How Losing 50% of my Income Stream Tripled my Opportunities

"No pain, no gain" is a stupidly accurate cliché

TL;DR

Ever lost so much of your income that it made you better at your business? I did in May of 2023. Here’s what I did instead of panicking:

• Started posting on LinkedIn to build my network and authority.

• Reached out to former clients and landed some new work.

• Started building more pipelines for my business.

Two years ago, we were at Disneyland for my wife’s (insert age number) birthday. She had never spent a birthday at Disney and so it was time to check off that particular dream. After all, this is why I ditched the 9-to-5, right? To have more freedom to do stuff like this.

During the trip, though, there had been some disturbing messages I’d seen in the Slack channel for one of the publishers I worked with. Red flags were popping up everywhere.

And then, while waiting for our return flight, the publisher totally imploded, leaving dozens of freelancers out of work.

For my part, this represented half of my pipeline. I haven’t often shared this story because so many others involved in this same situation lost 100% of their work in one fell swoop. (And some were still owed thousands by the publisher at the time.)

Now, let’s rewind a bit… [insert VHS rewind sound here]

See, when I went full-time in 2022, I only had two pipelines. I had foolishly stopped taking on independent clients because both of these other pipelines seemed so steady.

This particular publisher even paid weekly, which was huge in the ghosting world. And they had promised I would have as much work to take on as I wanted. (A promise that was never fulfilled, btw.)

Here’s where I failed:

I became complacent. I wasn't networking. Wasn't posting on LinkedIn (because that’s where the “desperate” people go…)

But then there I was in an airport, watching the implosion happen in a Slack feed, after having spent $1,000s at Disneyland. (Crap. Crap. Double-triple crappity crap.)

To make it worse, my other pipeline dried up, too. From June until November, I didn’t win a single contract from them. (And things were largely crickets.)

My $10K months quickly turned into $2K months. Bills were being paid on a credit card. Savings were tapped into.

And it’s not the last time I’ve had a sudden turn of fortune. In March 2024, I lost 1/3 of my income stream unexpectedly without any prospects to fill the void.

Sh!t happens.

The only way to deal with it is to have some shovels ready.

So while other freelancers were making panicked posts on LinkedIn, begging to be hired to write a book for somebody, anybody, here’s what I did that made all the difference:

Reached Out to Former Clients

I sent emails to former (and happy) clients to see if they had additional writing needs: Blogs, LinkedIn posts, whatever. Several took me up on it.

One author who was left in the lurch from the implosion hired me to write a series of articles to promote her book since she now had to figure out the marketing on her own.

Started Brand Building

I’m no branding expert, believe me. I’ve slowly crawled my way to 3,900 followers on LinkedIn after starting with about 500-ish in 2023. But while others were “open to work,” I realized the only way to stand out was to start providing value.

So I started posting writing insights, weird tips, and benefits of publishing a book. I’m not going to pretend I’ve had overflowing DMs (I haven’t), but I was able to build into a network of like-minded people. We’ve send each other referrals, we’ve boosted each other’s work, sung each other’s praises.

And THAT has yielded incredible ROI in terms of authority.

Which then led into building out my web presence.

I invested in starting a new website and honing my offerings. This has required a ton of experimentation. Some new offerings got zero bites. Some new offerings came out of left field because of a question someone asked me. But I realized my old website was doing me no favors.

Not only has my SEO improved, but I’m continually tweaking my website to better showcase who I want to work with and how I want my clients to be successful. Great writing isn’t enough anymore. They have to take ownership of their message and audience.

Finally:

Keep Building More Baskets

My biggest mistake was believing that two baskets was better than one. While technically true, it’s still not many baskets. If you want to collect more eggs, two won’t do the trick.

So I corrected a mistake I’d make and re-opened my independent pipeline, announcing I was open to working with clients who weren’t attached to a publisher. About one-third of my income last year came through my independent pipeline, and I’m actively exploring how to grow that since it’s the one I can control the most.

But I also reached out to other publishers and firms who worked with ghostwriters and editors. Another editor even asked me, “How did you get in with X Firm?” My answer: “I sent an email saying I’d love to explore working with them.”

In the past two years, I’ve added three publishing partners that I can pick up work from when things are slower. One of them is even discussing partnering with me in my new group book coaching bootcamp I’ll be launching soon. (Yet another basket…)

From 1/2 to Tripled Opportunities

So as a recap, by losing one entire pipeline, here’s what I gained in the past two years:

• Independent pipeline of clients who find me through network and web presence.

• Three more publishing partnerships for editing and book coaching work.

• This Substack here with a few lovely paid subscribers.

• An (upcoming) webinar and group coaching program.

• An Etsy store of underperforming but fun mugs.

• A Stan store with more resources to come.

• A lead-generating book.

That’s seven baskets that I’m working on growing to various levels. Some I want to remain small. Others I want to turn from baskets into barrels.

What baskets are you going to add?

Let’s chat about the possibilities.

Content Questions

Now for this week’s content idea questions:

• When was a time you suddenly lost a major part of your income?

• How many “baskets” do you have and what are they?

• Who is a “basket builder” you personally know and admire?

• What is a new pipeline you tried that didn’t work out? What did you learn from trying?

• When did a sudden income loss cause a career pivot?

Paid subscribers, your bonus content questions are below. Until next time, keep changing the world—one story at a time.

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