#354: Breaking Free from the Feast-or-Famine Trap: What You Need to Change Starting Today

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 well over 1.3 million downloads from listeners just like you across 101 countries. You know, I don't need to tell you that prospecting for clients has quickly become a critical issue in the freelance world. There's a lot of reasons for this. AI is creating a ton of noise. The challenging economy is causing many businesses to put projects on hold or just scrap them all together. I really feel that that is the biggest reason. I don't think we have seen the real impact of AI yet, and the impact may be very different from what we currently think it will be. But, you know, the last few years have been really, really good, especially kind of in the marketing front for freelance writers, copywriters, solo marketers. And those who have relied on a steady stream of work over the past three plus years are now finding themselves having to hunt for clients and for projects in many cases. They haven't had to do this ever before. I'm talking to people who've been at this for over 20 years and they said, look, I've never had to do this, and now I don't even know what to do. I don't know how to knock on doors, I don't know how to prospect for clients. They've all come to me in the past, but business is really dried up for me and I need to figure this out. So many people don't know what to do. They know they need to do more and do it more consistently. But the questions I'm hearing are, where do I even start? What do I do? What's the best investment of my limited time? And the overwhelm because of all the options and all the questions leads to haphazard, unfocused efforts. Or worse yet, it leads to analysis paralysis, which essentially means doing little to nothing. And that's what we're going to talk about today. Breaking this dangerous feast or famine cycle once and for all. Not temporarily, not until things turn around. But taking this opportunity right now, this difficult market to make, inconsistent outreach, inconsistent prospecting, inconsistent marketing, a thing of the past. Sometimes it takes market corrections like this one for people to wake up and realize, you know what, I need to make some changes. I need to get better at this, I need to turn this into a realistic habit that I do almost on autopilot, like I might do my exercise routine or how I walk every morning. And in order to actually solve this problem for good, I find that you need to tackle it from two different angles. And that's what we're going to get into. And I'm going to dive pretty deep into each one of them. But let's start with number one, which is recognizing that marketing is one of your top roles as a solo business owner, now and always. Let me repeat that. Marketing is one of your top roles as a solo business owner always. So you have to understand that one of your top jobs as a self employed professional is marketing, Period. There is no getting around this. There's no use in arguing about it. I didn't make the rules. I wasn't here when they were voting on this. This is the way it is. One of the many blessings of being a solopreneur is that you get to run the show, you get to make the decisions, you get to chart your own course, set your own goals, decide what you're going to do, when you're going to do it, how you run your schedule, whom you take on, what you take on all those things. I know for me, the way I'm wired, I needed that. I was willing to forego a much greater income and serious career advancement. I was on a track to do really, really well. But I realized that, you know, I would be working on somebody else's goals and doing things the way somebody else forces me to do them, and I would have very little creative freedom and flexibility. And that just scared me. I knew that I would not do well under those conditions. So you have all these advantages and all these great benefits of just doing stuff that you want to do, making your own decisions. But the flip side of that is that you are responsible for every business function as a solo professional. Now, sure, you may get some help as you grow. You may start working with a virtual assistant, you may bring in a project manager, you may bring in a writer or two that you outsource some of your work to very common business model. And there's a time and a place for that. It's not right for everybody, but it is a proven business model. However, you, no matter if you're getting help with some of your marketing, you are still responsible for that business function. Okay? As the CEO, ultimately you are responsible. So it will still always fall on you even when you're getting help in that area. This is hard for Many freelancers to accept and to internalize. Most of us have come from a world where the work came into our in basket kind of on the left side of our desk. And metaphorically speaking, right, you process that work and you put the process work on the right side of your desk in the outbasket, right? Some of you who worked in an office and in an office environment back in the day, and there was such a thing as a physical in basket, out basket, you know what I'm talking about. And you know, we're talking about the proverbial in and out baskets, of course, but it's also a mindset, and we get very used to this. We get used to, hey, this is my role, this is my job. You give me the work, you train me, then I do it, I get it done, I process it, and then I put it on the in the outbasket and I go home and I'm done and it starts all over again tomorrow. Well, that's not how it works. When you are a soloist, you are responsible for marketing. You are responsible for sales, for production, human resources, operations, finances. I mean, we're talking about every single business function. Even again, when you're outsourcing some of this, you are still responsible. And if that's not something you want to do, I hate to say it, but freelancing may not be for you, at least not if you want a real sustainable business. Now, if you're okay having a hobby, turning it into a hobby, being something, you don't mind if the income is highly variable or if it just is very thin or zero for a while, or just maybe earning a little bit of spare cash, you know, because that's all you want, that there's nothing wrong with that. Okay, I'm not knocking that, but that's a different story. That is a totally different model. But if you want a business, if you want to turn this into a business, when I say that as nothing to do, whether it's full time, part time, halftime, it's a mindset. If you want a business out of this and not a hobby or a way to earn a little bit of extra cash, then you have to get serious