Have you been wondering how to make money as a writer? With so many options out there, which one is best for you?
In this episode, Kathi and her guest, Roger Lipp, discuss how to generate income using your writing skills.
Listen in and learn:
- How to develop a personal avatar for effective writing.
- How to recognize your value, regardless of whether the writing is compensated.
- How to find where your deep knowledge intersects with the world’s needs for a formula that can lead to profitable writing.
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Meet Your Hosts
Kathi Lipp
Author, Speaker, Writing at the Red House Creator and CEO
Over the past 10 years, Kathi has helped hundreds of people increase their platform through teaching and coaching. She is a frequent teacher at writer’s conferences and has helped countless authors and speakers find their audiences.
Kathi’s desire to help fellow speakers and authors avoid the mistakes she made, increase their confidence, and be the person God made them to be inspired her creation of Communicator Academy. Her newest adventure is The Red House, where she offers writer’s retreats and Writers in Residence events. Learn more about the Red House at https:writingattheredhouse.com
Roger Lipp
Productivity and Quality Engineer
Roger is a productivity and quality engineer for a Fortune 50 company.
Roger helps teams reach their full productivity potential by teaching them practical and simple steps to reach their goals. Roger and his wife, author Kathi Lipp, teach communicators how to share their message through social media and email marketing.
He and Kathi coauthored Happy Habits for Every Couple with Harvest House Publishers.
Transcript
Roger Lipp [00:00:13]:
Welcome, everybody.
Kathi Lipp [00:00:15]:
Yes, I’m so. I’m excited about this topic because I feel like this is really the question.
Kathi Lipp [00:00:23]:
That a lot of us are asking.
Kathi Lipp [00:00:25]:
But don’t want to ask, especially in bait circles.
Kathi Lipp [00:00:30]:
We don’t want to seem like we.
Kathi Lipp [00:00:32]:
Are being greedy, but I find nothing greedy about wanting to pay the bills. I’m a big fan of paying the bills. It’s really funny. When Roger and I got married, I.
Kathi Lipp [00:00:49]:
Don’T spend a lot of time worrying.
Kathi Lipp [00:00:51]:
About stuff, but it pops up for me. Roger is much less.
Kathi Lipp [00:00:57]:
He’s the natural worrier of the relationship.
Kathi Lipp [00:01:00]:
But when it comes to money, because.
Kathi Lipp [00:01:03]:
I was a single mom for a.
Kathi Lipp [00:01:04]:
While.
Kathi Lipp [00:01:07]:
I definitely am concerned. But I’m going to start off by being brutally honest. Very few people make money at their writing. It’s a super small percentage, and that’s not what people want to hear, but.
Kathi Lipp [00:01:26]:
It really is the truth of the situation. Writing is very undervalued. I was just listening to a TikToker this morning and american fiction, which is.
Kathi Lipp [00:01:39]:
On my to watch list because I.
Kathi Lipp [00:01:43]:
Don’T know if you guys know this, and I asked her to come on for an interview.
Kathi Lipp [00:01:47]:
Our friend Grace Church, who is one.
Kathi Lipp [00:01:50]:
Of the leaders of clutter free for.
Kathi Lipp [00:01:52]:
Life, wrote a movie like it’s called diamond in the Rough. It came out during the pandemic, and.
Kathi Lipp [00:02:00]:
She told Roger and I, she said, I think you guys would enjoy american.
Kathi Lipp [00:02:04]:
Fiction, which won the Oscar last night.
Kathi Lipp [00:02:07]:
And the TikToker I was watching said, I’m so glad to see writers getting.
Kathi Lipp [00:02:11]:
The recognition that they need, which, you.
Kathi Lipp [00:02:15]:
Know, it’s kind of funny.
Kathi Lipp [00:02:16]:
You know, the joke is if, if.
Kathi Lipp [00:02:20]:
You’Re the least attractive person in the.
Kathi Lipp [00:02:22]:
Room, you’re probably a writer.
Kathi Lipp [00:02:24]:
In Hollywood. That’s, that’s one of the running. It’s one of the running jokes.
Kathi Lipp [00:02:29]:
It just is in Hollywood.
Kathi Lipp [00:02:30]:
Got it.
Kathi Lipp [00:02:31]:
Yes, you have, you know, these makeup teams and things like that.
