Explore every episode of the podcast Deliberate Freelancer
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| #191: It’s Summer Hiatus Time! | 06 Jun 2024 | 00:08:19 | |
I will be on summer hiatus from June to September. This episode gives you a quick update about my summer plans and provides a sneak peek into what I’m looking forward to talking about in September.
Resources:
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| #190: Unpack and Improve Your Money Beliefs with Austin L. Church’s Book “Free Money” | 30 May 2024 | 00:54:45 | |
Today’s guest is Austin L. Church, who returns to the show to talk about his book “Free Money.” Austin lives in Knoxville, Tennessee. He helps e-commerce founders stand out online with their brand strategy. Lately, he’s been working as a fractional chief marketing officer, consulting for creator economy companies. He also coaches freelance creatives. Austin returned to the podcast to talk about his new book, “Free Money,” which I have read and highly recommend for all freelancers. In this episode, we talk about:
Resources:
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| #181: Successful Marketing Tactics from Deliberate Freelancer Listeners | 29 Feb 2024 | 00:23:30 | |
In today’s episode, I am turning the microphone over to some of you, the listeners. Last fall I asked listeners to share their successful marketing tactics that landed them new clients. Today, eight listeners share their marketing wins with you. While each unique to the freelancer, there are a few themes. Often, the win originated from something simple, something that might not even have felt like marketing … and yet it paid off. Building relationships — which I talk about all the time — is also a theme here, as are staying curious and always looking for the opportunities in front of you. Here are the eight listeners sharing their success stories:
Biz Bite: Do an energy audit The Bookshelf: “Northwoods” by Amy Pease Resources: Support Deliberate Freelancer at Buy Me a Coffee Episode #180 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Crush Your Fear of Self-Promotion and Get Clients Now, with C.J. Hayden Connect with Melanie on Threads @MelEdits_DC Connect with Melanie on LinkedIn | |||
| #98: Six-Figure Freelancing: The Benefits of Selling Strategy and Outcomes, with Austin Church | 06 May 2021 | 00:47:30 | |
Today’s guest is Austin Church from Knoxville, Tennessee. Austin helps e-commerce founders stand out online with their brand strategy. He also coaches freelance creatives.
After Austin got laid off in spring 2009, during the U.S. recession, he became a freelance copywriter. Does Austin consider himself an agency? Not exactly. He likes to pull in other creatives as necessary, and he serves as the project manager. He calls it the “antique shop” model — bigger antique shops don’t own all the antiques; they provide the space for other dealers, sell their products and earn a commission.
When he first started freelancing, Austin wasn’t great at keeping tabs on his income and expenses, and he didn’t save for or pay his quarterly taxes. When his accountant sister fired him as a client, it was a wakeup call. The book “Profit First” by Mike Michalowicz helped Austin figure out a better way to handle his money, mainly by getting several checking accounts and allocating each one toward certain things, like quarterly taxes.
Austin is also a fan of the book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. Clear says if you make habits obvious and easy, they’re more likely to stick. That resonated with Austin and helped him institute some better business and personal systems.
One system he highly recommends is to create email templates, especially when you’re asking clients for referrals. After a project goes well, at the end, when the client is happy, customize that referral template quickly and email it to your client.
Austin also recommends tracking every client and project lead imaginable and having a simple way to track them. Check in with that spreadsheet every week to see what leads you need to follow up on. It can take several “touches” or interactions with a potential client before you land a project, and without those multiple check-ins you could lose out on great projects and clients.
Austin says we have to put in a statistically significant number of activities. We often give up too soon. But, for example, if you are using Instagram to get clients, you need to have conversations with 100 people, not three.
Austin builds his business on selling strategy. He recognized that about 3 out of every 10 clients know exactly what they want, and he helps them with that. But most are unclear. For example, they might ask for a new website, but what they really need is an entire marketing strategy.
Austin started offering strategy, or strategic planning, which he now calls a “wayfinding workshop.” After talking with the client, he gets the sense of whether they’re lacking clarity and need strategic help. If they’re not willing to pay for that, it’s a red flag for him and isn’t a fit for him as a client.
He also sells “strategy retainers” where he meets with clients every two weeks to work on their strategy. With those packages, he’s not responsible for the implantation phase. He says most freelancers probably skew toward one or the other — they either like the strategy or the implementation. But going back and forth between the two with the same client can cause whiplash.
When Austin sees other freelancers struggling in their freelance business, their challenges often fall under one of the six 6 Ps: positioning, packaging, pricing, pipeline, psychology, process.
Biz Bites: Get a Text Expander App (atext) and Don’t Open Your Email Until 11 a.m.
Resources:
Austin’s website and his free freelance course: AustinLChurch.com
Episode #79 of Deliberate Freelancer: Six-Figure Freelancing: Consistently Sending LOIs and Using Upwork, with Laura Pennington Briggs
Episode #80 of Deliberate Freelancer: Six-Figure Freelancing: Writing B2B Tech Content, with Satta Sarmah Hightower
Episode #81 of Deliberate Freelancer: Six-Figure Freelancing: Focus on a Niche and Partner with Other Freelancers, with Lynne Testoni
Episode #82 of Deliberate Freelancer: Six-Figure Freelancing: Embracing an Entrepreneurial Mindset, with Gresham Harkless
Book “Profit First” by Mike Michalowicz
Book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear
Book “The Business of Expertise” by David C. Baker
Book “Give and Take” by Adam Grant
Book “Million Dollar Consulting” by Alan Weiss
Book “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” by Greg McKeown
“The Chef Show” on Netflix
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| #97: How Copywriting Can Grow Your Business, with Quiana Darden | 29 Apr 2021 | 00:28:54 | |
Today’s guest is Quiana Darden from Richmond, Virginia. She is a launch copywriter, which means she supports coaches and service providers who are launching or rebranding their high-ticket offers. She offers sales page copywriting, email marketing sequences, social media copy, landing pages and ad copy.
She started as an elementary school teacher, but later decided she wanted to home-school her daughter so she brainstormed on how she could work from home. She started as a virtual assistant and then a freelance writer focused on content marketing, but did some copywriting.
She was scared at first to jump into copywriting because there is an expectation of conversion. But a coach encouraged her to go all in. Zeroing in on her very specific niche in copywriting means she can demand higher rates.
Freelancers rely on their online presence to educate their audience about the services they provide. That means quality copywriting — a sales page, social media posts, landing pages.
Freelance writers often think they can write their own copy, but that could be a challenge. It might be difficult to write about yourself or you might have difficulty maintaining the same tone as your service (sales copy tone should match the tone of your blog, podcast, course, etc.). You may tend to write about your own services in a more stilted, robotic way. Or, writing your own copy often gets pushed at the bottom of your to-do list.
When you write copy, you shouldn’t focus solely on the products and services included in the offer. People buy the transformation, so you need to explain what they will gain by purchasing your offer.
Before you hire a copywriter, get clear on the details of the offer, the transformation it will provide, how you are different from your competitors, who your audience is and what their pain points are.
As you decide which project to outsource to a copywriter first, think about what has been on your to-do list for a while but also what is going to give you the most “bang for your buck.” That may mean an email marketing campaign to grow your email list. Or, maybe you need a new sales page because your current one isn’t converting into that many sales.
I also talked to Quiana about her business and her clients. She talks about demanding higher rates after thinking about the value she provides clients and the money they can earn based on her strong copywriting.
Quiana only offers one primary service right now. It’s a Launch Copy VIP Day package — with a turnaround time of 48 hours — and the price is listed on her website. She knows exactly how many of those she needs each month. And the quick turnaround time gives her the flexibility she needs to home-school her daughter.
Quiana shifted to this approach because she was tired of creating custom writing packages for every single client.
When she was a content marketing writer, Quiana found a lot of clients through cold emails or LinkedIn connections and through Facebook groups with business owners. She answered content marketing questions there, which showed she was an expert, and people reached out to hire her.
Now, she is finding her clients through Instagram, after her coach recommended that platform based on Quiana’s audience. Doing weekly live video on Instagram has helped increase her audience. She uses videos to answer common questions her audience asks and also shares her process as a copywriter working with her clients.
Biz Bite: Find Your Power Hours (the time you work best)
Resources:
Subscribe to the new Deliberate Freelancer newsletter at MelEdits.com/newsletter.
Please record a voice memo on your phone about your time tracking lessons and experiences. Email it to melanie@meledits.com for a future podcast episode.
Quiana’s website: The Write Choice
Episode 56 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Use Instagram to Grow Your Business, with Jessica Thiefels
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| REPLAY #22: How to Create a Better Work-Life Balance, with Laura Poole | 22 Apr 2021 | 00:41:31 | |
This is a rerelease of episode #22 from August 2019. I am rereleasing this as I catch up on all my work right now, which is ironic considering the name of this episode. Laura Poole offers great advice that we might all need right now about creating a work-life balance that is right for you. But beyond that, Laura is peppy and fun, so I think you’ll enjoy hearing from her.
Laura is a a freelance editor from Durham, N.C., who has been a freelancer for about 24 years, almost her entire career. She provides copyediting for scholarly nonfiction publishers and training for editors and freelancers. She is also a trained, certified life coach.
Biz Bite: Take a few moments of peaceful clarity and think about what you want more of in your life. What do you need to change to make that happen?
Resources: Laura’s book: “Juggling on a High Wire: The Art of Work-Life Balance When You’re Self-Employed”
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| #96: Improve Productivity: Stop Letting Email Rule Your Day | 15 Apr 2021 | 00:30:15 | |
On today’s show, I introduce you to Cal Newport’s new book, “A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload.”
First, I talk about his concept of the “hyperactive hive mind” and the problem with email and instant messaging tools like Slack. Then, I talk about his solution briefly. And then I share my own thoughts and tips for getting your email under control, as well as how to reduce the amount of email you get.
Newport points out that our current office environment was not planned so much as it just happened to all of us when email became commonplace. He calls the current workflow of many corporate offices the “hyperactive hive mind.” Freelancers can often push back at this, but we are a part of it because our clients are a part of it.
The constant need to respond to email prevents many of us from doing our actual work—cognitive work, which Newport calls “deep work.” Instead, many of us are constantly task-switching throughout the day. But our brains are not meant to task-switch. Try it—can you think of two separate things at exactly the same time? Nope.
First, I recommend you consider how you can set tougher “I’m checking email now” rules for yourself. How can you stop checking it so often?
Newport argues that tricks to help manage our email systems and clean up our email boxes are all just Band-aids on the problem of the hyperactive hive mind that our workforce lives in. I understand, but currently we are in that hive too, so we should figure out a better email solution.
Newport’s solution to this hive mind is to set up processes and project management systems instead, such as Microsoft Teams, Sharepoint, Asana, Basecamp, Trello and more. I love processes and project management tools and use them for several projects. But, these aren’t perfect. Email may simply be replaced by the chat function in Microsoft Teams, for example.
Newport talks about examining all your emails in one day. Take a look at all those emails going out and coming in and ask yourself what systems you could put in place to eliminate some of those emails. Are there processes that you could establish that would decrease or eliminate the need for some of those emails? I think this is a good practice and good place to start.
By creating checklists, forms, processes and systems, you can decrease your work time, improve your file keeping and reduce the risk of errors.
In addition, despite what Newport says, let’s figure out ways to better manage our email. First, analyze your email inbox. Does it stress you out? What don’t you like about it? What do you want to fix? Make a list of what you wish your email work life looked like.
Here are some potential solutions:
Stop aiming for inbox zero. Instead, pick a realistic number. Then, use folders to sort your emails. I have a folder for each client and then subfolders for each project. When I’ve dealt with the email in my inbox I immediately move it to the correct folder, primarily as an archive.
Delete hundreds or thousands of emails, even the old unopened ones. Are you really going to get to those? In Gmail, it is possible to do batch deletions, including by entire years.
Next, take the time to actually unsubscribe from newsletters. Don’t just delete them. If you don’t have time right now to unsubscribe, create an unsubscribe folder and move those email newsletters into that folder. Then, when you get some admin time, go through and unsubscribe one by one. Or, let your virtual assistant into your email system and have them do it for you.
You may want to create new folders that allow you to prioritize tasks, such as: Action needed today, Action needed this week, Action needed before the end of the month. The key, of course, is that you will go through those folders and reply. But, this makes it more manageable.
Gmail also now has a Snooze feature. If you see an email and know you have to deal with it that day or that week, but you don’t have the time right at that second, you can hit the Snooze feature. That way, it’ll pop up as a new email at the time of your choosing so that it won’t get lost in your inbox.
Use the Boomerang tool to schedule email replies during work hours.
Biz Bite: Move the beans over
The Bookshelf: “Sea Wife” by Amity Gaige
Resources:
Subscribe to the new Deliberate Freelancer newsletter at MelEdits.com/newsletter.
Please record a voice memo on your phone about your time tracking lessons and experiences. Email it to melanie@meledits.com for a future podcast episode.
Episode #94 of Deliberate Freelancer: My Time Tracking Audit for Q1—I Need a Better Schedule
Cal Newport’s new book, “A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload.”
Easy Ways to Delete Multiple Messages in Gmail
Snooze Gmail emails until later
Create rules to filter your emails
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| #95: How to Dream Bigger and Transform Your Freelance Business, with Cathy Wilkes | 08 Apr 2021 | 00:42:50 | |
Today’s guest is Cathy Wilkes, who coaches people through a transformation, helping them figure out what their true dreams and goals are and how to jump-start that transformation.
Previously, Cathy built and led high-performing sales teams in the financial services industry. She used her philosophy of building people up, and helping them find their greatness, to create a better sales team.
Even if you love your freelance business and where you are today, there are still so many good lessons in this episode about mindset, whether our thoughts are holding us back from trying new things — or, whether we’re letting other people’s beliefs and comments about us hold us back.
Cathy says, “I believe there are seeds of greatness in every human being. … When we look at ourselves in the mirror, most of the time we look at our faults. We look at what’s wrong. We’re talking negative. We’re thinking what could happen. We’re sitting in fear, doubt and worry.”
Worry is just a misuse of the imagination. We could easily use that imagination to create something wonderful in our lives.
Cathy sees several things that hold people back in their careers and businesses. One of those is when we ignore our internal wisdom and we consider other people’s opinions about us more important than our internal voice and where we want to go.
Melanie shares that oftentimes it’s more her internal voice pointing out all the barriers to her big idea that keeps her from doing it. Cathy says she thinks often of “paradigms,” which she defines as “mental programs stored in the subconscious mind.” They can work for us or against us, such as thinking patterns that shut us down.
Creatives in particular may be comparing our inside to somebody’s outside, comparing our thoughts and ideas with the success we see someone having — but those are the great qualities that they choose to present to the world and may be only of the final product they created. We don’t see all the work and struggle that went into it. But, we shut ourselves down before ever trying something similar.
Cathy points out that thoughts create feelings, feelings create actions, and actions create results. But it starts with how we think about ourselves.
What if you asked yourself, “What if I could …?” You would likely start to get excited about something, but then your pattern of thinking would start to think of all the barriers and shift to the negative: “But, how are you going to do that?”
Cathy uses the word “transformation,” rather than “change.” She uses a structured step-by-step process with clients to help them transform, which involves leaving behind what is not working for them and gaining new skills and new ways of thinking that will serve where they want to go.
Cathy talks about the difference between self-image — how we see ourselves — versus self-esteem — how we feel about ourselves. Self-image should be primary, and self-esteem, secondary. So, think about where you want to end up and what you want your life and/or business to look like, not “but how am I going to accomplish that?”
Think about the end, rather than the means. The end will draw you to that place. Take a step forward today.
Cathy breaks down goals into three levels: an A goal is something you know how to do; a B goal is something where you know how to get the resources to achieve it; and a C goal is something you would love but have no idea how to do right now. Are you setting C goals?
In your business and in your life, ask yourself: What would I love? Or answer “Wouldn’t it be great if …”
Life is risk. To make a leap in a new direction, you need to choose a different set of risks. Not taking a risk is a risk itself. Taking a risk is exploring your own potential.
Cathy reserves an hour every morning just to think about her business. She takes time to imagine and “live in possibility.”
Cathy grew up thinking failure is bad. But she taught her sons the opposite: Seek failure. Try new things. Fail often.
Failure gives us more freedom to try new things. And what did we learn from that failure?
Cathy and I talk about one of my favorite business topics: mindset. She says the first step is knowing what your mindset is. How do you think about your business? Are they positive or negative thoughts?
Biz Bite: Challenge the conventional approach.
Resources:
Cathy’s Facebook group: Amplified Living NOW — Blueprint for a full throttle life
Episode #3 of Deliberate Freelancer: Host a Solo Business Retreat
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| #94: My Time Tracking Audit for Q1—I Need a Better Schedule | 01 Apr 2021 | 00:25:19 | |
On today’s show, I’m doing an audit of my time tracking for the first quarter of the year. I used to do time tracking using pen and paper, mostly to keep me on task. That worked, but it didn’t allow me to easily track and analyze my data to improve areas of my freelance business.
I now use the Toggl app to track all of my work time. Today, I will talk about what I learned from time tracking the first quarter of 2021.
Time tracking and analyzing that data can help you figure out whether you’re pricing projects accurately and whether you should delegate or outsource parts of a project. If you track your time for a certain type of project, it can help you create a more accurate project rate for a similar type of project in the future. It can show me whether you underpriced a client and need to increase your rates for them the next time.
I worked, on average, 23 hours each week of 2021 so far, over about 4 ½ days a week. I’m definitely sitting at my desk more because I did not track my break time or social media time, which I plan to track in the second quarter.
That doesn’t sound like I work a lot, which is partly my goal. But I also struggle with the idea that I could do so much more, that I could make more money, that I could expand this podcast or other side projects.
Even though I’m a morning person and don’t do deep work in the afternoon, I also get really tired in the afternoon. I am not sleeping great and could possibly be dehydrated, so I’m going to work on those two things.
Plus, I would like to have a more regular schedule and have a bit more structure to my day.
Here’s what I want to do in quarter two to have a healthier day, feel less tired and create more of a structure: Track my social media time. Set a timer for 7 p.m. to remind me not to snack after that. Set my light alarm for 6 a.m. and take advantage of my morning peak productivity time and energy. Use a water reminder app to make sure I’m staying hydrated.
As for my client work, I learned a few good lessons from time tracking the first quarter. But, the results were mostly good news, confirming that I am charging appropriately. Listen to the episode for detailed information on a few projects, what I charged and what that earned me per hour of work.
Have you tried time tracking? If so, have you analyzed the data, which then helped you improve your business? I’d love to hear what lessons you have. I’d love to feature several of you on a future episode of Deliberate Freelancer! Email me at melanie@meledits.com.
Biz Bite: Find an expert.
The Bookshelf: “Writers & Lovers” by Lily King
Resources:
Subscribe to the new Deliberate Freelancer newsletter at MelEdits.com/newsletter.
Episode #5 of Deliberate Freelancer: Track Your Time for Better Efficiency
Episode #91 of Deliberate Freelancer: All Things Pricing: Project Rates, Day Rates, Retainers and More, with Jennifer Duann Fultz
From the Front Porch podcast—episode 11, Literary Therapy, Volume 6, mentions “Find an Expert”
Kendra Adachi and The Lazy Genius Way | |||
| #93: Renew Your Business Now for Post-Pandemic Life | 25 Mar 2021 | 00:32:05 | |
On today’s show, I want to talk about something super positive: post-pandemic life! Let’s look ahead and see where we want our business to be once lockdown is over.
Most of us were affected in our business lives in some way when the pandemic hit last year. We lost clients, or had to suddenly work from home 100% of the time, or had to rethink and change client projects. In-person everything was canceled.
Many of us worked hard last year, working long hours, to try to find new work. And when we did, some of us had a scarcity mindset and that “must work all the time” mentality because we weren’t sure if the projects and clients would keep coming. That was completely understandable last year, but we all know it’s not the way to run a business long term. So, if you haven’t recovered from that mentality yet, I am here to be your cheerleader—and guide—to help you think about how to refresh and renew your business as we head out of full lockdown.
Here are six questions I encourage you to ask yourself.
They revolve around what your business looks like right now versus what it looked like before the pandemic and what you want it to look like post-pandemic.
2: Do you like what you are doing? Evaluate the services you offer and whether you want to change those up.
Don’t feel obligated to work with those past clients if you don’t want to. You can say no. But even if you love them, take the time to check in with yourself and see if you need to change anything about the relationship first.
4: What would allow you to be pickier? Oftentimes, the answer is money. So, how can you make more money in less time? Would this involve creating a passive income stream?
5: Do you need to slow down work and take care of yourself? There will definitely be some aspects of our lives that will change soon. We should make time to decide how to treat ourselves and what we want this new life to look like.
Consider creating a Power Hour After list. A power hour is where you take time to blast through that annoying to-do list of chores and errands that you’ve been putting off. Well, there were a lot of things couldn’t be done during the pandemic. So, make a list now of all the things you need to get done, like doctor’s appointments, dry cleaning and dropping off donations.
