Petra and our guest Kevin discuss the various elements that go into getting a freelance business to the next level of growth (if you choose) including systems, marketing, employees (including a few what not to do stories!) and sales. We'll discuss how we overcame certain challenges, and the one secret that caused Kevin's business to go from a team of three to a team of 25 within a short timeframe. Panel

• Petra Manos

Guest

• Kevin Urrutia

Sponsors

• Dev Influencers Accelerator

Links

• The E-Myth Revisited
• Coding Platform for Kids | Tynker
• #1 Facebook Ads Agency
• Twitter: Kevin Urrutia ( @danest )

Picks

• Kevin- DotCom Secrets
• Petra- A Series of Unfortunate Events

Chuck dives into the 3 essentials for getting the next successful outcome you want in your career. Whether that's something simple like a raise or something more complex like going freelance, you can achieve it by working on 3 main areas. First, building skills. The most obvious type of skills you'll need is technical skills. However, don't neglect your people skills and your organizational skills as well since you're often paid for how you work with people and enhance their work and how you put your work together in the most efficient ways. Second, building relationships. Often other people will be able to help you find the opportunities or will be the ones to make the decisions that impact your ability to get the outcome you want. Having good relationships is key to having good outcomes. Third, building recognition. Being known for being valuable in important ways allows you to leverage the skills you have to build better relationships and create opportunities to get what you need to get the outcomes you want by giving people what they want. A podcast is a great way to do all three. Chuck explains exactly how that works in this podcast and goes deeper as part of the Dev Influencers Accelerator. Panel

• Charles Max Wood

Charles Max Wood talks about how to build, grow, and benefit from positive relationships within programming. He talks about how he's built genuine positive relationships with hundreds of programmers and how he and others have grown from those relationships. He also explains that you get out of relationships what you put into them. Finally, he goes into how to begin to build relationships by building a system of influence you can use on behalf of the people you want relationships with. Panel

• Charles Max Wood

Sponsors

• Dev Influencers Accelerator

Panel:

• Jeremy Green
• Erik Dietrich

In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Jeremy and  Erik, discuss “Late Paying Whale Clients.” The discussion covers how to assess situations where you are not getting paid on time in your freelancing business. Jeremy and Erik cover a number of common situations and how to navigate your way to getting paid and avoid further unfortunate situations. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 0:50 - Erik and Jeremy talk how to handle late paying client who is the major part of your income. Jeremy suggests ways to avoid the situation by determining a time of when payment is collected. 2:50 -  Erik says this is a right of passage for a freelancing way of employment.  Erik says this is common in freelancing. Jeremy share story with working in an agency and friendships on the line. 6:14 -  Erik shares a story about doing 10k worth of work and not getting paid. This want due to management changeups. 7:00 - Erik talks about asking them why you are not getting paid. Jeremy says this may be due to not getting to know everyone in the business and getting the invoice to the right person who responsible for paying invoices. 10:30 - Erik says it is important to get the invoice to the right people because invoice sent to the CTO might not be high on his the priority list. Get it to accounts payable or find out who accounts payable are. 13:30 - Jeremy says to recognize the difference between late payments and laggy payments. Erik talks net 10 or net 30 payments. 15:40 - Jeremy talks about stopping work and getting some kind of payment on late paid invoices. 17:28 - Erik talks about how some clients play games to keep putting your invoices off. Erik talks about techniques to de-prioritized work for the client to understand they have unpaid or late payments.  20:30 - Jeremy mentions knowing your worth. Erik talks about possibly talking legal actions. But asks Jeremy about how he handled not getting paid from a client who owed 80k. Jeremy shares a story on how he structured things to take the lost. 24:00 -  Erik talks about thing to do to avoid legal actions. Jeremy shares how he switches to upfront payments. Jeremy explains his explanation to employers for upfront payments. Erik talks about asking them to put some skin in the game or sharing the risk. 29:00 - Erik talks about getting push back and adding fees to those who push back on upfront payment.  Jeremy talks about discounts to upfront payments. Erik talks about how these strategies are about de-risking your payments. 31:00 - Erik mentions another strategy to tack on 5% late charge and mention to the client that it is accounting thing. This should serve as a reminder that they are late. 34:00 -  Erik says this might be a sign to avoid working with whale clients. Jeremy says you might want to get several smaller clients and having multiple sources of income. 36:00 -  Jeremy continues with how to get paid upfront with reengagement with an old client. Jeremy says to look for the structural flaws int system and get new people in the company to help you get paid. 37:50 -  Erik says to hope is not a strategy and try to figure out where the issues is to get paid. Jeremy continues to understanding when to pull the plug on working for this kind of client. Sponsors/affiliates

• Get a Coder Job
• Freshbooks

Picks: Erik Semantic MergeHit Subscribe Jeremy Rock & Roll with EmberServerless

Panel:

• Jeremy Green
• Erik Dietrich

In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Jeremy and  Erik, and discuss “Starting Freelancing While Employed.” The discussion covers important topics on how to properly or successfully moonlight and transition into full-time freelancing while increasing your incoming and clients. This is a great episode on learning the ins and outs of moonlight on the side while maintaining a full-time job. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 1:00 -  Erik kicks off the topic about freelancing while you are employed. Erik starts with the questions form a forum form his place of work. Erik talks about the idea of moonlighting 2:00 - Reviewing your employment working about noncompeting work or conflict of interest to avoid restrictions. Jeremy says you should definitely check with the employment agreements. More talks about signing papers on agreements as a freelancer. 5:00 -  Jeremy talks about working with clients who want you to sign non-complete work or anything in the industry or nature of the work. Erik about work at Hit Subscribe. Erik shares more about working with the company to reform the agreements. 8:50 - Jeremy and Erik talk about moonlight on the “clock” which is a big issue and non-compliance. Jeremy continues to talk about the issues of doing this under the rader. 10:30 -  Erik talks about doing a bad job at your full-time job because of moonlighting. Don’t do it while you are at the office. Erik talks about people at the office who know you are running a side business and how to let it be known properly. Make sure your niche is not conflicting with your employer. 14:00 -  Jeremy talks about stealing clients from your employer and how that can cause employment issues within the full-time company. Jeremy talks about transitioning from employment to freelancing. 18:00 -  Erik talks about bargaining for perks over salary for time or freedom to freelance with your full-time job. 20:00 - Erik shares about signing with the company or letting your employer know about your freelancing work. This will allow you to do more if it is out in the open on social media and Linkedin. Jeremy talks about this could hinder your freelance marketing. 22:00 -  Erik talks about masking your identity with a brand, or working under a brand to keep from your employer from knowing about your side hustle.  24:00 -  Erik says if freelancing is going to be serious, then freelancing has to be out in the open with your employers. Erik asks Jeremy about when to know to make the switch to freelancing. Jeremy shares about his strategy and mistakes in making this transition. Jeremy talks about working with loan money to fill that gap and building his business. 28:00 -  Erik shares about making his jump from full-time salary to freelancing. Jeremy talks about mistakes in full-time salary and comparing that to freelancing work. How do you adjust the hourly rate or salary? Jeremy says this is selling your night and weekends. Jeremy says you will need to work on your business, not in your business. Jeremy also says you need to make more freelancing. 32:00 -  Erik talks about the pricing of service and freelancing work. Jeremy talks about delivering values to the client. Erik talks about experience and moonlighting within the company. 35:00 -  Erik talks about how freelancing on the side is going to mean more time working. Do what you need to do side hustling, but don’t make it a problem.  Jeremy shares about his agency and how they handled moonlighting within the agency. 40:00 -  Erik talks about kind of acting as an agent and bringing in moonlighting work. Erik says this is set up is not very common. 43:00 -  Make sure your contractually ready to moonlight and don’t charge too little is the takeaway. Also, have a bailout condition. Sponsors/affiliates

• Get a Coder Job
• Freshbooks

Picks: Erik

• The North East USA during fall for the amazing views
• A Hrefs

Jeremy

• Remarq - Now with emoji support 

Panel:

