5 Must-Do's in 2023 for Freelance Writers
Anyone else still reviewing 2022 to see what they need to accomplish for 2023? I'm not hitting snooze on last year quite yet because it's helping me inform my must-do tasks for the coming year.
That's why this week's livestream episode is going over 5 must-do's for freelance writers for the coming year, how they impact your business/clients/income, and how to get the ball rolling easily without the overwhelm.
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5 Must-Do's in 2023 for Freelance Writers
These are the top five things that freelance writers need to do this year. So in 2023. And they are a lot more counterintuitive than I think a lot of freelance writers think. Like, they think it's easy to roll into every year and be like, oh my gosh, every year we have to do this same type of, Nope. This year I'm giving you kind of some counterintuitive things to pay attention to.
And I have my little list and Vicky is here. And Vicky, I have your question in the hopper. So we're gonna answer, uh, Vicky's question at the end of the live stream. And um, I did, yes, Vicky, I got your question and it's in the hopper, it's ready to go. So we're gonna talk about the five things and we're gonna do them in, um, descending order.
5) Raise your freelance writing rates
So we're gonna talk about number five first. And this one is a little obvious, so bear with it. , obvious but necessary. So number five is you have to raise your rates, right? We all know that. I have a free pricing guide and you can go here to get it. You can go to mandy ellis.com/pricing guide, free pricing guide.
I updated it last year. So it incl, uh, includes a lot of content strategy stuff and I've actually, just got a bunch of new suggestions of things to add to it. So now I'm gonna update it again soon. But if you go to mandy ellis.com/pricing guide, you get my free pricing guide and you get my weekly emails with tips and tricks and all the cool stuff.
Um, and you get to know what the week's live stream topic is before Friday. So we all know I have my free pricing guide and that I'm super . I harp on like raising your rates, but freelance writers just don't do it, right? I am guilty of this all the time. I'm guilty of not raising my rates, right? So, for example, um, I haven't raised my coaching rates.
Like my coaching rates are still the same for one-on-one coaching. Um, as they were for like last year and I think maybe the year before that, but I definitely last year and a little bit before that, so I haven't raised my coaching rates, um, which I'm guilty of, right? And then there's a few projects that I have that I just haven't raised my rates on because I either don't do them that often or I feel like it's kind of at like the market cap or I have all these excuses, right?
Like I make all of these random excuses about like, my clients could only afford this. Or like, this thing is I don't wanna like be greedy or, um, you know, like I just feel like it's not the right time or there has to be like a perfect segue between, um, me. Raising my rates and like informing clients or informing new clients or like all of this weird stuff, right?
And that's just not how it works. So five, you have to raise your rates every year you have to raise your rates. And even if you don't do it every year, you could do it every six months. You could do it biannually, you could do it with every new project. So, um, for a while what I did was I was too nervous to raise my rates just like across the board.
So I would raise them like $25, 50 bucks, a hundred bucks per project. So instead of accepting $200 for a blog post, I would ask for 2 25 and then the next project I'd ask for two 50. And then the next pro, you know, like I would up it very slowly. This was something where I was so nervous, I had a lot of negative money mindset stuff, and I had a lot of things that were really just impacting me in terms of imposter syndrome and.
Fear of success and fear of failure, um, and all of these things. So I would do it incrementally. I hope that you don't feel like that. I hope you feel like you can just raise your rates and it's actually a good raise, like more than 25 bucks. But for me, when I was so nervous and I, I had a ton of anxiety, just little raises.
So if you have to start with a little raised 25 bucks, you know, that makes a big difference in our bottom line. And it's really like equivalent over 25 bucks with your clients when they usually have generally like reasonable budgets. That's just not worth it. So, hey, Vesna. Oh, hey Margaret. Margaret, I didn't, I don't know if I said hello, but hello Margaret.
Um, . So if you have to start small, start small, but raise your rates. We're at the beginning of the year. If you can't raise your rates for your current clients, that's totally fine. Sometimes we have to remember that raising rates for current clients. Means we have to be ready to walk away because if our current clients can't afford it, or, um, that doesn't work within their budget, or for whatever reason, it doesn't work.
Now you, you can't just be like, just kidding. I don't wanna raise my rates. Let's keep working together. You have to stand in integrity and be like, okay, I guess this isn't gonna work out and leave. Um, so when you're thinking about rate raises, we still have time. It's only January. It's almost February. But raise your rates.
Raise your rates across the board for your projects. That's number five thing that we need to do in 2023 as freelance writers raise our rates across the board. Um, this is also something that. it, it can make you feel really stressed out. But when you start working with really great clients, you realize that like they're, a lot of times, especially when you're working on, um, bigger projects, you realize that your good clients are working in like thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even millions of dollars in marketing budget, right?
They get $10 million a year for their marketing budget, or a million dollars a year for their marketing budget. So quibbling over 25 bucks or a hundred bucks is like nothing, like, that's not even worth it. Quote what you think the project, what the work is worth, what the long-term value of the work and raise your rates.
Okay. Really important. That's number five. Let's go to number four, and we also are gonna check in on our little friends over there. Oh my gosh, this, so this is kind of, I know the, like, I'm gonna see if it'll readjust the lighting. Mm. I think it's just like capturing Barry too much. So he looks like a ghost.
Don't, don't be scared. He's still alive. He is not a ghost . Um, Charlotte gets really cold in the winter, so sometimes we put her jammies on. So she has her jammies on today cuz she is cold. Um, and she has an extra thick blanket. And you guys can see Barry's eyeball, like his eyeball's still healing. That left eye that looks a little blue, that eye's still healing.
