Category / work

by Nathan Coumbe

Why I’ve Been Quiet for a Few Weeks

 Hello to all my loyal readers!

I’m sorry that I’ve been quiet for the past few weeks: I’ve been in the midst of a very intensive job hunt. After multiple interviews and offers from three different companies, I started my new job at Lurn Inc. this past Monday.

As a content developer, I’ll be creating all sorts of amazing educational content to help aspiring entrepreneurs succeed in life and business. I’ve been going through a lot of the content myself this past week, learning how they teach and do things. It’s felt like drinking from a firehose of knowledge.

I am part of a great team: a small group of former (and current) freelance writers who love to teach. It’s the perfect application of my skills, passions, and knowledge areas. I’m working with, and helping, people I want to be around, and I have an ideal workplace—home. 😀

If you’re interested in what Lurn has to offer, I encourage you to go to https://lurn.com and get a free account. There are lots of courses you can start immediately (for free). You might come away with new business ideas or new strategies and tactics if you already have a business.

Here’s to regular posting once again!

Yours truly,

Nathan

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by Nathan Coumbe

No Job Is Beneath You If You’re Fighting Against Your Own Poverty

Today’s Daily Stoic email so inspired me, I had to share it with you.

“The Stoic doesn’t believe that any job—any profession or action—is beneath them if it is what life is demanding of them. To the Stoic, a dollar earned honestly is a good one. To a Stoic, a job done well is a good one.

—Ryan Holiday

If you have a job and are able to put food on the table for yourself and your family, you’re incredible. If you’re paying your bills and have a roof over your head, you’re a rockstar.

“I am solving the problem of poverty,” said Ulysses S. Grant when asked why he was selling firewood.

Don’t think of it as demeaning. But also don’t stop striving for something different if that’s what you want.

Sometimes you just have to work.

Check out the full post here.

by Nathan Coumbe

Great News on a Monday!

Random personal post this afternoon:

This morning I got a clean bill of health from my pulmonologist! Clear chest x-rays and no other issues (other than a cough and general weakness) after my horrible battle with COVID-19 in December. 

I’ve been diligently pushing myself a little harder each day and hit my personal post-COVID hospitalization best of walking 2 miles last Friday. I even managed a light strength workout this morning. 

After my appointment, I got ANOTHER piece of great news telling me I’d been selected to interview at one of my DREAM COMPANIES this week…hopefully more news on this to come

Hard work, networking, and practice pay off in all areas of our lives. 

by Nathan Coumbe

Speak Your Dreams Into Reality Today

I got an email from the 48 Days Eagles (affiliate link) asking what my main business goal is for 2021. I thought I’d share it with you as well. So here goes:

“I want to help small businesses and entrepreneurs write better copy for their websites and marketing efforts so they can increase the sales of their products and services and grow their businesses.”

Why do I want to do this? Because if I can help others succeed in their business endeavors, they’ll be able to live out their hopes and dreams.

Now it’s your turn. Use this awesome layout to create your own business goal.

What’s your dream? Have you spoken it into reality yet?

And most importantly, can I help you with your dream or business?

Let me know in the comments!

by Nathan Coumbe

Make Money Working In Your Sweet Spot (Free Masterclass)

CLICK HERE TO SAVE YOUR SPOT

If you’re hoping to begin living a fulfilled and meaningful life while still making a nice living for your family, you have to find your sweet spot.

We all have one. It’s the place where our passions and talents meet the world’s willingness to pay us.

My friend and mentor Dan Miller, author of the New York Times Bestseller 48 Days To the Work and Life You Love, is hosting a webinar on Thursday, January 14th to take you through the steps of determining your own unique sweet spot.

There are two times to choose from: 1pm CST and 7pm CST.

CLICK HERE TO SAVE YOUR SPOT

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*Occasionally, I’ll create posts with affiliate links. These don’t cost you a penny but can result in a small commission for me if you purchase anything.

by Nathan Coumbe

Are You Buying What You’re Selling?

Zig Ziglar, the great motivator and sales trainer, found a mantra in the word “enthusiasm.” To him, the last four letters stood for “I am sold myself.”