about each of your business functions. So that's the first imperative. Recognizing that marketing is a critical role in your business and not just that you are responsible for this role, period. This stuff is not going to market itself. The world's not going to beat a path to your door. Just because you hang your shingle or you have a reputation doesn't mean that business is going to come your way, you need to campaign your services, you need to promote yourself. And unfortunately that just never ends. Fortunately. But you could also look at it as a fortunate thing and hopefully by the end of this episode you'll see that. You know what, there is a silver lining here. And this will be good for you. Now let's take it one step further. If marketing is a critical role, in order to execute that role effectively, marketing and prospecting can't be a sometimes thing. It can't be something you only do when you need work or when you just when you feel like doing. Must be a constant thing, an every week thing. And yes, even when you're book solid with work thing, it just never ends. Now we'll talk more about that later because there are ways to still adjust this. And the idea is you can dial this up or down, but you never want to just flat out stop. So how do you do it consistently and how do you know when enough is enough or how much you should do? What amount of effort? Well, I recommend you follow the 10% rule. The 10% rule is about committing 10% of your committed weekly work time to marketing. Think of it as a tithe. In Christian traditions, there is this idea of a tithe that you know, you give 10% to God. And this is not a religious conversation. I just love the simplicity of it. It's, it's a tithe. You want to run a business that provides for you and your family and you want it to be a reliable source of income. You want it to be a going concern. You want it to be a sustainable business that you can keep running for a long time. Then you have to pay a price. You have to tithe to the business. And a beautiful way of tithing to the business is to commit 10% of whatever time you dedicate to your business. 10% of that time should go to marketing. So if you, let's say dedicate 40 hours a week to your business, then four hours of that should be dedicated to some sort of marketing. Now not all of it has to be focused, dedicated marketing like prospecting or doing LinkedIn work. It could be going to a very specific networking event. It could be pitching yourself to be a panelist at an industry conference. It could be a bunch of different things. It could be writing some content for your newsletter that you send out to prospects and clients, but it's still 10%. And the reason I love 10% is again, this idea of the tie that just feels right. The other reason is that it's a percentage and percentages adjust. So if you really only dedicate about 15 hours a week to your business, then that's an hour or two a week. You know, it's not a fixed number. It just adjusts based on your time commitment to the business. So it's flexible, it's appropriate. I don't think I have found that it is about right now. We'll talk a little bit more about this. What happens when you really, really need work? Then you gotta dial it up. Okay, but 10% is kind of your baseline. And then the final reason I love it is that it's a rule. And I have found that behaviorally humans need rules. Now it could be a self imposed rule, it doesn't really matter. So I'm not talking about the rules of, you know, somebody is telling you to do this, an outsider is telling you to do this. Ed Gandia is telling you to do this. No, no, no. It's a rule that you have decided and committed to, that you've decided to implement and you've committed to. I find that if we don't have rules, anything goes. So rules can be very healthy. Protocols can be very healthy. And I think the 10% rule is, is one that I think many of us can live with. So that's the first recommendation to follow the 10% rule. The second recommendation is to turn it into a habit rather than something you do only sometimes when you need to, when you need the work. And I'm talking about marketing in right now. I'm specifically talking about prospecting and outreach. So when I look back at my 16 years of teaching and coaching freelancers on business building strategies, one of the most common patterns I've noticed is that those who always have work are consistent with their marketing now doesn't mean that they just do cold prospecting. In fact, usually they do a mix of things. Sometimes they're just really good about staying in touch with their network, cultivating relationships in nurturing long term relationships, staying in touch with clients, dormant clients and prospects, staying top of mind in other ways through LinkedIn and in front of their audience and conferences, just adding value, offering ideas that they're just really good about. The marketing piece, about the staying in touch, about offering things, about knocking on doors. It's usually a holistic strategy that they, they have at play. The great thing about turning this into a habit and the great thing about any habit period is that you don't have to think about it once it's a habit. You just do it. You, you just feel compelled to do it. There's just, in fact, when you don't do it, you feel bad. So think about all the things you do in your personal or professional life on a regular basis, almost without fail. Think about those habits. Brushing your teeth, watching tv, getting on social media, working out, daily walks, whatever, all these. And I'm not saying any of these are good or bad. I'm just saying these are habits for a lot of people. And they're habits because we just do them, you know, we just do them automatically. Right. So what if marketing and prospecting was that consistent for you? Well, I'll tell you what would happen. You'd almost always have a healthy pipeline of opportunities. Now, are there exceptions? Yes, of course. You know, and look, the past year has been a great example of this. I have talked to people who have been very, very consistent. And the problem is not the marketing and the outreach consistency. The problem has been turning the leads they do generate into paid work. You know, so converting great leads into clients, that is an anomaly that we're experiencing right now. So many people are putting things on hold that you could be doing a good job with your marketing and your outreach, but you're having a really hard time converting some of those into clients. Now, that's not a good reason to dial down your prospecting. Right. I would say continue to fill up your pipeline, continue to do the right things, because a pipeline that is bursting at the