Nicolas Cole says imposter syndrome stops people from charging for their work. His hack: do one free project to prove you can deliver and build confidence, then start charging. It's not about working free forever, just using it to get past the fear of pitching.
If your bottleneck is actually, "I lack confidence," which is a feeling, then I'll tell you exactly how to solve that. You should do a project where you get paid in confidence. You don't need to get paid in cash. If you are afraid of getting paid in cash, there's a very simple solution. Do a free project for someone where you get paid in confidence. You did it for free. Great. You proved that you could do it. You just got paid in confidence. Now, a lot of people misunderstand what I'm saying when I give that suggestion. They think what I'm saying is, "Cole, you're telling me to work for free and make no money forever." That's not what I said. I said, your bottleneck to charging money is that you first lack confidence, which means what would be more productive than staring at, "I have to pitch someone for money, but I'm afraid to." The more productive thing would be, "Well, why don't I just get out of my own way and do a free project and get paid in confidence?" Because then once I get paid in confidence, then I can move on and charge money. It's a very simple reframe.
What Every Writer Gets Wrong About Their Audience #writing #creator #writingtips
