I have been fortunate enough to be self-employed as a writer for the past 20 years or so (and off and on before that). As many entrepreneurs do, I sometimes joke that I am unemployable. I have my own way of doing things and I set my own schedule, for the most part. Deadlines sometimes loom.
With the holiday season about to crash down upon us, I know we will be making the rounds of parties and family gatherings and once again, making cocktail conversation with people who just don’t quite get us. “What is it you DO again?” If you’ve been at this for very long, you have learned to give a short answer, finish before their eyes either glaze over or they move their gaze to slightly above your left shoulder, and flip the conversation back to talking about them.
Finding other writers to talk to about the business of writing, about the struggles that we come up against on a regular basis, or just to hash out IDEAS can be tough. We are small business people and our words are our product. Most of us have to do our own marketing which means we need to understand marketing from a business perspective.
To that end, I’ve done networking lunches and breakfasts (way too early!), Chamber mixers, out-of-town seminars. And they help. You can find people who are entrepreneurs and very much in the same boat when it comes to wearing all the hats in their business. Occasionally you bump into another writer, a kindred spirit. Most of the time you find people who are working a side hustle and aren’t as intense about marketing strategies and business models and scaling. And that’s fine for them.
For several years I met with two other women business owners. It was always fun and we got into a lot of deep discussions on marketing and systems for our businesses. But sometimes you’d really like to just be able to sit down and deeply discuss your specific business with someone who gets it.
When my informal mastermind broke up, I resigned myself to just working my business and keeping my own counsel. It was pretty isolating and not much fun. I also wasn’t learning or growing. Several years ago, I fell in with several other creatives and we started meeting as a mastermind via Zoom.* Our weekly meetings helped each of us grow our businesses, gain new ideas and angles, and truly, relieve the isolation of working for ourselves.
If you’ve read the classic, Think and Grow Rich, you know about masterminds. Perhaps you’re already in one. There are paid masterminds and free; formal and informal. There are masterminds for business and health and creative writing and truly, anything that you want. They can be limited in time and scope; they can be wide open. You can join one or you can start one.
I love meeting with my mastermind group. It has helped with my writing and marketing my writing in so many ways and has also given me three new, very good friends. Being able to bounce ideas off them made my books and other writing stronger. I could get feedback before I put a lot of time and effort into something that didn’t hit the mark.
I recommend you look into finding other like-minded people that you can mastermind with. Check in online writers’ groups or go to a writers’ event (seminars, book expos, etc.) and find people who write in your genre. See if they want to get together either in person or over Zoom to co-work.
Find your people. Leverage each other up. Be happy, successful writers.
