Mastering High-Income Freelancing with Ed Gandia

In this episode we sit down with one of the pioneer business coaches focused on helping freelance writers, the one and only Ed Gandia! 

Ed sheds light on the holy grail of freelancing -- achieving freedom and flexibility without compromising income. In a world where advisory services are becoming increasingly valuable, Ed emphasizes the importance of offering more than just content writing. Learn how to leverage AI for ideation, messaging, and even streamline your services to enhance quality and value.

Don’t miss this episode!

Ed Gandia is a business-building coach and strategist who helps freelance writers and copywriters earn more in less time doing work they love for better clients.

Connect with Ed
Website: https://b2blauncher.com/
Podcast: https://b2blauncher.com/category/podcast/

Full show notes here.

Transcript

Ashley Mejia: 0:08

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the talk freelance to me podcast. I'm your host, Ashley Cisneros, makiya, and today you are in for a huge treat. I have the immense honor of having someone that I consider like The Godfather in this freelance space, someone who inspired me a lot when I started freelancing in 2009, the one and only Ed Gan dia. Hi, Ed, how are you? Hi,

Ed Gandia: 0:37

Ashley. Thank you. I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. Thank

Ashley Mejia: 0:41

you so much. I have to tell you, you know, I've read your books. I've heard you speak at many different conferences. I've heard all of your podcasts, you've had a couple of different shows. And I just want to share just how much appreciation that I have for your generosity and really thinking so with so much innovation, about freelance life, about freelance business for years, for a long time, you've really made a difference in my business, and the difference in the businesses of a lot of writers that I know.

Ed Gandia: 1:12

No, thank you. Thank you for saying that. Appreciate it. Absolutely.

Ashley Mejia: 1:16

So freelance fam. As usual, I always give you a little bit of bio so you can kind of get to know Edie more. And so I'll read a little bit of that now. So Ed Gan DIA is a business building coach who helps established freelance writers and copywriters earn more and less time doing work they love for better clients. His high income business writing podcast is one of the top freelancing and writing podcasts on Apple podcast. And his insights and advice have been featured in Forbes, Inc Magazine, Fast Company, the Christian Science Monitor and the Atlanta Journal Constitution, among many others. And you're awesome. I know. That's your formal bio. And that's just a little bit. Do you want to just introduce yourself to anybody who's been under a rock and hasn't heard of you before?

Ed Gandia: 2:04

Yeah, well, I think that's pretty much it. I focus on helping writers, copywriters, marketing strategists to earn more and less time, to me, that's not a marketing tagline. I really believe in that, because that is the holy grail of freelancing. At the end of the day, if you can spend less time working on client projects get more for that the freedom and flexibility that buys you is priceless in you know, so it has nothing to do with how much you work, how much you charge. I mean, those things are also very important, of course, but at the end of the day, the true measure is for every unit of effort that I put into my business, what am I getting out of it. And now because what I get out of it is what buys me the things that I really want the things and experiences and opportunities and freedom that I really want.

Ashley Mejia: 2:56

I love it. And you have really been at the forefront of thinking about work in this way. You know, now in this kind of interesting time that we find ourselves after the pandemic, after the great resignation, you know, with all of these people are questioning, you know, their things that are important in their life and kind of the way they approach life and business or generating income. And you have a really interesting story. Can you walk us through how you got started in this space? From when you started being a copywriter to now being a coach for other writers and copywriters?

