Freelance Interview Series – Building Your Personal Brand with Codi Johnson

Freelance Interview Series – Building Your Personal Brand with Codi Johnson

by | Mar 29, 2022 | Blog, Resources

Codi Johnson is the social media marketing strategist behind Mini Media Marketing. She has over seven years of experience with social media management, strategy, and content creation, and she specializes in helping businesses develop an online identity that is rooted in authenticity.

Not only does she help other humans figure out what works for them on social, but she also has built her own community on Twitter, and currently has over 11k followers. We talked to Codi about how to build a personal brand that lands.

Building Your Personal Brand

1. What does a personal brand look like/mean to you?

Personal brand to me is the physical and non-physical aspects that make you who you are. Physically for me, I like to rock my afro, wear gold jewelry, and always have my nails painted. As for the non-physical aspects, I associate my brand with my love for charcuterie boards, social media marketing, cooking, ‘90s music, fitness, and family values.

A personal brand isn’t something that you have to magically whip up—it’s already in you. It’s everything that makes you, you. And it doesn’t always have to be “professional”. It can be the quirky, fun things that are associated with you as an individual.

2. How did you decide that you needed a personal brand and how did you go about defining what that looked like?

I’ve always had a personal brand, but I’ve never paid much mind to it. Over the past 5-7 years I became obsessed with social media marketing, branding, nails, music, fitness, and other things I now identify with. I would constantly share fun articles, videos, or mini-projects as a way to showcase to the world that, Hey this me! This is what I like, this is what I’m good at, and this is part of my brand.

I wanted to express and share more about the things that I liked because it connected me to the communities that I wanted to be a part of. I have always had a passion for marketing, nails, music, and fitness—I used to be a soccer player, so I was already invested in everything that aligns with my personal brand.

3. Have you seen the hiring process as a freelancer shift for you as your personal brand grew in recognition?

YES! 100% yes. Especially over the past couple of years, as I’ve started to tweet more about social media marketing and other things I find interesting, I’ve received heaps of referrals from my social networks.

4. Do you think all freelancers should have personal websites? If so, what do you think is necessary for them to include?

Yes! Even if it’s just one page, it’s so important to have a place for your prospective clients to learn more about you, your work, and the things you like to do. As for sections to include, there should always be an About section. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve visited websites and been instantly turned off when there was no bio or personal touch! Tell me more about you—your likes, things you do outside of work. If your prospective client reads that you love to go kayaking, and they do too, you’ve already made a connection, and that can develop into something deeper. At the end of the day, you’re doing business with humans. Human connection is so important. Don’t lose sight of that.

Secondly, have a place for your Portfolio. It could be a link to your work or case studies that give people a sense of the success you can help them achieve.

Thirdly, add a Services page. What do you offer? What comes in each package? There are lots of different opinions on whether or not to share your rates on your site, and that’s something that freelancers have to decide for themselves. Personally, I don’t share package rates on my site as they vary depending on each project. However, I do share starting rates.

And, lastly, I would also include a Contact page. Keep it simple.

5. What channels do you recommend freelancers leverage to build their brand?

This depends on the industry of work. But, as a marketer, I’ve found that Twitter is my favorite platform to connect with other marketers and industry leaders. Conversations never stop on there. I love it! I used to be a LinkedIn hater, but truthfully, it has provided me with some amazing job opportunities. For example, in 2021, after doing a search for “social media strategists” in the US, I was able to connect with another social media strategist. I messaged her to let her know I was happy to connect and maybe we could get to know each other. Since that message, we talk bi-weekly, she has sent me three clients in the past year, and I’ve partnered her with a colleague of mine to give a presentation to our college students.

You could be on any platform really, but it’s how you use it to your advantage that matters. I’d say pick two platforms that you know you can own, and just start creating content. Start publishing some of your work, spark conversations, share interesting articles (tag authors), go LIVE, collaborate with other industry leaders. The possibilities are endless.

6. What other advice would you give to a freelancer who is just starting to build their personal brand?

Don’t worry about what other people think. Be you! When it comes to owning your personal brand in the hopes of landing more clients, you have to show how you can provide value. People don’t know what they don’t know. If you have an amazing stat to share from the work you’ve created, share that! If you have a testimonial from a client that you’re proud of, share it. If you want people to know you for graphic design, start incorporating more of that into the conversations you have on your social channels.

Only you know what works for you. I know it’s easy to get consumed with the successes of others, but focusing your attention on what other people are doing will only take away from your own success. If you’re just starting out with building a personal brand, I’d suggest making a list of the things that you like and the groups that you are already part of, and start spending more time connecting with people in those communities. Keep the list to about 5-7 things. You don’t need to overwhelm yourself.But do remember, that no one is going to build your brand for you. So, be authentically and unapologetically you. People will admire that and remember you for it.

 

Give Codi a follow on Twitter or check out Mini Media Marketing to learn more about the services Codi offers.

Sole Proprietor, LLC, or S-Corp: How to Set Your Freelance Business Up for Success

Sole Proprietor, LLC, or S-Corp: How to Set Your Freelance Business Up for Success

by | Mar 26, 2022 | Blog, Resources

If you’re a new-ish freelancer without a degree in accounting, trying to decode the legalese online about business entities can feel like translating an ancient manuscript. The acronyms, the liability language, the tax implications… It’s a lot. But there comes a time in every entrepreneur’s journey when they’re faced with the big question: Sole Proprietorship, Single Member LLC, or S-Corp?

We’re here to help you figure out how to structure your business for your greatest ease and benefit. So in this article, we’ll try to lay it all out in human terms, so you get a better sense of what these business entities are and how to decide which one is right for you. (Note: We highly encourage you to talk to a CPA or tax professional about how to structure your business—this is just a starter guide to help you understand each option.)

Sole Proprietorship, Single Member LLC, or S-Corp

Sole Proprietorship

What It Is: A Sole Proprietorship is a one-person business that can use an assumed business name (AKA a “Doing Business As” or “DBA” name) without forming any formal business entity.

The Pros: It’s easy, plain, and simple. You don’t need to register your business with the state or file separate taxes for your business. You just file all of your work income on your personal tax return.

