Freelancing

Monday Spark: Have some distraction-free time each day.

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distracting road works noiseYou’re in a room with a fan blowing. It isn’t too noisy. Certainly not noisy enough to prevent you from working.

Or maybe there is some work been done in the street, and you hear the background noise of vehicles, generators and power tools from time to time.

But then, at some point, you turn off the fan, or the street noise stops.

What a difference. It’s only when the noise stops that you realize how it has been filling your head and distracting you. Turn off that background noise, and you feel relief.

The same kind of things happens when you spend your day with a background of constant emails and social media. It’s just a different kind of noise.

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Monday Sparks: Play is a good thing.

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improv-play-for-freelancersIf you watch the video below you’ll hear Charlie Todd say, right near the end, “Play is a good thing.”

I couldn’t agree more.

And the harder you work, the more you need to play a little. Or a lot.

The more stressed you feel, the more you need to play.

The longer you have been sitting on your butt in front of your monitor, the more important it becomes to go out and play.

Sometimes play comes to you. This is certainly true when you have very young children in the house.

But at other times in your life, you have to remind yourself to play a little. It’s a perfectly natural and healthy thing to do.

Play can be something ordinary and routine, like playing catch with the kids in the back yard.

But, as you will see from the Improv Everywhere video below, play can be a little more than that. It can be both fun and generous.

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Monday Spark: You’ll feel a lot better without your head in the sand.

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head in the sand

This week’s Spark begins with a negative feeling, and then turns it into a something a lot more positive.

The negative feeling goes something like this…

There is an issue you need to address, but you don’t want to face it. You keep putting it off. You stick your head in the sand and hope the problem goes away, although you know it won’t.

A few years ago I had some back-taxes to take care of. But I didn’t take care of it immediately. I didn’t want to. All I had to do was sit down with my accountant and get things in motion. But I kept putting that meeting off.

A coaching client of mine knew she needed to sit down with her business partners and talk to them about some changes she wanted to make. But she was scared the meeting might become confrontational, so she didn’t ask for the meeting.

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Monday Spark: When estimating for a freelance project, don’t think about your own checking account.

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writing a checkJust a short tip this week. It’s about your mindset when you sit down to write an estimate for a prospective client.

Often a freelancer will write the estimate, look at the total they want to charge, and begin to feel nervous about it.

$1,500? $3,000? $7,500?

Ouch, sounds like a lot of money. Maybe your client will say no.

OK. Now let’s reframe how you think about estimating.

Any sum of money over about $1,000 is going to feel like a lot of money to charge, but only because you are empathizing with how it would feel to pay that amount from your own family checking account.

But that’s the wrong way to think about it.

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Overcome Imposter Syndrome by sharing a message you love.

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megaphone messageLast week I wrote about how creating a unique message will differentiate you from other freelancers.

I wrote about how listing your skills simply makes you look the same as other copywriters who list the same skills, but that your message can and should be unique to you.

It’s your message that is the differentiator.

In this post I want to take this further, and look at how finding a message you really love can totally transform how you go about marketing your freelance business.

This is important, because many, if not most freelancers feel awkward when it comes to pitching their services. They have worked hard to build a solid skillset, have built a website that promotes their services, but then lose all confidence when it comes time to talk with a prospective client.

How come?

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Build a better freelance business, and love your message.

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love your messageBased on my experience as a freelancer over the last 30 years, and as a coach, I believe there are two key elements that separate freelancers who do OK from those who are hugely successful.

For a start, you need to get in the driver’s seat of your freelance business, take control and be assertive about the companies you work with, the work you do, and the fees you charge.

In other words, replace your freelancer mindset with a business-building mindset.

Second, you need to market your freelance business with absolute focus and confidence. This is where so many freelancers fail. They have too little confidence in themselves, and don’t know how to market themselves effectively.

I address both of these issues in what is essentially a combination of two of my programs – Profitable Freelancing and How to Love Marketing Your Freelance Business.

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