You might have “full-time poet” ambitions when you start performing SpokenWord on stage. It’s logical. You love being on stage and spitting your pieces. The audience always gives you positive feedback, and you’re growing as an artist and performer. You pour your all into performing and writing while working your 9-5. Show after show, open mic after open mic; you gain more notoriety.
But, it’s not enough.
At some point, you realize that you’ve hit a plateau. You’ve gained fans; you’ve made a decent amount of money off merch, performances, and projects. But you feel like you can’t go any higher. What do you do?
Settle into that 9-5 at a call center? Put up with your overbearing manager and waste your potential while you endure a slow death? Or, do you allow your SpokenWord experience to work for you?
That’s it. You put the skills you’ve gained through writing and performing SpokenWord and let it turn into another career that is ideally suited for your gift. Here are a few that will allow you to use your SpokenWord talent to make another career.
Option #1 Copywriting (In Demand/High Income Potential)
Copywriting is advertising with words. You know those emails you get when you sign up on an email list? How about the information you read when you visit a website or a sales letter to get you to purchase something? Those things are all written by copywriters. The essence of great copywriting is the ability to 1—grab attention and 2—tell a story. What have you done as a SpokenWord artist? That’s it—you’ve caught the attention of the audience, and you told a story.
All you have to do is understand the science of copywriting, and that’s not hard. Head to Udemy and type in “Copywriting” in the search bar OR purchase some books. The Adweek Copywriting Handbook by Joe Sugarman, The 10 Commandments of A-List Copywriters by John Bejakovic, and The Ultimate Selling Story by Roy Furr.
I knew nothing about Copywriting, and three months later, I have a full-time job as a Copywriter and Clients on the side. Take a chance. You’re made for it.
Option #2 Content Writer (In Demand)
Content is king. There is not a business, start-up or established, that can survive without written content. Everybody needs a content writer, and with the creativity you’ve gained through SpokenWord, you’re capable of writing unique content for any business. There’s no classes needed for this. There’s no books that need to be purchased. If you know how to write and do, you can hop into this career and flourish.
Option #3 Author (High Income Potential)
Are you a specialist in anything? Do you know how to get something done? Do you know how to tell a breathtaking story from the first page to the last? You sound like an author to me. As a poet, you may have already written a book of poems or two, but why stop there? Why not write four, or five, or six? Why not make it your career? Some authors make close to six and sometimes over six figures by selling books alone.
Now, they don’t just write one and hope for the best—and they don’t write one book and hope it sells itself. They write a plethora of books and have a marketing plan to make sure everyone knows that they are out.
So, for you, it will take the same ambition. Research a few marking methods or follow a few significant authors on social media and see how they do it. Regardless of what people say, there are STILL A LOT of book nerds out there that love to read and find new authors—and that’s not going away any time soon. If you’ve got a good story (and you do because people love your SpokenWord), then you’ve got the potential to write a good book.
Don’t let your talent go to waste. Don’t sit back in some cubicle and become complacent with where you are in your life. Just because you didn’t reach the “full-time poet” status doesn’t mean you can’t get the top in another way. Always shoot for the moon—but if you miss, know you’re still high enough to grab a few stars.