These Skills Make You A Dangerously Profitable Writer

These are the non writing skills that.

Make you dangerously profitable as a writer. Free consulting, sales, account management, fulfillment, business models. So upsells, downsells, negotiating and category creation. So not just differentiating yourself, but understanding how to leverage that and differentiate other people, helping your clients differentiate themselves. And the big idea here, and what I want to jam on today is, is that most writers who are stuck.

Not earning the amount of money that.

They want to make are stuck there because they think the game is about getting better at writing. And obviously you have to be somewhat competent, right? You can't just not know how to write and then expect to get paid for it. But the game is not get better and better at writing only and then other people pay you more. That is not the game. The game is really get competent at writing and then learn all the other skills that make you more and more valuable. Because at the end of the day, the thing that is going to make.

You the most money as a writer.

Is not just the writing, it is.

All of the other skills that surround.

The writing that makes your readers or makes your clients, your customers. Makes them feel comfortable, makes them feel valued, makes them feel heard, makes them feel like you actually are invested in their success. Makes makes them feel like you would go to the ends of the earth.

To over deliver for them.

Makes them feel like you're constantly communicating.

With them, that they're never lost or in the dark.

Right?

So what I'd like to do is go through each one of these and explain why this is such a valuable tangential skill for you as a writer and some of the ways that you can leverage these skills to increase how much you earn.

So let's start with the first one.

Which is free consulting. If you do not understand how to help people for free, you will not be able to make more money and get them to pay you for helping them. It's so simple and yet everyone overcomplicates it.

You have to be able to help.

People for free in order to get those people to want to pay you. And the way I like thinking about this is whenever you get introduced to someone, whether it's a reader for your own writing or whether it's a client for ghostwriting, your entire goal is not to figure out how to make money from that person. Day one, your entire goal and your bottleneck to earning more is figuring out how you can help them. And I think one of the biggest mistakes that writers make is from the very, very beginning, they jump to, how is this going to make me money? And obviously that is the goal, right? That is the end goal of everything. A lot of what we talk about and a lot of what I like to talk about, the art and business of writing. But your bottleneck to getting there is not, can this make money? Because most things in life can make money. Your bottleneck to getting there is understanding whether or not you can actually help the person. Because if you can help them, they will pay you. They will throw money at you. I saw this a lot building my ghostwriting agency. The moment I could demonstrate to a founder or a business owner, I can help you, they were the one pitching me on why I should want to.

Work with them, right?

So the way I love framing this, and this is a huge piece of what we teach in pga, our premium ghostwriting academy is free consulting. Every person you talk to, readers or clients, you should always be asking the question, how can I help them? How can I help them for free? What is the easiest way that I can demonstrate I understand you? I understand what problems you're faced with, I understand what outcomes you care about. I understand what transformation you want to experience.

Right?

And the faster and more effectively you can communicate those things for free, the easier it is to open the door for a hey, and I would love to give you more of this, but paid, Right?

And so if you're an individual writer.

What that looks like something we talk about a lot is writing online for free and then going, I understand my reader. Hey, I wrote a book about it. Books, 20 bucks.

Or I created a mini course explaining how to do this.

Right?

It's 100 bucks or it's 200 bucks. But it all is based on you understanding how to help that person for free.

If you're working and providing a service.

And if you're a ghostwriter, you're doing.

The exact same thing, but with clients.

So when you get introduced to someone, what's the easiest and fastest way for you to demonstrate, I understand your business? When I was building my ghostwriting agency, one of the things that I would do is because my offer was I was trying to demonstrate that I could be their ghostwriter for thought leadership articles. That was how I built my entire agency, was just writing 800 word thought leadership articles. Well, one of the easiest ways for me to demonstrate that I could help them was before the sales call or.

During the sales call.

I wouldn't just say, hey, hire me. I can ghost write thought leadership articles.

I would come to the table with ideas. I would come to the table with working titles.

And the reason that I did that and I did a little bit of that, you know, upfront work, or quote, unquote, free consulting, was because I wanted.

