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Are You Making These 3 Mistakes in Your Writing Business? · The Daily Writer

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes life seems like a series of obstacles that we have to get through.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Today I'd like to share three mistakes that almost derailed my writing business.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're not careful, they can derail yours as well.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks so much for joining me on this episode of the Smart Business Writing Podcast.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Kent Sanders, and I'm a ghostwriter and professor of communications.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is the show that helps you write amazing content so you can save time, stand out from the competition, and get more leads that turn into customers or clients.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: So on this podcast, I normally talk about success from a positive viewpoint.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: But today I want to look at it from the opposite perspective.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Namely, we're going to talk about some mistakes to avoid in your writing business.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, mistakes are like gasoline.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever you handle gasoline properly, it's fuel that drives you forward.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: But if you mishandle gasoline and you don't take it seriously, or if you play with fireworks or matches around gasoline, it can totally blow up in your face and cause a lot of damage.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, on this episode, I want to share three critical mistakes that I have made in my writing business the last few years in the hopes that I can help you avoid these mistakes also.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: If I would not have made these mistakes, I probably would have been a lot further along in my business by now.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: However, I learned from them and I think I'm a better person today because of what these mistakes have taught me.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think you can do the same too, as far as looking at your mistakes.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Mistakes are not usually fatal.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: They can certainly do a lot of damage, but if you're willing to learn from them, they can help you be far more successful than you would have been otherwise.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dive into these three mistakes that can hurt your writing business and how to avoid each one of them.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Hang on one second, let me grab a drink of water.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, there we go.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm not gonna edit that out, by the way.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sort of getting um, as my podcast goes on, I'm just getting a little bit more chilled out.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I just want to have a conversation with you uh person to person, and I've decided that I'm generally not gonna make edits unless it's something where I've got a cough or something really obvious or or whatever.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: But generally I'm just here to have a conversation, not to make this perfectly produced podcast.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: So take it or leave it, this is you know, kind of what you see is what you get when you listen to me and the smart business writing podcast.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, by the way, that's also why I got rid of the intro and outro music, because you know, when you go up to somebody and you have a conversation, there's nobody with a boombox.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: I've just dated myself by saying boombox, boom box.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: There's nobody with a boom box who's like playing intro music for you to start the conversation.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And hey, no offense if you have a podcast that has intro music, no offense at all.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I really want to set the tone from the beginning that this is a conversation between me and you, between two two individuals who have a mutual love and respect for writing, for creativity, and for business.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: So uh that was a little side trail I just went off on.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that kind of gives you an idea of my mentality when I approach this podcast.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just sitting down with the mic, it's me and you, and we're having this conversation.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dive into these three mistakes.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Here's mistake number one failing to expand your network.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's been said that your network is your net worth.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of a crude way of framing relationships, but I think there's some truth to it.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Your success in large part comes from your network and the relationships that you have with people.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: But what is your network exactly?
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: That that word network is tossed around a lot, but what are we talking about exactly?
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, your network is the web of relationships that you have.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: For example, if you're looking to hire someone in your business, it's gonna be hard to do.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be hard to get a really good person if you don't know that many people.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: But it'll be a lot easier to find a great team member if you have a lot of high-quality relationships with other successful people.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't pay attention to building my network for a long time.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: I rarely connected with new people and I didn't put a lot of effort into seeking out relationships where I could add value.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that's because I just never knew that relationships were a critical part of your success.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: It just wasn't on my radar screen.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: I just assumed that highly successful people got to where they were because they just worked really hard or because they were really smart.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: But then a couple of years ago, I started to take this a lot more seriously.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the more success literature that I that I read, and the more I started to listen to smart people like Dan Miller, Seth Godin, and Bob Berg, among many, many others, the more that I did those things, I realized that success has way more to do with your network than with your innate talent.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Your talent or your automatic level of talent that you were born with, you know, that really doesn't account for that much when it comes to your overall success.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: It really almost has very little to do with it because you get to where you are based on your relationships, your network, how hard you work, how smart you work, and other kinds of things that you can bring into your life, even if you don't feel like you have this amazing talent for whatever.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: So a few years ago, I started to be more intentional about building my relationships and growing my network.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I have a lot of growing to do in this area, trust me.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: But now I realize how important it is.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: And it's one of those things where, you know, sometimes you don't know what you don't know, like you're not aware of what you need to learn.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: But now it's a situation where I know what I don't know.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it's okay that you don't know something, but if you're not aware of it, that doesn't give you a chance to improve on it.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: But if you know that you need to learn something, that's when you can really make magic happen because then you can seek out people and resources that can help you achieve that goal.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: So let me share 10 practical ways to expand your network.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna go into detail on any of these, I'm just gonna list these out.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: I will crank these out.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why I said crank.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: I have no idea why I use that term.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to dive into these 10 areas on a podcast episode, I think, in a few weeks.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: But let me just list these out for you here.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: These are 10 simple ways to expand your network.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, start a podcast and interview successful people in your niche.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what I do here on this show.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, be a guest on other people's podcasts.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, connect with people in your niche on LinkedIn and send them personalized videos.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I say video, I don't mean a video where you're pitching yourself.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean a video just to say what you appreciate about them or to just say hello.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Number four, share other people's posts on Facebook and LinkedIn.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Number five, after you read a good book, email the author and post a book review on Amazon.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Number six, join a Facebook group that's related to your niche.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Number seven, join a paid community or a mastermind in your niche.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Number eight, start your own mastermind group.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Number nine, send gifts and handwritten cards to people.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: And number ten, give referrals for other people.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: So in fact, somebody uh in fact, just this past week, two people called me and said, Hey, do you know anybody who could help me with this?
