Transcripts
1. Intro: Tony Robbins once said that setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible. This is so true, because without goals it's very difficult to clearly see what it is that you want to accomplish. And if you write without being able to see where you're going, you may work super hard without ever really getting anywhere. A lack of goals also makes it very difficult to evaluate how you're doing with your writing and what you can do to improve upon it. Hi, my name's Rebecca Livermore, and I've been a freelance writer since 1983 and in addition to the hundreds of articles and block posts that I've written, I've also written over 15 books I've tried writing both with and without goals. And I can promise you that even if you fell to meet 100% of your goals, you'll definitely accomplish more with goals than without. In this course, I'll walk you through these five simple questions for setting your writing goals. Number one. What do you want to accomplish with your writing? Number two. What has worked well for you in the past? Number three. What type of writing will you dio number four? What's your budget? And in this step all include some bootstrapping tips and number five. The fifth question is one of my secret weapons that you can actually ask yourself on a daily basis that will help you make the most of every single day as your project. For this course, you'll fill out a simple worksheet that I've provided for. You were real, jot down the answers to the questions and then share it in the project area of this class. So what are you waiting for? Let's go ahead and dive in.
2. The Perfect Time to Set Writing Goals: I am intentionally publishing this class right as one year is ending and a new one is beginning because that's a time when people, including me, tend to be motivated when it comes to setting goals. But I know that many of you will come across this class at another time and I want to make it clear that any time is the perfect time to set writing goals. Because of this, don't wait for a new week, month or quarter, much less a new year before you set your goals. While the new year is indeed a perfect time to set goals right now is also a perfect time in the coming videos. I'm going to focus on looking back on the past year and you can certainly do that regardless of what time of year you take this class. But you can also look back on this year to date or the past quarter or any time frame that fits your situation. The key is to personalize this to your individual time frame and set writing goals that work best for you. You can also choose to apply the information in this class to shorter time periods for instance, you may want to use the same process once 1/4 and evaluate the quarter that is just ending and then set goals for the next quarter. Now let's get into the five questions to ask yourself when setting writing goals for the year quarter or whatever timeframe works best for you.
3. What do you want to accomplish with your writing?: The first question to ask yourself is, What am I trying to accomplish with my writing? Do you hope to drive more traffic to your site through written content? Is your goal to establish yourself as an authority in your niche? Perhaps you want to have an easy way to answer the questions that people ask over and over again about your company or products or services. You know it's a lot easier to send someone a link to a Block posts than to continually answer the same questions via email as an example. Maybe you want to make enough money writing to quit your day job or do build a nest egg to put your kids through college. Or perhaps you merely want to supplement your retirement. Perhaps you want to leave a legacy for your kids and for future generations by sharing life lessons. There aren't necessarily right Iran outcomes for your writing, and by the way, you can have more than one thing you want to accomplish. The main thing is to know the bottom line of what you want to accomplish so that you can plan and execute your writing efforts more strategically. By the way, my course how to discover and achieve the Y for your block and business will give you insight into the deeper purpose for your writing, whether you're writing block, post books or other types of content, so be sure to check it out, and I'll include a link to that in the description area of this class.
4. What worked well for you in the past?: The second question to ask yourself is what worked well this past year before you set your writing goals for the new year. First, consider what worked well for you this year and what didn't. For instance, if you had nothing but trouble with client work, then you may want to look for other ways to make money writing in the coming year. Or if he had just one digital product this year and it sold well. You may want to invest some of your writing time into creating MAWR digital products as you consider what did and didn't go well this year. Consider the why behind the problem, going back to the client work example. Let's say the problem was that you had a hard time collecting payments. You may still want to do client work in the new year, but collective 50% deposit upfront before starting the work. In the next video, we'll get into the type of writing you'll dio
5. What type of writing will you do?: The third question to ask yourself is, What type of writing will you dio? Do you want to write a book or perhaps several books? Do you want to create digital products that you can sell? How many written block post you hope to publish each week or month? Client work is another great way to make money writing, but it's not for everyone. So consider both the pros and cons of client work when you're thinking about the type of writing that you'd like to dio. As you think about the question of what type of writing you'll dio be sure to refer back to the first question, and that is what you hope to accomplish with your writing. The answers to the second question must fit with your overall purpose for writing. For example, if you hope to make enough money to quit your day job, the writing you do must have a monetary component. If you merely want to establish yourself as an authority and don't need income, you may answer this question differently. In the next video, we'll get into how to set a budget for both your time and money
