Summary: The Art & Business of Ghostwriting by Nicolas Cole | Stop Freelance Copywriting!

Ghostwriting completely changed my life. It's how I quit my day job as an entry level copywriter. It's how I moved out of my dumpy studio apartment in Chicago. It's how I bought my first car, then my second car, then my third car. And it's how I became a millionaire before the age of 30. I made a whole video sharing my story about how I started with literally Nothing except a $15 desk from Goodwill and ended up building my ghostwriting agency to over $180,000 per month in revenue. So if you haven't watched that yet, check that out because it's a wild story. But after becoming one of the highest paid ghostwriters in the world, wrote a book sharing everything you need to get started called the Art and Business of Ghostwriting. What kind of ghostwriting? Everything. Articles, twitter threads, video sales letters, landing pages, educational email courses. You name it, I've done it. So if you're currently working as a freelance writer and you're stuck around 3,000 to $6,000 per month in revenue, I can tell you exactly why. Because I used to be where you are today. Or if you're not a freelance writer but just enjoy writing and have been looking for a lucrative side hustle, then look no further. Because in this video I'm going to walk you through the seven big ide I share in my book the Art and Business of Ghostwriting and explain not only why ghostwriting is the best vehicle to make money as a writer, but the frameworks that will have the biggest impact on your ability to make money. So let's start high level first, big idea number one. The fears holding you back from charging more money aren't real. And I know them well because I struggled with them for years. You're afraid if you ask for more money, the client's going to say no. Or you're afraid the client is going to get upset with you, or you're afraid you won't be able to deliver, or you're afraid that you aren't worth it. But it's important to internalize that all these beliefs are completely self inflicted. The way I've overcome this in myself is by recognizing that every single year I look back on my previous self and think, wow, I sucked. Back then I didn't know anything. I know so much more today. But then remembering that's exactly what I thought about the version of me before that and before that and before that. So as humans, we have a terrible habit of believing two faulty realities at the same time. That today I'M not ready. I'm not qualified. I can't. But also today, compared to me yesterday or last week or last year, I know so much more. I'm so much more qualified. And so you will always get better. You will always have more to learn and more room to grow. But that doesn't mean that you can't start today. Big idea number two. There are only five voices you need to ghostwrite for anyone on planet Earth. The storyteller, the opinionator, the Fact presenter, the frameworker, and the F bomber. And recognizing these voices isn't as difficult as you might think. In fact, you could probably recognize them, no problem. Right now, for example, which voice is this? I believe that clean energy is the future. According to the New York Times, In 2023, Americans bought more than 1 million fully electric cars, trucks and SUVs, with electric vehicles growing to 8.5% of new auto registrations nationwide. Which voices? That. That's the Fact presenter. Right, we're presenting a stat now. Let's keep this idea, but change the voice. Honestly, I think clean energy and electric vehicles are going to completely dominate the legacy automotive industry. Americans are buying more EVs than ever, and that number is only going to go up. Okay, which voice is that? That's the opinionator. Because they're just sharing an opinion, right? See how easy this is? So if you know how to write in these five voices, you can literally write anything for anyone. Big idea number three. You are not a freelancer. You are a one person business owner. And this is such a simple but powerful mental shift. Freelancers get treated like freelancers because they think of themselves as freelancers. But one person business owners get treated like business owners because they think of themselves as business owners. And there is a huge difference. When you're a freelance, your mindset is that you'll do anything for anyone at any time. At essentially any rate, you're flexible. But that's not what business owners do. When you're a business owner, you sell a specific type of product at a set price and you stand by it. For example, if you sell handmade teacups and a customer walks in asking you to sell red Solo cups for beer pong, you don't all of a sudden try to accommodate them. You say, that's not what I do, and then you move on. And yet, every single day, freelance writers end up in the position they do because they try to accommodate everyone. And that's the the mistake. Which is why I'm such a firm believer in niching down into ghostwriting and treating yourself like a one person business. Big idea number four. This is my favorite one. Ghostwriting is a dividend on your skills. The reason I encourage every writer to