This is a YouTube video titled "#347: On Impostor Syndrome and Feeling Guilty About Your Fees" published in July 2025. It features Ed Gandia hosting the High Income Business Writing Podcast, where he shares insights on overcoming imposter syndrome and understanding the value of one's freelance writing fees, emphasizing the years of experience behind the rates charged. The episode is a solo podcast format with Ed Gandia as the primary speaker, providing motivational and practical advice for freelance writers.
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.
When you started out on your own, it probably felt like magic when you got paid for those first few projects, right? You put in, say, 10 hours of work and the client paid you $750. For me, what made it magical was the $750 was all for me. I was keep in mind, coming from the world of corporate sales, where I was making software sales, that only a small percentage of that was going to land in my pocket. But this is all for me and I love the idea that a few units of effort would translate to a few units of compensation on the other end. Eventually we get used to this kind of reward ratio, don't we? And we rightfully start expecting more. We may get to a point where one hour of our time is often worth three or $400 or more as an internal rate that is not that we're charging by the hour. And for some solo professionals, this can start feeling a little odd once you start getting at these higher levels. We feel a bit guilty that we're earning this much on some or all of our client work. Imposter syndrome can often start kicking in and that inner critic starts taking over our internal chatter. It's at times like these that we must remember that we're not getting paid, let's say $300 for that hour of effort. We're getting paid for the five, six, seven or ten plus years it's taken us to get to a point where we can command the fees we do and know how to create the work efficiently enough to net us that kind of internal hourly rate. It's all the years of mistakes, setbacks, negative client feedback. Investing in yourself and your knowledge can continually putting yourself out there, way out of your comfort zone. All the books you've read, courses you've taken, you might even have even given up a cushy and high paying job to put yourself out there. And by the way, it includes all the years that you put in your career before you even went freelance. If you started out somewhere else. All those things create the personal and professional growth that you need. That leaves a scarred tissue. And that's what you're getting paid for for the years of effort it took to learn how to do it right, to be able to deliver that kind of value, to be able to put yourself out there. The same goes for any passive income stream that you might create. The passive part comes years later, after you've put in years of time, money, effort and emotional energy. Sleepless nights, even a crying session or two mixed in. Which is why the 10 seconds it takes to make a sale of a book, course or other piece of intellectual Property actually took 10 years of trial and error, falling flat on your face, and even some humiliation. The same goes for the money you earn when you work with a client on a strategy session, a roadmaping engagement, a content strategy engagement or workshop. It's taken you years to be able to offer the kind of advice and guidance that it takes to to deliver real value in that kind of setting. So be careful what kind of story you tell yourself when you start analyzing the numbers. Don't fall into the trap of thinking you don't deserve what you're earning. Be fair to yourself. Look back at what it's taking to get where you are today. That alone will put the numbers in context.
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, Learn 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 or you will also find the detailed show notes to this and all my other episodes. Enjoy and have a great day.