Kathi Lipp [00:02:35]:
But.
Kathi Lipp [00:02:36]:
So I want to help us think.
Kathi Lipp [00:02:37]:
About our writing in a different way.
Kathi Lipp [00:02:40]:
When it comes to making money.
Roger Lipp [00:02:44]:
Can I just throw in something as well here? You know, I think, yes. We’ve seen, while you’ve been doing this writing thing, the industry has changed and constantly changes. So the kind of what’s important, what was important ten years ago isn’t as important today, and it’s just always shifting around, and we’ve also seen that what works for some people doesn’t work for us.
Kathi Lipp [00:03:18]:
Yeah, it’s so true.
Kathi Lipp [00:03:20]:
Yeah.
Roger Lipp [00:03:21]:
And so it’s often a matter of casting a net here, and let’s see what actually works and resonates with you as an author and your audience. So I think we’re going to give some ideas here today. Some of these may resonate with you, and some of them may not. Some of them may resonate with your.
Roger Lipp [00:03:42]:
Audience, and some of them may not.
Kathi Lipp [00:03:45]:
And by the way, Grace is listening on Facebook. She said, thanks for the plug.
Kathi Lipp [00:03:51]:
Yeah, well, she gave me all the good. Yeah. And I just asked her to come.
Kathi Lipp [00:03:55]:
Onto my podcast because I. Yeah. Anyway, because, I mean, how many. How often do you meet people who wrote a movie?
Kathi Lipp [00:04:05]:
Right.
Kathi Lipp [00:04:05]:
But I think Grace would be the first one to tell you that they.
Kathi Lipp [00:04:10]:
Are not living off the money from writing that movie.
Kathi Lipp [00:04:13]:
Like, you know, they.
Kathi Lipp [00:04:15]:
They did not go and buy a house in the Hollywood Hills.
Kathi Lipp [00:04:19]:
And I. I don’t know any of.
Kathi Lipp [00:04:21]:
The financial stuff there, but I do.
Kathi Lipp [00:04:23]:
Know, you know, I’ve had a New.
Kathi Lipp [00:04:26]:
York Times bestselling book.
Kathi Lipp [00:04:27]:
Or not.
Kathi Lipp [00:04:28]:
Excuse me, not New York Times publishing.
Kathi Lipp [00:04:30]:
Publishers weekly best selling book. And it was a great three months. It was a great three months. But I don’t even know if I could live off of residuals of that. So I’m just.
Kathi Lipp [00:04:45]:
This is like an honesty, like, gut.
Kathi Lipp [00:04:48]:
Check kind of thing. So I think one of the interesting ways to look at this is an intersection. So the intersection for me would be these three things.
Kathi Lipp [00:05:01]:
What do you have deep knowledge about?
Kathi Lipp [00:05:06]:
What does the world need and how can you write about it? So, that’s the trifecta right there. So somebody was just coming to me for advice on how do I make money writing? And I said, what do you do for your day to day existence? And she worked in a life insurance office. And I said, would you, in that office, write a newsletter to your boss’s clients? A fun, interesting, interactive newsletter on topics that would be of interest to them.
Kathi Lipp [00:06:01]:
Is pet insurance worth it? Is.
Kathi Lipp [00:06:08]:
What happens when a tree falls on your house? These are interesting things, maybe things you don’t need today. But Roger and I have dealt with both those insurance things in the past couple of years.
Kathi Lipp [00:06:18]:
And so she started a newsletter in.
Kathi Lipp [00:06:25]:
The office she works, and now she’s.
Kathi Lipp [00:06:27]:
Getting paid to create that newsletter.
Kathi Lipp [00:06:30]:
That’s how I really got started in.
Kathi Lipp [00:06:33]:
Paid writing, was I was working for a legal agency. It was called the Pacific Justice Institute, and I was doing data entry.
Kathi Lipp [00:06:48]:
And if you guys know anything about.
Kathi Lipp [00:06:50]:
My personality, data entry was soul crushing to me. It was soul crushing to me.
Kathi Lipp [00:07:00]:
And they wanted to do some donor.
Kathi Lipp [00:07:03]:
Letters, and they were going to hire an outside agency. And I’m like, would you please give me a shot.
