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High-Income Business Writing

High-Income Business Writing

Written by: Ed Gandia
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Ed Gandia, co-author of the bestselling book, The Wealthy Freelancer, reveals how to propel your writing business to the six-figure level (or the part-time equivalent). In this nuts-and-bolts, no-nonsense podcast, you'll discover how to get better clients, earn more in less time, and bring more freedom and joy into your writing business. Ed will walk you through the practical, "doable" systems and strategies he has developed in his own writing business — the same systems he has taught his private coaching clients. He'll also show you what's working for other business writers by bringing you real case studies from the field. And he'll share all this information in an honest and transparent way, with no hype or fluff. Learn more at b2blauncher.com/podcast.Copyright 2019 Gandia Communications Inc. Economics
Episodes
  • #404: Rethinking Retirement: A Candid Conversation with Michael Katz

    #404: Rethinking Retirement: A Candid Conversation with Michael Katz
    Oct 18 2026
    I'll be honest, I can't stand the word "retirement." It comes from a different era. My grandfather did hard manual labor for decades, and by the time he stopped, his body needed the rest. But today, most of us do knowledge work now. It's taxing, but not like the back-breaking work of a construction or factory floor worker. We live longer, too. At 55, I could easily have another 30 years ahead of me, with 20+ of them active and healthy. And yet retirement has been on my mind a lot lately. Three years ago I read Bob Buford's book, Halftime: Moving from Success to Significance, and it planted a seed that keeps growing. I've also watched friends a little older than me retire the traditional way, spend a few restless months wondering what happened, and then head back to work in some form. Many of you are at a crossroads right now, too. The past few years have shaken up this industry, and plenty of freelancers in their 50s are asking much bigger questions than "Where's my next client coming from?" They're wondering if it's time for a pivot. Or if they need to rethink their work and their priorities altogether. At 55, this whole topic comes down to being more deliberate about the next 10+ years. Life is too short to spend it on anything other than the work you want, done the way you want to do it, with the people you want to do it with. My personal beacon is optionality. I want every year to give me a few more meaningful choices than the year before. And I want Sunday evenings to feel exciting because Monday is coming. (I remember the opposite feeling all too well from my corporate days!) That's why I invited my friend Michael Katz on the show. Michael has been "the email newsletter guy" for more than 25 years. He founded Blue Penguin Development in 2000 and has written more than 600 issues of his own newsletter since then. Now, at 66, he's taken his foot off the gas. He stopped taking on new clients this year, and he's figuring out what comes next in real time. Luckily for us, he's documenting his journey with a lot of honesty and plenty of humor. In our conversation, Michael explains why he now introduces himself differently to people, and how he figured out that he was bored with his business but still loved the work itself. We get into things like: The role identity plays into the retirement decision The strange challenge of having too much freedom Why paying attention to demand matters at any age How to tell whether you're bored with your business or bored with the workThe three-part overlap behind work you'll want to keep doing for years (plus the fourth piece I'd add)Why freedom can feel harder than a job you can't wait to leaveAnd the Fenway Park tour guide experiment that took exactly one tour to rule out. We even disagree (respectfully) about where to start when you're trying to figure out what you want to do next. One more thing. I forgot to ask Michael about this at the end of our conversation, so let me fix that here. Michael writes an excellent newsletter called This Isn't Working. It's a free, twice-monthly email about life in the second half: aging, identity, marriage, money, purpose, and what happens when work stops defining your day. It's awesome. It's hilarious. And every single issue gives me something to think about long after I've finished reading it. If you're in your 50s or 60s, or you simply want to be more intentional about the decades ahead, do yourself a favor and subscribe at thisisntworking.net. Key Ideas & Takeaways 1. Retirement Belongs to Another Era. The traditional model made sense when work wore out your body. Today, many people retire the old way and find it doesn't fit, then drift back into work after a few months. If you run your own business, you can reshape it instead of escaping it. 2. Separate the Business From the Work. Michael still loves the writing. He's tired of the marketing, selling, and front-end work required to land clients. His analogy: a basketball player can tire of the travel and the press while still loving the game, because every game is different. 3. Look for the Overlap. Michael looks for work you're good at, that you enjoy, and that someone will pay for. I'd add a fourth piece: you can live well from it. Michael starts by asking what people come to you for. I start by noticing when I lose track of time, and asking what I'd do for free. For me, that's solving interesting business problems. 4. Identity Can Shift More Easily Than You Expect. Michael once had an office full of framed press clippings, a penguin vanity plate, and penguins everywhere. Letting go of all that turned out to be easier than he feared. Calling himself a writer gives him an identity he can carry for the rest of his life. 5. Freedom Brings Its Own Challenge. When you've worked for yourself for decades, you aren't escaping anything. You already do what you want. So the question becomes harder: with so many choices, what do you pick next? 6. Watch Demand at ...
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    49 mins
  • #403: What's Left to Be Good At

    #403: What's Left to Be Good At
    Sep 13 2026

    A few weeks ago I got on a call with someone I coached many years ago. Partway through, I said something almost without thinking. By the time we hung up, I realized it might be the most useful thing I've told anyone in the past month or two.

