The Pat Sajak Method Of Paid Writing

Pat Sajak retired from the Wheel of Fortune this year.  Truth be told, I haven’t watched an episode of the game show for a very long time.  Besides seeing memes about the show on social media, it has easily been 20 years since I yelled at a TV screen “By Zeus beard the answer to the puzzle is “Only The Good Die Swing!” (It’s a polka song from the 30s I think).  I used to watch it a lot with my grandmother as a kid, however.

Even back then I could remember wondering if Mr. Sajak ever got bored doing the same thing, day in and day out.  Add on top of that dealing with the really goofy people who go on game shows and it is mystifying that the man hosted the program for 40 years.  Unless you are a complete psychopath link Wink Martindale, no one grows up wanting to be a gameshow host.  Sajak originally wanted to be a broadcaster.  He started on Armed Forces Radio and then moved on to be a disc jockey in Nashville, Tennessee.

For the longest time, I never understood the longevity of Sajak in his gameshow host role.  This Scooby Doo mystery was solved for me when I found out about his schedule. 

Every Thursday and Friday he would record six episodes.  That was it.  He showed up to work twice a week when the show was recording.  He was paid $15 million dollars for working 36 days a year.  The man cracked the code!

Strangely enough, there are people out there who poo poo Mr. Sajak’s accomplishment (more than you would think).  This is dumb.

Artist Purity Is A Lie Wrapped In Insanity

I lived in Los Angeles for 16 years.   My wife was a working actress for 20 years.  I did a one man show in Hollywood.  I tell you these things to let you know that I have been around A LOT of actors, comedians, and writers.  There were a ton of talented people that were broke then and are broke now. 

Sure, some of it is that they just never caught a break.  Yes, the entry points to the top tier of the entertainment industry require you to have connections (or do things most people are unwilling to do).  But, there is plenty of money to be made at the mid-tier level.  A lot of people ice themselves out of these opportunities because it is not what they ever saw themselves doing. They had a preconceived notion of what it meant to be an “artist”.

Go back and read the Pat Sajack ad from above.  Do you think he ever saw himself being a game show host?  He wanted to be a broadcaster.  That is a serious gig.  Yet, once he became successful at something the market wanted, he went for it.  In doing so, he bought himself 329 days a year.  You can create a lot of art in 329 days a year.  There are tens of thousands of guys like Pat Sajak who self-select themselves out of opportunities. Eventually, they are unable to feed themselves. They are forced to hitchhike back to Nebraska with nothing but a broken dream and bad credit.

Like everything else in life, you get paid for your art in relation to how much the market wants it.  In that way, it is a business.  You have to stay in business long enough to create a sustainable operation.  Your creative efforts are not exempted from this.  Just ask Michelangelo. 

Don’t Be A Full-Time Paid Writer

Michelangelo is most famous for sculpting a giant naked dude.  I have seen the sculpture in person.  It is amazing.  The man was a genius on many levels.  Pope Julius II gave Michelangelo a ton of money to create works of art.  Back in the old-timey days, this was known as being a patron.  It was how things got done.

Did you know that Michelangelo took a lot of that money and invested it in real estate?  Yes, Michelangelo was his days Grant Cardone (or Robert Kiyosaki if you prefer a different clinically insane person who is good at real estate).  One of the most famous creators of all time was also an elite businessman. 

Do we speak of him in hushed tones of despair?  Do we castigate his name for defiling himself by making money?  Well, I certainly don’t.  I am sure that the man was able to do a lot of exploring and creating that he would not normally have done if he was starving all the time.

The point I am trying to make is:  Don’t bet on becoming famous for your creative works and rely on them to make money.  There is another way.

Self-Produce Your Creative Projects

I have designed my “Writing as a Service” business so that I get paid a high enough hourly rate that, like Pat Sajak, I don’t work all the time.  This allows me to write things that I don’t have to worry about being commercially successful (Like my upcoming novel, Proxy).  I get to do whatever I want. 

If it's good enough, I self-produce it.  It doesn’t matter if it's another one man show, a novel, or a rap song about the Oxford Comma (<----actually working on this).  I have complete artistic freedom because people pay me to ghostwrite for them.

“But Wade, don’t you burn out from corporate writing?”

Nope.  I work for people and products that I believe in.  I have also created a newsletter framework that lets me write about whatever I want.  I am still able to be curious in my writing (within constraints).  The Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) model allows me to spend very little time in client acquisition, as well.  It is not the only way to do things, but it is a way that works for me. 

It is not because I am an awesome writer, or super duper smart.  It is just that, like Pat Sajak, I have figured out a way to make money and still get what I want. 

Free your mind about what it means to be creative. There are no limits to how you do it.

Only paths to be traveled.

More in a bit . . . Wade, The Understory Bard

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