This is a great question because Iâm all about doubling down on whatâs working. Making word of mouth more predictable though is key here. You want to create opportunities that make word of mouth easy for those spreading the word. Even though this was a question that came from my newsletter, I wanted to share it here, because Iâm sure that word of mouth is your #1 lead generator. Iâm going to share with you 2 specific strategies to help you make your word of mouth more predictable. Follow up sequ...
Dec 05, 2018â˘7 minâ˘Ep. 203
Someone from my list had asked this question when I asked âwhat are you struggling with right now?â Whatâs great about this question is that itâs smart. Smart because a âcontracting resourceâ is someone whoâs hired out by presumably another business to fill the gaps in their own business. For example, development shops hiring a developer to help with their overflow work. Whereas a âsolo business ownerâ is someone who has a specific customer that they go after and serve a specific solution toward...
Dec 04, 2018â˘6 minâ˘Ep. 202
This was asked from someone whoâs on my email list, which by the way I love interacting with folks there. So many amazing conversations are sparked from it. This person admits that SEO works well, and is in their words âvery targetedâ but they are often leads with low budgets. Here's the thing, the tire-kickers aren't good leads and that don't pan out to become clients are a complete drain on the business. Itâs critical to have the leads understand the full picture before you push them into your...
Dec 03, 2018â˘6 minâ˘Ep. 201
I get asked this question so much and I always answer with the same thing, âyours.â But I was thinking about giving this question some thought, especially with regards to Day 1 of being a freelancer. I want to go ahead and preface this with that Iâm not going to be giving you a long list of sites to create profiles on away you go. Sites like Upwork and 99designs and alike are all races to the bottom. Some other sites like Codeable and Toptal are hand-curated and at least have some sort of bar fo...
Nov 30, 2018â˘8 minâ˘Ep. 200
I want to share with you 4 statistics and I think youâll get the answer to todayâs question from them. Then Iâll share what I do and why I do it. Why is follow-up vital 80% of sales require 5 follow-ups after the first meeting or conversation. 44% of sales reps give up after 1 follow-up and the average give up after 2. 50% of leads that enter a sales pipeline are not ready to buy in the near term. On average, decision makers consume 5 pieces of content before being ready to speak to a sales rep....
Nov 29, 2018â˘6 minâ˘Ep. 199
The end of the year always has us looking at revenue numbers doesnât it. Itâs also a great time of year to reevaluate our prices. January 1 is a great time to also create deadlines and launching pads for yourself and clients as well. Inside of the Sustainable Freelancer FB group, Meg asked this questions. I can only presume that sheâs done what so many of us business owners do this time of year. Because it was such an awesome question, I thought that Iâd share it with you in todayâs episode, in ...
Nov 28, 2018â˘4 minâ˘Ep. 198
Everyoneâs businesses are different and unique. Just like them as a person. Some freelancers Iâve spoken with grow agencies, others stay solo. Some have aspirations of hiring a large team or scaling a product. Itâs very different and thatâs why when someone asks me âwhy donât you grow your business?â I often respond with âwhy?â See I like being comfortable in my own lane. Having a few select clients on the roster that supports my family and allows us to live the life we want is perfect. It also ...
Nov 27, 2018â˘5 minâ˘Ep. 197
With the holidays fast approaching, one of which here in the U.S. just passed, there are bound to be parties to go to. Ones where you will meet folks who havenât a clue as to what you do. Donât you love those folks who find out that you are a designer or developer and automatically want you to solve their home Wifi issues or their printer problems? Well letâs solve that by coming to the table with something that helps them understand what specifically you do. In episode 146 - Should I call mysel...
Nov 26, 2018â˘6 minâ˘Ep. 196
How do I know Steve Folland? Steve Folland is a creative video and audio freelancer and host of Being Freelance podcast. This was an awesome experience chatting with Steve because Iâve been a listener of his podcast for quite a long time. So I felt a bit like âlong time listener, first time callerâ at first. Which for me is a bit strange because I donât normally feel that way. I was having a chat with him through the comments of one of Steveâs vlogs on YouTube and asked him if he had any room fo...
Nov 23, 2018â˘4 minâ˘Ep. 195
Itâs Thanksgiving here in the US today. Happy Thanksgiving to you if you are celebrating today. My family and I are spending some time together and eating way too much. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for listening to the show. There are a ton of podcasts out there that you could be listening to today, but you chose mine and for that Iâm grateful and very appreciative. Iâm humbled by you continually supporting the show by asking your questions, listening, and sharing. So I thank you...
