The Moment It Gets Real: How Your First Paid Gig Transforms Everything

Everyone remembers their first paid gig.

It changes you for good. 

No matter how big or little the pay, the fact that a person of reasonable intelligence has decided to send you money to perform your money skill for them…

Wow. 

The moment you see that digital dough hit your account is the moment the fantasy becomes reality. 

Mine?

I was 3 months into copywriting and eager to land my first client…

My friend Vinny tells me, “There’s a guy on the copywriting board looking for someone to write a series of 5 autoresponders. Tell him you normally charge a hundred an email but you’ll do a package deal for $300.”

“Okay man, sounds good,” I said. “One question, what’s an autoresponder?”

Yes, I was super green, but more than that, I was hungry. 

I submit my proposal to the guy and I know if he likes the price, he’ll want a sample. 

So, I sat down at my kitchen table after dinner and wrote my very first autoresponder series of emails. 

I picked a fictional product that helps golfers drive further off the tee. 

Weird thing is, I don’t play golf. 

I don’t even like golf. 

But I know people who golf, and I’d studied enough golf ads to have a sense for what motivated them.

Sure enough, the guy asks for a sample and I send him “A recent series I wrote in the golf niche.”

The next day he writes back and says, “Your price was a little higher than some of the other copywriters, but I like your writing style. I can tell you know what you’re doing.” lol

And right then my freelance copywriting career was officially launched. 

I stayed booked for the next 12 years, parlaying a three hundred dollar email-writing gig into eventual $50,000 launch copy projects, and now a 7-figure business training and connecting copywriters, marketers, and business owners. 

A pretty epic journey so far. 

But NONE of this would have happened without that first gig. 

If you’re still striving for your first paid gig, do not give up. Because that first one is less about the money and more about the feeling of finally knowing “I can do this. It’s real.” 

Changes you on a cellular level, and you’ll never be the same. 

If you’ve been earning money as a copywriter for a while, take a moment to reflect on how far you have come. 

It took a lot of courage to do what you did. I’m sure there were doubters. You probably even doubted yourself more than a few times. 

But you did it. It’s real. 

So, what’s next?