As a writer, you can use your skills to create content in an endless number of ways, including books, articles, social media, speeches, lessons, advertising copy, and so much more.

Did you know you can also use your writing skills to help secure funding for nonprofit organizations? It’s not only a great way to serve organizations that are making a difference in the world—it can also become a great career!

My guest today is Teresa Huff. She is the host of the Grant Writing Simplified Podcast, a TEDx speaker, and the go-to expert in nonprofit strategy. Her goal is to help nonprofits increase their funding and maximize their impact. After winning over $7 million for schools and nonprofits, she now teaches nonprofits the strategies they need to develop millions in sustainable funding.

Teresa’s podcast has been downloaded in over 100 countries across six continents. Thousands of students worldwide have completed her online grant writing programs.

Teresa uses her Master’s in Education and over twenty years of experience in writing, special education, and business to help nonprofit leaders take their skills to the next level. She mentors grant writers through her interactive Fast Track to Grant Writer VIP Program, which is available for university-level credit. You can learn more and listen to the Grant Writing Simplified Podcast at https://teresahuff.com.

In our conversation, Teresa clarifies what grant writing is and how it works. She also talks about her experience in making a career out of grant writing and what kind of skills you need. If you are looking for a way to make a huge impact as a writer, this can be a fantastic option.

In addition, you will come to appreciate the amazing work that grant writers do and the important role they play in helping fund all kinds of nonprofit organizations.

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That’s a great strategy for getting good grades. However, the skills that help you become a 4.0 student in school actually work against you in life. Here are three reasons why.

First, 4.0 students are great at following rules. You can only get perfect grades when you do exactly what the teacher says. This is only valuable if the teacher knows what they’re doing or is teaching you something that’s relevant in the real world.

Second, 4.0 students have picked up the unfortunate habit of living for the validation and applause of others. They feel like losers unless they get recognition from teachers, peers, Academic Deans, or a scholarship committee.

Third, 4.0 students love competition. The whole idea of a GPA and Dean’s List is to rank people based on their performance. This inflates the ego of the students who have obsessed over their grades, and unfairly punishes students who aren’t wired to learn in a traditional classroom setting.

I enjoyed my years as a college professor, but I also saw firsthand the shortcomings of traditional school. Let’s be honest: the academic system is designed to reward students who enjoy school.

4.0 students may get all the scholarships, awards, and academic recognition from their teachers. But those skills are not so valuable in the real world.

To become a successful writer and business person, you need to think for yourself, be willing to break the rules when needed (or, just create your own!), validate your own success, and seek out collaboration opportunities with great people.

Those skills might lead to failure in the classroom, but they’re exactly what you need to become a 4.0 student in the school of life.

Today’s Challenge: Let’s put what you’ve learned here into practice. Think about another author your respect in your social circle. Shoot them a text or email today asking if you can have a quick chat about some ways you can collaborate.

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I’m not sure why we do this. Maybe we over-compensate in our desire to stay humble. In the process, we undermine the value of the gift we bring to the world naturally.

What comes naturally to you as a writer? Is it storytelling? Outlining a book? Editing? Proofreading? Making clients feel comfortable? Writing a draft quickly? Systems for book production?

Let me share some of the natural skills of a few friends in the Daily Writer Club.

Lucas Marino is a course creator who has a natural skill for taking your book content and turning it into a course.

Karen Hunsanger is an editor who has a natural skill for rooting out errors in your manuscript and making you look better.

M.J. James is a coach for burned-out business moms. She has a natural skill at listening and helping you see the roadblocks that prevent you from having a more peaceful life.

Andrew Wood is a former college professor who is an incredible researcher. He has a natural gift for knowing how to organize complex material and write it in a way you and I can understand.

Perry Gabbard is a former aerospace engineer who is one of the most natural and gifted storytellers I’ve ever met.

Lori Melton is a coach who has a natural calming presence and a gift for helping others discover their spiritual mentors.

Brigitte Cutshall is a runner and book production specialist who has a natural skill for creating books that look amazing.

These natural skills are not unique to them. You also have a natural gift and special skill that is powerful! That’s what makes you a genius in everybody else’s eyes.

Whatever that skill is, you can combine it with writing to create a powerful business and author platform.

Don’t run from your gift. Don’t hide it. Instead, embrace it, cherish it, and nurture it. God gave it to you for a reason!

Today’s Challenge: Grab a piece of paper and write down your natural gift. You know what it is. Are you using it to its fullest potential? How can you keep developing it and combine it with writing books to serve others or even build a business?

The post It’s Natural for You, But Genius to Someone Else appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

When you talk to writers, there are certain themes that come up repeatedly in conversations. One of those themes is that authors know they need to market their books, but get confused about how, when, and where to start.

I’m thrilled today to have a guest who is not only the #1 expert on self-publishing… she’s also a bona fide expert on book marketing, as well. You can scour the internet, and I promise you will not find anyone who has more experience, credibility, or success when it comes to publishing and marketing their own books and creating a multi-layered, successful business from their ideas.