Ed Gandia: 3:31

Yeah, like most of us, right? Anybody who just started out doing something working for somebody, I never planned this, I'd never imagined that I would be here. It just all happened organically. So I started in corporate sales out of college in the early 90s, early to mid 90s. And that's the last thing I wanted to do. Like I I thought, oh my gosh, the last thing I want is sales. But that's where I ended up but just at the time, that's all I could find. It turned out to be a blessing because it learning how to sell effectively is a skill that applies to really everything in life is not just in business, in selling I learned is not about manipulation. Selling is about having a an honest, open, authentic conversation. That was a game changer. For me that took a while for me to understand that. But the point is I started in sales. And I had the fortune of working for companies who couldn't really give me the resources that I needed. And I say the fortune because at the time, I thought that I was at a huge disadvantage. You know, I had friends who were in selling jobs, were given everything, you know, great territories, incredible company reputation, excellent products, and great commission checks everything. I didn't have any of that. So I had to become very resourceful. And part of that resourcefulness was I need written materials that can help be get in the door somewhere. And they were different purposes. But that was a big one. How do I get in the door? How do I get a conversation started with a prospect who doesn't know me or doesn't know us. And I love this idea of can I do that through writing. Because if I call and I did a ton of cold calling on the phone, immediately, people have serious objections. And you know, they don't, it doesn't matter, you could be giving away gold nuggets, it just doesn't matter. So I need a way to kind of slip in. So I started writing stuff that actually worked. And because it started working, I wanted to learn more about how to write it better, more effectively. So I bought every book that I could find, I started taking courses, I realized this thing was called copywriting. And I didn't take me long to realize that I could turn this into a business, which I did. At the time, when it finally dawned on me, this could be a business, I had set a goal and this is in 2002. I'll never forget when it when it happened to my first child was born that year. And I set a goal that I want to start a business or buy an existing business within five years. So by 2007. And so I went into it with that mindset, right, um, five years to get out of traditional employment and start or buy a business. And it hit me eventually, wait a minute, this could be the business, I just wasn't thinking in terms of a service, I was thinking in terms of brick and mortar. So that's what I did. I started on the side. And about 27 months later, I was able to quit my day job. This is summer 2006. And just freelance full time. And I've looked back, I haven't really regretted any of it. So real quick, though, because like, wait a minute, but you're not really a writer anymore. Are you a writer, I'm very open about this. So in 2012, I began coaching before then I had sold some training classes, some guides to help people, because everyone was contacting me Hey, what what do you do? How do you do it? How did were you able to do that so easily. And it wasn't easy. But I documented what I did. And I sold those products and those guides and classes. In 2012, I started coaching which I hadn't done really formally before. And 2016, I let go of my last freelance writing client, I realized by then the coaching and training was what I really wanted to do. So yeah, that's how I ended up here. But the none of this was planned. I just do this by accident, people reaching out to me for advice and giving it away and realizing well, wait a minute, I should do this or writing my own stuff. And realizing I'm actually pretty good at this. I wonder if I could do this for others, you know, just paying attention.

Ashley Mejia: 7:40

I love that so many gems there, especially you know about those mind shifts that occurred along the way for you personally, when you saw kind of the potential of what you were doing, you know that it could be a business. And I think that's a trend that I see in your body of work is helping other people create those mind shifts as well, when you were talking about sales that it doesn't have to feel slimy or aggressive, you know, it can feel like you're a part of the team and that you're linking arms with your client, and looking to solve a problem. And kind of demonstrating that. You've helped me also think about that mind shift of what we do as writers are what I did as a writer from beyond just a side hustle type of thing to a real business. How did this perspective shift impact your own journey? And why is it so vital for other writers, even those today that are brand new to think of what they do with writing as a business?

Ed Gandia: 8:36

I think for me, it was two things. First of all, because I came from corporate sales, I was very business focused, right, very numbers driven, very business and goal oriented. So that part, it just came naturally to me. But I think maybe even more important was, as I mentioned earlier, the fact that I had it in my mind that I was going to start or buy a business within five years. Right. So because that's the seed that I had planted. That is the filter that I had in front of me, I looked at everything as a business. And when it finally dawned on me that this could actually be the thing I was looking for, then I automatically treated it as a business from day one. And that is very different from the way I find most people, I think it's gotten a lot better. But especially back then early to mid 2000s. The people that I was in touch with, they didn't treat it as a business they treated it is a craft, or they thought of themselves as selling their skills by the hour or to the highest bidder kind of thing. They didn't think of it as a business and it makes all the difference in the world. Absolutely.