    This episode walks through that conversation and the question that triggered it:

    What would a client create if there were no limits at all?

    That question used to be dangerous to ask, because the honest answer was almost always bigger than what you could actually deliver.

    AI changed that math. Now judgment is the whole game.

    I'll walk you through the real conversation, show you how the same idea plays out for a copywriter and an email marketer, and give you a simple three-step way to test it yourself this week.

    What You'll Learn

    • Why asking a client what they'd create with no limits used to be a dangerous question, and why that's changed
    • The real story behind the question that reshaped how Ed thinks about client value
    • Why AI made judgment matter more instead of less
    • How the same idea applies whether you're a copywriter, an email marketer, or something else entirely
    • A simple three-step way to test this on one of your own clients this week

    Key Ideas & Takeaways

    1. The Magic Wand Question. Ed asks a coaching client what her client would actually pay for. When she gives the safe answer, he pushes further: if they could wave a magic wand and get exactly what they wanted, what would that be? The honest answer turns out to matter a lot more than the safe one.

    2. The Real Constraint Moved. AI removed the ceiling on production. Big answers used to be unrealistic because building them took too long. Now the real constraint is your willingness to experiment and the judgment you bring to what you build.

    3. Judgment Over Speed. The tools will happily build almost anything you ask for, whether it's a good idea or not. Deciding what's actually smart to build, and recognizing when what comes back is genuinely good, is squarely your job now.

    4. It Works Beyond One Client. The same shift applies to a copywriter whose client casually mentions wanting better onboarding emails, or an email marketer whose client wishes they could predict churn before it happens. In both cases, the real ask is an outcome, not a deliverable.

    5. Three Steps To Try This Week. Pick one client, current or past. Ask the magic wand question and write down the honest answer, even if it sounds too big. Then spend 30-60 minutes with AI building a rough version of it, before you ever mention price.

    Action Steps

    • Pick one client, current or past, ideally a smaller or lower-stakes relationship
    • Ask yourself what that client would create if there were no limits at all, and write down the honest answer
    • Spend 30 to 60 minutes with AI building a rough version of that answer before you ever quote a price
    • Notice where the AI draft falls short. That's your judgment doing its job, so fix that part yourself
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    18 mins
  • #402: One of the Most Surprising Things I've Learned From 15 Years of Surveying My Audience

    #402: One of the Most Surprising Things I've Learned From 15 Years of Surveying My Audience
    Aug 2 2026

    For 15 years, the top answer on every survey I've sent my audience has been the same: I need more clients. Typically, 70 to 80% of respondents pick it without a second thought.

    This time, only 34% did.

    I read all 58 responses that came in, then got four people on a Zoom call to dig deeper on their answers. What I found surprised me enough that I want to walk you through it today.

    A good chunk of the people who picked "clients" weren't describing a clients problem at all. They were describing something else, wearing a "more clients" costume. And the word they kept using, unprompted, in nearly every conversation was "pivot."

    In this episode, I share the framework that came out of those conversations. It encompasses three distinct stages people get stuck at when they're trying to make a real change in their business. I also explain why the help you need looks completely different depending on which one you're in.

    What You'll Learn

    • Why "I need more clients" dropped from the typical 70% I've seen in the past to just 34% this time around
    • The real problem hiding behind that "more clients" answer for a lot of respondents
    • The three stages of a pivot and how to tell which one you're actually in
    • Why almost nobody named AI as their top problem, even though it showed up everywhere
    • The surprising thing the highest spenders want that the DIY crowd doesn't
    • Why it's so hard to think your way through a pivot effectively, even with AI as a sounding board

    Key Ideas & Takeaways

    1. The "Clients" Answer Is Losing Its Grip. For 15 years, "I need more clients" won every survey I've sent, typically with 70 to 80% of the vote. This time it barely cleared a third, and "what I should offer now" jumped into a close second at 24%.

    2. A Lot of "Clients" Answers Were Wearing a Costume. When I read the open-ended responses, a quarter to a third of the people who picked "clients" were actually describing something else: niching paralysis, imposter syndrome, or clients pulling work in-house because they're using AI themselves. The real issue sat one step upstream from the answer they checked.

    3. The Real Theme Was "Pivot." Nobody was prompted to use that word. Person after person used it anyway, in the survey and in the follow-up calls.

    4. AI Is the Wrapper, Not the Problem. Only 3 out of 58 respondents said learning AI was their top concern. But AI showed up in nearly 4 out of 10 open-ended answers, tangled into everything else people are dealing with.

    Action Steps

    • Figure out which of the three stages you're actually in right now: deciding, validating, or planning
    • If you're deciding, stop looking for a marketing plan. Look for a person or process that can help you build real conviction
    • If you're validating, pick one person you trust and ask them directly whether they'd pay to have this problem solved
    • If you're planning, write down the exact order of steps you think you need, then get a second set of eyes on it.
    Show More Show Less
    34 mins
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