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: So now I'm seeking out some people in my life who then I can refer to those friends who need some help.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I when I share this list of 10 things, the number one reaction most people will have to this kind of a thing is, oh, Kent, but that sounds like so much work.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, it can be time consuming.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: It absolutely does take up time and emotional energy.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: But consider this your relationships are the most important thing that you have in your life.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the very reason why you must do this, why you must grow your network and add value to those relationships is because so few people are actually putting the time in to do that.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's virtually no competition because most people are not willing to do the hard work of building a great network over time.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, again, as I said, I'll go into more detail about these in a future episode uh in the next month or two.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: But those 10 things will definitely get you started in the right direction.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so mistake number one is failing to expand your network.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Mistake number two.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like that old commercial, but wait, there's more.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there's two other mistakes.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dive into number two not having a clear niche.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the harsh reality of business.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: If people don't know what you do, they're going to ignore you.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: In the world of business, people are look people are looking for others who can help them solve a problem.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: So what problem is it that you solve?
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't think about this question for a very, very long time.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: I thought of my writing as something that maybe helped people, and it was also fun to do.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I created a business a few years ago, I did it by writing podcast show notes for a few clients.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, in fact, I still write podcast show notes for one client.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And over the next two years, I did some freelance work like writing articles and blog posts and editing and formatting books.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: I also dabbled in consulting, coaching, teaching guitar lessons, doing part-time ministry and music and some other things as well.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: The bottom line was that I was not focused.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: People had no idea what I actually did in my writing business because I was sending extremely mixed signals to the world.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, when people would get on my Facebook feed, they might see something about, oh, here's a here's an article about creativity you might like, or hey, here's a picture from my my part-time ministry, or hey, here's something from my college teaching, or hey, here's this interesting book I read, you know, that has nothing to do with writing or creativity.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: I was just sending completely confusing signals to people.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And as a result, they would think of me.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm talking, I'm talking in terms of a business sense, they would look at me and go, well, I don't, he's a nice guy, but I don't really know what problem he can solve for me.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: So this is why last year I decided to focus on ghostwriting.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: And when I chose that niche, and when I started to talk publicly about it everywhere, that's when things really started to happen for me.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to hear the specific reasons why I chose ghostwriting, go back a couple episodes and listen to episode 187.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I go into great detail about why I chose ghostwriting as opposed to some other kind of business or writing niche.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: So the bottom line is that you need to pick a niche so people know what you do.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: What is the specific problem you solve?
