Is it “desperate” to post your availability online? Here’s the cold, hard truth.
“Putting yourself out there” is a necessary part of the job for any freelance medical writer, especially when you’re still establishing a core client base. But what about posting your availability online? Is it “desperate?” Is it better to risk being overlooked by your ideal clients, or to risk being judged by the people in your network?
Reputation is everything when you’re building a business. And online negativity can easily prevent you from growing a reputable brand if it gets out of hand. So let’s explore this topic in more detail, and put this argument to bed once and for all.
Separating actions from intentions
Posting your availability online is not simply an act of communication; much more is being conveyed than you may realize. So, when you see other freelance writers posting their availability, you’ve got to learn to read between the lines.
The intention beneath a written message matters just as much, if not more, than the words themselves. The problem is, the reader doesn’t actually know your intention just by reading. It’s more like a subliminal language you’re speaking that’s coming through, whether you’re aware of it or not.
Each communication effort is an energetic transaction. Readers parse your intention from the words you use, but what really matters is whether they’re left feeling energized or drained after reading.
When a freelance medical writer truly is desperate for work, the undertone of their availability post is “please fill this void I have!” and the reader is left feeling drained. It’s not their job to meet your needs—they have their own needs to meet. The subliminal message being received is one that is unappealing and off-putting.
It’s a “taking” energy, rather than a “giving” one. Prospective clients have their own lives and businesses to run. They don’t come onto LinkedIn looking for other people’s problems to solve; they come on with their own problems to solve. This is an important distinction that you must understand before we continue.
Identity matters more than words
When we investigate this type of interaction a level deeper, we explore the concept of identity. How does an insecure freelance medical writer show up in the world compared to one who is grounded in their own self-worth and not dependent on others to meet their needs?
Yes, there is a dynamic between a freelancer and their client such that the client is paying for services that ultimately benefit the freelancer, making their business viable. But, when we zoom out, is each independent client solely responsible for making sure that freelancer puts food on the table that month? Are they responsible at all?
The simple answer is no. No, they’re not.
However, the dynamic at play is often one of inverted power, meaning the “desperate” freelancer believes the client or prospective client holds all of the power and they, themselves, hold none. In other words, they see the client as being above them—looking down on them, calling all the shots and pulling all the strings.
If this is how you perceive yourself in relation to your clients, it’s a strong indicator that you have more work to do in terms of establishing a more grounded foundation in yourself and your business. (More on that later.)
Ultimately, prospective clients can sense this dynamic of inverted power, and it works in their favour. They realize they can call all the shots and they use it to their advantage. This could either mean that they play around with writers, never really taking them seriously and creating a ‘push-pull’ dynamic that drives the freelancer crazy. Or they take writers for granted, telling themselves “there are plenty more where that came from” and, thus, underpaying and underappreciating the ones they hire.
This is why there are so many freelance medical writers stuck in ‘feast and famine’ cycles, while others are truly thriving and making more money than they ever thought possible.
The bigger picture
When you start to peel back all the layers in these types of “availability post” interactions, you see that things aren’t as simple as they may seem on the surface. When freelance writers focus on the actions being taken—writing the post or not writing the post—they fail to see the energetic dynamics at play and, thus, miss the bigger picture.
“Most freelancers try to fix energetic problems with marketing solutions. But no amount of wordsmithing will disguise an ungrounded state, or counterbalance an inverted power dynamic between a writer and a client.” – Sophie Ash
Let us now look to some solutions to this problem. How do you go from waving a proverbial red flag that says “I have no clients!” to confidently notifying your network that you’re available to take on more work, or not needing to make such posts at all?
Calculated restraint
When I was a brand new freelance medical writer with less work than I would have liked, at no time did I feel it was appropriate to post my availability for the world to see. I saw the risk of exposing my circumstances to prospective clients in that it might be interpreted as inadequacy on my part, so it never felt like a strong move to make. I much preferred to implement other measures to attract and secure ideal clients, leaving this particular strategy intentionally untouched.
Does that mean I object to people posting their availability, publicly? Not at all. But only when it’s done from a grounded place, which is difficult to achieve but by no means impossible. Not only are you opening yourself up to potential criticism. If done poorly, it can be incredibly off-putting to prospective clients and end up making a less-than-ideal situation much worse.
If you’re keen on making availability posts an ongoing part of your business-building strategy, pay close attention to what’s coming up next, so you don’t dig yourself a hole and jump right into it.
“Even if you do need work, it’s not always wise to announce it.” – Sophie Ash
Short-term grounding tactics
You’ve probably been advised in the past that texting, emailing, or posting when you’re angry, upset, or emotionally vulnerable is generally a bad idea. It’s sound advice. And the same is true with posting about your availability. If you do it when you’re feeling like a failure, it’s going to have an air of desperation, which will exacerbate the situation and pull you even further into your existing state of misery. But if you do it when you’re feeling hyped up and excited about the future of your business, you’re much more likely to get a positive response and create more of the same. In other words, you can’t give off an air of desperation if you’re not actually desperate in that moment—you’re abundant.
