#11: How to Unlock Freelance Success with Ed Gandia

Another one of my dreams was that one day , this week's guest host would be on the podcast with me . Ed Gandia' s wisdom has helped me up - level my business and he's changed my life without ever even knowing , long before I ever met him .

Ed selflessly gives amazing advice and guidance on his podcast , on his blog, and through the resources he shares with the freelance community . He is a business building coach who helps established freelance writers and copywriters earn more in less time doing work they love for better clients .

His High Income Business Writing podcast is one of the top freelancing and writing podcasts on Apple Podcasts and his insights and advice have been featured in Forbes , Fast Country , CNN Radio, and many other publications . He also has some great free resources he offers . I'll make sure those are linked in the show notes every day this week .

I know you're as excited as I am to hear this week's content , so let's go ahead and jump into our first question with Ed . If you're a freelancer , business owner or anyone who deals with clients , you're in the right place . I'm your host , teresa Edmond .

I've been dealing with clients and running my business for nearly two decades and in that time I've dealt with my share of doubt , imposter syndrome and not knowing what to say when a client asks a question . I wasn't ready for . I created this podcast to empower you with the boss responses you need to grow your business .

Each week , my guest co-host and I will bring you five episodes packed with practical insights . Monday through Thursday , we answer your questions , and Fridays we dive deep to explore how our co-host embraced their role as the boss of their business . Welcome to Boss Responses , ed . Thank you so much for being here with us today .

Let's go ahead and just jump into the question for day one .

What are some of the mistakes you see freelancers make when they first start out , and how can I avoid them ? Thank you .

They think they have to start at the bottom of the rung again , and that's just not true and I'll let you speak a little bit more on that , because you're just the master at valuing your expertise . But I think it's really important to know that . Also , setting clear boundaries with your clients .

I see a lot of people coming into running their own business with an employee mindset , and that's something that I've talked about a lot and I'll keep talking about it , because it's vital that you step up as the boss of your business , and part of that is making sure that your clients understand that they're clients and that you are running a business and

providing a service , and that doesn't mean being mean or nasty or even cutting remarks . It's just setting boundaries so that you can do what you do best while they do what they do best .

And then I think the third thing that I would really like to focus on is neglecting your marketing , because a lot of people will get started and they get those first few clients and they get pretty busy and then they stop marketing and then something happens with a client and they get all panicked and they start marketing again , but they only do it until they

get a client . And I think continuous marketing should be a part of our business plan and I think every freelancer needs a business plan from day one . That should be something you do , it should be something that you set aside time for every week , and it needs to be just a continuous process . What are your thoughts on this , winnid ?

I'm exaggerating , but that's kind of the approach that a lot of new people take , and when you can write anything for anybody , you don't really stand out .

What clients really want is someone who gets them , gets their business , gets their industry , gets the topics they need to write about and understands the audience they're writing to or they need to communicate with . So really presenting yourself is the ideal choice in that regard is huge .

And not saying , well , I'm going to cast a wider net , that's a huge mistake . You dilute your value , dilute your strengths and your differentiators . To kind of echo some of what you said , I think underestimating the amount of outreach you have to do is a really common mistake .

I think a lot of people come into that with a lot of fear , but I also see a lot of people come into it with a lot of confidence in terms of what it's going to take from a marketing standpoint to land clients , especially if you land a client or two pretty quickly and then it just it creates a false expectation . Overwhelmingly .

I find that people underestimate how much marketing they're going to have to do . So you need to be prepared for that One that I , in fact , I just saw this the other day from someone I was talking to and they had started recently and this I see this all the time is putting too much stock in any single opportunity .

So it's like , oh , you know I'm , I got this person , I know it's my ex-boss , for instance , and this is really going to kickstart my business . So they stop marketing , they stop paying attention to all these important foundational elements that they need to put in place , because they got everything .

All their hopes and dreams are riding on this opportunity and , of course , the bigger the opportunity , the more complex and easier it is for something to go wrong and suddenly , three months go by and it dies . In fact , their , their contact gets laid off out of the blue .

This is really about diversification , about just doing the reps , not counting on any single opportunity , and I like to tell new people look , you're buying lottery tickets . Buy as many lottery tickets as you can say yes to everything .

I know that might contradict some of what we've been saying , but you don't know which opportunity is really going to pop , so buy a bunch of lottery tickets . We'll talk more about this , but as your business evolves , you say no much more often , but at first say yes .

If I do more than that , then I know I'm going to be in trouble if I lose that client and that's a big thing with me . Now , one thing that hasn't come up that I just thought of . Well , one thing that you mentioned was casting that wide net . This is something I personally really struggle with because I'm a net person .

I am , but I do ghost writing and I love writing books about all kinds of topics , and that to me , is exciting . But I understand the value of niching down . Could you talk a little bit more about when someone comes in with an area of expertise , how should they approach that ? They're a simple process for deciding which niche they should be looking at .

Target market doesn't need to be an industry , so that's a very common misconception . Target market could be described with other attributes . I work let's use your example so I ghost write books for executives and business leaders . I didn't name an industry there , I just made that up .

I'm not saying this is you , but the point is that you can slice and dice it many different ways . You still need to identify the audience . When you talk about them . They need to say that's me , and there are many different ways to do that . Granted , an industry is the most common .

But to go back to your question , one of the best things you could do is do a personal and professional inventory when do I have background , experience , network , skills , understanding , passions , and then it's the process of elimination from there .

But start with what you know and whom you know , and that's going to be your best bet , and don't think that you have to really go with an industry . Also , don't feel like you have to go super narrow .

I see a lot of people making the opposite mistake and they say I want to write about not just sustainability but green energy , and not just that , but solar panel manufacturers I don't know just to name one example and how many of them are there .

I don't know that industry but that's probably a little too narrow , especially if you don't have a ton of experience in that one area .

They've led me to my best clients every single time . They also are the most important part of my marketing building relationships and networking as part of my marketing and it really , really helps .

Your best friend suddenly gets laid off and the new replacement doesn't know what your agreement was . You have nothing to point to . You cannot imagine the possible Situations that could come up and you need to just pretend . If worse came to worse , what can we point to in a friendly manner To see okay , what did we agree on ?

And that just prevents all kinds of misunderstandings . It's not about lawsuits , it's not about going to court . It's really about Preventing really bad things from happening .

So if it's a statement of work , if it's an email that clearly outlines everything , if it's a full contract and I highly recommend full contracts for High-value work then Make sure that's done . So those are a few of the things that we recommend that you keep close to yourself as you start your business .

If you take the time to set down and do some type of business plan , even if it's very informal , you're going to find , I think , that a lot of these just fall in

there . Naturally , don't go into it like it's a side project anymore . You're starting a business , freelancing as a business . Make sure you take that seriously and make sure you set it up . Set yourself up for success , not for failure . Any last words on this one , ed .