Hey everyone,
I’ve been teaching my 8-year-old son the basics of online business. He’s initiated me into the world of YouTube gamers and we’ve been looking at these young people, some with millions of followers, and deconstructing what they’re doing right.
If you run a business, no matter whether it’s as a writer online or a shop offline, there are three things that you will do:
- You will create something.
- You will build an audience.
- You will sell the thing you created to the audience you built.
So simple, right?
For my son, the moment I pointed these things out, they became super obvious. He could see how the people he follows do those things and he could also see what they did in particular that made HIM follow them, love them, and want to buy from them.
But do you know how long it took me to learn these things?
How long it takes most of us to learn them?
How many writers do you know who have tens of thousands of Twitter followers but who wouldn’t know the first thing about monetizing that audience?
How many writers do you know who can create all day long but struggle when it comes to selling? (Or feel embarrassed to?)
How many writers do you know who’d love to start a blog about the things they love or create an audience around a passion but don’t have the first idea of where to begin attracting the people who might find it interesting?
As writers, we often don’t see ourselves as businesses, and that is such a mistake in my book because that query letter, that book proposal, that interview you do on Oprah? They’re all sales pitches. You have something you’ve created (your article, your essay, your book), and you are asking someone to buy it. Anyone who’s written a book proposal will tell you that how you plan to market that book is at least as important as the actual subject and writing of the book itself.
Writers want to write. We see ourselves as people who work with words. But many of us often forget that without someone to buy those words, they will remain unread.
These are, of course, lessons that I have learned over many years, sometimes the hard way. But my son is able to integrate them into his mindset right away.
Because he has someone teaching him, coaching him, guiding him through the process. He has someone who is talking to him in terms that he understands, by using the examples that are natural to him, and helping him put them in a different perspective.
That is what coaching does.
I work with a writing mentor and coaches now, and I’m so glad I do because in the years that I didn’t, I struggled along by myself, with more trial and error than was necessary.
Trial and error is important, don’t get me wrong, and you will be doing it anyway. But there’s real value in having someone with years and decades of experience find the one small tweak that you could make that will change everything.
I had this happen with my novel last year. Because my second novel is fairly autobiographical, I was really struggling with how to separate myself from the character I was creating. My writing mentor got on the phone with me and we talked through it, she gave me some tips, and I was good to go. It’s not that I didn’t have that advice before, but she was able to put it into practical terms, use examples from my novel, and really help me apply it in a way that I hadn’t been able to do alone.
I had a similar thing happen with the business just a couple of weeks ago. I’ve gone through some personal stuff in the last few years, which has led me to hiding a bit online. I’d gone to a coach to ask for help with the mindset piece of this, but also with the practicality of how to do it effectively. It’s funny because we only spoke for about 15 minutes and I was the one who came up with the solution in the end, but without that phone call, without him helping me approach things differently, without him forcing me to put into simple words the complicated mess in my head, I would never have been able to get to the solution.
I used to think coaches were valuable if they could tell you what to do.
But now I see coaches as more valuable if they can help you reach a point where you can think for yourself, and reach answers for yourself.
That’s the kind of coach I love and the kind of writing mentor I hope I am.
I don’t just want to give you answers, though of course I will when needed. I want to equip you to be able to pull yourself out of the muck so that you can come up with the answers yourself, not just when you’re working with me, but long after.
I can’t stress enough the value of finding mentors that speak to you and who can help you avoid the five, ten, or twenty years you’ll spend in your career reinventing the wheel.
But don’t just follow or learn from anybody. Learn from the people you admire, people who speak your language, people who speak the truth that resonates with you.
I reduced my writing time on my novels because I worked with an editor who helped me see where I was making it more difficult than it needed to be. I’m putting renewed focus on growing my audience because a mentor who helps entrepreneurs pointed out that this was the stagnated piece in my business puzzle. And I’m constantly and always learning how to sell my products and services better, in a way that feels satisfying and aligned for me.
There aren’t a lot of things I wish I’d done differently in my career, but there is definitely one thing I would change– I am such a loner, believing that I need to struggle along by myself because I do things differently than most people, and therefore never asking for help– and that has certainly slowed my growth.
It took me a long time to find a writing mentor who, instead of trying to change the way in which I do things, showed me how to use them as my unique strengths and build upon them. I will not tell you just how many writers and coaches have told me not to send a daily email except for ONE business coach who encouraged me to send however many emails I wanted, whenever I wanted. He gave me permission to do things the way that felt right to me and this pretty much exploded my income– AND my readership! Writers routinely email to tell me that they’ve made me a part of their daily routine and look forward to my emails.
This is why it’s important to find a coach or a writing mentor who will not just repeat what worked for them and for their other clients, but who will take the time to understand who you are, what you’re trying to do, and the unique skills you bring to the table.
You don’t have to do this alone.
Cheers,
Natasha