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Insights From My 2020 Writing Survey · The Daily Writer

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Smart Business Writing Podcast, the show that helps you share your message, increase your impact, and grow your business through the power of writing.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: One of the key values that I have in my business is partnership.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what do I mean by partnership?
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean that I see you as a partner or a co-creator, if you will, in this journey of helping others with business writing.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is why I value feedback and communication so much.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: I never want this to be a platform where I'm just blasting out content and hoping for the best.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: My biggest priority is to create content and other opportunities that actually help people with their real needs.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I recently created a very simple writing survey that I mentioned a number of times on the show over the last few weeks.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: I also sent this out to my email list and talked about it on my blog.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought it would be fun to go through the results of this survey here on this episode and let you know how I'm going to respond to those results.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this was a simple one-question survey.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And here was the question.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: What are your biggest needs as a writer?
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: There were 16 possible responses that they could check off, and they could check off as many options as they wanted.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I want to go quickly through these results and how I'm going to apply these results moving forward.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, let's take a look at the top five answers.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Three answers were tied for top place with 41% of the respondents each selecting these three items.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, I want to make money with my writing, but don't know how.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, I need help making more time to write.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And number three, I would like to develop better writing habits.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And there were two answers that were tied for second place with 37% of the respondents each selecting these two items.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: I would like to improve my storytelling skills, and I need motivation and accountability to reach my goals.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now let me take a second and break down this data a little bit.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: This tells me several things, and these are just several bullet points that I want to go over really quick.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, it tells me that money, time, and habits are the three main concerns that the respondents had on this survey.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be doing a podcast series on ways to make money with your writing and how to make time to write, because these are obviously two really immediate felt needs that the respondents had.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: In addition, I'm considering making my new lead magnet on my website something along the lines of 10 ways to make money with your writing or something like that.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, making money with your writing is an issue that speaks to almost everybody, and it's probably more of a direct pain point than making time to write is.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now we all want to make more time to write, of course, but why do we want to make more time?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's because ultimately we believe that having more time to write will lead to making more money with our writing.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: So the time issue is almost like a symptom of a deeper issue, which is the pain point of simply wanting to make more money with our writing.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: So in my view, the issue of making more money with our writing is the number one thing that people are truly concerned about.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's go to this issue of habits, which the respondents also told me was really important to them.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Habits are tied in with time, but I know that they are two separate topics.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Likely I will do a series on habits here on the podcast in the sometime in the next few months or so.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: But I think this deserves something different as well.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe something like a short course, a mastermind group, or some type of group coaching that I can offer.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the question about motivation and accountability is something nearly as many respondents resonate with, which is also something that a coaching group or a mastermind group can possibly address.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And within that environment of group coaching or a mastermind group or something like that, we can also address money and time issues in those environments.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd love to hear your thoughts on that if you think that in a in a mastermind or group coaching environment that you would like to be part of something like that where we could address things like habits, money, and time and related issues.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, one of the other top things that people responded to on the survey is this idea of storytelling.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And storytelling is a really hot topic in the business world right now.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: There's tons of books, there's tons of consultants and courses and all kinds of other stuff on how to integrate concepts of storytelling into a business setting.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a good reason for that, and that's because we're all wired to love stories.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Stories are also a great teaching tool.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to be addressing storytelling more on the podcast coming up here in the next few months, and I need to think through some specific ways that I want to do that.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a huge fan of storytelling.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, this fall, in my day college job, I'm going to be teaching a whole course on storytelling.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: So this is an issue of great interest to me, but I want to think through some specific ways that I can integrate this here on the podcast.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: But in the short term, in a few weeks, I have my friend Amber Royer, who's a novelist, coming back on the show to talk about storytelling.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: So that'll be a lot of fun.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, those were the top five answers.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Let's take a look at the bottom several answers because those are interesting as well.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: For me, it's just as instructive and it's just as fascinating to take a look at the things people don't want as the things that they do want.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: And those can be equally as helpful in figuring out what direction to go with your business or how to respond to surveys and those kinds of things.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: I find it kind of fascinating to see what people don't believe they're struggling with.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's take a quick look at these.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Three answers were tied for the second to last place, with only 19% of the respondents each selecting these three items.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: So in other words, these three items I'm going to list here in a second, these are things people don't think they're struggling with.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Only one out of every five people felt like this was a need they have.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: They are, number one, I feel alone and need a mentor, coach, or community to help me make progress.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, I need help with networking and building relationships.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And number three, I need help with the process of self-publishing my book.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in very last place in this survey, again, this was the item that came in dead last out of 16 different items.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Only 15% of the respondents selected this item, which was I struggle with the business side of writing.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this data tells me several things.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I'm fascinated by all this, so I would highly recommend that you do a survey of your audience, whatever form that might take.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: This data tells me several things.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Here's one thing that I'm taking away from this, and I'm absolutely fascinated by this.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm having trouble reconciling the fact that almost half of the people say they want accountability and motivation, but most of them don't believe the way to accomplish that is through mentoring, coaching, or community.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: So the hidden message here is that people want to reach their goals, but they don't want the messiness and the hassle that comes with relationships and accountability and community.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that's also reflected in the fact that only one out of five people who took the survey want help with networking and relationships.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this doesn't really come as a surprise because I mean we're talking about writers here, right?