The Cons: You have no protection from legal action, so if someone decides to sue you, they could come after your personal assets and potentially ruin you financially. You also need to provide your personal social security number as your tax ID on documents, so your SSN will get passed around to your clients via paperwork. And, you’ll have to pay the 15.3% FICA tax (AKA “self-employment tax”) on all of your income.

Who It’s Best For: A Sole Proprietorship is good for you if you’re just starting out with a side hustle and you’re not worried about the potential legal ramifications.

Single Member LLC

What It Is: A Single Member LLC is exactly what it sounds like—a limited liability company that is owned and operated by one person. This is by far the most common way to set up a freelance business.

The Pros: There is legal separation between you and your business, so if a client decides to come after you, they can’t touch your personal assets. It’s also relatively inexpensive to set up. Costs vary state to state, but you’re typically looking at $100-$200 to set up an LLC. And when you file your taxes, it’s streamlined—everything is done through your personal tax return, so you don’t have to file a separate return for the business.

The Cons: You will pay the 15.3% self-employment tax in addition to your personal income taxes. A single member LLC is considered a “pass-through,” meaning all profits and losses pass directly from the business to you, the individual owner. So, you may end up paying more in taxes than a corporation would.

Who It’s Best For: A Single Member LLC is good for you if you’re a serious freelancer and you want the protection of legal separation between you and your business—but you don’t want the headache of filing additional IRS paperwork each year (see below).

Single Member LLC Taxed as S Corporation

What It Is: An S Corporation (or “S Corp”) isn’t actually a legal business structure—it’s a tax election that determines how your business is taxed at the federal and state level. So you could register your business as a Single Member LLC but elect to file your taxes as an S Corp (and many entrepreneurs do).

The Pros: With a Single Member LLC electing to file as an S Corp, you get all the benefits of a Single Member LLC, plus a break on taxes. You actually pay yourself a wage as the business owner, so you get to skip that aforementioned 15.3% self-employment tax that comes with the other two options. Instead, you split the 15.3% with your business, paying 7.65% in personal payroll taxes and 7.65% in business payroll taxes (which you can write off as a tax deduction).

The Cons: S Corps require separate filings for the business and for you, which can make tax season a bit more complicated. You’ll also be required to pay payroll taxes on a quarterly basis, so you can’t skip out on filing four times a year, if that’s been a habit. (Hey, it’s not the worst habit to cut.) And although you get a break on the self-employment tax, you do have to pay the FUTA tax (or unemployment tax) now, which is 6.0% of the first $7,000 you paid to each employee (you) in wages throughout the year. And, of course, you’ll still pay personal income taxes on the salary you make, as you would with any designation.

Who It’s Best For: Electing to file as an S Corp is a good move for you if your business is making profits in the six figures and you’re willing to file extra paperwork each year in order to save on taxes.

Whether you’re just starting out as a new freelancer or you’re finally taking steps to legitimize your freelance business, we applaud you. This stuff ain’t easy or simple, but it’s well worth it to learn the lingo and make the right choices based on your situation. The more comfortable you get with the legal side of your business, the more confident you’ll feel when tax season rolls around—and really throughout the whole year.

Freelance Interview Series – Long-term Success with Matthew Fenton

Freelance Interview Series – Long-term Success with Matthew Fenton

by | Mar 24, 2022 | Blog, Resources

Matthew Fenton is a brand strategy pro, owner of Three Deuce Branding, and the creator of Winning Solo, a freelancer coaching business that helps other solopreneurs design balanced lifestyles. A freelancer for 25 years and counting – he’s an expert at building habits and processes tailored to individuals who work for themselves (you can sign up for his newsletter to get soloist strategies in your inbox on the reg).

We asked him to share some of his insight into making the entrepreneurial lifestyle manageable and fulfilling long-term.

1. Was it always your intention to turn freelancing into a long-term career?

I’d like to say that when I began consulting in 1997, I knew I’d still be doing it in 2022.

But that would be a lie.

One thing I did know for sure, though, was that certain aspects of traditional employment didn’t agree with me. And I saw self-employment as a way to do more of the stuff I enjoyed, and less of the stuff that I didn’t.

I was always conscious of the idea that freelancing could be a key component in a happier, more balanced life.

So I never treated freelancing as a fallback or a stopgap. It was my intention to stay in the game as long as possible, and I made my decisions accordingly, and here we are 25 years later.

2. Have the services that you offer shifted over time?

They have. Today, my consultancy, Three Deuce Branding, only deals in what I call “core brand strategy”: aspirations, positioning, strategy, and messaging. So I’ve chosen to go “narrow and deep.” I enjoy solving the puzzle and creating the top-level brand strategy.

I don’t do any execution at all, though quite often I partner with creatives, create one-off teams, or help my clients manage their execution partners.

In my early days of freelancing, I told people I was a “marketing consultant,” which is about the same as telling them nothing at all. So I attracted a lot of inquiries that were outside my expertise, like building websites and designing logos. I refused those, but I was foolish enough to accept a few copywriting gigs until I realized that I (a) didn’t enjoy it and (b) wasn’t good at it.

The lessons: A precise offer is better than a vague one. And — shocker! — expertise matters.

In March of last year, I launched Winning Solo to help other freelancers enjoy greater earnings, longevity, and balance. Right now, it’s a coaching business, though I plan to launch courses soon. Because this is a different market and offering than my brand strategy consultancy, it made sense to me to brand Winning Solo as its own thing.

3. Do you have set goals for your business (long term and short term)? If so, how often do you revisit your holistic business strategy and set new goals for yourself?

LOVE this question. I’m regularly stunned — stunned, I tell you! — by the number of freelancers who tell me they do no planning at all for their businesses.

The very short answer: I set annual income goals and I revisit my strategic plan every quarter. I block a full day to do this, though it almost never takes that long.

Some tips I’d offer to freelancers who struggle with (or simply dread) planning:

Go with the “Minimum Viable Plan.” You don’t need some clunky, formal, 30-page binder. You’re not pitching to investors. Go with the most lightweight approach that helps you get the job done. My own plan fits on a single page.

Plan your quarter, not your year. A year is difficult to conceptualize and easy to procrastinate within. Thinking in terms of 90-day windows helps you to prioritize and execute.

Establish a weekly “top two.” To further help me prioritize, I allow myself a maximum of two business-building priorities per week. These are my “As”; everything else is a “B” or lower. These usually fall out of my 90-day plan, but I have a quick check-in with myself every Friday to establish my “top two” for the coming week.