• Jeremy Green
• Reuven Lerner
• Erick Dietrich

In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Jeremy, Erick, and Reuven discuss the topic, “When Your Clients are Wrong.” The panel gives practical advice on how to work with different client/work situations that may not be ideal. They suggest to think about the situation logically, have a conversation with the client, and try to work out a win-win situation for both sides. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 1:16 – Let’s introduce this topic a little bit more softer than I did! 1:34 – After giving your clients some new / different options and they still aren’t satisfied. 1:58 – This is so difficult and delicate b/c it’s easier when you don’t need the money. If you only have 1 client or a handful of clients they are they only ones you can rely on for your income then it’s a lot harder and worse. Many times if a client asks you to do the wrong thing sometimes you can leave, but sometimes that’s not always realistic. If you can walk away if it really is horrible then maybe you can. You have a solution to a problem (you know how to solve this problem!) and your client says, “no.” What then? 3:59 – For me, the arrow in my quiver would be I believe in this so much let’s try it for free and run an experiment, if that’s a cost concern. 4:45 – You are willing to invest in it? 4:53 – Nothing is coming to my mind right now. For my blogging business... If it were years worth of blog posts than I wouldn’t do that for free. 5:47 – When I was doing consulting projects I would recommend: we should store things this way, or...Sometimes my clients will say “NO” this is not the way I want to do it. I was working with a company in Tel Aviv, and I wanted to have a bunch of different columns in the database. The CEO was like you are using all of those columns?! Right, that would work if you were living in the 1960’s! I presented my case to him, but it was the beginning of the end. He still saw himself as the CEO but also a brilliant software guy he didn’t want me second-guessing his brilliant decisions. 7:51 – It’s worth throwing it out there – you always do have the option of going on with idea. Pick your battles – live to live another day. 9:05 – If you come in and say: “I am right and this is why...” they will not go for it. It’s not good to win that argument. Kind of tease it out – let’s look at time and cost. Maybe overtime the customer will see what you are trying to do. 10:02 – It’s a good opportunity to say: Let’s take a step back and see the goals of this project. Maybe we have a mismatch of what our goals are or the current state of the project. I thought you were concerned about X but I see now that you are actually concerned with Y. I see now – maybe I misunderstood your situation. That could help the client refocus. 11:29 – They brought on this team of 40 people in Rails and then realized nobody knew Rails. I had a blast, but the way it worked if something wanted to change something then they would do a change request to the... Panelists go back-and-forth. 15:49 – “I hope I am wrong” mentality might be better than: “Man that is horrible, you are going to fall down on your face.” He talks about a credit card issue and showing that this case had to be implemented with this specific client/company. 18:00 – Advertisement – Digital Ocean! 18:41 – There is a wide range of “wrongness” where clients aren’t in the best place and the level of “wrongness”. We aren’t going to steal a logo for you. Are they asking you to do something wrong or is it a difference between 1% to 2%? 20:20 – This would be a better play vs. something illegal vs. something in-between. If a client is trying to roping you into plagiarism don’t do it. 22:08 – You can say I am turning down this work b/c we won’t be a good fit or I really can’t fulfill what you want me to do and that work can come back to you from another avenue. 22:50 – If you just can’t find anything else, but I know there are people that specialize in x, y, and z. They will finish the work better than me and I would recommend these people for those reasons. They respected that. 23:42 – Blood money – I wouldn’t want to help you for the specific reasons. People will respect that b/c they will see that you have their best interest at heart. Panelists continue to go back-and-forth. 25:47 – Was the client a cheapskate?  26:57 – Engaging with a client and see where they are. Predict future 28:05 – I have a client with a small business and their business in teetering on the edge of collapse. I have been clear with them and they tell me their budget. We just are adding duct tape to the problem just for a quick fix. 29:00 – It would be ideal that you had money but let’s figure out the next, best thing. 29:15 – Okay what do we want to do in 6 months or in a year so that way we can pay for things in installments that is less painful that way. I am trying to think – has anyone asked you to do something truly unethical? 29:48 – Yeah the logo thing was a family dispute. 29:56 – For our blogging agency I was asked to misrepresent something on a website. They asked if we could post a commercial and we were ghost writing it. Anytime that comes up I can pass. It hasn’t come up too much over the years. I cannot stress enough DON’T DO UNETHICAL THINGS. 31:16 – What can you do setup the relationship so this possibly isn’t an issue in the future? 32:00 – Panelist talks about clients and more.  The more consultative a relationship is the more they will listen to their expertise. Getting paid for your brains and less for your hands. 32:30 – Most times clients disregard your advice b/c they just see you as a pair of hands. 33:22 – In my initial calls with training people... 34:00 – Panelist talks about his 4-day training course and how companies try to squeeze the program out in only 2-3 days instead, because their workers are “smarter than the average person.” 35:28 – I can point to this data to show that I AM an expert. The more narrow I am with my focus the more they are inclined to hear me out and trust me. 36:11 – I have been doing this for years now I know how long it will take. Other things that we can say about this? 36:32 – General piece of advice would be if the client is disagreeing then it can be a real gut check and it’s important to keep a cool head and you don’t want to fight with your client. 37:35 – Advertisement – Fresh Books! Sponsors/affiliates:

• Get a Coder Job
• Digital Ocean
• Freshbooks

Picks: Jeremy

• Splice

Erick:

• GoodRX
• Manatee Trello

Reuven:

• Podia
• The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker

Panel:

• Jeremy Green

• Reuven Lerner

In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Jeremy and Reuven discuss “The Care and Feeding of an Email List.”Both Reuven and Jeremy cover their experience and insights with building an email list, software for email marketing, running a campaign, lead magnets, evergreen content creation, and much more. This is a great episode to understand how to integrate email marketing and lists building for your business. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 1:00 - Reuven talks about special software for an email list. Mailing for Marketing. Reuven talks about the things he learned with all the email lists. 2:00 - Reuven talks about Awebber, Drip and other types of email marketing software. Reuven continues to talks about evergreen lists, and issues with mailing lists. Reuven talks about how to write evergreen emails. 5:00 - Jeremy asks about the timing of sending out emails rather it is a regular list or evergreen emails. Reuven talks about email campaigns and other kinds of scheduled type email tasks. 7:20 - Reuven talks about what a broadcast email list is according to Drip, as well as Drop Campaigns. Reuven explains how these email campaigns work and how they function to market a product. Reuven explains how to gain or collect emails. 10:00 - Reuven explains how to write up emails to keep your audience or lists in the loop of your products or whatever you are doing? 11:00 - How to get people on these mailing lists? Reuven explains how to collect emails for your campaign. Reuven talks about how Lead Magnet work to collect emails. Reuven continues with Content Upgrades, Email Courses, and other clever ways to collect or build up a marketing list. 14:00 -  Reuven explains opting out, and how this email market is a cost-free way to market. He also talks about Lead Ads on Facebook as another way to market, but it is not free. 17:00 - Some talk about the trials of unsubscribes. Reuven concludes his setup of his email lists 20:03 -  Jeremy asks about reusing content and the extent of creating content. Reuven explains that this leads to people creating a book or ebook our of all the content that create for their email lists. Reuven talks about engaging with the audience or lists. 23:00 -  Reuven talks about reusing content in his training material and how is cross pollenates.  24:00 -  Jeremy ask about how Reuven goes about pruning his list of those who are not activate with the email content. Reuven explains open rates and other analytic measures and how to read those numbers. Jeremy says he is anti-pruning of his lists. 27:00 -  Reuven talks about messages going into junk mail, and other kinds of undefined or unopened emails. 29:00 -  Jeremy talks about overcoming personal views on email and putting out content to people. Reuven talks about the response email to this subscribers. 32:00 -  Jeremy ask about compiling with GDPR. Is this important to know about email lists. Reuven talks about how he takes care of this GDPR compliance action. Reuven talks about ways to workaround those who want to resubscribe. Jeremy explain his actions with GDPR compliance. 35:00 -  Small business and privacy verses huge corporations. Daily messages. Revue talks more about writing and hiring to write content in place of himself to product content. As well as hiring to guest post and generate sales. Sponsors/affiliates

• Get a Coder Job
• Digital Ocean
• Code Badges

Links

• Drip: getdrip.com
• Mailchimp: Mailchimp.com
• Content Upgrades: http://rightmessage.io/
• RightMessage: http://rightmessage.io/
• Sumo: Sumo.com

Picks: Jeremy

• RightMessage

Reuven

• Blind Ambition, by John Dean

Panel:

