Monday Spark: Share your gift and prosper.

A while back I wrote a post about how copywriters are the rock stars of online business.

Put simply, ecommerce is driven by words. Without good copywriting, there are no sales.

If you have talent as an online copywriter or content writer, you are fortunate. These skills are a true gift.

Now let’s look at two very different ways in which you can use that gift.

First, you can focus on making as much money as possible. You know you have a skill companies need, and you can look for ways to maximize your fees and revenues. When you have something of great value, you can sell it at a premium price.

You trade your gift for cash.

But there is another way of looking at this, taking the meaning of the word “gift” a little more literally.

Look at your gift as something to be shared and passed on.

Instead of trying to sell your gift, you take the view that the benefits of your skills as a copywriter are something you would like to share.

You truly want your clients to prosper. You take pleasure is sharing your gift, and using your copywriting skills to help your clients grow their businesses and succeed. Your gift is being passed on, from you to your clients.

Of course, you still charge for your work. But your mindset is different.

And I think you will do much better in the long term if you are motivated more by the desire to give than by cash.

To focus on the cash means you are always looking at your business relationships with the eyes of a trader or accountant. You’re just looking for the money, and chasing your invoices.

When you focus on sharing your gift, everything changes. Now you approach the business relationship with a more generous heart. You really want to help your clients. You work hard to use your skills in ways that will help them succeed. You take pleasure in being part of their successes.

Now you are sharing your gift.

And here is the counterintuitive part. This latter approach with almost always result in greater success for you, certainly in the long term.

Clients dislike it when freelancers just do the job, as per the brief, and then run. They know when a freelancer is all about the money.

However, clients love it when a freelancer really rolls up his or her sleeves and is clearly interested and enthusiastic about the project, and eager to help as much as possible.

The client doesn’t call that first freelancer when the next project comes along, but he does call the more generous, “giving” freelancer.

This shift in mindset also helps you do a much better job or marketing your freelance services.

When you are all about the money, the prospecting process is pretty cold and clinical. And marketing certainly isn’t fun. It’s not something you enjoy doing. It just becomes a numbers game.

But if you are focused on sharing your gift, instead of on the money, prospecting becomes a whole lot more enjoyable and less stressful. When you are reaching out to prospective clients because you would just love to share your gift and help them, that’s an activity you can enjoy.

Psychologists have known for a long time that money is actually a very poor motivator in our lives, and that one of the most powerful and enduring motivators is a desire to serve and give to others.

Give this some thought.

As a writer or copywriter you have a gift.

Focus on sharing that gift and you will almost certainly build a more success business for yourself.

And you’ll enjoy life a great deal more in the process.

About the author: Nick Usborne is an online writer, copywriter, author and coach. Read more…

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