Focus on inputs, not outputs. Just wanting to earn $200k won’t make it happen. Think in terms of the behaviors that are most likely to result in achieving your goal. Most often, these take the form of projects (e.g. a deep-dive on mastering sales) or habits (e.g. publishing and contributing on social media every day).

There are no mandatory tactics. The core strategic question is this: What are the best choices to get me to where I want to be? Since we each have different starting points, strengths, objectives, and obstacles, it follows that our choices will be different.

So you can ignore that guy in the Facebook ad who tells you that you MUST build a funnel, or be a content machine, or whatever. The right tactics are the ones that work for you.

4. Throughout your journey, have you sought out any coaching or mentorship?

I’ve done less of this than I should have. This is partly a function of starting out in the ‘90s when there weren’t that many experienced freelancers to learn from. And it’s partly my own psychological wiring — the “lone wolf” thing.

So I executed a dive of my own selection and learned from the mistakes as I went along. This is an expensive way to go about it, though. It’s much cheaper to learn from the experience of others.

5. What do you think are the most important skills to work on and grow as a career freelancer (outside of the services offered)?

The first one would be: “Get very good at the work, and get very good at the work that brings you the work.”

We’d like to believe that excellent work is enough to win the day, but that’s not always the case. I’ve seen some very talented freelancers crash out because they couldn’t or wouldn’t embrace marketing and sales. Treat yourself like a client and prioritize your own business.

It need not be sleazy or complicated. You can think of marketing as “consistently bringing value to people who can hire you.” You can think of sales as “listening to understand.”

The second skill: effective use of time. As freelancers, our time is our inventory, so we need to invest it well. Regularly ask: What am I doing that can be minimized, automated, outsourced, or ignored?

Even the must-do stuff can often be done more efficiently or effectively. If part of your job requires that you’re on social media, but it feels like you’re spending too much time scrolling, the first step is to put a number to that so you can reduce it.

6. What advice would you give freelancers who want to turn their service offering into a long-term career?

Four quick bits:

The primary reason for your business to exist is to meet your needs. It’s not the only reason, but it is the primary reason. If your clients are delighted but you’re miserable, what’s the point? If in doubt: Life plan first, business plan second.

Everyone is not your client. You can’t serve “the universe.” Sharpen your targeting, qualify your prospects, and know your terms of engagement. The difference between great clients and lousy clients can be the difference between many years of freelancing and an early exit.

Do exceptional work when given the chance. That’s how you build a reputation. And that leads to referrals, repeat business, and clients who take you with them when they change jobs.

Protect the asset. (You are the asset.) I stole that line from Gregory McKeown; I think every freelancer should read his book Essentialism. You can’t do your best work if you’re burnt out or off balance. Make time for exercise, sleep, family and friends, hobbies and interests, reflection, and gratitude.

 

Give Matthew a follow on Twitter or check out Winning Solo to learn more about how to grow your business in a sustainable way.

Video: Managing Freelance Burnout

Video: Managing Freelance Burnout

by | Mar 16, 2022 | Blog, Resources

Co-hosts of The Freelance Writing Coach Podcast, Emma Siemasko, and Kaleigh Moore, invited Harlow co-founders, Andrea Wildt and Samantha Anderl, to discuss the very common issue of burnout amongst people pursuing a freelance career path.

You can tune into the recording here:

 

Check out previous episodes of the Freelance Writing Coach here. In each 20-minute episode, Emma and Kaleigh take a deep-dive into a specific hot topic for freelancers and provide actionable advice and firsthand insight from their 10+ years of freelancing.

You can also follow the hosts on Twitter here:

Emma Siemasko

Kaleigh Moore

Transcript

Kaleigh

So, we have the lovely folks from Harlow here with us today. We are going to be talking about the topic of burnout which — if you’re a freelancer or you’re thinking about freelancing — is probably top of mind. Maybe you’re burnt out at a full-time job or maybe you’ve been freelancing for a while and you’re feeling really, really exhausted and like, if nothing else, you want to hear other people talk about it and vent about it and know that you’re in the same boat. So, if that’s you, you’re in the right place. I’m going to kick it over to Emma here. She’s going to introduce our speakers and we will get right into the conversation. Also, a quick note — if you have questions, please use the chat.

Emma

Hi everybody, I’m Emma. Thanks so much for joining. So, we have Samantha Anderl and Andrea Wildt. They are the co-founders of Harlow, which is a tool for freelance writers that helps them manage their day-to-day and ultimately get paid. We are here today to discuss burnout, and I’d love to punt it over to them and hear a little bit about their experiences with burnout. Why don’t we start with Andrea? So when we were discussing this, Andrea was like, “I don’t know if i’m qualified to talk about this, I really struggle with this,” but I’d love to hear a little bit more about your struggles with burnout.

Andrea

Yeah, so when I think about how to manage burnout, for me, it’s all about how I create balance in my life and boundaries, because I tend to be a little bit of a people-pleaser. I want to say yes to everything and I’m also a procrastinator, and those two things just don’t work very well together. I end up taking on more than I should, pushing it all off until the last minute, and then being totally overwhelmed and just not able to manage my time very well. So, I’ve had to institute a lot more boundaries and structure in my life — in my personal life and my work life — and I do it in kind of an old school way, to be honest with you. I do a lot of calendar-blocking and list-making. So, for me, managing burnout really comes down to task management and client management. And then leaning on Samantha, because she tells me to say no to things. Samantha’s way better at this than I am.

Emma

Are there certain tools you use for project management and task management? I think everybody has sort of different workflows, but I’d love to hear a little bit about yours.

Andrea

Yeah, now we’re using Harlow for that because obviously Harlow helps with project management and all that. But previously we were using Asana for task management, which was great between the two of us and any other contractors that we were working with. I’m old-school so I also write everything down in my notebook. I use the notes app on my computer. And I literally will just block hours out on my calendar — like, for these two hours I’m going to get this task done. So it’s really not sophisticated.

Emma

How about you Samantha? So is this something that you struggle with? Andrea said that this is something that you help her with so I’d love to hear a little bit about your perspective on where burnout comes into your life, if you’ve experienced it, and how you go about preventing it.

