2018 is right around the corner! Are there any big life changes coming your way? Could this be the year when you actually quit (or lose) your job and start your own freelancing business? Jason Swett, a programmer and app developer, survived the worst-case scenario during his very first year as a freelancer. He has some entertaining stories, followed by some great advice on how you might be able to survive your own “firsts” as a full-time freelancer.
Austin Felton is a unique freelancer who used his consulting business to fund his product business. He’s the creator of Entrecloud, a WordPress hosting software, and this product was inspired by his first consulting clients. While consulting influential entrepreneurs, Austin had the opportunity to ask clients directly what they were looking for and he tapped into a niche market that he could deliver to.
Given the wealth of professional information that LinkedIn has about its users, including job titles, companies they work for, skills, industries, etc. It’s a natural fit when you are trying to market to companies, especially when selling higher priced services, and especially if you follow the best practices to build a successful LinkedIn ad campaign.
AJ’s Wilcox of B2Linked specializes exclusively in helping B2B businesses to find customers with LinkedIn ads. That being said, AJ’s business is one of a kind in its focus toward creating ad campaigns with LinkedIn. His strategy will help you use LinkedIn in a new way and encourage you to niche down your freelancing business and teach you how to get in touch with more people who absolutely need your services.
If you’ve never considered 'LinkedIn Prospecting' as a way to find clients, it's something that you may want to investigate as a freelancer. Jake Jorgovan is the founder of Lead Cookie - LinkedIn Lead Generation & Prospecting, but he’s been using LinkedIn as a way to connect with clients long before he started teaching other freelancers about it.
LinkedIn is the only social network that acts as a comprehensive database of professionals and companies that could be in need of your special area of expertise. It is possible that if you connected with these professionals, you could easily find the ideal clients you would want to work with. The strategies Jake shares today won’t take you longer than two hours per day and could generate up to twenty leads per month.
No matter what career path you choose as a freelancer, every freelancer must experience the journey. You can’t just magically skip to the front of the line and land on immediate success. If you want A-list clients, there are some skills you need to learn and experiences you need to put under your belt first.
Jesse Gernigin of Live Gold Rich talks about some of those learning experiences. Jesse gave up an entertainment career as a magician to become a professional freelance consultant. But his experiences on the road and in front of crowds didn’t make his freelance transition any easier or faster. He still had to go through the process step-by-step, and the experiences he shares are going to give you a practiced perspective on your own freelance career and choices.
Even if you’re an introvert, you can still be a successful freelancer. Being an introvert doesn’t put you at a disadvantage. It probably means you’re better at reading people and understanding their problems, which makes you an excellent freelancer. Luis Vazquez, founder of The Mighty Introvert, talks about how you can hone these skills and succeed as an introvert.
https://freelancetransformation.com/episode142
Today's episode is brought to you by Harpoon!
Harpoon is the all-in-one financial management solution built specifically for freelancers like yourself. Harpoon is the first online invoicing and time tracking tool, at least that we've seen, that helps you actively predict if your freelance finances are on track to meet your goals, instead of just reporting them in hindsight.
Try Harpoon completely risk-free for 14 days. And if you love it use the coupon code TRANSFORMATION to receive 20% off the first 3 months of your subscription.
You won’t become a recognizable name in your niche market overnight, but you can get a head start with these tips from Mike Julian of Aster Labs. His unique perspective on outreach and the way he uses social media can really put you at the forefront of your field and connect you with the right clients. Learn how to approach your niche the right way so you can start earning the income you need to make freelancing your full-time job.
https://freelancetransformation.com/episode141
Today's episode is brought to you by Harpoon!
Harpoon is the all-in-one financial management solution built specifically for freelancers like yourself. Harpoon is the first online invoicing and time tracking tool, at least that we've seen, that helps you actively predict if your freelance finances are on track to meet your goals, instead of just reporting them in hindsight.
Try Harpoon completely risk-free for 14 days. And if you love it use the coupon code TRANSFORMATION to receive 20% off the first 3 months of your subscription.