To be able to say, hey, whether.

Or not we work together, I want you to walk away from this call feeling like you learned something, feeling like you have some sort of path forward. It'd be great if we work together, but that's not what I'm concerned with. I'm concerned and want to make sure that if we do work together, that I can truly help you. So here are the types of things that I would recommend that you do. And the more often that I did that and the more I demonstrated, here's how I can help you. The more people wanted to work with me as a ghostwriter. So skill number one, free consulting. Understanding what. What is the person struggling with and how can I demonstrate that I can.

Help them solve that problem?

Second skill, sales. There is no other way around it.

And I'm going to.

I'll tell you a story where this really clicked for me. After I graduated college, I graduated with a degree in fiction writing.

I got a job at an ad.

Agency, and I was working as an entry level copywriter. And after like six, eight months, I got promoted. Quote, unquote. I think my title changed, but I didn't. Maybe I got paid like an extra dollar an hour or something. And a lot of my responsibilities were the same. I essentially stayed an entry level copywriter for a long time at that agency. And I remember I eventually got about two years in, maybe two and a half years in, and I went to one of the managing directors, and I said, hey, I love it here. You know, I'm enjoying the work.

I'm learning a lot.

I like the people, but to be perfectly honest, I'd like to figure out how to make more money. I was living in a shoebox apartment. I had no air conditioning. My heater was from the 1960s. I lived an hour away from work.

I had to commute an hour both.

Ways to work each day, right? I was like, this is all great, but how do I make more? And the managing director sat me down and said, well, what do you want to do? And I said, I really want to write. That's the thing I care the most about. And he goes, okay, Cole, well, I want to be honest with you. In this role as a copywriter in this agency, there isn't really a path to you making that much more. And at first I got really frustrated, and I was like, why? I don't understand. I work so hard. It's all the things that you think.

I work so hard and I care.

About my job and I'm on time and I'm emotionally invested and I'm a great employee, right? And he explained to me I was 24, 25 years old, so he had to be patient because I wasn't getting it at first. And he explained to me, he goes, cold, that's great. But none of those things matter from a business perspective. We can't rationalize paying you more because the skill that you provide is just.

That one sliver, that one little skill. And if you want to make more, you have to acquire more valuable skills. You need to have a bigger impact on the business.

And so I said, okay, so what is that? How do I do that? What would be a higher value skill? And he goes, well, the easiest one.

Would be if you started bringing in clients of your own.

If you want to make more, help.

The business generate more. And I remember at the time, I was.

So I walked away from that conversation just demoralized because I didn't want to sell. I had this emotional block around feeling like sales was this weird, slimy thing. And if you sold someone on something, then that meant that you had, you know, you were a sellout as a writer, and it wasn't pure.

I had all these faulty beliefs.

And then a couple more weeks went by, and I realized, yeah, but also, you know, making no money and only being able to afford Chipotle once a week also sucks. So which bag of problems do I want to deal with? And it wasn't until I started to really allow myself to be open to the scenario of, you know what, maybe I could sell my own clients, and then I could bring them into the.

Agency and I could work with them.

And I could own the relationship. And I started to see all the.

Benefits of doing it.

And so for a couple months thereafter, I just dedicated myself to going out and finding clients.

And I.

And I probably had 50 conversations before I finally got a sale. And it was really, you know, it was hard. I didn't have anyone training me. We didn't have a sales department. We didn't have someone mentoring me. It was me watching, like, sales seminars on YouTube and then going out and.

Trying to tap my network, asking friends.

I went to college with, like, do.

You know anyone who owns a business?

I was. I didn't. I had no ins. I was just figuring it out as I went. And after probably 50 conversations, I finally got a client across the finish line. And I remember in that moment, I felt so unbelievably accomplished. Because I felt like I was now responsible for the relationship. And I had such a different emotional investment in the work and the project thereafter. One of the biggest things that clicked for me was it. It didn't feel like, oh, I'm just showing up to work and I'm just doing my job because I was the.

One who sold them.