Ashley Mejia: 9:45

You know, and I was thinking about how much you have seen this industry change. I was listening to one of your very early episodes. I think it was maybe with Copyblogger or might have been a different interview. But you were talking about like you when you realize your talent for writing those sales letters and applying them to your sales job, and you mentioned faxing them that used to fax them. And then now, you know recently I've heard you in 2023, on your episodes, and also in some of your keynote speeches, talking about AI, talking about chat GPT. So what a journey from fax machines to now we've got robots doing writing sort of with the rise of these tools, you've spoken a lot about this. And we know they're based on machine learning. So they're always going to change and get better. How do you see these technologies continue to impact the work that we do? In 2024, kind of looking ahead,

Ed Gandia: 10:38

nobody really knows. That's the first thing we just need to admit, I'm certainly no futurist. And even when you look at futurists, and their track record 90% of what they predicted was off significantly, we tend to focus on what they got, right? But if you look, most people were off. So with that, I'm gonna give you my very high level prediction, and take it for what it's worth. I think right now we're in phase one of three phases. And it's going to be more phases in that. But you know, let's just say three in phase one is really these tools kind of came out of nowhere. Nobody was really expecting them to be what they were right out of the gate. And phase one is all about scrambling, oh, my gosh, what is this going to do? How do I you know, let me play around with it and realizing how good it is. And thinking that that's it, I'm done. I'm done, machines are going to take my job. So there's a lot of hype, there's a lot of overreaction. There's a lot of fear, panic. And there's a lot of tinkering. But here's the interesting thing. This is mostly coming from writers, this fear and panic. When you really look out there, you're not seeing companies replace writers, like you would think it's over inflated. The reason a lot of writers are suffering right now is mostly because of the economy, not because of AI. Is AI replacing some writers replacing some things that, you know, we used to do as writers. Yes. But right now, the markets that are seeing it are kind of the bargain basement markets, you know, just content mill type stuff, SEO content, just because we need to put keyword rich content out there. The people who are getting hurt for the most part, I suspect are overseas writers who were doing this for, you know, two cents a word. So they're being replaced first. One metaphor that I like to use is like a great flood. Right. So the there's this great flood right now. And it's really the valleys that are being impacted right now, the valley floors, where most of us I think are working on the side of the mountain. And even some people are at the very top of the mountain. The problem is that the valley floor is now trying to rush to the mountains to keep from drowning. Most of them are getting swallowed, and drowning, unfortunately. But it is putting a little bit of pressure on the base of the mountain, the people who are there. So I think we're right now in phase one, a lot of people are tinkering. But a lot of companies, especially bigger companies are not going there yet. There's all kinds of legal questions and risks, they don't want to go there. And until this stuff gets resolved, they don't want to use it or even allow their freelance writers to use these tools. Okay, and I'm talking about more bigger companies. So right now, it's there's a lot of hype and fear and panic. That's phase one. Phase two, I don't know when this is going to start. But at some point in the next couple of years, we'll enter a phase where now this becomes kind of the norm. And the best maybe analogy I can give you would be software. So back in the day, when engineers and scientists used pen and paper to do math, or adding machines are the first generation of computers, you know, where you have to go with and with punch cards and reserve time, you know, with a computer for an hour, we're going to be now past that in kind of more in the PC world, right where now, many people in business have a PC and they're able to do all that math in seconds. Instead of hours in that's phase two, phase two will be this stuff now becomes more mainstream as a tool. And that's the key thing I want to emphasize as a tool that software replace all engineers, all scientists, all statisticians or data analysts now. What it did is it elevated the profession to it took all the grunt work out of what they were doing in enable them to really spend time on right brain creative thinking, problem solving, critical thinking, right? Being able to use these tools as tools to make better decisions to do higher level work. That to me is what phase two is going to be Are you all about going back to the flood? Are people going to drown? Absolutely. But what we need to do is keep moving up that mountain, okay to higher elevation. Phase three, then a few years later is going to be really interesting, because that's when it's so hard to really see and get clarity on what that looks like. But that's gonna be weird. Now we're in a different plane, you know, we're at somewhere totally different, these tools have now become incorporated into so much of what we do into our lives, businesses, everything. And now it's like a whole new category of jobs and freelance opportunities that we can't even fathom right now, in that's where it becomes really hard to really predict. I'm an optimist, I think there's going to be plenty of opportunities, but we're going to need to pivot and shift. The good news is, we will have time to do that this is not going to happen next year. So just like with software, you know, some people who just did everything by hand, if they insisted on that they're going to be replaced. But if you know how to work with it, you can now move to higher levels of thinking higher levels of of work and productivity and creativity. I love that