That's the eye that he has that um, he has his, uh, corneal ulcer in and it's, it's healing. You know, he's just, he's almost 16 and a half now. I don't know, people are like, how does he live so long? We have no idea. Um, but he's almost 16 and a half. So healing for him takes a long time. But he's doing great.
Um, he's doing , you know, as well as to be expected for a dog his age. And we still take him on multi mile walks. Like he can still walk like two, three miles and. Uh, mostly it's like cognitive. So . He's still doing really great. Charlotte's over there being nice and warm and snuggling in her jammies. All right, let's get to four.
4) Schedule more downtime ahead in your work schedule
Number four, give your dogs more pets. , no. Um, number four. So schedule more downtime. Okay. This is something I have conversations with, with my students, either on the live q ays or in the dms or if they're struggling with something. This is something I have with both core students, one-on-one students. I have freelance writers who send me emails all the time, schedule more downtime.
I know this sounds crazy, , but you have to think of it as like five days. So if you take a week off five business days, and I think I explained this a little while back, um, either to my students or maybe on this livestream. . Let's say you take off, um, five weeks of vacation a year, right? Let's say it's five weeks, which like a lot of people are like five weeks.
I only get two weeks at my full-time job. Let me back it up. Even at a full-time job, you get government holidays and you get other time off, right? Like the whole office closes from Wednesday to Friday for Thanksgiving, or it closes over the weeks of Chris, uh, like Christmas holidays and New Year's. And then you don't have to use vacation days, right?
So like you still get time off. So for us, we don't have like office clothes. So here's the deal. One week is Thanksgiving, two weeks is winter holidays and New Year's Eve, right? That's three weeks already. So pick two other weeks, 10 other business days to take off during the year. Uhoh, we have a. That's nothing.
10 business days. You can work every other day if you want. And I have, and it's terrible. Don't do it. Um, but the, the weeks off that you take are really important. There is a study that was published a while back that said you need nine business days. Oh yeah, I talked about this last week on last week's livestream.
So if you go to the livestream before this one, that's the one where I talk about this study some more. But you need at least nine days to decompress from work. You need nine days to like get out of work mode to c calm down, to like, get back to like non deadline mode. So if you're taking two weeks off, right, those nine days, two weekends, and five business days, that is nothing.
Okay? The way to get more downtime as a freelance writer, I will. I see you, you look so cute in your jam. Um, the way to get more downtime is you have to preschedule it right now in January. Book all of your time off for the year. Okay. I have a big dry erase calendar and I know that some of my, um, students have it and I will link it in the description.
I'll put it in there. But this big dry erase calendar helps me pre-plan all of my time off, and I actually still need to do it for this year. So I'm like a naughty hamster on that, but I need to do it . So your time off, schedule it, big picture, schedule it now. And this is how it works when you are like, when you realize throughout the year, like when are you most tired, what times of year?
So for me, a lot of times that's March and. So like I schedule my time off then, then I have Thanksgiving and holidays and sometimes I'll take off some other random time because like I'm feeling really burnt out. Um, but it's all scheduled in my calendar so no one can book appointments with me. It's all marked off on my calendar, on my, my Apple calendar.
Um, cuz like I set it up with Do Soto, so like if I mark it off, no one can book an appointment. Um, so that's all put off at the beginning of the year, um, which it is right now. Like if you went through my calendar, you can see I've already booked off July and stuff in Do Soto. Um, so you can't book anything.
I just need to translate it to my dry erase. But the dry erase helps you pre-plan things. So if your clients are like, Hey, can you meet this deadline? Can we do this project? You're like, yes, but I will be out at this time. and they're like, no worries. Sounds good, right? Like most of the time it's fine. If they have an urgent need, then you can self decide what you want.
But I really hope you book more rest time. This is really important in order for you to create better content, to deliver quality for your clients, to be creative, to um, write really well and to absorb information and absorb like lessons that you learn along the way. You have to get that downtime. You have to get rest time, rejuvenation time.
You have to fill your cup back up with new ideas, um, new sources of information. All of that stuff is really important to building a better freelance writing business. And you're not gonna get it unless you preschedule that time off. You have to do it now like you have to do it so that when that comes up, you can set the boundary with your client.
Hey, I'm gonna be off at this time. I will be back at this time. I will see you soon. And then you get actual off time. You're not checking your inbox, you're not, you know, fluffing around with other things you have to do. You actually get down type. and most freelance writers are like, I haven't had downtime.
You know, I haven't taken a vacation in like three years. It's like, okay, that sounds like a planning problem. That's a planning problem. That's not a work problem. That's not a money problem. That's a planning problem, cuz I'm telling you, you're not gaining millions of extra dollars from 10 business days.
You're not like I, I know people who make way more money than I do, right? Like so I have a six figure business, but I know people who make way more money than I do and they take off way more time, right? And they did that their whole career . Like they actually take time off. And I thought when I started out that not taking time off meant I was a hard worker and I was really dedicated and like, I don't need time off cuz I love my job.
If you love your job, it'll never work a day in your life. Blah, blah blah. No, that's trash. Okay, that's garbage, that's hot garbage. Even if you love your job, you need downtime away from people and your job and your clients. You need to take rest time Two. , you cannot get better at your job if you're not filling your cup and you're not doing, like, finding new ideas or being inspired by stuff.
I guess for me it's not inspired. I just like read a lot and collect. I'm a, I'm a collector of things, so you cannot get better if you're not like, fine tuning the machine. Right. We talk about the ax. So they ax is like they're, there's this, um, story I like to tell. So there's two, um, two lumber jacks a really old one, like, you know, gen like boomer
I don't, um, there's like an old, um, an old, uh, lumber jack and then like a super young lumber jack, so like Gen Z, , whatever you wanna imagine. I'm just throwing that out there. But we're talking about old lumberjack and young lumber. So the young lumberjack goes out there and he's just like, they have a tree cutting competition.
