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10 Ways Your Day Job Makes You a Better Writer · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Today's episode is for anybody who has a day job.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have a day job, this is especially for you.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of entrepreneurs and business leaders, they look at a day job as the enemy of a writing career.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: You have a boss, you have office hours, and you have job responsibilities, all of which make you feel like you're a million miles away from the writing or the career that you want to do.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, building your own business is a great goal if you want to create a full-time writing career or you want to have more financial freedom.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: But while you have a day job, it doesn't really help to view it as the enemy.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And there are two reasons for this.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, if you despise the place where you're spending eight hours a day, that's a lot of negativity that you're bringing into your life.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: So if that's you, I want to encourage you to be grateful for the employment that feeds your family and provides some financial stability in your life.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: However, there's another more important reason to not view your day job as the enemy.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that is because your day job has a lot of hidden opportunities to develop your skills as a writer, a business owner, and a leader.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: So here are 10 ways that you can use your day job to better yourself.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, develop a company podcast.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, volunteer to make sales calls.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, write marketing content like blog posts or newsletters.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Number four, teach a writing course to your colleagues.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Number five, volunteer to edit content for others.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Number six, write social media posts for the company.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Number seven, ghostwrite articles or letters for the CEO, president, or your boss.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Number eight, film and edit videos.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Number nine, practice your public speaking skills in the next department meeting.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And number ten, compile a list of books that have helped your colleagues the most.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: So, as you may or may not know, I used to work at a college.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was actually a college professor for 17 years until I got into ghostwriting and doing author coaching and all the daily writer stuff a few years ago.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I did most of these things in my college job.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: None of these things were actually these 10 things.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: When I did most of these things in my college job, they were just on a volunteer basis.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: They were not something that were part of my paid responsibilities, but I saw the opportunity that was in front of me because it was a small school as well, and I could kind of finagle my way into a lot of different things there because it was kind of a relational place in a small place.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: But I found those opportunities were incredibly valuable in helping me develop some skills that I could then use in the business that I was building.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: So if that's you, if you work someplace, especially if it's a smaller business or if it's a smaller organization, my goodness, there's a lot of opportunities for you to develop skills that you can use to build your writing business.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if that's your goal to have a writing business, either full-time or part-time, that's fantastic.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: In the meantime, don't neglect these golden opportunities that are staring you right in the face every single day at your day job.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Tony Robbins said, the only person holding you back is you.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, there's only one way to move forward in your life and career.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of spending all your time wishing you were somewhere else, use those opportunities right in front of you to become a better marketer, leader, writer, and communicator.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: So here's today's challenge.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a day job, choose one of the items I listed here in this episode and talk to one of your coworkers about how you can put it into practice.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: They might even be interested in doing it too.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And who knows, you might even have some fun in the process.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: A big thanks to today's sponsor, Plotter.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Plotter is the number one visual book planning software for writers that helps you plan books in the same way that you think.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Plotter's intuitive visual interface lets plotting be the creative process that it's supposed to be.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not just for fiction authors, it's also a great tool for nonfiction authors, podcasters, speakers, and anybody creating content to organize your material and story points.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you're ready to outline faster, get organized, and save loads of time in your writing, visit plotter.com to start your free 14 day trial.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's P L O T T R dot com to start your free fourteen day trial.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time.