Elizabeth Hanes 0:07
Welcome to another episode of The RN2writer Show, where we help nurses and other clinicians become freelance writers. I'm your host, Elizabeth Hanes, I'm an RN and a former six figure for you answer myself. And today I coach other nurses like you how to become professional writers as well. I've ever heard the story of the professor who used the metaphor of a jar filled with rocks, pebbles and sand, to illustrate the idea that, with careful planning, you can accommodate many more things in your life than perhaps you thought you could. Now the story likely is apocryphal, meaning it probably never really happened. But it's a powerful story for a technique freelance writers can use to create income stability. So let me retell the story. A professor said a large jar on their desk, they filled the jar with several large stones, then they asked the class is the jar full? The students all said yes. Next, the professor produced a bag of pebbles poured them into the jar, and they settled into the open spaces between the large rocks. Again, the professor asked the class is the jar full? And the students replied, Yes. Then the professor pulled out a bag of sand, they carefully poured the sand into the jar, perhaps shaking the jar a little bit, as they worked to settle the sand into all the small crevices between the big rocks and the pebbles. Again, they asked if the jar was full, the students said, Yes. Finally, the professor took a water bottle and slowly poured water into the jar filled all the tiny air spaces between the grains of sand. When the water level was at the rim of the jar, the professor announced now the jar is truly full. This have to do with creating a steady income stream as a nurse writer. Well, for our purposes, the jar represents our revenue. And the manner in which we fill the jar with clients illustrates how we can keep our revenue jar filled up at all times, we need to start by placing large rocks or anchor clients into the jar. These clients provide assignments every month, assignments we can count on, because we likely have a contract with them to provide a set number of deliverables to them every month. But we can't and don't want to fill our jar with only big rocks. It might sound like a fine idea to cram four or six large rocks in there and feel that your revenue jar is completely full. But that's not true, as we know from the metaphor. And the reason we don't want to do that anyway is because what happens if we have to remove one of the large rocks from our jar. If we start with four large rocks in our jar, and we have to remove one of them, then we've lost 25% of our monthly revenue. Ouch. That's painful. And I speak from experience by the way. So instead, we want to place a few large rocks in our jar and then add some pebbles to it. The pebbles represent clients who likely assign you projects, but perhaps not on a monthly basis. Maybe you have a client that needs you every other month. Or maybe they're receptive to your queries when you send them but you don't send one every month. Pebble clients are vital to filling your jar with revenue, because they're reliable and provide steady ish work that you can work around your large rock clients. Lastly, you also need sand clients. These may be clients you only work with a few times a year or only when you manage to land a query with them, or something like that. You can think of sand clients as the ultimate fill in clients because you can't necessarily count on steady work from them. But you know you have a good chance of working with them on occasion or when the timing is just right. The key to making this metaphor work for your business is remembering to put the large rocks into your jar first. I've known many freelancers who spent a lot of time all their time really chasing sand clients. Instead of seeking out and cultivating large rock clients. Those freelancers often burnout because the pace required to constantly Chase one off clients is unsustainable. Now you may be saying to yourself, Okay, this is awesome, Beth, but where do I find these large rock clients? Here's the secret. Almost any large healthcare corporation or marketing agency can be a large rock client. These companies have ongoing content needs. So if you seek them out, you have a good chance of developing this into a long term client relationship. I'm in mentioned this because many novice freelance writers say they're afraid to approach major corporations or marketing agencies. They think they need lots of highfalutin clips or lots of experience to get on with a major company as a freelance writer. This has not been the case in my experience. In fact, I advise every new freelancer to start by going after major corporations in your niche. Working with major brands or agencies holds tons of benefits for you as a novice freelancer. Major companies use freelancers all the time, so they know what to do with us. They're pretty much plug and play when it comes to freelancers. They just plug us in where they need us and start feeding us assignments. On the other hand, smaller companies may not work with freelancers much if at all. They may not understand how to work with a writer. They may need things far beyond the scope of writing such as content strategy, content, calendars, SEO research, and all kinds of other things you don't yet know how to provide as a novice writer, that can lead to a poor experience for everyone involved. So I want to inspire you to start prospecting for large rock clients, the major corporations and marketing agencies that can lend heft to your revenue jar. Once you've put a few big rocks in there, then you can start prospecting for some pebble clients. And once you have the big rock, rocks and pebbles in place, then you will have a steady revenue stream going that enables you to continually prospect for sand clients. That's it for this episode of The RN2writer Show. Don't forget to click that subscribe button on YouTube so you never miss a show. And follow us on Spotify and Apple podcasts. Until next time, keep pitching
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