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the problem that I solve.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is very simple.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Most business leaders lack the time and expertise to write content that gets results.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: I write amazing content so you can save time, stand out from the competition, and get more leads that turn into customers and clients.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, you might notice that is uh I say a part of that in my podcast intro.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's because this podcast is this podcast is designed to be a funnel of sorts for prospective clients or for people who might be interested in future books or courses or masterminds or coaching or whatever it is that I may decide to offer in the future.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, this podcast is directly related to my ghostwriting because it's all the same thing in terms of I'm helping people grow their business with the power of writing, whether that is helping you by doing, you know, by sharing content on this podcast, or whether it's by doing a more specialized and far more expensive done-for-you service like ghostwriting a book for you.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's all really the same thing.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's helping people with my writing skills and my teaching skills.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's how I got to that one-liner.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Here's how I got to that sort of business description of explaining what it is that I do.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: I simply read Donald Miller's excellent book called Marketing Made Simple.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna recommend that you stop this podcast right now and go buy a copy of that book and then finish listening to this later.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't finish this episode, that's okay too.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Just get that book, whatever you gotta do, because that book has been so incredibly helpful to me, I cannot overstate its importance to giving me some clarity and further focus in my ghostwriting business.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: It is very easy to get paralyzed by indecision.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: I know because I've been there.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're talking to the king of indecision here, truly.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: And if you can't decide on a business direction as far as your writing goes, if you can't decide on what you want to do or how you want to serve people or what problem you solve, make a list of all the things that you want in your ideal business and then find a niche that fits those criteria.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, you're just gonna spin your wheels and you're gonna be just another general writer.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to take your writing business to the next level, people need to know exactly what you do and how it helps solve a problem that they have.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really the bottom line.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's move on to mistake number three.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let me grab another drink of water real quick.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, mistake number three is always studying and never taking action.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again just to drive home the point.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Always studying and never taking action.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, probably half the people listening to this are thinking, oh, you've just described me.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: And if that's you, brother or sister, I totally feel your pain because I completely relate to that.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: But let me let me share with you a bit about this and uh how we can address this.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: You've probably heard the saying that there are two kinds of people, the ready, aim, fire people and the ready fire aim people.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: I have found in my admitted admittedly limited experience in the business world, I have found that the most successful entrepreneurs and business people tend to be the ready fire aim people.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, they prepare, they take action, and then they adjust and take another run at it.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a perfectionist, this makes you very uncomfortable.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot stand the idea of doing something in a messy or a sloppy way.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I can relate to this because I'm a recovering perfectionist also.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't even begin to tell you how many books, courses, webinars, free PDFs, email lists, podcasts, and conferences I've been to over the last five or six years, hoping that one of those things would be the magic bullet that finally gave me clarity about my business direction.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's very easy to spend all your time on the ready and the aim part without actually doing the fire part and pulling the trigger.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: So this means, or here's how this can play out, okay, in a practical situation.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe you can relate to some of these.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: When we do that, whenever we always are getting ready, we're always aiming, but we never fire.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: This means that we spend all of our time preparing to write a book.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: We spend a lot of time preparing to launch a podcast.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: We spend time preparing to launch a website or start an email list or start a blog.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: We're preparing to start that business or preparing to pitch that client with a proposal.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: We prepare those things, but we don't actually pull the trigger and do them.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: So the problem with over-preparation is that when you do all that research and prep, it feels like you're making progress, but in reality, you're just procrastinating.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: You're just putting off the launch because you don't want to take the risk of failing.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: So whatever you're working on, or whatever project that you're doing that would move your business forward, I encourage you to set a deadline and just pull the trigger whether you're ready to go or not.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: You can always go back and make adjustments.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's the beauty of the age that we live in is you know, almost everything is overdoable.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: You can get a do-over, you can put up another version of your book, you can replace a podcast episode with an updated version.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: I've done that before.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: You can always make adjustments.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we have this idea that the world is watching our every move.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: And we imagine that if we're less than perfect, we will be the object of ridicule by others.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: But nothing could be further than the truth.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: The world is moving way too fast for people to pay that much attention to you and me.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: We're all too self-absorbed, we're all too busy, we're all too consumed with all of our own lives to really worry that much about anybody else.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, whatever you're doing, just launch that sucker and make adjustments as you go.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine what your life and your business would have been like right now if you had just launched that project or that business six months ago or a year ago.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: And conversely, this time next year, you will have wished that you would have taken a lot more action and did way less research and study and procrastination.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, I'm speaking to you as someone who my whole life has been a perfectionist.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: It drove me nuts in school if I did not make an A in every course.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: But I gotta tell you, you know, those straight A students oftentimes have trouble adjusting in the real world of business, in the real world of launching something of your own.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: They're really good at following rules, but they oftentimes are not so good at creating something and building something that can really give them freedom in their lives.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: So if you were not a straight A student, that is totally okay.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: Grades are not everything.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: I can promise you that.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Speaking as a college professor, grades are not necessarily an indicator of success.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and if you're a straight A student, if you were that valedictorian type of a person, 4.0 GPA, uh, I would encourage you to let go of your perfectionism because that impulse to want to perfect everything is actually gonna really, really hurt you in your business and if you're building something um that could serve other people because you're always gonna want to put off the launch and just tweak it a little bit more.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: But you can't tweak, you gotta launch that sucker.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: So let's do it, let's make this progress, let's set that perfectionism aside and really make a run at building the kind of life and business that we want.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: So before I wind this uh episode down, let me summarize these three points that we've talked about here.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, expand your network.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, pick a niche.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, take action.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my friend, that is the end of this episode.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: I hope this helps you to avoid some of the mistakes that I have made.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: If I've accomplished that goal with this episode, then I will have succeeded.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening, and remember that you can find lots more resources for writers at KentSanders.net.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, remember that your writing has the power to change people's lives.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you in the next episode.