3 Reasons Why You Should Build Community with Your Fellow Nurse Writers
Last week, we engaged in a great discussion about building community during the Office Hours coaching session of the Complete Guide to Content Marketing Writing course. Several nurse writers asked the group for their thoughts related to building websites and other issues – and this made my heart soar, because I often say that we freelance writers live and die by our communities. A strong writing community can support you and help your career thrive, while eschewing community to “go it alone” as a freelancer can make it difficult to succeed in this career.
Yes, even for introverts (like me).
In fact, I always try to encourage participants in the Office Hours sessions to connect offline with other members they seem to “click” with. That’s the best way to start building your personal nurse writer community.
But even if you’re not participating in our Office Hours sessions (or in the Success Society, which is purpose-built to be a nurse writer community), you can create your own freelance community to help you thrive as a writer. Here’s why I believe creating a community is so important.
1. Communities can help you solve problems
Whenever I encountered an issue in my freelancing business, I first tried to solve the problem myself (of course). But I found that bouncing the issue off others and getting their perspectives on it often gave me better or more efficient ways to overcome the obstacle.
None of us sees the world the same way, and that’s part of the beauty of life. In your freelance business, receiving the perspectives of other people might provide problem-solving approaches that never would have crossed your mind…because you hold a different worldview. Soliciting input and receiving others’ perspectives can be invaluable in helping you overcome obstacles in new ways that not only improve your business but your life, in general.
2. Communities help you get clients
The best writing gigs I ever got came from leads shared with me by members of my writing community. Prospecting for clients can be daunting, so taking a group approach to it can yield success for everyone. When one member of your community lands a great client, they can share the information with you – and vice-versa.
This might sound like a crazy idea to you. Why on earth would you want to share a great client with someone else? What if that other writer is better than you, and the client ends up ditching you and giving “your” work to your friend??
That is an example of scarcity thinking. If you believe there’s only so much success to go around, then you definitely want to hold your cards close to your vest. But I’m here to tell you that sharing leads inside your writing community (not necessarily with the world at large) is not only one of the most generous things you can do, but it will multiply your success considerably. I guarantee that generosity always comes home to roost.
And that leads me to perhaps the best reason to cultivate a tightknit writer community for yourself.
3. Communities celebrate you (and your successes)
This might be a tough one for some nurses to believe, because they may never have experienced this type of true community in their nursing life. If your only experience with “community” in nursing was passive-aggressiveness and constant attempts by your fellow “community members” to sabotage your success, then you’re in for a treat as a WRITER.
As a nurse writer, you can surround yourself with a community of people who genuinely want you to succeed – who see your success as their success, as well.
This is called having an “abundance mindset.” And, for the record, it has nothing to do with the hokum of “law of attraction.”
The term “abundance mindset” (or “abundance mentality”) was coined by Stephen Covey in his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In an abundance mindset, you view the world as being filled with unlimited opportunities. Viewing the world in this way allows you to genuinely celebrate the successes of others – because you know that there’s plenty of success to go around.
In the Success Society and all of our coaching programs, I try to stand as an example of the abundance mindset. I truly believe that success for one of us means success for all of us. And, let me tell you, the first time you experience other people genuinely celebrating not only your successes but YOU, as a person, it will change your life. This may be the greatest reason why I encourage you all to surround yourself with a tightknit writer community.
I hope I’ve convinced you to begin connecting with other nurse writers as a way to begin building your community. Not only can your community help you solve problems and find clients, but it can celebrate you and your successes. What’s not to love about that?