And then, think of all the fun things you want to do too! (Bookstores, libraries, sporting events, family visits!)
Planning for these things now, while asking yourself these big questions and bettering your business, can lead to more financial freedom and hours in the day. Then, you can spend time with your loved ones and do the things you have missed so much this year.
6: Do you need to plan a new marketing strategy? Reevaluate your marketing and networking. Did you do some marketing efforts last year that really worked? Will they work post-pandemic? Or, are there new things you need to try to find more and/or better clients?
And think about in-person opportunities and how to prepare for those—maybe you need to create a better social media strategy, revamp your website or perfect your new elevator pitch.
So, to recap, what does your ideal business look like post lockdown? And how can you start planning now to make that happen?
Biz Bite: Simplify your kitchen time.
The Bookshelf: “The Sun Down Motel” by Simone St. James
Resources:
Subscribe to the new Deliberate Freelancer newsletter at MelEdits.com/newsletter.
Jennifer Goforth Gregory’s poll results: “Why the majority of writers in the FCMW Facebook Group made more in 2020 than 2019”
Episode #11 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Find the Right Anchor Clients
Episode #63 of Deliberate Freelancer: How I Got a PPP Loan as a Sole Proprietor talks about the Biz Bite “Create a Power Hour After List”
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| #92: Improve Client Relationships with Stellar Onboarding and Offboarding, with Kat Boogaard | 18 Mar 2021 | 00:34:12 | |
Today’s guest is Kat Boogaard. Kat is a full-time freelance writer in Wisconsin who provides blog content for software clients in the productivity, project management and business ownership spaces. Some of her past and current clients include Atlassian, Trello, QuickBooks and Loom. She also provides advice and resources for freelancers through her blog, weekly newsletter, private Facebook community and a shop filled with tools and templates.
To maintain strong relationships with clients, first and foremost, you have to deliver great work. But Kat also likes to keep in touch with clients. She sometimes does this outside of the work she’s providing them, so, for example, sending the client an article or tip she thinks would be helpful to them.
Moderation is key — keep in touch without feeling pesky. And don’t underestimate the power of a friendly check-in: “Hey, how have you been?” That outreach keeps you top of mind with clients.
Kat also keeps connected with clients on social media, although she doesn’t usually do hard sells there. She follows her editors and her brands on social media and sometimes “likes” or comments on their posts. Have organic conversations.
Kat has learned the value of refining her processes and taking ownership of the process. That means she sets out the plan and expectations and leads her clients through the process. That shows she knows what she’s doing and increases the trust between her and her client.
Kat thinks of “onboarding” as her client’s first steps with her, and this is where it’s important to make a great first impression. She has developed an onboarding process that includes a series of defined steps that include signing the contract, sharing any materials or tools either party needs, outlining the workflow, and informing the client about her invoice timeline and how she accepts payments.
Onboarding lays the groundwork so you can get into the creative collaborative work with the assurance that all the logistics are taken care of out of the way. On the flip side, “offboarding” is at the end of the project. Business owners tend not to focus on this side as much. You may think you say “thank you” and send the invoice, but there can be so much more to a successful offboarding process.
“Last impressions matter just as much as first impressions. Way too often I see freelancers wrap up projects with clients they loved working and they just turn in the assignment, send their invoice … and they just let that client ride off into the sunset.”
As you develop your onboarding and offboarding processes, reflect on previous client projects and think about what went well and what didn’t. Map out a flow of activities that need to be taken care of and put them in logical order. Processes aren’t set in stone, and there may be a trial-and-error period. Start small before you invest in automation tools or fancy forms.
Biz Bite: Batch your tasks.
Resources:
Subscribe to the new Deliberate Freelancer newsletter at MelEdits.com/newsletter.
Subscribe to Kat’s newsletter at KatBoogard.com.
#FreelanceChat happens every Thursday on Twitter at 12 p.m. E.S.T. (U.S.)
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| #91: All Things Pricing: Project Rates, Day Rates, Retainers and More, with Jennifer Duann Fultz | 11 Mar 2021 | 00:48:26 | |
Today’s guest is Jennifer Duann Fultz from Bloomington, Indiana. Jennifer is a freelance writer and business educator specializing in creating online courses for business owners who want to leverage their expertise through scalable information products. She is also the founder of Chief Executive Auntie, a blog and podcast where she helps Asian American and other BIPOC freelancers and creatives earn more money.
Jennifer thinks of money as a tool. It’s a proxy for time and expertise. Money is a way to achieve your goals and live out your values. Jennifer took a MoneyType assessment and discovered she is a “producer,” which means she likes to earn and save money. But her second type was “nurturer,” which shows that she likes to use money to help others. That helps as she thinks about things like charging nonprofits less and giving money to charity.
Jennifer takes several things into account as she considers whether to take on a project and how to price that project. First, she considers the time it will take and the “opportunity cost” — what she won’t be able to do, both in her business and personal life, if she takes on this project. She also considers the value she is providing to the client.
Jennifer generally recommends against hourly pricing because it punishes you for being good at what you do. If you work faster, you earn less money. And it doesn’t take into account the value you bring, nor all the time it took you to gain your expertise. It also turns you into just a commodity.
Jennifer has been aggressively tracking her time to determine how long certain types of projects take her, which helps her set better project rates and not undercharge. In determining a rate, she also considers the time it takes to create that initial proposal as well.
Jennifer jokingly recommends a “tortoise fee,” which is the opposite of a rush fee. It’s for those times when a client is slow to get you the content you need or respond to emails. If you haven’t been actively working on a project, it takes time and mental energy to get back up to speed. You should charge for that, if you can spot it ahead of time.
Jennifer always sleeps on a quote, instead of rushing to get the proposal out the door. She looks at it again with a fresh perspective the next day. She never lowers the price after sleeping on it, and it also gives her time to reconsider if she’ll resent anything about the project, including a price that is too low.
Jennifer talks through charging clients “day rates” and for “VIP days.” She also talks about monthly retainers, which can be great for stabilizing your income and workload. However, they can also reduce your flexibility for other projects.
A retainer can be based on a fixed amount of time or a fixed scope of work. Retainers are meant to be paid up front — they are paying you to keep that time available for them. Include in your retainer contract how much notice they have to give you before they cancel the contract.
Service packages are a set scope of work or deliverables. Jennifer has a “website in a day” package. To create a service package, first choose a specialty, then the final deliverable. Work backward to set up the scope of work that it would take to get to that deliverable.
Jennifer also has a project minimum — she won’t take on projects unless they earn her that set amount at minimum.
Biz Bite: You cannot fix what you don’t track.
Resources:
Download Jennifer’s Freelance Rate Calculator
Episode #66 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Price Your Projects
Episode #5 of Deliberate Freelancer: Track Your Time for Better Efficiency
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| REPLAY #73: We Must Fight Against the Anti-Freelance PRO Act, with Kim Kavin & Karon Warren | 03 Mar 2021 | 00:43:06 | |
This is a rerelease of episode #73, from September 2020, about the devastating effects the federal PRO Act would have on independent contractors in the U.S.
I am rereleasing this now because the House has announced its plans to vote on this act next week, the week of March 8. We need your help! We must all tell our House representative and our two senators the impact of the PRO Act on our careers. We must explain that we are not “gig workers,” that we are career professionals just like lawyers and accountants. Please tell your story about how you benefit by being an independent contractor.
The PRO Act will likely pass the Democratic House. But, in the 50-50 split Senate, there is hope, but we must get the word out and talk to our legislators and senators now.
This is a call to action!
Here is the edited version of the original show notes from September, with resources below: Today’s guest are Kim Kavin and Karon Warren, two longtime freelance writers who have built successful freelance businesses. Both are active in the fight against the national PRO Act. Kim was active fighting against a similar state bill in New Jersey, and Karon heads up the national efforts to defeat the PRO Act through the grassroots organization Fight for Freelancers. The PRO Act (Protecting the Right to Organize) was introduced in Congress in late 2019. The initial intent of the bill was to protect workers who are misclassified and give them the ability to join a union. However, the bill was amended to add a classification test taken directly from California’s disastrous anti-freelance bill (now law) known as AB5. That test is called the ABC Test and was written in the 1930s for factory workers. The way the ABC Test is currently written prohibits most independent contractors from working with clients. It doesn’t matter if you call yourself a freelancer, consultant, an agency, whatever — if you are a W9 independent contractor, this affects you. The rest of the PRO Act does not harm freelancers, so freelancers need to focus their efforts on getting the ABC Test part of the bill changed. The push for this bill is union funded, and Democrats—including President Joe Biden—support the bill. In California, legislators “weaponized” the ABC Test by deleting some of the original language. The ABC Test has three prongs (A, B, C) that independent contractors must pass in order to do business. It’s the B part that is the problem. B originally had two parts: Part 1 says you can’t be in the same line of business as the company that is paying you to do the work. But Part 2 negates Part 1 if you do all of your work off company premises. Most freelancers can pass Part 2. However, California deleted Part 2, leaving only the part that says you can’t be in the same line of business as the company paying you. That went into law in January 2020 in the state and destroyed careers of all types of independent contractors, who could no longer work for companies in their industry. This included respiratory therapists and other medical professionals who contract with various hospitals — they lost work when they were needed the most during the pandemic. Other careers and industries affected include journalists, content writers, editors, real estate appraisers, comedians, theater workers, symphonies and orchestras, truck drivers, translators and more. In fact, California has found more than 300 industries hurt by AB5. California freelancer writers managed to get an exemption in the law that capped their submissions to 35 a year for each client. The exemption partially helped some writers, but it also had a lot of problems — for example, content writers, blog writers and newspaper columnists could quickly and easily hit 35 submissions, ending their work for that year for that client. Forbes, Hearst and New York Times were among those who have stopped hiring California freelancers. In December 2019, the AB5 copycat bills started popping up in Democrat strongholds (blue states), including New York and New Jersey, where Kim lives. The bill was introduced in New Jersey with about six weeks to go in a lame duck session. New Jersey freelance writers organized quickly to educate lawmakers about the damage to freelance careers. In New Jersey, lawmakers seemed to pay attention when the writers explained that they were “career professionals,” who earn anywhere from $50 to $300 an hour from clients. They compared themselves to specialized accountants and attorneys. They told individual stories that showed that they were professionals, not victims. The movement created the Twitter hashtag #IRSNotABC, which represents that the IRS standard is a better standard than the ABC Test. We should advocate for the PRO Act and state copycat bills to change their language to follow the IRS standard, not the ABC Test. The IRS standard already exists. It was written in the 1980s and has been updated since. The standard has about 60 questions to evaluate the relationship between a person and a company. The IRS website says, “The general rule is that an individual is an independent contractor if the payer has the right to control or direct only the result of the work, not what will be done and how it will be done.” Unlike the B part of ABC, the IRS standard allows independent contractors to work in the same industry as their clients. Most legitimate independent contractors can pass the IRS standard. Laws already exist to protect exploited freelancers, and individuals can file a report with the IRS if they believe they have been exploited, like if they were hired as a “freelancer” but the company required them to work a full-time schedule and on the premises. That is not freelancing. The U.S. Department of Labor in both the Obama and Trump administrations prosecuted cases against companies who have misclassified employees. Some freelancers have said that the PRO Act or a state version doesn’t affect them for various reasons. Let’s go through some of these myths to debunk them and let independent contractors know they are in jeopardy: Myth 1: “I’m protected if I’m an LLC or S Corp.” Not true. While the test says “established business,” you must pass the B prong of the ABC Test to be able to work as an independent contractor. New Jersey advocates asked lawmakers to amend the bill to state that being an LLC or S Corp would exempt independent contractors from the law, but they would not add the language. Myth 2: “This is a partisan issue and those fighting against it are all Trump supporters or Republicans.” Not true. Karon explains that advocates are not taking political sides; they are talking about fixing this piece of legislation. It’s just a fact that Democrats, including Joe Biden, support the PRO Act and the ABC Test. Therefore, it’s critical to educate Democrat lawmakers about why the ABC Test is harmful to freelancers. Melanie’s opinion: If you are a Democrat like me and have Democrat representatives and senators, I think it’s even more critical we speak up because it’s the Democrats’ minds we have to change AND we are their constituents and members of their party. Both Democrats and Republicans can educate their Democratic lawmakers and also ensure their Republican lawmakers know about the PRO Act and will work to change it or vote against it. Myth 3: “Those vocal against the PRO Act are paid by anti-union operatives.” Not true. These are all independent contractors who have created grassroots organizations out of necessity to save their freelance careers. This myth makes it even more important that individual freelancers explain their business and their success to legislators so they can understand who we are. What You Can Do:
In September, the Freelancers Union (which is a nonprofit, not a union) held a webinar with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York who supports unions and the PRO Act. However, Schumer acknowledged in the webinar that he recognizes the problems AB5 caused in California and said he is willing to work with freelancers on the PRO Act. This was a huge acknowledgement. Let’s hold him to that promise. (See press release in resources below.) Resources: Share this new video from Fight for Freelancers USA explaining the problems with the PRO Act: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeSiRVOHeMc&feature=youtu.be www.fightforfreelancersusa.com Fight for Freelancers USA Facebook page — this is where you will find the most updated information and how to organize Fight for Freelances USA on Twitter Fight for Freelancers press release “US Senate Minority Leader Acknowledges Major Problem in PRO Act” Freelance Forward 2020 — Upwork’s latest research on freelancing (statistics to use) NPR article “Jobs in the Pandemic: More Are Freelance and May Stay That Way Forever” Contently article “Does the ABC Test Already Exist in Your State, and Could It Harm Your Career?” Wrapbook blog post “Employee or Contractor? The Complete List of Worker Classification Tests By State” IRS.gov’s information on independent contractors | |||
| #180: How to Crush Your Fear of Self-Promotion and Get Clients Now, with C.J. Hayden | 22 Feb 2024 | 00:39:48 | |
Today’s guest is business coach and author C.J. Hayden, who lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. C.J. Hayden is the author of seven books and hundreds of blog posts, articles, and courses on marketing, self-employment, and productivity. Her bestselling book “Get Clients Now! A 28-Day Marketing Program for Professionals, Consultants and Coaches” has become the marketing bible for thousands of self-employed professionals and freelancers. C.J. has been a business coach for several decades now, helping self-employed professionals and creatives thrive. Her newest book is “Overcoming the Fear of Self-Promotion.” Other books include “The One-Person Marketing Plan Workbook” and “50 Ways Coaches Can Change the World.” In this episode, we talk about:
Biz Bite: Shut Up & Write! (a community to help you get your writing done) Resources:
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| #90: Coping with One Year of COVID-19 Lockdown, with Therapist Emily Derouin | 25 Feb 2021 | 00:49:53 | |
Today’s guest is Emily Derouin, a licensed psychologist in Denver, Colorado. She works as a clinician and supervisor at a community mental health center, where she is a generalist, helping people with a wide variety of issues. She also works one day a week in private practice, where she specializes in eating disorders.
As we approach the one-year anniversary of the pandemic lockdown, Emily helps us figure out how to deal with our emotions around that. Milestones and anniversaries are difficult, partly because they remind us that time is passing. In the case of the pandemic, we’re reminded that not only is time passing, but it’s passing and we still can’t do a lot of the things that we want to do.
Grief has been a common emotion this past year. A lot of people think of grief in terms of a death, and maybe a breakup, but grief applies to any kind of loss—loss of routine, predictability.
A lot of us feel we should be used to this, the lockdown routine, by now. Emily jumped on Melanie’s use of the word “should,” saying “should” is not who we are. “Should” is an idealized version of ourselves or the situation. Stop telling yourself how you “should” feel or what you “should” do.
Emily gives validity to whatever we’re feeling: “There is no right way to feel. Whatever you are feeling right now is valid. You aren’t able to control what pops into your head or the emotions that you feel, and that’s OK.”
The pandemic over the past year has been a rollercoaster as COVID-19 numbers have gone up and down throughout the seasons. And, humans are not built for the long-term stress we’ve been forced to deal with, and our pandemic stress compounds—one thing on top of the other, on top of the other.
Some of the trends Emily has seen: a lot of anxiety early in the pandemic, along with novelty around it as we tried to figure out so many new things, which were a bit distracting from our anxiety. Many of us thought lockdown would only be a few weeks or a few months. Plus, summer was starting, allowing many people to be outside a lot.
Now, a year later, there’s more of a fatigue and depression than anxiety. People feel stuck: “We’re still doing this.” And it’s winter, so we feel more trapped and isolated. (In case you’re wondering, a study in Minneapolis showed that people can stay inside about a month before it starts to affect their mental health.)
Now, people are feeling new emotions related to the vaccine rollout, including anger at the messed-up, inequitable rollout and envy of those who’ve been vaccinated. Some people who got the vaccine may also feel guilt. Emily got vaccinated because she is a health care worker exposed to people with COVID-19, but she had some “weird feelings” about getting the vaccine before others because she’s young and healthy.
By 2022, as the U.S. hopefully beings to open up again, with crowds at sporting events, concerts and busy restaurants, people may feel new emotions, like disappointment or anxiety over being around too many people. We may also go through a grieving process, as some things will never go back to “normal.” We may also grieve the version of ourselves that we lost.
Emily uses acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)—learning how to make space for the things we are feeling, without getting rid of them, while also focusing on the things that make our life meaningful.
You don’t have to engage with your negative feelings. The more you engage with a negative feeling, the worse it feels. Instead, acknowledge your feeling without feeding into it. That’s easier said than done. But, it can be helpful to learn this process of acknowledging your feelings, without trying to get rid of the feelings.
It’s important to know what works for you when you’re feeling certain feelings. For example, when some people are anxious, they find it helpful to exercise, clean their house or play a video game. Know what works for you.
Emily suggests “grounding,” which is anything that helps you connect to the present moment. You can use the five senses to ground yourself: What are five things you can see? What are four things you can touch right now?
Anxiety doesn’t often live in the present. You’re often anxious about a past or future event or situation.
Doing a body scan can help you figure out how you are feeling. Start at your head and scan down. Perhaps you notice tightness in your shoulders or your jaw, which could single stress for you. Perhaps an upset stomach signals anxiety.
In loved ones, including children, be on the lookout for behavior change as a clue to emotions.
New resources, such as online therapy and low-cost therapy, are making it easier to connect with a therapist. Melanie saw a therapist virtually briefly in summer 2020 and found it helpful to learn tools to help her new anxiety but also to talk through her concerns with a nonjudgmental, objective person.
Self-care continues to be important. However, self-care doesn’t have to be a huge thing, which can feel overwhelming or like one more item on your to-do list that you don’t have time for. Self-care can mean getting outside, doing some exercise, eating healthy, getting more sleep.
It’s critical that you are taking care of yourself, that you are “filling your cup.”
Melanie encourages people—especially parents, especially moms—to let some things go on the to-do list. Or, as Emily put it “changing where the bar is.” Maybe you don’t fold the laundry, or clean as often as you want, or you don’t care if the kids don’t make their beds or they heat up a frozen pizza for dinner two nights in a row.
What will this long-term stress do to us? Too much stress can hurt our memory and concentration. Chronic stress—and high levels of cortisol—impacts the brain. Intense stress can kill brain cells. Genetics plays a role, but some people might be suffering from this long-term stress right now.
Resources:
Lower Cost resources for Therapy:
Your local Community Mental Health Center, which offers sliding fee scales if someone does not have insurance. It can be as low as $5 a session. Many of them are also taking private insurance now too and have lots of other services such as groups, psychiatrists, case managers and other great resources. Google the county you live in and “mental health.”
Online apps like TalkSpace and Better Help
National Crisis hotline 800-273-8255 While they often have “suicide” in the name, you don’t have to be suicidal to call. The national number will route you to your local call center.
Deliberate Freelancer #48: How to Cope with Coronavirus Anxiety, with Therapist Mira Dineen
Deliberate Freelancer #70: Techniques to Deal with Anxiety from My New Therapist
“Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers” by Robert Salposky
The Happiness Trap website—free resources online that Emily likes
Washington Post article “‘Oh, we’re still in this.’ The pandemic wall is here.”
AARP article “COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Comes With a Dose of Guilt and Envy” | |||
| #89: Being the Only Black Man at a TV News Station, with Mario Boone | 18 Feb 2021 | 00:41:19 | |
Today’s guest is Mario Boone, a science writer for a science organization in the Washington, D.C., area. In fall 2020, Mario gave a presentation as part of the Association Media & Publishing virtual annual conference. The session was about how to attract and embrace diverse employees. During Mario’s portion, he talked about what it was like to be the “only one”—in his case, the only Black man, often the only Black person, working at TV news stations in the U.S., which is how he started out his journalism career.
