You’re not a good enough writer to earn a client’s money.

No one is going to hire you because what you write is trash.

These are the beliefs that so many wannabe freelance writers hold. They downplay their own ability and convince themselves they’re not good enough.

All that self-doubt and questioning ensures one thing. That you really aren’t good enough.

Look, if you don’t believe in yourself, no one else is going to believe in you. If you think your writing isn’t worth anything, then it won’t be.

There’s a definite link between how you perceive yourself and how others perceive you.

When I was in Hong Kong training martial arts, before any competition I had three other guys helping to psych me up.

Three guys who helped warm me up both physically and mentally. They’d help me deconstruct the opposition and give me a few decent strategies, but more than anything they’d help me believe that I really was the best there.

Because if I entered any form of competition thinking I wasn’t the best, then I’d already lost. If I’d convinced myself I was the second, third, or fourth most capable there, then that is where I would place.

You have to believe in yourself. You have to believe that the service and deliverables you produce really are the best there.

It’s how most of the most successful business men and women have built their empires. For example, one of my clients is a guy called Sam Ovens.

Sam grew a consulting business out of his parent's garage to making over $750,000 every month.

Sam built his business through various actions, but at the crux of it all is his belief. If you speak to Sam, he genuinely believes he is the best consultant in the world.

And sure, the $750k+ per month is a testament to his ability, but it was his self-belief that helped him grow.

The question is, what can you do if you’re lacking in confidence?

Take Action, Because Action Breeds Confidence

Look, you’re already a better writer than you think.

Have you ever noticed that when you speak to people who have to write anything they say “but I’m a terrible writer”.

Some of that’s probably a little bit of humility, but the majority of people don’t think they’re good writers. And honestly, they’re not.

Simply by trying to be a writer you’re going to surpass 50% of the population. Put a little work in and you’ll be better than 90% of the population.

Cause even those who think they’re not bad, aren’t all that good. They rely on the boring methods of academic writing they were taught during their education. The only practice they get is writing a handful of emails every day.

You, on the other hand, will be writing at least a few hundred words every day. Which in a few weeks will have you easily outperforming 90% of the people you meet.

And that’s one of the two ways you’re going to build your confidence. You are now going to write at least 500 words every day.

Because building confidence is no more complicated than taking action. And that’s something that carries over into all areas of building a business.

You’ll become a better, more confident writer by writing. Your negotiation skills will improve through ongoing practice, and your client acquisition tactics will become more refined through ongoing optimisation.

You will fail, but you’ll learn more through the failures than anything else.

So stop questioning if you’re good enough and just start doing. There’s a bunch of writers out there for whom English is a second language. And if they can earn a decent living writing in a language they’ve had to learn, then so can you.

Taking action is the most effective (and really the only) way of building your confidence. There are no shortcuts in this. It is simply a case of taking action and building it brick by brick.

But, and I’m loathe to suggest this because for a long time I thought all of this self-affirmation stuff was bullshit, there is one other thing you can do to supplement your confidence building.

And that’s build a list of statements that tell you who you want to be.

Figure Out Who You Want to Be

I really can’t stand all of the advice extolling the benefit of telling yourself that you are fine the way you are. That all you need is to believe in yourself.

I thought it was all a bunch of bullshit. But, it does really work.

There’s something about convincing yourself that you are everything your potential clients need. If you can keep telling yourself that you are the best at what you do, you start to believe it. You start to internalise those beliefs which comes across in everything you do.

Your emails will be more persuasive, you’ll be more confident in negotiations, and you’ll generally just be a more confident person.

But you’ve got to do it the right way.

Simply telling yourself “I am a great writer” isn’t going to cut it. And there’ve been studies that have debunked this long adhered to method.

No, instead of writing generic statements that are based on nothing at all, you have to be realistic.

Throwing generic, positive statements over something you know not to be true isn’t going to solve any problems. You know you’re not the best writer in the world and so telling yourself you are isn’t going to help.

Instead of writing down some generic, trite bullshit that you’ve been told will give you a warm fuzzy feeling inside, you need to be realistic.

For example, any of the below are bollocks and should be omitted from your affirmations.

I’m happy and cherished (WTF does that mean?)

I’m a great writer and perfect the way I am (no, you always need to improve)

My business is successful (what if it’s not?)

Instead of following the bullshit advice, you need to write down more specific affirmations. Ones which are specific to you and relate more closely to the character traits you want to possess.

It’s those character traits that make people successful. And you need to drill down to what they are and embody them.

For example, if you want to build confidence, instead of saying “I am confident”, ask yourself what confident people do and write down the actions you’ll take.

Confident people don’t fear failure, so you could write;

“I don’t fear failure because I recognise it as a valuable learning tool. If I fail, I have increased my knowledge and have learned a valuable lesson to help me succeed in my next attempt”

Confident people don’t deliberate, so you could write:

“I think and act immediately. I live in the moment and make decisions based on the here and now, not on long-distant plans. I know the actions I take today will benefit me in the long-term”

These are the sort of affirmations you need to create. Write down the character traits you want to possess, break them down into the actions that typically depict those traits and turn them into affirmations.

Create a sheet of at least 10 of these affirmations and read them every single day. Once when you wake in the morning, and once before jumping into bed.

It sounds like bullshit, but it works. Just make sure you’re not following the generic path and saying “I am a happy individual”, cause that means absolutely nothing.

Do this right and your new confident, happy self will attract more business because you’ll be the sort of person people want to do business with.

Simple as that.