FREE workshop alert! Freelance business basics is back!
Plus: Lessons learned from the Masked Singer.
Have you ever heard a famous person sing – I mean, really listen to them – and you realize that while their voice is fine, it’s certainly not as impressive as their bank balance would suggest. So what’s going on? Are they just lucky? Chances are they are hustling hard with the non-musical aspects of their career, working their marketing finesse, managing their money, making some very smart business decisions.
Then there are other famous artists whose voices are nothing short of spectacular but they’re clearly not running a tight ship off-stage. Bankruptcy filings, tax troubles, malicious managers. They should be at the top of their game yet they always seem on the cusp of fizzling out. What gives?
(As my mom and I are devoted fans of the Masked Singer, I naturally feel qualified to make sweeping generalizations about recording artists.)
Of course, the music industry is a messy, mercurial world and success or failure are complex measurements. But there’s something that all artists, including decidedly not-famous creators like you and me, can take from this. You don’t have to be a legendary talent in order to be a success and, even if you are, chances are that’s not enough.
I think that’s good news. That means our careers don’t depend on us being marketing mavens or masters of prose. We don’t have to write as well as Adele sings! I think we make it or break it on how well we manage four pillars of self-employment.
They are:
The thing we actually do. We’re writers! We write!
The administration and organization we all must grapple with, from ordering printer paper to crafting invoices.
The marketing efforts which show the world who we are, what we do, and why we love it so much.
The research and development work that furthers everything we do, from conferences which help us learn to contract research which protects our bottom line.
We all have one pillar we are great at, one which is our weak point, and the others are somewhere in the middle. We will all go through periods in which one pillar is weighing on us heavily while others play a smaller role. The path to success is through keeping everything in balance.
Does this resonate with you? Want a deeper dive? These four pillars are a major part of my Freelancing Business Basics workshop. This free session is the chance for all writers (whether they’re beginners or not) to glimpse inside my working life, see how I balance these competing priorities, and hear about my favourite resources that have proven so helpful to me over my 13-year career.
I’m so excited to share that this workshop is BACK and newsletter subscribers have the first chance to sign up (again, it’s FREEEEEEE!) So I hope you’ll join me…… Mark your calendars for Friday, May 23 at 10:00 AM EST.
Did I mention that it’s free? It’s totally free!
FREE!
Have a wonderful weekend, writing rockstars.