Kathi Lipp [00:07:12]:
Let me try writing these donor letters.
Kathi Lipp [00:07:16]:
Well, their donations with the first letter I sent doubled.
Kathi Lipp [00:07:22]:
Now, that’s not.
Kathi Lipp [00:07:24]:
I mean, percentage wise, it’s huge. Probably what they were getting for that newsletter was not a ton of money, but I doubled it. And so I kept worming my way into more writing assignments, and then eventually.
Kathi Lipp [00:07:42]:
I wormed my way.
Kathi Lipp [00:07:43]:
The president of the company was doing a lot of traveling and speaking, and he was growing in popularity, and the.
Kathi Lipp [00:07:54]:
Local agencies that would have him come.
Kathi Lipp [00:07:56]:
Speak, he just didn’t have time for.
Kathi Lipp [00:07:59]:
So I wormed my way in there.
Kathi Lipp [00:08:01]:
And I started speaking locally, and then I started to speak nationally. And as a single mom, I was.
Kathi Lipp [00:08:11]:
Living with my parents, and my parents were wonderful.
Kathi Lipp [00:08:14]:
But I have to tell you, there was nothing better than telling my family, oh, I need to go speak. I need to go to a hotel and eat restaurant food and go talk to adults and not have to take.
Kathi Lipp [00:08:33]:
My kids to school. And their dad lived locally, too, so.
Kathi Lipp [00:08:35]:
He helped with some of that.
Kathi Lipp [00:08:37]:
But.
Kathi Lipp [00:08:39]:
Was this my passion project?
Kathi Lipp [00:08:42]:
No, but was I earning money from writing?
Kathi Lipp [00:08:49]:
I really was. And so most of the money that is earned from writing is not on.
Kathi Lipp [00:08:56]:
Passion projects, and that’s okay. You know, most people don’t get to do a job that they are 100% passionate about all the time. It’s just a reality.
Kathi Lipp [00:09:10]:
Roger, you love your job, right?
Roger Lipp [00:09:14]:
I do.
Kathi Lipp [00:09:15]:
Do you love it all the time, though?
Kathi Lipp [00:09:18]:
No, no.
Roger Lipp [00:09:21]:
There’s always that trade off. You know, you got to do the stuff you have to do in order.
Roger Lipp [00:09:25]:
To do the stuff you love to do.
Kathi Lipp [00:09:26]:
Okay, but tell them about your passion project from this weekend, and then we’ll get into it. Because I want to use this as.
Kathi Lipp [00:09:32]:
An example, because you earned money from this this weekend.
Roger Lipp [00:09:36]:
I did earn money, yes.
Roger Lipp [00:09:40]:
There is a genre of music called hip hop.
Roger Lipp [00:09:44]:
You may be familiar with that.
Roger Lipp [00:09:45]:
And when you think hip hop, you think of exactly this face, right?
Roger Lipp [00:09:52]:
I got to program and run lights for a hip hop concert this past weekend. So that was a tremendous amount of fun.
Roger Lipp [00:10:01]:
It was a lot of work, but.
Roger Lipp [00:10:04]:
It was a tremendous amount of fun, and it’s kind of a bucket list item for me.
Roger Lipp [00:10:08]:
I really wanted to do something like that.
Kathi Lipp [00:10:12]:
Well, lighting for Roger.
Kathi Lipp [00:10:16]:
Is like writing.
Kathi Lipp [00:10:17]:
Your passion project for us. I know the numbers of what you.
Kathi Lipp [00:10:24]:
Earned, which I was thrilled that they were paying you.
Kathi Lipp [00:10:26]:
I had no idea they were paying you, and they paid you a good.
Kathi Lipp [00:10:29]:
Amount, but it of took weeks money preparation, and then two days of killing yourself, and, like, I couldn’t move.
Kathi Lipp [00:10:40]:
Yeah, right.
Kathi Lipp [00:10:42]:
Sunday he was just.
Kathi Lipp [00:10:44]:
He was horizontal.
Kathi Lipp [00:10:45]:
But.
Kathi Lipp [00:10:49]:
I think we could say you earned for what you did in that hip hop.
Kathi Lipp [00:10:54]:
You know, weeks of preparation and studying.
Kathi Lipp [00:10:57]:
And programming and potent. That barge and moving, that bail.