• Jeremy Green
• Erick Dietrich
• Reuven Lerner

In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Jeremy, Reuven and Erick discuss “Choosing a Specialty.” This episode covers the many different avenues of discovering your niche or specialty. Each Freelancer speaks about how they have become an expert in their field rather it was an organic transition or something that had to work and building. This is a great episode if you are apart of a company and want to separate yourself as an independent freelancer or entrepreneur. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 1:10 - Erick shares about a question he is asked often which is “How does one  figure out exactly what to specialize in if one is about to go independent?” Erick talks about his journey working his way up to being independent. Erick shares working in consulting, marketing, and the evolution of being a Freelancer. 3:45 -  Jeremy talks about his journey, working in Rails and Ember and other technologies via consulting with companies. Eventually, specializing in a few things rather a bunch of general bunch of things 6:20 -  Reuven shares how he got into specializing starting from Pearl to training in Ruby. Reuven talks about how know Python led his to training more often, then eventually decided to work from Israel and working on the training/consulting platform. 10:25 -  Erick talks about back into the specialty or finding what you are naturally great at. Jeremy talks about finding prospective buyers and getting in the door with them easier. 12:00 -Turning down work that is out of your specialty but take the work if you need it. 14:00 -  Look around and find out what is working. Focus on what you are good at, but think more about what you are hearing people need. Listen for the demand. Reuven talks about choosing something you like and interest you. 17:10 - Noting is permanent. You can change your specialty if you need too. Marketing yourself to different people in different ways. Reuven talks about niche AB testing. 20:00 - Reuven talks about Phillip Morgan’s book on specializing. Phillip Morgan consulting. 23:00 - Erick task about listening to the pain points of your clients to find opportunities. Reuvnen talks about making his want to a consultant to a trainer. Branding yourself and people will call you up for work. 27:00 -  Erick asks - Is there an organic way to find your specialty? Reuven says people he know that people just “fall-into” their speciality. Reuven gives Andrew Madsen as an example with credit unions. 31:00 - Reuven talks about the roles of peoples jobs and getting exposed to what kinds of jobs are out there. Reuven talks about going to conferences. Going to conferences of potential clients as an idea to market. 34:00 -  Erick talks about gaining expertise by writing about it and seeing who contact you about it. Jeremy talks more about writing and bring in business for your business. 40:00 -  Jeremy talks about when it is time to find something else. Reuven that your niche is similar to marketing yourself. 43:00 -  Reuven talks about establish what you don’t do as anti specializing. Reuven talks about trying several things to understand what you want to specialize in. Erick says not to procrastinate or indecision to put of life or career goals. Sponsors/affiliates

• Get a Coder Job
• Digital Ocean
• Code Badges

Picks: Erik

• Guideline
• Hit Subscribe authorship

Jeremy

• Phillip Morgan consulting

Reuven

• WeeklyPythonExercise.com
• From Cold War to Hot Peace, by Michael McFaul)
• War on Peace by Farrow

Panel:

• Jeremy Green

• Erick Dietrich

In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Jeremy and Erick discuss “Working with Recruiters.” Both Erick and Jeremy describe their experience with how recruiters and agencies fit into the job search as a developer. This discussion brings light to the pros and cons of using a recruiter to acquire a job as a  freelancer or a conventional W-2 employee.  This is a great episode to learn the insights of what recruiters expect when helping one find a carrier in the software development platform. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• Hit Subscribe -  and working with recruiters 
• Changing relationships with recruiters
• What recruiters are looking for  - full-time employees
• The preferred way of working - W2 employment
• Not being seen as worth recruiter time as a contract worker
• Placement for staff augmentation and freelance
• The downsides of working with recruiters
• Successful placement with recruiters
• Intro projects via recruiters
• Recruiters taking a percentage
• Job boards
• Organizations over recruiters
• Working as a sub-contractor via agency
• Flipping a full-time offer intro a contract
• Labor laws
• Wasting an employers time with a switch from W2 to Contract
• Make your intentions clear as a freelancer
• Working with trusted recruiters
• and much more.

Picks: Erik:

• Hit Subscribe authorship
• Hubspot

Jeremy

• Mirror Placement
• Robert Half

Panel:

• Reuven Lerner
• Jonathan Stark

In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, the panelist, Reuven and Jonathan discuss “The Essential Consultant Library,” or the books you should read for consulting, marketing and business. Jonathan and Reuven share the exact books that helped them in the current area of business. Rather it is consulting, marketing, or entrepreneurship, the Freelancers share their favorites and much more. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• You should continue learning
• Books that help in various ways for business
• Value-Based Fees by Alan Weiss
• The Positioning Manual by Philip Morgan
• Selling to Big Companies by Jill Konrath
• The Secret of Selling Anything by Harry Browne
• How to Measure Anything by Douglas  Hubbard
• Just F  Ship by Amy Hoy
• Double Your Freelancing Rates by Brennan Dunn
• Hourly Billing is Nuts by Jonathan Stark
• The Brain Audit by Sean D’Souza
• Patrick McKenzie website
• Getting Things Done by David Allen
• And much more!     

Sponsors/Affilates

• FreshBooks

• Digital Ocean

Picks Jonathan

• Little Nightmares
• Jonathan's Reading List
• The Pricing Seminar

Reuven Lerner

• We Chat
• MEET

Panel:

• Jonathan Stark

Guest: Josiah Mory In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Jonathan of the Freelancer’s Show speaks with Josiah Mory about getting into your clients heads. Josiah talks about how his company, Kickinbahk Productions, engages with customers to increase sales with marketing strategies. This is a great episode that uncovers marketing strategies and gives insight into marketing and much more! In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• Josiah talks about Kickinbahk Productions.
• Strategies with clients
• Freelancing
• Learning from podcasts
• Offering up skills
• Allowing the conversation to flow
• Their frustrations in the business
• Building relationships with customers
• Just ask “How is business”
• Finding out where clients are at
• Optimizing Sales
• What steps would you take after finding out where your prospects are at?
• Business happens over the phone
• Cash flow
• And much more!     

Links

• Kickinbahk Productions
• Joisah Mory’s LinkedIn

Picks: Jonathan

• The Pricing Seminar
• Canon EOS M50

Josiah

• ONKRON Monitor Desk Mount
• Josiah's 5-day email course
• Josiah's website

Panel:

• Jonathan Stark
• Erik Dietrich

In this episode of the Freelancers’ Show, the panelists discuss dealing with inbound communications, what to do if you’re getting too much and what to do if you’re not getting enough. They talk about how difficult it is to manage inbound communication, especially when there is a large amount coming in, the difference between using slack and email, and Gmail plugins to help organize incoming emails. They also touch on triaging your inbox, being honest with yourself as to what you actually will do on your to-do list, and more! In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• Getting too much inbound communication VS not enough
• Needing better ways to manage inbound communication
• Very difficult to manage when there is a lot coming in
• Do you mean just email or multiple channels?
• What are your channels of inbound communication?
• Working on ways to optimize
• Moving urgent client communication to Slack
• The difference between Slack and Email
• Declaring email bankruptcy
• The ability to ignore email inbox
• Gmail plugins to help
• Buffering emails
• Only checking slack for paying customers
• Go in once a day to clean up your incoming communication
• Not knowing an email is there VS strenuously trying to avoid it
• The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
• Getting Things Done – David Allen
• Triaging your inbox
• Only focus on the urgent to-dos
• Be honest with yourself so your to do list doesn’t get too long
• If you don’t feel the need to get to it within a week, it’s not that important
• Suffering from inbox overload
• To get less email, you can respond less frequently 
• And much, much more!

Links:

• The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
• Getting Things Done – David Allen

Sponsors:

• FreshBooks
• Linode

Picks: Jonathan

• Calendly
• Guide to Winning Clients by David A. Fields
• The Pricing Seminar

Erik

• Getting Things Done
• SiteGround
• Calendly

Panel:

• Reuven Lerner
• Jeremy Green

In this episode of the Freelancers’ Show, the panelists discuss vacations. They talk about the importance of taking time off for yourself, the fact that your business won’t fall apart if you take a few days off, and the unhealthy cultural baggage that makes people feel as if they can’t take a vacation. They also touch on the fact that it’s okay not to squeeze out every cent you can out of your business if that means you can live a happier life, how to set boundaries with your clients when you go on vacation, and more! In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• Not taking vacations because you feel guilty/fear of failure
• Take vacations and enjoy them!
• Deep misunderstandings on the idea of too much work and no play
• The need to recharge
• Harder to not take vacations when you have a family
• Actually taking a vacation when you go on vacation
• Stress with dealing with clients while on vacation
• Your business won’t collapse if you step away for a few days
• Hustle culture
• Unhealthy cultural baggage
• College started these bad habits
• It’s okay not to make 100% of the money you could if you stayed up till 2 every night
• It’s better to make less and have a better life
• Forcing yourself to stay in work mode
• Working mothers
• Getting more sleep makes your more efficient
• Encourage yourself to stay on topic at work and you will have more free time for yourself
• How do you tell your clients you won’t be available?
• Boundary setting
• Prepare your clients before you leave
• And much, much more!

