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Transcript

There’s Gold in Them Thar Hills! · The Daily Writer

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey my friend, welcome to The Daily Writer, where we help writers become authors of their own lives.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to be a full-time writer, but you currently have a full-time or a part-time job working for somebody else, today's episode is for you.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now that said, even if you just work for yourself, there are some great takeaways for you here as well.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Before I became a full-time writer, I taught at a small college for 17 years before making that transition into full-time writing.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And for the first 10 years of that college job, I really liked what I did.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: But then honestly, I started to struggle because I was getting bored teaching the same courses over and over again.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: At the same time, I was also spending a lot more time blogging and podcasting and thinking about building a business.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: So between those two things, starting a side hustle essentially, but also getting bored with what I was doing, I became restless and unhappy.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I really wanted to be more independent and simply build my own business.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: However, in my rush to build a business and to get out of that college job, I had an important realization one day.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew that even though I wanted to get out on my own and build a business, until those, until that opportunity presented itself and I could actually make that transition, I had some amazing opportunities all around me to help build my business skills.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the benefit of working at a small college was that I knew everybody who worked there.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I could work with different departments.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I also had some leeway with the courses I taught and other administrative responsibilities.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: So in those last five or seven years that I worked in that position, I spent some time being involved in various initiatives and projects, the kind of projects and initiatives that honestly can benefit any business owner, especially writers.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Here are some of the things that I got involved in that were not related to my main job, but still benefited me as a burgeoning business owner.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I helped do web design.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: I worked with our IT team at our school to completely redesign our college website.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, that was a job that I volunteered for.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: I did event planning.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: I ran our twice-weekly chapel services for many, many years, in addition to running countless music recitals and special events.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: I did a lot of leadership.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I coordinated a group of adjunct music instructors who I oversaw, as well as a lot of student teams who traveled to represent our school to supporting churches on the weekends.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: I did sales and marketing.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: I worked closely with our admissions team for years to figure out how to promote our music and our online programs.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I also produced our school's podcast.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: I did customer service.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of people forget that students are ultimately customers of a school, and therefore it's important to take their concerns and complaints seriously.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, I learned a lot about customer service from being a student advisor.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: I did coaching and advising.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: I had hundreds and hundreds of meetings with students over the years to help them navigate their degree programs and their career goals.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I did project management.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I ran our online degree program for several years and I coordinated with various vendors, instructors, and IT people.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: It was actually quite a large thing to manage, even for a small college like ours.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: And those were just a few things that I did over the years to help me build business skills that ultimately benefited my business as well.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And in my time as a professor, I was able to get involved in nearly every department of our small college.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I would just volunteer for random projects that had nothing to do with my actual job, but all those experiences helped me learn about business.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Here's my point.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to build a career as a writer, but you feel stuck in a job that you don't like, there are probably some opportunities right under your nose that you don't even see.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason is that nearly every company and organization has opportunities to help you learn skills that you can apply directly to your business, especially areas like sales, marketing, and communications.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: As the old prospectors used to say, there's gold in them thar hills.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: So while you're working on building your writing business, don't overlook the opportunities that are all around you.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you're not currently working for somebody else, there's lots of masterminds, networking groups, events, and conferences to help you grow those business skills.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, business is pretty much the same no matter what the industry is.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: You're offering a product or service that other people are going to pay for.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: And what you learn in one field is almost always transferable to other fields.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Today is a really great day to open your eyes a little bit wider and see all the gold that's around you.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Keep writing, keep showing up, and I'll see you tomorrow.