Kathi Lipp [00:11:02]:
You earn that in one day of.
Kathi Lipp [00:11:04]:
Working your day job.
Roger Lipp [00:11:06]:
Oh, yeah. I was probably getting $2 an hour. When everything is said and done, I.
Kathi Lipp [00:11:19]:
Think that’s how most of our writing passion projects are.
Kathi Lipp [00:11:23]:
So I want to talk to you.
Kathi Lipp [00:11:25]:
Today, not necessarily about your passion project.
Kathi Lipp [00:11:30]:
This kind of determines why we’re doing the writing.
Kathi Lipp [00:11:35]:
Now, let me be 100% honest. If I did not get to write about things I was passionate about, I.
Kathi Lipp [00:11:43]:
Probably wouldn’t be doing a ton of writing. Some of you grew up writing in notebooks, right? Like, you were a writer from the very start of you. I’m a speaker who writes so I can go speak more. Like, that’s just who I am. I’m very different than a writerly writer.
Kathi Lipp [00:12:05]:
Like, all of my best buddies in this, Sherry Gregory, Susie Florey, Michelle Kashat.
Kathi Lipp [00:12:12]:
They are writer writers. Like, they write for fun.
Kathi Lipp [00:12:15]:
That’s not even a concept that I identify with.
Kathi Lipp [00:12:19]:
It’s just not. And so.
Kathi Lipp [00:12:22]:
But I’ve done my time writing for money, and now I’m writing more for passion. But I spin off from the passion to get to do things like the.
Kathi Lipp [00:12:34]:
Collective, to get to do things like.
Kathi Lipp [00:12:36]:
Clutter free for life, which earned me money, you know, going and speaking and things like that. So I think there’s a short game.
Kathi Lipp [00:12:43]:
And a long game, and then I promise I’m going to let Roger talk.
Kathi Lipp [00:12:47]:
But the short game is, if you.
Kathi Lipp [00:12:50]:
Want to make money fast as a.
Kathi Lipp [00:12:52]:
Writer, we’re going to talk about some ways to do that. Long game is you’re writing for money.
Kathi Lipp [00:13:00]:
And you’re writing for passion, and eventually.
Kathi Lipp [00:13:03]:
You’Re writing for money turns into your.
Kathi Lipp [00:13:07]:
Writing for passionate, and we’ll talk about that.
Kathi Lipp [00:13:09]:
But there’s a short game and a long game. But that short game is that intersection.
Kathi Lipp [00:13:16]:
Of something that you’re super knowledgeable about.
Kathi Lipp [00:13:19]:
What the world needs and your writing. And I think that’s a really healthy way to look at it, to be able to do the next thing. So part one is freelance writing.
Kathi Lipp [00:13:31]:
Now.
Kathi Lipp [00:13:35]:
This, it’s really important to find your niche or your niche, however you.
Kathi Lipp [00:13:39]:
Want to say that.
Kathi Lipp [00:13:40]:
Roger, can you talk a little bit.
Kathi Lipp [00:13:42]:
About what a niche is and how you can kind of discover that through also avatars? So let’s talk a little bit about that.
Roger Lipp [00:13:54]:
So often when we’re talking about the.
Roger Lipp [00:13:59]:
Business of making money and finding your niche.
Roger Lipp [00:14:03]:
Your niche. We resist this idea of a narrow focus because we want to be casting.
Roger Lipp [00:14:12]:
As wide a net as possible.
Roger Lipp [00:14:14]:
Because in our minds, we think that.
Roger Lipp [00:14:16]:
By casting that wide net, we bring people in and increase our audience and.
Roger Lipp [00:14:23]:
Connect with more people. And while there is truth to that, it’s also important to focus, to have.
Roger Lipp [00:14:33]:
A very specific point of view, to.
Roger Lipp [00:14:35]:
Be aimed at a specific person or a specific niche. And if we talk about this as putting all the wood behind one arrow, you know, if all the force of impact in one thing, because by doing.
Roger Lipp [00:14:55]:
That, you can have the biggest impact.
Roger Lipp [00:14:57]:
On that smaller group of people, but then you become known as an expert, and that allows you to then wide broaden from there. But start with that very, very focused perspective. Very often when we’re talking with authors and asking them, who is your target audience? We always hear, I want to connect.