Sponsors:

• FreshBooks

Picks: Reuven

• Weekly Python Exercise

Jeremy

• Melodics

Charles Max Wood discusses several opportunities that came his way early in his podcasting career and other opportunities that have come to other people after only a couple of podcast episodes. He explains why that happens and how you can use this to create more influence as a developer. Panel

• Charles Max Wood

Panel:

• Reuven Lerner
• Jeremy Green
• Erik Dietrich

In this episode of the Freelancers’ Show, the panelists discuss making a good impression with your clients. They talk about what you can do to make a good first impression, and a continuing impression, on your clients. They also touch on how to get the best exposure on the internet, what content you can put on your website to boost your first impression, where else you can promote a good first impression, and more! In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• A lot of questions online about what you can do to get people to notice you
• Where you should and should not put your effort
• In many cases, potential clients don’t look at your website
• Your website isn’t make or break
• Unless you show your website to people, no one will be going there
• Having a website vs a blog
• How to get exposure on the internet
• Hooking blog up to aggregation engines
• Getting the content out on your website is the most important step
• Make sure your content is aimed at your customers, not your peers
• Why people are contacting you
• Giving people weekly reminders
• When you get clients from referrals, how do you hit it off with them?
• Point people to your site
• Having a syllabus on your website
• Pointing to a portfolio
• Using testimonials from past bosses, clients, or peers
• Where else, other than your website, can you promote yourself?
• Building business off your open source contributions
• Walking the “line”
• Building a strong image of yourself
• And much, much more!

Sponsors:

• FreshBooks

Picks: Reuven

• Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? by Robert Kuttner
• Robert Kuttner Talk

Jeremy

• increaseyourconsultingfees.com

Erik

• Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port
• Microsoft Azure

Panel:

• Jonathan Stark
• Jeremy Green
• Erik Dietrich

In this episode of the Freelancers’ Show, the panelists discuss writing better project proposals. Freelancers constantly present product proposals to clients in a way that clients cannot understand, making the client not want to use them again for their product or service. They talk about the fear freelancers have about being called out on their pricing, forcing your clients to be educated about your line of work when they don’t care, not understanding your customer, and more! In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• The right way to talk to clients about your good/service
• Don’t present yourself as a commodity
• Write project proposals in a “language” that people can understand
• Not always the proposal is what is bad
• Giving the clients useless updates
• Fear of being called to the carpet of your pricing
• Trying to educate clients when they don’t care
• Simple ways to get your point across to clients
• Not understanding the customer
• Having multiple types of customers
• Feeling like you’re being talked down to
• Most clients’ main priority is that you get done what they need done
• Value pricing
• Clients who like to nickel and dime you
• Clients who fight you every step of the way
• People will hire you because you are the expert
• How to be treated like an expert
• Target clients who don’t specialize in what you do
• Value-based proposals versus labor based proposals
• Sanity checks
• Why conversations
• And much, much more!

Sponsors:

• FreshBooks

Picks: Jonathan

• Goliath

Jeremy

• Remarq

Erik

• Diablo 2
• Capital One

Panel: Reuven Lerner In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Reuven talks about the “Genesis of a Course,” or creating a new course. Reuven focuses on  creating training material for businesses and companies. Reuven covers how to come up with new material or courses, demands for a new course, naming the course, syllabus, the takeaway of the course, teaching, competition, and much more. This is a great episode to learn about all the key points to create and launch a new course. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• Creating new courses
• Allows you to upsell
• Offer a wider variety of courses
• They (Business)  see you as an authority
• Where to get Ideas for new courses
• Working with clients  to get ideas
• Learning about demand
• Title of the course
• Sending the course syllabus to companies
• ROI of the course
• Teaching a months worth of information?
• Competition means there is a market
• Starting off with the course, targeting, etc
• Using Keynote
• Slide decks
• Time put in to build out a course
• Preparation equals 3-4 days for each day of teaching
• Creating exercises
• Practice adding exercises
• Resistance on a new course
• Give material out as Webinars
• Where and how to announce the new course
• This is going to take weeks and months to create
• And much more!     

Links:

• https://lerner.co.il
• https://twitter.com/reuvenmlerner?lang=en
• https://il.linkedin.com/in/reuven
• https://github.com/reuven

Sponsors/Affiliates

• FreshBooks

Picks Reuven Lerner

• Bluedio T4S

Panel:

• Eric Dietrich
• Jeremy Green
• Reuven Lerner

In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, the panelist discuss “Business Cards. The Freelancers talk about the uses of business cards in today's job market. This discussion covers the many different facets of how business cards could create networks and conduits for new business. This is great episode to learn about how to positions your business cards in the freelancing world to market yourself. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• Do you have business cards?
• Bought a box several years ago - The lean approach
• Putting your business cards in peoples hands and clarifying what you do
• Taglines on your card
• What you do information on your card
• ROI on cards
• Make connections with business cards
• LinkedIn over business cards
• Marketing assets that lead to a digital funnel
• Mail
• Things that stand out and make your business card memorable
• Jump drives
• QR Codes
• The main point it for someone to remember you and want to do business with you
• Digital products
• Coupons for books
• T-Shirts
• Useful things to have to market yourself
• And much more!     

Sponsors/Affiliates

• FreshBooks

Picks Eric Dietrich

• Scishow
• Amazing headphones

Jeremy Green

• Rock and Roll with EmberJS

Reuven Lerner

• Naked Statistics

Panel:

• Reuven Learner
• Jeremy Green
• Erik Dietrich
• Jonathan Stark

In this episode of the Freelancers’ Show, the panelists discuss chaos clients. Chaos clients are long-time clients who are disorganized, reactive, and constantly wait for things to blow up before “pulling the fire alarm.” These types of clients are disruptive to any business, and so the panelists discuss some things you can do if you have chaos clients. They also touch on how each of the respective panelists deal with these clients and their thoughts on the best and worse ways of dealing with a client’s self-inflicted problems. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• What is a chaos client?
• What can you do when you have a chaos client?
  • Decide whether or not you want to keep the client
  • Maybe fire them if you can’t see them changing
  • Have individual fire-drill pricing
  • Wait to address the situation in a low-emotion time
• Try to become more proactive in the future with them
• Higher price tags for these clients
• Price tag for your misery vs getting rid of these clients
• Be careful with just raising prices
• Push back in ways that make the client revise their priorities
• Understanding that not everything needs to be done ASAP
• Part of your job is to calm clients down
• Helping a client with an actual emergency vs helping a client who self-inflicts problems
• Chronic chaos clients
• Preventing these “fire drills” in the future
• Only push off other projects when talking with the person of authority on the project
• Pricing can be used to discourage clients from doing things
• And much, much more!

Sponsors:

• FreshBooks
• Linode

Picks: Jonathan

• The Expert Video
• Flawless Consulting
• The Freelancer's Roadmap by Jonathan Stark

Reuven

• Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
• Weekly Python Exercise

Jeremy

• Remarq
• The Key to Increasing Your Consulting Fees

Erik

• Horkey Handbook

Panel:

• Jonathan Stark
• Jeremy Green
• Eric Dietrich
• Charles Maxwood
• Rueven Lerner
• Curtis

In this episode, the Freelancer show celebrates its 300th episode. The Freelancer show answers Q&A with past and new members to the panel. Topics cover best practices as a freelancer, making the jump into entrepreneurship, value-based pricing versus fixed pricing, and much more! In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• How do you get potential clients to talk to you and see if it’s a good fit?
  • Person 1’s Answer:
    • You want to have some sort of process in place.
    • A precursor for working with client.
    • Free 30-minute call for both of us.
  • Person 2’s Answer:
    • Go out to business conferences and business world to meet people.
    • Be willing to make the phone calls, and connect on LinkedIn.
    • You will meet a whole lot of people, and not everyone will be a good fit for you.
    • Then you can start weeding out those that won’t be a good fit.
  • Person 3’s Answer:
    • Phone call, proposal phase, and then contract.
  • Person 4’s Answer:
    • Inbound and the Q&A.
  • Person’s 5 Answer:
    • Most of the leads are inbound (from conferences or blogs or Stack Overflow).
    • Asking a lot of questions.
    • Start the conversation over e-mail.
• For folks who have successfully disconnected time for money, what was that experience like for you, why did you do it, what were the challenges? Talk about the things you do and you’re not getting paid for your time.
  • Person 1’s Answer:
    • Training budgets.
    • I made the disconnect the minute I stopped doing developmental work.
    • How much do you really charge?
  • Person 2’s Answer:
    • Sponsorship episodes.
    • Selling advertising it’s usually per unit.
    • If you don’t think you’re getting a good value then it might not be a good match.
    • Podcast sponsorships.
  • Person 3’s Answer:
    • In the beginning – it’s more an art than a science.