Her name is Honorée Corder, and she is the author of dozens of books, including: You Must Write a Book, The Prosperous Writers book series, Vision to Reality, Business Dating, The Successful Single Mom book series, and many more.

Next week, she’s releasing her brand-new book, You Must Market Your Book: Increase Your Impact, Sell More Books, and Make More Money. This is a fantastic book that is concise, to-the-point, and exactly what you need to start selling more books.

I would be hard-pressed to say there is anyone who has had more impact on my mindset and growth over the last couple of years than Honorée. I’m in my second year of her amazing Empire Builders Mastermind, and it has truly been life-changing.

In this interview, we dive into a few topics in her new book, You Must Market Your Book, including: where book marketing really begins, how to think like a business person, how to market with your book, and much more.

You can get the book now on Amazon via this link, and I highly recommend signing up for Honorée’s extremely helpful email list at https://honoreecorder.com.

The post Self-Publishing Expert Honorée Corder on the Best Book Marketing Strategies appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

Those are all fantastic goals that will increase your impact and income!

But today, let’s turn the focus elsewhere. It’s great to think about your own success—in fact, it’s vital! However, I want you to think about how you can also serve and mentor other writers.

It doesn’t matter where you are on your writing journey. You might be a full-time writer with twenty books published. Or you might be relatively new to the writing world and are just trying to gain some confidence.

Whatever level of experience you have with writing, there is always someone who needs to learn what you know. They need someone to help them, believe in them, and show them the way.

So, take a look around at your social media friends or your personal network. Who is one person you can help? Maybe they need someone to give them feedback about their writing. Maybe they need help setting up their blog. Maybe they need an introduction to people you know who could help them in some other way.

Whatever the case, be intentional about reaching out to others and finding ways to help them. It doesn’t need to take a lot of time. Somebody in your network needs your wisdom, knowledge, and connections.

Today’s Challenge: Take three minutes to brainstorm a few people whom you can help. Then, get in touch with one to ask how you can help them.

The post New Year’s Goal: Mentor Another Writer in 2023 appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

I understand that memberships and masterminds are two different things, but they are similar in many ways, which is why I’ve lumped them together in this episode. The main idea of both of these is that people have access to you on some type of ongoing basis. They are paid products that have a barrier to entry in the form of a payment. By definition, it means that people are generally more serious about growth and learning because they have to pay more than they would for a book.

Now don’t get me wrong, we should offer free help. This podcast, as well as my blog posts and free Daily Writer Starter Kit guides, are my main ways of offering free, helpful content. But if people want to grow, they need to have some skin in the game. The way they show they are serious is if they pay for access.

Memberships and masterminds can have all kinds of different structures. But in general, a membership is a group that has a recurring monthly charge and offers resources, courses, calls, and community interaction. A mastermind is a higher-level group where you have more access to the leader, and you are actively adding value to the other group members to help each other succeed in specific areas.

I currently offer a membership, the Daily Writer Club, which you’ve heard me promote before. I’m also getting ready to launch a higher-level Daily Writer Elite Mastermind in March. I love offering these paid experiences because I know that when people invest in themselves, they will accelerate their success.

A membership or mastermind might be something you should consider, as well. Think about the different types of value you could add to others and if people would be willing to pay for ongoing resources or access to you in these types of formats. You might be surprised how much you enjoy running them and helping your fans and readers in a more direct way.

Question: What specific ways could you help people be more successful by offering a membership or mastermind?

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Many writers create hats, t-shirts, mugs, journals, and an endless array of other merchandise and products based on their brand. One of my favorite examples of a writer who creates unique and interesting products based on his writing is Ryan Holiday. His products include special editions of his books, coins featuring figures and mottos of Stoicism, a calendar, rings and jewelry, prints, and much more. See https://dailystoic.com for some great examples.

Products can be a great way to set yourself apart from others who are writing about the same topics. But let’s be honest: most writers don’t have the business mindset or the persistence to go through the stages of developing a successful product. However, if you are committed to building your audience and thinking like a business owner, and not just a writer, products can be a great source of income.

This is an area I absolutely want to dive into more over the next couple of years. At our recent Daily Writer retreat, I had special journals, pens, and tumblers made with the Daily Writer logo. Everyone loved them! This was an experiment to see the response to some potential products, and it convinced me to dive into this area more.

My personal view on products is that you need to be willing to test some products and have a real entrepreneurial spirit to make these successful. You also need a customer base who can buy the products consistently in order for them to be profitable and justify the time and effort to create them.

That said, products can be a great way to stand out as a writer because most writers won’t go to the trouble of messing with them. So I definitely encourage you to give it a shot!

Question: If you were going to design a product with your logo or brand, what would it be?

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As a former college professor, courses are honestly one of the things that come most naturally to me. When you spend seventeen years thinking about curriculum, lesson plans, and assessment day in and day out, it becomes second nature.

But chances are pretty high that you are NOT a teacher by trade. And that’s perfectly OK, because you just need to know that you can put together a great course! One of the keys to putting together a great course is to figure out the specific objectives you want the learner to achieve by the end of the course, and then work backwards from there to give them the information, experiences, and learning activities to take them there.