So the young lumberjack just cuts trees all day. Bam, bam, bam, bam. And every once in a while he looks over and he sees the older lumberjack like sitting down, you know, just kind of hanging out. And he is like, okay, well what, what the hell? ? Like, I'm definitely gonna win because this guy's like taking breaks all the time.
He's really lazy. Then it turns out at the end of the day that the older lumberjack cut a lot more logs than the younger one. And why? Because he wasn't being lazy, he was sharpening his ax. So this younger lumberjack is going over there with adult ax, which takes more effort and more sweat equity and more like all, it takes so much more time to do stuff than sharpening it and making it, you know, cut better.
Right? So these are things where like you keep going at it, you keep chopping down all the things. Oh yeah, I'm gonna totally win. No you're not, cuz you're not sharpening your ax, which means everything takes more time, more effort, more brain space. And that's how I burned out. It's like you just keep going at it thinking it's gonna work.
You have to take time to sharpen your ax. If you don't sharpen your ax, this is what I see happen. You don't make more money. You plateau on your clients. You get stuck in the same kind of fishbowl of clients, and they're, they have these really frustrating attributes. Like they want a nickel and dime, or they wanna like talk about, I hear you, I hear you.
Woo. They were on nickel and dime. Or they wanna like nitpick everything or they want 10,000 revisions. Um, or it's something where like, it's just really frustrating to work with them. I hear you. Woo. You're stuck in the cord. Hold on. I see you. I see you. You're cute. It's snugly in your jammies, um, . And it's just a big pain in the butt.
So if you don't take time off, you're not sharpening your ax. And this is how other people end up. Oh, here you go buddy. This is how other people end up growing their business more efficiently. You have to sharpen the ax. So that's number. All right, I'm gonna put the woos back in their woo woo habitats.
All right, go back in your woo habitats. All right, Barry, go back to your bear spot. Go back to your bear spot. Good job. Good job, Barry. All right, lay down, buddy. . Lay down. Good job. Good job. You go. All right, Barry. Can you see this? There you go. . There you go. Other one. Other one, other one. Good job. Woo. Police.
We got the Woo Police on today. I don't know if you guys can hear her making woo noises when she comes over here, but she's wooing me. She's making a lot of complaints to the complaint department. All right, let's talk about three. Number three, where is number three? There we go. Number three is you need to, um, learn more about your ideal clients.
3) Learn more about your ideal freelance writing clients and get scrappy
So yes, you need to do marketing. You need to reach out to more clients. , you should always be sending those Lois 50 to 75 a month unless you're super busy. But you should always be, um, regularly connecting, regularly, marketing, regularly, fixing your website regularly, fixing your LinkedIn, all that stuff.
You hear her ? Of course, she's a Woo machine. Go back to your woo hole. Go back to your hava hole. Go back to your hava hole. . No. Go back to your hava hole. Take your blanket with you. Okay? Come on. Go back to your hava hole. Good job. And you took your blanket with you. She's a blanket Sherpa. Good job B. And you look like a little queen.
Here you go. Queen me. You go queen bee. Good girl. All right, so I wrote this down. So as you learn more about your ideal clients, yes you're marketing, but you need to be getting better at marketing to the right clients, which means you need to learn more about your ideal clients. . So you . This is a problem that I see often with my students or with new freelance writers or with people who don't, like, they don't stop to take a breath in their business.
This is a hard process, okay? This takes a while. It could take you all year, but it's a really important diligent process that needs to be done because the better you are, um, the better you are at knowing who your ideal client is and what they need in terms of content and what their problems are and their struggles, and like where they get hung up, the better you can create all your stuff in your sphere, your content, your marketing, your website, your LinkedIn.
So this affects every piece of your business. It affects how well you create content for them and the results that you get or how happy they are with the survey, like with your content, um, or like as you're going along. , you, um, are able to then fix all your inbound stuff, fix your website, fix your LinkedIn, so then you get better inbound leads from people you actually want, right?
You actually get more targeted, um, clients coming to your inbox saying like, Hey, you know, I think we're a perfect fit. I love your website. The more you learn about clients, the better clients you get. The more targeted clients you get, the more inbound leads you get in terms of your website and your LinkedIn, and the better content you create.
So it's this really wonderful little like terrarium that you live in, right? . It's like this little terrarium that you live in, in terms of getting better clients and learning your clients. Learning about your ideal client's means. , big girl. Good job. That means learning their pain points. What do they struggle with in terms of not only creating content, but maybe strategy?
Or what do they struggle with in terms of understanding their audience, or what do they struggle with in terms of pain points in their business? Like what types of things trip people up with getting them on board, right? Or do they have a tech platform that people just like, don't get it, they don't understand why they need this thing or how it works?
Um, do they have like a physical type product that, um, people just like, you know, they're, they're coming to the website and leaving, or like, there's not enough material to explain like why this thing is revolutionary or whatever. Um, or do they just need to create more content, like better quality content and more specific directed content for their audience so that they can beat out competitors?
Right? We need to learn a lot of stuff about our clients. How do we do that? Join newsletters. Join newsletters in your niches. Join Crunchbase and Tech Crunch. They have, um, newsletters that they send out all the time. And what's great about e even if you don't work with startups, I work with a lot of startups.
So even if you don't work with startups, and startups can be like baby startups, likee, all the way to like series F or whatever, um, or Series E, but a lot of my clients are series B and series C startups. So even if you don't work with startups, the trends that you see in funding or in your niche or um, across the board, they show up in all those newsletters in Crunchbase and Tech Crunch.