I felt this responsibility to make sure that they were happy. And there's something about that emotional connection. I don't think that there's anything that teaches you more. And your growth will. Nothing will accelerate your growth more than.

Feeling that responsibility and selling a client.

On how you can help them. Nothing will motivate you more. Nothing will inspire you more. Nothing will hold you accountable. As much like you want to talk about accountability, you will feel like getting up and getting your work done when your client emails you at 10:00am being like, hey, where's that draft you promised me last week? So that is one of the beauties of sales.

And if you want to make more as a writer.

And it was funny selling that one client at that agency. I left my job three months later because I realized, oh, this is how you sell people. Why would I do this for the agency? Why don't I just go do this for myself?

Right?

So once that clicked, I. I really took that, you know, to heart and I realized that that skill was so powerful. And then thereafter, I ended up doing sales myself. And then I built a sales team and I built my ghostwriting agency, and we scaled that to millions of dollars in revenue. So if you want to make more as a writer, there's no other way around it.

You have to learn the skill of sales.

And you can delay it and you can tell yourself that, you know, no sales, insert whatever faulty belief, but I promise you, every writer who makes a ton of money ends up learning the skill of sales. And what's interesting is also copywriting and sales writing and being able to close people in DMS or being able to close people via email is really just.

The written version of what you do on the phone. And I think why I was able to learn a lot of the copywriting.

Skills so quickly thereafter was because I had already sold hundreds and hundreds of clients on the phone.

I actually didn't even really know what copywriting was until I had already landed a hundred clients.

And so once I realized, oh, a lot of these copywriting techniques are really just the same things I would say on the phone in text form, it was so much easier. And I. And I clear, I had a Knack for it. It just came very easily to me because I wasn't, quote, unquote, copywriting. I was just saying all the things that I would say on the phone to someone in text. And the last thing that I want to harp on here is that sales, and if you're, if you're listening to.

This and you have any sort of.

Reservation, sales is not about sales. The whole secret and how I've sold, you know, over $5 million worth of ghostwriting clients at this point and over $10 million in digital product sales is, is that sales is about education. And when you approach sales as sales, it feels really difficult and it feels like you have to convince people of things. When you approach sales as education and.

When you take this free consulting approach.

And you go, I just want to.

Make sure I can help you. The conversation is not, let me sell you.

The conversation is, let me help you. And when I help you, you, the.

Client naturally begin to sell yourself.

You finally found someone that you can trust.

You finally found someone who understands your business.

You finally found someone who speaks your language and understands what you're going through and actually provides helpful and actionable solutions. Well, when you find someone like that, don't you want to hold on to them? And by taking that approach, that's where I've really noticed so many clients, then.

The conversation very quickly turns from you.

Quote, unquote, pitching them to them pitching you. And that's what you want. The third skill, account management. So what account management is, is when you are fulfilling on some sort of work, this usually has to do with services. So say you land a ghostwriting client. Account management is you interacting with the client at every stage of the relationship. It's like, technically, if you were to have an agency, these would be two different roles. You would have the sales role and someone handling that. And then when the client goes, yes, I would love to work with you, the salesperson would pass the client off to the account manager. So the account manager's job essentially starts when the client goes, I'm ready. Kickoff call.

Onboarding.

Let's begin.

Right.

First invoice gets paid. Well, account management is a whole art in and of itself. And because, same thing, when I was building my agency, I was our first account, I was our first ghostwriter, Then I was our first account manager, then I was our first salesperson, right? So I play the role and then I would hire someone else so that I could replace myself from that role, I would move on to the next role, etc. And the art of account management is.

Anticipating the client's needs.

That is it.

And the reason that I stress the.

Word anticipating is because if you are reacting to what the client is asking for, that is not the highest level of account management. Because the true art of account management.

Is not you doing what the client.

Asks you to do. The art of account management is you anticipating the next thing that they would like.

Right?

So it's sort of the difference between, imagine going to a, you know, $100 a night hotel versus going to $1,000 a night hotel. One of the key differences is that the thousand dollar a night hotel anticipates pretty much your every want and need, right? And they call out things before it.

