I know it can be tough to turn talent, skills and experiences into income. But it’s possible. I know because I’ve been able to do it. I’ve run my own business for the past seven years, and the business started out of my writing. It has since expanded and has allowed me to share my writing ability in the form of ghostwriting books for others, creating content for Web sites, writing books under my own name and a host of other projects we handle at RootSky Creative.
And I’ve also been able to turn my experiences into income by becoming a professional speaker. I get paid to share inspiration, information and ideas with college students and administrators, organizations and companies, to help individuals see beyond their self-imposed limitations, create solutions and produce better results. The tips I’m sharing here actually work.
So here are ways to find people to pay you to use your talents, skills and abilities, or to share your experiences:
1. Go back to the list of uses for your talents you created yesterday. Now, identify the top three uses you’d most enjoy. Do a Google search on those uses. You’ll likely get a huge list, so narrow it down from there. You can narrow it down by geographic region, industry (if applicable) or other category.
Study your findings to see how people already are earning money using their talents in the way you’ve identified. For instance, if you did a search on joke writing, you would come up with more than 30 million hits. You would see that people earn money writing jokes for radio, greeting card companies, professional speakers, awards shows and events, and a host of other engagements. See, bet you hadn’t thought about all that, huh?
2. Make a list of the types of people, places or companies you’ve just discovered hire people for the use you just searched. Going with our joke writing example, your list might include radio stations, professional speakers, greeting card companies, etc.
3. Now, do a search on the word hiring and the particular job. For instance, a search on hiring and joke writer yields more than 3 million hits. This gives additional information on types of companies that hire, plus this will yield names.
4. Ask around. Find people who do the thing you are interested in doing and ask them for pointers. Be mindful of their time, because if they are doing the thing you aspire to do, they’re probably busy. But chances are, they won’t mind a sincere question or two. You can find these people by looking around your community, reading the newspaper, reading relevant magazines, and asking friends. If you have a question about launching a writing career or speaking, ask me. I’ll be happy to answer it.
5. Go where the people who need you are. For instance, if you have decided to draw on your experience as the formerly fat person who has kept off 300 pounds for more than five years and you want to educate others about wellness and weight loss, then you might consider passing out your fliers outside the food court at the mall, e-mailing them to friends who used to go out to eat with you in the old days or putting them on the cars in the parking lot of the buffet restaurant — trespassing laws, aside, of course. The point here is to get your message to the people who need what you are trying to sell.
6. Put yourself out there. Start letting others know you have taken up this new career. Tell them you’re taking on new clients, projects, business or whatever fits.
7. Get your feet wet. When you’re starting out, it’s OK to work for a reduced rate, or in very specific situations, to even volunteer, just so you get the experience and work out the kinks. As you get better and gain more experience, set your rates appropriately.
These are just a few ways you can find people to pay you for doing what you love. Your new venture may just be a fun side gig or you may find you enjoy it so much it becomes a full-time endeavor! Whatever the case, when you free yourself from self-imposed limitations about what you can’t do — “Oh, I can’ t earn money as a writer. Nobody will pay me to bake cookies for them. I’ll never make it as an artist.” — then you’ll be amazed at how many opportunities there are to do the thing you love!
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