Nov 22, 2018â˘2 minâ˘Ep. 194
Thereâs so much to learn and as business owners, we love to absorb as much as humanly possible. But thatâs where the pitfall happens. We consume and consume and consume. If we applied half of the actionable information that we consume, we would have zero time in the next 10 years for anything else. (And yes, that figure is statistically backed by science ;) ). Seriously though, like myself, I would assume that you have had periods where you are reading, watching, listening to amazing and valuabl...
Nov 21, 2018â˘9 minâ˘Ep. 193
This question came by way of a Twitter DM. Yup, my DMs are open and love engaging with folks there. TLDR; If you need to keep the lights on, then offer the services you know that you can deliver. Then after you are settled in, take a look at what you've done and for who. From that see if you can then start to specialize you business somehow. Do what you know first Keep things simple. When starting out, you need to give yourself the best chance of success. The only way to do that is by providing ...
Nov 20, 2018â˘6 minâ˘Ep. 192
In the last 5 episodes I shared with you a course called Stop the Cycle where Curtis McHale and myself to be delivered to you on November 30th at 3:30 PM EST. A few people who have registered, jumped in and shared some feedback they had, well because we asked them what is it that they hope to get out of the course. What sparked you in deciding to join us. We want to make sure whoever joins us, gets the most value from it. This came by way of some feedback from one of those people. So with anythi...
Nov 19, 2018â˘7 minâ˘Ep. 191
This is part 5 in a 5-part series called Stop The Cycle where I ask you a question and youâll get an actionable item to take away with you at the end of the show to help your sales and marketing so that you are on the way to stop having the feast and famine killing your business. Positioning is simply marketing What if you only talked with high-quality leads that viewed you as an expert? You want people to respect you, right? You want to be valued as the expert in the conversation, right? What a...
Nov 16, 2018â˘4 minâ˘Ep. 190
This is part 4 in a 5-part series called Stop The Cycle where I ask you a question and youâll get an actionable item to take away with you at the end of the show to help your sales and marketing so that you are on the way to stop having the feast and famine killing your business. Make the time, donât wait to find it What if you had the time to keep marketing while doing great work for your clients? When I started my business, I sat on my couch every single Tuesday night doing lead generation tac...
Nov 15, 2018â˘4 minâ˘Ep. 189
This is part 3 in a 5-part series called Stop The Cycle where I ask you a question and youâll get an actionable item to take away with you at the end of the show to help your sales and marketing so that you are on the way to stop having the feast and famine killing your business. Level up the experience you provide to your leads What if you could give your leads an experience that positions you as an expert? I ran a highly scientific and analytical poll on Twitter and the results can back with a...
Nov 14, 2018â˘5 minâ˘Ep. 188
This is part 2 in a 5-part series called Stop The Cycle where I ask you a question and youâll get an actionable item to take away with you at the end of the show to help your sales and marketing so that you are on the way to stop having the feast and famine killing your business. Always be selling What if you could have your sales process running 24/7 scouring the web for opportunities? Yesterday we talked about a simple share as being a part of your marketing and awareness to the world. That wa...
Nov 13, 2018â˘4 minâ˘Ep. 187
Going to do something a little different over the next 5 episodes where I ask you a question. This is part 1 in a 5-part series called Stop The Cycle where youâll get an actionable item to take away with you at the end of the show to help your sales and marketing so that you are on the way to stop having the feast and famine killing your business. Don't let the client work always trump your own When you are deep in project work, itâs so easy to let your marketing slide. Weâve done it, those clie...
Nov 12, 2018â˘4 minâ˘Ep. 186
You hear a lot about niching down on this show. Many different actionable takeaways for you to be able to work through defining your specialty. But one thing I found myself to be beneficial is to hear how others do it. Especially others that I feel may not be too much further down the road than me. Which is why for me itâs important to always be in the freelance services side of things so that I can provide you with the best content possible that works for todayâs market. If you are interested i...
Nov 09, 2018â˘5 minâ˘Ep. 185
Get your clients to pay To budget means that you need to know (or at least be relatively sure) when your clients pay you. You obviously canât reach into their pocket and pull out the money they owe you, so thereâs some trust there you need to have, but there are systems that you can use and put into place that will help you nudge and remind clients. Donât be afraid of doing this. No business can run without money so if you are doing work, make sure you get paid. Track your expenses You have to s...
