not the best. But you know what he was. He was a brilliant systemizer. As he got more popular and he just couldn't keep up with the demand for his work, he started building what ended up becoming a massive portrait painting operation for lack of a better term. And he did that by hiring other painters to do the things that he was only good at. So he wasn't great at, he was only good at. And that way he could spend all his time doing the thing he was amazing at, which was painting faces. So see, that's the thing. Layley realized early on that his true gift was painting the subject's face. Everything else was important, but those were elements he knew other painters could do just as well as he did. So that's all he focused on. He painted portrait after portrait, the face alone, and created a system that enabled him to kick that canvas down the line, if you will, to other painters who could then take care of the hair, the attire, the background, and so forth. He focused on his true genius and then systemized the rest in a way that others could do it. Now, look, I'm not suggesting this is a model you should adopt. Scaling with other writers is not for everyone. And even if it is for you, I'm telling you, finding onboarding, training, retaining the right types of riders, the right writer, that takes time. It takes energy. It takes work. But all this starts by recognizing.
