#270: Give Yourself Permission to Go After Bigger, Better Clients

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 another episode of the High Income Business Writing Podcast. The number one podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to earn more and less time doing work they love for better clients. With over 1 million downloads from listeners just like you across 101 countries, this episode is much shorter than usual. Rather than my typical 45 minute format. Today I'm sharing a quick tip with you. This is part of the audio insights I publish for my private coaching clients every weekday and I thought you'd find it helpful.

So here we go. Hope you enjoy it. A coaching client recently asked me what she needed to do to start going after and landing well known clients. And she was referring to well known brands like Fortune 500 clients, big organizations that look impressive in your client roster and your samples portfolio. What I found most interesting in her question wasn't the intention. It was her assumptions about what this would take. So she specifically asked what kinds of skills training she would need to take and consume in order to qualify for going after these types of clients. Or to put it another way, what knowledge or skill set she would need in order to be worthy of even knocking on the doors of these bigger organizations. Now you need to understand this is somebody who's fairly established, she does very well, she's not new to this, so you know, this isn't a newbie. I'm going to summarize my advice to her. And it was basically this. Look, you don't need more skills training. You might, but there's a very, very good chance that that's not what's missing. What's really missing are two things. Number one, understanding that you have to give yourself permission to go after these clients. Not anyone else, not some certification board or some kind of group that dictates which prospects you're qualified to pursue. Nothing like that. And number two, you need a strategy that uses whatever confidence level you have today to stretch that a bit and then move in the direction you want to go. So let me explain these points. The first one is pretty self explanatory. You don't need outside permission. You can go after whomever you want, whenever you want. And you know what? There's a very good chance that you already qualified to go after the IBMs of the world. Boatloads of writers go after bigger clients than you do. Okay? So even though they're less experienced, in many cases less Skilled, less qualified to do so, they still go after them. And you know what? Some of them and some under qualified writers actually land these clients by doing that. Now, women have a particularly difficult time with this, and I know I'm generalizing, okay, but there's a good amount of evidence showing that women won't go after something unless they feel like they check all the boxes. Men, on the other hand, are much more likely to go after something big, even if they only check some of the boxes. I'm not going to get into the science or the theories as to why this happens. And please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying men are better than women. Quite the opposite. We have some serious, serious flaws and the ladies beat us in many different categories. This is just sharing the science with you. But you should know that that awareness that this is happening is the first step to making real change. So, ladies, there you go, okay? In general, you're much more susceptible to hesitation when it comes to something like this. Understand that this is normal and just move in that direction anyway. So let's get to my second point, which was about using whatever confidence level you have now and working with that to get to a better place. So here's the deal. Experience, ability, skill, confidence, these are all relative. Say you're on a staircase and you're on step 5 of 10, so you're halfway up. Each step of the staircase represents where you are in your business and your confidence level. Right now you'd love to land some clients in the 9 and 10 category, right? All the way at the top, but you're terrified you don't feel ready. Fine. Work with your level five confidence to go after some six and sevens. Those are a bit outside your comfort zone, but not so far up there that you're terrified to make your move. They're fairly close to where you are, so go after them. Once you land a few six and sevens, that's your new baseline. And you know what I'm talking about. You've been there. We've all been there. What used to feel out of reach is now the new normal. So now that you're there, it's time to go after the eights and nines again, outside your comfort zone, but not so far out there that it feels impossible. Because remember, you're at the six and sevens right now. So you'll soon after some attempts, land your first client in that category and then another one, and before you know it, this is your new comfort zone, your new normal. And there you are you're so close to the 10s now that you can't imagine why you wouldn't even go after them. One last point. Wherever you are on the staircase right now, there are people below looking up at you, admiring you, wondering how they'll ever get to that step. Being where you are might not be a big deal to you, but it's a big deal to someone else. And it was a big deal to you at some point. It's all relative, and the fact that you are where you are right now is proof that you're capable of so much more. Onward.

Well, that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed the episode. And just a quick reminder to grab your free copy of my latest book, Burn More in Less Time the Proven Mindset, Strategies and Actions to Prosper as a Freelance writer. You can get your free copy@b2b launcher.com where you will also find the detailed show notes to this and all my other episodes. Enjoy and have a great day.