Ashley Mejia: 16:11

that's so refreshing. And it feels so different. This conversation that we're having right now, you know, at the end of 2023. And yeah, panic and fear those words that you use, that's what I felt reverberating from the writer community in January ish. So it's so cool to see that distinction, really. And also that challenge that challenge that if we want to adapt, and we want to still be here, we want to survive on these mountains and not be in these valleys that we'll need to continue to think with creativity and innovation. And, you know, leveraging what we have as human beings, right, and I loved your topic, your keynote speech at the ASj conference this summer, monetizing your expertise, because I think you talked about that a lot about what are ways where you can anticipate what your client might need, how do you insert yourself in those conversations ahead of time where you're, you can consult and you can maybe some of those things that we've been giving away for free, as part of the writing process, really have a lot of value? Can you talk more about why writers should consider getting into this advisory service space, this consulting space to kind of augment what we're also doing just in terms of the technical of the writing itself?

Ed Gandia: 17:28

Absolutely. The idea here is that as writing becomes more and more commoditized, that is the production of words, right? The creation of content, and copy, it's not that machines are going to do it, it's just it's going to become way more efficient to produce that than ever before. So one prediction is that rates and fees are for that work alone are going to start going down. By the way, that's not necessarily bad. Because if the the volume that you're cranking out goes up, is the result, you can end up being the same or even in a better position. So let's keep that in mind. I think the focus has been, oh my gosh, show something I used to get, you know, $1,000 For now, I'm gonna get $250 for Yeah, but if he can do it in a quarter of the time, or even faster, you know, and you get more volume, because you're able to take more with these tools, just like the math example, then we might be at parity or better. So that's one thing. The second thing is I want everyone to understand that, oh, well, I'm not an advisor, I've stopped using the word strategy, because I've saying, Hey, you should sell strategy to clients. Your advice, your strategy, your expertise. Sounds like, Well, I'm not a strategist. So I've stopped using that word. I'm using advisory for a reason. You were already advising clients. You already are. And I'll prove it to you. Have you ever been in a conversation about topic ideas? You know, they got a couple of things they want to write. And you know, we got some topic ideas, but would love your opinion on this? And what do we do? What we do what we do best? Right? we brainstorm with them, we help them make that decision. It might only take us five minutes, it's not about the time, think about the expertise that we've developed over the years that enables us in five minutes to help them make a really solid decision that can make a big difference. And the number of views they get leads, they generate the sales they make. So we're already brainstorming ideating with them, messaging or positioning, you help them write some website, copy or refresh the whole website copy while you realize this is really outdated. They admitted Yes, that was five years ago, we no longer talk about ourselves that way. Well, how are you talking about yourselves now? Well, and then they go down this path of you know, we're saying this, then that you realize this is a convoluted mess. Let me help you sort through that and refine it. And we just did that for free. Okay, so another great example, many times is we have this problem. We think, you know, we need a series of case studies to help plus prove the value in offer social proof about what we have here. But we're not really sure. Because you know, we also thought of this other idea, and you help them kind of sort through it and arrive at one thing to produce now, right? That is called Project roadmapping. Essentially, you're helping them decide on a project. And other way to think of it as the unpaid discovery, you're not getting paid for unearthing really what needs to be done and coming to a conclusion as to what needs to be done. So all these are examples of things that we're doing day in and day out, that we're not charging for it. What I'm suggesting is that, especially with AI, again, is it does a better job of helping with the craft, of writing. And making that way more efficient. We need to learn how to first of all, use these tools to help us with ideation, because they're great at that, and then start selling that as a standalone service. So when the example of hey, we're not really sure what we need here, great, you know, I have this engagement, it's called a roadmapping session, where we sit down for 60 minutes, we put it all on the table, we do some brainstorming, I walk us through this, I lead the discussion. And then I turn around and give you a report detailing exactly what we uncovered, what my recommendations are, and what I believe we should focus on and what that would look like. And when you charge $800 For that were before you may have given it away. So messaging, same thing, key message platform, ideation, hey, let's figure out the next quarters worth of ideas and content. Right now, because you're getting paid, you can do a better job, you're gonna feel better about it. And by the way, they're going to feel better about the recommendations, because they paid you for that, as opposed to oh, he just kind of prescribed too early before he really or she really diagnosed, because they were trying to, you know, they were doing it for free. So it's going to be more and more important that we recognize this value. And then we start selling it as standalone engagements.

