How to stop getting in the way of your own success

by Leo Wiles
29 April 2016

Here at Rachel’s List, we see the good, the bad and the downright ugly mistakes freelance writers make. I’m not talking wasting time or being shy about talking money, but the ways in which we can create roadblocks and hurdles that stop us having the successful vocation we desire. So, I wanted to share my top antidotes to common freelance mistakes.

Mistake 1: Phoning it in
Antidote: Make it shine
No matter if you’re interviewing actors or a blue chip CEO, it’s important before you even agree to the interview to make them and their PR team understand they can’t trot out the same old dross. There has to be a new angle to breathe life into an old lacklustre subject. If you don’t secure this sexy new take, then you may as well have done a cuts job for all the editor cares (and career hara-kiri will soon follow).

Mistake 2: Ignoring your client’s needs
Antidote: Find out what they want and deliver it
Freelancing is a business. Love it or hate it, you’re in the service industry and that means understanding what your client wants and delivering. And whether you’re writing for print or a digital client, remember that money is ultimately the end game – be it paywall subscriptions or more product sales. Whatever the genre, it’s up to you to under the fundamental needs of your client and turn in copy that does the trick.

Mistake 3: Doubting yourself
Antidote: Feel the fear and do it anyway
Telling yourself Editor X wouldn’t be interested in taking a piece from someone they haven’t heard from who hasn’t written a lifestyle / profile piece before is murdering your potentially great idea before it’s even off the ground. The reality is that yes, editors do have a chosen circle of people they trust to turn in the work they love. But sometimes that gets stale.  So instead of accepting defeat before you’ve even tried, make sure your pitch is a bespoke fit for the title and give it a well-educated go. What have you got to lose? I know as an editor when I recognised a well thought-out proposition that maybe wasn’t what I was looking for, I’d recommend sister publications and offer contact details to writers.

Mistake 4: Letting ‘No!’ derail you
Antidote: Learning to re-frame and re-pitch
Some weeks it can feel like everywhere you turn there’s a no waiting to happen or worse still, those clients/editors who never get back to you.  At those times I like to remember J.K Rowling touting her little wizard Harry Potter, who was reportedly rejected time and time again by 12 of the biggest names in publishing, until one said yes. It only takes one yes. When you’ve got a great idea or a story that just screams inside your brain to be told, instead of telling yourself that your idea is crap re-frame it. Pitching can often be a numbers game and it can take time to find a home for your piece.

Mistake 5: Spending longer on copy than you should
Antidote: Realising time is money and writing accordingly
We all want to hand in sparkling copy. But when you spend five hours on an blog post paying $75 – well, even my 7-year-old could tell you that’s bad economics.

Mistake 6: Not being true to yourself
Antidote: Recognising when something isn’t your bag
Writers are increasingly being asked to write from their personal point of view. If you agree, you need to work out whether you’ll write as a persona or as yourself, representing your true values and beliefs.  Knowing the difference is important so you can live with it and defend it if need be. Especially when you may well find yourself on the receiving end of trolls, as so many writers these days do. If this isn’t your bag, that’s OK. Don’t force it and stick to what you’re comfortable with.

Mistake 7: Chronic procrastination
Antidote: Breaking scary tasks into doable chunks
The fear of doing a bad job or having bitten off more than I can chew can literally stop me in my tracks. This makes me work slower which in turn adds to the stress. These days I have learnt to acknowledge how I feel then send it packing.  My tactic is to brainstorm the project first, writing a list of priorities and reducing the scale of the project into a breakdown of tasks. That makes it feel both more manageable and more doable.

Mistake 8: Not trusting in your own abilities
Antidote: Adopt the ‘grain of salt’ approach
As a young green cadet, any criticism from my department head would leave me reeling, questioning my ability to write and doubting that I had a voice others would want to listen to. It took decades to develop the confidence to understand that negative, unconstructive feedback is largely a projection of somebody else’s inadequacies at worst and their opinion at best. So next time you think about throwing in the towel or not pursuing a particular piece because of one person’s opinion remember it is just that: their opinion.

Mistake 9: Working harder, not smarter
Antidote: Create benchmarks for success
There was an article recently from a freelancer who measured her success by the number of paid words she wrote. What she neglected to highlight was that she was badly paid for the hundreds of thousands of words she was churning out (and I fear headed for burn out). That to me is working harder, not smarter – and I think we’d all do better a) spinning that around and b) having benchmarks in place that kept us accountable. One measure of success might be having a number of editors or clients who commission or call on you regularly. You might also put milestones in place that you’ll increasing your client base by X number of clients each year, perhaps ditching low-end clients and over time replacing them with better paying work.

Mistake 10: Letting the naysayers win
Antidote: Realising you’re in the driver’s seat
Sure, you can spend yours days drowning your sorrows with pessimists who say media is doomed.  Or you can pull up your big girl /boy panties and move on to greener pastures and better mates. When you choose freelancing you have to be your own coach and cheerleading squad. You need to get up and make it happen: dial/email your pitch, get knocked back, get up again, research, interview, write, repeat, find new clients, find new income streams, keep pushing forward. In a nutshell my advice to avoid the traps that are holding you back boil down to this one bumpersticker: Dream big, work hard, stay focused and surround yourself with good people.

What pitfalls have you overcome in freelancing?