Trust is the bedrock of all client relationships. Trust is how you get your recommendations listened to. It's how a small initial engagement turns into larger ones. And it's how you know the status of your relationship, rather than finding out the hard way that someone is no longer your client.
In this episode Khuram Malik shares how he has built very trustworthy client relationships over time. Important things he did, crucial mistakes to avoid, and what strong trust-based client relationships have meant for his consulting business.
Show Notes: http://freelancetransformation.com/episode30
Is it actually possible to build a consulting business that can more or less function without you? And should that even be your goal?
Todd Heslin shares the remarkable story of how he transformed his consulting business to do exactly that. He shares the details of the key decisions that made this possible, how he thinks about business, and what passive income is, and isn't.
Show Notes: http://freelancetransformation.com/episode29
I just returned from Norfolk Virgina, host to the Double Your Freelancing Conference put on by Brennan Dunn. It was a blast, and well, you should have been there!
Being there really contrasted the very different mindsets that successful consultants have, compared to those that are still trying to reach that level. The way they think and talk, and how they approach situations, are very different.
In this recap I read between the lines of #DYFConf and highlight three successful consulting mindsets that were particularly on display.
Show notes at: http://freelancetransformation.com/episode28
DYFConf Website: http://doubleyourfreelancing.com/conf/
As the Budget Nerd, Mark Butler has found an interesting niche. Yes Mark provides bookkeeping services to freelancers, but unlike many bookkeepers, he also acts as their Chief Financial Officer, helping them to understand their financial position and to steer them on track. In this interview Mark shares the mistakes that endanger most freelancers' finances, and the keys to building stable finances instead.
This an episode for everyone who keeps finding themselves "at the intersection of busy and broke".
Show notes: http://freelancetransformation.com/episode27
How do you keep projects on track? Deal with constant overruns? Understand what the rest of your team is doing? Or get focus and productivity yourself?
Anders Thue Pederson wrestled with these same problems in his consultancy, leading to severe stress and ultimately not enjoying managing people. But Anders turned it out around, rebuilding his consultancy around a time management approach that he devised, Time Block.
Anders shares his own journey and mistakes, how he turned things around, and how Time Block works.
Show notes at http://freelancetransformation.com/episode26
Rob Kosberg shares how he went from running a multi-million dollar real estate business to building a business around helping people write, publish, and promote best selling books. And he's become very good at it.
In this episode we learn how Rob built this business, and how you could use a book to elevate your status in your niche and generate more leads than your consulting business can handle.
Show notes: http://freelancetransformation.com/episode25
Marc Mawhinney is a coach to other coaches and the host of the Natural Born Coaches podcast. Marc shares with us the secrets of becoming a great coach to your clients, as well as his own journey of becoming a coach and how built a successful coaching business.
Show notes: http://freelancetransformation.com/episode24
Steli Efti has helped over 200 venture backed startups build their sales process. In this episode he shares with us how to think about sales mentally, how to target companies that want to buy your services, why sales don't close, and what to do about it.
We have had a number of guests on Freelance Transformation share their strategies for getting leads, and we've even covered proposals in depth, but this is the first episode to really chat about that final step to pay day - closing the sale!
Show notes: http://freelancetransformation.com/episode23
Ross Simmonds reveals how he got to $270,000 in revenue in his first two years of consulting. He shares how to establish relationships to get the clients that you want. Creating content that attracts your desired clients. The powerful tactic of speaking at events and how on earth to become a speaker. And great tools to help you manage your client projects and communication.
Matt and Kornel chat about how they use contractors, employees vs contractors, remote vs local, what to look for in great people, specialists vs generalists, horror stories, and more.
Key Takeways from my chat with Patrick McKenzie:
The Easiest Path to Earning Higher Rates: Create an Elite Club of One
Find Clients With an Expensive Problem that You Can Help Solve
Examples:
How Patrick Would Rebuild a Client Base (and his rates) if He Had to Start Over Today (without his online fame and past projects)
Jared Tendler shares how he became a mental game coach to top poker players (what a niche!). Then we try something different - Jared coaches Matt right then and there on how to think through a major life decision involving Matt's web agency and a several thousand kilometer move that he is undertaking.
