Why You Should INVEST in Your Writing Career

In this episode of the Writing Momentum Podcast, hosts Christopher and Gena Maselli discuss the best ways writers can invest in their careers. They emphasize the importance of investing time, energy, and money into quality training, coaching, and writing groups. They also highlight the limitations of relying solely on free online resources and the value of paid, structured learning programs. The Masellis share their personal experiences and encourage listeners to find ways to invest in their writing, whether through local writers’ groups, conferences, or online courses.

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• [00:00] Introduction
• [00:16] The Value of Investing in Your Writing Career
• [01:08] The Pitfalls of Free Online Resources
• [04:02] The Importance of Quality Training and Mentorship
• [11:14] Practical Ways to Invest in Your Writing
• [20:52] Encouragement and Final Thoughts

LINKS:

• Liz Wilcox’s Email Marketing Membership at http://wmdeal.com/liz
• Get your FREE Move the Needle goal-setting for authors ebook at https://www.writingmomentum.com
• Write with us! Join our writing membership and get your book DONE! https://www.writingmomentum.com/membership

episode 125 transcription:

[00:00:00] Gena: What's the best investment for writers? 

[[00:00:02] Christopher: We can help with that.

[00:00:07] Christopher: Hello and welcome to the Writing Momentum Podcast. I'm Christopher Maselli and I'm here with my wife, 

[[00:00:12] Gena: Gena Maselli. 

[[00:00:13] Christopher: Hey, Gena. 

[00:00:14] Gena: Welcome. We're so glad you're here. We're talking today about Uh, something that's really come up quite a bit for us lately, and this is the idea of how writers can invest in their writing.

[[00:00:29] Christopher: Investments for writers. 

[[00:00:30] Gena: Investments for writers. 

[[00:00:31] Christopher: That sounds like a, that sounds pretty good. So are we talking cryptocurrency? What are we looking at here? 

[00:00:36] Gena: Let's not go there, we don't know enough about it, that would be dangerous. 

[00:00:41] Christopher: No we're talking about ways that you can invest in your writing career that can have big payoff, right? Big dividends, you might say.

[00:00:51] Christopher: Um, and that's usually ways you can invest in with your time and with your energy and with your money, because it's not just money, right? I [00:01:00] mean, we're, when we invest in something, it's not just where we put our dollars, although it is that also. And so, yeah, that's what we're talking about. 

[00:01:08] Gena: Yeah. So we have, um, I had people who have, uh, questioned us and they have made the, they've asked the question, isn't everything free online?

[00:01:19] Christopher: Hey, it's all free online, right? You can find all kinds of stuff online. You can find any training you might be interested in. You can find groups of people to get together with, right? You can join a Facebook group for free. There's all kinds of things for free online. And that is true. There is a lot free online and we have ourselves enjoyed many, free online items and we enjoy creating free content for writers because we know that our pocketbooks can be tight and so for instance, this podcast is completely free.

[00:01:49] Christopher: Don't do anything to pay for it. We're just glad to have it out there We've got a lot of free videos. We believe in the free economy For everyone really for learning. 

[[00:01:59] Gena: Yeah, [[00:02:00] but there are some times when free is not necessarily better. 

[[00:02:04] Christopher: Yeah.

[00:02:04] Gena: And let's talk about that Chris. Why is free not always the best choice?

[00:02:09] Christopher: Because you have to value your time. That's what I found the most of when I Start learning something new whether it be with writing or something else There are always free options out there, and sometimes there are some very good free options, but to find good free options, you often have to sift through a whole lot of mediocre free options, and a whole lot that isn't worth anything, right?

[00:02:33] Christopher: So you don't know always who you're learning from, or how timely the information is, or if they've got a an agenda behind what they're giving away for free. And so because of that, you can waste a lot of time and a lot of energy chasing down free things just In hopes of, you know, making a big step forward and instead it takes you ten times longer than it would take someone else who is willing to pay for [[00:03:00] that thing.

[00:03:00] Gena: You really do have to sift through a lot of information And I know as Chris and I have kind of gotten into this thing space of training people. We've looked at different, um, opportunity to free opportunities that are out there for people. Just really questioning what's out here. What's, what is available for everyone.

