Episode 93: From $0 to $10,000/mo as a Freelance Writer (Clint Proctor Interview)

Speaker 1 (00:01):

All right, Clint. Well thank you again for being on inspire your success. Thanks man. Glad to be on the show today. Michael. Thanks for the opportunity. Absolutely, man. I’m so excited that we connected and uh, you know, I was just on your show and uh, like we talked about having a podcast, you just get to, uh, you know, meet awesome people and uh, one of my has connected us, so it’s kind of funny how that all works. So it’s pretty cool. When we talked I was like, wow, we got a lot in common and hopefully, you know, some differences though, to really help the listener here understand that everyone’s journey is going to be different. No two people have the same freelancing journey, entrepreneurial journey writing journey. So where did this all start for you? Yeah, it started for me back in 2018. Um, about midway through through 2018 I was working with my dad.

Speaker 1 (00:45):

My dad’s a pastor of a church here in Daytona beach, Florida. I worked on his staff. I enjoyed it, but I also knew that I kind of wanted to think about the next thing for me. I didn’t want to be the person to kind of take over after he was gone. And so I saw that, you know, I’m going to have to be eventually picking a new career, whether that be in my mid forties, whether that be now, I’d rather be doing that now closer to 30 rather than rather than later. And so I was, I was just kind of in this weird place because, you know, my dad, um, we’re, we’re close as a family and we’ve been at the same area for a long time. I haven’t had a whole lot of change in my life, to be honest with you. I kinda went straight from college into the position with him as he’s like this first time in my life where I just didn’t know what the next phase was.

Speaker 1 (01:25):

It was just, just kind of this odd time of searching where I was like, what do I want to do with my life? Kind of, what do I want my thirties to look like? And, uh, and so, uh, I, you know, I just kind of started having this time of self reflection where I was trying to think about just I think how anybody should, when you’re trying to figure out a career that you think is a good opportunity, what do you enjoy? What do you love? What are you passionate about? And I was really passionate about helping people with their personal finances. I had just said become a personal finance nerd when I was in high school. Uh, kind of like my senior year of high school into college, cause I knew I probably wasn’t gonna be making a ton of money working at the church, but I didn’t want that to hold me back from my, uh, like my goals as far as buying a home, uh, being able to travel the world with my wife.

Speaker 1 (02:10):

I really love travel. I didn’t want, I didn’t want the income to be a, uh, the hold me back and to be a restriction on those things. So I just like, I just got to become like a personal finance Ninja and figure this stuff out. So I became like super obsessed with the whole idea of saving, investing in that kind of stuff. And then I would share it with people and I’d be like, man, you’re making so much money but you just are, you’re dumb. You got to figure out how to, how to manage this better. And so I became someone that people would kind of turn to and I was like, you know, I really enjoy this. I get a lot of fulfillment out of helping people find financial freedom. Could I make a living in some way doing this? And so I honestly, I did not like land upon writing immediately.

Speaker 1 (02:48):

I, it took me a little while, as you said, everyone’s journey is different. And so I thought about being a CFP for awhile and becoming a financial planner, but I was like, you know, just not really, I’m not somebody who feels like I’m going to get excitement out of managing wealth for people. I kind of want to help them build well, like get to that point where they have wealth for somebody else to manage down the road. I want to help people get out of debt, help people find success. And then I was like, well, you know what, I’m reading all these articles online from people. That’s how I’ve learned how I could do that. Of course I didn’t realize how hard it is. I thought it would be simple. I could just create a site and I’d be ranking tomorrow. So that was kind of how it started.

Speaker 1 (03:26):

I’m like, I’m going to be a blogger. Uh, and so I started my blog in may of 2018. Um, and then in September of 2018 I went to a conference called fin con where I was hoping to grow my blog. Little did I know that it was going to change my life because I actually was going to learn about this new fangled idea for me called freelance writing. Uh, and that’s where a guy that I met who’s now a close friend of mine told me about the opportunity to make money writing for other publishers. And I got to meet some editors there. And, um, I said, well, you know what? Well if I want to make a full time living writing and I had a set of goal of a year from that point a year from May, 2018 so I wanted by May, 2019 to be doing something full time with writing. I’m like, I better try freelancing first and put this, this blog has maybe a longterm goal. And so I went all into it and then by yeah, by may of 2019 I was a full time writer. So that’s kinda my, my quick story there.