Ashley Mejia: 22:07

I love that there's so much value and clarity, right? There is there's always been I think, since the internet overwhelmed this idea of overwhelmed, but now even more so with Slack channels, and Facebook groups and WhatsApp and, you know, forums here, and it's so much so I think for a lot of clients. That is that is so valuable to have a professional who knows this stuff, who has that talent, for figuring out how to how to take a message out how to make it concise and make it resonate with the audience. So many times you see the client, they just want to talk about themselves, and they're not focused on who they really serve. And so I just see that clarity that we can offer and package for them. That is priceless. That helps them and I think by being engaging earlier when you were talking about diagnosing. And then here's the prescription. So later on down the line when we're producing whatever the content is, I feel like you'll probably have less edits and pushback because they bought in earlier. So I love that advice. And I think that's huge. And that's awesome.

Ed Gandia: 23:14

Absolutely, you're right. They have paid for it. They were invested in it. Right? And what would they see what went into the whole thing and making a decision? Again, all I'm asking is that you formalize this a little better? The How does it really matter as much, you know, I think you can easily one of the easiest ways to start is with Project roadmapping. helping a client is trying to make a decision as to what to do to solve a problem. help him identify the thing to focus on. And even if you charge 300 $500 Doesn't really matter, the moment you charge for that your world is going to change. Because now you're gonna see and prove to yourself wow, somebody paid me for my guidance. I was giving that away for years. And now you're gonna see yourself in your value very differently. Beautiful.

Ashley Mejia: 24:01

Love it. Love it. Love it. You touched on fees a little bit before about how AI and how these tools that are making it maybe easier or faster and more efficient. We talk about fees a lot. Where I feel like that's rates What do you charge for this? What do you charge for this? That's such a topic within the writer community. And you talked about this a lot on your own podcast, high income business writing podcast. Do you have any just quick tips for our listeners about strategies that you use to kind of arrive at the optimal fees for some of these services?