[00:03:19] Gena: And you know, some of it is really good. Some of it is free information that is out there that people can track and can track down. But then there's others of it that we have honestly found that we have thought that person is not qualified to teach what they're trying to teach. They haven't been in the business or the industry long enough.

[00:03:40] Gena: They don't have a proven track record or they're still really learning. Maybe they've produced something that seems impressive, but whether or not what they're producing is actually a quality material or quality product that you would want to emulate, That can be a different [[00:04:00] question. To be very honest, that can be a different question.

[00:04:02] Gena: And I say that as Chris and I have been in publishing, marketing, writing for 30 years, we're seeing trends change. We're seeing a technology change. We're seeing audience and genres change. There is a lot of change going on. There's something to be said about having some history behind it and whether, and we're not saying that because, Oh, everybody has to follow us.

[00:04:30] Gena: That's not it at all. But really look at those people who have been in the business and have been working for a while that they're able to recognize the change, recognize why things are working, recognize what's working, what's not working. And can also communicate how you can get there as well. If they can help you get there to where they are.

[00:04:54] Christopher: I've really changed my mind on the worth of my time. The [00:05:00] more, the older I've gotten and the more, the less time that I have to write, I realized that that time is very valuable and I don't want to waste it just on trying to find good content in, you know, not having the ability to get instant feedback from someone, you know, one on one.

[00:05:19] Christopher: So, you know, I, I've, I've had opportunities where I found a good training online, but it's not been in any kind of order. And I've been willing to pay a little bit in order to just have it put in order, right? Cause sometimes people will take and they'll put all the videos out online for free. And then they'll say, Hey, we're going to go ahead and offer a version of this that's in order, maybe with some bonus videos on our website. To me, that really is worth it, because then you know you're following a logical projection. 

[[00:05:47] Gena: Progression. 

[00:05:48] Christopher: Progression. Right. And, and that helps you to know that, oh, okay, now I am getting exactly what I need when I need it, and I'm saving time. That's what this is about. It's about saving [[00:06:00] time so that we have more time to write.

[00:06:02] Gena: Well, and, You're also, you touched on a couple of things there. I think there's something that happens when you actually have to put a training together and know that you're going to be putting it out as a product that there is a certain level of quality control that you as a producer are going through in order to make sure that it is coming across and making sure that it is a value of the people that are going to receive it, that they're going to understand you, that you're saying it in the best way that you're teaching it in a progression that makes sense and that you're not taking them on a bunch of bunny trails and, and just all over the place that you're actually able to deliver. I think there's something that happens when you are producing a product like that, that really makes you kind of question, okay, is this, is this as clear as it needs to be? Is it as good as it needs to be? 

[00:06:55] Christopher: Yeah. And as a general rule, you also, Come to see especially as we begin to [00:07:00] do this ourselves, right? You realize that there's a bit of time expense and Financial expense in pulling these kinds of things off right for every Microphone we have to buy or for every video editing software or storage space online Or, um, so, you know, some other kind of app, something like that.

[00:07:20] Christopher: All of those things cost money or they cost time to put up to take a lot of energy to research. Mm-Hmm. . And that's all worth something, right? And so I realized that, oh, now that we're doing this, I realized that this is what some of these other creators are doing and this is why they're charging for what they're doing. Because they want to offer a very quality product and the only way to do that is to say, okay I need to be sure I at least cover my expenses here, right?

[00:07:45] Christopher: And and really I think it's worth rewarding them for taking their time and their energy to create those things so that they can actually make a little bit of a living with it. And so I like I said, I've come to a bit of a change of heart with the way [[00:08:00] I approach 

[00:08:00] Gena: cause you've been on this side 

[[00:08:02] Christopher: because I love deals, you know, I love the deals, but yeah, being on this side, it makes me see things entirely differently.

[00:08:08] Gena: Absolutely. And I, I would even say that there is an investment of time, not only in producing this kind of thing, but there's been an investment of time of just learning for someone who has been in the business, who has been learning, if they've been learning for 10 years, if they've been learning for 20 years, 30 years, um, there's, um, all of that time and energy and resources that they put into learning the craft of writing or publishing or marketing or whatever, that there's something to be said for that.