Samantha

Yeah, absolutely. So, before Andrea and I were freelancers together and before we founded Harlow together, we actually worked at this company called Campaign Monitor. She was the CMO and I was the head of marketing, and that’s, I think, where we first got burnt out in our careers. We were working with teams in Australia and San Francisco and the UK and the Philippines — teams from all over the place — and so, toward the end of our time there, Andrea and I started to really struggle with boundaries in our work life. We were having meetings from 7 AM to 7 PM. It was just wild. We learned a lot there, but one of the reasons why we both left was to own our schedules and have better autonomy — and to actually get that freedom and flexibility.

She and I chatted back and forth and were like, okay, we’re going to found this consulting business — which is just a fancy way of saying we would be freelancing. And at first, we were really good at saying, “Okay, we’re only going to take on a couple of clients. Here’s how we’re going to work. Here’s what it’s going to look like.” But then we realized we could make a lot of money if we took on more clients and more clients and more clients. And so, we initially had this nice transition into freelancing where we had a lot of spare time, we had flexibility, we had freedom, and then all of a sudden we ramped up to where we had none of that.

So that, I think, is the first point where I got really burnt out when I was freelancing. And Andrea and I had a lot of hard conversations, like, How many clients could we realistically have? What do we want our schedules to look like? How much do we need to charge so that we can better manage our schedules and just be better about that? So I think both of those experiences — at Campaign Monitor and when we got really overwhelmed at Interimly — is what led me to creating a lot of personal boundaries and work boundaries.

Andrea

One of the things that I think we found is that it wasn’t only the volume of clients that caused burnout but it was sometimes the type of client. You know, you can have that client that doesn’t respect boundaries that wants you to jump on a call at 5pm. So there was a lot of deep soul-searching around what clients are actually good for us and that was part of the process of managing overall burnout in our business

Emma

I’d say I’ve had the same experience with clients and one of the things that’s helped me too is setting expectations with the clients at the beginning. It’s hard once you already have a client who expects you to turn something around within a matter of hours or immediately jump on a call but it’s a little bit easier when you set expectations in the beginning. Like I send out an email to every new client that’s like — “You can expect me to respond to your emails within 48 hours. If you need to schedule a call, use my Calendly link. I’m not available to jump on a call ever.” And it just sort of lays out those expectations, which I really think prevents that.

But one of the things that’s interesting about burnout that I see is that it’s one of the top reasons that my coaching clients come to me — because they’re burned out. When I started offering coaching, I was like, “People are going to come to me because they want to make more money as a freelancer — they want better systems.” And there’s some of that, but a lot of it is like, “I am seeing a lot of success but I’m so burnt out. I didn’t start my business with the systems in place that I was going to need because I didn’t know what they were going to be.” I think that’s part of it — you don’t know what kind of clients or how many clients you can take on. You have to sort of learn as you go.

So what I wind up helping people with is defining what is actually bringing you joy and giving you energy and what’s really sucking that energy. And oftentimes what I’m recommending to people is firing clients and maybe ultimately making less money. I think burnout is something that everybody at every level of business struggles with and we sort of constantly have to work to prevent it before it gets really bad. And also, when we’re recognizing the signs of it, figure out ways to take time off — if we have the flexibility, maybe to push our deadlines out for one week and just restore ourselves.

Kaleigh, we haven’t heard from you about burnout. I’d love to hear what what you think and your experience

Kaleigh

Yeah, so I have a pretty full plate and I have for like the past two years, with no break. For me, the pandemic was very much like — I’m not going anywhere, so I’m gonna stay home and just be heads down and work. And that is a recipe for disaster, but the good thing that’s come out of it is that it’s given me time to think about what you said — systems, processes, tools — and also getting a little bit more comfortable slowly with delegation, so finding people who can help me with different pieces of the puzzle so that I’m working as efficiently as possible and doing what I need to.

It’s an ongoing thing for me. I feel like I’m still struggling with burnout, maybe just managing or functioning with burnout. Emma, I feel like you’re a good sounding board for me though. Anytime I get super burnt out I can turn to you and be like, “What do I do?” and you kind of help me take a step back and look at things and be like, “What’s truly important here? What are you enjoying?” Like you said, the questions you ask your coaching clients, which is really helpful.

Emma

I do think finding sounding boards in general can help manage it, and being open about what you’re experiencing. Maybe we should have started out this chat with this, but we didn’t really define burnout and what it means. I think, to me, burnout is basically being so exhausted by work that you’re having trouble functioning. Like, you’re maybe having trouble delivering the quality that you want to, you’re having trouble doing meaningful work on the business. I know when I’m burnt out, the result is that I feel completely uninspired. I just feel like I don’t want to do this anymore, what’s the point of all this? So for me, that’s kind of what it means. For some other people, maybe they have trouble sleeping when they’re burnt out. What do those symptoms look like for you, Kaleigh and Samantha and Andrea?

Kaleigh

Yeah, I’ll hop in here first. I think for me, it’s definitely the sleeping thing, like you said, but the other thing is that I cannot shut off my work brain, so whenever i’m not sitting at my desk I’m still thinking about work all the time. So that has become a very big red flag for me, when that starts happening. And I’m just constantly stressing and like adding to a to-do list that never seems to end. That’s too much — you need to be able to have a hard line and separate from this. What about you guys?

Andrea

Yeah, I would say that’s it definitely when I can’t be present; when I sit down to dinner with my family or my friends and my brain is still reeling. I also dream about work, which is the worst, especially when you’re dreaming about, like, spreadsheets. It’s the worst. I grind my teeth. I start to get anxious. It manifests itself in all these different ways. I think it depends on the type of anxiety also — like sometimes I get burnt out because I took something on that I wasn’t quite sure about and it became too much, and then I start to have all of that self-doubt, which manifests in a slightly different way.

Samantha

All of these exact same things, and I will say the additional thing for me is I start to feel it physically as well, because when I start to burn out, when I start to have a lack of boundaries, I’m not doing the things that make me feel physically good, whether it’s working out or yoga or taking time to breathe or to stretch — these things that really energize me. All of a sudden I’m not doing those things anymore, so I feel sluggish. My brain feels sluggish, my body — it’s just head to toe.

Emma

Awesome, yeah, I agree. That reminds me of thinking about ways to combat this because we talked a little bit about how to combat it at work by using the right tools and blocking your calendar and all of these things. But I think there’s also things that we can sort of do in our personal lives that make managing this better.