Even occurs to you that you should.

Ask that question, right? So, for example, you go to check in and they're like, hey, we're so happy to have you. You know, by the way, tomorrow morning, I'm not sure if, you know, but breakfast starts at, you know, 6:30am Would you like a complimentary wake up call? What do you have going on tomorrow?

Do you have any plans? Do you. Oh, you have something going on.

Would it be nice if we maybe.

Dropped breakfast off in front of your room early?

Right.

They are constantly trying to anticipate the next thing that you would want or need. The $100 a night hotel basically just goes, yeah, we got, you know, Tom at the front desk here and you know, if you need anything, call Tom.

And what happens?

You end up calling Tom like seven times that night because you're like, tom, nobody checked my room and I asked for a spare cot and there's no spare cot. And then Tom's like, I'll call somebody and see if we can get him up there, right? So that is really the way to think about account management is how are.

You anticipating the client's needs?

And this is one of those skills that is very hard to read about.

Or even listen here and then go.

I'm going to go execute it perfectly. It very rarely works that way. Account management is something that you have to be very aware of in the moment.

And every time the client asks you.

For something, you should then ask yourself.

The question, why didn't I bring that.

Up before they asked it to me? Why didn't I anticipate that?

Why didn't I think that was a.

Question that they were going to ask me, right? Why? Why did they have to remind me? Why couldn't I have just reminded myself? Could I have sent that early?

Right.

You are basically becoming obsessed with anticipating the next thing that the client will ask for.

And obviously there are times where how could you anticipate that?

Right.

There will be outlier circumstances. But one of the biggest mistakes, and.

I see it all the time with.

Small business owners, is they think that their job is to really just do.

What the customer asks for. And that's not really the job.

If you pay attention to all of.

The experiences that you value most.

The experiences that are special and that you remember are experiences where they walk you from point A to point Z. They take you by the hand, they.

Explain to you what's going to happen next.

They're like, from here we're going to.

Focus on 1, 2, 3. They set expectations, they over communicate, they.

Say, oh, and if I don't hear from you, I will follow up. You can expect this by this date, right? There is a ton of over communication happening. Whereas the small businesses or the vendors that you get really frustrated with, it's always the opposite. It's like, well, why didn't you tell me that was going to be two days late? Or if you knew that was going to happen, why didn't you call that out for me? Or if you knew I was going to have all these questions, why wouldn't.

You have just given me all of.

That up front so I could review it before our first call?

Right.

So a lot of the frustration comes from actually not feeling like the writer or the person who's providing the service.

Is anticipating your needs.

And so same thing, like if you don't understand how to make a client or a customer really, really happy, it's going to be hard to continue making.

More and more money as a writer.

Because, yeah, you might get the customer in the door, but then they're unhappy.

Right?

And really the goal is for them to go, wow, you held my hand.

And you were so attentive that you're.

The only person I want to work with. I couldn't imagine trying to find someone who's as attentive as you.

Right?

That's, that's what extends lifetime value.

That's what builds the relationship. So account management, if that's not a, if that's not something you've ever really thought about, that is absolutely a skill to acquire next is different business models. So one of the big problems I see with so many different writers and it's both, you know, in the creator economy and people who try to build.

Audiences and launch products or write books.

Or build training programs or whatever it is. And I also see it on the.

Services side, people trying to Monetize by providing a service.

The problem is most writers, you know, they love talking about, I'm reading the classics, I'm studying Hemingway, you know, or I'm subscribed to all of the top creator newsletters.

I'm learning all the growth hacks, you.

Know, whatever it is, but they really don't spend a lot of time studying.

And learning the underlying business models.

And so underlying business models.

When I say that, what I really.

Mean is, for example, are you charging something that's higher ticket where the person has to pay in full, or are you breaking up that payment into monthly payments? Is it a monthly subscription or is it a higher ticket thing that is on a payment plan? Is it a low ticket offer that upsells people on a high ticket offer? Is it a free newsletter that nurtures.

People into a paid product or is.