The startups and the funding kind of see some trends way earlier than bigger businesses. So the more newsletters you have in your niche and the more stuff that you have about startups, that's really important. You can also reach out to PR reps in your niche. And ask just to be added to their email list, right?
They'll just send you press releases, and then you have a lot more information coming in, but you wanna kind of scope out all of these places that can just feed you information. Like I have, um, I have tons, dozens, and dozens of these things, um, that come into my inbox every single day. And a lot of it, like 80% of it is stuff I don't care about, but there's a 20% every day where it's like a release or someone got funding or there's a new property opening, or there is, um, a company that is changing the way something's done.
There's always something where I'm learning more about my niches or the market or how mortgage rates are doing, or how my co like how, um, my co, my client's target audience is being affected. And then I can apply that to content that I'm creating for them. Right? Learning about your client's struggles, learning about your client's struggles.
and pain points when it comes to creating content and how they create content and what types of content to create. That also means understanding their audience. So you need to read more about their audience. Where does their audience hang out? Is their audience commercial? Is their audience, residential is their audience, you know, consumers is their audience.
Businesses like you need to go find them as well. Okay? So even if you need to get scrappy , that needs to happen. And this is something where I feel a lot of times we have discussions as freelance writers about like, oh my gosh, the economy and layoffs and blah, blah, blah. Can't control any of that, can't control anything.
But we can control what we're consuming in terms of helping our clients and finding the right clients and who's getting money, or what types of industries are growing, or what types of clients we should go after, or what things our clients need the most help with so we can become like, offer more expertise for them.
All of those things are within our control. So in a time where things change a lot, we've been in many years now where lots of things are changing very rapidly. That means you need to get scrappy and you need to get information and then you can apply that information to your clients and to your projects.
Um, that's really important. So we're learning a lot more about our ideal clients, just holistically all across the board, their problems, their pain points, their audiences problems and pain points. What types of content their audience typically consumes. What does it look like on social media? What does it look like on video?
What does it look like in terms of webinars versus blog posts? Like do your research. That's something. I feel like is so weird to talk about because we are writers and a lot of times, like almost all the writers I know, love reading and research. Go do that. Lean on that skill. , like, it's this weird thing where I think they just think there's like magical knowledge.
Like I used to think this, like how do they know all this stuff? They just have magical knowledge. Like they must have just, I don't know, absorbed something somewhere. No, it's experience. It's like digging through the dirt and being scrappy. It's willing to like dig down, you know, to, to find the well of information.
It's, it's getting all of these sources go back to your hole. It's getting all of these sources and calling information. Do the research, read the stuff, read the articles, go back to your Hubble, go back to, this is important, this is important. Your jammies are cute, but this is important. So , go back to your Hubble, go back to your hobby hole.
Otherwise you're gonna. Stab me with your little leg. Um, you have to get scrappy with your information and do your research. You have to figure out more about your clients. This will lead you like this is, um, something that I harp on with my students, right? And we often talk about like, how do you do that?
There are lots of ways to do that, but it needs to be this kind of cycle where you're constantly getting information, you're constantly getting new information about your niches, about your clients. And there are like a billion professional organizations that send out newsletters, join all of them, delete the ones that aren't helpful, right?
I belong to the most random. Go back to your ho hole. I belong to the most random newsletters there are. Like, I got a, um, I'm actually gonna share this with my students shortly, but I got a newsletter the other day, a brand new press release for Bank Directors Magazine. I think that's what it was called.
Bank Directors Magazine. Okay. Have you ever heard of that? , probably not, right? These are things where, like if I was in banking or if I was maybe working with people who did mortgage loans like I do, I would wanna read articles in there, like, what's going on, what's happening for the banks? What's happening , like across the industry, what's happening with mortgage rates?
So like, these are like these really obscure random things that are very easy to find. This obviously just came to my inbox, right? Like someone I've, I've written in this industry, go back to your huble. I've written in this industry like long enough that, um, go back to your Hubble, that like, I'm on a bunch of random PR lists.
So like, if they get a new client or they have something, they just like put it in my inbox. Um, and this will happen to you too. You, you write enough in an industry and you just get absorbed , um, into these press, press lists. But in any case, these are the types of random things, organizations, trade magazines.
Um, I don't care if you subscribe to someone on Forbes who talks about your niche, like some big publication, Forbes, entrepreneur, New York Times, whatever. This is really, um, really important to, I think it's free Vicky, I think, um, bank Director Magazine is free. I can even send it to Vicky if you want me to email it to you, just Vicky, send me an email and I'll forward you the email to you.
Um, but yeah, so like there's all these random things that you get and you have to pay attention to these things because the more you learn about your clients, it becomes so easy to start marketing to them. It's like everything else gets erased and you see like 10 people. Instead of seeing 200 potential clients or being lost, you look through lists, you look through all of these articles and you're like, no, no, no.
Yes, yes, yes. No, no, no, no, no, no. Yes, yes. No, no. Like it, the identification of your clients is so quick. Your marketing becomes quick then because you've been like reading up. Excuse me, you're becoming a better expert. You know what's going on. You can explain pain points, which means that your clients know you, understand them.
And if you are gonna explain their audience's pain points, now they know you can create content. And these things all go together. It's very, it's, it's a very wonderful little terrarium, and you're like this little turtle that's slowly exploring all of the little plants, right? And, uh, you know, someone comes in every once in a while and plants a new plant that's a newsletter or, um, any type of like company that you follow, or stu somebody on LinkedIn who's a thought leader in your industry.