Jared helps Matt dig deep into his psychology and the real issues present, and shares powerful techniques for making this decision. Techniques that you can use to make your own big tough decisions.
Show notes: http://freelancetransformation.com/episode19
Casey Meehan of Epic Presence shares how to find clients for higher-ticket services such as $40,000+ retainer engagements.
Including:
Show notes at http://freelancetransformation.com/episode18
Brian Casel shares the key actions that he took that made it possible to remove himself from his website creation business, Restaurant Engine. We chat about streamline processes, hire new team members, retain good talent, how he is scaling audienceops.com from day one, and how to use content marketing to get leads.
Show Notes:
http://freelancetransformation.com/episode17
Keith Perhac has successfully grown and runs a digital marketing agency in a small city in Japan, while working with clients that have included Toyota, Ramit Sethi, Patrick McKenzie and Nomadic Matt.
Keith shares with us:
Show notes: http://www.freelancetransformation.com/episode16
Learn how Nagina of MasalaBody.com sells premium weight loss and food coaching that her clients are happy to pay for and which delivers results.
You will learn:
Show notes at www.freelancetransformation.com/episode15
It's possible to create an amazing business and lifestyle by providing services through freelancing, consulting, etc. But what if you find yourself with the product building itch?
Andrew Wicklander shares how he built a product creation workshop through his software development consulting business.
http://freelancetransformation.com/episode14
Kristin takes on her journey of leveraging her journalism career into founding a brand communications agency with 4 offices in Colorado. Kristin's mindset on her life, the value of her clients, and the importance of her team demonstrate why she succeeded and built her dream life in the process.
Kai Davis explains how he repositioned himself from being an SEO consultant to an "Outreach Consultant", and how this has allowed him to stand out.
Kai also shares how to find your perfect target audience, study what they need, and establish yourself as an expert in that group.
The Freelance Transformation Podcast just passed 10 episodes and over 5,400 downloads. In the process a wealth of information has been generously shared by the 9 guests so far.
What do these experts have in common? Matt reviews the 5 key themes that have continued to come up over and over.
Ruben Gamez is the founder of Bidsketch, a proposal generation service that has been used by its clients to win over $300 million dollars in projects. This gives Ruben a very unique ability to tell us how to write a proposal that is more likely to close and earn you higher fees. In this episode Ruben shares these insights.
Einar Vollset shares the story of how he built App Aftercare, an entirely recurring revenue-based consulting consulting business.
He shares with us how to define your perfect client, his massively effective strategy for finding his company's ideal clients, how he is able to completely avoid waiting on companies to send him cheques by billing requiring a credit card, and so much more.
Kurt Elster is an ecommerce consultant for Shopify stores.
In this episode you will learn how Kurt repositioned his business as a Shopify consultancy. He shares with us his beautiful "foolproof positioning statement", exactly how he attracts the right clients for his business, how he manages his operations, how he is able to collect 100% of his fees upfront, and so much more.
Kurt also shares the powerful moment that lead him to quit his job in the first place and venture into the world of consulting.
John has accomplished a lot over the past 15 years. "Retired" at 33, he now dedicates himself to helping software developers build an amazing life and career (and frankly much of his advice applies just as well to designers, writers, etc).
In this episode John shares the productivity techniques that he uses to accomplish ridiculous amounts of output in a day. He also shares the areas to focus on to get in shape.
You've probably heard of Brennan Dunn. He built an 11 employee agency, founded Planscope.io, runs Double Your Freelancing, and just started a new brand new agency utilizing what's he's learned.
I had a chance to sit down with Brennan a few weeks ago during MicroConf and chat about what he learned running his first agency, and how he's building his new one.