It a paid newsletter? All of these are different business models. And if you don't really understand the pros and cons of each business model, what happens is, and this is human nature, you gravitate to sort of the most obvious one. And so, for example, a very obvious one is people thinking, I will build an audience and I will start a free newsletter and then I'll monetize with ads. Why do most people default to that business model?

Because they hear about it the most.

And it also is sort of the easiest to understand. You're like, I got a bunch of people reading my stuff and then I get other people to sponsor my newsletter. And I guess that's how they make money or that's how I make money, right? And even that, they don't even really know what goes into that. It's just conceptually they think, okay, I understand how that makes money. Part of what allows you to charge more as a writer is figuring out how, figuring out the best possible business model for the thing that you want to do, whether that's a service or a product. And this is one of those rabbit holes. This will probably need to be a different Coffee with Cole episode, because I could talk about business models and upsells and downsells all day long, but the TLDR here, and for those of you who don't know, I noticed a lot.

Of people don't know what that means. TLDR means too long, didn't read.

It's Internet speak for just get to the point. TLDR is that as much time as you spend thinking about, practicing, learning, studying.

The writing component of what you do.

You should spend the same amount of time studying the business you should understand different business models. You should try different business models. Part of the reason why I've monetized my writing in a dozen different ways is because I want to learn.

I always want to learn. Well, what are the advantages of these different business models?

I've made six figures with paid newsletters, I've made six figures self publishing books, I've made six figures with SAS building writing software, I've made seven figures selling low ticket and high ticket training programs and online courses, I've made seven figures building an agency providing services.

Right.

And every time I try these different models, I learn.

Oh, okay, so this works for this model. Maybe it doesn't work for this model, but I could take this thing from this model and apply it to this model. And that is how you have more.

Optionality to charge more.

How you don't charge more is by spending all day just thinking, oh, if I get better and better at swapping adjectives, magically I make more money. And that's why, that's why, you know, my book series is titled the Art.

And business of Online Writing.

The Art and Business of Ghostwriting, because.

Both components are crucial. And more and more we live in.

An age where you can't just be that naive writer who goes, I love spending all day in the sentences, but I don't want to learn about the business. That's for somebody else. If that's how you feel, and that's the point of view that you want to live life through, more power to you, but then don't complain about how you don't make more money. That's my only feeling about it is you can't say, I only want to.

Play in the sentences and I don't.

Want to learn about the business and then go, why isn't my business growing? That's the rule of thumb. Okay, the next part, personal branding. Personal branding is a skill. And what I mean by that is I don't mean posting pictures of what you ate for breakfast and doing viral TikTok dances. Okay? Personal branding is knowing how to evangelize yourself. And personal branding, this leads into the last point, has everything to do with category creation.

Something that Hormozi talks about a lot.

And I like this, this explanation is that branding is an association that people make. It's the association people and customers and readers make with you and the people that you surround yourself with. The podcast that you go on, maybe the products that you consume, but also associations with what type of product do.

You deliver, what sort of things do you create. The nuance and where I would build.

On that slightly is that really personal branding is about the association people make with your category. Personal branding is not about becoming known.

Personal branding is about becoming known for.

A niche that you own or becoming known for a category that you own. Okay? And you can see this very clearly when someone tries to just build themselves. So they post about themselves a lot. They're like, this is where I went on vacation and this is what I ate for breakfast. And here's more pictures of me in a studio looking off into the distance. Right? And the thing about that is that they might get short term attention, but those people very, very, very, very rarely.

Ever make as much money as the.

People who clearly have categorical association. And the reason is because what the.

Customer, the reader, the listener, the viewer.

What they really care about isn't you.

What they care about is the topic. What they care about is the category. What they care about is the niche. And then within that niche, within that category, they are looking for the best.

Person to deliver whatever thing they're looking for in that category. Okay, so part of personal branding is actually not all the stuff people talk about with personal branding. I think it's one of the most misunderstood terms in marketing.

Personal branding is about evangelizing yourself.