Roger Lipp [00:15:25]:
With women who want to love Jesus more.
Roger Lipp [00:15:27]:
And tell me more, who is your audience?
Roger Lipp [00:15:33]:
Because if you decline your audience that.
Roger Lipp [00:15:35]:
Broadly, you don’t really have an audience.
Roger Lipp [00:15:38]:
You don’t have a specific perspective, you don’t have a strong point of view.
Roger Lipp [00:15:43]:
And it won’t have the kind of impact that you want. So to help you find that niche, we talk about developing an avatar, not the avatar from the movie avatar, although it is similar. The concept of an avatar is to develop almost an artificial person that you can think about in your head when you’re writing. And sometimes that could be a real.
Roger Lipp [00:16:22]:
Person, sometimes it could be a conglomerate.
Roger Lipp [00:16:24]:
And aggregate of different people, but to.
Roger Lipp [00:16:29]:
Be as specific as possible. So in our avatar worksheet, we ask.
Roger Lipp [00:16:35]:
You, how old is this person?
Roger Lipp [00:16:37]:
Is this a woman?
Roger Lipp [00:16:38]:
Is she married?
Roger Lipp [00:16:39]:
How many kids does she have?
Roger Lipp [00:16:40]:
And nobody has 2.5 kids.
Kathi Lipp [00:16:45]:
Right?
Roger Lipp [00:16:46]:
You’ve got 1230. You know, you’ve got a whole number of kids.
Roger Lipp [00:16:50]:
So put that down.
Roger Lipp [00:16:52]:
What social media networks do, does this.
Roger Lipp [00:16:55]:
Person like to hang out on?
Roger Lipp [00:16:58]:
It’s two pages of questions to help you think through very specifically what’s important.
Roger Lipp [00:17:05]:
To this person and to help you get a real clear mental picture, sometimes you can use a real person that.
Roger Lipp [00:17:14]:
You know, I did and.
Roger Lipp [00:17:15]:
Yeah, exactly right. And, you know, that is super helpful, because now you have a very, very.
Roger Lipp [00:17:23]:
Clear picture of who you’re trying to reach, and you’re not trying to reach anybody else. You’re talking to that one person. That’s your avatar.
Roger Lipp [00:17:33]:
Kathy, tell us about your experience in developing an avatar and how you arrived at one person.
Kathi Lipp [00:17:39]:
So there was a person that was part of our Bible study and our.
Kathi Lipp [00:17:44]:
Free group flutter free.
Kathi Lipp [00:17:46]:
And I just thought, you know, she.
Kathi Lipp [00:17:49]:
Is exactly who I’m trying to hit.
Kathi Lipp [00:17:51]:
She has young adult kids. She’s struggling with clutter.
Kathi Lipp [00:17:55]:
She wants to go deeper into this. She’s a woman, you know, who has faith, is central to her life. And her name was Deanna de Young.
Kathi Lipp [00:18:07]:
And so I put a picture of.
Kathi Lipp [00:18:09]:
Her up in my office, and I would write to Deanna, and I would talk to Deanna, and you guys, it works so well that she joined our.
Kathi Lipp [00:18:20]:
Team and now is the leader in.
Kathi Lipp [00:18:22]:
Clutter free for life.
Kathi Lipp [00:18:24]:
I mean, I hit my avatar, and she’s a writer, too.
Kathi Lipp [00:18:27]:
It’s pretty funny that that all happened the way it did. I’m like, wow, I know how to hit my target. The most important question when you figure.
Kathi Lipp [00:18:38]:
Out your avatar is, what is her.
Kathi Lipp [00:18:40]:
Need that you can meet?
Kathi Lipp [00:18:43]:
What is the need you can meet?
Kathi Lipp [00:18:45]:
Because if you say, I just want to encourage women in their faith, you know what?
Kathi Lipp [00:18:51]:
They’re getting encouragement in their faith if.
Kathi Lipp [00:18:53]:
They’Re in this arena, from their church, from their Bible study, from their online book club, like, from everywhere.
Kathi Lipp [00:19:02]:
What is your differentiating factor?
Kathi Lipp [00:19:06]:
For me, it was decluttering. But you have to figure out what it is for you.
Kathi Lipp [00:19:11]:
What unique do you bring to the table?