All of these things come in and they, they create this beautiful environment for you to live in. And for you to cherry pick little things like this is something that I feel like once you start seeing it, it's like you put on a new pair of glasses. Um, I was actually, we, Vela and I were talking about this vena's here, so Vena, um, for a long time, vena.
And I would be like, okay, is it this, is it that, and I would send her like biotech companies cuz she works in like fancy things where like, I don't understand what it does or what it is. Um, very science, heavy life sciences, biotech stuff where like my brain, I don't get it. So , um, I work on like things that like are for regular, regular brained people.
So anyways, um, Vesna now is kind of in the same space where like we. For a long time, I would send her stuff and be like, what about this? Or what about that? Or like, is it this type of client or is it this now it's like I immediately can see it and she can see it like she can see it like that's a client, that's not a client that that works for me.
That doesn't. It's just like putting on a new pair of glasses where like you now just like filter out. As you look at the world and you look at all this material, you essentially filter out all of the stuff and then you're like, oh, these are 10 perfect clients for me, Lois, and let's say you get three responses and you get one new client and now you're like, sweet.
That was easy, right? It's really important. So you need to learn more about your ideal clients. Start calling information, read and research things that writers are very good at and they like read about it. Read about those things that you're interested in. Okay. That's really important. And the more like I can't get scrappy, the more information that you can get.
About your niche and about, um, the audience that you write for, like whoever that is. I don't care if it's contractors or stay-at-home moms or pet parents, um, or, you know, uh, commercial real estate agents. I don't care who it is. The more you can learn about them, the better content you create, the happier your clients are, and the more you can solve your clients' problems.
That all feeds into one thing. And this is something too that we like, continue to talk about, um, in the Wealth Lab. This is something that we go over in the Wealth Lab, like both in finance, writer, wealth lab, the course, and then also the community. We should talk about it more. But, um, now that I'm thinking about it, but maybe I'll do that later, it doesn't matter.
These are the things that are really important to do this year. This is really important. Learn more about your ideal clients. Okay, let's check in with our fur friends. Oh my gosh, Charlotte, you look so dramatic sometimes with your little wind swept ears. You go, buddy. Good job. All right, Charlotte, can you show over in your High five?
High five? Good job. Other one. . Good job. Otherwise big girl. Otherwise big girl. Good job. Yeah, I think the turtle terrarium analogy is a good idea. Like you, you need to dig around, you know, you need to kind of like dig around in there. You need to um, you know, like things get planted in there. Um, but you need to explore and you need to kind of like be diligent about it.
And I'm not saying do it slow like a turtle, I'm saying kind of like be a little more diligent. Like turtles have to be careful about where they walk, right? Because if they're flipped over, you know, they're kind of, a lot of times they can be in real big trouble. So we wanna be careful about where we're walking in particular, about what we're putting in our terrarium.
But the important thing is that our terrarium is becoming more lush. We are adding more, we are like basically beautifying the terrarium with information that helps us. , you know, feed our business and feed our clients and feed our content and feed who we do our marketing to. So that's all really important.
2) Ask freelance clients more detailed, specific questions and ask other freelance writers more questions
Let's talk about two. So this is something, um, that I think is really critical. This is why it's number two, and I also have a bonus one. So number two, you need to ask more detailed questions, ask more detailed questions, and this covers all the stuff. So one of the things that we talk about on this live stream and in the course and community is like, what types of questions should you a, an ask your potential clients and your current clients, right?
So like there's all these questions you need to ask before you sign a client, ask better, more detailed questions. And there's a live stream. If you go back, um, I can link it to it in the description of like, questions you need to ask potential client clients. So I'll put that in there too. Um, I'll put in the dry erase calendar and I will put in the, um, link to that.
But, One thing that comes up, and this is across the board, like with all levels of freelance writers I've talked to, like whether they were like just starting yesterday or like freelance writers who've been around for like 30 years, they're like afraid to ask questions cuz they look dumb or they like look like they don't know what they're doing.
No , if you've done, if you don't ask questions, then you're gonna do the wrong thing. You need to ask very detailed questions, very specific questions to get specific information. This is across your client calls. Um, anytime you're communicating with clients, fixing your contract, getting paid interviews that you do for clients, uh, for, um, content that you're creating, whether it's a white paper or a reported article or a case study or a webinar or anything.
These detailed questions show you're paying attention and you're picking up on the holes. Okay. That's really important as you're kind of going through this. You need to ask more detailed questions to solve the problems, right? That are happening with the content or happening with the audience, or happening with how we want, um, like the types of results we want for the content.
But these specific questions are just like when you ask a question, there's, there's a curiosity there. , you are more curious. It's not that you're dumb, it's not that you don't know what you're doing by asking questions, asking for clarity, right? Like Brene Brown talks about this, like clarity is kindness, right?
But clarity is also, now we know exactly what to do, and now we as client and writer, or we as whoever we're asking the questions to like interviewee. Interviewer. Now we know exactly what's expected. Everything is now clear. We don't have to like guess about things and we don't want to guess. Cuz when we make guesses a lot of times and we make assumptions, guesses and assumptions lead to problems.
This is where I've seen people, um, and by people, I mean, freelance writers create content and they're like, oh, my client didn't like it. I'm like, what questions did you ask? They're like, I didn't, I just went forward, like assuming this was it. Don't make assumptions. Don't make assumptions. And every time I've made an assumption, I will tell you right now, every time I've made an assumption, it's bitten me in the butt.
Nine out of 10 times, there might be one time where I'm like, you know, a blind squirrel finds a nut . But like every time, like when I was, you know, a baby freelancer, it bit me in the butt every single time. So don't make assumptions, ask questions. And you need to ask better questions. And this is something that we're gonna go over.