Speaker 2 (04:18):

I love it. No, there’s, there’s so many great takeaways there. I mean hopefully people can, one just, you know, you have to sometimes get quiet and figure out what you want so that way you can then go for it. And it sounds like that was a reflection process that you had and really helped you kind of map out what you wanted and then writing it down, putting that goal in front of you. Uh, and now you’re obviously crushing it with writing. And I think it all starts though with that first idea. So nice job with that side of things. And then, um, you know, with blogging and writing, I, I always talk about that a lot too because I think a lot of people want to get started online and a blog seat pool, you get to create this a laptop lifestyle and affiliate income and all that. And for me it was a huge failure and I just know so many people kind of struggle with blogging. So were you just like on the fence or did you say, Hey, was it pretty clear like I’m going to try freelancing instead of blogging?

Speaker 1 (05:09):

Yeah, well I just, like I said, I met this guy at this conference and I was like, man, I just love writing about personal finance stuff. I love helping people with writing, with writing about this and I just want to be able to make a living doing it. And he’s like, well dude, if you really want to make a living writing, he’s like, you know, the blog could be a really good longterm passive income stream. Um, but if you want to make money today, he’s like, you know, you might want to consider freelance writing. And I literally said, what’s freelance writing? I asked him that at the time. Uh, and once I realized that I could maybe get to a full time living, writing faster with freelance writing, it was no brainer for me cause that’s really all I cared about. Not that I today, I’m not going to say that I wouldn’t love to be able to be making a full time living off of my blog because it is more passive.

Speaker 1 (05:53):

It can be more passive, um, and it can give more freedom and you can, and you don’t really have as much of an income ceiling. I would say with blogging then you’re going to have, it’s, you are still trading time for money with writing. I get all those things, but I legitimately enjoy writing. I legitimately enjoy taking a complicated idea for most people and trying to make it understandable in a way that people can walk away and be like, Oh, okay, I get this. I know how this applies to my life and I feel more informed and protecting people from scam to protecting people from misinformation out there. Um, through their work, through the written word, to me it’s kinda cool because I could write an article today and it could be helping people three years from now. And so, um, the fact that I get paid to do that to me is like crazy. Um, and if you work hard and develop a good reputation, you can get paid very handsomely for it. Um, and you know, I was like, I was happy to make my first 50 bucks, bro. I was like, are you serious? This is insane. Uh, and then like within like 12 months, you know, I was making, you know, $10,000 a month. So like it’s been a crazy journey. I still can’t quite believe this is happening, so it’s been really awesome.

Speaker 2 (07:02):

Yeah, I mean I love that the, hopefully people can see, I mean you went from zero to your first post and then making five figures and, and I didn’t find it that fast, but I mean I definitely found that it just scales so easily and it’s just like that to me is one of the things where you can just literally get clients and just keep scaling and raise your rates and mix it up. But it’s like once you get that first one, a lot of things are possible. So how did you first land your client? Was it through fin con or, or if, if it was like, what was the first thing you did outside of that? Uh, that wasn’t referral-based Atlanta client.

Speaker 1 (07:36):

Sure. So yeah, I was fin con, I was at FinCon, I went and I have this thing called this freelance marketplace where you go and you sit down and like with like 30 editors where they’re trying to, trying to, you know, get people to work for their blogs. And so they would have this lines of people waiting to sit down at these tables to talk to these editors. And I have no paid writing experience. I mean, I’m the last person they’re going to pick. I mean, this is like a serious competitive room, right? So I’d like to sit down at all these tables, hand them my card and be like, you know, just try to put a smile on my face and just try to make a connection. And, uh, so thankfully I had my blog because I didn’t have any paid writing experience, but I did have that.

Speaker 1 (08:15):

So I could be like, you know, I don’t, I haven’t written for any sites as a freelance writer yet, but you can check out some of my, you know, my writing on my site. I’d love for you to see the quality of my work is something that would work for you. Um, and I’ll follow up. And so I did, I sent a follow up emails to all these people. I only heard back, I want to say from one at the time. And um, and it was a 5 cent per word, uh, client. And uh, they were, it was like a newer site. It was a second site for this guy who owned another larger sites. He’s kind of like almost had his own little content mill, so to speak. And uh, and they were like, does this work for you, this rate? And they wanted me to start with a trial article first.