Nuance, asterisk, within a specific category. And if you don't understand that second component, yeah, okay, you might get a bunch of random people following you, but you're not going to know what to do with it and they're not going to know where and how and why to spend money with you. It's like attention for attention's sake.

And that is not the goal.

And so the reason this is such an important skill is because I find that a lot of writers are very hesitant to evangelize themselves. They go, I don't want to be on camera. I don't want to talk about the things that I've accomplished.

I don't want to sound like I'm bragging.

I don't want to tell people, oh.

I've achieved these things.

And a helpful reframe. One of the things that I always like pointing out is I go, okay, so remove the Internet, pretend you're at a dinner party and pretend you overhear there's a conversation and someone's asking, you know, I'm really, I've had a lot of success this past year. I think it's time for me to.

Finally write a book.

And I'm debating, you know, should I go the traditional route or should I go the self published route, and you overhear that conversation and you've self published five books, let's say, and you start.

Chiming in and just sharing things that you know. Well, at some point in that conversation.

With the other person, the other person's going to turn and go, this is really interesting.

How do you know all of this? And without even thinking about it, you're.

Going to go, oh, well, I've self.

Published five books over the past five years.

So these are all just things that I've learned myself. And then they're going to go, oh, okay, cool, got it. That context is really helpful, thanks. And you go, yeah, no problem. Do you have any other questions? And we do that at dinner parties or over coffee every single day, and we don't think anything of it. And yet when it comes time to do the exact same thing on the Internet, everyone gets in their own way and they go, how? I couldn't possibly talk about myself. I don't want to tell anybody all the things that I've accomplished. Why would I brag about the fact that I've self published five books over the past five years?

Right?

But that's not what you're doing. You're not bragging. You're literally just providing context to the.

Reader saying, hey, and by the way.

Just so you know where this is coming from, I've self published five books. So I've gone through all of this, right? Just like when I talk about any of these things, I'm not sitting here being like, I'm gonna tell you the.

Things I've accomplished for the sake of telling you the things that I've accomplished.

I tell you, hey, if you want to understand how to increase your earnings as a ghostwriter, well, I can tell you because I've sold over $5 million worth of ghostwriting services.

I've been there.

Let me just tell you what, what to do. And so the way to think about, quote unquote, personal branding and evangelizing yourself is all you're doing is using your own experiences and your own accomplishments as context, as examples. Like, by the way, how do I know this? Because I did xyz. And then more importantly, this is the nuance that always gets missed because everyone goes, you have to tell your story.

Stories are what resonate the secret storytelling.

It's like all these hand wavy statements that don't mean anything and they misunderstand the point. The whole point of telling your story is and sharing anything about yourself is to provide an example to the reader.

Customer, listener, viewer, whoever is giving you their attention. And the only purpose of providing an.

Example is to drive home a point and explain something that matters to them. It has very, very little to do with you. No one cares about your story unless.

Your story provides context or an example.

To the thing that the customer, reader, listener, viewer cares about. Okay? So if I write a piece or make a YouTube video or record a podcast going, here's why I'm awesome, and here's how I built my ghostwriting agency, nobody's going to listen to it. But if I say, hey, I understand.

Exactly why you're stuck as a freelance.

Writer, I understand what's holding your earning potential back. I understand what mistakes you're making with packaging and pricing. I can tell you how to fix all of them. By the way, just for context, I used to be exactly where you are. I used to be that freelance writer charging $25 an article. I fixed all of these things. I ended up building the first ghostwriting agency for founders and executives. I've sold over $5 million worth of these services. Let me just break it down for you. Well, now you're going to listen. And that is the piece that I find so many people misunderstand is that.

Your story is not what matters.

Your story is an example to help drive home something that matters to the reader, to the customer. Okay? And this is a skill. And if you don't understand that this.

Is a skill and you don't take.

The time to get better at it.

You'Re not going to have all of.

The advantages that all the other people have. And something that I really want to share, especially if you're watching this on YouTube, if you're listening to it on, you know, Spotify or Apple, okay, Just know there's the video version on YouTube. Okay? I tried doing this eight years ago. I tried starting a YouTube channel. I think it was 2015, and I was terrified, and I didn't know what I was going to create content about. And I think I have some of the old files and recordings somewhere, and if I pulled them up right now, it would probably be very, very cringe.