Nov 08, 2018â˘6 minâ˘Ep. 184
First, you want to create a page on your website to send folks you are talking to who are looking to you for your specialized service. On this page itâs important to put 4 sections: Who the service is for? What problem you are solving for them? How you solve that problem? Social proof of the problem and solution Keep it simple and make a call-to-action to reach out with their request. This can even be to your email address if you want. The idea is to test the market, not build something complex ...
Nov 07, 2018â˘6 minâ˘Ep. 183
This is something I hear asked quite often. Sara Dunn asked me how I did it after the first time she appeared on Live In The Feast in fact. Sara has embarked on her journey to publicly share her journey on specializing her agencyâs business. As you can see, everyone is trying to figure out the answer. Itâs important to put some context around this question. Your journey is your own. I canât answer this question with a foolproof plan for you. This is something that you need to be able to go on yo...
Nov 06, 2018â˘10 minâ˘Ep. 182
In episode 180 - What is the structure of a weekly review , you learned my framework for performing a weekly review. Look back Look ahead Execute When I found that this framework worked for me, I started applying it to all reviews I did, including weekly, monthly and yearly. Iâd like to replace the monthly with a quarterly review. Also sprinkle in a daily review as well, but those Iâm still working out. 1. Look back on the month. Very much like the weekly review, I look back on the revenue, only...
Nov 05, 2018â˘6 minâ˘Ep. 181
I was chatting with Greg Hickman over Instagram and he asked about my review and planning structures. He shared a story on his daily, weekly, quarterly and yearly reviews and was open about which ones heâs still working on getting better at and that sparked the conversation. I thought that since Iâve spoken about how important and what I do in my weekly reviews, Iâd share with you today the exact structure, the framework if you will, of all my reviews. Look back Look ahead Execute Itâs a simple ...
Nov 02, 2018â˘8 minâ˘Ep. 180
How do I know Matt Medeiros? Matt is an account representative at Pagely, a managed WordPress hosting company. In his prior life, he co-founded a successful digital agency. He is the host of a number of podcasts, one of which he invited me on. Iâve known Matt for a number of years in and around the WordPress space. Iâve met Matt on a couple of occasions as well and when he asked me to be a part of a panel of other niche business owners for his podcast, Matt Report , I easily accepted. Matt and I...
Nov 01, 2018â˘5 minâ˘Ep. 179
Performing a search on Google of the biggest mistakes in freelancing and youâll find over 10 million results. Yikes! Sad thing is that prior to this episode, I took a look at the lists in the first page to see if my list had any overlap. There are a ton of mistakes any freelancer can make. But what I think you want to hear are the mistakes that another freelancer has made. So thatâs what I want to share with you today. The 15 mistakes that I made throughout my career of nearly a decade. And how ...
Oct 31, 2018â˘9 minâ˘Ep. 178
Without a doubt having a child changed everything. We donât nearly go out as much alone as we used to. We travel, but to places like Sesame Place rather than the Caribbean. We donât sleep anymore. Even the business has changed. I love you, Joanna Before I jump into it I want thank my wife for everything that she does each and every day. She is absolutely the rock of this household and family. Without her, I know you wouldnât be reading this right now. The goal I had at an early age on why I want...
Oct 30, 2018â˘9 minâ˘Ep. 177
In episode 84 - Did hiring a mentor really help you with starting your business you learned how stubborn I was in getting a business coach. If you havenât already done so, take a listen to that episode because I think it will reinforce what youâll hear here. If you are running a business of any kind, thereâs a good chance that you are not an expert in every single part of that business. Maybe you are exceptional at sales but not so great at the implementation. Maybe you are technical, but suck a...
Oct 29, 2018â˘7 minâ˘Ep. 176
During a coaching session I was asked how to properly ask someone for a phone conversation. The context of this question was that this person wanted to reach out to specific people in larger organizations in order to simply have a phone conversation with them, not necessarily to sell to them, but for research. This is cold outreach and letâs be honest with ourselves here and just call it like it is, itâs spam. Itâs unsolicited communication, even if it can add value to the recipient by making it...
Oct 26, 2018â˘7 minâ˘Ep. 175
## How do I know James? James owns a company called [Content Snare](https://contentsnare.com/) that helps freelancers and agencies get content from clients. This was a really fun episode because James and I are in the same circles around the web, we just havenât had an opportunity to meet yet in person being on opposite sides of the planet and all. We both have a fondness for automation that, well can border on the line of obsession. So when James DMâd me and invited to me come onto his podcast,...
Oct 25, 2018â˘4 minâ˘Ep. 174