Speaker 1 (08:52):

Even at that rate I was, I was, I worked for the same client. I know exactly. Okay. So I was like, yes, yes, yes to all that. I’m like, are you serious? I was getting paid 5 cents per word. To me that was like, awesome. So I was like, in this, I’ll do the trial article. So I wrote it like this. Aw man. I think my first assignment was X places to find a notary near notary Republic near you. I mean, I came up with 19 freaking places. It was like the most just awful topic. You could imagine. I wrote stuff for that client, like, you know, um, X places to that to offer free fax services near you. I mean, it was just insane stuff. My, uh, my worst one for that client was how to write a check.

Speaker 1 (09:38):

Yup, yup, yup. Exactly 1500 or 2000 words. Yeah. Yeah. You know, 21 ways to uh, to make money scanning grocery receipts. I mean all kinds of stuff like this. But yeah, it was painful. You gotta start somewhere and I’m not saying that you should take like super low rates, but I think the biggest thing is like you should just get in there and like once you like get paid, even though it was 50 bucks or whatever it was like how much confidence did that just like instill in you? Yeah, it did. And uh, so uh, around that time I also took a, I know you have a writer’s course and I took a writer’s course around that time and it really helped me kind of, I would say clarify my vision, helped me see, okay, this is the process that a professional minded writer needs to follow somebody who’s serious about this.

Speaker 1 (10:25):

And I had a date, I had a day job at the time, so you know, I was getting up and I was riding from like five to eight and then doing my eight to five was kind of how I did it. So I was putting about 15 hours per week into my side hustle and um, and so I was able to build it to about, I mean it wasn’t that much. It was probably like, I mean it was much if it was a side hustle, but as far as it becoming my day job, I think it was up to like $4,000 a month. I want to say when I left my day job so I wasn’t like, Oh, a lot more credit, man. That’s huge. You kidding me? Most people, I mean the average salary in the U S like 56,000 pre pandemic. So I mean you were only what people make and your side hustle and that’s smart that you did the, the side hustle before you quit.

Speaker 1 (11:06):

I’m like me, but I was scared, man. I was scared to launch out. I was like, gosh, I’m like about that too. Um, what uh, cause that’s, that’s a big thing for people is like, do I do this on the side? Do I quit on and there’s no one way to do it. Everyone’s situation I feel like should be different. But what, what were you experiencing and like was there a certain amount you had to make to prove to yourself or what find finally made? Yeah, I wanted to be at 80% of my day job income is what I wanted to be at. I felt like if I could be at 80% of my, of my day job income working 15 to 20 hours per week, I thought I could, I could push myself over the edge. Um, once I went to full time. And then I also didn’t spend any of my side hustle income during that year.

Speaker 1 (11:52):

So I saved penny of it, so that I built up myself a nice savings pot to where if I needed to kind of have this gradual on ramp to this full time writing life, I could thankfully within like two months of launching full time, I had like doubled my income, which was great. But I mean I was prepared for that not to be the case. Um, and so that I would say is important. I think a lot of people are like, I have one client, I know I can do this full time and you know, maybe you can, um, and if you have an emergency fund in place and you want to take that risk, I say, okay, whatever, go for it. Um, but if you don’t have an emergency fund in place and you only have maybe one client in a few articles that you’re getting paid for, you know, you might want to be careful not to leave your day job until you, unless you’re pretty sure that this is going to be something that you can make a living with.

Speaker 1 (12:39):

And so for me, it helped me to have, you know, by eight to nine months of, of like figuring out the process before I went out and like made it my day job and then, uh, did it full time and it was almost like, in some ways it was almost like I got like, I got like a, you know, a relief cause I was working a day job plus these hours and then I was like, Oh wow, that’s all I have to do now. Um, so it was like I was scaling back in a sense but making more money. So, uh, so yeah, it was really, it was good. I remember going back to what you asked me earlier about like, you know, how did I find clients? So it’s funny, like I found that first client, 5 cents a word, the only other client to respond to me responded two and a half months after my initial email.

