Quitting your job to freelance doesn’t have to mean a step backwards in pay. Today’s guest, Matt Olpinski freelanced for years on the side, while going to school and later working for a great agency. But at one point, Matt hit a cross-roads and realized that the opportunity to go freelance full-time was bigger than the opportunity to continue his employment career.
Since then, business has taken off and Matt’s freelance clients have even included American Express. And he’s turned down full-time employment offers from the likes of Uber, Tiffany & Co, and even Ogilvy and Mather. And did I mention that he’s still in his mid twenties?
How did it all happen? Matt applied consistent effort to the right areas of his business, like web presence, networking, and positioning.
Companies are constantly presenting pitches to stakeholders and potential clients, or presenting at conferences as keynotes and internally to show the progress of projects. Yet there is so little consideration for the presentation itself, which means that there is an expensive problem of effectively communicating their story and ideas. That's where Nolan steps in.
Nolan Haims is in the business of visual communications: he helps people communicate with fewer words. What that often means in practice is creating very effective presentation decks in PowerPoint, Prezi, and other presentation tools, or training his client’s employees to do the same. But it's not just about making the slides pretty, it is about designing the content to tell a story, which is why this is not so much about technical work, but about consulting.
Jane Portman started out as another designer on Odesk charging $20-$30 per hour for small projects. But when her first son was born, her priorities changed and she realized that she could be doing much more to sell herself and earn a higher income. So she decided to start targeting clients in the United States from her home in Russia and focused in on UI/UX.
Jane shares the story of her transition into consulting and provides wonderful examples of how she positioned herself as an authority in UI/UX. She also shares a remarkable wealth of resources to help others make the same transition.
Kate Kordsmeier built an amazing freelance writing career straight out of college. Kate is a food and travel writer who has been published in over 100 publications, gets to travel to cool places, eat fancy foods, and most importantly, is great proof that being a freelance writer doesn’t have to mean spending years carving out an existence and living as a starving artist.
Kate breaks down how she got started and built up her freelancing business, what her lifestyle looks like as a freelance writer, how she juggles her projects and stays organized, and details what actions you can take to start now.