Speaker 1 (00:01):
You are listening to episode number 64 of inspire your success podcast. In today’s episode, we’re going to cover what the mindset of a wealthy freelance writer is and how you can develop one as well coming up.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
All right, welcome back to the show. Again, this is your host, Michael Leonard. Hopefully you’re having a great Monday if you are listening to this, uh, as it comes out. And if not, hopefully you’re just having a great day whenever. So again, thank you for tuning in. Uh, the show just keeps going, uh, such a strong quarter and really appreciate you tuning in consistently and, uh, again, I’ll see you in more reviews come in and all that. Uh, so really, really appreciate that because again, that helps me get this message in front of more people. So one thing I always ask, if you’re loving the show, if you’re getting value, please either leave me a review or go ahead and share it with someone who needs it as well. And again, I am doing a review competition. So if you would leave me a positive review, screenshot it and then send it over to support at inspire your success.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Or you can go ahead and just send it to me on Instagram at @IamMichaelLeonard. And uh, from there again, I’m picking, uh, some of the people that left reviews here in March for free laser coaching sessions with me. So again, this is something that you can take advantage of. Uh, and basically when a free call, you can ask anything on the call about freelancing, writing, building online business, getting clients, raising your rates, all that stuff. So make sure you enter into the competition by doing those steps I just mentioned writing the review on Apple podcast, screenshotting it, sending it to me and you will be entered. So I will be announcing the, uh, winners, uh, in my email list and on the podcast once that is announced. So diving into today, let’s talk about the mindset of a wealthy writer and just a really a successful freelancer.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Because at the end of the day, if you don’t have the right mindset, if you don’t really believe you are going to make this whole freelancing solo, entrepreneur ship writing thing work, you’re probably not going to and seriously like that. that is how important mastering your mindset is. And you know, I don’t want to get too woo woo for some of you, but it’s really true because your mindset towards this business or any business is necessary for success. Here is why because your mind, you can either become your best friend or your worst enemy when starting a business because your brain is designed to align your life to fit with your belief system. Listen to that again. Your brain creates your reality based on your beliefs, not the other way around. So imagine how different your life would be if you believed that you could build a successful business versus imagine how hard it would be.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
If you just think, there’s no way I can do this, I’ll never be able to do it. Your brain will certainly, if you believe that, it will certainly go into it and actually make that happen. As Henry Ford said, he who thinks he can and he who thinks he can’t are both usually, right? So again, mastering your mindset is so important. Yet very, very few writers, very few bloggers and really a lot of just digital entrepreneurs out there that are telling you to go make money online. They just skip this step. And it’s one of the most important things you can do. If you don’t control your mind, it will control you. So let’s talk about what that really entails because being, you know, that’s one thing is to understand that, okay, yeah, this my mind has a really, really big part of all this and, and understanding that puts you in the top 5% because most people just think, okay, I gotta hustle, hustle also do, do, do.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Instead you always have to think about what’s going on in between my ears. Am I actually setting myself up for success or is this thing sabotaging me? So it’s really, really important. So some of the characteristics that I found, uh, amongst, uh, wealthy freelancers and writers and entrepreneurs is the first thing is that they love failing. Now this is going to be probably a little different from you because most people, you know, you just kind of grow up and you either pass or fail, right? You’re good or you’re bad, and we just have these titles that are good. They get placed on everything, but at the end of the day, that’s not how it works in entrepreneurship, especially as a writer where you’re going to have tons of stuff that isn’t going to be quote unquote good. But again, everything is a learning moment. So that’s one of the biggest takeaways that I found to developing a world class mindset is to understand that failing doesn’t exist.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Like you can have quote unquote failures, but it’s only a failure if you just fail, but don’t learn from it. Instead, you need to love failing because you know what worked, what didn’t work, and then you just won’t make that same mistake moving forward. But we are raised and indoctrinated in this society that tells you it’s bad to fail, that you should play it safe. Well, I’ll tell you what. If you play it safe, you are never going to build a successful freelancing business, so please know that it’s time to reframe failure. Failure doesn’t exist. You have my permission, not that you needed it, but just a reminder that failure doesn’t exist. The only reason I’ve been able to build a six figure freelance writing business is because I was not afraid to fail. People would ask me, Hey, can you do this job? Yeah, sure, I’ll figure it out.