seams is much better than a very thin pipeline, especially today, because just the law of averages, right? The more you have in your pipeline, the higher the chances that some of those are going to eventually spill over. The dam is going to break at some point. So, yeah, when I look around, I talk to people, the core issue is that the pipeline of potential projects is dry because they haven't been feeding it, and now they're desperate, which works against them. So that is the most common scenario, not the former, where they've been doing a great job and they just can't convert. You know, all these people and these projects in their pipeline, it's that they haven't been feeding their pipeline. And because they're now working with a dry pipeline, they're desperate. And people can sense the desperation, people can sense the fear, and that just repels prospects, everything else being equal. So that leads me to the next point about how to tackle this problem. So just to kind of backtrack that, the first way, the first angle that I dove into, was the fact that you have to make marketing one of your critical roles as a business owner. And you have to take responsibility for that role, period. Even if you're getting help with that. Because hope is not a strategy. Hope is a beautiful thing, but hope is not a strategy. So the second angle that you need to approach this problem from is that you need to make prospecting your full time job. Now let me explain because I don't want to freak anybody out. I'm saying that when you're in a situation where your pipeline is dry or mostly dry and you need to turn that ship around quickly, prospecting needs to be your full time job, period. So far we've talked about how to take care of that problem long term, right? Establishing the habit, all that good stuff. But now let's shift to a short term focus because let's say right now you got very little work and you got bills to pay. You have to make things happen fast, right? So what do you do? Well, first I need to make something very clear. This is not a great situation to be in, okay? I'm not blaming you. I'm not trying to make you feel guilty. I'm just saying let's just face it, right? It's not pleasant, it can be painful, it will try you. And you know what though? It should motivate you to make sure that you minimize the chances of it happening again. And I hope that it provides that motivation for you. Like I talked about a little earlier, that's, you know what, I'm going to fix this. I'm going to fix it for the short run, but I'm not going back. So I'm going to make sure that from now on I have a habit in place that will drastically minimize the probability of me ending up in the situation again. But look, right now you're in it, you have to deal with it and you have to deal with it head on. So here's what you need to do to do that, number one, you need a strategy that puts your highest probability efforts first and then works down from there to lower and lower probability efforts. That's the first thing. Start with lowest hanging fruit. Number two, you need a ton of reps or at bats. So you need a lot of numbers. You need to just get on that plate and just start swinging. And number three, you need an unwavering commitment to make this happen. All three are so important. So let's talk about them. Starting with your strategy to, to prioritize your efforts. Starting with low hanging fruit. I call it the priority pyramid. So when you're under this kind of pressure, the priority pyramid can really give you clarity and Guidance. Sometimes that's really the thing that we need the most is we're freaking out and we start throwing a bunch of spaghetti at the wall. It's not strategic. And because it's not strategic, it's not effective. And it just continues to put us in this endless negative spiral. The priority pyramid helps you focus on the highest probability opportunities first, followed by the next level of priority, and so on. So the idea is to get wins as quickly as possible, not only to give you financial Runway, but also to give you the motivation to keep going. So let me explain and you can actually draw this out if you wanted to. Just. It's a nice visual. The top of the pyramid, the top layer represents both current clients and open opportunities with both new prospects or current clients, or in other words, open open quotes and proposals. So that's where you want to start again, with current clients and open quotes and proposals. So with current clients, there are several things you could do. One of them is to offer new ideas. Hey, have you ever thought about turning, you know, these three white papers that we wrote last year into webinars? Right. Just as an example. You could also dig deeper into their needs and challenges in an existing conversation, maybe probe a little bit and see if there's potential for you to create a project to add value, to offer value to the client. Or you could try and get referrals to other individuals in the organization you may be able to help. You know, many times, look, our clients are busy people. It's not that they don't want to refer us. It's that if we don't ask, they don't often think about it. Okay, so lots of possibilities with existing clients to dig. To dig for new opportunities with open quotes on proposals. I mean, it's kind of a no brainer, right? But I'm constantly surprised how many people forget, like, oh man, I do have quite a bit of outstanding stuff. Sometimes they're embarrassed. Oh my gosh. I put this out there like two months ago. And at first I was too scared to follow up after, you know, checking on it once or twice. And I just kind of let it go. I just assumed that they didn't want to move forward. But look, I don't care if it's been two, three, four months. Follow up, follow up on all open quotes and proposals where you did not get a flat out no. So the priority pyramid just provides you with a trigger. Hey, okay, cool. I need to dig for opportunities with existing clients and I need to follow up on everything that's outstanding. If I haven't done so already, and if I have, it's an opportunity to see what may need another round of follow up. You know, I. Most of us, we don't follow up enough. Most of us under follow up, that's a term that's been my experience. The money is in the follow up. It really is. So if you visualize this top section of the pyramid, you'll notice that this is also the smallest area or the smallest layer of the pyramid. So when you add up your current clients, open quotes and proposals from the past few months, you'll notice that there's probably not a lot of them, but that's okay, you don't need a lot of them. But this is where you must start because this is the highest