I thought it would be informative and important for Deliberate Freelancer listeners to hear what Mario had to say, and he graciously agreed to talk with me about his experience working in TV news—the racism, the microaggressions, the fact that, as a Black man, he was not allowed to make any mistakes. These are important conversations for all of us.
Before becoming a science writer, Mario worked in at least five TV newsrooms, working his way up from small to medium to large markets. He was often the only Black man at the news station, sometimes in the entire TV market, until he landed a job in the bigger market of Orlando, Florida, where there were other Black reporters.
He talks about the intense pressure of being a Black man at those stations, how much hasher he was judged compared to his white counterparts. “It is a like a pressure cooker, and it’s tough, and you have to have very thick skin to survive.”
Mario went to college at an HBCU—a historically Black college and university—which he says was like a “utopia” that doesn’t exist in the real world. There, nearly everyone was Black and was supporting him and wanting him to succeed.
Mario developed an ulcer because of the physical toll of the stress he faced in newsrooms. He also wasn’t making much money, so on top of the racism and pressure, he had to worry about paying bills.
By the time he got to the Orlando station, he was not the only Black journalist in the market, so he received support from other reporters. But the competition was extremely high and intense, with no room for error.
Mario shared one microaggression he faced as a Black man at every news station he worked at: A regular problem was photographers (cameramen) refusing to do the extra work and use the equipment to light Mario properly for TV cameras. He would complain and have to get management involved to get the photographers to light him properly. This led people to call him a “diva” and label him as a complainer.
As a general assignment reporter, Mario said he was given what he called the “Black beat,” the stories that happened in predominantly Black neighborhoods or were about Black History Month or Martin Luther King Jr. Day. “I’m not in a box; I’m not only capable of telling the stories that have to do with Black issues, and you shouldn’t want that. Everybody in a newsroom should be able to tell a story regardless of who the subject is.”
He believes that was a disservice to the entire newsroom because it did not allow diverse voices to cover a variety of issues and bring new angles and approaches to a story.
That also meant that Mario wasn’t given the city-wide stories about, for example, the mayor’s budget or other happenings in city hall. This limited him, not allowing him to be fully a part of the team.
Mario left TV after he felt like he accomplished everything he wanted to accomplish. He was ready to try something different. He is now working as a science writer for a science organization, and it’s the happiest he’s been professionally.
He wants to tell his story to help young Black reporters know about the realities of TV and what to expect. “I always feel if I can share my little bit of what I’ve experienced professionally, personally, and that helps a Black journalist, especially one who is just starting out, then I have an obligation to do that.”
Mario talks about how Black people are often put in a position of educating white America on what is acceptable in terms of race. “That is exhausting,” he says. Living every day in America as a Black man is exhausting enough, he says. Adding the so-called responsibility of educating white people about what they can say and do is too much.
It’s also lazy for white people to be let off the hook and not do the research themselves. Also, if they expand their pool of friends, they can learn by observing and listening to all different types of people.
This expectation from white people increased after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and the outpouring of Black Lives Matter protests. Mario wanted to ask “where have you been?” Racism has been going on for a long time, but some white people seemed to just discover it and had a lot of questions.
Mario is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), which believes strongly in helping mentor young Black journalists. It also advocates on behalf of Black journalists. For about seven years, Mario has been a volunteer instructor for the NABJ four-day multimedia journalism short course at North Carolina A&T State University campus in Greensboro, which immerses about 25 Black college journalists in a TV newsroom setting. It also provides students the opportunity to have frank conversations with professional Black journalists and get a “helping hand” about the politics of a newsroom, what they should wear, how to wear their hair, how to handle racism, and more. It’s one of Mario’s most rewarding experiences.
Resources: HBCU = Historically Black College and University
National Association of Black Journalists
NABJ four-day short course at North Carolina A&T State University
Mario on Twitter | |||
| A Short Message This Week | 11 Feb 2021 | 00:05:44 | |
There is no new episode of Deliberate Freelancer this week. However, I have several upcoming guest episodes that I’m excited about, so please listen to this week’s short message for a few teasers and announcements. I also encourage you to listen to last week’s episode—#88, Positioning Yourself as an Agency and Partnering with Other Freelancers, with Reggie Holmes—which has received a lot of great buzz. Please feel free to send me your freelance business topics and questions you’d like covered on the show and/or your guest recommendations (diversity is a plus). Email me at melanie@meledits.com or DM on Twitter @MelEdits. | |||
| #88: Positioning Yourself as an Agency and Partnering with Other Freelancers, with Reggie Holmes | 04 Feb 2021 | 00:34:09 | |
Today’s guest is Reggie Holmes, the owner and creative director of Enthuse Creative LLC, a branding and design firm based in Tysons, Virginia. Enthuse Creative is a strategic creative partner for businesses and organizations and specializes in brand-focused strategy consulting, brand design and brand management.
Reggie is also a graphic designer, but he’s a strategist first, with his clients and the projects he takes on.
Today, Reggie talks about how, even though he’s essentially a one-person business or a freelancer, he positions himself — and thinks like — an agency. He talks about how and why he embraced that mindset and what it allows him to do with his business.
Being a one-person agency means Reggie often works through partnering with other freelancers or one-person agencies. He sees these people as collaborators, not competitors. And this allows him to bid on larger projects, presenting as a team.
It’s also a mental thing — Reggie aspires to be a bigger agency one day and has found embracing that mindset now helps him move toward his goal.
In the past, at networking events, Reggie would introduce himself as a graphic designer. But a business coach taught him that that’s limiting, that he can do so much more for his clients. “Graphic designer” was “comfortable and convenient” but did not communicate the full scope of value he could bring to clients.
He knew he had to position himself mentally first, believing he was an agency, before he could go out and promote himself as an agency and a strategic creative partner.
It took Reggie awhile to realize there was enough opportunity for everybody — that freelancers should not look at each other as competitors. He began to think about partnerships and collaborations to provide services beyond the skills he personally could do. He now looks for ways to work with friends and colleagues in his freelance network.
Partnerships also are helpful during downturns in the economy, providing more opportunities for work and larger projects. In turn, he’s also creating opportunities for other people, which is important to him.
Reggie says he’s in the “people business, not the pixel business.” He has more opportunities because he builds relationships and has developed a network.
Don’t worry that you’re only one person but are using the corporate “we” as an agency. Speak for your business, with a business name, and what value you can bring.
Reggie also thinks about his company culture, even though it’s just one person (and an intern) right now. He is setting the foundation for his agency with employees down the road. Thinking about your company culture as a company of one helps you know who you want to work with, the type of work environment you want, the boundaries you need to set.
Reggie gets a lot of his work through referrals and LinkedIn outreach. He is strategic about his networking (virtual networking now) and the events he takes part in. You can’t be everywhere. He used to be “wide but not deep.” Now, he takes part in fewer events but does so consistently, thinking of networking more strategically. He is connected with a networking group that meets twice a month and also his local chamber of commerce, where he chairs the marketing committee.
Reggie says it’s also important to maintain connections, especially during the pandemic, with previous clients. He emails them to see if their needs are changing and if he can help with anything new.
Reggie has also been intentional about focusing on strategy, not just design, not only because it’s more lucrative but so he can be involved in the project earlier. (The graphic designer is often brought it after strategy has been decided.)
Position your business and price your projects based on the value you provide, not an hourly rate and not based on a rate sheet that someone else created.
Biz Bite: A project has to meet three criteria: I need to willing, able and available.
Resources:
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| #87: My Most Anticipated 2021 Books (and Fave 2020 Books) | 28 Jan 2021 | 00:35:39 | |
On today’s show, I quickly go over my top 10 favorite books of 2020—and the one I absolutely hated—before listing out my most anticipated books of 2021. The 2021 list will include several nonfiction books that could help you as you think about your freelance business.
For more in-depth descriptions and information on my top 10 list for 2020, read my blog post “The Best—and Worst—Books I Read in 2020.”
My Top 10 Books (listed in the order I read them) of 2020:
Honorable mention: My most hated book in 2020: “Leave the World Behind” by Rumaan Alam
My Most Anticipated Books of 2021
12 Fiction: “Hour of the Witch” by Chris Bohjalian — available April 20 in the U.S.
“The Four Winds” by Kristin Hannah — available February 2
“The Survivors” by Jane Harper — available February 2
“Malibu Rising” by Taylor Jenkins Reid — available June 1
“The Whispering House” by Elizabeth Brooks — available March 16
“The House on Vesper Sands” by Paraic O’Donnell — published January 12
“Before She Disappeared” by Lisa Gardner — published January 19
“What Comes After” by JoAnne Tompkins — available April 13
“My Year Abroad” by Chang-rae Lee — available February 2
“The Wife Upstairs” by Rachel Hawkins — published January 5
“Ring Shout” by P. Djèlí Clark — published October 13, 2020
“The Women in Black” by Madeleine St. John — paperback published February 11, 2020
9 Nonfiction: “A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload” by Cal Newport — available March 2
“Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind” by Dr. Judson Brewer — available March 9
“Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It” by Ethan Kross — published January 26
“Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting” by Lisa Genova — available March 23
“Unbound: A Woman's Guide to Power” by Kasia Urbaniak — available March 9
“Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019” edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain — available February 2
“The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power” by Deirdre Mask — paperback published January 26, 2021
“The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart” by Alicia Garza — published October 20, 2020
“Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America” by Maria Hinojosa — hardback published September 15, 2020; paperback available August 31, 2021
Biz Bite: No Talk Mondays
Resources:
MelEdits blog post “The Best—and Worst—Books I Read in 2020.”
Episode #51 of Deliberate Freelancer: Reading and Book Recommendations during Coronavirus
Episode #69 of Deliberate Freelancer: 9 Nonfiction Books that Improved My Freelance Business
Read in January 2021: “The Promised Land” by Barack Obama | |||
| #86: What I Wish for Your Freelance Business in 2021 | 21 Jan 2021 | 00:38:40 | |
Today, I want to hopefully motivate you, inspire you and encourage you to consider the aspects of your business that need improvement or to make a plan to work on things that you personally struggle with. This episode goes through seven areas that I would love for you to improve upon, if you haven’t already. They are:
This idea is what this podcast is based on. Think of yourself as a freelance business owner and all that that entails. Words matter, and the words you tell yourself and others can help to change your mindset.
The pandemic has been a hard year economically too, so raising rates for all clients might not be doable. But there are some clients who fared well, and it may be time to raise your rates. It’s certainly time to raise your rates for potential clients — they don’t know what your past rates were!
Also, if you have a secret hourly rate — which helps you determine project rates and/or is the amount you aim to earn every hour you are working for clients — I encourage you to raise it by at least $25 an hour.
And don't ask your client about raising your rates. Remember, you are a business owner and costs go up. So, you can send an email and say “I wanted to let you know that my rates are going up as of such and such a date. My new rate will be this.”
It’s important to have anchor clients, but when you commit too much time to an anchor client or become too comfortable with that gig and that income, it can hurt you if you lose that client. Ideally, I would consider not having one client that is more than 35% of your income.
When I talk about don’t put all your eggs in one basket, I also mean your services. This can mean your services and/or your industry. Do you need to expand your niche to have niches that are similar? Can you use your skills to add more services for clients?
Sometimes you do this without even thinking about it. You look at others in your field, even friends of yours who are freelancers, and see their amazing careers or their clients or the big achievements they’ve reached. I can fall prey to this just like anyone else.
We have to stop comparing ourselves to others. You are a unique individual, and your business is unique. You have different strengths and weaknesses and values and responsibilities and desires.
First, social media. What social media platforms are you on often and how do they make you feel? Are you happy when you scroll through Instagram and see what people are doing and read motivational quotes? Or does it make you feel lazy or like a failure or that you need to do more? Maybe it is time to get off Instagram! This goes for all social media platforms. Take a critical look at how your viewing and interaction with these platforms make you feel.
Another suggestion: Start a gratitude practice. Perhaps you want to start a gratitude journal to write down one to three simple things that you are thankful for that day. I embrace the word “savor” and try to remember to savor all the little things throughout the day.
Another way to express gratitude in your life is to acknowledge and thank other people. You can still do that as a freelancer. You can let your direct client know if a staff member is really helpful on something. Complimenting and acknowledging people is like volunteering; it makes you feel good to make other people feel good.
One more way to stop comparing yourself to others is to be alert for the word “should.” Anytime you say you “should” be doing something, catch yourself or have your partner or a friend call you out on it.
“Should” often comes with shame and guilt. It makes you feel bad and does little to improve any situation. So stop shoulding yourself.
Boundaries tell you and those around you what is acceptable, appropriate human behavior. They vary from person to person. Knowing what your boundaries are and setting them is critical to building healthy, respectful relationships in your life. So, please check out episode #45 of Deliberate Freelancer for tips on setting boundaries.
For many of us, 2020 blew up our financial goals and plans. Now that the dust has settled a bit, if you haven’t already, I highly encourage you in this first quarter of 2021 to get ahold of your finances. This could be a variety of things — it will be different for everyone,
If you need help with your finances, I highly recommend episode #28 of Deliberate Freelancer, with my guest Pam Capalad. Pam is a certified financial planner and a whiz when it comes to this stuff.
Plan time off now! Some freelancers tend to be bad in general about taking time off. My argument is always: If I’m going to take only 2-3 weeks of vacation a year or less, when I’m my own boss, than why am I my own boss? I shouldn’t treat myself worse than an employer would. Freelancing means freedom. If you don’t schedule vacations, staycations and days off, they often won’t happen.
Even if you can’t really go anywhere because of the pandemic, you can play a staycation or other days off.
I want all of you to get into a regular habit of planning and taking vacations — and DO NOT check email or do or check in on client work. That’s not a vacation.
It can be done. Remember, you’re your own boss. You tell your clients you’re going to be away. Depending on how regular the work is you may have to work ahead to get stuff done or hire a subcontractor to fill in. Or, take advantage of slow work times.
You can also create working vacations, like I do in Indiana for two weeks most summers. The freedom to work anywhere gives you the flexibility to go places and keep in touch without having to completely log off work.
Biz Bite: After/then habits
The Bookshelf: “Behold the Dreamers” by Imbolo Mbue
Resources
Episode #1 of Deliberate Freelancer: Change Your Mindset: You Own a Freelance Business
Episode #39 of Deliberate Freelancer: Raise Your Rates—Without Emotion
Episode #23 of Deliberate Freelancer: Five Questions to Evaluate and Diversify Your Services
Episode #45 of Deliberate Freelancer: You Need to Set Boundaries
Episode #28 of Deliberate Freelancer: Take Charge of Your Finances, with Pamela Capalad
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| #85: How and Why You Should Choose a Word of the Year | 14 Jan 2021 | 00:23:13 | |
New Year’s resolutions fail for a lot of reasons, but January can still be a good time to take a new look at your business and personal life. Instead of resolutions, I like to choose a word (or two, or three) of the year. It sets my theme for the year and reminds me to focus on something in particular all year long.
I was inspired to do this a few years ago by marketer Chris Brogan, who actually chooses three words every year. I started out with three words, but in 2019 I chose just one word: Leap. I wanted a visible reminder throughout the year to try new things outside my comfort zone. It reminded me that before I say no to something in my business, think big and truly consider leaping forward instead. It isn’t a coincidence that I started this podcast in 2019, finally taking the steps to make the leap after thinking about it for more than a year.
In 2020, I started with one word: Explore. I wanted to explore new directions and new projects in my business, as well as new places with my husband. Sadly, the pandemic halted any travel plans we had. But before the pandemic, as I considered my word “explore” I reread James Clear’s book “Atomic Habits” to start off my year right. In the book, he talks about the idea of “motion versus action.” Basically, sometimes we feel like we’re doing new things, working on projects, being productive, but everything we’re doing is just “motion.” Motion is the research, the planning, the preparation, but it’s not the action of actually doing something.
That really hit me, and I realized that I loved motion and was really good at it, but I needed something to push me to act. So, I added the word “act” to my word “explore” and made a sign that hung on my wall throughout 2020: Explore + Act.
While 2020 didn’t turn out like anyone had planned, I was able to do some exploring and acting in my business anyway, as I had to figure out how to pivot when the pandemic hit and I lost business.
For 2021, I chose the word: Simplicity.
Simplicity feels like meditation or curling up with a good book. It feels like relaxation and leaning into the slow life and the calm. And I really need that during the pandemic and the political upheaval in my country.
Simplicity in my business means focusing on the work and projects I love to do and going after that type of work. But, for me, 2021 does not feel like the “go big or go home” year. I want to take it easy, do the work I need to and keep it simple.
How will you choose your word of the year? Here’s what I recommend: Think briefly about what you want your year to look like. Set a timer for five minutes and write a bunch of words on a piece of paper. Narrow down your list and maybe look up the words in the dictionary and thesaurus.
Say each word out loud. How does each word make you feel? What does it make you think about? Then, choose your word of the year!
Biz Bite: Calendar blocking and batching
The Bookshelf: “The Stranger Diaries” by Elly Griffiths
Resources
Psychology Today article “Why New Year's Resolutions Fail”
My January 2020 blog post “Choose a Word of the Year”
Twitter thread about people’s words of the year
Chris Brogan’s three words for 2021, his words in past years, and tips for choosing your words
Hilary Sutton’s podcast Hustle & Grace
Episode #68 of Deliberate Freelancer: Yes, You Need to Build a Personal Brand, with Hilary Sutton
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| #84: My 2020 Business Audit & Lessons for 2021 | 07 Jan 2021 | 00:35:34 | |
Happy New Year! On today’s show I talk about where my head is at for 2021, which is essentially that I am not setting huge goals for myself this year. I’m trying to continue to give myself grace—not be so hard on myself—and to focus on my personal wellness, while maintaining a steady income.
I did an audit of my business in 2020, crunching the numbers and analyzing the data, and I share that data and the lessons I learned—and how that info may be able to help you—in today’s episode.
When the pandemic hit in March, I lost my primary anchor client (which is still “on hold”) and a few smaller assignments that were in the works. I had to immediately figure out how I was going to pay my bills and find new clients to recoup about 50% of my income. I quickly sent a mass email to my larger network—current clients, past clients, other freelancers and other colleagues—and let them know I was available for work and how I could help them.
I received a great response, which was so heartwarming. Some of that even led to new clients. From that one email, I earned $40,000 from new clients last year, and another $10,000 from current editors with new assignments.
You don’t have to be hit with a pandemic to send out an email like that. I’ve sent them out individually on a much smaller basis, telling clients and colleagues that I have availability coming up and listing the ways I can help.
With other work in 2020, I was able to make six figures again, but it was way less than I earned in 2019, even though I also received a $20,000 PPP loan.
This financial stress, along with the anxiety surrounding COVID-19, caused me to experience anxiety like I never had before. Initially, in March, I interviewed therapist Mira Dineen on the podcast to talk about dealing with that anxiety, which was a great episode (all links below). Soon after, I brought on my acupuncturist and friend Rachel Brumberger to talk about embracing self-care without the guilt, whether we’re in a pandemic or not.
But later that summer, with my newly discovered and self-diagnosed anxiety, I sought out therapy for the first time. My new therapist gave me some great tools to use when I was feeling anxious and also before I was feeling anxious. You can hear about those tools in episode #70.
Because of the outreach I did in March, by August I was back to my pre-pandemic income levels, without the big anchor client I had lost. But it wasn’t always steady work. September and November were lighter months, and I was constantly working to get new writing assignments, which I don’t do in a typical year. But one-off writing assignments and a few new anchor clients helped me pay the bills and get to six figures in 2020.
In this episode, I also break down the percentages of the type of work I do, the type of clients I work for and where that work came from (networking, referrals, social media, past job connections or LOIs).
A huge chunk of my work comes from past job connections and ongoing referrals, which was not a surprise to me. And most of my work comes from membership associations. The majority of my work is managing editing, followed by writing, then copy editing and proofreading. With the loss of my anchor client, for which I was a managing editor, I thought that percentage would decrease a lot. But in 2020, the income from managing editing was still 57% of my income, partly because I had that main anchor client from January to mid-March and because I gained a new anchor client by August.
Managing editing is my favorite type of work, and I’m trying to figure out how to increase it in 2021. I can’t manage a ton of magazines because it takes a lot of time, but if I’m able to gain more of these types of clients, I may be able to outsource pieces like some of the writing.
The second type of work I do is writing. Writing pays well, but I don’t want to write every day, all day. But new writing assignments helped me survive 2020 because it’s easier to get one-off assignments when I need them, as opposed to ongoing anchor clients. Plus, I write about health care, which came in handy last year.
Although I did time tracking in the fall and winter of 2020, I did it on paper primarily to keep me on task. But I had little interest in doing the math from all those scraps of paper, so I still don’t have as much data as I would like to show me how I am spending my time. Therefore, I started using the time tracking app Toggl in December and hope to use it all year so I can have better information on where my time is going.