I have a masterclass on Monday, so I have a masterclass on Monday with my students. , um, that's gonna go over our interview skills. So this is something that, um, as part of the course, like after the course, we have our post-course community, our wealth lab community, um, where we have ongoing masterclass and live q a's and stuff.
And in this masterclass, I'm gonna tell them all these things about interviewing, right? Why, like, what types of questions, how to ask better questions, how to get more detailed with things that is critical. And this also stems from me, um, recently being on an interview where someone just, it was so painful.
I cannot tell you. As someone who has interviewed thousands of people now, um, here you go. Like, I'm pretty sure, like I'm, I'm definitely over a thousand people now. Um, but as someone who's interviewed like thousands of businesses, I can't wait for the class. Me either. I think it's gonna be really fun. I think it's gonna be a really, really good time.
So, um, as someone who's interviewed thousands of people, like this interview was so horribly like, I could not, I, I couldn't even listen to it. Like I just, I, it was so bad. The etiquette was bad, the questions were bad. They didn't ask follow up questions. The tone was bad. They missed really critical, important information from the audience.
They were not tuned into the interviewer. There was like all of these things that just, I, it was so, it was, it was worse than nails on a chalkboard. Like it, it was so bad. And I It was brutal. It was brutal being on this interview, and I just like, this is something that I think makes a lot of ripple in your business.
If you ask better questions, more detailed, more specific questions in the beginning, hold on.
In the beginning of your client relationships, I got like a weird tickle in my throat. . Um, then you end up getting, hold on.
That was like one of those deep coughs that like makes your eyes water. That was weird. Okay. The more detailed questions you ask your clients in the beginning, the better experience you have from A to Z, your whole relationship. When you ask specific detailed questions on your initial call, you weed out clients who aren't a fit for you.
And then, um, sorry. And then as your client relationship progresses and you're working on content and you're working on different projects and you have issues or whatever, The better your questions are, the better answers you get, and the better your content is, and the better you can move forward in your business.
Okay? So you need to ask better questions all the time. Do not be shy. Do not be shy about it. Do not worry that someone thinks you're dumb. And if you have a client that's like, why are you asking all these questions? Or like, you can only ask questions until this period of time, or what, you know, that's not your client.
It's not your client. So the deal is that what you really want is to be with clients who like reward you for being curious, right? They, they're not rewarding, but they, they understand why you're curious or why you want clarity or why, um, or why you're asking those questions or like that they can give you more specific directions.
Like that's an important piece. The, it's not just like the clients that you run into that are just like, here, you're a writer, do it . You're just like, what? like the clients where you say like, Hey, I get it, I'm a writer, you know, but also I need to know the, the scope and direction and like, how does this work?
And like, I need to see how the sausage is made. Basically, that helps you make better content that actually works, that the magic is not handed to a writer. The magic is we have a mutual understanding of what we're supposed to do, how it works, how it's impacting the audience, how to create this thing the right way.
If you fail to ask questions at all the points in your client process, I can almost guarantee you're gonna get a ton of bad clients and your work isn't gonna be very good. It's just how like, you have to ask these questions and you wanna be with clients who like, are like, yeah, I totally, you know, let me answer your questions.
Like I totally get it. Um, you don't wanna be with clients that are like, you should just know what to do, . No, we're two different people. Like, we don't, no, I can't read your mind. We don't want mind reading. We wanna ask questions and we wanna be very clear about what we're doing. And the second phase of this, Is this is a part two.
Hey, flower power, welcome. Oh, she says a hundred percent true about the questions. So a hundred percent true about the questions I learned the hard way that if the client isn't up for answering, we're probably not a good fit. Yes, I have also learned this the hard way, which is why this is number two. This is gonna protect you from a ton of shit , asking questions of your clients about their project, about onboarding, about all the processes, and then when you actually work with them, it protects you from so much garbage.
Like if you don't ask questions or you have a potential client or a current client that's just like not answering stuff, that's a big problem. So number, oh, this is the second phase. So our second phase of number. is that you need to ask more freelance writers more questions. This is something that I still do now all the time.
I ask my friends questions. I ask people, like on my email list, I ask my students, I ask, um, people who just send me emails. I ask experts. I always, I'm asking questions all the time. I'm bugging people all the time, right? So this is something that I think is really important. You need to learn from more like a wider variety of freelance writers.
You need to make more freelance friends and need to ask them more questions. This is something that, um, I think is a really important part of growing your business. This is how you actually end up having, like, I've had freelance friends, like really good ones who are, we're kind of all at a similar stage in our business for like five years maybe.
Yeah, like five years. Um, and we've kept that going cuz we're all like interacting and. . Um, we have calls and it's really important for you to ask them questions like build a relationship with other writers. A lot of times I meet people that are on my email list or, um, who get my weekly emails or who are on here as subscribers on YouTube or, um, have got my free pricing guide.
And they just do everything alone. They just live in this aloneness. You can't live in this aloneness. You need to go out and meet other finance writers, ask them about their business. Get curious, because there's a lot of times where someone in a totally different niche than you will end up having a, uh, an interesting way to approach something.
And if you ask them about it, you're like, oh, you know what? I can apply this to my niche or my clients, or my content or that audience by doing a b abc. And then now you have this totally unique way of going. Your business and your content. And that's just really important. You need to ask more questions of more freelance writers.
You need to make more freelance friends. Do not live alone in a hoba hole. Okay? We have a hobbit hole already. We have two residents in the hobbit hole. The hobbit hole is at capacity. Okay? No more hobbit hole. You need to go out and you need to find more freelance friends, and you need to ask them more specific questions.