I remember last month I was feeling incredibly burnt out and I was venting to my therapist — “I’m so burnt out at work, this is not inspiring to me” — and she and I went through a litany of complaints, and she was like, “Hey, have you been sleeping and have you been exercising?” It was a very simple question, but I realized, I have a toddler at home, he had really not been sleeping well for the past month, and anyone who’s a parent knows that sometimes these issues start as a small thing and then it gets bigger and you don’t deal with it until it becomes a giant thing. And I was like, okay, maybe I need to call in a sleep consultant to help, which I did (and I highly recommend it to any parents struggling with sleep).

I realized that I had stopped exercising because Omicron had gotten bad at the beginning of the year and I just took a break from the gym and hadn’t gotten back to it. And when she said that, I was like, okay, I need to prioritize sleep and I need to prioritize exercise for mental health, beyond the calendar blocking and the clients and all of those things. And it dramatically helps.

I’m someone who’s like, “I don’t really need to exercise. Eating better isn’t gonna help me.” I have that attitude a little bit, but once I made the changes to go to bed earlier, actually get a good night’s sleep, make the time… and, speaking of calendar blocking, I think this is actually my workout block. You guys weaseled your way in because this is a special event, but usually from 11:30 to 1:00 is my workout block every day. I don’t always work out then, but I always have it as a time when no one can schedule a meeting so that I’m free to go to the gym from 12 to 1 when I want to.

So it’s not just about what you’re doing to prevent work burnout while you’re working, but what you do when you’re not working to take good care of yourself and live a more harmonious life.

Kaleigh

Yeah, I think it’s interesting what you said about having the expectation set upfront with clients. I feel like that’s a really good, proactive way to get in front of this and to get ahead of those things that can really quickly lead to being burnt out. So like, these are my office hours and if you send me an email I will reply within X amount hours on business days — just being really clear about those boundaries upfront and having it documented too, so that if it comes up down the road and becomes an issue, you can refer back to that and say, “Yep, happy to help you, but it’s going to be X — you know, per our earlier conversation.” So I think that that helps a lot too.

Andrea

Yeah, I honestly wish I would have listened to your podcast about managing meetings like two years ago. I feel like that would have really helped me, because, like you said, it’s just all about setting those expectations. I get super anxious, especially if something’s wrong and somebody slacks me, “Oh, this is broken,” or, “I need this ASAP,” then I feel like I immediately have to drop everything else and go handle that, which then means I’m behind. And that increases the chances that I’m going to burn out.

Samantha

Totally, and I’ll add to that too — spend time scoping out your work and be realistic with your deadlines. This is something that Andrea and I got a lot better at as we progressed with our freelance career. At the beginning we spent a really long time thinking through how long tasks would actually take us, how much we could charge for that thing, what the deadline should be, and we were really pushing ourselves. Like Andrea’s mentioned multiple times, deadlines coming up, having to take meetings, having to do these things last minute because we weren’t giving ourselves enough time to really be proactive instead of reactive.

So if you can spend the time upfront to really scope out your work and then give yourself so much cushion on how long things actually take you — because we have to account for distractions at home and we have to account for things coming up with other clients and we have to account for research that we didn’t think we were gonna have to do. Or more emails and iterations, back and forths, etc. You have to account for all that stuff upfront so you’re not pushing yourself to meet all these super unrealistic deadlines. And I know sometimes clients will give deadlines and we do have to meet them, but when we can take that power and take that control back, I think that is super valuable to prevent burnout.

Emma

I also think that since we’re talking to a group of freelance writers we shouldn’t discount how much writing can actually burn you out, because this is a high brain kind of activity. I think client communications can also burn you out but I remember when I first started, the volume of writing I was doing was insane. My first job that I had in-house before I was a freelancer, I think the job was to write something like 4,000 words a day every day — which, for those of you who are writers, like, oh my gosh, how is that even legal? It was just wacky. But I think that when you’re dedicating that much time to writing it’s a real straight path to burnout.

So I think that is why Kaleigh and I really advocate for project-based rates as opposed to hourly rates. What someone is paying for is the value that you ultimately deliver as opposed to the hours that you’re giving them because if you’re an efficient writer, you ultimately want to be paid for the project and feel that the time you’re spending on it is valuable to you. And also, there’s an energy cost that’s baked in there. I know for myself, for all the writing that I’ve done and from many of the people that I talked to, it’s sort of like a unique setup to get burned out on it.

I think anything where you’re doing a lot of repetitive [work] is a path to burnout. And that’s also advocating for finding ways to grow in your business that are maybe not writing-related — offering coaching or offering digital products or finding events like this to attend to try and break up the monotony of “I just have to deliver on deadlines,” because I think we can get heads down and that’s the only thing we’re doing and that is not a very fulfilling way to have a freelance business.

Kaleigh

We had a great question here from Marie as well. Marie said, “Can you talk more about your process to determine how long projects should take and how you figure out deadlines with clients?” which is a good question, especially if you’re new to this and you’re really not sure how long something could take. I would love to hear what you guys do. I know in my case, I think padding deadlines is a big help, but at this point in my career, after doing this for eight years, I kind of know how long things take, so it’s a little bit more automatic. But I’m curious to hear what you guys have to say.

Samantha

Yeah, honestly, one of the things that Andrea and I did upfront… because we had been in a corporate environment for so long, it wasn’t really about how long things took us — it was more about prioritization and what was most important for the business. But when we moved over to freelancing, we literally started tracking our time, and not so that we could bill clients. We started tracking our time to understand how long things actually took us and over how many days and how many times we came back to things and just what our work process really was. And that was wildly beneficial for me.

I know a lot of us are like, “Time tracking, eh, no thank you.” This was purely for personal reasons, for me to truly understand how long something took me and once I was able to do that I could go back and reflect and say, “Okay, I did this thing three times. Each time, it takes me a [slightly] different amount of time to do it, but what is my average or even what is the most time that it took me? And then how do I pad that? And [Andrea and I] put together a little grid where we said, “Okay, here are the different services that we offer. Here’s how much time that takes us. Here’s how much time we should actually allocate to that to give ourselves some padding. And then here’s how much we should charge for it.” So we started getting really structured in that way.