And difficult for me to watch.

And I had a lot of issue with the idea of, quote, unquote, putting myself out there. I didn't want to do things on camera. It felt uncomfortable. And in hindsight, it was all just a new skill. And I didn't like the fact that I was bad at it. And over the years, slowly, I have just pushed myself to keep trying, keep trying, keep trying. And I think what's so interesting about.

Where I am now.

And I just want to be really transparent here. You know, I have this new studio. I just moved to Arizona. I built the home dream studio that I've wanted my whole life. Not because I wanted to have a YouTube channel or a podcast, but because I just wanted a space that I could create in. You know, I just wanted my own creation layer. And now that I have this space, and now that I've put in enough reps and I've. Over the years, I've seen just, you know, year by year, I get a little bit better. A little bit better, but not even better, like more comfortable.

More comfortable. Very recently, probably in the past week.

Two weeks, it's clicked for me. Now it's all just open road ahead. I know exactly what I want to.

Write and talk about.

I know exactly who I can help. Chances are, if you're listening to this right now, you have every question that I am so excited to answer. I've tried enough things where I have, I think, enough pattern recognition and valuable.

And helpful things to share.

I'm not confused about the fact that I am not what's important.

Right.

I am here to help you. All of these things have taken 10 years to really click for me. And so this is not something that just happens overnight. And so if you're sitting there and you're like, okay, this all makes sense, how am I going to go implement.

And acquire all of these skills tomorrow?

That's not how it works. But the reason that I like laying.

All of these things out and planting all of these different seeds is to.

Continue to remind you that these are the different things that you have to spend time doing. And if there's one thing I've really.

Learned over the past 10 years, is.

That not every day is going to be a writing day, and not every day are you going to feel like.

Your writing is improving.

But that's okay, because all of these.

Other skills are what allow you and.

Your writing to grow in ways that.

Traditional writers are unable to.

And as speaking as someone who you know, I am very, very grateful and very thankful for all of the different writing mentors I've had along the way. I'm really grateful for the teachers that I had when I was studying creative writing at Columbia College, downtown Chicago. But I also have done a lot of reflecting and look. And now looking back, I can see why. I have outgrown so many of the people that I once looked up to. And the reason that I have outgrown so many of these people is because.

Of all of these other skills surrounding the writing.

And that's why I felt really strongly, I really wanted to talk about this today, because the big idea, and I hope, I hope that this is what you're left with, is that writing is only a piece of the puzzle. You can't just spend all day in the sentences and then expect your business to grow. Expect your revenue to go up, or expect your revenue to become more stable. Expect your revenue to be more consistent, to have people seeking you out instead of you always seeking opportunities out.

If you want all of these things to happen, and if you want all.

Of these unfair advantages, you have to.

Be willing to do things that the average person is not willing to do. The average writer is not willing to do all of these things.

And so if you look at someone like me and go, how do I do that? Well, one of the most helpful things I can pass along to you is, is the realization that I don't do the things that a typical writer would do. I spend a lot of time acquiring a lot of skills that the traditional writer does not think are important or thinks that they can get away with not having. And I am here to tell you that that couldn't be farther from the truth. And there's a reason why those people are stuck where they are. I'll share one little story to end here because I think, you know, this was a very eye opening moment for me. So a couple of years ago, I was living in Los Angeles and I've become friends with Craig Clements, who's, you know, a great friend and mentor. Now I think he's the most talented living copywriter. He's sold over $1 billion worth of products. I mean, there's a reason why his copy gets studied and ripped off probably more than anybody else. And he has achieved a lot of.

Financial success as a result.

I think there are very few writers and copywriters on planet Earth that have made as much money as Craig. And I remember one day, one evening, he was having this event at his house. And he was kind enough, you know, we became friends. He invited me to his house. I attended this event. I got to hang out with a lot of really cool, accomplished people. I remember being in the room thinking, how am I in this room? Well, how I got there is through ghostwriting.