probability category. All right, so let's move on down. The next section or layer of the pyramid is that of past and dormant clients. So the idea here is to go back to clients from the past and to clients that just kind of come and go to see if or how you may be able to help them again. So just like with current clients, you want to bring new ideas to the table. So probe to see if there are any challenges that they're not addressing. Or maybe you could try and get referrals to other individuals in the organization you may be able to help, just like with existing clients. So this is an important layer of the pyramid that most freelancers tend to overlook. But in my experience, anecdotally 10 to 20% of the time, this kind of follow up leads to work with this layer of the pyramid. So these are folks who already know, like, and trust you. And landing something new is not as challenging as it is with a new prospect. So I would urge you to reach out to these people, even if you say, oh, yeah, but I've already checked in with them a few months ago, you know, check, check again. Are moving down the priority pyramid. The next layer down is comprised of what I call dead leads. So dead leads are prospects that engage you in some way in the past, but the project or opportunity didn't convert to a client or to a project. Maybe they put it on pause indefinitely or they went with someone else, or they became unresponsive, they ghosted you. Whatever the reason, why you hit the dead end. This is an important category to tap because it's also one that tends to result in WINS up to 10% of the time, in my experience. Okay, so don't ignore these people. I know it can feel a little awkward. A lot of people try to avoid this category, you lose nothing. You lose nothing by following up with them. Finally, there's the bottom of the pyramid, and that's the cold prospects layer. Now, this may be the bottom layer, but as you can see, it's also the biggest area of the pyramid, right? So this has got the biggest volume. It's also an important one. It's where many freelancers start their marketing efforts when they're in a pickle, okay? And which, you know, I get it. But as you can now see, hopefully there are other layers above it of potential opportunities that you must follow up with first before you start with cold prospects. Because when you focus your efforts on the highest probability opportunities at the top of the priority pyramid, the top two thirds, you set yourself up for quick wins that build momentum and financial stability. So I want you to get quick wins. I want you to get wins sooner than later. Because it's so much easier to go after cold prospects when you have more Runway, when your confidence level is a little bit higher, right. As opposed to when you're desperate. So this strategic approach of just kind of going down the specifically pecking order, if you will, not only maximizes your chances of success, but it also ensures that every action you take is meaningful and it's impactful. So I just want to remind you, look, it's not about doing everything. It's about doing the right things first. So let's talk about the second point, which is the number of reps or at bats that you get. And we're going to take a quick trip to Las Vegas for that. So bear with me. I want you to imagine that your best friend works at the Bellagio hotel in Vegas, and he urges you to pay him a visit as soon as you can, because he just discovered that one of the slot machines in the casino will actually work without you having to put money into it. So again, please, please bear with me. Let's use your imagination for a few minutes. It's a thought exercise, right? And for the purposes of this thought exercise, let's just say that you have to tap on the slot machine a few times on one side, and it's just gonna stop taking your money. So it takes it. But if you tap it in a certain way, you don't need to do anything. You don't have to put money in it, but the reels will spin every time you turn the crank or hit that spin button. So you're excited by the possibility of hitting a jackpot, and you make the trip to Vegas the next day. And your friend sends you specific instructions about where to find the machine, what to do, and you quickly get to work. Now, again, every spin is free because you've tapped it on the side and now it's not taking your money. So you have nothing to lose, Right. You just keep hitting the spin button. And even though you don't know how often you'll get a prize, it doesn't really matter, right? Right. You're not spending money. The only thing it's costing you is what, your time. And then tapping the button, the spin button. Now, let me ask you, how many times would you play? How many times would you hit the spin or the play button? I'm guessing that even if you won something, only one out of every 100 spins, and it's probably going to be a higher frequency of, of wins. But let's say one out of 101% of spins, you win something you'd probably play all day long. You might be there late into the night, you'll camp out there. Especially if you had one or two big wins, which is very likely considering the number of plays that you rack up every hour. That sounds pretty exciting, right? I think so. So why is email prospecting or cold prospecting so different? Why do we put it off? Why do we get so discouraged after reaching out to 10 or 15 prospects? Why do we give up so quickly and so easily? I tell people all the time, come to me, oh, this just doesn't work. I've been prospecting like crazy and I've got nothing. And then I say, okay, well, man, sorry to hear that. So how many emails have you sent out? I've sent out at least 20. That's just not enough. That's not enough reps, that's not enough at bats. You know deep down inside that if you made more attempts, you'll eventually hit a jackpot, right? So why do we give up so quickly and so easily? And just like with our slot machine example, the cost is just your time. The problem, I think, is that there's an additional cost, isn't there? It's the cost of rejection. And in this example, when it comes to email outreach, Lois, warm email prospecting, whatever you want to call it, the cost of not getting responses, the cost of your inner critic after a while telling you that, you know what? You're no good. You're a fraud. Nobody wants to work with you. This effort is useless. This is embarrassing. It's beneath you. You're an overpriced fraud. Talk quickly spirals out of control. I should know. I'm very familiar with my inner critic and the way he will talk to me. Before you know it, you conjure up images of going broke, having to shut down your business, being forced to look for a full time job. I don't know about you, but