[00:08:41] Gena: They are taking all of that energy and time and resources that they've paid and they're boiling it down and saying, you don't have to go through this. It won't take you 30 years to learn this. Like it took me. Yeah. We're going to help you shorten that [00:09:00] learning curve and help tell you this is what we've seen.

[00:09:03] Gena: This is where the market is going. This is how you can do it. Here's a new way of doing it. Oh, I love to hear from authors to hear how they're even marketing and I have paid for this to hear how they're marketing. and to have them really sharing how they're making it all work. 

[[00:09:23] Christopher: So much of this creator economy is built around mentorship.

[00:09:29] Christopher: I'm going to take my 30 plus years of experience as an author and share them with you to put you on the fast track to success so you don't have to make the same mistakes I made, so that you don't even have to make half the decisions I had to make, so that you can get a lot further early on in your career if you're willing to learn from me, right?

[00:09:53] Christopher: I mean that, that's the way we approach it and that's why we have We've paid other authors that we have learned from, we've paid [00:10:00] other app creators, we've paid other people who do different, um, 

[[00:10:04] Gena: trainings and 

[[00:10:05] Christopher: that sort of thing. 

[00:10:05] Gena: Different software. There's been a lot. 

[[00:10:08] Christopher: We know if we will learn from them, we will amplify our own lives, right?

[00:10:17] Christopher: Our own writing career. It will become so much easier. When we started learning about how to do ads online We said we need some ad courses online. Remember when we started learning social media? Remember when we started to learn Pinterest? And we were like, oh, Pinterest is so great because that's a lot of our audience.

[00:10:34] Christopher: And we're like, we don't know how to use Pinterest. Well, you can figure it out. And there are a billion online videos. So what we did is we found an online creator that we loved the video she was creating and we said, she's got to have a course, right? So we went, we signed up for her course and we got one on one attention with that.

[00:10:51] Christopher: And we were able to create our Pinterest page in a, in a matter of, Weeks, not months or years. And so that, that's the [00:11:00] way you can amplify what you're doing. 

[00:11:01] Gena: Yeah, it really does take away that trial and error a lot of time. I mean there's always going to be some trial and error, but it really does take a lot of that away and helps you just get there sooner to, to where you want to be.

[00:11:14] Gena: But let's talk about other places where people can invest cause we're talking about this and I, I, you know, as Chris and I were preparing this podcast today. We didn't want it to seem like, uh, one, like we were whining because people are saying, why isn't all of our material free?

[00:11:31] Gena: Which we have gotten that question. We have also gotten the, well, why should I even pay for this when I can search it out online? And as Chris said, you can search it out, but you are going to sift through. You're going to sift through some stuff that's probably not as good as others. There's going to be different levels of quality.

[00:11:51] Gena: Um, but there are other places too that you can invest and not all of them are high ticket items. These are a lot of these. We're not [00:12:00] talking about, you need to run out and spend $1500 to go to the premier writers conference in Hawaii or something. We're not talking about that. If you can do it, Do it! I mean, have a blast!

[00:12:13] Christopher: But we would suggest you go to a writer's conference. That is one of those items that you should invest in. Find a local writer's conference. Nearby Writers Conference, if you can. If you live nearby to any large Metroplex, you will be able to find some kind of really good Writers Conference. Yeah, and there's going to be different levels.

[00:12:33] Gena: You know, you might start with a Writers Conference that's really small in your local town. Maybe you live in a smaller town, or maybe you're part of a group. That has a little writer's conference for a day and that one's less than $100. That will be great for you to start with. Start there. But as you grow in your craft, as you grow in the knowledge of the industry and all of a sudden you're going, Oh, that person's going to be teaching.

[[00:12:59] Gena: I want [[00:13:00] to, I want to hear what they have to say, all of a sudden it becomes worth it for you to spend a few hundred dollars to go hear them. 

[00:13:07] Christopher: That's right, that's right. And then if you need something that's more personal, you can try to find local writing groups. Now sometimes these don't cost hardly anything, but often they will have some kind of small fee just to keep the group going, right?

[00:13:19] Christopher: So, don't be concerned about spending a little money with that. I mean, think about it. If you spend $30 a month for a local writer's group, but it causes you to get your writing done and to get good feedback and make sure that every week you have an appointment where you're going getting your writing done.

