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My Story of Traveling the Writer's Path · The Daily Writer

• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hey my friend, thanks for joining me for today's episode of the Daily Rider Podcast.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Today's episode is part of a series that we're doing on the writer's path, seven steps to building a writing business.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're just not joining us for this series, I encourage you to go back to the beginning of the series in the June 27th episode in order to get the most value out of all of this.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow we'll start diving into each of the seven steps or the seven milestones on the writer's path in more detail.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: But today I want to quickly share my story of traveling this pathway.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: I started blogging around 2007 or 2008.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: I forget what year it was exactly, but it was around then.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: I had several blogs and I was honestly just writing for fun.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to build a business, but I didn't know how.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And at the time I was a college professor and I wanted to create more income to support my family.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Then around 2010, I began following a gentleman named Dan Miller, who many of you are familiar with.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's the founder of the 48 Days brand, and there's tons of things that are involved in the 48 Days brand.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Dan is an amazing guy who's impacted my life in ways that I don't even realize because it's been such a massive impact.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: But Dan emphasized building a business around your writing using multiple streams of income.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I was really intrigued when I first heard about this idea, so I attended his Write to the Bank conference in 2012.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And as I continue to follow his teaching, as well as material from people like Michael Hyde and Jeff Goynes and Cliff Ravenskraft, and of course Dan Miller, the more that I started to pay attention to folks like that, I started to have a strong desire to create a business that somehow had to do with my writing.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: My first paid writing gig was writing podcast show notes for a client.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: I connected with a guy named Ray Taylor, who's a podcast producer and a really great friend.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: He gave me my first shot at doing paid client work, and I will forever be grateful to him for allowing me to help him in that way.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And soon that expanded into doing podcast show notes for several other clients.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: My business was growing pretty slowly, and I was also trying several other kinds of side businesses to see if I could make faster progress in building a business of some kind.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I tried stuff like network marketing, selling used books on Amazon, business consulting, doing part-time church ministry, and none of those really moved the needle very far.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I gave up on most of those.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Particularly selling used books on Amazon.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: There's a crazy story behind that I'll have to tell you someday.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: The essence of the story was that I spent a whole summer trying to sell used books on Amazon, and it wasn't very successful.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And in the end, I had to pay Amazon to destroy my inventory because the books weren't selling and it was going to be more expensive to pay Amazon to continue storing the books than it was to just have them destroy the books.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds crazy, I know, but that's actually what happened.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: So that's basically the story.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Needless to say, I felt pretty discouraged by all that because none of those ventures were very successful.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, however, during the same time, around 2015, I began writing books and hosting a podcast.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And even though I wasn't really making any money from those things, they gave me the desire to continue creating my own content.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I saw lots of other people doing the same thing and making a great living.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I decided just to keep plugging away at it.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, in 2019, I was introduced to ghostwriting, which is where I have continued to focus most of my writing business energy.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And as that side of my business has grown, I've also put a bigger focus on growing the side of my business that is the Daily Writer, which of course includes this podcast, a membership group, books, including the Daily Writer book that comes out on November the 1st, courses, and eventually some other products that will come out as well.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I gotta be honest with you, I really enjoyed doing both client work and having my own material.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: I like having multiple streams of income and not just having one source of income.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Back when I was a college professor, back when I was a pastor before that, I basically just had one stream of income.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Occasionally with another little trickle here or there from other things, but generally I just had one source of income.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that was scary because when you have just one source of income and that source is taken away, you know, when somebody takes it away, they don't renew a contract or they let you go or something, then you're basically out on the street and you're host.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I always felt very nervous about that.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And the more that I started to pay attention to people who had a writing-based business and who had multiple streams of income, the more that I saw that that was that could be a pretty cool safety net.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that's eventually the direction that I wanted to go in the direction that I have been moving in for some time now.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, some of the income streams that I have right now are pretty small, but I think it's important to get things started and then find ways to grow those things.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: In this writer's path, the seven milestones that we're talking about in the series, this is where I see other writers who have been who are successful, and it's where I'm headed as well.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And it's also where I want to encourage you to go.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my point in sharing this on this episode is to encourage you in your own journey.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: I believe that you could do the exact same thing that I have done.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not anybody special.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just a regular guy who's worked really hard to get where I am, and I'm also highly motivated.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Or you could also say that I'm just really hungry for success.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: I just want it really bad.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And if you feel the same motivation, I think you can be far more successful than you currently are if you take consistent action, if you're really hungry for success, and you don't give up.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow we're going to start diving into each of the seven milestones on the writer's path in a little bit more detail.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope that you'll stick around for that.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Here's today's question What could your life and writing business be like three years from today if you took consistent action toward your goals?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: For more, you can visit us at dailywriterlife.com.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.