Ed Gandia: 24:34

Yeah, it's a big topic. So let me I guess I'll pick a couple of things that I think anyone could apply. One of them is if you're charging by the hour right now, one of the most important things you could ever do for your business is to move to a fixed fee model. Okay, that right there is a game changer. And listen, when I say that, I don't mean that if you have clients already, you know who work within your hourly model that you have to choose change that the easiest way to change it is with new prospects, you know, with new clients, because they don't know how you charge or what you charge. So don't feel like you Oh, that's impossible because my clients will never go for that just start with new people. So that to me is the the easiest, lowest hanging fruit in the pricing arena. The second thing is to, okay, well, great, how do I determine what to charge because now I have skin in the game, you know, now I'm taking a risk. If I say 1500, and it takes me a lot longer than I thought, then, you know, I'm not making as much well, what you need to do is you need to create what I call a master fee schedule, which is an internal document, think of it as an internal menu of things you do, or can do. And then a fee range for each, right. So kind of the minimum and the maximum. So case study, anywhere from 1000 to $2,000. Let's say it's not something you publish, but at least you know, and then what you do is you start by listing all the things you do best guess as to the ranges for each. And then as you start quoting and doing that informs how you then adjust in refine those prices. Like let's go back to case studies. When I started doing that I hadn't done a case study before and I put in there and my internal fee schedule, I don't know between 700 and 1000, is I started doing them somebody gave me a shot, right? So I did one and I realized, okay, this took me a long, long time, it was not profitable. But that's okay, I'm learning how to do it. But after the third or fourth, I realized 700 to 1000 is way too cheap. So that informed the fee, and then I updated it to between, I think I did 1000 to 1250. And then I kind of settled on a fixed fee of 1250. And then I went from 1250 to 1750. But as time went on, so you inform based on what you're seeing, you ask colleagues, this is why it's so important to have a network of fellow writers who are kind of on the same wavelength, you know, like make sure that you align yourself and you stay in touch with people who have the same philosophy, who are looking to grow, who are not scarcity minded, they have more abundant thinking, and you kind of help each other out. I had several colleagues that would email all the time, hey, listen, what do you charge for this? You know, can you give me a range, and then I would see what they charge and I would then refine what I had. So a master fee schedule is one of the best ways to do this. And then you'll see that your internal hourly rate suddenly can go up from maybe you're charging $80 before because he had the quote that right. But once you don't quote that it's an internal thing. It's an internal hourly rate, your internal hourly rate could easily go up 150 200 to 50, I got a coaching client shoot close to $500 an hour. I mean, it's crazy in again, it happens because you're charging a fixed fee for a fixed scope of work.

Ashley Mejia: 28:01

That's fantastic. Talk about inspiring, you know, for a lot of people, and just really, I feel like there's been so many stereotypes, I guess about writers about us as starving artists, or just like what you were talking about that scarcity mindset, I feel like has dominated a lot of conversations in the writer community. And really, I mean, you've always kind of taken that approach, about value about impact about abundance about collaboration. And I think that is the way that we not only survive these changes, and whatever life throws at us, whether it's inflation or pandemic or AI, but that's how we thrive too. I'd love that message. I know that you in some of your earlier podcasts, you kind of talk about the reasons you know, for going freelance that you know about wanting to spend more time with your family at the time, I know your son is now a man compared to when you started. A lot of our listeners are women, a lot of moms or caregivers, maybe they're caring for elderly parents or loved ones. What specific advice do you have for them as they navigate the challenges and opportunities and freelance while also being a caregiver of some type?

Ed Gandia: 29:13

That could be the topic of a two day workshop? Let's do it. Right, I think it's a very important thing. And there's a lot to unpack there. But let me start with what first comes to mind is something that might feel counterintuitive, or maybe something a lot of people don't really think about which is create a list of business standards and non negotiables. Here again, this is an internal document not necessarily something you publish on your website, but I want everyone listening if they haven't done this before, to make an appointment with themselves 30 minutes and I'll just start with 30 minutes and take out your journal or notebook and write at the top, you know my business standards and non negotiables and I want you to just start writing free form stream of consciousness in this format, I will not blank or I will blank, or I stand for blank, you know any of those, there is something along those lines, if you're not clear about what your business is about, or what it needs to enable you to do, or what kind of lifestyle and needs to be able to provide for you, your clients are going to make that determination for you, and your clients and prospects. So you need to take charge, you need to get clear, you need to write it out, what are you not willing to negotiate on, I will not do rush work, for instance, I will not work with agencies, I only work with clients who truly respect me as a professional and treat me in a courteous way, whatever you decide, and it starts there, because you need those internal guardrails to make good decisions, then that carries into the next thing, which would be use that to inform a list of boundaries that you're going to establish with clients. And the you're going to not just establish but uphold. Now, that can be something it's outward facing, you could have some of that in your website, you can have it in your agreement, you could use it in conversations with new clients, but just let them know, this is how I work. This is what I commit to you. And this is what I ask of you, you know, in return, and let them know. And it's important that you uphold those boundaries, because that I find that many of us especially in this because we're in the service industry, it's like we're here to serve. And we most of us are recovering people pleasers, right? And it's very important that we uphold those boundaries. If you don't, that's when to your point, because the question was about, you know, how do you prevent these things from spilling over into your personal life, you are responsible for that. You need to set those boundaries and you need to uphold those boundaries. If you can do that, then this business becomes sustainable. If you don't, you will create the worst job on the planet with the most tyrannical boss ever. The boss being you? Yes,