Links:

• FreshBooks
• LinkedIn
• Stack Overflow
• Trello
• Crowdcast
• Schedule Once
• Pipedrive
• Slack
• Calendly

Sponsors:

• Linode

Panel:

• Jeremy Green
• Jonathan Stark
• Reuven Lerner

Special Guest: Sherry Walling, Ph.D. In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, the panel discusses: “Beyond Burnout - How to Work Hard and Enjoy Life.” Dr. Sherry Walling is a licensed clinical psychologist with extensive experience treating stress-related problems in high achieving people. She is an academic and professional powerhouse with master’s degrees in psychology and theology, formal training as a yoga teaching, and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. For more biographical information, please checkout: https://zenfounder.com/about/. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• How to Prioritize Your Life
  • Great start – you found something that you love to do as far as work!
  • Have a variety of things going on in your life.
  • Have backup strategies in play.
  • “Make it big plan” is a low frequency event.
• Are there areas where freelancers chronically under invest in?
  • Sleep
  • Diet
  • Exercise
    • It’s easy to neglect your body.
  • Time with friends
    • Connecting you with human beings.
    • Connections with online friends are great, but real-life friendships are better for mental health because we connect better with three-dimensional people.
• If you make the investments into yourself (sleeping, eating well, exercising) this will better your business.
  • This notion of should or shouldn’t do X, Y, Z.
  • Paul Jarris’ newsletter: Defining What Enough Is For You?
  • Budgeting together as a family.
    • Gives you a clear sense of what “enough” is for you and your family.
  • Examples:
    • Elon Musk
      • Works 24/7 and is CEO of many companies.
      • Admired by many, but lifestyle seems toxic to some.
      • Wisdom is knowing your own personal limits.
    • Silicon Valley, CA
    • Patrick Collison
      • Humble person
      • Dr. Walling was very impressed on how aware he is as a person.
      • He recognizes that the right events were in-place and he put in the work, too.

• • Burnout – different stages and things we can do to address burnout
    • Burnout is a syndrome where people feel detached from their work. They feel like their input does not equal their output.
    • It’s subjective.
    • It’s caused by too much work, feeling out-of-control in your work, a mismatch of daily tasks versus what needs to be done, not enough support, and working with clients who are emotionally draining, etc.
    • Scientifically we can view a brain that is burned-out.
    • Other health problems can arise due to stress.
    • We know how to prevent it and how people can recover.
    • It could take a few weeks in order to regain a healthy lifestyle to recover from burnout.
    • Road to recovery
    • 30% of adults experience burnout in some point in their life.
    • Dr. Christina Maslach
      • Her research is focused on burnout.
    • Time is finite and life is finite.
      • You will choose things that are more gratifying for you and your life.
    • Sometimes we forget the “love” piece.
      • I choose to do the activities that really bring me joy.
      • This will help with the longevity of your business.
      • Not things that you feel like you “should.”
      • Listen to the emotional quality to your work to help prevent potential burnout.
    • Hobbies
      • If you have some hobbies like yoga, fishing, painting, baking, knitting etc. it can definitely help prevent burnout.
      • Hobbies are good for a sense of accomplishment.
        • Mastery and it feeds your soul.

• • Protecting Personal Relationships
    • Rhythms and structures in our relationships.
      • Regularity of date night once a week (for example) helps establishing this routine.
      • The same is true for friendships.
    • Find a good mentor.
      • Grow together and it’s great for psychological support.
    • Fitness goals
      • If you don’t use it, you will loose it.
      • This gets more important the older you get.

Links:

• Dr. Sherry Waling
• KEEPING YOUR S**T TOGETHER

Sponsors:

• FreshBooks
• Linode
• Cachefly

Picks: Jonathan Stark

• valuepricingbootcamp.com
• Your Productized Consulting Guide
• howtobulilduourfirstproductizedservice.com
• James Clear: Building Habits – mailing list

Jeremy Green Philip Morgan – Positioning Manual Rueven Lerner

• The New Yorker – Japan’s Rent A Family Industry

Dr. Sherry Walling

• Book: KEEPING YOUR S**T TOGETHER

Panel:

• Jonathan Stark
• Jeremy Green

In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, the panelist discuss “Charging Differently.” Jonathan describes this as charging different clients differently for different reasons. Jeremy explains the separate reasons you would charge individual clients different rates, because of interacts, implications of the jobs, and the project requirements. The discussion covers why you would consider different hourly rates, weekly rates, monthly rates, and value-based pricing. This is a great episode to learn about the strategy behind optimizing revenue while charging different rates in your freelancing business. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• Hourly Fee, Weekly rates, Monthly rates, and Value-based pricing
• Implications of the job
• Interacting differently from client to client
• Expertise
• Shifting your mindset
• Delivering outcome for their business
• Increasing leads
• Relationships and considering outcomes
• Strategically positioning yourself within your niche
• The “Generalist”
• Trying to value price large projects and small projects
• Weekly project discussion
• Updating the client ASAP
• Perceived effort
• Tips for moving from hourly to value base - offers
• How to find that type of prospect
• Productized consulting 
• And much more!     

Picks Jonathan Stark

• valuepricingbootcamp.com
• Your Productized Consulting Guide
• howtobulilduourfirstproductizedservice.com
•  

Jeremy Green

• American Utopia Tour

Panel:

• Reuven Lerner
• Erik Dietrich
• Jeremy Green

In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, the panelist discuss “Responding to RFPs( Request for Proposal).” Each panelist describes their experience with consulting clients and companies and working out RFPs. Eric Dietrich of episode 296 gives great insight on ways to communicate clearly with companies when approached for bidding on a job. This is a great episode to understand appropriate precautions and understanding the “others side” of RFPs. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• Eric talks about his experience with RFPs
• Jeremy describes his past encounters with RFPs.
• Jonathan’s experience with RFPs.
• Price droppers
• Learning about the budget
• Qualifications points of the job
• Individual to RFPs
• Risk competing with companies
• Last resort
• Issues of RFPs - Not individual but by companies
• Quoting a price 
• Involving a phone call
• Resumes
• Changing the conversation
• Value-based pricing
• And much more!     

Picks Jonathan Stark

• Chris Do of Blind
• Gorilla Clients
• valuepricingbootcamp.com

Erik Dietrich

• Cortana
• Top Loader for Jeep

Jeremy Green

• Increase Your Consulting Fees 
• Rock’n Roll with EmberJS

Panel:

• Reuven Lerner
• Jonathan Stark
• Jeremy Green

In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, the panelist discuss “Negotiating with Clients.”  The panelist, Reuven, Jonathan, and Jeremy give strategies on how to accomplish a “win-win situation” when clients who are trying to bargain on price.  Each panelist provides their paths and actions to stand firmly on the price of their services. This is a great episode to get some insight on what at the professionals do to get appropriate pay on their services and many other facets of negotiations that are available. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• Do you negotiate on price?
• Discounts?
• Steering away from the prices
• Comparing your services to others
• Politely decline
• “Your prices are higher than the other companies”
• Losing clients
• Finding a good fit and getting referrals
• Problems with giving one discount
• Hourly rates vs. Fixed
• Caving on prices once!
• Removing Scope
• New Proposals and re-quoting
• Other things besides money to negotiate on
• Payment options on service
• Pricing to guarantee there are not bugs
• 100% payment upfront
• 60-day net pay
• Working around policies to get paid
• More on payment terms
• Negotiating  and deadlines
• Getting Leads
• And much more!     

Picks Reuven Lerner

• tranistor.fm

Jonathan Stark

• Learn Your Lines

Jeremy Green

• Increase Your Consulting Fees

Charles Max Wood discusses several opportunities that came his way early in his podcasting career and other opportunities that have come to other people after only a couple of podcast episodes. He explains why that happens and how you can use this to create more influence as a developer. Panel

• Charles Max Wood

Panel:

• Reuven Lerner
• Jonathan Stark
• Jeremy Green

Special Guest: Erik Dietrich In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, the panelist and guest Eric Dietrich discuss “Future of Labor.” Erik is a software developer, was an executive a software company, but turn to consulting for a number of years. Currently, Erik runs a digital content marketing agency and still does consulting. Erik is the author of a number of developer-related books, including Developer Hegemony: The Future of Labor, which is the basis of today’s episode topic. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• Demands for software
• Labor vs. Knowledge work
• Software architects to Developer
• Law firm agency, apprenticeship
• Leaving big companies
• Giving up on staffing IT, etc.
• Outsourcing
• History of corporation
• Just sitting in your basement and code…
• Business skills  - Being an entrepreneur, not an employee
• What should a developer do to take advantage of this?
• Start to understand the  fundamentals of a business
• Maintenance work vs. designing the future
• UpWork -  and commodity labor
• Transferable skills
• Trends for Freelancers
• Becoming business savvy, entrepreneurial
•  
• And much more!     

