AP 0815: I’ve Received Negative Feedback on My Writing. Should I Quit or Hire Help?

Ask Pat 815 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: Hey, what's up everybody? Pat Flynn here. Welcome to Episode 815 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today. As always, I'm here to help you by answering your on line business questions five days a week. We have a great question today from Tyler.

Before we get to that, I do want to thank today's sponsor, which is FreshBooks. FreshBooks is an amazing piece of software that you can use to help you manage your business finances, everything from the income coming in and managing that, where it's coming from to be able to categorize them correctly, to the expenses and making sure those are categorized correctly. You can even manage that automatically.

Also, invoicing. I use them for invoicing as well. It makes it really easy to, within 30 seconds, create a very professional looking invoice to be able to keep track of who opens them, who has paid and whatnot. It just makes it really easy. By far, one of the best solutions out there for your business finances. Check them out for free for 30 days, by going to freshbooks.com/askpat. Make sure you enter “Ask Pat” in the how did you hear about us section. All right. Thank you. Here's today's question from Tyler.

Tyler: Hey, Pat. What's up, man? I just wanted to say thanks for everything you done. It was a little over a year ago now when I first heard about you. You inspired me to start my own podcast. I only kept up with that for two weeks. Just recently, I got back into it. Over the last month, I've started two different web sites. I started back up my podcast again.

My question is this: For these two web sites, I had to do quite a bit of writing. I'm not a very good writer. Actually, I have some learning disabilities. I'm trying my best posting stuff literally everyday on both sites and still doing my daily podcast. It's a lot to keep up with. Some of the feedback I'm getting about my articles is just that my grammar is bad. I use the wrong “whos,” or the wrong “those,” or the wrong “to,” or something. Some stranger, who, of course he didn't know that I'd ever see it. He's like, “Whoa, this is really badly written.” I took that to heart.

I went, did my homework, literally tried to teach myself grammar over again. Then, posted it as a new article, edited that one. The feedback, some other guy was like, “Grrr. Who do you think you are? Rrr. This is …” He's just hoping to find some … Anyway, that was not good feedback either.

Should I just throw my hands up, say, “Hey, I'm not a very good writer. Let's just try to focus on the podcast thing.” Should I hire a service like Fiverr? Should I get someone to edit it? I don't really have any friends that I think I could send it to. I don't know. Something about that just wouldn't feel genuine. Anyway, again, thanks, Pat. You changed my life. Send me one of those shirts. See you, bud. Bye.

Hey, Tyler. What's up? Thank you so much for the question. Should you throw your hands up, because of the comments that just a couple people made? Absolutely not.

I've been derailed by comments like this before. Some, a lot more stronger in language and in consistency from people. If I had thrown my hands up, I would've not been able to help all the people that I have been able to help.

Just imagine all the people down the road that you could possibly affect, in a positive way, with the content that you're going to come out with no matter what platform you're on. We'll talk about that in a moment. You're going to be letting them down. They're going to need you. Don't throw your hands up and give up because of just a few people. Every second that you waste thinking about a hater's comment is a second you're taking away from those who actually need you, or who are going to need you.

It's always important to listen to and try to determine why these comments are happening. Obviously, it's because, like you said, the grammar and whatnot. It's very good of you to notice what you can improve on. The fact that you been learning, yes, I understand you have a learning disability. That shouldn't stop you from wanting to provide value and content out in the world, whether it's on a podcast, or a blog.

There are many, many famous people who have done many great things who have learning disabilities as well. Do you think that stopped them? Absolutely not. Steven Spielberg, Whoopi Goldberg, Daniel Radcliff, Michael Phelps, Keira Knightley, the list goes on, and on, and on. Tommy Hilfiger, I think Richard Branson as well, or maybe not.

I just know that sometimes people use these learning disabilities as a way to actually have an advantage over people. It's through the hard work that they do to overcome these disabilities that they become better leaders and better managers. They have more drive than other people. I would flip it around in your ad. Say, “This is my advantage,” not your disadvantage.

I will say that, related to blog content and writing specifically, I think it's important that you do that. Yes, I would hire an editor, or get somebody on Fiverr to edit those things as you come out with them. That could really help alleviate some of these initial comments.

I do feel like grammar, and spelling, and stuff is important. It's good to have those things right. Yes, it can just be a reflection of the way that your content is. Some people assume if you are a bad speller, or don't have good grammar that you're not putting time, and care, and effort into it.

I would also just be honest and up front on your web sites. Tell people, “Hey, you know what? I have a learning disability, but I'm here and I'm writing.” It's not that that's an excuse. People can often overlook that now and just get into the content and really pay attention to what really matters.

However, I would recommend that, if possible, to have somebody edit the content for you. You can go back and edit some of the earlier ones if you want, or just make sure that your new ones are going to be edited. Either way, I think it's a great exercise. That's something I actually, recently, in the last couple years have started doing even though I write well. I definitely didn't start that way. After six years, I was writing fairly well. I would still miss a few things and say things incorrectly, or misspell some things. The grammar police is out there. I didn't never let that bother me. People still started to enjoy my content.

The thing I want to finish up on talking about is all that you're doing right now. You said you had two web sites and a daily podcast. That's insane. You're posting daily to all those things. I would absolutely figure out what is the most important platform for you and just focus on that.

If one of those web sites coincides with the podcast, that's fine too. I wouldn't necessarily do both of those daily. I would have one support the other. The rhythm in terms of frequency, I would one of them, be a weekly, so that you can focus daily, if you do have the bandwidth to do that, which some might argue is still too much content. You sometimes want to give people enough time to consume these things. I'm sure for your audience, especially, those who are subscribed it could be very overwhelming to get all that at the same time. Wiping out one of the web sites, or just putting on a hold for now, or maybe combining the two into one, just so you have less to focus on.

With one of them, whether it be your podcast, or your web site, come out with it weekly. I think it's great that you have these multiple platforms. I have the same strategy as well. Really having one be your home and your main driver for introducing yourself to people. If that's the podcast, because it's a little bit easier for you and you don't have to worry about spelling, necessarily, then that could be it. Then you can work on the blog content and have it come out weekly, thus giving you and an editor more time to just hone in on making that great. That's what I would recommend. I would just say if you divide all of your energy into all three of these things that you're working on right now, none of them are going to have the chance to really make the biggest impact they can. Harness that energy and put it into fewer items, thus giving them more energy and the more possibility of succeeding. That's what I would recommend.

With that, Tyler, I want to say thank you so much for your question. I do want to send you an Ask Pat t-shirt for having your question featured here on the show. For those of you who are listening, if you have a question that you'd like potentially featured here on the show as well, just head on over to askpat.com and you can ask right there on that page.

Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Also, thanks to FreshBooks if you want to again check them out for free for 30 days, go to freshbooks.com/askpat. Make sure you enter Ask Pat in the how did you hear about us section.

Finally, as always, we end with a quote. Today's quote is from Ovid. He said, “Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast. In the pool where you least expect will be a fish.” Cheers. Take care. I'll see you in the next episode of Ask Pat. Bye.