How I Went From a Burned-Out Freelancer to a 6-Figure Ghostwriting Agency Owner in 8 Months
The step-by-step playbook to 5 figure months
In 2020, I accidentally became a freelancer.
The COVID pandemic hit.
Businesses were laying off employees all over the place.
I managed to survive the first two restructuring waves.
But deep down, I knew my fate was sealed.
I was going to be let go…
It was just a matter of when.
In anticipation, I started writing on Medium like a madman.
5–7 stories a week.
Every week.
For 5 straight months.
Many of my posts went viral.
All I’d do is share a link to them on LinkedIn (this was enough to blow up your following back).
The CEO of my company even reached out to — “KP, love that you’re keeping yourself productive.”
But a few weeks later, D-Day came.
HR booked a meeting on my calendar.
I knew exactly what it meant.
And I wasn’t disappointed.
In September 2020, I was informed I would be made redundant at the end of October.
They gave me a decent severance package… enough to last 3 months.
I figured I’d use that time to find another job.
But 3 days after my contract officially ended, I got a DM.
My first freelance offer.
No interview.
Paid work.
Remote.
It was a no-brainer.
And everything I was looking for — a chance to build a life on my own terms.
Or so I thought…
I was expecting freelancing to be as they showed me on Instagram…
On a beach somewhere in the Bahamas, laptop on my lap, sipping the chillest peach iced tea (because I don’t drink alcohol — never have).
But it was far from that…
I barely had time to look at my watch.
By the end of the year, I was juggling four clients.
The money was better than what I earned in my full-time job.
But my quality of life sucked.
At first, I told myself it was temporary.
But eventually, I burned out.
Completely.
I knew something had to change, but didn’t know what.
So I started studying people who were making $5,000+ per month writing online.
All I wanted was a way to earn more money without doing more.
That’s when it clicked…
The problem wasn’t freelancing.
It was the way I was structuring it.
Let me tell you the 3 biggest problems with freelancing:
1. The person giving you the work determines its value
Sure, there’s some wiggle room to negotiate your pay.
But there’s always a ceiling.
At some point, you’re priced out.
The client will just say, “That’s beyond our budget.”
In other words, “We don’t believe what you’re doing is worth that much. We’ll find someone cheaper.”
The price you command for the value you bring is constrained by the market.
You’re seen as an expense rather than an investment.
So it’s almost impossible to be paid what you’re worth.
2. You earn in direct proportion to your effort
It doesn’t matter how good you are at your craft…
Want to earn more?
You either work longer hours, raise your rates, or take on more clients.
Every single one of those levers has a ceiling.
Effort is not scalable.
At some point, you run out of hours or energy.
3. You’re stuck in survival mode
The combination of not being paid your worth and only earning in proportion to your effort keeps you trapped.
You can’t plan ahead because you’re too busy trying to stay afloat.
The constant pressure forces you to think small, act fast, and settle often.
For example, one client changed my fee from $0.35 per word to $300 per blog post, and I just nodded along — even though I knew it meant I was losing out on $312.50 on average per article.
Why? Because I needed the money.
Rather than complain, I just asked for more work.
So how did I fix it?
Leverage.
Leverage is what separates underpaid freelancers from those who are filling their bank accounts.
It’s the only way to make results grow faster than your effort.
And at its core, it’s extremely simple:
Build advantages around what you do to get a bigger result than you could with your own effort.
This is what turns a job into a business.
Instead of relying on your time and energy to make money, you create engines that multiply your output.
When I was stuck below $10K/month, I had zero leverage.
Just time and effort.
And my offer didn’t help either…
It wasn’t tied to revenue.
It made people feel good…
But didn’t make them money.
I was selling a low-ticket vitamin, so I had to work 10X harder to make $2K/month.
Then I made my first shift.
I repositioned into LinkedIn ghostwriting.
This got me to $4K/month.
Better… but still limited.
Because it was a “painkiller” offer.
You only need these when you’re sick.
People only bought when they were overwhelmed.
And when that pain disappeared… so did the need for me.
So I made another shift.
Same service.
Different positioning.
Instead of, “I’ll write your posts.”
It became, “I’ll help you grow your business with content.”
Now, my offer was tied to revenue.
Without my solution, their business dies.
High demand skill, with low supply.
This allowed me to increase my rates.
My next client paid me $4,400 upfront and then I put them on a $5,000 retainer to write their LinkedIn posts and emails.
I also went back to my old clients who were already on retainer and told them about the changes to my services and that I was hiking my rates — they complied.
Boom.
Now, I’m making $10K+/month from retainer clients.
And then I hit a next wall…
I was trapped in my business.
All my time went into delivery.
No time for growth.
No time for prospecting.
I used to wake up cold sweats thinking about how I’m ever going to be able earn enough to purchase French chateau and collection of Porsche cars.
Sure, I could’ve hired another writer to balance the workload.
But I knew I’d just end up in the same situation after onboarding a few more clients.
So instead, I documented every process in my business and handed off every low-impact task to a virtual assistant.
This freed up time to think.
To study.
To build something bigger.
That’s when I started building what I now call:
The Leverage OS.
A system designed to:
Position and package your skills
Break the link between time and your income
Remove you as the bottleneck in your business
This is exactly how I made $103,036.27 in 8 months last year.
Ever since I moved to Dubai, many of my friends have been reaching out to ask how I’ve been able to do what I do.
I give them this blueprint and they’re dumbfounded.
That’s when I realized other freelancers need this too.
So I’m considering turning this into a self-paced course.
But only if there’s real demand…
Here’s the deal:
If 50 people don’t buy…
This doesn’t get built.
Simple.
But if they do…
You’re locked in at $50 for life.
If we don’t hit the number, you get a full refund.
No risk.
Lock in your spot here: The Leverage OS
Thanks for reading.