Zig was a master salesman. He knew if you didn’t believe in what you were selling, that lack of enthusiasm would come across to the prospect.

But what about when you’re not selling a product? What if the thing you’re selling is yourself, and your customer is a potential employer?

This same idea holds true in the job hunt. If you’re trying to persuade an employer to hire you, you have to believe in the product. 

If you’re a freelancer trying to convince a company to use your freelance services, you’re selling a product you must believe in. 

If you’re not enthusiastic about what you have to offer, they won’t be either.

If you don’t believe in yourself, they won’t want to buy your product. And make no mistake: you are the product. 

Grow your enthusiasm. Know what you have to offer; understand what you do best; determine how you can best serve others. And believe that it will benefit another person.

Sell yourself on you.

“You can have everything in life you want, if you just help enough people get what they want.”—Zig Ziglar

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by Nathan Coumbe

Did You Do Something Good Today?

“Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying, or meditating, or endeavoring something for the public good.”

—Thomas à Kempis

What are you doing right now? Okay, you’re reading this blog post – bad question to ask.

What have you done today? What are you planning on doing today?

Have you written anything? Have you read a good book (or blog post?) 

Have you developed your self-awareness? Or your ability to empathize with people who are different from you? 

Have you done something for the good of another? 

Have you performed any selfless act of service?

Too many of us end each day with a resounding “no” to all these questions. Instead, our answer to the question, “What have you done today?” is usually something like this: “I went to work, came home, and binge-watched Netflix until I passed out.”

Change How You View Your Work

Perhaps you really did nothing other than work today. Perhaps it really had no other benefit than growing your checking account. 

Or perhaps you should reevaluate how you spend the time you are not at work, so that you do create something, learn something new, or serve another person. Or perhaps you should change the way you view your work – I’m betting you did something today that benefitted someone. Reflect on that. 

Too often, we use work, podcasts, and the always-available streaming services to block ourselves from creating our art. We chalk it up to a lack of time. 

But where is your time going? We all have the same 24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week. Unless we are doing shift work or have a newborn at home, we have time to create good for the world. 

I challenge you to answer one question every night before you go to sleep: “Did I do something good today?”

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by Nathan Coumbe

Should You Get Paid Every Time You Send an Email?

Wouldn’t it be great if you got paid every time you sent an email? I dunno about you, but I’d love to live in that world. 

I send hundreds each week. If I earned the price of a postage stamp on each one, I could make a pretty easy living.

Am I Devaluing Myself?

I’m an up-and-coming copywriter. To make a living, I spend several hours each week reaching out to potential clients, offering them my services as a writer and marketer. I do this because I’m a salesperson. And if you’re trying to make a living in a similar way, so are you. 

I recently came across a Twitter post telling me that I was devaluing my work by selling myself. To sum it up, the writer said I should either:

  1. Have clients beating a path to my door willing to pay me, OR 
  2. I should get paid every time I send an email, proposal, or pitch to a potential client before any work is done. 

I understand the author’s point. My time is valuable, and it stinks when I feel I’ve “wasted” my time pitching to someone who doesn’t buy. But I 100% disagree.

Sales Professionals Don’t Get Paid to Prospect

How do professional salespeople get paid? They sell a product and get paid a commission. They don’t get paid when they prospect or send proposals to customers. The only way they make money is by closing a sale. 

I sell a service, and I only get paid if I provide that service. And that service is not pitching ideas. If it was, I’d be a billionaire right now because I have a few thousand ideas each day, and most of them are awful.

Selling Your Service Is Like Applying for a Job

Each time I pitch a client, I’m putting in a job application. Think about all the jobs you’ve applied for in your adult life. What if you got paid for every job application you ever completed? Wouldn’t that make for an awesome career?

Often we don’t have a lot of experience for the jobs we are applying for, especially if we are new to the workforce or a field. When asked what a beginner should do, the Tweeter said, “get paid to pitch.”

We’ve all gotten those phone calls from sleazy salespeople. Does this sound familiar?