Kathi Lipp [00:19:13]:
And if you don’t have anything unique, I’m guessing you haven’t thought about it.
Kathi Lipp [00:19:17]:
Long enough, and I want you to.
Kathi Lipp [00:19:19]:
Think about it long enough.
Kathi Lipp [00:19:21]:
Okay. So you need to identify that demand. And so when you identify that demand.
Kathi Lipp [00:19:32]:
It’S finding out what need is and how you can meet it. So that could be for an individual reader. It could also be for a corporation. You know, I told you that I.
Kathi Lipp [00:19:49]:
Had this young lady come to me.
Kathi Lipp [00:19:50]:
And say, I want to be paid writer. And she was working in an insurance office.
Kathi Lipp [00:19:56]:
So I said, what’s the need inside that insurance office?
Kathi Lipp [00:20:01]:
So maybe it’s what’s the need in the nonprofit that you work with. Maybe it’s what’s the need in the business that you work for, or maybe it’s the need in your husband’s business. You know, Roger works for Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
Kathi Lipp [00:20:24]:
They don’t need anybody to. They don’t need me to be writing their corporate newsletters or emails or things like that.
Kathi Lipp [00:20:31]:
But say that Roger owned a plumbing and well company. I could be paid by him. By the way, none of us should be working for free for a spouse’s.
Kathi Lipp [00:20:51]:
Business or our parents business or our kids business. If you’re providing a real service, get real.
Kathi Lipp [00:20:59]:
Some real money. Even if this is why I say that because I want them to value what you’re doing. And so. And also, I think it’s always good.
Kathi Lipp [00:21:14]:
To have a nest egg. I’m not going to lie.
Kathi Lipp [00:21:15]:
I think it’s always good to have a nest egg.
Kathi Lipp [00:21:17]:
Anyway.
Roger Lipp [00:21:18]:
So go ahead, Kathy. I wonder if you could also talk.
Kathi Lipp [00:21:23]:
About.
Roger Lipp [00:21:26]:
The importance of being valued. You saw that in striking colors in your speaking career when people didn’t value you going into an event.
Kathi Lipp [00:21:39]:
Yeah.
Kathi Lipp [00:21:41]:
So I would say that I think it’s inherently because we’re women. Everybody on this call is a woman.
Kathi Lipp [00:21:51]:
I think everybody in the collective is.
Kathi Lipp [00:21:52]:
A woman except for one of our men, male interns. Here’s.
Kathi Lipp [00:21:59]:
I think it’s very easy to undervalue.
Kathi Lipp [00:22:03]:
What women do, and I think sometimes.
Kathi Lipp [00:22:07]:
It’S other women who are doing that.
Kathi Lipp [00:22:09]:
When I first started speaking, I spoke for free because that was my training ground and that’s what I needed to do.
Kathi Lipp [00:22:15]:
But as I grew, as I got better as a speaker, as I was.
Kathi Lipp [00:22:19]:
Doing bigger speaking events, I would charge and people sometimes didn’t understand the value. And can I tell you, if I.
Kathi Lipp [00:22:30]:
Would compromise and say, okay, I’ll do.
Kathi Lipp [00:22:32]:
It cheaper for them because they don’t.
Kathi Lipp [00:22:36]:
Understand, but once I get there, they’ll understand.
Kathi Lipp [00:22:38]:
No, they won’t.
Kathi Lipp [00:22:39]:
No, they won’t. No, they won’t. And so. And it would be.
Kathi Lipp [00:22:43]:
Those would be the hardest events.
Kathi Lipp [00:22:45]:
Those would be the most demanding events.
Kathi Lipp [00:22:48]:
They.
Kathi Lipp [00:22:49]:
It was just.
Kathi Lipp [00:22:49]:
It was bad all the way around. So if you are providing a service now, I will say that when you’re doing your training ground for speaking, I called this a hug and a mug.
Kathi Lipp [00:23:03]:
I did a hundred events for free.
Kathi Lipp [00:23:06]:
So I could get practice. And this was mostly with my book, the husband Project. I was selling that book, so I.
Kathi Lipp [00:23:14]:
Would go to a speaking event.
Kathi Lipp [00:23:15]:
I’d say, hey, I’ll come speak for free. If everybody purchases that book, people always.