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, writers are not known for being people who naturally love community and love relationships and so forth.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, most of us we have this impulse to want to be by ourselves.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: That just kind of goes with being a writer, I think.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: So, in essence, what many of these people are saying is I don't believe relationships and community are the pathway to my goals.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna just say that I completely disagree with that in principle.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: My experience is that relationships, networking, and community are the pathway to becoming better and more successful.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: They're not just a pathway, they are the pathway to becoming better and more successful.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna be seriously thinking about ways that I can that I can help people with this.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: And if this describes you, if you're a person who wants to be more successful, you want to reach your goals, you want to make more money writing, but you really struggle with this concept of relationships and networking and and groups and that kind of stuff, then I need to figure out some ways to help you with this that will be appealing and that that will sound like something that you want to be a part of.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: So just rest assured, I'm gonna be putting a lot of thought into this whole idea of how to go about doing this.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the other thing that I find strange about these results.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Almost half of the people say they want to make money with writing, but they don't know how.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yet a much smaller percentage of people say they struggle with the business side of writing.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, about half of the people say, yes, I want to make money with writing, but then at the same time, they don't think they have a problem with the business side of writing, or they're just not interested in that aspect of it.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: And this makes me laugh a little bit because it reminds me about the last point about the connection between reaching your goals and having community.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: So here you have people who want to make money, but they don't see the business side of writing as the pathway to getting there, which is, of course, the pathway to making more money as a writer.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I just it's just funny because those things are kind of like contrary to each other.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: You can't make money writing without, in some sense, being good at the business side of it or at least wanting to improve it because the business side is the pathway to making money as a writer.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Unless you just happen to, you know, write a New York Times bestseller or something and make a bunch of money and just get lucky.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there are writers who are very successful and they don't really have a lot of business sense.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: They just kind of struck gold with it.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: But by and large, I think for most of us, if we're going to be successful, if we're going to make money from our writing, we have to become better business people, which is a huge part of what this whole podcast is all about.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: So the best way for me to address this business aspect right now, I think, is by having excellent guests on the podcast who can help us to think like better business people and better entrepreneurs.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: But as I said, I'm also going to be giving some more thought to other ways that we can address this because the business side of writing is clearly a major need from my point of view.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a matter of educating people on why it's important and how to be better at it.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: So all this is to say, as we look at the this whole survey, uh, I've got my work cut out for me.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: This survey has been really instructive for me, and I'm so glad I did it.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I appreciate you listening to this episode where I've kind of rambled on about my insights about the survey.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: But I would encourage you to do the same thing.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you do, whoever your audience is, or whoever's reading or listening to your stuff, do a little survey, and you might be really surprised at the results of that survey.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: I've now in my college job, I don't do surveys, quote unquote, but what we do is we do student evaluations of courses.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so for the college where I work, they do an evaluation of one course every semester if you're a full-time professor.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: But I do student evaluations and most of my courses, I have my own little evaluation that I do, aside from the one that's kind of the official one.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I've got to tell you, it's really fascinating sometimes because I get a lot of interesting responses from students.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of times we think college freshmen, you know, we would think, oh, what do they have to say that would be really valuable for somebody who's been teaching a long time?
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: But if you have an open mind about it, um, freshmen are oftentimes some of the best people to give you feedback because they are coming into your classroom fresh.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: They don't know the topic that you're teaching about very well.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: They have uh different life experiences than you do as a professor.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I find that surveys, evaluations, and other tools that can help you see where people are, I find those really, really valuable.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I would encourage you to start using those whatever situation that you're in.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my friends, I hope this has been helpful for you.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's been really helpful for me to put together these thoughts and talk them out a little bit.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to know what your thoughts are on these survey results.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think my conclusions are correct?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Where have I messed up?
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Where am I right?
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: And how should I best deal with these going forward?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: In addition to the things that I've already mentioned about how I'm going to be addressing these survey results.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to hear your thoughts.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: As always, you can shoot me a message on Twitter at Kent Sanders.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, same thing on Facebook, find me Kent Sanders, and uh you can also send me an email if you'd like to, Kent at KentSanders.net.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And before I go, I want to say thank you to everybody who completed the survey.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate your time doing this.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: It was super helpful, so thank you so much.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Alrighty, that wraps up this episode.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and until next time, remember that your writing has the power to change people's lives.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you in the next episode.