I've written some screenplays in my head that could easily win a Golden Globe if given a chance. But let's get back to reality. Your inner critic doesn't have to rule your life. He or she is never going to go away. But you can loosen its grip over you. And one way to do that is to just do the work. You know, put your head down, do the work, focus on the effort, do the reps every day, rain or shine, even when you don't feel like it. And you know what? Pat yourself on the back when you do and keep at it every day, every week, or whatever schedule you've committed to. When your inner critic sees that you're not easily swayed, it's going to get tired. It won't give up forever, but it will give you the space you need to complete all your reps. That's the game. That's the work right there. Pushing through despite all the noise. You know, you just got to remember it's just another slot machine and it's ready to give you a big pound if you just keep trying. Now let me put it to you another way, okay? Just to kind of bring this back to reality. And outside of that thought experiment, let's just say that you have 40 hours a week to work with. You are dedicating about 40 hours a week to your business. And let's say that right now you're in a bad situation, your pipeline is almost dry. You only have a little bit of client work. And let's be generous, let's say that you have about 10 hours right now of, of work, A week of client work. So you got 10 hours and you work 40 hours, right. So you got a lot of extra time. Here's what I'm going to suggest. Take five hours for you. So five hours to, I don't know, go on a hike, go kayaking, have lunch with a couple of friends, sleep in a couple of days a week. Five hours is a good amount of time to just give yourself some space. It's a stressful time. You're freaking out. Give yourself some space. You're going to need it. Okay, so what are we up to? 10 hours of client work, five hours for you, that's 15 hours a week. Subtract that from 40 and if my math is right. You got 25 hours still left. That's 25 hours for prospecting and marketing. And you need to commit to spending every one of those 25 hours on prospecting and marketing. I know it sounds like common sense, but this is one thing that most people don't do. So they, first of all, they haven't given themselves the five hours for themselves, right? That free time, that's the pressure relief valve. You gotta give yourself some time. 10%. That's why I said five. I just rounded up to five instead of four. Five hours, have them, they're free, they're yours. Live your life, have fun, rest. But then the other 25, we're gonna work. We're gonna work, we're gonna start knocking on doors, we're gonna put ourselves out there and we're gonna change things. And I guarantee you that if you committed yourself to this ratio I just shared with you, things are going to happen, positive things are going to happen. And again, most people don't do is your full time job with the 25 hours prospecting and marketing need to be your full time job there. So that leads us to the next point, which is unwavering commitment. That's the third imperative. More specifically, I'm talking about adopting really an unwavering commitment to push through your tough situation. You're just gonna push through, you're gonna plow through it as hard as it is. You're gonna come out the other end and you're gonna be fine. You can't achieve any level of long term success as a solo professional without experiencing a few significant challenges and setbacks. Okay? It's just the way it is. And look, if it were easier, everyone would do it. It's times like these that try everybody and a lot of people fall off during difficult times, during difficult economies. A lot of people aren't going to make it. And it is what it is. If you're listening to the show, I bet you're not going to be one of them. You know, the people who don't invest in their businesses to read, to learn, to practice, commit and do the work, the people who do those things usually are fine. It's going to be trying, but usually they're fine. It's during these trying times that our character, our will and our determination are truly tested. No doubt about that. I love history. I don't read as much history as I would like, but I find that the, I don't know, what is it? The older you get, it's like the more interesting history is. And not long ago, I was reading a little bit about just this theme of unwavering commitment throughout history and how it's impacted and changed history. So it's well known. I'll give you a couple of examples. It's well known that one of the major factors in the victory of the American colonies against the far larger and greatly superior British army and Navy was the fact that the British soldiers were fighting to retain the colonies. Or to put it another way, these soldiers were basically sent across the Atlantic to risk their lives for land they didn't personally own. And in a war for which the outcome was immaterial to them, I mean, like, if they win, okay, great. If they lost, okay, well, doesn't affect me. Let's think about the Americans. The Americans were fighting for their freedom and for their lives and the lives of their children and all their future generations. Now, in light of what I just said, of these historic challenges, which force do you believe was a more powerful motivator? The British soldiers? Duty to retain the land they had colonized or the American colonists fight for their freedom in future generations? Okay, I think you know the. The answer to that. So another example of something I came across recently was that the British Royal Air Force pilots in World War II fought with the existential determination of men who believe that Great Britain's survival was in their hands. Now, adding to their focus, adding to their determination, was their belief that they were fighting a much larger and mightier air force. It was only later in the war that they discovered that the truth, they had been wrong. Their perception was incorrect. Germany's Luftwaffe was far smaller than originally thought, and the German pilots were very complacent. They were very arrogant, and they believed that the Royal Air Force was severely weakened and desperate. So this is really interesting, right? You got the British Air Force thinking that they were fighting a very large German air force, and then the German Air Force pilots were complacent, they were arrogant. They believed that the Royal Air Force was in really bad shape. And that shows you how those beliefs changed the course of history, because somebody was really fighting for their existence, and the other thought that they could just kind of kick back and they would be