also become a ghostwriter is because it's the easiest way to capture value you're already creating elsewhere. So if you're regularly writing on Twitter slash X, there are so many people who would love to pay you to help them write regularly on Twitter slash X too. That's a dividend on your skills. Or if you you Enjoy writing on LinkedIn or scripting YouTube videos or making short videos on Instagram. These are all skills you can monetize by providing them as a service to someone else. So what's the fastest way to monetize as a writer? Take whatever skill you're already doing and practicing and using on a regular basis and then rent it to someone else. Big idea number five, don't provide every service possible. I have generated over $5 million in ghostwriting sales and the vast majority of them came from one service. Ghostwriting 800 word thought leadership article. So even though you can ghostwrite landing pages and emails and Twitter threads and YouTube scripts, my recommendation would be to pick one and get really really good at it. So good that you become the go to person for that specific type of asset. Because the more different services you offer as a ghostwriter, the less efficiency you have. Writing thought leadership articles is very different than writing Twitter threads, which is very different than scripting YouTube videos. And the mistake everyone makes, and I did it too, is thinking none of these are that hard. I can do them all. But even if you can do all these different services, you to recognize that you can't do them all efficiently. And as a one person business owner, scaling your earnings is a game of efficiency, right? Getting more done in less time for the same or more amount of money. Big idea number six. If you want to make more money, you have to charge per asset or per outcome. So there are five levels of pricing that separate low earning writers and really low earning solopreneurs or freelancers of any kind and high earning ones. And so if you aren't making the amount of money you want to make, then you need to climb more levels. You probably have a pricing problem. So level one is charging per word. This is worst case scenario. If you're charging per word right now, stop. Level two is charging per hour. This is where most people stay stuck. And they're stuck because their earnings are directly tied to time and effort. So they only make more money if they work harder and longer, which means you aren't incentivized to become more efficient or generate a higher quality output. Level 3 is charging per month. This is better because charging a monthly retainer allows you to lock in more guaranteed or ongoing work. But over time you start to realize it's actually not that different from charging per hour. You're just basically getting paid all your hours upfront. Level four, though, is where you want to get to charging per asset. So this is where you can finally divorce your earnings from time and effort. Meaning the client doesn't really care how many hours it takes you or how much effort you put into generating the final product. All they care about is the output. And then level five is where you charge per outcome. So this is the more advanced version of level four, where you aren't just being paid for the final product or asset, but you're actually being compensated for the performance of that final product in the form of a rev share, deal, royalty, or some other form of long term upside. It took me years to get to level 5, so don't worry about that yet. But anyone can jump straight to level four. And lastly, big idea number seven. He or she who frames the problem owns the solution. So without fail, every single freelancer I see online complaining about how they make no money or can't find clients willing to pay them a fair wage, they all make this mistake. They apply for jobs using platforms like Upwork or Fiverr, and then they wait and see if the client wants to work with them and what the client is willing to pay them. Wrong, wrong, wrong. When the client is the one dictating the agenda, you have no pricing power. You are an entry level employee, you are a lowly contractor. But when you go to the client and educate them on a problem that they didn't know they had, or a problem they know they have but haven't gotten around to fixing, you aren't a lowly contractor anymore. You are a peer. You're a fellow business owner. They're the founder or CEO of whatever company and you're the founder of your one person ghostwriting business. He or she who frames the problem owns the solution. You have to be the one to go to the client, you have to set the frame and you have to educate them on the problem instead of waiting for them to tell you what they want you to do. Obviously, if you want to go down the ghostwriting rabbit hole, I encourage you to grab a copy of the Art and Business of Ghostwriting. I've actually had a lot of people reach out to me saying they enjoyed this book even more than my first one, which the Art and Business of Online Writing. And if you've already read it, drop me a comment here with what you thought. Which big ideas were most helpful, and if you have any other questions.