If you’ve never considered cold-calling as a way to grow your freelance business, Olivier Lambert is going to open your mind to this approach. Olivier, of TactikMedia, worked hard to perfect his cold outreach tactics and now his cold calls account for nearly 40% of his client base.
Olivier has since expanded his business to become a consultant for freelancers just like you. He creates resources and tactics for up-and-coming entrepreneurs who want to use cold outreach as part of their marketing plan. He’s here today to share some of these tactics and get you connected with the right outreach tools to build your dream client base.
https://freelancetransformation.com/episode140
Today's episode is brought to you by Harpoon!
Harpoon is the all-in-one financial management solution built specifically for freelancers like yourself. Harpoon is the first online invoicing and time tracking tool, at least that we've seen, that helps you actively predict if your freelance finances are on track to meet your goals, instead of just reporting them in hindsight.
Try Harpoon completely risk-free for 14 days. And if you love it use the coupon code TRANSFORMATION to receive 20% off the first 3 months of your subscription!
Growing your business isn’t always a good thing. Not if it’s the wrong kind of growth. Paul Jarvis talks about why he’s never grown his business in the way you’d expect that he would. His new book, "Company of One," breaks down the how and why it can actually be beneficial to run your business as lean as possible.
Paul questions the stereotypical views of business growth and challenges freelancers to think outside of the box. Working for yourself really does mean you’re responsible for everything, but you can divvy that responsibility up however you want. Paul’s trick to working for himself is always doing the things he loves while avoiding the tasks he doesn’t.
https://freelancetransformation.com/episode139
Today's episode is brought to you by Harpoon!
Harpoon is the all-in-one financial management solution built specifically for freelancers like yourself. Harpoon is the first online invoicing and time tracking tool, at least that we've seen, that helps you actively predict if your freelance finances are on track to meet your goals, instead of just reporting them in hindsight.
Try Harpoon completely risk-free for 14 days. And if you love it use the coupon code TRANSFORMATION to receive 20% off the first 3 months of your subscription!
Today’s episode is about finding and connecting with your perfect niche. Jonathan Stark is on the show for the second time to talk about what it’s like to find the right niche and reframe your brand around your new clients.
Jonathan is a mobile consultant, advisor, and coach who recently shifted his position. He still helps clients increase their mobile engagement, but he focuses specifically on credit unions. Before, he was working with businesses all across the board. He had so many different clients in his rolodex that he was getting lost in the crowd. The leads stopped coming in because there was nothing that made him stand out.
Today's episode is brought to you by Harpoon. Harpoon is the all-in-one financial management solution built specifically for freelancers like yourself. Harpoon is the first online invoicing and time tracking tool, at least that we've seen, that helps you actively predict if your freelance finances are on track to meet your goals, instead of just reporting them in hindsight.
Try now! Risk-free for 14 days. And then, if you love it you can use the coupon code transformation to receive 20% off the first 3 months of your subscription! Learn more here: https://harpoonapp.com/ft
It’s not impossible to work with your dream clients, even if that client list seems impossible to obtain. Steve Sims, a consultant and concierge to the daydreams of his clients, works with the kind of people who want to get married at the Vatican or spend 10 days in the International Space Station. Steve built his network of clients by working with the type of people he really wanted to work with, and by being honest and transparent with what he calls 'old school values.'
So, if you’re trying to find out how you can work with the types of clients that you daydream about, tune in now. Steve is sharing his secrets for winning over your favorite clients and building the kind of business you wish to have.
Freelancers know how important it is to stand out from the crowd. If you can brand yourself successfully, you’re guaranteed to outshine the other dime-a-dozen freelancers. You can start attracting the kind of clients you really want to work with. But how do you brand yourself? Where does one even start on that journey?
Today’s episode features Sarah Hart, an epic web designer who teaches her clients how to develop their own personal brand and use it to build their business. Freelancers succeed when they can successfully brand themselves and their talents. Sarah discusses with us how using your personality can outclass the competition.
Find out what it's really like to start a freelance business and what goes into making that freelance lifestyle truly successful. All the way from Australia, our guest Sian Richardson speaks of going through the ups and downs of freelancing and loving every second of it.