Andrea

And I will say, in addition to tracking our time on client work, we actually tracked our time on the business stuff too. So how much time are we spending prospecting and working on our website, or participating in community, or researching things that are not necessarily directly billable or part of a project? But that helped us to understand what our true capacity was, because if we just looked at how much time we spent on client work, then all of a sudden we wouldn’t have time to run our business and send our invoices and prospects and things like that.

Emma

Yeah, I would just add sort of like a hack to everything that has been said, which was great and is way more sophisticated than what I’m about to say. I would just say that when you’re putting a deadline out there. if you’re like, “I think I can do this in a week,” maybe double that, because you’re never going to be sad that you had more time.

We have some other questions coming in here so I’m going to get to them. So Morgan had asked about… I think this is specifically about Harlow and it’s maybe a good opportunity to talk about your tools. So she asked, “Is this a replacement or a supplement to something like Honeybook? How is it different or a better fit for a freelance writer?” So maybe this is a good opportunity for you to talk a little bit about Harlow and what the benefits of it are, and maybe how people can learn more.

Samantha

Yeah, of course. So I’ll kind of go back to the reason why Andrea and I built Harlow. It all ties back into this.

When we were first freelancing and we were trying out all of these different tools for our business, Andrea and I provided demand gen services to software companies. So we were very much selling into an organization and we had a lot of pals in freelancing — writers, designers, developers, other marketers, PR consultants, HR consultants — all these people that we surround ourselves with and talk to on a regular basis. And we started asking them about the tools that they use to manage their business and what we really found was that there was not a fan favorite tool. No one was using the same thing. People were piecing things together or they were using other tools that they didn’t like or that didn’t bring them joy.

And Andrea and I have this deep belief that the tools that you use don’t have to frustrate you or be this typical software approach. We really wanted to build a tool that brought in empathy and joy and this concept of delight into software. So we were like, hey, there’s not a fan favorite tool — nobody loves anything that they’re using. And there’s not a lot of companies that were focusing specifically on this B2B freelancer — the freelance writer or designer or HR consultant that was selling into an organization. So we saw this as an opportunity. We were like, we’re gonna build that.

And so we’re building Harlow in a way that it will help you manage everything from proposals and contracts and getting those signed all the way down to invoicing and sending out your invoices and reminders, and then everything in between, so client management, getting an interface with everything right in the same place, task management, all of those things. And Andrea, I’ll let you chime in there.

Andrea

Wow, that was great. That’s a good pitch, Sam.

Sam

Thank you, we’ve been practicing. 

Emma

How can our listeners learn more about Harlow? Like where do they go? How do they get involved?

Andrea

Yeah go to our website — it’s meetharlow.com — and you can follow us on all the social channels. Sam’s super active on social media also. You can find her on Twitter. You can find me there but I don’t say a whole lot.

Sam

We’re getting her going though. She is tweeting one hundred percent more than she used to, which was not at all, so we’re on the way.

Andrea

I’m working on it.

Emma

Awesome. So, Zoe had asked… she said, “Could we talk a little bit more about calculating project-based and value pricing? I’m currently charging per word.” Zoe, there’s a podcast episode that we have about rates that’s specifically about calculating this that you should listen to if you haven’t already. We can find a link and drop it in the chat.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with charging per word. I think, well, there are some things wrong with it, but I don’t think it’s as bad as using time-based pricing. But I think what it gets at is, if you charge per word, you’re sort of saying, “Well, the only value I provide is literally the words on the page,” and I think when you move to project-based pricing, you’re like, “Look, you’re not just getting the words — you’re getting my research, you’re getting strategic meetings with me, you’re getting interviews with subject matter experts, you’re getting revisions, you’re getting an outline.” Whatever the whole package is, you sort of make it look a little bit more like a package, and that’s maybe more valuable to the client.

So that’s kind of how I think about it in terms of actually pricing it out. There’s a formula that I use and recommend, which is basically, think about how much time something takes you internally. So let’s say it takes you three hours to write a blog article. And then think about what you want to make in a year — like what your annual salary was at your last job, or where you would like to be, and then figure out what the hourly rate is. You can just find a salary calculator to figure out what that hourly rate was, and then double it.

So the example would be, let’s say, back to the three blog articles. Let’s say it takes you three hours and you’re charging your salary. You want it to be $100 per hour, so that would be $300 for the blog article and then double it to $600. And I realized that was a little convoluted, how I said that right there wasn’t my clearest oratory skills ever, but it is outlined better in the podcast. And it’s basically about finding a way to sort of quantify how much time you’re spending and then, by the way, one blog post down the line might only take you an hour and a half, but you’ve sort of standardized your pricing, so regardless of how much time it ends up taking you, or if you get faster or more efficient or whatever, you still have a standard rate. So that’s what I’d say about that. And if, Kaleigh, you want to jump in.

Kaleigh

Yeah, so I do the per word pricing model too, and what I do with that is, for me, it’s just the easiest way to scope blog content without, you know, doing more work and then, “Oh, I agreed to this lower tier project-based rate.” It’s just an easier way to keep track of the scope of things, but with that is a conversation right off the bat that says, “Here’s what all is included in my rates, so it’s very clear that you’re not just paying for the words. It’s what Emma said — you’re getting the introductory call with me, I’ll give you a writing brief, you get a round of edits included, my professional editor that I have on board now will review this before it even gets to your hands.” So it’s important to have that value conversation and talk about all those extras that are part of the rate as well.

And this kind of leads nicely to the next question we had which was is subcontracting a good way to manage burnout? So I know that I have thoughts on this but I’ll kick it to you first to see what you have to say.

Andrea

I think it can be, but it can also contribute to burnout, so I think my answer is it depends.

Emma

That’s what I was gonna say. Subcontractors, once they’re up and running and you really trust someone — they can offer, especially if you’re going through a rough patch like in your personal life or things aren’t as inspiring to you and you really like just need something to lean on — it can definitely alleviate burnout. But training somebody, finding somebody… all of that stuff can make things a lot worse. If you have a big team of subcontractors, the project management of that can just get crazy, especially if you haven’t done it before and you don’t have the processes.

So I think it’s just kind of like writing, honestly, where once you have processes in place it can really help but it’s not like a surefire way to beat burnout.

