{Remember that old 90’s rap song by the Old School Players? I don’t know what they were rapping out back then, but it’s a good reminder of what we need to do today as better business men/women and in general freelancers.
I saw the King and Queen of comedy Tina Fey and Steve Carell on the Oprah Winfrey show months ago. They were talking about their movie Date Night and were asked what they admired about one another. Fey said, “The kind of detail and specificity that he (Steve Carell) brings to his character Michael Scott of The Office—he does stuff that is so painful and embarrassing that you can’t help but laugh at it, and it’s that he will sink into an awkward and uncomfortable moment so deeply and commit to it so hard.”
The same thing applies to the business of freelancing.
That really stuck with me. It says that no matter how uncomfortable or awkward you feel about pay rates, writing for a different genre, etc., you need to stick with it and commit to your role.
In essence, it means, “Do it good or go home.”
Here’s the thing.
There’s SO much competition out there. People who are more experienced, less experienced, but more talented, less talented, but have je ne se qua that you don’t have. If you sit around and do a half-butt job, then you’ll get half-butt business. And who wants that?
1. Whether you’re writing or creating the next best thing, give it all you got and then some.
2. Find an angle that sets you apart from your competition. (Your educational background, your copywriting experience, for example.)
3. Become obsessed with your passion. I’m a big believer in taking time away from my desk, but I never take time away from my business. This means that while I’m doing errands or even on a bike ride, I’m either daydreaming about the next best thing, taking photos for my photography site, dreaming about my next craft idea, or thinking about what to blog about here.
4. Be like Steve Carell and commit to your job hard. I don’t mind working late on weeknights and weekends because I completely love what I do. That doesn’t mean I don’t have rough days or even weeks, but in the long run I believe what I do has purpose. I’m fully committed to becoming a better writer for myself, for the people who read my work and for my clients.
So how about you? What are you doing to give it all you got these days? And if you’re not already doing so, what can you work on to be and do better?