Speaker 1 (13:24):

Okay. So my, my semi followup email a week after the conference, this client didn’t respond until like two months later. It ended up being the highest paid client probably at that conference. And, um, they had, it was just crazy respect out. Oh, I’m sorry as long to get back to you. I’d like to set up a phone call. I’m like, are you kidding me? Holy crap. I’m like, yeah. So uh, I talked to them on the phone. She liked the guy. I guess she must have liked the conversation enough to send me to the next stage, which was a trial article, which after that I got the gig. So to this day, that’s still my highest pay client and at the time I was writing for 5 cents a word and that client couldn’t have been more opposite man

Speaker 2 (14:09):

to work with some of it when you arrived to prioritize it when you have different clients. I’ve been there, but I love it. I love your story. That’s literally why I started this podcast is to share inspiring stories because that is the epitome like solid millennial move right here. You hustled from five to eight, then you went to your day job. You didn’t spend it. I mean this is like the playbook for what I would tell someone to do, but I don’t think a lot of people would get up at five to eight and or four to start writing at five, whatever you were doing. So I think, um, what was driving you in the, in that beginning time?

Speaker 1 (14:47):

Oh man. I just, I, I, I had a self-imposed deadline upon myself. So like I knew I wasn’t, I knew I had told my dad in, like I said, it may of 2018 on my dad, I’m going to be quitting like this position to start something new by like a year from now. I just don’t know what it’s going to be. So I kind of had that self-imposed deadline. So I told myself if I didn’t make a living writing about personal finance, I was going to be, I was actually going to get my teacher’s certification and like become like an economics teacher in the school system and like try to scare those kids out of student debt as much as I could. Teach them how to budget and teach them how to invest and like impact lives that way. Um, so like I, and I honestly would have been okay with that.

Speaker 1 (15:29):

It’s not like it would have been terrible. I would have enjoyed it, but I had this kind of self-imposed deadline that I’m like, man, if I’m gonna figure this out, I got to have to figure it out. And so like, I knew there was like an end in mind and it kind of helped me motivate me to get up. And I have a family, I have a wife and I have, I have, uh, I have two boys. And so it was like, man, this is kind of scary. My wife’s right now, she doesn’t work. She stays at home, so they all rely upon my income. So I didn’t have that kinda Tylene on to where my wife is bringing in money as well to where I could kind of just take a few months and not make anything and we’d be okay. So, uh, so yeah, I mean when you have all that, that kind of pressure, you wake up and you get the work done.

Speaker 1 (16:07):

And my dad’s a hard worker, he’s a very hard working guy. And so I kinda got my heart, I guess my work ethic from him and I’ve just tried to always be somebody who works hard and I would say that I worked just as hard for that 5 cent a word client. Um, as I did for the client that was paying me $500 per article. And I would give them just as much time and, and I would pour myself into the research for, I mean, I went and actually went to a couple of banks for one article for that actually in the car to ask them some questions about one of these assignments that I had. I was just busting my tail to prove myself because I never knew who I would get referred to because I was like that person who went the extra mile.

Speaker 1 (16:48):

And it ended up that the person I was sending my invoices to with this client that we both had, she actually in January of 2019 got hired as the editor of a huge site. Um, she probably wouldn’t mind if I shared it called [inaudible]. Some of you maybe have heard of it. It’s a very, very big podcast and blog in the financial independence world. So she was just the person I was sending my invoices to at the client that you and I worked for. But because she saw my work, she got hired as the editor for choose F I, she reaches out to me January of 2019 and asked me if I’d be willing to write it for them at three times the price I was getting for the other client. So I thought if I would have been like just sandbagging it and not working hard for him, then I maybe never would have had that opportunity. She ended up giving me two more clients later on. So literally half of my income today comes from her alone in sites that she’s referred me to. So like, man, you never know who is paying attention to your work. So just if you, if your name’s gonna be on it, do your best. That’s kind of how I feel about it. Yeah, that’s great. That’s an

Speaker 2 (17:50):

awesome story right there too. And it’s so true. You really never know who’s going to read it or who’s going to listen to your podcast or watch your YouTube. Um, it’s pretty amazing. Like sometimes when you, when you just out like, Hey, just do, do the work and I can’t remember who said the quote. It says go the extra mile. It’s never crowded. And that’s true. I love that you said that. So what are, um, you know, some of the mistakes you think that a lot of writers make in the beginning of it that maybe you could share a couple of tips to so that way they can kind of speed up success.