Ashley Mejia: 32:11

your client fired that boss. That is so profound. I think that that it's might sound counterintuitive, but it is true. Because that's the work right? When you were saying uphold. That's the hardest part about boundaries. We've heard that's become like a buzzword in the last several years. But the enforcing part, the upholding part, it's easy for us to kind of say, you know, this is what I want to do. But then when it comes time when there are these last minute requests from our clients or needs from people that we love enforcing it, that's the test. I think I love this conversation. Edie, I know that you have your podcast, you also have this great ebook, earn more in less time that's available for free on your website. how can listeners learn more about your projects? What do you have coming up in the next months? weeks? And how can people learn more about you?

Ed Gandia: 33:02

Yeah, thank you, Ashley, the best thing you could do is just go to my website, B to B launcher.com. And just download my free book earn more in less time. It's a meaty book. It's about 100 pages. I mean, so depends on your definition of me. But I think that's really the best introduction into my strategies, my tactics, techniques, advice, again, completely free. So grab a copy of that. I get compliments every week, people who said, man, just this alone has really changed my thinking around how I need to run my business and what's possible for me, so definitely grab that. The other thing I was going to mention is I have a as you mentioned my podcast, high income business writing completely free, published two episodes a month has been running for 10 and a half years now there's a huge archive of podcast episodes there that I invite people to check out, subscribe to the show, and you'll get them through whatever platform you use. And then the last thing would be I've noticed over the past few years, that one of the things that most freelance writers and copywriters are missing is business skills, business skills, we talked earlier about right I came to it with an unfair advantage because I was already thinking business. I'd come from the corporate world, but I find that more and more. It's so critical that you work on your business skills, and not rely on your writing skills. I see too many people thinking okay, so the secret is going to be to become a better writer. You know, that's always great. But there's a ceiling to what that will give you. And I would urge everyone to start working on their business skills. So I've created a business building toolkit, extremely affordable, one of the cheapest things I've ever offered of eight different basically skills, business skills that everyone needs to develop. And what I've done is not only is it become extremely affordable, but then I'm giving you the 20% that will make 80% of the difference. In an hour, so it's a one hour session, each of the eight is one hour or less. And you will get, again, what will make the biggest difference in a very short period of time, I think we're all too busy to go through a ton of courses. I basically created with that in mind, the fact that people just need to get what they need to get quickly so they can start implementing that stuff right away. So that's also available. Also my website, just that's all new. So check that out as well and see if that might be something to consider.

Ashley Mejia: 35:28

Thank you so much. And thank you for being on the show today. Thank you for everything that you've done over. I know you've been working in this space for more than 10 years more than the podcast in itself. We've made a big impact on the lives of so many writers and allowed them to imagine imagine a different reality for themselves. Talk about impact, talk about economic impact, personal impact. So thank you for being new. Thank you for coming on the show. Well,

Ed Gandia: 35:54

thank you, Ashley. Now truly, by was a pleasure being here. Thanks. And

Ashley Mejia: 35:58

with that, we've come to the end of another episode. Please make sure you hit subscribe if you haven't already done so. And give me a five star review on Apple. This will help out a lot and getting the word out about this brand new podcast. I invite you to check out the show notes and also grab my free niches get riches, freelance writing worksheet to brainstorm the best niches for your writing business. If you're not a writer, you can still use it to get business ideas. And until next time, this is actually a talk freelance to me. Don't forget, we all get this one precious life. Don't constrain yourself to a box that you were never meant to fit in. It is your right to profit from your own creative gifts. This podcast was created by Ashley Cisneros. mahiya our music was composed by Donna Rafael of world instrumentals talk freelance to me is a product of Phoenix creative studio