There’s a scary question for you.
Who IS the author of the story of your life and career as a freelancer?
It’s tempting to immediately answer, “It’s me, of course! I’m the author, protagonist and hero of my own story!”
But is that true?
Truly, honestly, I think most of us are secondary characters in other people’s stories.
We all have to make money to pay the bills.
But when you work just for the money, and no other reason, your life can become a little thin and unsatisfying.
To illustrate this point, let me share a story from my own life.
About 20 years ago I was a decade into my career as a copywriter and doing very well. But I wasn’t that happy about my work.
One evening I was having a few beers with a friend of mine, Mike. He was a friend first and foremost, but he was also a client. He was a small business owner and I had done a copywriting job for him a few month before.
After a few beers I told him I was feeling kind of crappy about my work.
More or less, here’s what I said…
Stories are a ridiculously powerful force in our lives.
For example… when you were young, which kind of kid were you?
The clever one? The slow one? The sporty one? The geeky one? The troublemaker?
Other people told those stories about what kind of person you were.
And those early stories about “who you were” maybe stuck with you for decades.
Perhaps they still have an influence over how you feel about yourself today.
If you’ve watched the opening video on my coaching page, you’ll already be familiar with the backstory of why we so often defer to a boss… even when we don’t have one.
Basically, it’s build-in, hard-wired.
Right from the start, from the day we were born, there has ALWAYS been a boss in our life.
Our first bosses were our parents.
Then our teachers and coaches at school.
And then our managers and bosses at work.
We have barely gone through a day in our lives when we haven’t been paying attention to the directions of a boss.
(What follows is the outline I wrote in advance of recording the video. They’re my talking points. Not a regular post or article. Just an outline.)
Until now my video posts have been focused on the short-form courses I’ve created over the last 12 months. These are the topics that have been generating the most questions, so that’s where I have been focusing my attention.
But… it’s time for a little variety.
I’ve dusted off a question about an ebook I wrote several years ago – Affirmations for Freelancers.
I answered the question by email, back when I received it, but thought I’d share what I said.
Here’s the original question, from Richard:
(What follows is the outline I wrote in advance of recording the video. They’re my talking points. Not a regular post or article. Just an outline.)
This is a question from Colin who has recently completed my course on Selling with Stories.
He asks, “You talk a lot about using stories as a way to help companies connect with their customers and prospects. But how about us freelancers? Can we use stories too, to sell our own services?”
Absolutely you can.
And if I failed to address this in the course, that’s an oversight on my part.
I use stories myself.