This is how we learn. Um, and I know that like this is learning, right? We're on here cause I'm teaching some things, but you need to learn from more people than just me. Like you need a wide swath of ideas. That's really important. Yes. Would you like to say something to the, to the team ? She's just like, I'm just gonna stare at you until you give me something.
All right. Hold on.
So even though it seems this is like a last little bit on two here, so even though it seems like I am extroverted, I'm not, I'm ac I always consider myself an extroverted introvert. Like, I like to spend a lot of time alone by myself. It's how I recharge. It's, it's just how I get some silence. Um, and I do spend a lot of time with my students, but I also, like, I have a limit and I, and I like to be alone.
Like, it's just, I like it and I don't like to be around like big crowded, loud places a lot of times. Um, and so in any case, even if you're an introvert, go out there, meet more people. You're, you can do it from the beauty of your own computer in your own house, , right? You don't even have to leave your house.
And as someone who is extroverted, introverted, like I, I ha like, for me, the extroversion has a limit. Like, I, I don't wanna be with people all the time. Like I, I have a, a. Capacity. And I'm like, okay, I have to be alone now. Goodbye . So, um, even if you're introverted, ask more questions, meet more people. Be curious.
The curiosity is something that's really important to us growing as writers. And most of us get into being writers because we're curious, we're interested in topics, we're interested in telling other people about those topics. We're interested in reading and writing and learning, right? Um, and sharing information.
So that's really important. That's number two. And now we're gonna talk about number one, if you feel like this has been helpful, if you feel like you've gotten a tip or trick or something useful for now, or an any, any point that you're watching this video, give it a thumbs up. If you feel like you wanna learn more about building a freelance writing business, you adore, or hitting six figures, subscribe.
We come here every Friday at noon central time. Okay. Let's talk about number one after we go give some snacks. We're gonna give some snacks real quick. Would you like to tell them what number one is? bear's. Like I'm, I can barely see. So, no, I got good girl. Good job. Otherwise. Oh, good girl. Good girl. Good job buddy.
Good job. Fun fact about Charlotte, just to give everybody an update, um, we gave her an, you know, we give them baths cuz they have allergies. So we use this like special soap. Charlotte still, when she is wet, smells like skunk. So since she got sprayed back in July, there's this little part on her neck that still smells like skunk when she's wet.
So update for everybody. , she's still skunky. Go back to your haba hole. Go back to your haba hole. Uh, take your blanket Sherpa with you. All right. Good job. Blanket Sherpa. Good job. Good job. Here you go. All right, let's talk about number one. Well, let's talk about number one if we can find number one. Okay, number one, and we also have a bonus one, and we also have Vicky's question.
1) Learn to say no more often
So number one, and this is really important and I've, I thought about this a lot. Like last night when I was writing out this list and I, I had some ideas like percolating for a while. And, um, when I was kind of writing this out, I was thinking like, man, like what, what would be something that they just like have to do that I see as one of the biggest mistakes freelance writers make?
And I came, I came to this idea and, um, actually Tommy and I were talking, and I think this was actually, this is really the number one. One. The number one, one is you need to say no more often. You need to say no more often no to your clients, no to other things. You just need to get in the habit of saying no.
So that you limit your, like, you limit the things that are like frustrating or the things that break your boundaries or. , um, things where you just get like, you know, frustrated with a client because like, it's not the right fit. So this is something where , I know that this, um, this sounds like really counterintuitive, that you sh that a lot of times freelance writing advice is like, say yes to everything and get all this experience.
And like, there is a time and a place for that. But I think when you're moving forward, you need to say no more often. You need to be more specific about what you take on. And you need to say no to, like things that smell fishy. Like that's the thing that people always talk about is like, good fish does not smell fishy, right?
Like, good quality fresh fish does not smell fishy, at least most fish. Um, and this is something where like, if it. Saying no helps you develop this thing that's like a scent. And I, I explained this to my students too, and I think this is important. Um, and another thing that we should talk about more so like my students that are on here that I'm saying we should talk about this more, like, don't let me forget
This is a smell. Like there is a smell like, where you're like, ah, things aren't right. Like you're like, I'm smelling something. Like something isn't right here. That is a, a thing that you develop from saying no. The more you get good clients, the more you say yes to good clients. And the more you find projects that are a really good fit for you, that you say yes to, that smell like is really easy to identify.
And it's a lot easier to say no. Like you get this thing where you're just like, Ooh, no. And then you get another email where it's like a tire kicker or like a weird thing about like, I want you to write content, but I'm not sure what it is. Or like, I wanna give you 200 bucks to like fiddle around for a while and like, write this brochure.
It becomes this. So like, it's just an odor where you're just like, no, ugh, go away. Like it's an immediate reaction. And when you learn to say no, you learn what to say yes to. Like, when you're saying no, this is developing that smell that you get for projects that are not a fit. And then you're also like immediately getting like, oh yes, yes, yes.
Like it's, it's, it's the same kind of training yourself to identify the right opportunities. And when you say no more often, you get to stand up for your boundaries. You get to pick the things that are a better fit for you. Um, you get to basically like stand in confidence. No is a complete sentence. I've been hearing that for so many years from real estate agents, but it's the same thing here.
No is a complete sentence. Um, and when you say no, there's just like this freedom that comes from it. And I feel like a lot of times writers are like so afraid to say no to anything. Anything, they will go to the ends of the earth. They will like go to the ends of the earth on like a, a piece of dental floss, like going down the, the side of the earth being like, I hope this dental floss holds me.