[00:13:36] Christopher: Isn't your writing worth that? If I knew that there was something that I could implement in my life that would cause me to write more, or better, or more, um, uh, frequently, I would do that. In fact, you know, I actually do that, right? I'm a part of a mastermind and we get together and building our small businesses.

[00:13:56] Christopher: We, we meet once a week. The reason I do that is because [00:14:00] it keeps me innovating. It keeps me being an entrepreneur. If I wasn't doing that, it'd be way too easy just to let weeks pass and not do anything. 

[[00:14:08] Gena: Yeah, absolutely. And I would also say, you know, Chris and I live in an area that has a really high retirement population.

[00:14:16] Gena: So don't underestimate those local writers groups. If you go to them and you think, well, everybody here is older or they're retired or something. Some of those people who are retired, who are doing it for free, who are giving and giving away that their knowledge have been working in the industry for years.

[00:14:34] Gena: They're just at a place in life where they're like, you know what? I don't want to, I don't want to rush around and I don't want to fight this anymore. I'm kind of moving towards retirement. And so I'm just going to, I'm just going to kind of go and be part of this small writers group and just enjoy my time there.

[00:14:52] Gena: And I'm going to support other people as they're, as they're rising and learning more. And I'm just going to give back [00:15:00] and that I think the writing community, it's beautiful that way because we do so often. Find ourselves people have given to us. So now it's time for us to be able to give to them so don't underestimate those local writers groups and think oh, that's not anything special You never know.

[00:15:16] Gena: You might have somebody there who was has like 10 books published and was an editor at some New York office for years and years and you just never know. So don't underestimate them. But beyond that, we've talked about writers conferences and then. 

[[00:15:32] Christopher: We believe in training. We believe in education. The more you can learn about writing, about publishing, about marketing, the better off you will be.

[00:15:41] Christopher: So look for Training and classes whether they be local and live or whether they be online and recorded It doesn't matter just find good training and be willing to pay a little bit for it Especially if it's a comprehensive course, Those kinds of things usually cost a bit of [[00:16:00] money because they were took so much to put together But when you take them, you will leapfrog your career forward.

[00:16:06] Gena: Absolutely. I think that's so important and so worth the time and the money for those, getting those classes, getting that training, being a part of that. And then also coaching. If you need a coach, Look around for someone who is experienced. There are several coaches online that, uh, that they will come alongside you and they'll read your material and they'll give you feedback on it.

[00:16:34] Gena: And here's the thing, Chris, why, um, education is so important. Yeah. I'm going to say something that, um, you guys might not like. Here's the deal. Writing is one of those things that people believe I know how to do. They will believe that they can just, because they can write a sentence or a paragraph, they know [[00:17:00] how to write.

[00:17:02] Gena: And I'm just here to tell you, there is a whole lot more to writing than just writing one sentence. single sentence or even one paragraph. 

[00:17:13] Christopher: It's a craft. It's an art. 

[00:17:14] Gena: It is a craft, you guys. And it, it never ends. There's always more to learn. And I have worked with mentors who have looked at my work that I thought was good and they have gone through and they have said you can tighten this up here.

[00:17:35] Gena: You need to rearrange this here. You need, you've got too many passive sentences. You've got this going on or I think you need to add a vignette here or maybe you should work in a metaphor here. Those kind of feedback, that kind of feedback is going to, it is so powerful. It will take your writing to another [[00:18:00] level and that does not happen, I would say most of the time, 90 percent of the time, it does not happen just from you writing your same way because you will write your same way until somebody challenges you to write better.

[00:18:17] Gena: And I have been challenged. Chris knows I have been challenged because he has been one of the people to challenge me. Uh, he started writing before me. And so when I started writing, he would give me that feedback. I have hired coaches to come alongside me to give me feedback. And I can't even tell you the number of times that I turned something into my coach thinking that it was really good and had that coach just shred it and even say, wow, you made a really strange mistake here in this writing.

[00:18:51] Gena: Let me explain what you did. And when they explain it, I go, Oh my gosh, I never saw that. I didn't realize. But you [00:19:00] know what? I don't make that mistake a second time because I had a coach or because I went to a class or because I received training or a mentor or a writing group or something where that person gave me that feedback to help me be better.

[00:19:18] Gena: And so I just, and I know Chris, you've worked with editors. You've worked with editors that have slashed your work before, haven't you? 

