Greetings, Substackers! I hope you’re having a great week!
I want to confess something to you—there have been periods of time during my freelance writing career where I have not pitched a single thing out of sheer laziness, self-doubt/thinking my pitch wouldn’t be accepted, and fear of rejection. Sometimes I’d have enough assigned work coming in to scrape by, but if I’m being honest with myself and looking at my habits objectively, it’s actually really damaged my freelance career. I could have done so much better if only I’d made an effort!
The nature of freelancing is that you really do have to be a self starter and the output of ideas and pitches can feel constant at times. At the bare minimum, it needs to be consistent. For me, those feelings of self-doubt tend to compound, amplifying themselves into paralysis and even periods of depression. The obvious result is a stagnant writing career and feeling like when I do randomly pitch something and it gets accepted, that small victory is a one-off.
I have been a bystander watching other writer’s freelance careers hit goal after goal with envy—but also without wanting to change any of my own negative habits. If you’ve ever heard the expression, “Get out of your own way,” this is what they’re talking about. It’s like a dog chasing its tail—a pointless and repetitive action, where my thought process is I’m not getting (fill in the blank—enough work, placement in top tier publications, enough money, enough articles I want).
Editors are not coming to find you.
I mean, there are exceptions, of course, where I’ve been contacted on the recommendation of a colleague to work on a specific project, or when an editor will assign regular work, but when it comes to landing those dream assignments, you have to send that pitch.
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Jen Sincero, the bestselling author of You Are a Badass, You Are a Badass at Making Money, and Badass Habits (among other books—she’s also a speaker and a coach) has said, “When it comes to changing your life, if you’re not scared, you’re doing something wrong. Scare yourself every day and do something that makes you feel totally terrified. Make sure it’s something scary, something you’d rather not do because it’s super uncomfy, something that makes you feel like you might puke.”
I’ve been doing a lot of reading and listening to podcasts that are focused on business success, and last month, some of Sincero’s writing lit a fire under my chair (hence the April goals to land more work and pitch a ridiculous amount). I shut down the pity party, gave my apathy the boot, and stopped avoiding the stuff that I was afraid to do and that I was avoiding because I didn’t want to face being uncomfortable. I also have been giving myself pep talks when I compare myself to other people who I perceive to be more successful than I am or where I want to be—instead of thinking ‘that will never be me,’ I am thinking—what do I want, where do I want to be, and why wouldn’t it happen to me?
Was I scared? YES. I have been scared every day in April, but I have made great strides! Here are a few examples of my successes this month:
*Set a meeting with the editor of my book, Colorado Food Trails, to dig deeper into edits (totally avoiding this because I am afraid of criticism. Biting the bullet and doing it anyway.)
*Made a goal to get serious about paying off my debt and have cut two credit card bills in half so far this month by decreasing my spending and paying something toward the balance every week.
*Sent pitches I was afraid to send (in fact, when it really scared me, I wrote “BARF” in all caps right on my Trello cards that track the pitches I send out). One of those pitches resulted in TWO assignments for BBC Travel!
*Met the goal I set at the beginning of the month to write for a top-tier publication I’d worked with in the past.
*Have sent several cold intro emails, checked in with editors I’ve worked with in the past, and sent lots of new pitches to goal pubs, all part of my goal to reach 60 pitches by the end of this month.
*Started ramping up my online store to diversify my income.
*Taking baby steps towards: improving my Substack, adding in a podcast and YouTube content, and finishing my e-books.
*Haven’t quit! Not giving up totally counts in my book as a big success!
What are you doing today that scares the crap out of you? And what would you like to see in this Substack? Leave me a comment!
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Did You Catch Me On The Media in Minutes Podcast?
In February, I was a guest on the Media in Minutes podcast hosted by Angela Tuell. We talked about how I got into freelance writing, how PR professionals can best work with writers, how to become a successful freelance writing, and my coaching sessions.
Check it out on the Media in Minutes site or on Spotify (below)