I started my freelance writing career in 2009.
But I’m not quite sure how long it was before I felt any kind of ‘peace’ with it.
In fact, now that I’m writing about the concept of finding zen in your business (which, to be honest, is just something I thought about this morning while getting ready to start my work for the day), I’m not sure that I’ve ever found actual peace with freelance writing.
(You’ll have to forgive me if this blog post seems a bit scattered. I don’t usually write business-oriented content on my platform—but I’m wanting to write more of it because it’s so important, and because it’s time for me to speak up about some of the important lessons I’ve learned in the 13+ years that I’ve been pursuing financial freedom in my life.)
I think the reason for why I’ve never exactly felt ‘peace’ with my freelance writing business, in any sort of ‘holistic’ sense, is simply because there’s always been a small part of me that has wondered:
“Where’s the next project going to come from? After my current docket of projects has been completed, will I find enough work to fill up my calendar again? Will I be able to pay my bills next month, and the month after? Will all of ‘this’ still be working a year from now?”
See, there are no guarantees in business.
But then again, there are no guarantees in life, are there?
So business isn’t necessarily disproportionately risky; especially once you’ve taken everything into account.
You might even say that, nowadays, it’s riskier not to start your own business.
Is there really anything more frightening or unnerving than knowing that, for the rest of your life, you’re going to be paid a certain number of dollars per hour by an employer based on how valuable your skillset is determined to be in the general maketplace… and that this income stream will never be replicable and/or scalable beyond your ability to work more hours?
This idea, to me, is utterly horrifying.
But anyway… for me, working in a business like freelance writing, lead generation and customer acquisition have always been areas that I struggled to make peace with.
Why?
Because on one level, I guess you could say that it’s simply because there are no guarantees that more clients are going to come knocking on your door, trying their hardest to throw money at you while you do keyboard gymnastics with words, blog posts, and landing pages.
And even for someone like me, who has veritable nerves of steel (or something close to that), this existential threat looms dark and dreadful over the hours of 8 to 5 Monday through Friday, and for a few additional blocks of time in the mornings on the weekends.
(I am, after all, a 7-day-a-week kind of working man.)
However, on another level, I think that it really speaks to my lack of experience with creating sustainable growth in the ‘client acquisition’ part of the business.
Now don’t get me wrong. Ever since I started my freelance writing business in 2009, I’ve never yet really gone any significant amount of time without having a solid docket of work.
I have always been pretty ‘on top’ of the business of getting those new projects and finding new clients (albeit sometimes with a bit of painful difficulty, pricing compromises that probably should never have been made, shaky hands and a pounding pulse from too much caffeine consumption, and a substantial amount of forehead sweat to show for the stress.)
But all jokes aside—over time, this process did start to wear on me.
It got to the point where I was feeling a lot more ‘tired’ and a lot less ‘Zen’ than I always hoped to feel on a day-to-day basis; especially for someone who was more than a decade-deep in the self-employment game.
And this is what leads us to the topic of finding Zen in your business…
These days, for me, building a business is just one segmented part of a larger process of building a life that I love, that I’m passionate about, that I’m committed to, and that I see myself being able to find peace with on a sustainable basis for all of the foreseeable future.
And included in this is the following:
I don’t want to have to stress out about finding clients in the future.
This is partly why I create content for my alpha mentality membership platform.
Creating content helps me to generate a never-ending stream of traffic, comprised of awesome like-minded people who, based on the internet searches that led them to my blogs, YouTube videos, and/or podcast episodes, have a higher likelihood than most of joining me in my mastermind tribe to get to work on the business of creating amazing alpha-mentality lives for themselves.
Don’t get me wrong.
I love to write.
I have zero doubt that I’ll be engaged in the lucrative business of freelance writing until the day I die. And I find a lot of joy and fulfillment in writing good stuff that helps people to make their lives better.
In fact, I have a feeling that some of my last words on my deathbed will probably sound something like this:
“Hold on, let me just proofread this blog post quick. *Gasp… Then you can pull the plug, doc. I don’t want any typos in it.”
With that being said, in the future, I want to be super selective about my clients—and I only want to work for rates that I deem completely worthwhile.
But what do you need in life in order to command a rate for your skill that’s actually worthwhile?
In my experience, you need at least two things.
- You need to be capable of delivering value in measure with the amount of money you wish to earn.