6. What's your budget?: Okay, so the next question you need Teoh answer for yourself is What's your budget now? The good news is that writing doesn't have to be expensive, but it will cost you something. So the next thing you need to consider is your budget. When thinking of budget, it's important to budget both time and money. How much time will you spend writing? When will you do it? How does it fit with your other writing responsibilities, such as a day job and nurturing relationships? Is there anything you need to cut or reduce from your current life to free up? Time to write? If so, what will that be Now? Let's talk about money. Can you spend $0 as a writer? Yes, it's possible. And if your brand new and have zero budget, then put down zero. But if that's your answer, you need to consider what you'll do. Instead of spending money, for instance, you may have to teach yourself how to handle tech issues with your website. You may need to design your own graphics, do your own book editing and formatting, and so on. While bootstrapping it at the beginning may be necessary. Let's assume you have some money to spend. In light of your answers to the previous two questions, plan out a rough budget. For example, if your goal is to publish two books and you plan to hire a cover designer editor and four matter, how much will that cost? You may not know the precise answer, but simple Google searches will provide ballpark figures for those services. It's also helpful toe look back at what you've spent over the past year for recurring expenses such as Web hosting, your email service provider and so on. Now my next hip may seem a bit pessimistic, and perhaps it ISS, but I recommend that you double your first figure. The reason is that it's easy to forget some of your expenses, especially if those bill quarterly or annually. In addition to that, you may have some surprises. For example, last year my website was hacked. Cleaning that up and then signing up for a service to keep it from happening again weren't in my original budget, but I had to spend the money on them. Doubling your estimated cost gives you a cushion so you can pay for surprises without breaking a sweat. Now that you have a ballpark figure for your overall expenses, you need to figure out where the money will come from to pay for those things now, hopefully, you generate enough income from writing to cover at a bare minimum your cost. But if you're just starting out, you may need to draw from your personal income. If that's the case determined ahead of time, how you pull it off and if you're married, be sure your spouse is on board with your financial plans.
7. Question to Ask Every Day: several years back, I followed an Internet marketer named Sean Mice. Shan provided a lot of great content and food for thought. One of the best things I got from him was to daily Ask yourself the question. What one thing needs to happen today to consider the day a success? No, this was a daily question, but you can also apply it to a week, month, quarter or year. Out of all of the questions that I presented in this class, the one thing question is probably the most important one to answer. You do indeed need to answer the other questions first, but determining the one thing on a daily weekly quarterly an annual basis will make a huge difference in your success as a writer. Now, getting clear on your one thing helps you adapt your goals as the year progresses. For example, perhaps you're one thing is to make enough money writing to quit your day job. Maybe you plan to make money through affiliate links in block, post and through book royalties. Perhaps as a year goes on, you've made some money through these things, but not nearly as much as you need to quit your day job at the end of the year. In light of the one big goal, you may need to double up on your work and publish more books, blawg, post or other written content than you originally planned. Or perhaps you'll have an opportunity to take on some quiet work and make money writing content for others. Having one big goal helps you know when to pivot. Here's another example. Let's say you're one big goal is to publish your first book, but you're struggling to find the time to blawg and write a book and grow your social media following. You may need to adapt some of your other goals to find the time to write your book. For instance, you may need to block your book so you can kill two birds with one stone. Or perhaps you need to blawg less frequently. Maybe you need to hire an assistant to help with your social media. Or perhaps you need to temporarily put a hobby on hold to devote more time to writing another way. Having one big writing goal helps is that when it comes to every cashew plan, you can ask, How does this fit with my one thing again, using the example of your one thing being making enough money as a writer to quit your day job. Your daily task should support your growth as an income producing writer. That may mean that every block post you write has an affiliate link or elite magnet that gets people into your funnel to buy your books and products. For all of these things, it's important to consistently go back to knowing the why for your writing. Why informs the what in hell. What I mean by this is that being clear on your Why provides a filter for all of the other decisions you make regarding your writing goals?
8. Your Project: Well, you've made it through the end of this class on how to set your writing goals for the year or quarter or whatever timeframe works for you. I want to just thank you for taking this class and encourage you to complete the project, which is It will take a little bit of time, but it's actually very basic. And so your project for this class, you'll answer the following five questions. What do you want to accomplish with your writing? What has worked well for you in the past? What type of writing will you dio? What's your budget? And remember that this counts both your time and your money. And what's the one thing you need to accomplish with your writing to fill that the year was a success? Now, by the way, be sure to check out the project area of this class for a free worksheet that you can use to write down your answers. Now, once you've completed this exercise and written down the answers for yourself, be sure to share the answer to number five. The one thing you need to accomplish with your writing to feel that the year was a success you could do that in the project area of this class. Thank you so much for taking this class. It means the world to me. If you enjoyed this class, I'd really appreciate it if you leave me a positive review. Thank you so much. And happy writing.