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Maybe I could. Maybe I couldn’t, but I always gave it my best and I failed my way to success, and that’s what you need to do as well to develop that resiliency within yourself. The second thing is to have a persistent and consistent action towards your goals. Because here’s the thing, so many people are just a little bit wishy washy and they just think, Oh, I’m going to, I’m going to give it a shot today, or I’m going to try this writing thing for a week or a month, or maybe, maybe even a quarter. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. Right? Well, one that’s already going into it with the wrong attitude too. You need to be persistent. Sometimes you’re not going to see the results overnight and that is frustrating because you’re just usually looking for monetary results. So it’s like, Oh, I’m not getting any money yet.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Clients aren’t paying me. This isn’t working. And then you start to say things like, I’m not a good writer. I don’t know what I was thinking. I should have listened to so-and-so. I shouldn’t have listened to this person, whatever. All these negative limiting stories and beliefs come up when instead you just have to be in the game long enough to see it through. You know, you need to have a comeback sometimes, right? And so that’s one of the biggest things is you need to have persistent and consistent action towards your writing and freelance goals. Because a lot of times, like I said, it’s not going to happen overnight. My best month was over $20,000 in February was pretty much the same. And you know what? It didn’t happen in my first month of freelance writing. The first month of freelance writing, I made $650. 12 months later, I made $6,500 I 10 X to my monthly income as I talk about in a former episode here, a pre, excuse me, a previous episode.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
And it happened because I stayed consistent and persistent. So that’s what you need to do because over time you’re going to get better and you’re going to develop your skills and you’re going to build confidence and belief in yourself and that will translate into more money and more success. But again, it will not happen overnight. The third thing that I found with really being a successful freelancer and having that mindset is that they just believe that they can do it. And I don’t know why. I’ve always had this belief in myself that I’m just going to figure out a way. I don’t know specifically where that came from. I think it for me probably was as a kid, I just refuse to quit. Uh, I was, I was short. I had some different issues. I, I can only see out of one eye. So maybe I just had this chip on my shoulder.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Uh, I got picked on. Sometimes I just, for me, that that’s always resonated and that’s why I left $120,000 job and I’d only made $200 from my blog because I just believed in myself even though I didn’t know the way I didn’t know anything about digital marketing, freelance writing, people told me I was crazy. Uh, people laughed at me. I just didn’t care. I just figured, you know what I believe in myself. And so that is something that I just want you to do so much, is just believe in yourself in such a wildly passionate way that it actually inspires others to believe in you as well. And this is something that isn’t going to happen probably overnight as well. It probably took me years to develop this. And even lately I’ve become much more intentional in when I understand all this personal development stuff that I do.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
And all the writing for clients is that beliefs are everything. And if you can cultivate belief in yourself, some unbelievable things will happen and you will start to attract and get around people and have these instances come up in your life where they probably wouldn’t have happened had you not believed in yourself had I never believed in myself that I could actually do this writing thing. I wouldn’t have met several billionaires. I wouldn’t have started this show. I wouldn’t have made six figures writing, I wouldn’t have done any of this cool stuff that I get to do now if I didn’t first believe in myself. And some of those ways to again cultivate that belief is to just get out there and try. And like I said, that first point, you got to love failing. Understand that every failure leads to a success and that every no is going to lead to a yes.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
And just kind of understanding that, Hey, if I stay patient and I just keep doing the work and I, you know, reprogram my mind. Maybe you do self-hypnosis, maybe you go to meditation, maybe you journal, maybe you read books, whatever it is. If you just work on yourself and you keep being the best version of yourself, you will start to believe in yourself and you will start to develop this resiliency that others will see and you will start to show up better. When you pitch clients, you’ll show up better in your writing. You’re just going to show up better in life. And to me, that all starts by having that really success based mindset and knowing that whatever happens, I will succeed as my mentor. James Wedmore always says, your success is inevitable. That is the motto that you should live by. Because once you really understand how it works, and if you really just operate from that place every single day, you won’t worry about the little things and you won’t get down on yourself because you know why your success is inevitable.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