If you haven’t already, I encourage you to crunch the numbers for 2020 and analyze what you liked doing, where the money came from and the type of clients you enjoy working for. Hopefully, those three areas will connect—or you can make a plan to figure out in 2021 how to work for the clients you love, doing the work you love, for the highest financial reward.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself:
What five things did you love doing in 2020? Write them down.
What five things in your business did you dislike or were frustrated or bored by?
Are there things you want to accomplish or achieve, but you’ve just felt stuck? How can you get unstuck from projects? Is 2021 the time or should that wait till after the pandemic? Can you take baby steps in 2021 to set you up for an amazing 2022?
Were there red flags with clients? Does that mean you need to deal with those issues or just fire that client? Does that bring up things you personally struggle with that you need to deal with?
Let me know what you learned from your own business audit and how that affects your plans for this year! Message me on Twitter @MelEdits or email me at melanie@meledits.com. I really love hearing from you.
Biz Bite: Use Toggl
The Bookshelf: “Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family” by Robert Kolker
Resources: Episode #3 of Deliberate Freelancer: Host a Solo Business Retreat
Episode #40 of Deliberate Freelancer: Reflect, Analyze and Plan Now for the New Year
Episode #53 of Deliberate Freelancer: Pivoting and Finding Resilience
Episode #48 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Cope with Coronavirus Anxiety, with Therapist Mira Dineen
Episode #52 of Deliberate Freelancer: Embracing Self-Care without Guilt, with Acupuncturist Rachel Brumberger
Episode #70 of Deliberate Freelancer: Techniques to Deal with Anxiety from My New Therapist
Episode #79 of Deliberate Freelancer: Six-Figure Freelancing: Consistently Sending LOIs and Using Upwork, with Laura Pennington Briggs
Episode #5 of Deliberate Freelancer: Track Your Time for Better Efficiency
Episode #26 of Deliberate Freelancer: Delegate, Automate and Terminate to Improve Your Business
Episode #13 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Set Better Goals for Your Business, with Andrena Sawyer
Episode #44 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Track and Reach Your Goals (creating S.M.A.R.T. goals)
The Writers’ Co-op podcast, December 7, 2020 episode: Our End-of-Year Biz Audit
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| A Short Holiday Message | 17 Dec 2020 | 00:03:43 | |
Deliberate Freelancer will be on a holiday hiatus until Thursday, January 7. Please feel free to send me your freelance business topics and questions you’d like covered on the show and/or your guest recommendations: melanie@meledits.com or DM me on Twitter @MelEdits. | |||
| #83: A Conversation about Practicing Anti-Racism in Freelancing, with Eva Jannotta | 10 Dec 2020 | 00:48:39 | |
Today’s guest is Eva Jannotta. Eva lives in Phoenix, Arizona, and helps bold women leaders defy the status quo, amplify their influence and expand their wealth and power. She does this through providing thought leadership strategy and advisory services as well as communications support. Her Big Hairy Audacious Goal is to end gender and racial discrimination.
Many white people in the U.S. grew up believing racism was overt, discriminatory behavior. In reality, it’s a power structure that was created that we all participate in, without our consent.
In her business, Eva is committed to representing diverse voices in the content and sources she curates and shares with her clients, as well as representing diversity in the images they use. She knows some white people are uncomfortable with the idea of “counting” the number of images or people, as if we’re filling a “quota.” However, “intention does not equal impact.” You need to track and measure how you’re doing compared to your intention. That’s how you measure progress and whether you’re adhering to your values.
For example, you can set a goal such as making sure that 50% of the content you share or curate (for you or your client) is created by people of color. Then, in a spreadsheet, you can add a column to track the race of the author (or interview source, etc.).
Earlier this year, Melanie did an audit of her Deliberate Freelancer podcast guests, and found only 20% diversity (as identified by race and LGBTQ) over about a year. She recommitted to increase the diversity of her guests and began to research and ask on social media for recommendations of diverse voices. Melanie wants experts who are people of color; she isn’t asking people of color to talk only about diversity and inclusion. She is focusing on the expertise they have as it relates to a freelance business.
Melanie is also on the board of Association Media & Publishing, and for the last several years she and others have used their power to push for diversity in content and among speakers. White people need to speak up about diversity, so it’s not left to people of color to bring up the topics of representation or diversity and inclusion every time.
Melanie also talks about how freelancers can share their products with underrepresented groups for free or at a discount. So, for example, give out scholarships to your freelance business course or give away copies of your book or e-book.
Mistakes white people make as they talk and learn about racism include defensiveness (“I didn’t mean that …”) and gaslighting (“I don’t think that’s what the person was really saying …”).
“Perfectionism is the ally’s enemy,” Eva says. We are going to have to make mistakes in order to learn and grow. Perfectionism can hold us back from taking action, from having conversations that may make us feel awkward, from asking questions.
Melanie talks about how she does not like what she perceives as “conflict,” and she’s very sensitive to having uncomfortable conversations. But when it comes to anti-racism work, she knows she has to have and push through uncomfortable conversations.
Our social circles tend to look a lot like us. In a freelance business, that might mean you hire subcontractors or a virtual assistant who are the same race and gender you are, instead of, as white people, looking for more diverse candidates. Eva recognized this problem when hiring for her business — asking for referrals from her network provided candidates with identities similar to Eva’s. Instead, she posted the position on social media and went through an application process. She developed internal criteria and interviewed people.
It does take some extra time to go outside your social circle or your professional network to look for diverse candidates or sources, but it’s important to avoid perpetuating a type of nepotism and only selecting people with identities that are similar to our own.
White freelancers also have a power in referrals. If we expand our network and our pool of various types of freelancers, when our clients or potential clients ask for recommendations for graphic designers, editors, photographers, marketers, writers, translators, etc., we are more able to share names of people from underrepresented groups.
Biz Bite: Create email templates
Resources:
Eva’s free course: The 5 Pillars of Magnetic Thought Leadership
James Pogue, of JP Enterprises: “The ‘Right’ Kind of Uncomfortable”
Organizer and Activist Leslie Mac
Follow Leslie Mac on Twitter
Episode #61 of Deliberate Freelancer: 6 Ways to Be an Ally with Your Freelance Business
How the concept of “race” began with enslaved Africans in the American colonies
103 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice
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| #179: My Best Books of 2023 | 27 Dec 2023 | 00:35:05 | |
As we wrap up 2023, please consider donating $25 to this podcast. With more than 175 episodes and almost five years of content, I’m sure you’ve received at least one nugget of information or tactic that has helped your business. If so, please consider donating at Buy Me a Coffee. It really helps offset the costs of producing this show. In today’s episode, I’m counting down my top 10 books of the year — 8 were published in 2023. I’ll start with a few of my reading statistics, share my top 10 and a few superlatives, and give you a heads-up about a few books coming out in 2024. Please enjoy, my fellow bookworms! And join us in the Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group, where we’ll be talking about our best and worst books of 2023! I don’t want to spoil where my top 10 books fell in the list, so the following books are ones I recommended during this episode, plus superlatives and upcoming releases. Books mentioned in this episode: Nonfiction: What the Dead Know: Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator by Barbara Butcher The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet by Jeff Goodell Fiction: The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin Go as a River by Shelley Read Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash The Night Shift by Alex Finlay Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay Falling by T.J. Newman The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James Superlatives: Most deserving of the hype: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin Least deserving of the hype: Happiness Falls by Angie Kim Hyped books that didn’t work for me and that I DNFed: Wellness by Nathan Hill; Shark Heart by Emily Habeck; Upgrade by Blake Crouch; The Quiet Tenant by Clemence Michallon; and In Memoriam by Alice Winn Most disappointing books: Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano and What Have We Done by Alex Finlay WORST book: Silver Alert by Lee Smith Most unputdownable and tense book: Drowning by T.J. Newman Romances that made me like romances: Nora Goes Off Script by Annabelle Monaghan; The Last Love Note by Emma Grey; Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley A 2023 book I still want to read: The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters My anticipated 2024 books: The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan, publishes January 2 No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall, publishes January 23 (mystery/thriller) Radiant Heat by Sarah-Jane Collins, publishes January 23 (for Jane Harper fans) The Women by Kristin Hannah, publishes February 6 (about Vietnam war) A Step Past Darkness by Vera Kurian, publishes February 20 (mystery/thriller) Murder Road by Simone St. James, publishes March 5 (mystery/ghost story) Still See You Everywhere by Lisa Gardner, publishes March 12 (Book 3 in Frankie Elkin mystery series) The Husbands by Holly Gramazio, publishes April 2 (rom-com with magical realism ) Safe and Sound by Laura McHugh, publishes April 23 (mystery/thriller) If Something Happens to Me by Alex Finlay, publishes May 28 (mystery/thriller) Resources: Support Deliberate Freelancer at Buy Me a Coffee My admin status is back! Join us in the Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group Episode #151 of Deliberate Freelancer: My Best Books of 2022 Episode #122 of Deliberate Freelancer: My Best Books of 2021 (and Anticipated 2022 Releases) Episode #87 of Deliberate Freelancer: My Most Anticipated 2021 Books (and Fave 2020 Books) Connect with Melanie on Threads @MelEdits_DC Connect with Melanie on LinkedIn | |||
| #82: Six-Figure Freelancing: Embracing an Entrepreneurial Mindset, with Gresham Harkless | 03 Dec 2020 | 00:41:06 | |
Today’s guest is Gresham Harkless, of Alexandria, Virginia. Gresham is the founder of CBNation and Blue 16 Media. CBNation is a business-to-business (B2B) brand. It helps people like you—CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners—with resources and increasing your visibility. It includes blogs under CEO Blog Nation, as well as podcasts and videos. Blue 16 Media is Gresham’s digital marketing agency. He provides digital marketing services, including web design and SEO, to small- and medium-sized businesses and organizations. Central to his marketing philosophy is: You are a media company. And that means you should be developing a marketing strategy to connect with your target and reach your goals. Gresham has spent the past eight years or so as an entrepreneur. One of the lessons he learned along the way—as he headed toward his six-figure goal—was that he could not do everything at the same time. Brimming with ideas, he realized he needed to focus on what could make the most impact on his business. He also learned that it’s important to be able to quickly pivot and adjust to situations, like the pandemic, to be a successful business owner. It’s helpful as a business owner to be comfortable trying new things, changing up your business, taking risks. Being resilient and having an entrepreneurial mindset is important during times of change and challenges. Gresham struggles with one of the things he loves the most: being able to focus, when he has a lot of ideas and things he wants to develop. He handles that by taking a new big idea and breaking it down into a smaller idea that is more doable with the time and energy he has. Gresham talks about not having a support system around him as he began to think about starting an entrepreneurial business. Sometimes loved ones won’t support your decision, and that can affect your confidence and self-worth. Connecting with an entrepreneurial community helped him realize his ideas and goals were possible. Gresham has become more of a morning person as he gets older. He starts with some kind of movement in the morning, before taking his dog for a walk. Then, he has breakfast and does some sort kind of journaling or other writing. Next, he spends about two hours on lead generation for his business. After that, he blocks off about 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. for client work and client meetings. He ends his work day at about 5 or 6 p.m.; pre-pandemic that meant heading to the gym after work. In the past, he would often work through lunch and not eat and also keep working late into the evening. He realized this was causing low energy and headaches, so he created the habit of going to the gym at the end of each work day. Lack of support played into Gresham’s self-worth, which led him to undercut his pricing. He recommends trying to find out what the average rates are in your industry, but he also encourages people to realize the value they bring to clients. Based on past salesperson experience, Gresham learned to provide three tiered project options to clients. He calls them Dominant (the above-and-beyond option), Competitive and Representative (the base option). That allowed him to take his biases out of what a potential client might choose and not undercut himself. He would sometimes be surprised at which clients picked the more expensive option, showing him that he might have been basing previous options and pricing on incorrect assumptions about a client. This process also allows clients to choose Competitive or Representative but to move up to the next option at a later point, which provides a way to bring in more income. In addition, Gresham points out that if every client chooses the Dominant option, you know you are pricing yourself too low. Gresham subcontracts with other independent contractors on a regular basis, not just project based. He tries to bring on experts in certain areas before he actually needs them. He will often start them on an internal project to test them out before they start on a client project. That allows him to learn about their work style and communication skills. Gresham requires a deposit upfront, after being burned a few times and not getting paid. Plus, a deposit shows that a client is serious about moving forward. “Let me think about it” without a deposit often strings you along. It’s also important to lay out the process for clients so they know what to expect from you and what the steps are throughout the project. Gresham’s ideal clients are those who aren’t taking advantage of digital products, so he often focuses on meeting people in-person (or via Zoom, during the pandemic). That has also meant joining networking groups. Gresham encourages entrepreneurs to follow their passions and keep moving forward and taking action. Biz Bite: Use project management software (Basecamp, Asana)
Resources: Gresham’s primary website (where you can find links to all of his services and resources). | |||
| #81: Six-Figure Freelancing: Focus on a Niche and Partner with Other Freelancers, with Lynne Testoni | 25 Nov 2020 | 00:48:01 | |
Today’s guest is Lynne Testoni, from Sydney, Australia. Lynne is an editor, journalist and content producer who’s worked in high-level editorial positions and as a freelancer for a range of corporate clients. She has been freelancing for only four years, and she specializes in a very specific niche of home design, interior design and food, writing both content marketing and journalism.
Lynne is also the co-host of the podcast The Content Byte, with Rachel Smith.
Lynne earned less than six figures as an employee and wanted to make sure she earned more as a freelancer. She hit the six-figure mark about a year and a half in. Each year she sets a financial goal and a “stretch goal,” and she has since hit her stretch goal every year.
She was inspired by Australian writer Lindy Alexander who writes The Freelancer’s Year blog and who made freelancing and earning six figures seem like achievable goals.
Lynne began to earn more money after she “niched down,” focusing on home interiors. People began to notice her work and came to her, rather than her needing to look for clients. She also was referred a lot by past clients. And because she was in demand for that particular niche, she was able to set her own rates.
Lynne’s advice: Never work for free (unless you’re volunteering your services for a charity you believe in). There are better ways to build a portfolio, and clients that ask you to work for free never end up paying you what you’re worth.
Lynne is generous with her time, mentoring and helping other writers, such as through her podcast, The Content Byte. Giving back, besides making you feel good, often leads to new work too.
Cash flow can be one of the biggest challenges as a freelancer. Try to build a nest egg as you go along so cash flow won’t be a problem down the road. You also have to remember to market all the time, even when you’re busy.
Lynne is a morning person who begins her day with a run or Pilates and then a walk with her dog. She does most of her best work before lunch and saves the afternoons for editing and administrative work.
Lynne thinks in “billable hours.” She works about 40 hours a week, but only about 20 are billable hours. The rest are for administrative tasks, marketing and similar tasks. Her salesman husband taught her a tactic in negotiation: It’s all about the silence. Whenever someone asks for your rate, tell them and then just stay quiet. It’s hard to do but powerful. They will usually agree or come back with a lower rate, but the negotiation has begun.
If a client wants to pay her below what she’s asking, she’ll begin to negotiate the scope of the project. She also knows her own internal rate and how fast she can work on a type of project.
Lynne outsources some things, like transcribing, which she hates to do herself. She also collaborates with photographers and stylists and pitches projects as a team. She usually serves as the project manager and submits one pitch and includes the photographer/stylist rate without a markup on their rate. But she may add a fee for her management of the project.
Require a 50% deposit upfront on projects when working with companies, especially for smaller companies. If they question paying your deposit, that’s a red flag, because you may have to chase down the deposit or the final payments. Lynne says that shows they don’t value your work or contribution.
Lynne is a fan of Facebook groups both for finding clients and building her freelance community. Other freelancers are colleagues, not competitors.
Biz Bite: Use a cloud-based invoicing system.
Resources:
Lynne’s podcast, The Content Byte
Lindy Alexander’s The Freelancer’s Year blog
Find a Finder’s Fee — the name of local Facebook groups that advertise freelance jobs; look for one in your area. | |||
| #80: Six-Figure Freelancing: Writing B2B Tech Content, with Satta Sarmah Hightower | 19 Nov 2020 | 00:31:28 | |
Today’s guest is Satta Sarmah Hightower. Satta is a journalist-turned-content marketer who lives in Boston. She produces content for agencies and brands in the industries of technology, health care IT and financial services. She previously worked for AOL and the Tribune Company and holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University and a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School.
Satta became a full-time freelancer in August 2014 after her second layoff in five years. She realized early on that she could make more money writing B2B content than doing only journalism. Then, she realized she was good at, and enjoyed, writing about B2B technology.
In 2016, Satta hit her goal to make six figures, during her second full year of freelancing. It had been a goal after she came close to that mark in 2015.
Satta believes it’s important to balance higher-earning client projects with your own passion projects, such as coaching, essay writing or podcasting. For Satta, that means developing her fiction writing by taking online fiction writing classes through GrubStreet in Boston.
Satta won’t work for free or do unpaid tests. In fact, she doesn’t like to do any test projects because her resume, clips and experience should be enough for a client to assess whether they want to work with her.
It’s difficult to earn six figures if you’re focused on lifestyle journalism and content (parenting, fashion, health and wellness). The niche is saturated with writers, which brings down the rates. You can still write on these topics, but Satta suggests mixing them in with other, higher-paying niches, such as technology, health care or financial services.
Be easy to work with. As someone who also assigns articles for her clients, Satta has come across too many freelancers who miss deadlines, are hard to reach and/or difficult to work with. Be collaborative with clients and communicate in advance if you run into challenges.
Satta struggles with turning off work at the end of the day. To be present with her young son, it helps her to physically separate herself from her workspace and her work tools. This means sometimes leaving her cellphone in a different room.
Satta is a very early morning person. She often starts her workday at 4:30 a.m. She does this partly to get her work done early so her husband can watch their son in the morning before she takes over in the afternoon. She also knows that she can write easily very early in the morning but struggles to write late at night.
She works about 5–6 hours a day and reserves Fridays for administrative work, recognizing that her brain is tired from writing by the end of the week. She also tries to reserve personal errands and chores for the start or end of the work day, not the middle of the day.
Satta doesn’t work for hourly rates because they penalize her for being efficient. She works for flat fees or retainer agreements. But she does have an “internal hourly rate” that she aims to earn. Tracking her hours and having an internal hourly rate helps her know how to price projects and know whether a proposed fee is fair for her.
Ongoing marketing is crucial to keep the work coming in. You can’t start marketing only when work dries up. Satta gets a lot of work through referrals, including from other freelancers. Working with agencies is helpful because one editor can refer you to other editors at the same company.
LinkedIn is also a good way to get clients. Keep your profile up to date with relevant keywords, and post your work on LinkedIn so potential clients can see that you know certain topics or have worked with certain clients.
Satta tried having a virtual assistant, but it took time to train the person, plus she realized she didn’t want to be anyone’s boss. She prefers the “consultant model,” in which she outsources tasks to third-party services like a transcription service or payroll provider.
Biz Bite: Use an email scheduling tool.
