Why I will always write even if no one cares
The most important mindeset to have if you want to make online writing work.
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Here’s the email I sent out on Sunday.
Hey there!
I'm gonna be brutally honest with you.
I hit a roadblock in the last week or so.
My engagement had dropped heavily, I started a new email list dropping from 500 subs to barely 50.
I felt like I was failing.
I quickly realised I was being weak and told myself to suck it up, and keep writing.
So this led to a thought I had recently:
Even if no one read a single thing I read. I'd still publish something every single day.
I've seen so many people quit writing because they get hopeless.
They feel like no one is reading their stuff.
Here's my philosophy:
The more you write, the more opportunities you create.
It's as simple as that.
Now, if you aren't hitting that publish button week after week, read on, I guarantee I'll make you want to now.
Look, I get it.
The thought of starting an online presence is daunting.
Especially at the beginning, when you're shooting your work into the endless black hole of content.
It's depressing, it's discouraging, it takes serious effort.
And you most likely won't make any money for a good few months, maybe even for a year.
"So what on earth possesses you to be bothered?"
Well, my friend, this is the mindset I want to talk to you about:
The Lifestyle-Creator Mindset
I want to ask you a question. Think hard about it, pause, and put your phone down if you have to.
Are you attracting the opportunities you want to right now?
If you answered no, then I'm almost certain you aren't leveraging your online presence enough.
I went from a struggling creator, having months where I'd earn as little $100, to building 2.7k followers on LinkedIn in 9 months, working as a premium ghostwriter with 7-8 figure founders all across the world, hopping on 3-5 sales calls every week, and more.
How did I do this?
I rid out the grit of the early days.
I posted 5x a week, and I networked my a*s off.
It's as simple as that.
But no one will see that beneath the surface level, I had been writing for 4 years before I got to this point.
I started writing as a 17-year-old locked in his room during Covid - to being well on my way to building my solo-writing business.
Now what is the 'Lifestyle-Creator Mindset' exactly?
It's gonna sound super wishy-washy, but who cares...
It's about understanding that every single post you fire out there, on whatever platform, is a step towards building the lifestyle you want.
It's about giving the chance for people to come across you and your ideas, and give you the opportunity of a lifetime.
I always tell myself, that it only takes one 'yes' to change your life.
Just like it only takes 2-3 yeses to be making upwards of $5,000 a month.
3 clients at $2.5k / mo = $7.5k /mo. That smells like freedom to me...
Out of the millions of people online, it can't be impossible to convince 2 people to say yes to you, right?
"A blog is the ideal machine for turning flow into stock: One little blog post is nothing on its own, but publish a thousand blog posts over a decade, and it turns into your life’s work." - Austin Kleon, 'Show Your Work'.
It doesn't have to be a blog, it can be a newsletter, it can be LinkedIn or X posts.
Just hit publish. It compounds over time.
Do you think the big names in writing like Nicolas Cole, Matt Barker, Charles Miller, and Dakota Robertson, didn't start with zero audience?
You have to build that audience from scratch. And it's more than possible, it just takes consistency.
That's it from me.
I hope I've inspired you to keep going. If you're struggling with where to build and how to make a business from it all, book a call with me here: https://calendly.com/alenbasic/book-a-call
I'd be happy to give you some value.
Remember, if you want to keep reading these emails, I’ve moved my newsletter to ConvertKit. Click this button to keep getting these emails.
Something I listened to last week:
Lessons From Selling Morning Brew For $75 Million At 28 - Alex Lieberman
I've quickly become a great fan of Alex Lieberman, his whole story is fascinating.
He sold a newsletter he started in college, for $75M. He used to collect sign-ups by going around with a pad and paper on campus to collect emails.
Hearing about these founding stories is invigorating. It gives you energy.
Even more so, it shows us the power of newsletters.
They also go on to talk a lot about writing, storytelling in particular.
Alex is starting a bunch of new businesses, one of which is a ghostwriting agency specialising in storytelling for founders and executives.
As I'm in the same space at the moment, it was an interesting listen.
A quick on-theme book recommendation:
'Show Your Work!' By Austin Kleon
Seeing as I was talking about the power of starting a presence online, and publishing content consistently, this book is exactly about that. It's one of the books that has had the greatest impact on me in my creator journey. I read it 3 years ago, and it's stuck with me ever since. Definitely check it out. I’ve recommended this book more times than I can count.
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