How do I stop self-sabotaging my own efforts to establish my niche?

The Confident Freelance Editor

056: Featured editor: Jen Tolnay, Jen Tolnay Editorial and Writing Services

Jen has plenty of corporate editing experience and wants to move toward her ideal work in fiction book editing. She’s almost finished a course and has gained a bit of experience from pro bono projects. So what’s stopping her from pitching to clients who could benefit from her skills?

Feeling hesitant at switching to a new field of editing is entirely normal. We’re confident in our own skills in the work we’ve done already. We feel like we need to get qualifications and more jobs under our belts in order to show credibility. But Jen has dragged out the completion of her editing course. She’s wondering where this resistance is coming from.

If this is happening to you too, think about how this behaviour serves you. By not finishing the course, Jen doesn’t feel like she’s qualified to pitch for new work in fiction editing. So she can stay in her safe, familiar territory. But that’s not what she wants for her future. So it leads to her feeling stuck and frustrated about how to carve out this new niche for herself.

We discuss this and other aspects to establishing a new niche, or even more than one. Niching in one area makes it easier to talk about in your marketing, but if you’ve got other things going on in your business where you can get work in a variety of areas, there’s nothing stopping you from doing that. Pursuing a niche you love doesn’t mean you have to drop all the other work you’re good at and that has brought you income through industry connections. Believing that you’ll lose work if you establish a niche can hold you back through fear.

If you’ve got a feeling that you know your way forward but there’s something holding you back you just can’t put your finger on, consider where you might be self-sabotaging your own progress.

……………………………. If you want to get clear on your money, marketing and mindset, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program.