I write for a living. I help other people write. I coach them on how to do it. Sometimes I do it for them and help them place it in the newspapers. Sometimes I develop long-term strategic plans to help people bolster their reputations.
Above all, though, I’m a coach. So, I’m going to unleash my inner coach on you. Beware. He’s a little bit scary. But he wants you to succeed…
The biggest barrier most of my clients need to overcome with their writing is: They don’t do it.
Ask yourself: When was the last time I wrote something for public consumption? Anything at all?
I’ll wait. 😉
I bet the answer is a lot longer than you would prefer. Meantime, I bet there’s somebody you’re in competition with who’s always out there talking. You feel they don’t deserve attention as much as you do. You might persuade yourself you prefer to get on with doing important work. Your reputation isn’t as important as your impact.
Sorry. Those are all rather tired excuses, I’m afraid. Because the best projects tend to go to the people with the best reputations. So does the funding. I haven’t heard many of my clients tell me they locked themselves away for 10 years and “in came the millions.” Your reputation precedes you. In some cases, it’s more important than the actual work you’re doing. So, if you’re not investing in it, then you’re failing yourself and your ambitions over the longer term.
I told you Coach Davis was a little bit scary. He’s a little bit forthright. He’s the maniac drill instructor of your nightmares. He’s like a fitness instructor all clad in Lycra. But: He works.
I’ve tried flattering clients. I’ve tried cajoling them. It doesn’t work.
Lately I’ve started telling people I write a newsletter once a week that’s made me over $100,000. That seems to get their attention.
In fact, you’re reading it, right now. I have about 160 subscribers through my website. And about 500 on LinkedIn. That’s not a huge number in Internet terms. But when I count the jobs that have come in over the last three years from people who read this, it’s more than $100,000. If I can do it, you can do it. All you must do is sit down for an hour once a week and write something, then put it out there. It’s that simple.
I ask myself: Why on earth wouldn’t you do that? These days with AI, you don’t even need to be that good at writing. You can have a bot draft your thoughts out for you and then do a quick polish. Done. There goes that excuse.
Here’s what scares me, though. It’s that with all this support out there to get your thoughts into the universe, most of us keep schtum. We lurk on the sidelines letting other people dominate. The sheer amount of nonsense content on LinkedIn, for example, is mind-boggling to me. And yet we’d prefer to let others fill the atmosphere with it than put a little marker out of our own.
Coach Davis asks: Do you want to be successful? Do you want to have an impact in the world? Or would you prefer to sit back and let everything pass you by? What do you want people to know you for? If there was one thing you want people to remember about you when you’re gone, what is it?
They’re tough questions, but I realized that by asking them I can help people on a deeper level. And if the answers still elude you then at least focus on writing more to bring in some money over the shorter term. Money can’t buy you happiness but it can buy you nice clothes to wear when you’re depressed.
Coach Davis loves an affirmation. Try it. “I deserve to be successful. I’m a winner.”
Now go get ’em, champ!
Meanwhile I’m very grateful indeed to everybody who’s referred me for work, and to all my amazing clients. If you’d like to be one of them, then let’s talk. I always love a good conversation, even if that’s all it is.
Thanks for reading, as always.