Links

• https://github.com/erikdietrich
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-dietrich-109a888/
• https://www.amazon.com/Erik-Dietrich/e/B00J6314XY=
• @daedtech

Picks Reuven Lerner

• Slow Burn Podcast

Jonathan Stark

• Dyson V8
• Value Pricing BootCamp

Jeremy Green Increase Your Consulting Fees

• Increase Your Consulting Fees

Erik Dietrich

• Developer Hegemony
• Post Scan Mail

Panel:

• Jonathan Stark

In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Jonathan discusses “Flipping the Switch,” on a solo podcast episode. Jonathan answers questions about shut down his old mobile site jonathanstark.com and replaced the content with ExpensiveProblem.com. Jonathan continues with important insights, in his journey, when you are considering closing doors on one business and starting the next. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: t

• Combining business at jonathanstark.com
• Closed doors on the mobile business
• Working with Credit Unions
• Horizontal expertise
• Picking a vertical market
• Mobile strategy
• Adaption
• The announcement of the iPhone and mobile focus
• Smartphone craze
• Joining open source projects
• Jqtouch
• PhoneGap
• Mobile platform
• Jonathan book launch on JQT and PhoneGap
• Being part of a tribe or a new culture of developers
• Change in 2012
• Leads? Budgets for mobile were drying up
• 2017 - Mobile become the dominant computing platform
• Main Stream
• Blockchain, AI, etc.
• Side interest - Hourly Billing
• Coaching service
• Where your name is associated
• And much more!     

Panel:

• Reuven
• Jonathan Stark
• Jeremy Green

In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Reuven and Jonathan discuss “Keeping Your Skill Shape,” with Jeremey Green. The panelist discuss ways to improve their game to keep ahead of the curb in freelancing. This is a great episode to learn the different avenues of sharpening your skill with technologies, applications, courses,  project, and literature to stay consistent with an ever-changing industry. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• Keeping your skill sharp
• Doing a mix of things to stay ahead
• Students and questions
• Teaching, Education, and Training
• Strategy to learn new things
• Doing Side Project to keep ahead
• Blog, Teach a Course, Write a book
• If you know more about it then everyone else, you are the expert
• Learning other technologies
• Becoming specialized in a specific technology
• Knowing how to finding information when you need it
• Crafting the right Google query
• Social Learning Theory
• And much more!     

Picks: Jonathan

• Revenue Lerner’s Git Course
• Understanding and Mastering Git
• ValuePricingBootcamp.com

Reuven

• Podcasts -  Pod Save The World
• Podcasts - Chompers

Jeremy Green

• Ableton Live

Panel:

• Reuven
• Jonathan Stark
• Jeremy Green

In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Reuven and Jonathan discuss “Pros and Cons of Building a SaaS,” with Jeremey Green. Jeremy is going to be a part panelist and guest on this edition of the Freelancer’s Show. Jeremy is a past guest of the podcast, and is a software developer, independent operator, works with clients and companies, and lastly,  has worked with SaaS (Software as a Service) projects for many years. Jeremy and the panelist talk about the pro and cons of working in the SaaS industry. This is a great episode to learn about freelancing in the SaaS industry, and the business perspective of working with SaaS. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• Jeremy talks about his background as a developer and SAAS developer.
• Reuven asks Why SaaS, and Why not SaaS. (Software as a Service)
• Shopify
• Woking in SaaS
• ReMark
• Working with other technologies to build software
• Launching to customers
• Software Freelancers
• Building a SaaS is seductive, but?
• Having a conversation with actual clients before jumping in
• How is Shopify a SaaS? 
• Crowd Funder
• Do you categorize apps differently?
• Upside of the Shopify platform
• Standalone SaaS
• How much time do you spend on these project per week?
• How many hour to each project per week?
• Customer support
• Bug reports
• Do you talk people more now or before you did SaaS products?
• And much more!     

Picks: Jonathan

• The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories
• Value Pricing Bootcamp

Reuven

• Understanding and Mastering Git

Jeremy Green

• Boarding House Reach by Jack White

Panel:

• Reuven Lerner
• Jonathan Stark

In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Reuven and Jonathan discuss “Free Advice.”   Reuven mentions the importance of how to handle free advice. Jonathan and Reuven talk about their experience with providing consultation to business owners or developers who need direction. When do you provide advice?  How do you get compensated for your wisdom and expertise? How do you do this professionally and make a profit from your insight?  This is a great episode to learn when and how to provide your expertise with a price tag. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 

• Jonathan and Reuven do some housekeeping on the upcoming Episode 300!
• Email jstark@johnathenstark.com about topics of Episode 300
• Reuven tells his story on advice.
• Being a mercenary or profiter
• Giving rules of thumb and web base advice, or best practice
• Profit building advice
• It depends? It is advice quick or will it take long to explain
• Providing advice on low risk verses high risk
• Being asked in person, email, or over the web
• Sending people to a blog or a resource to help them
• Free options, communities forums, websites, etc
• Privatise Consulting
• Blair Enns -  The Win Without Pitching Manifesto
• Pitch Deck
• Opposite of sounding desperate
• Dealing with discount prices
• Payment plans options
• And much more!

Picks: Jonathan

• The Win Without Pitching Manifesto
• I Want You to Give Me One for Free - Mad Men
• Learn Your Lines

Reuven

• Life360

Panel:

• Reuven Lerner
• Jonathan Stark

In this episode of the Freelancers’ Show, the panelists discuss sunsetting products and services and when to pull the trigger when they aren’t working. They talk about not putting too much time into a product or service that isn’t taking off, having a positive or negative ROI, opportunity cost, and many other topics. This is a great episode for freelancers who are struggling with the question of whether or not to retire certain products or services in their own business. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• When to pull the plug
• Why a product or service wouldn’t be working
• Killed off Daily Tech Video
• The importance of not waiting too long to pull the plug
• Hard to make a public commitment and then give it up
• If you’re doing something and you’re not making money, it’s a hobby not a business
• Is your ROI positive or negative?
• Opportunity cost
• Have clear goals and objectives for products and services
• Sunset if they aren’t selling well
• Getting rid of Road Mapping
• Finding a better way to produce these products and services
• Experimentation is key
• Will it make money that is fast enough for your business?
• Is it worth your time and effort?
• Mandarin Weekly
• And much, much more!     

Links:

• Daily Tech Video
• Mandarin Weekly

Picks: Jonathan

• Value Pricing Bootcamp
• The Dip by Seth Godin

Reuven

• Counterpart

Panel:

• Reuven Lerner
• Kai Davis

In this episode of the Freelancers’ Show, the panelists discuss common mistakes that they have made in their freelancing and consulting history to help you learn from their mistakes. They talk about mistakes when it comes to raising rates, hiring employees, having a home office or not, and much more and how you can avoid them in the future. They also stress the fact that communication is key when it comes to keeping a health client relationship. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 

• Common foibles
• When raising rates, make sure to give your clients some advanced notice
• Want to make sure you don’t ruin your relationship with your client
• Put yourself in the client’s shoes
• How to properly raise your rates
• Communication is key
• Don’t get caught up in the illusion that you must hire other people to succeed
• Don’t discount your ability to sell yourself
• Only hire on an hourly basis not a full-time basis
• Don’t be afraid to fire people if you have to in order to survive as a business
• Hire people as sub-contractors
• Having an office outside of the house pros and cons
• Importance of having a separation of spaces in a home office
• The importance of following up with past clients to see if they have new needs
• Value-based follow-up
• Always start with a contract!
• You will be scammed by people in your career
• And much, much more!

 Picks: Reuven

• The Daily podcast

Kai

• Apple Home Pod

Panel:

• Reuven Lerner
• Jonathan Stark

In this episode of the Freelancers’ Show, the panelists discuss pricing. They really emphasize the fact that you need to think about the scope last when making a sale. You should be focused on the desired future outcome and the intensity of the problem at hand before you think about the scope. They discuss this concept and give many other tips on things you should be thinking about and saying when pitching a project proposal to clients. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• What is scope?
• Coming at a project from a value basis
• Don’t think about the scope in a sales meeting
• Focus on the business goals at first
• What is going to make their business better?
• Why do they need your services?
• Get a picture of their long-term goals
• Asking these questions differentiates you
• Humanizing the conversation
• The importance of having the “why” conversation
• Always give three options in a project proposal
• Set prices and then define your scope
• Show them that what you are planning on doing will help them reach their goals
• If they succeed, you succeed
• How do you convince clients to work with you and pay you to help them?
• You have to be good at what you do
• Be comfortable speaking business language
• Let them know that you have their best interest at heart
• And much, much more!     