fine. So this is why it's so important to be clear about your big why your reason for your business existing, the reason you wake up every day and do the work you do. Because it's during these challenging moments that you. Your resolve is going to be tested. And that's when you need to know what you're really fighting for. History Teaches those who succeed are driven by a deeply personal cause. Just like the American colonists were the pilots of the British Royal Air Force. And your big why is your greatest asset in facing challenges. So look, I think the point here is clear. Learn how to turn adversity into strength and know what you're fighting for. That's what shapes champions and that's what unwavering commitment is about. I'm gonna give you one last thing to think about. And I almost left this out of this episode because I don't want people to feel guilty. I know that you might already feel like, oh, I know, I know. I'm embarrassed. I'm kind of in a tight spot right now and I should have done all these things said, but I didn't. So I don't want to throw something else in your face, but I feel like I owe you that. And I'm not trying to sh anybody. I'm not trying to say, I told you so. Listen, everything that I'm sharing with you here, I can share with you. Not because I've done this perfectly, but because I've made all of these mistakes. And I wish I could tell you that I only made them once. Now I made everything I've shared with you all these mistakes. I've made them multiple times. I'm a slow learner. So this last point, and this is I think the topic of a future episode, because I think I need to, to do it justice, I need to spend a whole episode on this, is that you need to remember that you work in a variable business, variable income business, more specifically, okay, you don't have a guaranteed paycheck. Now, there are things you could do to drastically minimize your income variability, to increase income predictability. And these are things that I work with my clients on and these are very doable things. But there's still a variability to this. And nothing is for sure in life or in business. Okay? But because of the nature of our business and the variable income nature of it, you have to make it a priority to build financial buffers in your business. More specifically, you can't be running on, you know, you can't be running a hand to mouth business. You need to have cash reserves not just in your personal life, but also inside your business checking account or checking accounts. One of the best things I did several years ago was to start paying myself a fixed salary. And by salary, I'm not talking about the technical definition of a salary, I'm not going to get into that here. I'm talking about a fixed amount that I drew every month from my business before that. I'm embarrassed to say that I just, you know, took whatever I needed. And if I had a real variable income business, more specifically, okay, you don't have a guaranteed paycheck. Now, there are things you could do to drastically minimize your income variability, to increase income predictability. And these are things that I work with my clients on and these are very doable things. But there's still a variability. Really good month, or all these checks came in and I would take extra and I would go out and celebrate and buy something nice. And I had no discipline as a result. So it was basically anything goes. And I got myself into trouble. Yeah. Let's just say that things have been bad before for me. And when the 2008 financial crisis hit, that was a really, really difficult time for me financially, emotionally, I mean, just in everything. So my recommendation is, as you get out of a tight spot, I want you to commit to building cash reserves in your business and to committing to this. And nothing is for sure in life or in business. Okay. But because of the nature of our business and the variable income nature of it, you have to make it a priority to build financial buffers in your business. More specifically, a fixed monthly draw that's conservative and forces you to live personally with that amount. I find that when we give ourselves constraints like this, life finds a way, we find ways to make it work in our personal lives. And then what that enables you to do is as you start growing your business and those financial buffers grow, you can and should then start giving yourself gradual and conservative raises, but always a few steps behind of where you are from a cash standpoint. It is such a gift to be able to ride out a difficult period knowing that you have a little bit of extra cash on hand and that you can, you can't be running on, you know, you can't be running a hand to mouth business. You need to have cash reserves not just in your personal cushion the blow, not forever, but, you know, for a decent life, but also inside your business checking account or checking accounts. One of the best things I did several years ago was to start paying myself a full fixed salary amount of time. And I'll just tell you this, the past year for me in my business, in my coaching and training business, has been difficult. It really has. And it's been these cash reserves that have enabled me to keep things going and to sleep well at night. It's not always easy, but I can just tell you from experience that if you put those in place when times are good, you're going to thank yourself. Your future self will thank you for being responsible and financially responsible and being a good cfo chief financial officer. So I'll leave it there. Maybe there's enough interest I can do a future episode. And by salary, I'm not talking about the technical definition of a salary. I'm not going to get into that here. I'm talking about a fixed amount that I drew every month from my business. We can get into the specifics of how to do this and systems and protocols and rules before that. I'm embarrassed to say that I just, you know, took whatever I needed and if I had a really good month or all these checks came in and I would take extra and I would go out and rules. But yeah, I think that's a good place to stop. And you know, before I do, I wanted to offer you some help. So I am starting a new prospecting workshop next week actually and I've been doing these for about a year now, a little over a year. But this is the last time I'm doing a prospecting workshop in 2024. In fact, it's going to be a while before I run it again. My schedule is pretty packed. I'm not sure when in 2025 I'll do it. I'm sure I'll do well, I shouldn't say I'm sure. Pretty confident I'll do it at some point in 2025. But right now it's not in the plan. So if you've been thinking about doing this, if you've heard things through the