The reason I was able to get.

Into those types of rooms was because I was a ghostwriter and I was.

Ghostwriting for so many different executives and founders.

So talk about a tangential benefit of ghostwriting. And we were at his house and we were at this event, and he grabs my arm, and he goes, cole.

I want you to meet someone.

And he introduced me to this guy who had just won. I want to say it was the Pulitzer Prize for a journalism piece that he had written. And Craig was enamored with him as I was. I thought that was so cool. And we were talking to him, and.

He was super intelligent, super sharp.

And Craig just. It was so clear that both of us really looked up to this person just from a writing perspective, you know, just purely about the writing. It was just so, so cool. And it's always cool to talk to someone who has, like, true mastery over that part of their craft. And then we break up, and, you know, the event goes on, and me and this guy continue talking. And then there were a couple speakers that came that night. And so me and this guy just.

Happened to sit next to each other.

And we sit down next to each other, and as the first speaker is sort of getting ready and the room's getting all quiet, he turns to me and he goes, do you know whose house this is? Because it's a beautiful house. And I was like, yes, Craig. We just. It was the guy we were just talking to. And he was like, oh, I didn't know that. And then there's like, you know, 10, 15 seconds of silence. And then he goes, do you know what Craig does for a living? And I was like, that's funny. Like, I figured this all would have come up in conversation, you know, but apparently it hadn't. And I go, craig's a writer. And he looks at me, and he goes, what do you mean? And I was like, what do you mean? What do I mean? Like, craig's a writer. And I start sort of just taking in him and his stature, and obviously, no, there's no judgment here. I'm just telling the story, right? And he's got, you know, old gym shoes on and jeans he's probably worn for 15 years, and a collared shirt he's probably owned and worn for 15 years. And it was kind of clear why he was asking, what do you mean Craig is a writer? And it was because we were in a very, very, very expensive house that.

You typically would not think a writer could afford.

And so I just sort of shared with him, and I said, yeah, Craig's a writer. You know, he has this company, and he writes all of The ADs and VSLs, and, you know, he's. He's the mastermind behind his company's whole.

Advertising and marketing strategy. And I remember the look on his.

Face was pure confusion. It was as if everything he had ever thought about writing in that moment he realized was wrong.

And you could see in his eyes.

That this, this contradiction where on one hand he's like, probably very proud of himself and loves his journey and happy that he has this amazing award to point to and clearly does really, really great work. And on the other hand, the other thought is, boy, the path that I'm on would.

There literally isn't a world where I.

Could afford a house like this.

And sitting in that discomfort as a.

Writer, and for me, observing that discomfort.

Was really, really interesting.

And it was one of those moments where I realized, wow, even one of the most talented and accomplished writers in their field is sitting here going, I don't understand how this is possible. And the reason that that sort of person sits there and goes, I don't understand how this is possible is because for their entire life they've thought the key to becoming more successful as a.

Writer is getting better at writing.

And yes, you know, if your goal is I want to win this award.

Or I want some sort of very.

Niche specific recognition, maybe that's the path.

But then you can't sit there and.

Go, but I don't understand why I'm not making more money. Or you can't sit there and go, I don't understand why I can't afford a house like this.

Right.

Those are two very different things. And I feel very strongly that in the world that we are living in now, you don't have to pick, you.

Don'T have to have one extreme or the other.

You can have both.

You can be a writer that is.

Exceptionally talented and even recognized in your industry, but you can also make a lot of money. And the only thing keeping you from making more money is, is taking the.

Time and being open to learning and.

Acquiring these other skills. And it's very clear if you don't take the time and put in the effort to acquire these other skills, you will probably not make more and more money. And that's just the reality of the situation. So I wanted to share this. I hope this gives you a starting point of, you know, here are the different things to dig into. Realize that not every day is a writing day. There's a lot of value in acquiring and practicing all these other skills. And, and these non writing skills are what will make you a dangerously profitable writer.