But it’s not just about the information in a course—it’s also about the marketing. Because if you don’t have marketing for your course, you probably won’t have sales. Marketing is a giant area that I don’t have time to get into right now, and to be honest it’s not my area of expertise. But suffice it to say that if you are going to be successful with courses, or anything business-related for that matter, you need to become comfortable with marketing and learning how to do it more effectively.

From a business standpoint, courses are a fantastic addition to your streams of income. Readers and learners value courses at a much higher level than books. You can take the same material you have used for a book, translate it into a course, and charge much more for it.

If you enjoy teaching and putting together material in a way that helps other people experience transformation, courses are a great way for you to add value to others and increase your income.

And by the way, if you are interested in learning how to build and market online courses, I highly recommend you connect with my friend, Lucas Marino. He is an expert in these areas and has developed some courses to help you. Check out his website at https://www.marinotraining.com/.

Question: Do you enjoy teaching? If so, have you ever considered developing online courses?

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Coaching is a very broad term that can mean different things in different contexts. But generally, you are there to help the client become more successful in a certain area.

Coaching is usually done in either an individual or a group setting. It can also be done as a one-off coaching session, or it can be ongoing over a period of time. If you have specialized knowledge in a certain area, it can be a great opportunity to help people in a deep way.

I have benefited from coaching in a lot of different ways over the years. Two of the paid masterminds I’m in right now include individual coaching as part of the group structure. And twice in the past year, I have paid coaches for one-off sessions on specific topics.

I’m a huge fan of coaching because it’s basically a fast track to success in a specific area. For example, I hired my good friend John Schuchman, a social media coach for real estate agents, to do an hour of coaching with me on social media for the Daily Writer. I learned things from him in one hour I couldn’t have figured out on my own in the course of a year.

I have never offered group coaching, but I’ve done a lot of individual coaching, primarily related to helping people with their books.

As a writer, you have specialized knowledge in certain areas. A simple way to get started is to offer one-on-one coaching around the same topic you write about. Your books and other content can be a great way to promote your coaching services, which allows someone to get individual help in a way they can’t experience just by reading your books.

If you’re just getting started with coaching, I recommend the incredible book The Prosperous Coach by Rich Litvin. It’s one of the best business books I’ve ever read. I’d also recommend offering a few coaching sessions for free as a way to help you get some practice and also provide you with some testimonials if you want to take your coaching practice further.

Question: How could you expand your knowledge and impact by offering group or individual coaching as part of your overall business?

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Ghostwriting is essentially writing books for someone else. Sometimes, the client is highly involved in the project, almost like a co-author. Other times, they are not very involved, or not involved at all. Whatever the case, most of the time your name is not on the book. That’s why they call it ghostwriting: you are invisible.

Sometimes, however, you can negotiate to have your name listed on the book cover. They call this a “with” credit. I’ve been fortunate enough to negotiate for a “with” credit on a couple of books so far, including The Faith of Elvis, which I wrote with Billy Stanley, Elvis Presley’s stepbrother.

There are a few reasons why I like ghostwriting:

1. It’s fairly straightforward. Writing books is a pretty straightforward process once you understand how to plan, outline, and draft a book. I like being able to explain to people that I write books for people who don’t have the time or talent to do it themselves. It’s very easy for others to understand.
2. It can pay well. My projects have ranged from the low five figures to the high five figures per book. Because of this, it doesn’t take many projects per year to make a decent living.
3. You learn a lot with each project. Every book I write gives me more knowledge and experience that I can apply to other projects. I feel like I’m getting a master’s degree in a specific topic every time I write a book.

The big challenge with ghostwriting, just like any client-based work, is finding and signing clients. I’ve had periods where I’ve had an abundance of work, and also dry periods when I was a little worried about when the next client would sign. It’s definitely an adjustment if you’re used to getting a regular paycheck from an employer.

The one thing people ask me all the time is, “How do you get started as a ghostwriter?” I’ll give you three very specific things.

First, you need to write a book if you haven’t already. I suggest a short book that’s around 120 pages, about 30,000 words or so. This will give you automatic credibility as an author, and as someone who can write books.

Second, you need to enroll in Ghostwriter School, taught by my friend and mentor Nick Pavlidis. This is how I got started, and I recommend you do the same as well. You can access it at https://ghostwriterschool.com.

And third, you need to start telling people you’re building a ghostwriting business. Don’t tell them you’re doing five other things on the side. Just focus on ghostwriting. If you have a book out there, and you’re going through Nick’s training, and you’re consistently telling people you’re building a ghostwriting business, it’s only a matter of time before you find that first client.

If you are a freelance writer doing a lot of little jobs for clients, I encourage you to consider ghostwriting. It generally pays more, and you can focus on a few higher-value clients than a bunch of smaller ones. Ghostwriting has been good to me and my family, and I know it can do the same for you.

Question: Have you ever considered ghostwriting? How could it impact your life and writing business?

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