grapevine about celebrate and buy something nice and I had no discipline as a result. So it was basically anything goes. And I got myself into trouble. Yeah, let's just say that things have been bad before for me and when the 2008 financial crisis hit, that was a really, really difficult time for me. This workshop, which has been very, very popular over the past year, then I urge you to take a good look at it because it's going to be a while before I do it again. So a little bit about it and I'm going to put a link to this in the show notes. But we're going to be working together, if you join me, over a 21 day period to help you implement effective prospecting techniques and habits that actually stick in that operative way, financially, emotionally, I mean, just in everything. So word there is habits. Techniques are important, but habits are even more important. My recommendation is as you get out of a tight spot, I want you to commit to building cash reserves. Now, let me be clear. This is not a course, it's not a class, it's an act in your business and to committing to show workshop. And it's online where you're actually going to go through a short lesson every weekday for three weeks that ends with a specific assignment and you'll actually do the work right there and you'll actually get to post your work daily. So yes, there's built in accountability, which I find is really, really important. We're going to roll up our sleeves. We're going to spend three weeks putting together a solid methodical plan, a fixed monthly draw that's conservative and forces you to live personally with that amount. I find that when we give ourselves constraints like this, life finds a way. We find ways to make it work in our personal lives. And then what that enables you to do is as you start growing for you, it will involve messaging work. It'll involve email and it's going to involve some LinkedIn work. And don't worry, there will be no phone cold calling involved, nothing like that. Okay. But I'm going to distill prospecting to the bare essentials. The few strategies that have the biggest impact for the least amount of time and effort. So essentially no more overwhelm. I want to put an end to the overwhelm. I want you to be really clear on what you need to do, when and how so you can get working, you can get going. You're going to get the detailed instruction, you're going to get the guidance and accountability. You need to start building a daily habit of prospecting that has the power to transform your business, not just now, but forever. And you're going to come away with everything. Your business and those financial buffers grow. You can and should then start giving yourself gradual and conservative raises, but always a few steps behind of where you are from a cash standpoint. It is such in place, all ready to go. Better yet, you're actually going to start a gift to be able to ride out a difficult period. No implementing the plan during the workshop. So I'm going to be there to provide clear instruction, personalized feedback. And you may actually end up with a solid leader too, before work is over. It happens very often when I run these cohorts. Now, I know you're busy, so I'm going to keep things short and simple. Your daily time investment in this workshop will be no more than 30 to 60 minutes. So every day, 30 to 60 minutes, that's what you need to commit to that includes going through my daily video lesson and then just doing your assignment for the day. There's going to be no new trainings on the weekend. So even though I say it's that you have a little bit of extra cash on hand and that you can 21 day program, it's just weekdays. On the weekends I'm going to share with you a three minute mindset focused audio. One on Saturday, one on Sunday every weekend. Cushion the blow. Not forever, but you know, for a decent amount of time. And I would just tell you this, the past year for me in my business, in my coaching and training business has been difficult. It really has and it's been. But you may also want to use some weekend time to catch up or review what you learned that week. And that's totally optional. And the cool thing is you can go through each lesson in your daily homework asynchronously, meaning at your own pace. So you know, if you're somewhere else outside North America, it doesn't matter. It's not like you have to be there for a class at a certain time. Okay, go through it when you can. I've had about a couple hundred students go through this workshop over the past year and the results have been pretty remarkable, but not always in the way you might imagine. In fact, I'm going to read to you a quick testimonial and you know, thank you for bearing with me and humoring me with this information. But I think if you're listening, this might be of interest. So I want to share this note that I received from Jack Price. So Jack was a student who went these cash reserves that have enabled me to keep things going into sleep well at night. It's not always easy, but I can just tell you from experience that if you put those in place when times are good, you're going to thank yourself. Your future self will thank you for being responsible and through this workshop this past spring. And what he said I think encapsulates what's different about this workshop. He said, and I quote, Ed Gandia's 21 day to building a powerful prospecting habit is based on a refreshingly honest approach to training. Many programs promise a highly desirable outcome, but truthfully, it's only a possible outcome in a highly idealized situation. I've been disappointed with that recipe many times and financially responsible and being a good cfo, Chief Financial Officer. Ed's workshop provides practical knowledge plus assign tasks to reinforce learning, build skills and establish a prospecting practice. So I'll leave it there. Maybe if there's enough interest. I can do a future episode. We can get into the specifics of how to do this and systems and protocols and rules. But yeah, I think that's a good place to stop. And you know, before I do, I want to thoroughly enjoy the workshop and in just 21 days created a prospecting protocol designed to bear fruit. I feel renewed and have high hopes for the future of my copywriting business. End quote. So essentially, look, I'm not promising you the world, but what I am promising you is that if you do the work, you're going to end up with a solid habit in protocols and strategies and techniques that work. I really feel that that's where we are right now. We're at a point where it's not about more information, it's about execution. Step two, offer you some help. So I am starting a new eddy consistent execution. And that's exactly what this workshop focus prospecting workshop next week actually. And I've been doing these for about a year now, a little over a year. But this is the last time I'm doing a prospecting workshop in 2024. In fact, it's going to be a while before I run it again. My schedule says on. So if you want to join us, just send me an email eddwauncher.com and I or someone in my team will respond to you with all the details. I don't have a sales page for it right now. You need to hurry if you're interested because we will probably fill up and once we get started, then we're going to go ahead and close things out so we can get going with everybody. So that's it about that. And that's it for today's episode. I hope you found these ideas in this reframing useful. Thanks for listening. 