Glicken
By Rebecca Matter

How’s the self-promotion going?

This week, we’ve covered the four main things you need to get started …

• Having confidence by checking your modesty at the door
• Answering the question: “So what is it that you do?” in a way that increases the chance of landing new clients
• Creating a self-promotion kit to send to that person when they end up saying, “Great, I’m interested, please tell me more.”
• Building your business through referrals from satisfied clients

It’s been a big week!

If you missed any of this week’s issues, you can access them on the AWAI blog.

They should give you a very good start for promoting yourself and your freelance business so that you can land the clients you want and move closer and closer towards living the writer’s life.

Of course, getting and working with clients is just the start of it …

There are actually many more benefits that come with knowing how to write persuasively, beyond the revenue you receive from working for other people.

At AWAI, we call these benefits ‘glicken,’ and they come in all shapes and sizes.

Some are small, like the glicken I experienced last week …

On my way home from vacation, my brand-new Swiss Army luggage came down the baggage carousel crushed. I was pretty upset about it since I had just made the decision to upgrade to bigger bags and shelled out the cash before my trip, so I decided to write the company a persuasive email asking them to replace it.

And even though their warranty clearly states that it does not cover airline damage and that all warranty claims require you to ship back the damaged luggage on your own dime, my persuasive email got them to send me brand-new replacements, without having to do a further thing.

It may be small, but it took me less than 10 minutes, and I have brand-new luggage coming this week!

I was quite pleased with the outcome, and it gave me the idea to ask AWAI members on Facebook to share their own glicken stories with me too …

“Writing letters pays off when you query a medical bill and insurance changes its mind and pays the whole $2,000 (instead of expecting you to pay $1,365 of it). I'm looking at it as if I earned $1,365 for 15 minutes of writing and two stamps!!!!!”

“It actually becomes less expensive to stay ‘current’ in the industry as you build a reputation. Aviation companies send me books, software, magazines, and other products to review. I get in free to conferences if I'm speaking, and the organization that invites me often picks up the hotel costs. When you're starting out, you have to cover a lot of these costs yourself, so it's ironic that you spend less as you start to make more money.”

“About a year ago, I got to write a promo for a weight loss program … after overcoming all the objections to getting started in my copy, I sold myself on doing it and lost 60 lbs in 6 months. So essentially, I got paid to go through a weight loss program … winning! :)”

“Rebecca, this is still related, at least indirectly, to revenue from clients, but developing my persuasive writing skills has made me a more effective public speaker. It has helped me produce some killer ‘elevator speeches.’ I've even had people I've met in networking circles ask me to write elevator speeches for them!”

“Getting access to all of Zig Ziglar's programs and getting to meet Zig himself. Also getting access to other clients' programs, materials, and products. I've used what I've learned to help promote things for friends and family and get my money or a family member's money back on bad service, gotten better tables/seating at restaurants, and even gotten free champagne and dessert too!”

“Being able to write persuasive copy for my OWN books and other products. I just wrote landing pages for our online conference yesterday, for example.”

See what I mean? All shapes and sizes, but it’s all glicken that comes from knowing how to write persuasively.

Do you have a glicken story?

If so, I’d love for you to share it with me here.

And with that, some closing thoughts before the weekend …

Just like learning, self-promotion is something that you’ll always be working on, no matter how successful you get. It can be scary when you're first starting out, but if you just jump in and get started, it will become easier, and you’ll quickly realize it’s not as scary as you once thought.

The key – like with choosing your path to the writer’s life – is to get started.

NOW.

There’s no reason to wait until tomorrow, next week, or next month. Follow the exercises I gave you this week and start building your business now.

It can be the difference between living the writer’s life and dreaming about it.