Small projects can feel disheartening.
But they can be the best thing that ever happened to you.
The key isn’t in the job itself… it’s what you do with it.
From a bookcase to a “famous” wood shop
I didn’t grow up with a “handy” father.
I had the stereotypical “hold the flashlight while Dad swears at stuff” childhood.
So when I wanted to build a bookcase for my first son before he was born… I wasn’t drawing on any kind of pedigree or experience.
I had to tap into tons of online resources and invest in power tools I’d never used before to get that bookcase built.
Once I did, though… I started building more things.
I used the lessons I learned from the bookcase to apply to other projects, like cabinets, tables, and garbage can holders.
A few years later, I was running a wood shop out of my basement.
My Facebook Page was so big locally that someone drove past seeing me on a street corner and shouted how much he loved my woodworking videos (true story).
All because I decided to build a simple bookcase for my son.
The same happened to me as a copywriter
I jumped into full-time freelancing making just $20 per blog post back in 2008.
I was single, so I had small needs. It was fine.
By fall, I was getting paid $3000 per project.
And a few years later, I was a six-figure-per-year copywriter.
Small wins add up into big windfalls later on.
The key is to shift your mindset.
Relationships, not gigs
By starting out small, you build two relationships:
- Your relationship to the client
- Your relationship to your business
The first one is easy enough: you get your foot in the door with a client, you build up some trust, you show them what you can do, and you can get them on board for bigger projects.
But the second one is just as important.
You have a relationship to your business, and it revolves around comfort and confidence.
When you first start out, you have neither.
You doubt your abilities.
You think you don’t know anything worth paying for.
And you assume nobody wants to work for you.
But once you get those few smaller gigs, amazing things happen to your brain.
You understand that you have value to offer.
You get more comfortable writing for a client and collecting that paycheck.
You get more confident selling yourself to clients once a few start biting.
And you start to see how possible this whole thing really is.
As those two relationships improve and strengthen, your income goes up… sometimes very quickly.
It’s not likely that you can replace your full-time income as a copywriter with your first or second gig. It CAN happen (I’ve seen it).
But stacking those small wins early can put a lot of momentum behind you – momentum you can use to propel yourself to as much money as you want once you get rolling.
Focus on getting those small wins right now.
Then turn them into a career – it goes faster than you think.
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