Freelancing

When you have nothing more to say.

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nothing to sayI work with a lot of freelancers, as a teacher and as a coach.

9 times out of 10, when I visit their blogs, Facebook pages and other social media pages, they had nothing to say today, or yesterday, or last week.

This is a problem.

A few years ago, when most freelance websites were simply a collection of static, evergreen pages, you could get away without adding much to your site. But not any more.

If you have a blog, you need to post something more often than once every couple of weeks. If you have a Facebook page or a Google+ page, you need to be active on a daily basis.

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Monday Spark: Make the most of your upbeat, positive moods.

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positive feelingsAs a freelancer I have my good days and my bad days. And on my good days I am three or four times as productive and creative as I am on my bad days.

So what constitutes a bad day? What are the symptoms of bad days? For me it’s largely a matter of mood. I’m either feeling upbeat and positive in my outlook, or I’m feeling down and negative.

The scary thing is, during a bad day, the cause of the negativity may have nothing to do with my work at all. Its root might lie in something I read in the news, the dream I was having when I woke up, or some bad family news.

In other words, negativity impacts my work, whatever its root or cause.

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Monday Spark: Start your day with a smile and a light heart.

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dog and deer as friendsToo often we start our days with the weight of the world on our shoulders.

We have work worries. We have family worries. We have money worries. And all that is overlaid by the bad news we have just read on cnn.com or foxnews.com.

In other words, we are buried under a mountain of stress, anxiety and bad news.

So how is it possible to start the day with a smile and a light heart? And what good would it do anyway?

Well, to address the first question, watch this short video.

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Monday Spark: Perform at a higher level by connecting with other freelancers.

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I’m at a conference right now, preparing to give a full day of presentations.

I’m surrounded by dozens of freelancers, busy talking with each other about their lives, their work and their hopes for the future.

Some are meeting each other for the first time. Others are catching up with people they have met before.

And all of these people are creating for themselves an advantage over freelancers who stay at home. They are not marketing themselves. Nor are they picking up new clients. But what they are doing is invaluable. They are creating relationships with other people who also work for themselves, and spend most of their time at their desks at home.

Why is this important?

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Monday Spark: You don’t have to be suave, super-confident and charismatic to succeed [VIDEO]

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confidentYou may have noticed the same trend that I have been watching.

In fact, I have written about this before, a few months ago.

What I’m noticing is that the marketing of freelancers and solopreneurs is becoming more and more about looks, sound bites and high production values.

It used to be that we just took a headshot with our web cams and used those on our sites and as avatars. And when we made videos, we would just set up a camera in our office or dining room (which I still do).

But more and more, I’m seeing high-priced professional photos being used as avatars. I read a post on Google+ the other day about someone flying down to Los Angeles to test a studio setup for his upcoming series of videos. I’m also seeing a lot of work being done on grooming, lighting and makeup, to make good-looking entrepreneurs, male and female, look their best.

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Monday Spark: Yes, you should reinvent the wheel.

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Five people play one guitarIt’s easy to sit in a meeting room on a Friday afternoon and say, “I don’t think we need to reinvent the wheel here”.

It’s much harder to say, “It’s going to involve working through the weekend, but let’s step back and see if we can be genuinely creative, and come up with an idea that really is new and interesting.”

In other words, the decision not to reinvent the wheel is the easy way out. It’s the lazy way out. It means you can stop thinking, stop worrying about making a mistake, and grab a “proven process” off the shelf.

It’s also a first-class ticket to mediocrity.

Beware anyone who tempts you with a “proven process” or an easy “success formula”.

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