Kaleigh

Yeah, totally agree. I think the one thing that sounds really lovely about subcontracting on the surface is like, “Oh I’m just delegating, right? I’m just handing this off to somebody else.” But there’s so much documentation that has to be in place up front so that you have kind of systemized this as much as possible, otherwise it’s like having 10 employees all of a sudden, and all these people need something from you, and there’s no documented point of reference, so now you’re busier than you ever were.

So it’s definitely not something to look to, like, “Oh, this is going to solve all my problems.” There’s a lot of upfront work first.

Samantha

Yeah and I’ll add to that — if you are going to subcontract, finding the right people is so important. That’s something that Andrea and I found out along the way. We were really lucky to partner with really great subcontractors, but even bringing on people that we already knew we worked super well with provided challenges. So you really need to vet those people up front make sure that you’re gonna feel super comfortable and confident that they’re working on your client work and that is under your name and the product that you’re delivering. So there’s a lot of upfront work that goes into that.

Andrea

And there’s a lot of hidden work too. You have to figure out how to pay them. They’re going to invoice you. And you’re going to have to deal with taxes at the end of the year. All of that stuff. So there’s all these little things that add up.

Samantha

And I will say, on a positive note, to be totally honest, subcontracting is the thing that allowed Andrea and I to grow our business to the level that it did. We couldn’t have gotten there without subcontractors, so it did help us really grow our business, it helped us make more money, it helped us deliver a more robust product to our clients. But it’s a lot of work to set up.

Emma

Yeah, I would say, see subcontracting as a tool for growth as opposed to a tool to reduce burnout or a cheat code. It is definitely a way to scale your business and make it bigger.

We have one more question to get to and then we’re going to wrap up. I know we’re a minute over. So this doesn’t exactly have to do with burnout, but I think it’s a worthwhile question from Zoe. Do we have advice on moving off a freelance platform? She says that she’s currently on Fiverr and it’s not a bad platform but it has a high fee.

Zoe, this is like a very big topic. I’m also going to recommend another podcast episode we have about how to find and get new clients. But I think that working on finding some clients off of the platform and elevating yourself [is important]. One thing that I’ve seen with my coaching clients that aren’t on platforms is they’re like, “Well, I’m on this platform, so I don’t need to have a presence on LinkedIn. I don’t really need to have a presence on Twitter. I don’t need to have a personal website. I don’t need to be sharing who I am and what I’m working on, because everything’s coming in.”

So my recommendation is to start with those foundations — making sure that your social media presence exists. I worked with a coaching client recently who was like, “Oh, I haven’t touched my LinkedIn in years.” I think she was getting most of her clients from a platform as well. Same with the freelance writing website — not sure where you are with that, but again, sort of positioning yourself in other places. First you have to do that, and then you can work on starting to get clients from that.

I don’t know if you all have anything to add there.

Samantha

Yeah, I’m a big believer in building up a referral network. I know that these platforms can be really wonderful for finding clients, especially when you’re first starting out, but even building up your referral network and having people who trust you send you business, and therefore the client trusts you. That also can prevent burnout, because then you’re coming in with a level of trust upfront. You still need to articulate your value and tell them what you do and, you know, sell your pricing. But it makes it so much easier when people are familiar with you and the product that you offer, and that you’re being recommended by somebody who’s super trustworthy. So I think that if you can build that up and build up your referral network, it’s really invaluable.

Kaleigh

Yeah, I’m gonna hop in and say that another thing that people often don’t think about doing — but can be a really great way to kickstart getting off of a platform like that — is just send out an email to your network of people that you know maybe from past jobs, friends, family, and say, “Hey, I’m doing this new thing now. If you or somebody you know needs that type of service, here’s my website.” Or, you know, send them to this email address and just give them a little bit of context on what it is that you’re offering, who you ideally would like to work with. Make it super easy for them to make those referrals and recommendations. Don’t discount your personal network. That’s kind of how I got started — just putting some feelers out and saying, “I’m wanting to do more of this. If you know somebody who needs this type of work, send them my way.” So don’t discount that.

Samantha

Yes, self-promote! Do not be afraid to hype yourself up. Tell everyone you know exactly what you’re doing. You have no idea where clients are going to come from. We have people who started freelancing at the same time as us, and luckily we made that connection early on, and we sent clients back and forth all the time. It was a multi-year partnership. So promote yourself, put it out there, tell people what you’re doing.

Emma

Yeah, I’ve heard of this concept of connecting yourself with super-connectors — these people who sort of know everybody, and they’re somebody that everyone comes to, like, “Do you know a writer? Do you know a designer? Do you know an accountant?” And they like to have a list of people that they send someone to, and it only takes knowing one or two of these people to start [finding] really good clients. So I think, definitely, making connections is good and coming to an event like this is also a good start. But there are many other communities out there too.

So that brings us to 12:05, so I think we’re going to wrap up. Thank you, everybody, for coming today. It was great to have all of you. Thank you so much to Harlow for sponsoring this season. Everybody should go check out their tool on their website at meetharlow.com.

And the newest season of Freelance Writing Coach is out and coming out weekly, so give us a listen as well. Thanks everybody!

Freelance Interview Series – Community & Connection with Elise Dopson

Freelance Interview Series – Community & Connection with Elise Dopson

by | Mar 15, 2022 | Blog, Resources

Elise Dopson is a freelance writer and the co-creator of Peak Freelance, a community for freelance writers who want to scale their businesses and make a real living from freelancing. Elise has written for SaaS and e-commerce clients like Shopify and CoSchedule, and she created Help a B2B Writer to connect writers with sources.

We asked her for her tips about finding and cultivating community as a freelancer.

Community and Connection

1. When you first started freelancing, how did you go about building your community?

Twitter was my go-to place for finding freelancers to connect with. I searched for freelance writers with clients in my space and scheduled virtual coffee chats (30-minute Zoom conversations) with people in my space.

Throughout that period, I made friends with people who later became my freelance support system—folks like Marijana Kay, Andra Zaharia, Michael Keenan, and Kaleigh Moore. (I even met Marijana IRL at two conferences off the back of our Twitter conversation. Fun!)

 

2. Do you have specific communities or freelancers you go to for advice and support on a regular basis?

Yes! My Twitter network is still a key place for me to connect with other freelancers, purely because the community knows what it’s like to work from home. It can be isolating. Twitter fills that gap. People call it a “virtual watercooler” for a reason.