Resources: Book: “Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng ASJA (American Society of Journalists and Authors) Temi transcription service | |||
| #79: Six-Figure Freelancing: Consistently Sending LOIs and Using Upwork, with Laura Pennington Briggs | 12 Nov 2020 | 00:45:46 | |
Today’s guest is Laura Pennington Briggs. Laura is a teacher turned entrepreneur, two-time TEDx speaker and freelance writer. She’s the author of the award-winning “How to Start Your Own Freelance Writing Business” and the Amazon bestseller “Six-Figure Freelancer” and the founder of Operation Freelance. Laura started as a freelance writer and virtual assistant in 2012. Now, she continues to write but also does book marketing and book launch strategy for authors. She started out as a part-time freelancer. But after 18 months of freelancing—only six months of that as a full-time freelancer—she hit the six-figure mark. To get to that financial goal, Laura tracked her income and financial projections on a legal pad. Freelancers are often told not to go on Upwork, but Laura used Upwork to build and scale her business. In fact, she earned over $450,000 through the site over the years. But she points out that it’s important to have a strategy when you are using Upwork. When she was a new freelancer, she aimed to get Upwork jobs primarily for the feedback, not necessarily the fee, so that she could build good ratings on the site, opening the door to better and more work. She called these her “fast, cheap and simple” jobs to deliver the service easily and quickly to get a fast five-star review. She now has more than 200 positive ratings on Upwork, which lands her good work. You also have to know what the red flags are, such as clients with ridiculous expectations and a very long description for a simple, short project. Also, when clients tell you they’ve worked with lots of other freelancers before and it’s never worked out, that’s a red flag! You can also read other freelancers’ reviews of clients. Trust those reviews. The two ways that have worked best for Laura to find new clients have been Upwork and emailing cold letters of introduction (LOIs). Laura says if you send 50 LOIs and only one person responds, there’s something wrong with your LOI or your strategy. It’s important to take the time to research the client and explain why you like that company. Make the beginning of an LOI personal and hook the person. Don’t use a standard template for the entire LOI, which is a common mistake. Great tip: Laura emails an LOI, and then about 30 minutes later she connects with that person on LinkedIn saying, “Spoiler alert: I just pitched you via email.” Remember: Your perspective clients don’t really care about you, only that you’re qualified. So keep that part of your LOI to about two sentences and focus instead on how you can help them. Sending LOIs is also a numbers game—you need to send a lot to get responses. You cannot just send a 1–2 LOIs a week and expect to get a bunch of new clients. Laura recommends sending five pitches a week for three months, tracking them and seeing how people respond. Make it a weekly habit. Laura is a morning person. She works in batches based on the type of work, not the client. For example, she spends time on pitches for different clients during the same time slot, not focusing on all tasks for one client before moving on to another clients’ tasks. When it comes to pricing, Laura recommends newer freelancers take on smaller projects and try out their rate, rather than committing to a rate and a long-term contract. You should try out your pricing and make sure you feel comfortable with it. Experienced freelancers should examine their pricing every six months. Clients are paying not for your time, but your years of experience and expertise. Laura does not commit to pricing over the initial phone call. She tells potential clients she will get back to them by email. She may be nervous to quote over the phone, but she may also actually need the time to consider all aspects of the project and what it may truly cost and entail. Remember that you can negotiate everything, not just price. You can negotiate length, deadline, scope of work and the amount of communication (no phone calls, no strategy sessions unless they pay more). You can also give a discount if they sign a long-term contract. Laura advises that you have to get comfortable with calling the shots. You might feel like you’re pitching yourself as a freelancer to a client, but you have to believe that you’re a CEO too and you get to decide what your company policies and deal breakers are. Laura tried to be an agency owner for a year, outsourcing her writing to subcontractors. And she hated it. You do not have to outsource your client work if you don’t want to. Instead, if you want to scale, you can outsource certain pieces of the process, like marketing, administrative work, invoicing or LinkedIn outreach. Biz Bite: Hire a virtual assistant
Resources: Laura’s website: Better Biz Academy Laura’s book “The Six-Figure Freelancer” Laura’s podcast: Advanced Freelancing | |||
| REPLAY: #27: 10 Micro Habits to Improve Work-Life Clarity | 05 Nov 2020 | 00:20:57 | |
On today’s show I am going to outline 10 micro habits that you can consider implementing in your life to improve your work-life clarity. Building habits into my life helps me commit to work-life clarity. Micro habits are tiny, incremental things you can start to do that seem so incredibly easy that you might just continue to build them. And, if you find they are working for you in some way, they might grow into larger habits and eventually habits you don’t even think about. Not all of the micro habits I’m recommending are directly related to your business. Your life and your business are intertwined. Plus, I think we should all be focusing on our health. So, some of these will be healthy micro habits, and some will be things that will lift your energy and put a smile on your face. I’m not recommending you implement all 10 of these micro habits. It’s better if you start small and just try a few of them. Plus, some of these might not be relevant for your individual life or may not interest you. But I hope they will spark your own ideas of what micro habits you can try out. 1. Brush your teeth after dinner. I first heard about this micro habit as a recommendation on the Happier podcast with Gretchen Rubin. The idea is if you brush your teeth after dinner, you will be less likely to eat again that evening. 2. Set an alarm for bedtime. 3. Listen to a podcast in the morning. 4. Take a lunch break—and do it without your phone. 5. Play with your pets. 6. Learn something new in five minutes a day. 7. Text one important person in your life each week. 8. Drink one glass of water in the morning. 9. Meditate for one minute each day. 10. At the end of your work day, take 5 minutes to write down how you felt about the day. Biz Bite: Download Restaurant Apps The Bookshelf: “Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones” by James Clear Resources: Happier podcast with Gretchen Rubin Duolingo language app | |||
| #78: Building Your Community as a Newish Freelancer, with Alicia Chantal | 29 Oct 2020 | 00:38:32 | |
Today’s guest is Alicia Chantal, from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. She is an editing and writing consultant and the owner of Fresh Look Editing. Alicia is passionate about helping individuals and small businesses create messages that resonate with an audience. She specializes in non-fiction copy editing and proofreading and has a background in public relations.
A couple of cool projects Alicia has worked on lately include two articles that she wrote for the Alberta Cancer Foundation’s summer issue of Leap magazine. And she recently proofread the first book from Laberinto Press, which promotes diverse literature and world lit in translation. That book is “Beyond the Food Court,” an anthology that explores the intersection of cuisine, geography, politics and nostalgia.
In fact, she is the co-coordinator of the Edmonton chapter of Editors Canada, and she is a member of Editors Canada’s Task Force for Statement of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
Alicia began freelancing in 2019 after her father died and she realized life is too short and that she should be doing something she loves.
As a new freelancer, one of the biggest challenges was trying to find a consistent time to work at her desk. That only increased during the pandemic when all three of her sons were now at home after schools shut down in-person learning. This fall, her children are back in in-person school, which allows her to focus on her business during the day again.
Alicia loves having a career that lets her focus strictly on editing and writing. She has discovered that she loves getting to know clients, figuring out what they need and helping them put their best words forward.
Alicia is surprised she’s a freelancer. She never envisioned being her own boss and having a head for business (Melanie can relate!). She did as much research and planning as she could before she launched her business, researching how to set up a business in her province and tapping into local business resources.
She has a tendency to second-guess herself, but reaching out to other freelancers for advice and building her freelance network has been helpful. She also finds podcasts about freelancing helpful.
She took an editing certification course and, through that, she took advantage of a business course for freelancers. She said that solidified what direction she was heading in because she had to create a business plan and think through how she was going to find clients.
Alicia is involved in Editors Canada, similar to ACES–the Society for Editing in the U.S. She joined because she thought the organization would be great for both professional development and building her network.
She wanted to be a volunteer for Editors Canada, not just a regular member, to gain more editing knowledge and experience. Fellow editors there encouraged her to join Twitter to connect with editors across the world. That worked and was even more helpful when the pandemic lockdowns began and she couldn’t go to editing conferences and events.
She has found so many editing resources and a community on Twitter. (See Resources list below.)
Alicia joined Editors Canada’s Task Force for Statement of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). This is a newer task force that was started to provide recommendations to Editors Canada’s national executive council on ways the group can meaningfully implement the EDI statement, which was approved in 2019.
She and the other four task force members are currently researching what EDI barriers members may feel exist in the organization. She says you need evidence to make recommendations, not basing them on gut feelings or guesses or by talking to only one person of color.
Alicia says that while the membership of Editors Canada may not be that diverse, there are diverse editors who may be unknown to the organization.
Alicia is a Black woman and a first-generation Canadian and says that as a member of the BIPOC community, she believes that being able to make effective change starts at home. (BIPOC stands for Black, Indigenous, Person of Color.)
Freelancers can bring about change on issues of diversity and inclusion in their own industry and in their clients’ work. And you don’t have to be a writer or editor to make a difference through content. You can talk through these issues with your clients, such as whether you should capitalize black and/or white when talking about race.
Consider the images you and your clients use, such as on their website. Melanie talks about how one association did an audit of the diversity of their content, sources, writers and images. One thing they discovered is that a lot of stock art shows hands and those hands are almost always white. So, switching up stock photos to show other skin tones of hands is one “small” way to make a change.
As Alicia considers how her business can grow, she wants to post more often to her blog (a common tale!) to use it partly as a marketing tool. She is researching how to make her blog work better for her business.
She also wants to figure out how to automate more of her processes, such as accounting tasks.
If you’re considering becoming a freelancer or are fairly new to freelancing, Alicia recommends just diving in, not putting it off. That said, she doesn’t recommend saying yes to every project because that will lead to burnout. Also: reach out to others, learn from your successes and don’t be afraid to reach beyond your comfort zone.
Biz Bite: Make work fun.
Resources: Alicia’s website, Fresh Look Editing
Editors’ Association of Earth Facebook group
Outside the Book on Twitter: interviews editors of color and discusses how to increase the number of people of color in editing.
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| #77: 5 Ways to Make the Most Out of Virtual Conferences | 22 Oct 2020 | 00:16:48 | |
In episode #6 of Deliberate Freelancer I talked about how to make the most of conferences. Well, we’ve all had to pivot, and I cannot go to the 4–6 in-person conferences I typically go to each year. So, I’ve learned to embrace virtual conferences, which may be around until at least summer 2021. Here are a few tips to make the most of these events:
Block the time off on your calendar and don’t do other work during the event. It can be tough to sit in front of your computer all day, so have some fun with it. Buy some favorite snacks, put on a nice shirt — but with cozy sweatpants and slippers. And switch up your location. You don’t need to sit at your desk all day. You can sit outside if it’s nice or find a cozy spot in your house.
Look over the schedule and make note of what you want to attend. Because a lot of virtual conferences don’t have conference apps, I have been printing out the schedule to give myself a “program book” that I can mark up. It’s easier than toggling between tabs. Look at the schedule and know where the breaks are and how long they are. In person, you kind of go with the flow and it’s obvious when the breaks are, but it’s not as intuitive online. So, prepare ahead. Check out the conference social media. Is there a hashtag? Live tweeting is one of my favorite things to do at an in-person event, but it seems more important now because it connects me more to the other attendees. Anything you can do to improve the networking of a virtual conference is important. Ask on social media or in your network who else is attending. It can be fun to connect with friends at the special networking events or in the online networking rooms during the in-person event.
In a lot of virtual sessions, you are watching a recorded video, and you will likely be sent the link later. But we all know, when we sign up for something and are sent the link later, it’s less likely that we will actually make the time to watch the entire thing. Tell yourself these are not recordings and watch them in real time. This allows you to connect with other attendees in the live chat going on during the session. And you can usually send questions to the presenters, and there is often a short Q&A after the session.
The one thing that seems to be the hardest in these virtual environments is replacing the in-person networking. You aren’t going to just randomly meet people in line or because you sat next to them in a session. In person, I rarely go to happy hours or evening events unless I know a lot of other attendees. But in the virtual world, I have made myself go to every networking opportunity available during the virtual conferences. Some have been great; some have been not so great, but I am trying to connect with as many people as I can.
What do you hope to get out of this event? Is it just to be able to connect with other people who are not your family? Or, are you looking forward to learning new things through the sessions or by connecting with exhibitors? Set a couple of goals so you have a focus for the event. And then, the next day — put it on your calendar — recap for a few hours: What did you learn? What lessons do you want to implement? Who do you want to follow up with? What new products or services do you want to check out? Do this the day after or you will probably not do it. Biz Bite: Get a flu shot
The Bookshelf: The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Eat a Peach by David Chang A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
Resources: Episode #6 of Deliberate Freelancer: Make the Most of Conferences
Episode #24 of Deliberate Freelancer: Networking Tips, Especially as an Introvert
Episode #33 of Deliberate Freelancer: 5 Lessons for Freelance Business Owners from She Podcasts Conference
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| #76: Embrace These 7 Core Principles for a Successful Freelance Business | 15 Oct 2020 | 00:40:57 | |
On today’s show, I want to talk about some core principles you’ll need to run a successful freelance business — these are ideas I have come to believe strongly in over the past seven years: Core principle #1: You are a freelance business owner. Changing your mindset and truly believing you are a business owner and the boss of you helps both the way you look at yourself and the way others perceive you. Embracing that mindset creates a fundamental shift in how you think about being a freelancer. Tell yourself in everything that you do that you need to base your ideas, plans and actions on how a business owner or entrepreneur would think. That can mean creating a business plan, creating a marketing plan, setting financial and other goals, tracking your money, figuring out how to charge better, having the confidence to ask for more money and increase your rates, and setting boundaries, office hours and a work structure. Core principle #2: Take charge of your finances. You could be great at what you do. You may even be charging great rates and bringing in the cash. But if you aren’t handling and tracking your money well, you could be losing money and gaining stress. Do you have a yearly financial goal? Do you have monthly or weekly financial goals? Basically, do you have any idea how much money you are earning and how much you are spending? When you set your rates or a project fee, are you accounting for taxes or other expenses as part of the rate you set? Are you tracking monthly income versus expenses? Do you have a separate business account, not co-mingling your money with a personal account? I finally got a separate business account and a business-only credit card last year. I started using a 12-month cash flow projection spreadsheet in Excel. This was particularly helpful during the pandemic so I could see if I was earning enough to pay my bills. But that sheet also encouraged me because the numbers kept increasing over the summer as I kept striving to add more clients to those columns. By August, I could see that I had reached my pre-pandemic income level. And perhaps the most important part of taking charge of your finances: Are you setting aside the right portion of your income for taxes? In the United States, that’s about 28–30%. You have to tell yourself and truly believe that that percentage is not your money. It was never your money. Don’t ever think of it as a safety net or part of your savings. Once you believe that, set up a system to make that easier to follow. I have a separate online savings account that is only for taxes. I named it Pay My Taxes as a reminder not to touch it. At the end of each month, when I am paying my bills and invoicing my clients, I figure out my monthly income, minus expenses, and take 30% of that and transfer it to my tax account. Core principle #3: Be stubborn. Be confident. I know this is easier said than done for some people. This often comes down to personality, but I think we can continue to grow and learn and change and improve parts of ourselves that we struggle with. For example, I know that I do not like conflict, and I see the most basic disagreements and conversations as “conflict.” I know this is a challenge I struggle with, but being aware of it can be helpful so that I can work around it. So, I have created systems to boost my confidence. One way I do that is by emailing first instead of picking up the phone — at least for that initial conversation — when there is a disagreement, communication or misunderstanding. I have also come to understand that I suffer from impostor syndrome at times. I didn’t think I struggled with this until I had guest Kristen Hicks on episode #67 and she described the various aspects of impostor syndrome. I struggle sometimes with raising my rates or sticking to a project rate or scope creep. That falls under impostor syndrome too because deep down I’m really thinking, “Who am I to ask for this or to demand this?” To me, being stubborn means sticking with your principles. Know what your goals and your non-negotiables are in your business. Know the kind of ethical work and philosophy you want to work from. Stick to your principles and be stubborn. Don’t lower your rates. Don’t work for free. Don’t agree to scope creep that makes you uncomfortable. Be stubborn. Core principle #4: You have to embrace marketing. This is where reframing comes in handy because many of us don’t like the idea of marketing or networking. You’ve likely heard me say this a few times, but I have reframed marketing and networking into “relationship building.” You always have to market and network. That saved a lot of us in the pandemic when we lost clients. We reached out to our network and said we had availability. We increased marketing efforts that we had already tried. We weren’t starting from scratch. Marketing doesn’t have to mean ads and being on every social media platform. But I would encourage you to get to know fellow freelancers, perhaps in your local community or through Twitter or Instagram, or a Facebook group. And then do some sort of marketing by at least having a presence on 1–2 social media channels and keeping your website and/or a portfolio up to date. Core principle #5: You have to spend money to make money. This can be challenging, especially if you are new to freelancing. And I don’t want you to buy all the things when you start out. But, you will come to a point where you have a little bit of money or you need to take that next step or you’re struggling in an area you need help with, and you need to spend money to make money. I’ve often talked about the economic concept of “opportunity cost.” Opportunity cost is when you have a situation with more than one choice. You make a choice and go a particular route. The opportunity cost is the loss of what you did not gain by making the other choice. I often think of opportunity cost in terms of time. Time is very valuable to me. Money is important and necessary, but time is critical. My goal is to create an efficient freelance business that maximizes the amount of money I can earn in the smallest amount of time. You can consider this in both your business and personal life. So, for example, if you hire a virtual assistant (VA) to take care of some of your administrative work, you are gaining time to work on client projects. This earns you more money. Core principle #6: Keep it simple. This means both for the services and businesses you create, as well as the business systems and structure you set up for yourself. There is a temptation, especially early on in freelancing or at a moment when you are growing your business, to buy all the tools, download all the productivity apps, and use a bunch of fancy systems to do certain things for your business. I have certainly fallen into that trap, especially downloading a variety of apps that I thought would be helpful to structure my business. But, I realized that it is much more efficient and productive and less stressful to streamline my systems and structure. I use what works for me, not what every other freelancer says I have to have. Keep it simple and use what works for you. A good way to test this out is if you are feeling overwhelmed or feel like things are too busy or chaotic. Ask if you need all those tools. What really makes your day better and your business more efficient? Invest in those and ignore the rest. Core principle #7: You can’t work 24/7. You need to set the hours and structure that is best for your business, your productivity and your mental and physical health. The problem I see is freelancers who don’t know when to end their day and just keep on working until they suddenly realize it’s time to eat or their kids are home from school. It’s also not healthy to check email all night long. Even just a glance at work email can be stressful and put you back into work mode, instead of relaxing or spending time with your family. Everyone needs downtime, and it is not healthy to be on the clock 24/7. This goes for weekends also. I know freelancers who like to work weekends because there are no distractions from clients and they can get a lot more done. That is fine, except I would argue that you need two days off a week, no matter what those days are. That means no emails, no client work and no check-ins. And if you can put down your phone, and unplug completely, that’s even better and healthier for you, especially in these pandemic times. All of this means you have to set boundaries. This is easier to do once you truly embrace self-care and recognize that burnout is a real concern. Biz Bite: Outsource on a whim
The Bookshelf: “Eight Perfect Murders” by Peter Swanson
Resources: Episode #39 of Deliberate Freelancer: Raise Your Rates—Without Emotion
Episode #28 of Deliberate Freelancer: Take Charge of Your Finances, with Pamela Capalad
Episode #29 of Deliberate Freelancer: 3 Big Financial Changes I Made This Week
Episode #30 of Deliberate Freelancer: How a Virtual Assistant Can Help Your Business, with Cat DiStasio
Episode #67 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Fight Imposter Syndrome, with Kristen Hicks
Episode #68 of Deliberate Freelancer: Yes, You Need to Build a Personal Brand, with Hilary Sutton
Episode #62 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Prevent and Deal with Burnout, with Alan Heymann
Episode #45 of Deliberate Freelancer: You Need to Set Boundaries
Episode #19 of Deliberate Freelancer: Visualize Your Perfect Work Day—Then Create It
Episode #22 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Create a Better Work-Life Balance, with Laura Poole | |||
| #75: How to Embrace Mindfulness in Your Marketing, with Sarah DeGeorge | 08 Oct 2020 | 00:33:04 | |
Today’s guest is Sarah DeGeorge, a digital marketing specialist who lives in Philadelphia. Sarah works in paid and organic marketing, public relations, and social media marketing and management. She helps small- to mid-size businesses find their authentic voice for their audience.
Sarah started freelancing as a freelance writer while still in college. As she was nearing graduation, she got sick and had trouble doing in-person job interviews, so she turned to freelancing as she started to feel better. She slowly built up her business and learned new skills. Freelancing allowed her to deal with her illness (she feels great today) at the time, which would have been more difficult with a regular 9-5 employee job.
Sarah recommends we consider “mindfulness in marketing” as we look to grow our freelance businesses. She points out that a lot of marketing looks at past performance or future plans—but not the present time. Being mindful means being in the present. So, consider how your marketing is working and how you feel about your marketing right now in the present. (You can use this same idea with your clients when you work on marketing-related projects with them.)
Sarah breaks mindfulness marketing into three pillars:
This type of analysis will help you figure out what marketing efforts you may need to stop, cut back on or ramp up and what new things you could try.
Sarah came up with the mindfulness in marketing concept during a serious period of burnout. We need to take that moment to check in with ourselves and not just go full-speed ahead all the time.
You do not have to be on all the social media platforms. Focus on what you like and where your clients are. If those two things don’t overlap, perhaps hire a virtual assistant to help you market on a platform where your clients are but that you don’t enjoy as much and aren’t as good at because of that.
Once you’ve analyzed those three pillars and connected the dots of what is and isn’t working, brainstorm how you can make the efforts that are working more robust. Consider how you can pivot and migrate certain efforts, such as changing from a blog to a video, moving from Facebook to Instagram.
Video can be a fun new marketing trend to try out. It doesn’t have to be your own face on video. You can create a short instructional video with slides, based on a blog that you already wrote, and post that on YouTube. YouTube is more of a search engine than a social media platform. So, making a searchable video on YouTube that directs back to your website can be an effective marketing strategy.
A podcast is another good way to market yourself and share your knowledge with your clients.
Biz Bite: Use pen and paper.
