20 Quick Hitting Pieces of Writing, Marketing, and Audience Building Advice

Pick your favorite and run with it

Photo by RDNE Stock project: https://www.pexels.com/photo/laughing-woman-sitting-in-office-and-recording-video-8370422/

Let’s dive right in:

1. Stop saying what you think will get the best response, say what you really think to stand out from the “me too” writers.

2. Wake up one hour earlier than usual, turn your phone off, and do nothing but write or stare at the wall and be bored.

3. Don’t try to network with big writers if you are brand new. Network with people a few steps ahead of you as well as your peers.

4. Understand we are in a war for attention and hook your readers asap. No more starting your blog posts with “Well, um, today I’m going to talk about…”

5. You’re not a perfectionist. You’re just scared to put your work out there. The only solution to get rid of the fear of putting the work out there is putting it out there.

6. You have to be willing to suck to get good at writing. You have to be willing to publish work that gets little to no views to eventually get views.

7. Learn how to model content. See the underlying idea behind other people’s work and remix it with your own voice, unique insights, and stories.

8. Your story is your only real edge, but there’s a right and wrong way to tell a story. The right way — here’s what I went through & how you can learn from it. The wrong way — these are the random details of my life shared with no rhyme or reason.

9. Cut the fluff.

10. It’s called best-selling author, not best-writing author. Learn how to market your work.

11. Stop sending lazy DMS. “Can I pick your brain or get on a call with you, for absolutely no productive reason, so I can extract as much of your time as possible while providing zero value to you?” NO. You can’t.

12. Don’t try to write on every platform at once. Pick one to get good at. Get a second one going once you have one plate spinning.

13. If I had to pick a social writing horse for the next 24 months, I would choose Substack.

14. Imagine you’re going to spend the next 12 months writing a book and you’re just sharing little pieces of it over the year. This will help you avoid the urge to try and cover your entire topic all at once.

15. “Likes ain’t cash.” Don’t get caught up in vanity metrics. Your goal is to build a writing business. Use your writing to sell services or products

16. Invest in yourself. If you have no money, invest time in learning. As soon as you can afford it, buy courses and coaching for speed. Spending time or money on your craft is an investment, not a cost.

17. Consistency beats volume. Writing daily for 30 minutes per day is better than writing for 3 hours one day and then burning out for weeks after.

18. Start building your email list immediately. Get it done over the weekend. It’s not that hard. You can use a substack.

19. You will win more when you start genuinely celebrating the wins of others. Show love to the game and it will show love back.

20. Winning the writing game is so simple. Be consistent, iterate, and get better. You are 60 mins of daily writing and 12 months away from a breakthrough.