Kathi Lipp [00:23:23]:
Think that they don’t need to pay.
Kathi Lipp [00:23:24]:
Me because they know me. Now, here’s the thing. If you’re working at good and good as a musician, then it’s not time to charge. But if you are already somebody that other people are paying and they value your services, then you need to be paid. And I will say this, just because.
Kathi Lipp [00:23:47]:
Somebody doesn’t want to pay you doesn’t.
Kathi Lipp [00:23:49]:
Mean you are not valuable. It means they’re not the right client for you. And that’s okay. There are people, like, there are people.
Kathi Lipp [00:23:59]:
That I would write for free for.
Kathi Lipp [00:24:02]:
If my local animal shelter said, we.
Kathi Lipp [00:24:06]:
Would love for you to construct a.
Kathi Lipp [00:24:08]:
Newsletter once a month.
Kathi Lipp [00:24:10]:
I would do that for free because.
Kathi Lipp [00:24:12]:
I believe in that cause.
Kathi Lipp [00:24:14]:
But just because somebody else believes in their cause doesn’t mean I need to.
Kathi Lipp [00:24:18]:
Believe in their cause.
Kathi Lipp [00:24:19]:
And it doesn’t mean that I need.
Kathi Lipp [00:24:21]:
To contribute to it.
Roger Lipp [00:24:22]:
You occasionally write for our fire safe counsel.
Kathi Lipp [00:24:25]:
I do.
Kathi Lipp [00:24:26]:
I do.
Kathi Lipp [00:24:26]:
I do donation letters and things like that.
Kathi Lipp [00:24:29]:
Happy to do that. But that’s because those are things that are important to me. So freelance writing is a hard way to get money. There are ways to do it.
Kathi Lipp [00:24:51]:
But.
Kathi Lipp [00:24:51]:
It’S mostly going to be somebody who has a need. So I have a friend who started by doing stuff for Nickelodeon. She was a freelance writer for them. So she didn’t get benefits, but she got paid. So there are those kind of writing jobs out there.
Kathi Lipp [00:25:12]:
I would start.
Kathi Lipp [00:25:14]:
You could start googling freelance jobs and look at your particular area.
Kathi Lipp [00:25:21]:
Bethany, I happen to know that your husband is a hair hairstylist and he.
Kathi Lipp [00:25:25]:
Also sells, he does products and things like that or equipment, that kind of thing. There may be places that they need a writer. In the hair care industry, you may.
Kathi Lipp [00:25:42]:
Not know everything that you need to.
Kathi Lipp [00:25:43]:
Know, but you have resources around you, so that could be a place to look.
Kathi Lipp [00:25:49]:
I have done writing for arts and crafts companies before. I have a friend who started off with Nickelodeon and did, and I was a freelance writer for Nickelodeon because of.
Kathi Lipp [00:25:59]:
Her for a long time, I did.
Kathi Lipp [00:26:01]:
A lot of recipes. I did Nickelodeon.
Kathi Lipp [00:26:03]:
Their parents connect and would do a lot of writing for them. She now does writing for one company where they provide care providers for senior citizens. So I think it’s called Papa.
Kathi Lipp [00:26:21]:
And so say, like, I needed to hire somebody to be with my mom.
Kathi Lipp [00:26:25]:
On Tuesdays and Thursdays as she’s running errands or something like that.
Kathi Lipp [00:26:30]:
Papa could match her with somebody. So my friend Aaron does content for them.
Kathi Lipp [00:26:35]:
It’s content creation. So.
Kathi Lipp [00:26:40]:
That is a great way of.
Kathi Lipp [00:26:42]:
Being able to get some freelance writing.
Kathi Lipp [00:26:47]:
Like I said, it’s not going to be your passion.
Kathi Lipp [00:26:50]:
Friends, we’ve had so much great information in this podcast that we’re going to have to, we’re going to have to continue. One episode cannot contain all this great information. So join us next week as we continue our conversation about using your words to earn money. You’ve been listening to the writing at.
Kathi Lipp [00:27:10]:
The Red House podcast.
Kathi Lipp [00:27:12]:
This is Kathy Lipp. Now go tell your only you story of God’s extravagant love.
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429 – How to Turn Your Personal Story into a Published Book – Part 1
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