- You need leverage.
Creating content helps me to build an audience—which, to a point, is leverage.
But it’s also a client acquisition funnel system that’s laying the groundwork for a process that will automatically bring new potential clients/customers to the doors of my business every day for the rest of my life…
…If I stick with it, and if I continue to perform this function of content creation correctly, that is.
And of course, there’s a lot of additional compounding value built into this as well.
When I think about a client, I don’t just think about them being someone who gives me money in exchange for goods or services.
I think about them as being people who, like me, want to learn how the alpha mentality can help them to transform their life.
(Do you want to learn more about this alpha mentality stuff and what it actually means? Download my free ebook: An Introduction To The Alpha Mentality: The Evolutionary Key To Succeeding At Dating, Relationships, Business, Fitness, And Everything Else That Matters.)
Like me, these people want to become part of an elite group of top-level, high-performance humans who are minding their business, getting their money, pursuing their purpose, leveling up mind, body, and spirit, and diligently setting themselves the task of becoming 1% better every day than they were yesterday.
And as I get better at this whole ‘business’ thing, I get better at delivering on the product—my mastermind tribe/membership community, which helps to facilitate the ‘transformation’ part of this mechanism.
In fact, it is this ‘transformation mechanism’ that gives this particular value proposition leverage—though of course, all of this still hinges on the fact that I can actually deliver the transformation.
In other words, it has to be real.
There can’t be any bullshit or fake nonsense included.
This is hard work, actually.
It’s not necessarily easy to figure out how to turn someone who’s struggling enough with dating, money, fitness, relationships, or mindset to Google answers about ‘how to fix it’ into a completely self-actualized, self-validated, motivated millionaire alpha leader with an amazing dating life, relationship skills, and a six-pack that hurts your feelings when you punch it with your bare fist.
But that’s the business I want to be in—partly because thats what I’m passionate about, and partly because that’s exactly the journey that I’m on in my own life.
And since I’m passionate about it, I can actually create passionate, purpose-driven content that helps people to answer their questions.
Plus, I can speak about the journey from the front lines; which, in my opinion, adds a ton of context and value.
Hopefully, this content helps people to transform their lives.
However, it also goes without saying that there’s room to go deeper.
And that’s where my membership community comes in.
This, being the premium offering, is where the most serious transformations should be taking place.
This is where the rubber should really be meeting the road in a serious way.
And once again, I take this task very seriously.
And because I take it seriously, and because that is actually the primary focus of my life’s work and mission (creating this transformation for people), I’m getting better every day at delivering on it.
And obviously, as you get better at delivering the product, the results get better.
And as I learn more about how to market this program, I’ll reach more people.
I’ll also convert more customers automatically as my content reach grows—because it’ll place more eyes on a viable business offering that fills a need, and that actually delivers on the promise.
And so, that’s the long way around how I’m solving the client acquisition problem that I’ve had for years with my freelance writing business with my new business platform.
And to me, this is really the ‘zen’ of it.
This is the laying of a foundation that’s going to help bring clients through my doors for the rest of my life.
So with every new piece of content that I create, I create a little bit of zen… or, peace… for myself.
Why?
Because I’m building a little bit more security for my future every time I publish something.
How?
By making sure that with every new piece of content that I create and put out there, I’m reinforcing not only my entire business strategy and value proposition—but also becoming better at creating the deliverable.
I’m also increasing the chances that like-minded people will come across my work, find value in it, and possibly jump onto the ship and sail with me on this epic alpha mentality journey.
I don’t know about you, but when I think about my life in these very definitive terms—not only does it excite me, but it also brings me a tremendous amount of peace.
I believe in it.
It brings me peace because I’m confident that I’ve found my purpose in life.
And it brings me peace because I’m confident that I have what it takes to live up to this big life purpose.
Don’t get me wrong. Every day, this is a huge challenge.
But every day, it’s also a challenge that’s more than worth it.
Brick by brick, the castle is built. And castle by castle, you’ll build yourself an empire (or die trying).
And hey… what more can you ask for?
That’s life. And it’s not a bad gig, considering that this experience seems to be a ‘free chance’ to make something excellent of ourselves.
That’s all I’ve got for today. I appreciate you sticking with these Monday morning ramblings!
Ladies and gentlemen—go with grace, and never give up your power.
Until next time…
Joshua K. Sigafus