Resources:
Episode #14 of Deliberate Freelancer: Freelancing with a Chronic Illness, with Christy Batta
Episode #67 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Fight Imposter Syndrome, with Kristen Hicks
Episode #62 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Prevent and Deal with Burnout, with Alan Heymann
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| #74: How to Get Paid on Time & Charge Late Fees, with Wudan Yan | 01 Oct 2020 | 00:35:49 | |
Today’s guest is Wudan Yan, an independent journalist in Seattle, who covers science and society. She has written for National Geographic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Elemental, Harper’s and MIT Tech Review. Wudan also writes for brands and is a fact-checker. She is the co-host of The Writers’ Co-op, a business podcast for freelance writers. Her co-host is Jenni Gritters, also based in Seattle, and the two describe their podcast as an “audio handbook for freelance creatives.” In summer 2019, Wudan self-published an article on Medium called “I was owed about $5,000 from late-paying publications. I tried to hold them all accountable. Here’s what happened.” The article hit a nerve with freelancers and went viral. Wudan wrote the article after she returned from a two-week vacation and none of the $5,000 she was owed by clients was in her bank account. She freaked out. But she was also fed up with clients’ excuses about not paying on time. She had read a social media post from a photojournalist who added a 20% late fee to client invoices. Wudan messaged her to learn more and then began researching laws around late fees. She learned that in 2017 New York City passed the Freelance Isn’t Free Law, which says freelancers must be paid within 30 days of invoicing. It also says that freelancers are entitled to double damages if payment is late. It only covers freelancers who live in the city or clients based in the city. Although Wudan doesn’t live in New York City, one of her clients is based there, which meant she was covered by the law. Wudan decided to go for a 10% late fee, not double damages, since this was her first time fighting this. She also sought the help of a lawyer. All three clients had different responses. One major media company kept replying that they don’t pay late fees, but Wudan kept sending her updated invoice. They finally agreed to pay a late fee simply to resolve the issue “amicably.” A second client said essentially, “We paid you for something else on time, so we won’t pay a late fee for this,” which made no sense. The third publisher said the issue was pushed to the CEO of the company and he didn’t like the situation, and the company said if Wudan charged a late fee, they would never work with her again. She eventually received late fees from all three clients, but she has never worked with any of the three again. Wudan says she became a journalist, in large part, to hold people accountable. And that goes with her own business. Calling out the publishing industry’s poor practice of late payments was her way of holding the industry accountable. She also wanted other freelancers to know that charging late fees was possible. Wudan wanted to “flip a switch” in freelancers’ minds from being passive and just waiting on late payments to acting like a business and going after late payments. After Wudan wrote the piece calling out the publishing industry, she stopped working with clients who paid her late in the past. She also gained more confidence to charge late fees. Wudan advises freelancers to try to get a late fee built into their contract. Ideally, add in: “Client will pay the contractor 30 days after receipt of invoice. Invoices paid after this timeframe are subject to a XX% late fee.” Specify that the late fee is compounded monthly. You may want to choose a 10% or 20% late fee. While publishers don’t like the late fee clause, in Wudan’s experience they often agree to that first part: “Client will pay the contractor 30 days after receipt of invoice.” Even if that’s the only part they will agree to, she still includes on her invoices: “Client will pay the contractor 30 days after receipt of invoice. Invoices paid after this timeframe are subject to a XX% compounded monthly late fee.” If they reply that they only pay 45–60 days after receipt, then Wudan builds interest into her fee. Wudan uses Google Sheets to track when she filed her invoices. She hired an assistant, who reviews the invoice sheet at the end of every week. If an invoice is almost due or past due, she writes Wudan an email with that list of clients. Wudan set up a separate “bookkeeper” email, and her assistant sends clients notices about late payment through that, which shows more of an appearance of a business. You can create this separate email address yourself, even if you don’t have an assistant. Chasing down money is emotional labor. Wudan hired an assistant to chase down payments so that she wouldn’t be angry every time she had to write those emails. Wudan usually goes straight to accounts payable and doesn’t get her editor or direct client involved. Wudan’s final advice: Freelancers need to push for late fees and on-time payments. Clients often tell Wudan no one has ever asked them for a late fee before, which is indicative of freelancers being more passive when it comes to payment. Maintain good relationships with your editors and clients, and they may be able to change the system from the inside and advocate for freelancers. You can also refuse to do more work until payments are caught up.
Biz Bite: Calendly app
Resources: Wudan’s article on late payments (originally published on Medium): “I was owed about $5,000 from late-paying publications. I tried to hold them all accountable. Here’s what happened.” Freelance Isn’t Free Act in New York City Wudan’s podcast, The Writers’ Co-op | |||
| #178: My 2023 Recap and 2024 Goals | 21 Dec 2023 | 00:25:38 | |
It’s the end of the year! On today’s show, I give a recap of my fourth quarter (hint: things are looking up!) and then a recap of my entire 2023. What goals are you setting for yourself? Do you set an annual income goal or a word of the year? What are you most excited about for 2024 in your business? And what do you need to work on? Join me and fellow listeners in the Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group to share your plans and ideas with each other! This is the last business-focused episode of 2023. Next week will be my Top 10 books of the year for all you bookworms. I’ll also give a few superlative awards to books I read this year and list some fiction and business books coming out in 2024. Then, I’ll be on hiatus in January. I plan to return with new episodes in February. Here’s what I share with you in this episode:
Biz Bite: Plan now for future you The Bookshelf: “No One Can Know” by Kate Alice Marshall Resources:
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| #73: We Must Fight Against the Anti-Freelance PRO Act, with Kim Kavin & Karon Warren | 24 Sep 2020 | 00:38:50 | |
Today’s guest are Kim Kavin and Karon Warren, two longtime freelance writers who have built successful freelance businesses. Both are active in the fight against the national PRO Act. Kim was active fighting against a similar state bill in New Jersey, and Karon heads up the national efforts to defeat the PRO Act through the grassroots organization Fight for Freelancers. The PRO Act (Protecting the Right to Organize) was introduced in Congress in late 2019. The initial intent of the bill was to protect workers who are misclassified and give them the ability to join a union. However, the bill was amended to add a classification test taken directly from California’s disastrous anti-freelance bill (now law) known as AB5. That test is called the ABC Test and was written in the 1930s for factory workers. The way the ABC Test is currently written prohibits most independent contractors from working with clients. It doesn’t matter if you call yourself a freelancer, consultant, an agency, whatever — if you are a W9 independent contractor, this affects you. The rest of the PRO Act does not harm freelancers, so freelancers need to focus their efforts on getting the ABC Test part of the bill changed. The push for this bill is union funded, and Democrats —including presidential candidate Joe Biden — support the bill. Kim was involved in fighting a copycat bill in New Jersey. A co-sponsor of the bill told her if she wanted to make changes she needed to negotiate directly with the AFL-CIO. That shows who is controlling and pushing these bills. In California, legislators “weaponized” the ABC Test by deleting some of the original language. The ABC Test has three prongs (A, B, C) that independent contractors must pass in order to do business. It’s the B part that is the problem. B originally had two parts: Part 1 says you can’t be in the same line of business as the company that is paying you to do the work. But Part 2 negates Part 1 if you do all of your work off company premises. Most freelancers can pass Part 2. However, California deleted Part 2, leaving only the part that says you can’t be in the same line of business as the company paying you. That went into law in January 2020 in the state and destroyed careers of all types of independent contractors, who could no longer work for companies in their industry. This included respiratory therapists and other medical professionals who contract with various hospitals — they lost work when they were needed the most during the pandemic. Other careers and industries affected include journalists, content writers, editors, real estate appraisers, comedians, theater workers, symphonies and orchestras, truck drivers, translators and more. In fact, California has found more than 300 industries hurt by AB5. California freelancer writers managed to get an exemption in the law that capped their submissions to 35 a year for each client. The exemption partially helped some writers, but it also had a lot of problems — for example, content writers, blog writers and newspaper columnists could quickly and easily hit 35 submissions, ending their work for that year for that client. Forbes, Hearst and New York Times were among those who have stopped hiring California freelancers. In December 2019, the AB5 copycat bills started popping up in Democrat strongholds (blue states), including New York and New Jersey, where Kim lives. The bill was introduced in New Jersey with about six weeks to go in a lame duck session. New Jersey freelance writers organized quickly to educate lawmakers about the damage to freelance careers. In New Jersey, lawmakers seemed to pay attention when the writers explained that they were “career professionals,” who earn anywhere from $50 to $300 an hour from clients. They compared themselves to specialized accountants and attorneys. They told individual stories that showed that they were professionals, not victims. At one hearing, a lawmaker said they were going to protect the freelancers from “nefarious” companies. Kim yelled at a New Jersey senator to stop calling her clients nefarious and exploitative. The pandemic has helped lawmakers understand how many independent contractors are out there because we got attention when we became eligible for unemployment benefits and the Paycheck Protection Program. When AB5 went into law in California, the American Society of Journalists and Authors (a membership organization of freelance writers, of which Kim, Karon and Melanie are members) filed a lawsuit with the National Press Photographers Association challenging the new law on First Amendment and other Constitutional grounds. Karon got involved at that part, even though she’s in Georgia, a red state where a copycat bill does not exist. But Karon knew she needed to fight against the federal PRO Act, which would affect independent contractors in all 50 states. If the PRO Act passes, companies will begin outsourcing work to people outside of the U.S. The movement created the Twitter hashtag #IRSNotABC, which represents that the IRS standard is a better standard than the ABC Test. We should advocate for the PRO Act and state copycat bills to change their language to follow the IRS standard, not the ABC Test. The IRS standard already exists. It was written in the 1980s and has been updated since. The standard has about 60 questions to evaluate the relationship between a person and a company. The IRS website says, “The general rule is that an individual is an independent contractor if the payer has the right to control or direct only the result of the work, not what will be done and how it will be done.” Unlike the B part of ABC, the IRS standard allows independent contractors to work in the same industry as their clients. Most legitimate independent contractors can pass the IRS standard. Laws already exist to protect exploited freelancers, and individuals can file a report with the IRS if they believe they have been exploited, like if they were hired as a “freelancer” but the company required them to work a full-time schedule and on the premises. That is not freelancing. The U.S. Department of Labor in both the Obama and Trump administrations have prosecuted cases against companies who have misclassified employees. Some freelancers have said that the PRO Act or a state version doesn’t affect them for various reasons. Let’s go through some of these myths to debunk them and let independent contractors know they are in jeopardy:
Myth 1: “I’m protected if I’m an LLC or S Corp.” Not true. While the test says “established business,” you must pass the B prong of the ABC Test to be able to work as an independent contractor. New Jersey advocates asked lawmakers to amend the bill to state that being an LLC or S Corp would exempt independent contractors from the law, but they would not add the language.
Myth 2: “This is a partisan issue and those fighting against it are all Trump supporters or Republicans.” Not true. Karon explains that advocates are not taking political sides; they are talking about fixing this piece of legislation. It’s just a fact that Democrats, including presidential candidate Joe Biden, support the PRO Act and the ABC Test. Therefore, it’s critical to educate Democrat lawmakers about why the ABC Test is harmful to freelancers.
Melanie’s opinion: If you are a Democrat like me and have Democrat representatives and senators, I think it’s even more critical we speak up because it’s the Democrats’ minds we have to change AND we are their constituents and members of their party. Both Democrats and Republicans can educate their Democratic lawmakers and also ensure their Republican lawmakers know about the PRO Act and will work to change it or vote against it.
Myth 3: “Those vocal against the PRO Act are paid by anti-union operatives.” Not true. These are all independent contractors who have created grassroots organizations out of necessity to save their freelance careers. This myth makes it even more important that individual freelancers explain their business and their success to legislators so they can understand who we are.
What You Can Do:
In September, the Freelancers Union (which is a nonprofit, not a union) held a webinar with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York who supports unions and the PRO Act. However, Schumer acknowledged in the webinar that he recognizes the problems AB5 caused in California and said he is willing to work with freelancers on the PRO Act. This was a huge acknowledgement. (See press release in resources below.)
Resources:
www.fightforfreelancersusa.com
Fight for Freelancers USA Facebook page — this is where you will find the most updated information and how to organize
Fight for Freelances USA on Twitter
Fight for Freelancers press release “US Senate Minority Leader Acknowledges Major Problem in PRO Act”
Freelance Forward 2020 — Upwork’s latest research on freelancing (statistics to use)
NPR article “Jobs in the Pandemic: More Are Freelance and May Stay That Way Forever”
Contently article “Does the ABC Test Already Exist in Your State, and Could It Harm Your Career?”
Wrapbook blog post “Employee or Contractor? The Complete List of Worker Classification Tests By State”
IRS.gov’s information on independent contractors
Fight for Freelancers New Jersey
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| #72: How to Grow Your Email List + Earn Passive Income, with Anthony Moore | 17 Sep 2020 | 00:35:52 | |
Today’s guest is Anthony Moore, a writer, speaker and coach in California. He is one of the top 100 writers on Medium.com, where he writes about personal growth, self-improvement and writing.
I had trouble trying to name this episode because there were so many things Anthony talked about that I wanted to call your attention to. So, I hope you find all the areas we discussed helpful in your freelance business.
As a freelancer, Anthony has several income streams: writing, coaching, online courses, affiliate links, book sales.
Anthony has been freelancing for about seven years but didn’t make any money the first four and a half years. He decided it was time to get serious about his freelance career and has since amassed over 100,000 email subscribers and 50,000 followers on Medium and will earn a six-figure income in 20202.
Anthony offers courses in both writing and self-improvement. He sells them through webinars and email marketing. He’s failed a lot, and that has shown him what works and doesn’t work. He says one of his “superpowers” is not being afraid to look stupid. That stopped him from trying new things for a long time.
Anthony makes a lot of his income through courses, which, once created, is an online passive income. Then, he upsells to one-on-one coaching.
Anthony gets 100–200 new subscribers to his email list every day. Part of that is due to writing on Medium, where he has 200,000–300,000 views on his articles a month. Other blogs pick up his Medium articles, amplifying his content. He always includes a call to action in his articles to lead readers to his website. He has about a 6% click-through rate to his site, which is where people sign up for his email list.
Anthony’s call to action focuses solely on getting email subscribers. He no longer asks for social media likes and follows because the income he earns comes through his email list, not social media.
On Medium, Anthony focuses on personal growth and self-improvement. The key has been to be vulnerable and share his own stories, including his past issues with addiction and other challenges in his life. He posts only two to three articles a week now, but his content is evergreen.
Anthony shifted his mindset from being a freelancer to being a business when his article views on Medium skyrocketed. He likes a quote from Jay-Z: “I’m not a businessman; I’m a business, man.” Once you shift your mindset, you stop holding yourself back. Then, you can ask yourself: How far can I take my business?
Anthony asked himself what a professional business person would do, and he began to invest in his business by taking writing courses and buying business books.
Anthony spent a lot of time learning how to sell properly without seeming sleazy. He learned that give away a lot of freebies and then every now and then offer something for sale that is aligned with the customers’ values and would be helpful to them. He uses ClickFunnels for his sales funnel system.
He studied up on sales psychology, such as the “star, story, solution” structure or “hook, story, offer” structure. He encourages people to research how to sell your services and products properly.
To grow your email list, in your blog posts or other content, you need a short call to action to send people to your email sign-up. You need to create a landing page and a freebie to give to people who sign up. Your freebie should not be your weekly newsletter; it needs to be something that will be helpful to them, like a free book chapter, worksheet or checklist.
Once you gain email subscribers, you have to focus on retaining them. Tell great stories and continue to give out relevant freebies to keep them engaged.
Anthony calls for freelancers to embrace “radical self-investment”—learn how to sell, market and run a business.
Biz Bite: Use Evernote app to write down your ideas on the go
Resources:
Learn how to be a remote freelance writer with Anthony’s free one-hour video training: FreelanceWriterStarterPackage.com
“Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki
“Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World” by Gary Vaynerchuk
ClickFunnels (sales funnel system)
Mailchimp (for email lists and landing pages)
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| #71: 3 Failures and the Lessons They Taught Me | 10 Sep 2020 | 00:28:15 | |
On today’s episode, I am sharing three experiences in which I failed and the lessons I learned from those situations. Hopefully, you’ll find a few takeaway lessons here and it will also lead you to analyzing your own failures to see what you can change or learn from moving forward. The idea is not to beat yourself up; we are not perfect, but to learn from our failures and to know that all freelancers make mistakes. Failure No. 1: I had written two articles for a newsstand magazine that went really well. They didn’t pay as much as my content marketing clients, but I liked the topics and having my stories on newsstands. The magazine offered me a third article, a feature that was a little controversial. I had not done the type of traditional journalism in which people were skeptical about you since I was a newspaper reporter years ago in Indiana. The story required experience and connections in a type of reporting and in this community that I did not have. And I didn’t really have the time to dive into this story. My failure started because I let my ego get in the way. I liked this client, and two editors were telling me how great I was and how they really wanted me to do this article. I let their flattery cloud my judgment. I should have trusted my gut. Instead, I worked on the story and had difficulty finding the right sources, finding sources that would trust me and getting an “official source” to even answer my repeated calls and emails. I did not have the time for this along with all my other work—work that paid much more than this journalism story. I weakly expressed some concern to my immediate editor, and she gave me a few pointers, but it could not save the story and I did not speak up more at that time. So, I trudged on—not because I was stubborn as much as I did not want to tell my editor I was failing. A few MONTHS went by, and I finally got so fed up that I wanted to quit. I didn’t even care about getting paid for the work I did because it was unusable at that point. So, I emailed my editor and explained why the story was not working out and that I needed to stop working on it entirely. She was gracious and that was that. The big lesson here? Do not let a client talk you into a project. Do not let their flattery and your ego get in the way of what you know to be true. You know what you’re good at and what you’re not good at, what you have time and energy for and what you don’t. Listen to that knowledge. Failure No. 2: I was working directly for a content marketing agency that I had worked with before and really liked. They had a new client. The challenge was that that client wanted me to pitch story ideas, which I rarely do. But I came up with a few ideas and they accepted one. It was clear that my agency contact was more excited about that story than the actual editor was. This should have been a red flag. But, I found the sources, wrote the article and submitted it. The editor had numerous queries, more so than I’ve received on any article in years. But I addressed the edits and sent back my second draft. Then, I received more edits late on a Friday afternoon, and the editor wanted to call me right then. I relented, only so I wouldn’t stress about it all weekend. She only wanted to go through the edits line by line, which was a complete waste of time. I also recognized that some of her edits were actually questioning the science in the article. That’s when it became clear that she did not respect the basis of the pitch or the research behind the article. She should have either rejected the pitch or put her aside her own feelings instead of continuing to ask me to change the article. I delivered those edits and cc’ed my agency contact on that email. Then, I emailed the agency person separately to tell them what had happened and that I’d gone above and beyond with multiple rounds of extensive edits and that I was done with the article. My contact was gracious, and the agency paid me the full amount (even though the editor never ran the article). The lesson here? I should have contacted my agency person sooner. They were my direct client, and I should have let them handle the situation—or at least help me walk through the issues. They also needed to be aware of what was happening. The overall message here is to speak up sooner rather than later. Failure No. 3: A new client and I had a misunderstanding over the scope of work. I had emailed a proposal outlining the scope of work that we both agreed on, and we had had multiple phone conversations. I thought we were on the same page, but I then received several assignments that seemed to be outside the scope of work. Here’s what I did wrong: In the proposal, I was very clear on the scope of work involved in my two primary responsibilities. But the client had mentioned a third service, one that wasn’t my expertise, but I agreed to help with now and then. I thought I was being helpful, but in my proposal I described that third service as “as needed.” That was way too vague and would be defined differently by me and the client. I reached out to a freelance writer friend, who helped me figure out what to say to the client. I also agreed to a phone conversation with the client to work out our issue. (I sent an initial email so as not to blindside her; then we got on the phone.) My “tough love” lesson here is do not be wishy-washy in your proposals! In my effort to be helpful, I was vague instead and caused a misunderstanding. Other lessons I learned: Ask for advice from your freelance community and get on the phone to talk through sticky situations. Email was not the answer. Those were three of my big fails—certainly not the only mistakes I’ve made! It’s important to know what your weaknesses are and figure out how to improve upon them or work around them. It’s also important to learn from your failures. What projects and clients stand out to you that make you a little sick to your stomach? Did you learn anything from them or have you repeated the same mistakes over and over? Take a few minutes to think about those situations and what you have learned or should have learned from them. Maybe there are a few lessons that you could embrace going forward. Biz Bite: You are already living your worst-case scenario. Tip from Gayneté Jones: If you are procrastinating on a new service or something to propel your business forward, you’re getting nowhere by not doing the thing. That’s your worst-case scenario. You can only go up from there.
Gayneté Jones is a millennial mentor and keynote speaker. She is founder of G.A.M.E. Changing Industries and creator of Cubicle Ditch Academy.
Hear Gayneté Jones in episode 333 of the podcast Online Marketing Made Easy with Amy Porterfield.