Sian Richardson is a graphic designer who left her professional career to pursue something more creative. Her freelance business has evolved from client work to digital publications. On this episode, Sian talks about what she learned from the pitfalls and what she’s proud of today.
If you’re a solo freelancer or consultant there’s a good chance that at some point you’ve at least considered hiring someone. Perhaps a contractor that you can delegate some pieces of the client work to, or a virtual assistant to help you with administration, bookkeeping, project management or any number of seemingly endless tasks involved in being your own boss.
Nathan Hirsch, is the founder of FreeeUp, a marketplace that specializes in pairing up freelance business owners with their ideal remote worker from anywhere around the world. He created a four-step vetting process based on his own hiring strategies in order to help other freelance entrepreneurs build and manage their own remote team. Whether you’ve just decided to scale your business or you’ve been working with a remote team for years, Nathan has advice for every stage of your business – starting with how to hire.
One of the best ways to find out if a freelancer is going to be successful is to see if they have implemented a repeatable system for finding clients, so they can always bring more business through the door as they need it. In this episode, Kurt Bullock discusses how to develop the skills to create perfect marketing funnels and how you can make Facebook’s algorithms work for you.
Kurt Bullock is the founder of The Produce Department where he helps Shopify store owners develop their technical marketing and sales skills. He used to be a record producer for MTV, so how did he get involved with Shopify? Freelance careers can take you on all sorts of professional adventures, but Kurt found his niche in marketing.
Tune in now and learn how you can build your own customer funnels and transform your freelance career for good!
https://freelancetransformation.com/episode133
Kurt Elster appeared on the show two years ago when it was just getting started. In Episode 8, Kurt shared how he was building a business as an e-commerce developer on Shopify. Now, two years later, Kurt is known as the “Shopify guy”. He’s tapped into a niche and content marketing in such a way that his business has vaulted to the next level, and Kurt has since worked with big-name clients like Penn & Teller and Jay Leno.
As is so often true, success and profit come from simplifying down and doing a few things really well, rather than trying to do everything for everyone. On today’s episode, Kurt is going to update us on how you can specialize in a niche to find the right kind of clients that will help you build your brand and your business.
https://freelancetransformation.com/episode132
Hannah Lowe Corman left her cushy corporate job as an investment banker to become the artist she always wanted to be. Today she creates beautifully tranquil paintings to de-stress her corporate peers.
Hannah paints a picture of what it’s like to start a creative freelance business from scratch. Not only does she have tips for things like pricing, budget, and marketing, she also shares exactly what it feels like to leave the comfort of a corporate job to take on the unpredictable exhilaration of freelancing.
How do you connect with influencers in your industry and build a freelance business off of referrals that you receive from them, even when you’re just starting out? In this episode of the Freelance Transformation podcast, Sean Smith explains how you can connect with influencers in your industry and amplify your freelance business.
Sean Smith is the co-founder of Simple Tiger, a small remote agency that specializes in search engine optimization. Sean started this agency – and the rest of his freelance endeavors – from the ground up. Through reaching out and networking with the people in his industry, Sean was able to create an entire client listen organically. Sean explains how you can connect with influencers in your industry and amplify your freelance business.
Being a freelancer and running your own business sounds pretty glamorous. There’s no boss, no schedule, and you have the freedom to do things the way you like to do them. But with no manager breathing down your neck, you don’t always have the motivation to get things done. Reality starts to sink in, and you suddenly realize that you’re responsible for the things you don’t really want to do. If you’re a freelancer who finds it hard to stay motivated and finish all those tasks you don’t really want to, tune in now! Today’s episode of Freelance Transformation is all about getting things done even when we don’t feel like it.
Chris Cooper is a motivational speaker, mentor, and author. His book, The Power to Get Things Done, really speaks to freelancers like us. It breaks down ways to help prioritize our business goals and form consistent strategies to bring in new clients. If you’re running your own business or creating a freelance brand, your ultimate goal is to grow your business, right? You can only do that if you bring in new clients, and that’s exactly what Chris is talking about today.