Where I spend most of my time, though, is in the Peak Freelance community. I made it back in October 2020 in the middle of the pandemic because I needed a semi-private place (not in front of potential clients) to chat with people who “get it.”

We now have 250+ people in the Slack community. It’s a great place to chat through problems, get feedback from other writers, and find new job opportunities. I learn something new every day.

 

3. Can you give us an example of a time when community helped you propel your career?

When I first started freelancing, I didn’t know anyone. My old boss had introduced me to a handful of clients, but they weren’t in the niche I really wanted to build a name for myself in: SaaS and e-commerce.

I knew the only way for me to break into that niche was to start connecting with people in it. So, I scheduled a ton of coffee chats with other freelancers in the niche—some more experienced than me, others at similar stages in our career.

Those coffee chats never gave me direct work, but a natural byproduct of continuing a genuine relationship with the people I’d met meant I got a ton of referrals.

I got one of my biggest clients as a referral from Michael Keenan (back before he joined Peak Freelance). Another brand on my “dream client” list came from a conversation I had with Marijana Kay. In both instances, my freelance buddies were helping an existing client find new contractors. I was top of mind because they knew what I did, trusted me, and genuinely wanted to help.

 

4. Talk to us about the Peak Freelance community you and Michael Keenan are building and your goals?

Ooooh exciting question! We have big plans for Peak Freelance. Our goal is to make it the #1 place for freelance writers to scale.

We see a lot of content online about how to start freelancing. But once you’ve quit your job and hit $5k per month, it seemed the only way to discover how to scale was by asking outright—often in Twitter DMs or virtual coffee chats.

The problem with that? First, you had to be confident enough to ask. Second, you’re banking on finding the right people—those willing to share their experiences with other freelancers who may be seen as competitors.

At Peak Freelance, we try to uncover those conversations for you. We interview content managers to figure out what they look for in writers. We chat with successful freelancers to ask how they scaled. We have pro Slack channels to find gigs and get advice and premium digital products to help freelancers scale—like templates, courses, and more.

 

5. What advice would you give to freelancers looking to build their community?

Find people who get it. Most freelancers get a confused look when trying to explain their job to friends and family. It’s why working for yourself can be so isolating—no matter how hard we try to explain what we do, people outside the industry find it hard to understand.

Once you find those people, network in a way that’s honest and genuine. People are, in fact, people. The saying, “Treat yourself how you’d like to be treated” really comes into play. Avoid networking for the sole purpose of finding new gigs.

Granted, your chance of being referred increases when you make friends—but only if your contact trusts you. They’ll ruin their own reputation by recommending someone for a service that can’t actually do the job. The only way for them to know you can is by building a genuine relationship… not one that’s built on “Please find me work!”

One way to do that is by being honest. Share your income figures. Talk about your goals. Chat through any problems you still haven’t solved. Not only does it make for great conversation, but you’ll support (and get supported) through your community.

 

Give Elise a follow on Twitter or check out Peak Freelance to find out more about how to get involved in their community.

 

Why We’re Building Harlow Using Freelancers

Why We’re Building Harlow Using Freelancers

by | Mar 12, 2022 | Blog, Resources

Growing a business in 2022 looks a whole lot different than it did just a few years ago . After two years of a global pandemic, the remote work landscape has transformed. Businesses big and small are adjusting their staffing models to accommodate the new normal. And simultaneously, more and more workers are leaving their jobs to pursue a freelance lifestyle, with 28% of Americans now freelancing full-time—an increase of 17% from 2014.

28% of Americans are now freelancing full-time.

COVID was, unquestionably, a huge catalyst for this shift. Nothing says Quit! quite like cabin fever and existential dread. And in 2021, we experienced a “Great Resignation,” with record-high numbers of Americans leaving their jobs. But lockdown is not the only reason our freelance numbers are rising in the U.S. If anything, mass burnout just accelerated a trend that was developing long before COVID came to town.

The gig economy has been growing for years, and it’s thanks in part to the rise in remote work. As technology has evolved to better support distributed workforces, more companies have gone remote, with employees scattering the country and even the globe. And as companies have adapted, workers have gotten a taste of the freedom and flexibility that a remote lifestyle offers. (Spoiler: It’s great.)

Today, over half of non-freelancers are considering freelance work in the future. For workers, the growth in remote work raises big questions: Who do you want to work for—a company or yourself? Does the independence of freelancing outweigh the stability and benefits of a full-time job? And how much would your quality of life improve if you were to set off on your own and work on your terms?

All of these trends were taken into account when we started to ideate and build Harlow – a tool specifically designed for freelancers to manage their business.

While we know eventually Harlow will grow through a mixture of full-time employees and freelancers, we decided early on that we would lean on freelancers to grow and build our business as much as we possibly can (especially in the beginning.)

Here’s why.

Here's why we're building Harlow using freelancers.

#1: Freelancers know freelancing.

Our product is built for freelancers. Hiring them just made sense. We’re passionate about staying close to our customers, and having knowledgeable freelancers on our team helps us tune into the challenges our target customers are facing, so we can better solve their problems. You can trust you’re on the right track when the people building your software, writing your copy, and designing your website are the same people you’re marketing to.

#2: Freelancers help us stay competitive.

They work with other businesses that are innovating and growing in their respective industries. They’re exposed to a myriad of problems and solutions each day, which gives them a wide perspective of what works and what doesn’t. This gives us a major competitive advantage. We know that the folks helping us grow are continually growing themselves.

#3: Freelancers help us move quickly.

We’re typically working with experts in their fields. They’re ready to rock sooner than an in-house hire would be, which means we can build and innovate more quickly.

As two former freelancers turned co-founders, Samantha and I are big fans by default, so it’s extremely gratifying for us to work with other freelancers who we can learn from each day. We built Harlow because we deeply believe that the future of work can and should be freer. We left our full-time jobs years ago seeking more balance, stimulation, and autonomy, and today we’re building a business from the ground up with those values front and center.

We’ve learned that you can prioritize your well-being while also creating a thriving business. Professional success doesn’t have to come at the expense of your mental health or your family.

It’s our vision to help other freelancers claim the lives they want by building businesses that sustain them and fulfill them, rather than depleting them.