[00:19:25] Christopher: But it's good because here's the thing, when you, someone takes a red pen to what you do and you pay attention to those edits, you pay attention to that feedback, you don't usually make that same mistake twice.

[00:19:39] Christopher: You're, it's always going to be there somewhere percolating in the back of your head so that when it comes up again, you recognize it. Because here's the thing, you've heard us talk about this many times, Your first draft is not supposed to be perfect. My first draft still are full of errors all the time, every first draft, but that's because [[00:20:00] I make sure I just get that first draft done.

[00:20:02] Christopher: Do you know how many authors and writers do not even get their first draft finished? This is the key. Make sure you push through that first draft. Don't edit yourself as you go. Just get it done. But then as you've had this training, what happens is you look back over that first draft and you see all kinds of things jumping out at you and you're able to fix them and you become a better writer.

[00:20:27] Christopher: And every time you become a little bit better and a little bit better. And that's why Those kinds of things are worth paying for because if you don't have feedback like that You're not going to become a better writer or if you do it will take Hundred times longer than you would if someone just said not that, Correct that, look for this right that helps things stick out for you.

[[00:20:52] Gena: Oh yeah.

[00:20:52] Christopher: So here's our challenge to you today This is the challenge if you don't invest in your writing in some way on a [[00:21:00] regular basis, I would say monthly at least, right? We invest in our writing monthly and in our business monthly and everything we do, we invest monthly because we want to jump ahead.

[00:21:12] Christopher: If you don't do that with your writing, I encourage you to find a way that you can invest in your writing. Find a local writers group, find some training maybe that you've been looking at online and thinking, I'd like to do that, but I don't know, it costs a little bit of money. Look, if you've got the funds, go ahead and invest in it.

[00:21:30] Christopher: If you don't have the funds, go ahead and skip some meals out, right? Some of those expensive fast food meals, right? Go ahead and see if you can save some money, maybe get an odd job, and then go ahead and invest in your writing. If this writing is important to you, you need to invest in it. Now, if you don't have anything that you know to invest in, We do have a membership.

[[00:21:53] Christopher: We would love to have you come along. Come, come, use it as the challenge and test it. Do you become a better [[00:22:00] writer because of the training that you find? Because of the co writing sessions that you attend? Do they cause you to write more? We know they will. Statistically, we know they will. You will have a higher chance of getting your writing done.

[00:22:14] Christopher: Do you know there's a statistic that says that if you commit your writing plan to someone else, you Your chance of success rises to 65%. That's a good odds, but get this, if you also put it on your calendar, you have an appointment for it and you committed to someone else, that chance of success, they say, raises to 95%.

[00:22:38] Christopher: That means you're virtually guaranteed to get it done and to accomplish what you want to do. So come on, test it out. Use it as a test. Come join us. We'd love to have you. If you don't join us, join someone else, but find a place that you can invest in your writing. 

[[00:22:51] Gena: Absolutely. We hope you have enjoyed this podcast.

[00:22:56] Gena: We know it was a little bit of a tough love [00:23:00] conversation to have. Please know that this does come from a place of love. We know that there are some people who are listening to this podcast and you have a diamond idea. You have a, uh, you have been just kind of percolating on something or you've been sewing kind of into yourself some idea that's been kind of just going round and round.

[00:23:25] Gena: And this might be the time for you to invest in your writing to bring that out. And we want that for you. And like Chris said, whether you come to our training or you got to, you know, you join some other group, that's Please do it. But if this podcast has in any way inspired you, would you please let us know?

[00:23:48] Gena: You can comment below on it. You can reach out to us and just send us an email. We want to hear from that this has meant something to you. And if it has helped you [00:24:00] along your journey, I'm telling you, that's why we do this. 

[00:24:03] Christopher: Hey, if you're on Instagram, come to our Instagram page. You can leave us a message on any of our comments there.

[00:24:09] Christopher: You'll find this as a great page to follow because we post a lot of information about writing. We post some of our podcasts and recent video trainings on there, and we'd love to have you be a part. It's @WritingMomentum. Easy to find. Until next time we thank you for joining us here because together 

[[00:24:27] Gena: we have writing momentum.

[[00:24:29] Christopher: Bye. Bye