Speaker 1 (18:19):

Yeah. When I talk to people who, um, like I’ve had some people that they reach out to me and they, they, they say, I want to get involved in writing. Can I send you a guest post? And I’m always like, cool with that. Like, absolutely. Yeah. If you want to break into writing and this is your first opportunity to get an article published online, I’m actually all about helping you. Um, and, but then they’ll send me an article and um, either one it’ll have like, it’ll just won’t be like, it won’t follow the same style guidelines as my site. I could tell they didn’t even look at it. Um, um, it maybe isn’t even that well researched. Like I can tell like, man, you really spent like 30 minutes on this thing, bro. And like you’re wanting me to give you an opportunity to break into an opportunity somewhere else.

Speaker 1 (19:03):

Um, the sourcing, maybe they, there, they didn’t just, they just didn’t do their due diligence to make sure the stats they use were, were for real. Um, and they weren’t just hearsay, but they actually came from like a real legitimate source. Just simple things like that. Um, that I’m like, eh, sorry, I can’t recommend you to one of my editors. And if I’m saying that I’m not even, they’re not even working for me. Um, I know editors are feeling the exact same way. If you’re writing for, if you’re wanting to write for a client and you send an edit, an article to an editor and you didn’t read their style guide cause they’re going to have one and you didn’t try to maybe include some internal links, spend five extra minutes to include a few links to their other articles on their site and you didn’t make sure you just, you know, you capitalize the headers the way they want you to.

Speaker 1 (19:47):

And just little things like that. I think that if you could become your editor’s best friend and save them time and save them effort, they’re going to like not want to lose you. And so like when I went to fin con and the second time I raised my rates on all my current clients and I was like, man, you know, this is my, this is my standard rate. Now I don’t want to lose you because I love writing for you. But you know, I just need to know, can I, can I, can I raise my rate to this, to my standard rate with you? I need to know before I go to fin con because I’m going to obviously have opportunities to talk to new clients while I’m there. And they’re like, no, no, no, no, no. Don’t talk to anybody. You know what I mean? Yes. We’ll raise your rate to that rate. And it wasn’t insane. He was like 5 cents per word. Right. Um, and I think that if you just really, really think like an editor and think about the things that they’re going to have to do and you can save them time, you’re going to do just fine as a writer and take a course like yours and you can learn how to do that.

Speaker 2 (20:47):

No, I, I, I think that, uh, I always say make it easy for clients to say yes. Just do, do what you can to make their job easier, whether it’s uploading it to WordPress or formatting it or adding some images, internal, external links. Uh, I love that you said that cause that’s, that’s something I found and I have a very high retention with any clients I’ve had. Um, just because I do that and it’s not, it doesn’t take that much longer and it will let you get those raises. It’ll obviously keep clients so that way you don’t have to keep finding new ones. Um, and that’ll help your sanity and a lot more. So yeah, really, really glad you said that. And then, um, if you were starting right now and you know, personal finance, that’s kinda where I got started as well. Um, say you had to start something else. Uh, right now as a writer, you know, maybe a lot of people will listen to this or either laid off or lost, uh, lost their job with, uh, with the pandemic and stuff. Where would you recommend starting now

Speaker 1 (21:41):

in regards to finding clients? You mean

Speaker 2 (21:43):

writing in general? Would it be a blog? Would it be medium? Would it be freelancing? Um, you know, was freelancing, you know, what, how would you do it? Uh, just, just cause I think that a lot of people are going to be looking for online opportunities to obviously make some money and uh, to,

Speaker 1 (22:00):

yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think it depends on your goals. Like, if you’re somebody who really just wants to like make money on the side and you don’t ever intend to like, uh, possibly make blogging like your full time job down the road, that I don’t know if creating a blog and trying to build that is worth the effort. Um, for everybody. Like if you’re just wanting to make an extra thousand dollars of income, then maybe you should start straight with trying to find freelance writing clients. And you can do that by, you know, if you want to build a small portfolio of like your writing clips, you can probably reach out to people and ask for a guest post opportunity like I just mentioned. Um, you know, you’re going to have to add value to them. They’re not going to give a guest post to anybody.

Speaker 1 (22:42):

But if you’re not asking for a back link, which if you don’t have a blog, you’re not going to be asking for a back link and you’re just literally just trying to get your name out there, they’re probably going to be willing to give you that chance cause you’re, you’re basically working for them for free. And they’re not having to give anybody a link. So that’s a pretty easy sell for a blog owner. So I would say that’s probably the easier way to get four or five articles online, pick, pick a niche and then find people who are influencers in that space. Put together a nice cold pitch to email them and ask, tell them you’re trying to become a writer and you want to get some articles online. Then once you have a few samples online of your work, then you can go to some of these job boards.