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, earn. Pretty packed. I'm not sure when in 2025 I'll do it. I'm sure I'll do well, I shouldn't say I'm sure. More and less time the proven mindset, strategies and actions to Pretty confident I'll do it at some point in 2025, but right now it's not in the plan. So if you've been thinking about doing this, if you've heard through the grapevine about this workshop, which has been very, very popular over the past year, then 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. Episodes. Enjoy and have a great day. I urge you to take a good look at it because it's going to be a while before I do it again. So a little bit about it and I'm going to put a link to this in the show notes. But we're going to be working together, if you join me, over a 21 day period to help you implement effective prospecting techniques and habits that actually stick. And that operative word there is habits. Techniques are important, but habits are even more important. Now let me be clear. This is not a course, it's not a class. It's an actual workshop and it's online where you're actually going to go through a short lesson every weekday for three weeks that ends with a specific assignment and you'll actually do the work right there and you'll actually get to post your work daily. So yes, there's built in accountability, which I find is really, really important. We're going to roll up our sleeves. We're going to spend three weeks putting together a solid methodical plan for you. It will involve messaging work, it will involve email, and it's going to involve some LinkedIn work. And don't worry, there will be no phone cold calling involved, nothing like that. Okay. But I'm going to distill prospecting to the bare essentials, the few strategies that have the biggest impact for the least amount of time and effort. So essentially, no more overwhelm. I want to put an end to the overwhelm. I want you to be really clear on what you need to do, when and how so you can get working. You can get going. You're going to get the detailed instruction, you're going to get the guidance and accountability. You need to start building a daily habit of prospecting that has the power to transform your business not just now, but forever. And you're going to come away with everything in place, all ready to go. Better yet, you're actually going to start implementing the plan during the workshop. So I'm going to be there to provide clear instruction, personalized feedback, and you may actually end up with a solid lead or two before work is over. It happens very often when I run these cohorts. Now, I know you're busy, so I'm going to keep things short and simple. Your daily time investment in this workshop will be no more than 30 to 60 minutes. So every day, 30 to 60 minutes, that's what you need to commit to. That includes going through my daily video lesson and then just doing your assignment for the day. There's going to be no new trainings on the weekends, so even though I say it's a 21 day program, it's just weekdays. On the weekends, I'm going to share with you a three minute mindset focused audio, one on Saturday and one on Sunday every weekend. But you may also want to use some weekend time to catch up or review what you learned that week. And that's totally optional. And the cool thing is you can go through each lesson in your daily homework asynchronously, meaning at your own pace. So you know, if you're somewhere else outside North America, it doesn't matter. It's not like you have to be there for a class at a certain time. Okay, go through it when you can. I've had a about a couple hundred students go through this workshop over the past year and the results have been pretty remarkable, but not always in the way you might imagine. In fact, I'm going to read to you a quick testimonial and you know, thank you for bearing with me and humoring me with this information. But I think if you're listening, this might be of interest. So I want to share this note that I received from Jack Price. So Jack was a student who went through this workshop this past spring and what he said I think encapsulates what's different about this workshop. He said, and I quote, Ed Gandia's 21 day to building a Powerful Prospecting habit is based on a refreshingly honest approach to training. Many programs promise a highly desirable outcome, but truthfully, it's only a possible outcome in a highly idealized situation. I've been disappointed with that recipe many times. Ed's workshop provides practical knowledge plus assigned tasks to reinforce learning, build skills, and establish a prospecting practice. I thoroughly enjoy the workshop and in just 21 days created a prospecting protocol designed to bear fruit. I feel renewed and have high hopes for the future of my copywriting business. End quote. So essentially, look, I'm not promising you the world, but what I am promising you is that if you do the work, you're going to end up with a solid habit in protocols and strategies and techniques that work. I really feel that that's where we are right now. We're at a point where it's not about more information, it's about execution. Steady, consistent execution. And that's exactly what this workshop focuses on. So if you want to join us, just send me an email. Eddb launcher.com and I or someone in my team will respond to you with all the details. I don't have a sales page for it right now. You need to hurry if you're interested because we will probably fill up and once we get started then we're going to go ahead and close things out so we can get going with everybody. So that's it about that. And that's it for today's episode. I hope you found these ideas in this reframing useful. Thanks for listening. 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 Earn 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 also find the detailed show notes to this and all my other episodes. Enjoy and have a great day.