Picks: Reuven

• “How China Is Changing Your Internet” NY Times Video
• How To Set Up Alipay As a Foreigner by Sijia Chen

Jonathan:

• Google Wifi
• Value Pricing Bootcamp

Panel: Reuven Lerner In this episode of the Freelancers’ Show, the Reuven discusses what to do when people call you and ask you if you can train them. He talks about the steps you need to take when someone calls you as well as gives tips on how to be successful in it. This is a great episode for people looking to understand the process behind a successful training career.   In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 

• Consulting since 1995
• Training for Python
• He loves teaching people
• How to get training clients
• Easy to become known as an authority for training
• Once your known, people will remember you
• They want to find out about you and you want to find out about them
• Find out what they’re interested in learning first
• What are their background and experience level?
• You want to have a menu of options for people
• Less content and more exercises
• What versions of software are they using?
• Semi-negotiation over content
• Show them you care and you are listening to them
• Half days for training or horrible
• Scheduling problems
• How to schedule
• And much, much more!     

Picks: Reuven

• Trainer Weekly
• The Tic

Panel: Kai Davis Reuven Lerner Philip Morgan In this episode of the Freelancers’ Show, the panelists discuss overcoming objections that your clients might have regarding your experience. They have found that if you have good rapport with your clients, they are more likely to ask you to work on other concepts, even if it’s a little different than what you normally focus on. It’s important not to lean away from your normal too much so that you don’t overextend yourself and fail on what you promise to your clients. This episode is great for freelancer’s who want to hear about the thought process behind pushing the envelope when it comes to your experience with your clients. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 

• Client objections
• Proposing on new projects
• Positioning in your business
• More libraries
• Maturing markets
• Knowledge advantage
• Clients are willing to give you the benefit of the doubt if you have good rapport
• Helps to stick with what you know
• Leaning out analogy
• Balancing act
• Taking risks
• Feeling stuck and moving slowly
• The worst-case scenarios to taking risk (they aren’t that bad)
• The power of objections and critiques
• Dream Big
• Out-Bound and In-Bound channels
• Use the right career development or growth model for you and your business
• And much, much more!

Picks: Philip

• Specializing With Little or No Relevant Proof
• 2Bobs Podcast

Reuven

• Star Trek: Discovery
• The Mandarin Companion

Kai

• The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking by Oliver Burkeman
• MARKUS Chair from IKEA

Charles Max Wood started podcasting because it sounded fun and because he wanted to talk about technology. He learned pretty quickly that it got him access to people who understood the things he wanted to learn. The reasons changed over the years, as Charles explains before he talks about the big payoff he gets now from doing the podcasts. Panel

• Charles Max Wood

Panel: Jonathan Stark Philip Morgan In this episode of the Freelancers’ Show, Jonathan and Philip discuss the introduction game. When you have people ask you to refer them to your clients or a colleague, Jonathan has come up with an idea for a referral game, which he calls the introduction game. He has these people who ask for his help send him a draft of what they want and then you can tweak it so it sounds like something that you would actually say. This way you are putting out what your friend or colleague wants and you aren’t having to come up with referrals from scratch.  They also discuss how specializing your business could lead to you getting more leads, even if it doesn’t seem like it should. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 

• The Referral Game
• Specializing your business
• Rolodex moment
• Shelf-life runs out on the story
• The introduction game
• Must have proof to create credibility
• How to play the introduction game
• “Help me help you”
• How long does it take for this “game” to play out?
• 2 questions in the referral game
• You want to be able to tell a relevant interesting story when referring
• Value proposition
• What do others think is special about my services?
• Valuing life experience
• Ah-ha moments
• And much, much more!

Links:

• Linode
• FreshBooks

Picks: Philip

• Discord 

Jonathan

• The Business of Authority
• The Prosperous Coach

Panel: Jonathan Stark  Philip Morgan In this episode of the Freelancers’ Show, Jonathan and Philip discuss why it’s important to position your business so that you can generate more leads. They define both positioning and lead generation and give examples as to how you can use these two concepts to your advantage in your business. This is a great episode for freelancers who want to understand the importance behind directing your business towards a certain type of client in order to get more leads, and grow your business in the long run because of it.  In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 

• Defining positioning
• Why it’s important to specialize 
• Intentionality
• Defining lead generation
• Different ways to generate leads
• How qualified is a lead?
• Difference between a lead and a prospect
• Done for you services
• How do you get into more sales conversations with leads?
• You must decide: who are you trying to reach?
• Hitting your target market
• And much, much more!     

Links:

• Linode
• FreshBooks
• LootCrate

Picks: Philip

• Value-Based Design by Nick Disabato 
• Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss 

Jonathan

• Getting More by Stuart Diamond 
• Nick Disabato on Ditching Hourly  

Panel: Reuven Jonathan Stark In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Reuven and Jonathan discuss “Optimizing for Conversations.” Jonathan explains what this important tactic is and how it is used to get more leads, raise prices, and increase value. This discussion covers important strategies to help increase trust and between you and the target market, ultimately increasing leads and sales. This is a great episode for the freelancer who wants to add more strategic moves to their marketing. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 

• Jonathan explains the value proposition?
• Identifying the target marketed
• Validation
• Just ask people you want to help!
• Listen, Listen, Listen
• Market Research
• Validation of the hypothesis, and value proposition!
• Knowing how to get in touch with the target market
• Doing it in a way to not feel scummy
• Reaching out to the buyers and having ESP
• Existing Clients, Pass Clients conversations
• Not a sales conversation
• Talk about problems
• What keeps you up at night?
• And much more!

Picks: Jonathan

• The Business of Authority Podcast 

Reuven

• ExpressVPN

Panel: Reuven Lerner Jonathan Stark In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Reuven and Jonathan discuss “How To Get Yourself Notice” as a freelancer.  Reuven and Jonathan talk about the best practices for building yourself up for marketing and getting more leads. The topics covered are, how to let people know you exist, attracting clients,  being different and unique, taking risks, speaking and writing, social media profiles, and much more. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 

• How to let people know you exist so they can call you for work
• Getting more leads
• Clients want solutions
• What you Ideal client needs
• You need to be different, and take risks
• Being able to Speak
• Being able to Write
• Who do you want to notice you?
• Examples to those on UpWork
• Billing per hour  - what does that say about you?
• Direct outreach
• Blogging
• LinkedIn
• Social media profiles
• And much more!

Picks: Jonathan

• Lerner on Getting Started in Technical Training

Reuven

• Seminar style Q&A at lecture hall scale

Panel: Kai Davis Jonathan Stark In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Kai and Jonathan discuss “One Obvious Path to Increasing Your Freelancing Income,” Jonathan shares an old pricing story to kick off the discussion. The topics cover issues with hourly billing, estimates, autonomy, value base decision, the perception of value, growing your craft, becoming a peer with sales contact,  and much more. This is a great episode to understand strategies to prepare your path for increasing your freelance profits. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 

• Jonathan’s story on Pricing
• The expert on price and freak invoice
• Taking the power away - with hourly billing
• Estimates
• Autonomy on prices
• Value base decision
• Perception of value
• Tangible ROI
• Emotional reaction
• “Keep sharpening your saw”
• Market rate
• Hourly and billable hours
• Gross revenue
• Knowledge work
• Growing your craft
• 80/20 rule
• Become a peer with your sales contact
• How do you make my clients lives better
• And much more!

Picks: Jonathan

• Hourly Billing Is Nuts

Kai

• Quick Start Roadmapping Projects

Panel: Reuven Lerner Jonathan Stark In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Reuven and Jonathan discuss “Growing Vertically,” or increasing your profits without increasing your headcount or costs. The topics covered are increasing profits, not having time to do what you are good at, growing or increasing sales, hiring and firing, increase profits not revenue, increase your prices and fees, and much more. This is a great episode for those who want to learn how to increase profits with minimal cost to your freelance business. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 

• Jonathan’s story on solo consultancy
• Increasing profits, not headcount
• Not having time to do the thing you once you did
• Bring in sales
• Sharing the limelight
• Enabling other to help you with your job
• Hiring, firing, etc.
• Increase profits not revenue
• Increase prices, fees, etc.
• How to increase prices or fees
• They need your help to learn what to do
• Create a new product
• Creating value for the customer and capitalize on it
• The Rub -  lower revenue engagement
• How do you do the marketing?
• Shifting to Lower labor higher billing
• Charge for value
• Attending conferences and speaking
• Moving into a different crowd of people, when you get tired of this income
• Moving into a new vertical and making mistakes
• What kind of services to offer to a company?
• How long should I expect to do marketing before landing clients?
• And much more!

Picks: Jonathan

• My Brother, My Brother and Me Podcast
• valuepricingbootcamp.com

Reuven

• Backups! Use Backups!