The Bookshelf: “Recursion” by Blake Crouch
Resources: Episode #36 of Deliberate Freelancer: Spotting Red Flags and Scope Creep
Episode #45 of Deliberate Freelancer: You Need to Set Boundaries
Episode #67 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Fight Imposter Syndrome, with Kristen Hicks
Episode #70 of Deliberate Freelancer: Techniques to Deal with Anxiety from My New Therapist | |||
| #70: Techniques to Deal with Anxiety from My New Therapist | 03 Sep 2020 | 00:25:27 | |
I am not a therapist or a doctor, but on today’s show I want to share with you several techniques that I learned from my new therapist that have been very helpful to me, and I hope they will help some of you as well. I also want to help dispel the stigma that comes with mental health issues. Yes, I needed therapy. Yes, I’ve been experiencing more anxiety than usual. So, I sought out help. And that is OK for all of us. A few months ago, I started to realize that all of the things I used to do to turn off my brain from worrying about things were no longer working. I also realized I was getting really angry at the world at times. It all came to a head one night when I was worried about a leak in our basement. The spinning thoughts in my head would not stop, and I tried to explain my anxiety to my husband. He suggested I reach out a therapist acquaintance we know to ask for therapist recommendations. The therapist I knew sent me two names. I Googled them and emailed one of them. In our first appointment, I felt like my new therapist was a good fit right away, if only because I was comfortable talking to her through video chat. That was a good start. I explained to her how I was feeling, and because I am a “let’s fix this” person, I told her that I needed tools to use when I started feeling like that, techniques I could use to calm my mind. She gave me several that have been quite helpful, both before I start feeling anxious and when I’m in that anxiety-ridden moment. Therapy was also beneficial because it meant someone objective was validating my feelings. She validated that I am going through a loss—a loss of a way of life, that I am grieving something, even if I am lucky enough to have not been directly affected by COVID-19. But the upheaval and the uncertainty can definitely create anxiety. Here are a few techniques I now use regularly:
It may not even be accurate. You may be exaggerating reality based on your anxiety. And even if the thought is accurate, is it helpful to think that way? Probably not. Instead, reframe that thought into something helpful, like, “I have lost work during the pandemic. That means I need to do extra marketing each month to get more work.”
One thing my therapist added was that when you breathe out, think of a word and think of pushing that word out and away from you. Typically, this is a negative word like “anxiety” or “stress.” But if you want to just concentrate on the word, you can pick a positive word instead to focus on. If you pick a negative word to push out, you can have fun choosing the word. I like to say “freakin’ pandemic.”
Now, use your senses: What does it feel like, sound like, smell like? That alone can help calm you down. But you can go farther and imagine a nearby body of water. Then, cup your hands together and put all your negative thoughts and feelings that you want to get rid of in the cup of your hands and throw them into the water. Watch them until they float away and disappear.
Biz Bite: Chunk your projects
The Bookshelf: “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” by Isabel Wilkerson
Resources: Psychology Today Find a Therapist tool Psychology Today article: “Can You Reduce Anxiety and Stress by the Way You Breathe?” Episode #48 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Cope with Coronavirus Anxiety, with Therapist Mira Dineen Episode #52 of Deliberate Freelancer: Embracing Self-Care without Guilt, with Acupuncturist Rachel Brumberger | |||
| #69: 9 Nonfiction Books that Improved My Freelance Business | 27 Aug 2020 | 00:25:09 | |
On today’s show I am recommending nine nonfiction and business books that have helped me create and grow my freelance business: For the past two years I have read this book at the beginning of the new year, which might become an annual tradition because it sets me on a good habit course for the year. One quote from the book I really like is “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” That means if you don’t put a system and habits in place for each of your goals, they’ll just be floating out there with no structure or plan to actually achieve them. You need to create a step-by-step plan for how to achieve each of these goals. And you need to start with baby steps. Another quote I really like is “Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.” That means you will not notice an improvement the first time you start a new habit; you may not even see improvements week after week. Transformation takes time. One of the concrete things James provides in his book are the four simple steps to building better habits. These steps are:
“Deep work” is that cognitively demanding work, work that requires concentration and creativity and deep thinking—which means no distractions. For me, this is writing. What is it for you in your business? I am not an effective writer if I’m trying to squeeze writing in in between meetings, checking email and posting on social media. Instead, Newport helps you figure out how to concentrate, minimize distractions and focus deeply on your work. He warns you about the different types of distractions that might pop up and how you can develop strategies to fight against them. This book provides time, productivity and focus strategies that are tactical and helpful. This book is a lot breezier to read than the other two books I just recommended, but that doesn’t mean it’s fluff. It has silly illustrations and a fun, conversational tone. There are 87 tactics in this book that you can try to focus better and be more productive. A couple of the tactics that have helped me: Pick a highlight for your day—the one thing that you must get done—and then zero in on getting it done. The book calls that “laser focus.” Pick a soundtrack for your highlight. Choose one song, the same song, to play whenever you start your highlight for that day. I do this now whenever I am going to start deep work like writing. I have one song I play every time, and I’ve become Pavlov’s dog. Any time I hear this song I know that it’s time to buckle down and do a project. It’s my cue to get to work. It really works. Skip the morning check-in. At the end of each day, I go over my calendar and tasks and write out my to-do list for the next day. I choose my highlight for the next day. Then, when I wake up the next morning, I get straight to work on my highlight. I don’t check email or social media. Or, if I do check email, I check only for emergency emails from clients. I don’t respond to regular emails or even read them. Setting a timer for about 10 minutes can help you from getting sucked into email. This book, by a productivity and time tracking expert, was so much more than I thought it would be. It's not just a quick-read, “here are a few tips” productivity book. Vanderkam teaches us how to live life with more intention, to “linger” and “savor” and to invest in your happiness by being mindful of how you spend your time and how you WANT to spend your time. Laura talks about “letting it go”—how not to obsess over certain goals and how not to be so hard on yourself when you don’t hit perfection. She talks about little ways to invest in your own happiness and to appreciate the small things in life. Incidentally, these are all concepts that might really help during the pandemic. As an introvert, I wasn’t sure what I could learn from this book. I know how I am and what I like. But I loved this book. It was way more in-depth and researched that I expected—not a fluffy, self-help book at all. This book explains in detail how being introverted can manifest in the real world, which has really helped me explain to other people why I like the things I like and do the things I do. The book also dives into the history of introvertedness, explaining when the U.S. started treasuring extroverts more. The author explains the values treasured by Eastern versus Western cultures and gives a ton of tips for living with and working with introverts and for raising kids who are introverts. Rubin is probably best known for her book “The Happiness Project,” which I also liked. But “Better than Before” is where Rubin first introduces us to her framework The Four Tendencies. She argues that everyone falls into one of four categories based on how we respond to expectations from ourselves and from others—internal and external expectations. She has written a book called “The Four Tendencies” and you can also take a quiz to find out which of the four you are. Knowing your tendency helps you figure out how to use the right habit creation techniques that work for you. For example, I’m a questioner, and Gretchen helped me realize why “accountability” doesn’t work for me. You hear so often in business to form accountability groups or if you make yourself accountable to others, you’ll get things done. This could mean, if you sign up for a class, and especially if you pay for it, you’ll definitely go. But that doesn’t work for me. “Better than Before” will help you get to know yourself better and teach you what techniques work for you best. And then, Rubin provides a ton of habit formation tips to help you get things done. This book is gold for content marketing writers, whether you’re brand-new to this type of writing or have been doing it for 20 years. There is also a lot of tactical advice on how to get clients that can be helpful to non-writers as well. Gregory talks about how to use LinkedIn effectively and shares her template for a very short, to-the-point “letter of introduction,” which she compares to a pickup line. As she explains, you’re just trying to get a date with the person; you’re not trying to build an entire relationship with that first LOI. She also talks about how to price your projects, why freelancers need to talk about money with each other and how to find anchor clients. This was one of the first freelance books I purchased. It’s a little dated, but the bulk of the book contains really helpful information, especially for newer freelancers or those who need to set themselves up as a freelance business rather than just flying by the seat of their pants. I gained a lot of confidence from reading this book. For example, Bly talks about how freelancers offer professional services and should not be shy or apologetic about their fees, but simply state them matter of factly. It’s that type of tone and tips that helped me believe I was a freelance business owner. And while the book is for writers, there is some information in there that would help any freelancer, like how to set your fees, how to network and brand yourself, how to deal with client problems and how to generate sales leads. This book is also a bit old, but it’s a good staple, especially for those who need to get a better handle on your income and finances. The book provides a lot of advice about how to rethink how you use, earn and spend money. It can help you with debt and savings and getting your spending under control. It’s one of the few financial books I’ve seen that is written specifically for freelancers. Biz Bite: Take care of your future self. The Bookshelf: “The Family Upstairs” by Lisa Jewell
Resources: Episode #4 of Deliberate Freelancer: Work Only with Nice Clients, with Jennifer Goforth Gregory | |||
| #68: Yes, You Need to Build a Personal Brand, with Hilary Sutton | 20 Aug 2020 | 00:40:01 | |
Today’s guest is Hilary Sutton. Hilary is the CEO of HSL Digital, a content marketing consultancy. She is a keynote speaker and writer who has contributed to HuffPost, the Washington Post and USA Today. The author of several eBooks and courses, Hilary also hosts the popular Hustle & Grace Podcast where she explores cultivating a flourishing career and life. Hilary began her career as an actress performing in theaters up and down the East Coast, then transitioned to academics, serving as professor of communications, social media and journalism at Southern New Hampshire University. She has also held digital marketing roles at SpotCo, Pursuant and McKinley Marketing Partners. Hilary lives outside of Washington, DC, with her husband and daughter. The pandemic affected Hilary when her primary client lost some of their clients, furloughed employees and cut her hours dramatically. But new clients popped up, keeping her income stable. That showed her the importance of always building your personal brand and always connecting with people. “I have personally found a lot of power and control in being freelancer who works in the digital landscape because that is always going to be there, even if you’re in a pandemic.” Online communities are powerful, but meeting people in person at conferences and other events has solidified relationships and lead to new clients and new projects. Hilary defines personal branding as a combination of two things: the content that already exists about you (if someone Googles your name) and what people think of when they think of you. Everyone has a personal brand, whether you want it or not. There is information out there already telling a story about you. Shouldn’t you take control of that? A personal brand is not self-promoting. Reframe it to think of it as you telling people how you can help them. If you don’t tell people how you can help them, they won’t know that you can help them. You don’t have to focus on personal branding 24/7. While you should be consistent with your branding and timing, it is OK to take breaks from branding and social media. We need to prioritize mental health and “building space” in our lives so we don’t experience burnout. In summer 2019, for the first time in years, Hilary took a one-month break from social media, which was a healthy break and reminder of who is important in her real life. She gained clarity on the friendships and relationships of her inner circle. She also increased her productivity. The break quieted the social media noise. She says it was healthy to be bored, observe the world around her and be present, especially with her young daughter. Personal branding started for Hilary when she was a theater actress. She wanted to build a marketing writing career and inform people about the services she offered. She started by launching a blog to share her expertise. She also began to build her personal brand on LinkedIn. Having two websites—one for acting, one for content marketing—was critical to make it very clear what she did for two different audiences. Consider these three questions things when building—or rebuilding—an intentional personal brand:
Next, consider how to concretely build that personal brand: build a website, have photos of yourself taken that reflect your brand. Also, claim your name or business name on multiple social media channels. Even if you don’t have a social media plan for all of those platforms now, claim the name and add your contact info, because those sites will rank high in Google when people search your name. In fact, Pinterest is more of a search engine than a social media platform and that can help your rankings. For more ideas, take Hilary’s 31-day personal brand challenge. As you build your intentional personal brand, remember to always keep your target audience in mind. And be aware that anything you say online—even if you think it’s via a private message—can be made public. Hilary created a three-module course to teach you the building blocks of developing a personal brand, available on her website. Hilary’s course: 3 Steps to Start Building a Personal Brand Hilary also has a podcast, Hustle & Grace, where she interviews high-performing creatives and talks about how to cultivate a flourishing career and a flourishing life. Biz Bite: Take inventory of your social media presence and Google results Resources: Hilary’s course: 3 Steps to Start Building a Personal Brand Hilary’s 31-day personal brand challenge Hustle & Grace Podcast episode with Dan Pink Episode #55 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Use Pinterest to Grow Your Business, with Julia Bocchese | |||
| #67: How to Fight Imposter Syndrome, with Kristen Hicks | 13 Aug 2020 | 00:27:22 | |
Today’s guest is Kristen Hicks. Kristen is a freelance content marketing writer in Austin, Texas. She specializes in helping B2B businesses connect with their audience through content. Her work has been featured on the Content Marketing Institute, MarketingProfs and Fast Company. She has five furry co-workers, an ever-growing book collection and a (usually) well-stocked wine rack. Kristen is here to talk about imposter syndrome. Kristen defines imposter syndrome as “worry that you’re not good enough, even when there’s not actual evidence that that’s the case and often in the face of evidence to the contrary.” For freelancers, it often takes the form of entering into client relationships with the feeling that they’re doing you a favor, rather than seeing it as a partnership between equals. Imposter syndrome can also affect a person’s comfort in charging professional rates, which leads to under charging. Early in her career, Kristen felt imposter syndrome, which showed up by feeling it was too pushy to require a contract or not pushing back against scope creep. Anyone doing creative work will have a client that doesn’t like your work at some point. That negative feedback can make you doubt yourself. Plus, people who have had toxic bosses or toxic clients may wonder if that’s normal and start to doubt themselves. Our society also raises girls and teaches women to be more docile or people pleasing. Women often have to learn how to draw boundaries and stand up for themselves. Trying to charge decent rates is made worse by seeing job ads with pitiful rates. That can deflate freelancers and make you question your self-worth if you don’t know how to find clients who pay well. When coming up with rates, aim for project rates and remember that you can negotiate down but you can’t negotiate up. When you think of setting rates think of all the freelancers in your industry. If you accept very low rates you’re teaching clients that that is OK. You are devaluing the larger market. It’s not just about you anymore. Melanie talks about her difficulties pushing back on scope creep, which feels like conflict and/or a confrontation, which makes her uncomfortable. Kristen recommends thinking about how to reframe this, because it’s about drawing boundaries for yourself. Fight against imposter syndrome, in part, by learning how to pay attention to the positive voices in your life over the negative ones. If you have 10 clients who love your work and one who doesn’t, we tend to focus more on the negative one. You have to remind yourself that those 10 people are smart, professional people and if they like your work it’s probably good work. Building a community and showing your expertise in your field will show you how people respect you as a professional. That, in turn, will help you respect yourself more. Create a “compliments” email folder where you keep all those positive responses (“great job!”) from clients and periodically look at that to boost your confidence or pull you out of imposter syndrome. Ask clients for testimonials to add to your website and LinkedIn, which is something that will help convert new clients. Any time you doubt yourself or the boundaries you’re trying to set with a client, bounce the idea off someone else. Take advantage of the freelance community and ask for others’ opinions. Or, ask a friend, “Is this reasonable?” If you get negative feedback, walk away to give yourself time to get over that initial emotion so you can look at the feedback more objectively later. Perhaps, it’s constructive criticism. Later, you can view it more reasonably, without emotion clouding your view. The pandemic may have manifested or increased imposter syndrome in some ways as people have more anxiety, have lost clients and projects, and have had to seek out new clients. There is a lot of concern and discomfort now about what to charge and if you can raise rates because of the economic crisis. If you’re worried that your work isn’t the best right now, invest in your skills. Maybe hire a consultant to help you out or sign up for courses. Also, if you can afford it, be picky when selecting clients. Make sure they’re a good fit. Don’t work with clients who are always negative or who talk down to you—that could create imposter syndrome or increase those feelings. Leave bad clients. If you can’t walk away right now because of finances, draft a marketing plan to secure better clients so you can walk away in the near future.
Biz Bite: Focus on energy management, as well as time management.
Resources: Kristen Hicks: Austin-Copywriter.com Episode #66 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Price Your Projects Episode #62 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Prevent and Deal with Burnout, with Alan Heymann | |||
| #66: How to Price Your Projects | 06 Aug 2020 | 00:30:42 | |
On today’s show I am going to talk about why you should aim for providing only project rates and how to go about setting those rates. A lot of us struggle with pricing, even those of us who have been doing this for a while. But here’s a secret: We’re all just making this up. The best pricing is often project based, and that is a made-up number when it comes down to it. You need to reframe your mindset and get your head around the fact that you are a freelance business owner. You are the boss. You are in charge of your own business. This means, you need to shift your mindset 180 degrees from waiting to hear what someone will pay you, and asking what someone will pay you, to telling someone what your rate is or telling someone what you charge for that project. It’s such a huge mindset shift in so many ways when you finally embrace the fact that you are in charge of your business. If someone cannot afford you, then you move on to the next potential client. When many of us start freelancing, we take what we can get and we allow the client to set the pricing and the parameters. Or, when the client asks what our rate is, we give them an hourly rate, often too low. But when you embrace the fact that you are the owner of your own business, you will start to think about pricing differently. Your overarching goal should be to think of every assignment and gig as a project rate and to propose project rates to every client. But first, let’s talk about hourly pricing and why it is such a problem. First, hourly pricing means you are charging for your time. And that is one thing we all need to stop doing—charging based on our time. Time is finite. There is only so much money you can make each week before you run out of time and energy. You will be unable to grow your business this way. Also, time does not equal the value you bring to a project. You need to base your fees on your value. Third, hourly pricing penalizes you for working fast. And, if you and the client don’t discuss how many hours a project might take, the client could be surprised and frustrated when they see the invoice at the end of the month. Since some listeners are writers, let’s talk about per word rates. Ideally, everything would be project rates, but sometimes you are in an industry that does dictate the style of pricing. For writers, that’s a per word rate. You can try to push back on this and suggest a flat rate for writing an article, but often editors’ hands are tied based on an antiquated system. With per word rates (and really, all projects) I build in systems to work faster while still providing top quality. For writing assignments, that could mean recording interviews. Sometimes I record only to listen to certain parts (I mark timestamps in my notes when the person says something great or that I want to check back on). Sometimes I record and have someone else transcribe the interview. It’s worth the financial investment because it saves me time and energy in the long run. (I also hate transcribing with a fiery passion.) Writers, please know that a per word rate exists often only in journalism. In content marketing, especially for companies, you can often charge a project rate. If you come from the journalism world and are accustomed to per word rates, leave that behind when you are pricing your projects. You might get stuck with a per word rate, but don’t suggest it up front. Start with a project rate. Now that we accept that we should all be charging by the project, how do we actually do that? I was serious when I said these rates are made up. Not one freelancer or consultant has it figured out and has created the perfect project rate every single time. No two projects are the same. No two clients are the same. Here are just a few things that go into creating a project rate:
And the list goes on and on! Here is my system for coming up with a project rate. First, I have a secret hourly rate to give me something to start with. Now, I said don’t use an hourly rate, so if you do start with an hourly rate, use this very loosely as just your “base” to get started. Don’t stick to it. Next, ask yourself all those things about what type of project and client this is, including:
Take the time to evaluate to the best of your ability all the parameters around the project, not just the skill set needed to do the project. One of the best ways to do that is to have an initial phone call with the potential client. I know some of us hate the phone, but a phone call can be critical to finding out this information so that you can provide an appropriate project rate or a proposal. You can also learn a lot about someone when you talk on the phone with them—you can gather hints about what the client will be like to work with that you can’t get over email. For the phone conversation, write out a list of questions so you don’t forget. In fact, you can create a template of questions to ask every client. Questions you may want to ask, besides the details of the assignment, are:
A potential client may ask, “What’s your rate?” I often respond with something like, “I’ll be able to put together a proposal for you with a project rate after we’ve talked through the details.” You can also ask, “Do you have a budget in mind?” Sometimes they won’t and that may be OK. But if they say “about $500” and you are talking about a project that might start out at a base rate of $3,000, you don’t need to waste your time talking with them anymore. It can be helpful to educate them, though, even if they don’t change their budget. You are helping boost your industry by letting them know quality work is worth way more than that $500. And maybe they’ll increase their budget! Once I have all these questions answered and I have considered all the parameters, I take my base rate and start to increase it. After you come to a number, ask yourself this very important question: Do I want to do this project for that amount? You do not want to offer a rate that you will end up resenting—resenting the rate, the project, the client, yourself. Also know before you get back to the client what number you will not go below, in case you have to negotiate a bit. You don’t want to get flustered and negotiate a number that is too low for you. If you need to walk away from the project, you can simply email and say, “After further reflection/looking over the details, this is not a good fit for me.” Don’t say you’re sorry. Don’t continue to offer explanation. Don’t over-explain. You are the boss of you. It’s not a good fit. End of story. Biz Bite: Buy the good pens. (or elevate your workspace) The Bookshelf: “Notes from a Young Black Chef” by Kwame Onwuachi
Resources: Episode #39 of Deliberate Freelancer: Raise Your Rates—Without Emotion Episode #18 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Set Higher Rates Episode #1 of Deliberate Freelancer: Change Your Mindset: You Own a Freelance Business Laura Vanderkam talks about “buying the good pens” on The Productivityist Podcast, episode 322, The New Corner Office with Laura Vanderkam Rev.com (transcriptionist service)
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| REPLAY #12: This Is a Smartphone & Social Media Intervention | 30 Jul 2020 | 00:26:45 | |
This is a “tough love” episode. Many of us are feeling overwhelmed, anxious, distracted and too busy. I think a lot of that can be alleviated by decreasing your smartphone usage and fighting against social media and digital addictions. It’s time to take back our lives. It’s time to take control of our schedules. In this episode, I lead you through several steps to cut back on digital distraction, partly inspired by Cal Newport’s new book, “Digital Minimalism.”