Speaker 1 (23:19):

Obviously pro blogger, you know, Contently there’s Upwork, I mean all these different places. Um, if if you or someone who has I would say mid moderate amount of experience, Contently tends to be, um, I would say some where some of the higher paying clients go to. Um, but if you’re just getting started, Upwork obviously is a great opportunity to get, um, to get some kind of those first kind of beginner clients under your belt. I would not recommend, I’m just telling you right now they pay like I pay like nothing to their writers. It’s really, I mean text broker, it’s a content mill that pays like 3 cents a word. So I would say don’t do that. And they can even, and they can even, they have the right, the blog owners have the right to make you up. Do I think up to two revisions and then still choose not to publish it if they don’t like it.

Speaker 1 (24:06):

I mean it’s really like these people are, are just basically getting like a whip. And so I would say, you know, make sure you’re at a place that’s going to pay you fairly and you have some, uh, a few more rights. And by the way, everything on Textbroker is ghost written so you don’t even get a byline. So, uh, so just be careful with where you go to find work. Cause there are definitely people out there who are willing to pay you. I mean if you don’t have a lot of experience, I would say five to 10 cents a word is probably what you’re going to garner. But there’s people who are willing to pay you that and give you a byline even with very little experience. So look for that and once you have some experience under your belt, um, then I would say try to build that Contently profile, um, or create a website that’s more of a static website that you can feature your work on a hire me page, um, and kind of grow it from there.

Speaker 1 (24:51):

That’s awesome. That’s literally like if people just listened to that and did that exactly what you said, niche down and create some samples, get a pitch and it’s rinse and repeat. So that’s how you get the first ones and then you scaled pretty quickly. Um, any tips you had on like what it takes to go from like 1000 to 5,000 to 10,000, anything you found that really helped you scale because it can get daunting when you have multiple clients and points of contact and deadlines. Um, any kind of tips that you have for us. Yeah, writing calendar was huge, is huge for me. Um, I always, every time I get an email or a assignment sent cause they, you know, some of these different clients they use different assignment apps and stuff. Assano or somebody else will use this tool or whatever, whatever you, however they assign their work to you.

Speaker 1 (25:38):

Uh, it needs to go to one master calendar immediately. Um, and I don’t put it off, I mean immediately it needs to get put on your master calendar and don’t accept an assignment. If they ask you, can you put turn this in on this date, if you have like four different assignments due that date and you’re not going to be able to do it, then don’t say you can. Um, ask, it’s better to ask upfront, well, can we delay that three days to this date then to be late? I’ve never been late on an assignment, but I have asked that several times cause my writing calendar is already full for that date. So create your writing calendar and if you look at your writing calendar and you’re like, man, it’s only half full, then you know, you can, you can add some work. So then how do you do that?

Speaker 1 (26:18):

Um, for me, I, I wanted to start with my network of people. I knew first because they were the people who could vouch for my work. So I would reach out to my current editors and I would be like, Hey, do you know of any, I know writers, editors talk to editors. So if you ever hear of any editors that are looking for work, just so you know, um, I’m trying to become a full time writer by X date and I sit in this to all my current editors around January of 2019. And so I would love to have any work that you hear of, I’d love for you to recommend me. And uh, and so they would do that for me, which was really nice and I get opportunities that way. I also told my current editors I had more availability. Um, so Hey, if you have, you know, if you have extra assignments, you need someone to knock it out, let me know.

Speaker 1 (27:01):

I can do rush assignments too. Typically. Um, just, you know, if you just give me the opportunity and whenever I can, I’ll make sure to knock that out for you fast. And, uh, so that was two ways. I scaled up my work and then I did do a little bit of cold pitching. So like one of my biggest, uh, my, one of my biggest clients as far as name recognition, I reached out to on LinkedIn. I just found out how to throw on LinkedIn. I just sent a quick little letter of introduction saying who I was. I threw in a few clips of my writing samples and I said, I know you guys like to talk about these kind of topics and I, I have a lot of experience in those topics. I’d love to hear back from you. And I was literally writing for them like three days later.

