I first met Tom Kuegler when I took one of his courses about how to make money online as a writer. The more I got to learn about his journey, however, the more I wanted to learn how he’s been able to successfully monetize his content across various platforms.

For those of you who don’t know Tom, he’s a writer, Youtuber, Facebook Influencer, and a course creator for platforms like Medium and Linkedin who has amassed a following of 500,000 people.

All in, according to Tom, on average he’s making over $8,000 a month from writing, the ad revenue from…

Notice I said, “it’s what you do with it.” You may be wondering, “Why do anything? Why not just avoid fear altogether?” While that sounds like a reasonable approach, there’s a saying in the self-development field that applies here:

What you resist, persists.

I’m not sure who coined that little rhyme, but the point is: avoiding fear will only make it grow.

So, what’s a budding entrepreneur to do with those agonizing thoughts and feelings that come with the territory of being a business owner? Thoughts and feelings like:

• Dread when you think of launching your new eBook. …

Let’s start by defining “faith.” What am I talking about here? Could be anything you want, including:

• Faith in yourself
• Faith in the future
• Faith in, yes, a Higher Power.

So, that’s a simple definition of faith — but why bother? Here are a few reasons why I’ve consciously cultivated faith in the last year.

To not be scared sh*tless all the time.

This is the biggest reason that I decided a few years ago to cultivate faith. I was tired of feeling anxious and depressed all the time. I wanted something to look forward to, something to believe in, you know?

One of my favorite authors, Gabby…

I met Dr. Derek Austin 🥳 last year through an online course. Now, we’re in a writing group to support and encourage one another in our careers. (I have a practice of reaching out to one writer I don’t know every week — it’s been a great way to expand my network.)

Austin is a thirty-something writer on Medium. He has a background in web development and clinical practice as a board-certified massage therapist and a licensed physical therapist. He currently works as an instructor for an online web development bootcamp and as an SEO & website performance consultant.

He…

Love this, Michelle! It's so fun to be an entrepreneur and get to show up as whoever we feel like being that day, isn't it? Sometimes I'm sweet, sometimes I'm snarky, sometimes I'm sophisticated . . .

Cheers,

Amy

I’m a writer. I blog on Medium. Today, I opened a new draft to write this story. The last time I did this was two months ago. Yet I know that to be a good, successful writer, I should do this more often.

So, what the hell happened?

I’ll tell you: Seasonal Affective Disorder happened. Bipolar Depression happened. Mental illness that impaired my ability to work, happened.

And it’s been awful.

Don’t get me wrong — I did some good things the past few months. I’ve exercised, looked after my physical and mental health, celebrated the holidays with my family…

Congratulations! You’ve landed a freelance writing job with a new client!

After you celebrate your “win”, you may find yourself thinking: “Now what?”

More specifically, what can you do to ensure that your assignment is successful for your clients? How can you know what they want?

Have you ever asked a prospective client, for example, “What is your goal with this blog post? How will you use it in your marketing?” and they give you an answer like, “Well, you know, we hope to bring in more business with it.”

Yes, of course, they want to bring in more business…

My favorite coffee shop is a local establishment. It has on-site parking, an outdoor patio, and enough indoor seating to make it plausible any time of day or night (they’re open until 10).

I pull into a parking spot, walk across the wood-planked patio, and through the glass front door. I approach the friendly face at the counter and order an in-house white mocha. You can bring your own mug, but I always use theirs.

I sit at a table near the wall because I’m working today so I want to plug my laptop in. I glance around the cozy…