One of the biggest mysteries of running your own business is bookkeeping. What does correct bookkeeping even look like? There’s a massive learning curve that comes with bookkeeping, and many freelancers have to tackle it on their own when they start their business. If your books just aren’t as great as they could be, this episode of Freelance Transformation is for you!
Donna Zanger, owner and founder of Dbooks Bookkeeping, is a certified public accountant in Manhattan. She and her team of 20 CPAs help many business owners like yourself manage their books. She teaches business owners and freelancers how to do their own bookkeeping and keep track of their monthly invoices and expenses. Donna de-mystifies bookkeeping and shares how you can overcome the common mistakes freelancers make so that you can finally stay on track financially.
It can be difficult to look at someone who has achieved success in something like building out a consistent way to attract clients, and to picture yourself ever being able to achieve that same level of success. It can feel like they got to where they are overnight, as if by magic. But obviously that’s not true. Behind all of these success stories are journeys with unexpected twists and turns of months and much more frequently years of consistent hard work to figure it all out.
Josh Doody has an awesome niche: he is a salary negotiation coach. As the title implies, he helps his clients to negotiate a higher salary, helping them to be earn thousands of dollars more per year. Not a bad problem to solve. But Josh didn’t start out as an expert on salary negotiation. In fact, he originally worked as an electrical engineer, and the path he took from that career to salary negotiation was definitely not a straight or obvious one. Josh shares how this transition happened, the twists and turns along the way, and steps that he took to build his business, one small piece at a time.
Charlie Hoehn, author, speaker, and head of author marketing at Book in a Box, is the real deal when it comes to marketing expertise and achieving outsized results. He has worked for and advised great minds like Ramit Sethi, Tim Ferris, Seth Godin, and Gary Vaynerchuck.
But behind the successes is a story of paralyzing anxiety. Charlie experienced terrifying panic attacks that made him think that he was going to die. One particular attack led Charlie to begin a long and difficult mission to cure himself of his anxiety, and ultimately to write the book Play It Away: A Workaholic’s Cure for Anxiety. Charlie shares that story and more importantly what worked for him for ultimately getting rid of his anxiety, getting his life back on track, and what he recommends for others in the same boat.
Disclaimer: Hopefully, you find this episode helpful for bringing this important topic into the open, but it is not intended as medical advice. Everyone’s situation is different and you should consult your doctor before acting on anything in this episode.
Going out on your own, finding your own clients, not being tied to an employer, that’s what this podcast is all about. There are multiple ways to accomplish this and structure your own consulting or freelance business, just like there are multiple reasons that people do so in the first place.
One of those ways is working, usually full-time, on a longer project at a giant company and, of course, at consulting rates. It can be the perfect opportunity to have tremendous freedom while not needing to find clients as frequently.
Jonathan Dison, founder of Lightrock Consulting and Bench Watch, started his career working for Arthur Anderson, built his own consulting firm, and now helps people find and get matched with consulting positions at major corporations. Jonathan shares how you can break into the consulting market and start getting paid more to work on longer-term projects.
https://freelancetransformation.com/episode125
When most people think of sales, they think about walking into a potential client's office, or calling them up on the phone, and pitching them to convince them that their services are the best. The thought us unpleasant and has prevented many talented freelancers from getting great clients.
But the good news is that winning clients does not have to look like that. In fact, approached properly, it doesn't really have to feel like selling. It's more of a diagnostic approach, like going to a doctor to find out the cause of your symptoms.
Blair Enns, founder of Win Without Pitching, a sales training company for creative entrepreneurs, and author of A Win Without Pitching Manifesto, shares the philosophies behind the idea of winning without pitching and how to actually approach closing deals without feeling like your a sleesy salesperson.
It’s no secret that there are a lot of very effective ways to find clients, but it can create the temptation to immediately try to jump into the fanciest and most complicated approaches, and to ignore the simple time-tested methods that will get you clients the quickest.
Take networking and referrals for example. I don’t know of a faster way to find clients than using your existing network and going out and building that network, such as by attending events.
Paige Wilhide used networking and referrals to build her business, Paige Media, a wonderful video strategy and editing business. Paige shares how she systematically used networking to build this business and, of course, how you can use those same strategies to find clients for yourself.