And I actually put that as my license plate frame because I loved it so much and I want to remind everyone, and I want to remind myself every time I jump on my BMW, success is inevitable. But again, you have to stay persistent and consistent in seeing it through. Two more things. I’m excited. Hopefully you’re fired up. This turned into motivation Monday and uh, I’m excited about it though because again, this stuff is important guys. He got to have the right mindset to be successful. Another thing that I found is that you just have to again take action because like I talked about in a previous episode is that some people are action takers and they hustle and work hard and nonstop and then some people are sitting there on the couch hoping the law of attraction somehow brings millions of dollars into their bank account. As I mentioned, I’ve been on both sides of the spectrum.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
I’ve been the hustle guy with a shirt on the set hustle, drinking coffee out of a hustle cup, pounding energy drinks, waking up at 3:00 AM and I’ve been the guy that went to meditation retreats and sat on the couch and visualized and did all this stuff. And you know what? For me, it’s about doing both. It’s not about working 18 hours, but it is about taking action and working. For me, it’s not just sitting in a cave and meditating and hoping millions of dollars show up. But it is about doing inner work and dressing belief systems that are no longer serving me and and developing my mind and getting quiet. So for me, it is a push and a pull, but it’s important to know yourself and work on yourself. So that way you can understand sometimes what is holding you back. Because at the end of the day, even if you have coaching and you have mentors, things like that, sometimes only you know what’s happening, but you need to get quiet and you need to actually listen to yourself, into your intuition to be able to tap into what is holding me back?
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Why am I not taking action? Why am I not confident? Why? Why do I feel this? Why do I feel that? But all of that is the inner game. But the more you work on yourself and take action, because again, the law of attraction, you remember the last part of action? Attraction is the word action. So don’t just sit on the couch and hope it’s going to happen. Get out there, pitch clients, put yourself out there and fail your way to success. Because like James always says, your success is inevitable and I truly, truly believe that. And once you start living from that place, amazing things will happen. So hopefully you guys are really starting to feel and understand the importance of the inner game because it is so, so crucial in helping you make money as a writer, as a freelancer, is scaling your business, raising your rates, creating crazy income goals, and then crushing it.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Because again, I’ll, I’ll just go back to one of my favorite stories is when I left my job, I wanted to make $11,000 in one month when I quit in may of 2017 because I think the most I’d ever made was like 10 and a half thousand in my nine to five and that was a goal I had forever. I had forever had forever and I was close like a few months, but I wasn’t there. And then all of a sudden I had this breakout month in September of 2019 I made $20,000 as a writer and it just shifted everything. And I just realized that, wow, anything’s possible. Like, I can do this. But it started by believing in myself and setting that crazy income goal. So again, just remember that if I can do this whole thing, I know you can too, but it’s not going to come to you instantly.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
It’s not going to happen overnight and it’s not going to just be, Oh, I just sit here and I read this book and everything happens. You got to work on yourself, you got to take action and you got to stay patient and just believe that your success is inevitable. So again, work on this stuff. It’s a constant evolving. Just keep becoming that person and I promise amazing things will happen. So a couple other updates with inspire your success. Again, make sure you’re following me on Instagram @IamMichaelLeonard where I’m sharing a lot of tips on there, a great free content going live. Uh, we have videos and then again, just an announcements for all of the trainings that are coming up. So the last week of March, you’re going to want to save some time. I will, uh, break it down on my email list and in future episodes here, announcing when those trainings are going to be. Because again, it’s free training. It’s there to help you learn how to get freelance writing clients and make your first thousand dollars and beyond. So just make sure you have that. And again, that is the week of the 23rd here in March. So thank you again for listening. I appreciate you. And as always, I hope you have an Epic day.