I want to be very clear here: this is just a bandaid type of solution, but I’m starting simple. As human beings, our emotional state is always up and down—some more so than others. And as a freelance medical writer, you’re going to have times when you feel amazing about yourself and your business and other times when you feel like absolute crap. This is normal.
What you don’t want to do is have your main strategy for attracting new clients and opportunities be “I’ll wait until I’m feeling confident and excited about my business and use those moments to propel things forward.” This will work to some extent, but it’s extremely unreliable in the long run. If you’re not also doing the inner work to build genuine confidence as an entrepreneur, these moments will be few and far between and you’ll never see any real traction or growth in your business.
Internal alignment
How you market yourself is a reflection of what you believe you deserve—as a person and as a business owner. Your internal narrative is the strongest driver of any action you take in your business, and can either be a huge motivator or an enormous drag.
To a large extent, working on improving and strengthening your internal narrative will naturally translate into your external messaging. Where an insecure freelancer will spend hours drafting the perfect post, trying their best not to appear desperate but still coming across as such, a secure one will instinctively post about their availability without putting too much thought into it and get new leads. The difference? Their internal narrative.
One is hearing “I’ll never get enough work. But maybe if I make this post, someone will swoop in unexpectedly and rescue me. Isn’t it worth a shot?” internally. The other is hearing “I trust that enough opportunities will come my way. But perhaps someone will read this and want to bring me into a project, which would be a nice addition to my current workload.”
With such different driving forces, it’s hard to imagine the outcome of an availability post being the same for both freelancers.
True confidence isn’t something you can craft—it’s embodied. The difference between a freelancer who writes an availability post and gets crickets (or judged for seeming desperate) and one who writes an availability post and gets a new client or project is not because of the post itself; it’s who they’re being when they write it. This is what prospective clients pick up on and this is what makes a writer repulsive or attractive, depending on the subliminal messaging and underlying energy exchange at play.
“Misaligned marketing is a form of energetic leakage, i.e., saying one thing while you feel or believe another. Companies can tell if you’re trying to trick them, and it rarely works.” – Sophie Ash
Energetic posture
The most successful freelance medical writers are the most detached from the outcomes of their business. When they post their availability, they genuinely don’t care whether it’s ignored or picked up by prospective clients because they know their needs are going to be met regardless of others’ actions. They trust in their ability to attract new work through a variety of methods, and they know new opportunities are always right around the corner. As such, they’re particular about who they take on as clients, charge at the upper end of the range for freelance medical writers, and regularly turn down opportunities that feel misaligned. This is the energetic posture one must aspire to achieve.
Detachment is a superpower in client attraction. Why? Because if your body is in a stress response, your messaging will reflect it. Whether that results in a post that feels rushed, scattered, apologetic, or desperate, it’s not a good look. Whereas, the moment you release the need for a specific outcome to occur, opportunities flow. This is the law of attraction.
Being able to neutralize your own reactions and responses from that of others is one of the most valuable and sought-after traits of a highly successful freelance medical writer. This can only happen when true confidence is at play, and true confidence only comes from taking consistent, aligned actions in your business and seeing genuine traction unfold. If this seems counterintuitive, that’s because it is.
However, there is a sweet spot between learning to separate yourself from external factors, building internal strength and resilience, and believing the results are coming right before you’ve actually seen them. This is the golden state of operating any new business, as it capitalizes on the law of attraction without creating a downward negative spiral or self-fulfilling prophecy of failure. Any coach worth their salt will know how to get you into this state and keep you there. If you haven’t found one yet, let’s talk.
Nervous system regulation
Creating a sense of safety around putting yourself out there, whether that’s making availability posts or otherwise, is where the most opportunity for personal and professional growth lies. Quite simply, if you are desperate, you’re going to be perceived that way. If you’re not, it’s much less likely and won’t affect you from a psychological standpoint anyway. Therefore, the goal here is to be genuinely grounded in your own abilities and potential so that you not only reduce the risk of judgement but become immune to such judgement even if it does occur.
Judgement will happen, and it’s your job to strengthen yourself internally to the point where this sort of thing doesn’t affect you anymore. Here’s what this looks like in practice:
- Do the inner work so that your nervous system knows there’s no threat to you or your business if you market yourself publicly.
- Devise short- and long-term marketing strategies that help you acquire new business authentically and without self-sabotage.
- Shift your mindset from one of an inverted power dynamic to one of forming lasting, trusted partnerships with your clients.
- Strengthen your identity as a freelance medical writer to build true confidence and resilience, instead of trying to prove yourself to others.
- Surround yourself with other freelance writers who operate from a space of true abundance, while avoiding those who don’t.
This is the exact same psychology-based approach I’ve used time and time again with my students, and it never fails to help them reach their full potential and achieve consistent, impressive results. The best part is that mindset is contagious. When one of my students celebrates their breakthroughs, wins, and pay days, the others see it’s possible and it strengthens their own beliefs that better things are coming. That’s by design.
In summary, if the word “desperate” stings, it’s likely because part of you fears it might be true. So, instead of getting angry about it, let’s pour that energy into getting to the root cause of the issue and helping you build a strong, meaningful medical writing business that gives you the financial freedom you’ve always dreamed of. If you’d like support along the way, check out The ‘Thriving & Free’ Medical Writer Program™.