“I’ve got this great new system that will keep you from paying any taxes this year. But I can only tell you what it is if you sign a non-disclosure agreement and pay me $2,000 upfront.”

You know you’re losing money and going to jail if you get in bed with that guy. You don’t want to have anything to do with an idea you can only hear after signing an NDA and paying upfront.

How to ACTUALLY Get Paid to Pitch 

There are two parts to this tactic:

  1. Charge higher prices to compensate for the inevitable rejections you’ll get.
  2. Overdeliver to your clients and customers so it’s worth paying you higher prices!

One of my favorite phrases comes from the marketing genius Seth Godin:

“You’ll pay a lot, but you’ll get more than you paid for.”

That is the only way this guy’s Tweet works. 

Selling Is Tough

I get it. Creating proposals, pitching to customers, and facing possible rejection—it really stinks. It takes a lot of time and hard work. It’s frustrating. 

But let me be clear: THAT DOESN’T MEAN ANYONE OWES YOU ANYTHING!

The world doesn’t work that way. We are all in sales, and much of that involves reaching out to others. It means facing the very real possibility of rejection coupled with no monetary gain. 

So go ahead and pitch. And if you want to get paid for that, build the cost into your pricing structure. 

But make sure you overdeliver on that promise to your customer. 

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by Nathan Coumbe

Who do you want to be when you grow up?

“What do I want to do when I grow up?”

We have all asked, or been asked, this question.

But it’s the the wrong one—it has multiple answers that change much too often.

Instead, ask yourself : “who do I want to be?”

How do I want to contribute?

What legacy do I want to leave when I am gone?

It might be part of what you do for a living, but it might not.

More likely, you will approach everything you do in life—your job and your personal relationships—with a new sense of wholeness and possibility.

If we start by asking the wrong question, we will never get the right answer.

But if you ask the right question, you’ll at least be on the path to the right answer.

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by Nathan Coumbe

Why is freelancing so terrifying?

We human beings like security – it encompasses the first two levels of Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs.” It’s fundamental.

To get that feeling of security, we work hourly wage jobs; we try to get hired at famous companies for regular, unchanging salaries with hopes for a 3% raise every year (which doesn’t outpace inflation).

Freelancing – being “a knight without a king” as Seth Godin likes to say – seemingly goes against that feeling of security. There is no guarantee; you don’t get paid simply for showing up somewhere for a specified amount of time.

But it’s better.

The illusion

There is no security in hourly rates; there is no security in working for a famous company. As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us, the moment something bad or unexpected happens, your security is at risk.

The security is an illusion. No longer can we work at the same company for 20 years, slowly moving up a corporate ladder, waiting for that day when we call it quits and HR hands us a gold watch and the envelope containing our pension information.

There is no security anymore. There is only you.

“Security lies in our ability to produce.”

–General Douglas MacArthur

Make your own security

What do you already know or do well?

Can you write? Create websites? Draw and paint? Build things with your hands? Sell?

Maybe you’re a whiz at smoothing customers’ ruffled feathers. Perhaps you have a knack for motivating and encouraging other people.

There is something you already do, or something you already know about, that other people are willing to pay for. You simply have to muster the courage to offer it to them.

Each of us must explicitly state to ourselves what we know how to do and do well. That knowledge and the willingness to execute on it are the only things that give us any sort of real security in the workplace.

If you can find someone and offer them something they are willing to pay for, and do that over and over again, you are a freelancer. You have no boss, no one telling you what to do next, but also no one telling you, “I’m sorry but we have to let you go.”

You have no guarantee of income – in either direction! You can make as little or as much as you want, as long as people are willing to pay for it. But I’ll bet you got stopped on the phrase “no guarantee” or “as little…as you want” while glossing over the rest of it.

As a freelancer, you determine your job, the work you do, your hours, the people you serve. Perhaps it’s not the loss of security you fear: it’s the fear of complete and total responsibility for your success or failure.

We aren’t used to that, but it’s the only way we’ll survive.

Secure your own future today. Don’t wait for someone else to do it for you.

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