Panel: Reuven Lerner Kai Davis Jonathan Stark In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Kai, Reuven, and Jonathan discuss outreach to potential clients. Each of the freelancers talk about their strategy for outreach to acquire clients. The discussion covers the pain points of outreach, audience, target market, connecting online or other platforms, stimulating conversation, not coming off as a spammer and many other areas. This is a great episode to learn the best practice for market put reach and building business relationships. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 

• Reaching out to locate Credit Unions
• Online searching
• Looking for Chief Marketing Manager
• An online place to connect, email, etc.
• Goals to not look sleazy
• Building a leads list
• Outreach via LinkedIn
• The value you offer is it worth the time?
• Market research
• Looking into people who are already doing it
• Qualification process
• Personalize emails
• Value proposition
• Getting on their radar
• How many people to connect before a response
• How long before followup properly
• And much more!

Picks: Kai

• Blade Runner
• freeoutreachcourse.com
• outreachblueprint.com

Jonathan

• Web Cam  - Logitech C920
• howtobuildyourfirstproductizedservice.com

Reuven

• The Beautiful Country and Middle Kingdom 
• Training

Panel: Reuven Lerner Kai Davis Jonathan Stark In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Kai, Reuven, and Jonathan discuss, getting started in training. The panelist talk about how to outline training, in addition to your freelancing career, to add another modality in your business and provide more value. This is a great episode to understand what areas and packages you can provide, how to build a syllabus for training, intro to advance courses, students, teaching to a student and paying clients,  and how to get the first paying client, and much more. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 

• Who is training and why?
• Specialization and providing more value
• Your superpower - how would you change their business
• Dev shop versus Training shop
• Training is better
• Courses
• Packages for training
• Syllabus
• Providing Intro to advance courses
• Students and learning along with them
• How to I determine what the courses
• Teaching - get experience doing it first before getting clients
• Pedagogical  content knowledge
• Getting paying clients
• Getting better and better at training
• Third party help
• Speaking with training managers and at conferences
• lynda.com
• Books and promotional products on amazon.com
• Positioning as a trainer
• Who do I reach out to?
•  
• And much more!

Picks: Kai

• Daily Email 
• Robin Sloan book

Jonathan

• Freelancer Show Episode 227 
• Joseph Pine Ted Talk 

Reuven

• Zoom 
• Steve Martin Master Class
• Trainer Weekly

Panel: Kai Davis Jonathan Stark In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Kai and Jonathan answer questions from their loyal listeners in this month's December Mailbag. Topics covered are on identifying sites your target market is hanging out on most, organizing the new information you learned to implement, what can you do you bring values to people who might be further ahead than you, and many more tactics and strategies to help your freelance career. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 

• How do you identify places online where ...?
• Conferences
• Identifying the target market and where they hang out online
• Stonewall? Pick a different audience.
• Organizing and processing new information?
• Tactics, Strategy and Focus
• Index the information and don’t obsess over the information
• Track your time learning and implementing
• Fear of failure
• How to bring value to those who might be further along then you?
• Asking questions and closing the loop
• Recognizing the opportunity
• Feedback
• And much more!

Picks: Kai

• No Picks

Jonathan

• Nonviolent Communication

Panel: Reuven Lerner Kai Davis Jonathan Stark In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Reuven, Kai, and Jonathan talk about organizing your business. The panels discuss important points to stay organize and systemize in your business. Important topics covered are getting to inbox zero, scheduling, building good habits, clearing your to-do lists, keeping notes, organizing your thoughts. Lastly, the freelances talk about tips and technologies they use to keep on top of their tasks. This is a great episode for those who need the implement good practices to run a smoother business. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 

• Why should I organize my business?
• Finding important information
• Losing important data
• Email organization
• Inbox zero - picking time to clean up
• Building habits overtime
• When you check email - Achieving to save time
• Creating to-do lists within email
• Task lists without inbox
• Due dates on tasks
• Remember the Milk app
• Blocking out time for to-dos
• Priority to-do lists
• Notes
• Brain Storms
• Evernote 
• Keeping a physical notebook
• Using task managers like Trello 
• Keyboard Short Cuts - aText
• And much more!

Picks: Reuven

• Blog

Kai

• Merlin Mann on Inbox 0
• SaneBox 
• The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up
• Kai's every day carry notebook
• Kai's every day carry pen
• Naomi (of Itty Biz) wrote this great article on staying productize on low energy days)
• Text Expander

Jonathan

• Getting Things Done by David Allen
• Productive
• Jonathan's recommended notebook
• aText

   

Charles Max Wood started podcasting because it sounded fun and because he wanted to talk about technology. He learned pretty quickly that it got him access to people who understood the things he wanted to learn. The reasons changed over the years, as Charles explains before he talks about the big payoff he gets now from doing the podcasts. Panel

• Charles Max Wood

Sponsors

• Dev Influencers Accelerator

Panel: Reuven Lerner Kai Davis In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Reuven and Kai talk about planning for 2018. Reuven mentions that you should always plan your year if you are in a freelancing business. Ask yourself, how do you want to grow your business?How will you implement the changes to scale your financial growth? The end year is an important punctuation and new beginning for your freelancing business. The Freelancer’s Show is here to help guide you through questions they ask themselves in their own businesses. This is a great episode for freelancers who are looking to grow their business in the next year, and the possible things they can do to have a positive impact on their freelancing career. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 

• What are my goals or system to put in place to reach the goals?
• Concerning health
• Saying no to certain opportunities
• Training to advance your career
• Training internationally
• Exploring new line of business
• Killing it off - if it does not work
• What do I want to accomplish in 5 years
• What is the one 1 year, 1 month, and day view?
• Moving toward achieving your business goal
• Automating your business to grow faster
• Group coaching
• Working from home - what does that mean overall?
• Specializing and Focus
• Budgeting time
• “Don’t run a business on the assumption that you are going to work 12 hours a day”
• When to have personal time or relax time
• Personal plans and goals
• Building systems into your daily schedule
• What is your biggest ROI?
• And much more!

Picks: Reuven

• Falafel

Kai

• The One Thing
• 12-week year
• Deep Work

 

•  

 

Panel: Phillip Morgan Reuven Lerner In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Reuven and Phillip discuss designing a product ladder. The panel discusses the importance of offering a suite of products with a defined path from low tier to a high tier value.  Furthermore,  services and or a blend of products and services is also apart of the tier offerings. Phillip and Reuven talk about specific strategies for how product ladders are implemented. Perhaps a freemium product that entices one into the bigger valued product. This is a great episode for freelancers to understand how to formulate a product line for your freelancing business. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: 

• Offering lower and higher tier products
• A blend of service and products
• The Brain Audit
• Comparison of Apple products and purchases to top tier products
• Buying into Apple products with  iTunes on Windows
• Functions of a product ladder
• What is your product ladder?
• Advance, Intermediate, and Basic Users
• Increasing expertise
• Basic level product to companion level products
• How do you learn best? Question to ask your audience.
• What would a 5 grader understand?
• Ask which level of expertise your audience needs to help them up the ladder
• Allen Weiss books and webinars
•  
• And much more!

Links

• The Brain Audit 

Picks: Reuven

• Survey Monkey

Phillip

• Book - Get Naked

   

Panel: Reuven Lerner Jonathan Stark Kai Davis In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Reuven, Jonathan, and Kai discuss “Why” conversations. Jonathan outlines that, “Why” calls are the preliminary conversations of a sale call. To understand the underlying purpose of why the client wants to engage in a project with you. This is a great episode to understand how to pivot a project to increase the value of your time using a fixed rated. Also to ensure the prospect is a good fit for skills and rates. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:

• Why do sales call? To find out what the client needs
• “Preparing to reject their self-diagnosis”
• Engage in a conversation to increase the value of the project
• The customer is usually vague and they leave out the specifics fo the project
• Throwing objections at then customers to bring all considerations to surface
• Understanding why now?
• Urgency is the key to the project?
• Why hire someone like me?
• Confidence to get paid what you want
• Hourly rates? Market rate? Fixed pricing.
• Is hourly billing bad for the project?
• Newbies are quick to jump.
• Delivering ROI.
• Back Seat Driving to nowhere
• Predict Churn
• Constantly reminding them of the goal and be the guardian of the project
• What is the benefit of the project?
• Make it clear you don’t work for an hourly rate
• Productize service, value-based pricing, etc.
• Making assumptions?
• Who does this not work for?  - Those who are still learning their craft.
• And much more!

Picks: Reuven

• Fifty Inventions That Shaped The Modern Economy 

Jonathan

• “Learn Your Lines” https://expensiveproblem.com/pricing
• Pro Leg Stretcher