Let me take you back in time when baby boomers, Gen Xers and the Oregon Trail Generation can remember a time in our adult lives when smartphones and social media didn’t exist—and cellphones were just for calling people.
As a kid in the 1980s, I would often whine, “I’m bored.” And I just had to figure out what to do about that boredom. Now, no one is ever allowed to be bored. Instead, we reach for our smartphones. Boredom is highly underrated.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, I bought Cal Newport’s new book, “Digital Minimalism.” And I read it in 24 hours. Newport argues that you have to figure HOW you’re going to spend your leisure time BEFORE you cut back on your digital life. If you just force yourself to put down the phone or not use social media at set times—without a plan—you’ll be anxious and fidgety, not knowing what to do with yourself.
I want to focus my leisure time on health, fitness and nutrition. I’m making a plan to walk 10,000 steps several days a week and dusting off my bike to go for fun rides again.
I culled my social media feeds, unfollowing most people on Instagram—only keeping a few real-life friends—and cutting my Twitter followings in half. I also dropped out of 27 Facebook groups! Who knew I was in so many?! I’m focusing on two that are particularly interesting, educational and inspiring, with a true community feel.
Cal Newport also talks about the importance of solitude. He says there’s this myth that solitude means being physically alone, but what it really means is freeing up your mind. We all need this. You may have to actually schedule solitude and downtime until it becomes more of a habit again.
Your tough love, digital intervention marching orders:
Biz Bite: Assigning ringtones to important people.
Resources:
Cal Newport’s book “Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World”
Episode 5 of Deliberate Freelancer: Track Your Time for Better Efficiency
Episode 10 of Deliberate Freelancer, which talks about Cal Newport’s book “Deep Work”: Think Like a Marketer to Grow Your Business, with Megy Karydes
Episode 2 of Deliberate Freelancer about cutting out tasks and outsourcing: Discover Your Unique Brilliance
Episode 3 of Deliberate Freelancer: Host a Solo Business Retreat
The Freelance Content Marketing Writer Facebook group
James Clear’s book “Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones”
Gretchen Rubin’s book “Better than Before: What I Learned about Making and Breaking Habits—to Sleep More, Quit Sugar, Procrastinate Less, and Generally Build a Happier Life” | |||
| #65: The No. 1 Way I Find New Clients | 23 Jul 2020 | 00:26:36 | |
As the pandemic changed so many things both personally and professionally, I had to rethink of new ways to market and network in order to find new clients. And in doing so these past four months, I realized what my No. 1 marketing tool is for getting new clients. It’s not sexy or groundbreaking, but it’s solid: My No. 1 way to find new clients is through referrals. You may not like the words “networking” or “marketing” or “personal branding.” So, why not reframe it and call all those things “relationship building” instead. That’s what I’ve done, and I enjoy building new relationships with people. Some of them even end up becoming true friendships. And that grows my network. And when I grow my network, I expand the possibilities for referrals—not only from current and former clients, but from former co-workers at past jobs, from other editors and writers, from colleagues in the industries I specialize in. One of the biggest misconceptions I hear from some freelancers is about competition. Your fellow freelancers can be your friends, not your competition. In fact, that’s the way I want to live and be in my business—not in some uber competition with people, but in a non-toxic, stress-free, collegial environment. And, it is just a bonus that those people can be your biggest source of referrals. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been contacted by a potential client who was just not the right fit. Instead of telling them “no” and that being the end of it, I usually offer to connect them with someone that might be a better fit, if I know instinctively that this will not take a lot of time. I sometimes reach out to freelancer friends that might be a good fit and ask them first if they are interested, without naming the client, and then offering to provide the client their name. Sometimes, the potential client is comfortable with me going ahead and introducing them to one person by email and then I let them take it from there. When you provide a few contacts to the potential client, not only are you helping out a fellow freelancer, but that client is appreciative and you never know how that might help in the future. I’ve had potential clients come back to me because I went that extra mile and asked me if I was available for a different type of project. Doing something small like that to help a potential client who has no idea where to look for a writer or editor, or whatever the services that they need help with, keeps you top of mind as a reliable and helpful person. Your name does not get jumbled in with all the other freelancer names they’ve heard. They will remember you—at least more than they will remember the freelancer who never got back to them or just said, “no, it’s not a good fit” and moved on. When you help out other freelancers in this way, they often reciprocate. You never know what opportunity might come up; it sometimes takes months or even years. But it is amazing how much work I’ve received from other freelancers. So, when you hear from potential clients with projects that are not quite for you, think of your fellow freelancers. This is easier the bigger the network you have. I actually have lists of friends with their expertise listed because it is hard to think of a perfect fit on the spot. The lists are good reminders of what everybody focuses on and what they’re looking for. In turn, these freelancer friends will hopefully remember you and return the favor, as they have done for me over the years. The other primary way to get referrals is, of course, your current and past clients. Don’t be shy about letting clients know when you are looking for new work. And be specific about what you are looking for. You may think your client already knows what you do, but they often only know what you have done for them. Rather than just telling your clients what your services are, phrase it more like: “How can I help you? What do you need?” Then, you can list some of your services, and depending on how much energy and time you want to spend on this, you could also offer to connect them to other freelancers in areas they need help with. For example, if I make this offer and my client needs a new magazine designer, I can connect them with several graphic designers. I’m taking the burden off them, helping to shorten their to-do list. At the beginning of 2019, I decided to tell my clients directly exactly what I was looking for in the new year, so in my regular newsletter I explained that I was looking for a new newsletter or magazine to be the managing editor of, more membership association clients who needed a magazine writer and magazine proofreading gigs. One of them is now an anchor client. I remembered the success of that email when I needed to replace lost work at the beginning of the pandemic, so I decided to do something similar. This time, instead of using that smaller email list I had gathered for my newsletter, I pulled together my email contacts of former clients, current clients, friends and colleagues, and almost anyone I had ever had an extended conversation with about work. I then crafted an email and let them know I was looking for new work and spelled out exactly what services I could provide. I briefly mentioned my 20 years of experience, then created a bulleted list of my services and asked them how I could help them. Again, I offered to help them with whatever they were looking for, mentioning my vast network of other freelancers. In that bulleted list, I thought of the work that might be needed particularly during the pandemic like writing about public health. I also thought of things specific to the pandemic, like covering virtual conferences, which I used to cover in-person. I also mentioned I could help revamp content editorial calendars since the pandemic destroyed everyone’s editorial calendar. I ended the email by saying “Please feel free to share my name with—or forward this email to—any editors or colleagues at associations or other organizations who might be looking for a freelance writer or editor, especially someone who specializes in health care and public health.” My biggest lesson here is ASK. People don’t necessarily think of you unless you ask. Or, they think you don’t need the work. Or, they don’t know what you do. I had a handful of people respond that they didn’t think they could afford me, but as we talked through the project, it turns out they could. So, again, referrals come from many places. It’s my No. 1 way of getting new clients—and often clients I LOVE because I did the work to make sure we were a good fit. But you have to ask. And be specific about what you’re looking for, while also saying “how can I help you?” Getting referrals happens through networking, marketing and branding—or, better yet, “relationship building.” And that can still be done virtually right now, through social media, Zoom, texts, phone calls, email and more. Also, be sure to attend virtual conferences and webinars where your clients are—often there are chat features where you can connect with people.
Biz Bite: Strategically reorganize your online portfolio
The Bookshelf: “The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett
Resources: Episode #64 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Increase Your Visibility and Get More Clients, with Amelia Roberts Episode #49 of Deliberate Freelancer: Appropriate Marketing and Promotion during the Coronavirus Pandemic, with Michelle Garrett Episode #43 of Deliberate Freelancer: 33 Ways to Find More Clients Episode #24 of Deliberate Freelancer: Networking Tips, Especially as an Introvert | |||
| #177: Your Burning Freelancing Questions Answered | 14 Dec 2023 | 00:46:32 | |
On today’s show I share my thoughts and answers to commonly asked questions I hear from freelancers of all levels and in all industries. These are questions that seem to come up time and time again. There is no one right answer, and each question may have different answers depending on the service, the client and so many other variables. That said, I hope my answers to the following questions help you and allow you to make a decision that is supportive of you as a freelance business owner. In this episode, I address these seven questions:
Biz Bite: Go on a field trip for office supplies. The Bookshelf: “This Is Where You Belong: Finding Home Wherever You Are” by Melody Warnick Resources: Email a voice memo about your successful marketing tactic to melanie@meledits.com to be considered for a future episode. Please include your name.
Deliberate Freelancer Episodes About Finding Clients
Deliberate Freelancer Episodes About Pricing & Getting Paid
Deliberate Freelancer Episodes About Scope Creep & Other Difficulties
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| #64: How to Increase Your Visibility and Get More Clients, with Amelia Roberts | 16 Jul 2020 | 00:32:40 | |
Today’s guest is Amelia Roberts. Amelia is a digital native who officially became a practitioner of online marketing 12 years ago as a virtual assistant. Now, Amelia helps under-recognized professionals—freelancers, consultants, solopreneurs—stand out, articulate their unique value and get “first dates” in business. She calls these “visibility opportunities” and she helps manage “visibility projects” for clients, such as getting them guest spots on podcasts and speaking gigs for virtual summits/conferences. Amelia’s own marketing has changed slightly during the pandemic. She can’t build relationships in person right now, which is how she used to get a lot of clients. But she has reached out to her network and received work through referrals. For people to work with you, they need to see you. Amelia paraphrases LinkedIn Co-founder Reid Hoffman: All opportunities are firmly attached to humans. When you are looking for an opportunity, you are really looking for a human. Visibility opportunities mean getting in the ears of your best buyers or referral partners. Wise clients of Amelia’s quickly changed their focus during the pandemic, when in-person events were no longer possible. Many of the opportunities are simply online versions of previous opportunities. There is still a need for guest experts. Some speakers aren’t as comfortable switching to a virtual format, which opens up the opportunities for those who make that switch. You will have to make some tweaks, including to your call to action, when you switch from an in-person event to a virtual speaking event. Amelia recommends following her “NURSE” framework and process: Needs—what message do your ideal clients need to hear? Utilization of tools—what tools are they using? Resources—what resources are they investing in? Success—what does success look like for them? Evaluate—evaluate the plan they have. When you “NURSE” your ideal client, you’ll start to see places that will make sense for you to start to pitch yourself. With any marketing effort, we don’t want to waste time or money on things that won’t work. And you don’t want to join the wrong online group and find your ideal clients aren’t there. Before you say yes to opportunities, think about the needs and tools of your ideal client—is there an alignment with the opportunity? If the opportunity and person does not share your ideal clients and cannot refer you to your ideal clients, you may want to say no, depending on your time, energy and resources. Look for people who have audiences you could help. Amelia started this process for her own business with groups related to women in business. Once you help a particular group, research and figure out where else those people hang out. What about introverts and others who are nervous about public speaking and podcast guesting? You may have to block out time around your event so you give yourself time to prepare and also recover and regroup afterward. Instead of thinking of this as marketing, think of it as putting yourself out there as a resource. Think of it as serving people. You are looking for people who have a pain that you can solve. Amelia quotes entrepreneur Monica Shah: “Planning is the highest form of self-care.” This is really important for solopreneurs and solo business owners. Amelia recommends developing a process and system to prepare for each opportunity. Have a goal in mind before you start your marketing effort. Marketing supports your sales process. So, what is your sales process? Are you offering a freebie, leading people to call you? Think of any visibility effort as a project that can be managed. Break it down into tasks. Amelia recommends choosing two efforts and focusing on those for 90 days and then evaluating them. Continue if it makes sense to do so. During the pandemic, two hot trends are virtual summits and collaborations, such as a Facebook group that partners with a guest expert. Developing a process and structure for your marketing efforts will also make it easier for you to hire a virtual assistant and know what you need them to focus on.
Biz Bite: Use a project management tool like Asana or Trello to track your marketing efforts
Resources: Freebie from Amelia: Get In Front of Everyone | |||
| #63: How I Got a PPP Loan as a Sole Proprietor | 09 Jul 2020 | 00:21:18 | |
CORRECTION: At the 10:18 minute mark, I misspoke and said you should take $56,000 and multiply it by 12. That should say DIVIDE by 12. My math is correct in the episode; I just misspoke. Sorry about that! In today’s episode I outline my experience with the U.S. Paycheck Protection Program—known as the PPP loan program—and encourage you to consider applying for a loan if you have been hurt financially by the pandemic. DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer, accountant/CPA, financial services adviser or any other financial expert related to the PPP program. I am solely providing you my experience with the program and offering some things for you to consider. You should doublecheck all information with an expert and do your own research. Sole proprietors are allowed to apply for a PPP loan at about a maximum of $20,000, depending on how much you earned in 2019. The process to have your entire loan forgiven is fairly straightforward if you are a sole proprietor. This effectively turns the PPP loan into a grant that you do not have to pay back. Even if you do have to pay back part or all of the loan, the interest rate is only 1%. You may have heard in the beginning of the PPP program that it was hard to get a loan. I cannot speak to whether that is still the case for each individual sole proprietor, but there is a lot of money left in the program and the federal government is concerned that people are not applying. As of July 6, $130 billion was still available for businesses and sole proprietors. First, let’s talk about applying for the loan. Initially, it appeared to be difficult for people to get these loans. In fact, sole proprietors often faced a burden from their own banks because in the beginning major banks issued their own requirement that you had to have a business checking account with them. And many freelancers do not have that. You should check first with your own bank to see if that is still the case and if you can apply through that bank. If not, there are other options, such as Kabbage, PayPal, BlueVine and others. You are only allowed to have one PPP loan. This is important. I encourage you to NOT apply for more than one loan at a time, thinking you can just refuse one of the loans if you are offered more than one. I tried this and the Small Business Administration (SBA) had a glitch that did not flag my Social Security number showing that I had already received a loan approval. So, I was approved for two loans, and it took over a month to work out with one of the lenders how to send back the money back and get it all straightened out with the SBA. To avoid all that, my biggest advice is DO NOT apply for more than one loan at a time. One of the biggest considerations of whether you should apply for the loan is how much money you made in 2019. The loan amount is supposed to cover paychecks. For you as a sole proprietor, you don’t have employees. So, that means your own income. If you did not make much money in 2019, it might not be worth applying for the loan. The loan application MUST be based on the Schedule C form for your 2019 taxes. On your 2019 Schedule C, look at your net profit on line 31. If that number is under $100,000 use whatever that number is. If it’s over $100,000, you have to use $100,000. The PPP has a $100,000 cap. Take that number, whatever yours is, and divide it by 12 to get a monthly total. Then, you multiply that number by 2.5. That is the amount of the loan you are requesting. The paperwork to apply was fairly easy. I did the entire process in a few hours. I had to scan copies of all the 1099s I received for 2019 work and put them into one pdf to submit with the application. I also had to send in a photocopy of my driver’s license and copies of bank statements, which I easily downloaded online. Let’s talk about loan forgiveness. The government has changed a few rules since March, actually making the process easier and better for sole proprietors. The loan forgiveness timeline was eight weeks. Now, you can choose to wait for 24 weeks, which means there is a greater chance you’ll have the entire loan forgiven. To have your loan forgiven, you do have to officially ask your lender. The SBA has created an easier form to do this, called the 3508EZ form. My CPA recommended that to easily show my PPP lender how I was spending the money, I write myself four checks over the next eight weeks, so one check every two weeks, just like a paycheck. I divided my loan by four and I now write myself a check for $5,208 from my checking account that received the loan into my personal account. He recommended I do this process of writing physical checks, rather than just transferring the money electronically, so that we could easily show photocopies of the check to my lender when asking for forgiveness. Your CPA might have a different solution, so be sure to ask an expert. Also know that you cannot get the PPP loan if you are getting unemployment. You can’t have both. There’s also another loan program called the EIDL, or economic injury disaster loan, through the SBA. That is a true loan program that you have to pay back. You can have both the EIDL and a PPP loan, but you have to be able to show that the money went for separate areas of your business. I don’t know much about the EIDL, so be sure to do your research and talk to an expert to learn more about that program.
Biz Bite: Create a Power Hour After List The Bookshelf: “Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood” by Trevor Noah
Resources: Trump signs extension of PPP small business coronavirus relief fund Tax Deductions For Paycheck Protection Expenses Remain In Doubt | |||
| #62: How to Prevent and Deal with Burnout, with Alan Heymann | 02 Jul 2020 | 00:27:09 | |
Today’s guest is Alan Heymann, an executive coach. Alan’s coaching company is called Peaceful Direction. He has spent more than two decades in public, government and nonprofit communications. Then, after he hired his own executive coach, he decided to become a coach himself. He founded Peaceful Direction in April 2019. I invited Alan on the podcast to talk about burnout. Burnout happens to the best of us in our lives and careers, but we are particularly susceptible right now during the pandemic and economic crisis because of all the changes, uncertainty and stressors on us right now. Alan talks about how you can recognize burnout in yourselves, how you can work to prevent it and what you can do when you’re starting to feel burnout. Burnout is more of an issue nowadays than before the pandemic because you have uncertainty layered on top of uncertainty layered on top of uncertainty. Burnout is also showing up in different ways in people. Stress and burnout are different. Stress is more temporary, when we have too much to do with not enough time to do it. Burnout is when the usual things you do in the normal course of your work and life are less possible for you. And it’s happening for longer than just a few minutes or just a few hours. Burnout can feel like you’re running in mud. You have trouble getting anything accomplished. Or, the tasks that normally take 15 minutes take several hours. You have trouble focusing. Alan realized that none of his clients are taking vacations or time off because of the pandemic. Many people who are still working are actually busier because of the pandemic, as companies are forced to readjust and are sending out more communications. People don’t feel like they can take vacations when they are already at home and when the pandemic restrictions don’t really allow regular types of travel. You cannot run the engine—which is you!—24/7 and not expect breakdowns to happen. Alan saw the signs of burnout in himself and realized he needed to schedule a staycation since his family’s summer vacation plans were scrapped. Alan has only worked for himself for about seven months and fell into a common new freelancer trap: not taking any significant time off. He admitted it’s flattering that the demand for his services was strong. Also, because we’re now in a time of economic uncertainty, it’s common to think you have to work when the work is available. And, of course, if you don’t work, you don’t make money. But, it’s critical to protect the asset: You. As an optimist, Alan says among all our feelings of uncertainty, most people have done an amazing and tremendous amount of learning and adapting as a society in a very short period of time. When faced with a challenge, most people will do what they can to rise up to that. Symptoms of burnout include sleeplessness and waking up in the middle of the night, as well as going to extremes physically—either exercising a lot or stopping all exercise and activity entirely. You may notice that what you are reading is not being absorbed, that you can’t concentrate on reading (for work or pleasure). If burnout goes unidentified and is not addressed it will affect the value you provide your clients over time. You will not be as effective. Burnout can be hard to identify in yourself. Do a self-observation—are tasks taking longer? Are you having trouble making decisions? You may also get signals from loved ones, who recognize your stress, grumpiness or difficulty in getting out of bed in the morning. Encourage those around you to speak up when they notice these burnout signs in you. Embrace “the power of pause.” Take breaks throughout your workday—go outside, take time for deep breathing, step away from work. Set a timer to remind you to take these breaks 3–4 times a day. Some type of inner practice is critical. This could be journaling, prayer, meditation, running, walking around the block. A longer pause is also important. You need to disrupt the flow, so consider taking a staycation. A break also allows new ideas, new ways of thinking to take hold. Your identity plays into burnout: How do you see yourself? If you see yourself as a “doer,” it is difficult to stop doing. If you see yourself as a successful entrepreneur, it’s difficult to stop working. If your personal identity is linked strongly to what you do professionally, it can be hard to detach from that when you’re not working. Ask yourself: Is my identity serving the work or is the work serving my identity? Alan is taking care of himself by sticking to his running habit, working in his yard and checking in with his family (his wife and middle school daughter) and reading. He also makes sure that he isn’t consuming all serious content all the time. While he gravitates toward non-fiction, he is reminding himself to read novels too. His family has also been watching silly TV shows together. Setting or resetting boundaries is critical. Know your limits—how many hours you can work effectively in a day, how long your attention span is right now. There is no shortage of free courses and learning options. But you cannot handle all of that input, so know your limits and stick with them. Biz Bite: Set email boundaries (Alan does not check email from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.) Resources: Alan’s website: Peaceful Direction Alan recommends the book “Deep Work” by Cal Newport (which I also love). | |||