Speaker 1 (27:38):

So, um, so yeah, it’s, there’s, there’s various ways to do it, but those are my three different kind of, I would say top ways that I did it. Well, this has been unbelievable, man. There’s so many good lessons in here. Hopefully people can just go back. I mean, you gave them a blueprint of how to get started and how to scale. So thank you for, for, uh, unveiling all your secrets there. So hopefully people listen to this. Don’t just listen and not take action and actually implement at least one thing from each episode. So, uh, before I ask my last question, where is the best place for everybody to connect with you? Learn more about, um, what you’re working on, your blog, anything like that? Yeah, so my, uh, my blog is um, wallet wise, guy.com wallet wise, guy.com is my site and I really kind of focus on um, content for personal finance content for millennials and young people, students, a lot of college and student loan contents on there.

Speaker 1 (28:26):

So if you’re a young person who wants to know kind of how to get started with investing or paying off your student loans or graduating college debt free, buying your first home, a lot of my content on there has to deal with those types of topics. Um, I do have a few topics on freelance writing, um, but my site isn’t really geared towards how to become a freelance writer. It just happens to be how I make a living. But my site is focused on, uh, personal finance tips for young people. So yeah, definitely would love people to check it out. I also have a podcast where I interview people who have done just kind of really amazing things as a young person and have started businesses or paid off a lot of student debt. And so I just try to inspire people and the, on my podcast while it wise guy podcast, which you’re going to be featured on here in a couple of weeks, which I’m very excited about. I’m just glad you consider me young. You know, I really appreciate that it’s not getting ID lately and it’s sad that that definition is becoming more and more, uh, blurred over time.

Speaker 1 (29:26):

Definitely linked to everything in the show notes for everybody. Um, and so for the last question, uh, what is the best piece of advice you feel like you’ve been given, um, in your entrepreneurial journey? Great question. Best piece of advice I’ve been given, I think of the best pieces of advice I’ve been given was from a PT money when I talked to him and just talking about how to grow a site, how to grow a blog and talking about the importance of doing what you do well and then, um, outsourcing as much as you can, what you don’t do well or what you don’t enjoy. I know that’s something that you, you and I have talked about that you’re doing a better job of right now and working towards, and that’s something that I know I need to do a better job of, uh, is, is finding ways to, uh, to kind of put off the things that I don’t do well and that I, that I don’t enjoy to other people.

Speaker 1 (30:18):

And, uh, when it comes to like my blog for example, I have this podcast and like I just, you know, I do not enjoy like the, the tech side of like doing all the, all the work in the, in the show notes and all that kind of stuff. And so I’m trying to outsource those things on my freelance writing side. I really don’t write about things that it’s kind of not in my wheelhouse. So I just don’t reach out to sites that aren’t going to like be a topic that I’m really good at and that I’m an expert in because I realized that like I’m not going to be able to have, um, prob pro probably a very good return on my time in somebody else would be able to do that better than me. So I think knowing what to say no to and knowing where I guess where your skills and your talents lie and what you’re an expert in.

Speaker 1 (31:02):

I know as a writer that’s really been a big deal for me. Like student loans is kind of one of these niches that are kind of kind of dug deep into, I’ve written probably, I mean 200 articles for one client just about student loans and, and that has allowed me to write articles for people on student loans in like 45 minutes, right? Or a credit card article and an hour. Whereas someone else that might take them four. So, um, I say just kinda know where you’re really knowledgeable and know what you’re good at and then just really kind of hammer on those strengths instead of wasting all this time, like on things that you’re not good. Like I’m terrible at social media and I’ve finally realized, I’m like, I’m just not good at social media, so I’m not going to try to be this person who’s coming up with great interactive questions every single day, five times a day for people. I’m not going to be able to build a blog that way. So I’ve focused on SEO because I am good at SEO and I’m crappy at built being an influencer on social. And so I guess, and if I want to do better at social, I’m going to have to hire a social media person to manage that for me. Cause that’s just never going to be me. So that’d be my one piece of advice for myself, but I need to follow more. I think

Speaker 2 (32:03):

everyone can learn from that. I mean, I try and talk about that as well. Just focus on what you’re good at. You can’t be good at everything. Um, you know, I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs are super high achievers and want to be the best at everything they do and try and do 18 things at once. But yeah, between context switching and just your energy levels, it’s really, really hard. So I think that is a perfect ending. So thank you so much again for being on the show, man. Really appreciate it. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Thanks for the opportunity. Absolutely.