And they won't say no. They'll just be like, I'll do it for you client. No, there, there are so many things that I wish I could, like, I wish I could tell more writers to say no to. Like, there are so many projects or weird client attributes or strange things that just pop up that are a definite no. But the more you say no, the more you develop that smell where you're like, I should definitely say no to this.
I know it's, it's like this weird thing to say, it's a smell, but it is. You have this like, like, um, you have this like, visceral reaction to it. No. Ugh. Like when you get it, when you get the things in your inbox and you're just like, no, ugh. Like it's just not a fit for you. Right. It does not make sense. It's not a fit for you.
And it's just like this, I just, to me, it's a smell. It's just like, it, it doesn't smell like anything. I can't say like, oh, it smells like. You know, an old thi like, I don't know, something gross smells like Charlotte when she was covered in skunk. Um, it, it's not like an actual smell. It's like a visceral reaction that you have.
That to me is like, you start smelling the right opportunities, but the wrong opportunities start to overwhelm you so much. Like in smell that you immediately, you don't even think about it. You're like, Nope, not for me. Nope, not for me. Then you get to go back to working on the things that make sense for you and that are fun and that are exciting projects.
This also leads to being able to take leaps into new project types. So if you're saying no more often now we have more schedule space and we have more brain space to say yes to new types of projects that we should be trying this year. Right? This helps us take leaps. This lets us take leaps into really cool opportunities and I can tell you.
I really struggled to say no. And I still, there are lots of times now where I really struggle to say no. There I, I'm better at it. But there are certain situations where I just really struggle to say no. But I can tell you, the better you get at saying no, the closer you are to these opportunities that are a definite yes.
Like for example, a really good example is how we talk about me splitting time between my freelance writing business with my clients and my students, my freelance writer, wealth Lab students. And then right now, right, we're in the community part. Cause the course doesn't open until April. So if I had said yes to just like only working on my freelance writing business, I wouldn't have like all of these amazing experiences and all these really cool
Like I wouldn't be able to help so many writers build their own businesses, which is a really important thing to me that that is something that like, um, . Like even when I was really early on in my career, I was like, I wanna do this. Like I wanna teach other people how to do this. Like it changed my life and it, it's, um, it was something that was really important to me.
So if I had started saying like, no, I'm not gonna create this course, no, I'm not gonna do that. I wouldn't have all these cool opportunities that I have now or these man, it is just like, to me it's like so insane to watch one of my students just like completely change. Like they're growing a business.
They love, they're working on projects that are fun and sometimes those projects give 'em anxiety, but they're working on new projects. And then once they finish it, they're like, oh, I didn't need all that anxiety. I could totally do it. Like I didn't need imposter syndrome or fear of success, or fear of failure.
Like I could totally do it. Watching my students transform, getting through their roadblocks, getting through imposter syndrome, getting through all of their fears, getting through like saying no, watching them transform that is like, that just fills my cup. Like it, it overflows my cup. And if I had started saying no, like if I hadn't said no to certain parts of things, certain parts of my growing my freelance writing business, um, I wouldn't be able to say yes to all the cool stuff I do with my students.
So even though I have like my six figure freelance writing business, , I'm sure I could grow it a lot bigger if I wasn't really splitting my time this way, right? But for me, saying no to certain things allowed me to do this new project, allowed me to take on things like running my course, running my community, running masterclass, running live q and a's, um, creating new resources for them, creating cool stuff like a book club.
We're gonna start a book club. Um, I wouldn't be able to do all that cool stuff, right? If I had been saying yes to other things, or if I had been saying, if I hadn't learned how to say no, go back to hole. I have this go back to hole. If I hadn't learned how to say no to things, right? So when you say no, you get to, uh, like open up more opportunities to say yes to stuff that's really cool.
And new project types. This is something where I see writers get stuck in this constant role, right? They're constantly rolling with like, oh, I write 20 articles a month, and I've been doing that for 10 years. , and, and like, how do I get into case studies? And I'm like, you don't even have space. You have no space to write a case study.
You're, you're full. , right? They're saying yes to all of this stuff repetitively instead of clearing things out and saying, no, I'm not gonna do this and I'm gonna make room for this and I'm gonna have scheduled space for that. And of course, there are times where, you know, in your freelance writing career, you do get pinched right there.
There's, this always happens. There's always a time where you get pinched. You either get pinched on money and you need to take gigs that you normally wouldn't, or you get pinched on time where you just like, you know, you can't take a project and you have to pass cuz you just don't have the time. Um, or you like, you know, refer that project out or like, there's always a pinch somewhere in your business.
But if you learn how to say no, and you stop worrying so much about what someone's reaction is gonna be, or um, how that's gonna like, blow up your business or catastrophize it or worry about hurting someone's feelings. That really gives you a lot more power in your business. Like you feel a lot more confident.
Like, it, it's, it's not like you're people pleasing your way to a yes, right? You're not people pleasing your way through your business. You're like, Nope, that doesn't work for me. Now I'm gonna do this. And I've had these conversations with, with writers before with, with a couple of my students where they're like, how do I, um, how do I tell a client no.
Or how do I let a client go? Which is basically like, no, I don't wanna work for you anymore. Good job. Um, , how do I tell a client no, essentially without hurting their feelings or without like them getting upset or without them being mad at me. You can't, this is why we learned how to say no. You cannot control their reaction.
And this is something that I still deal with. I still have trouble with this, so, But you cannot control their reaction. And you saying no allows you to choose the things that are a better fit. So even if you tell a client no in the kindest way possible, and even if you refer another writer to them because that their, that writer's a better fit.
You can't control if that client gets mad, sad, upset, depressed, um, lashes out at you, whatever. You can't control any of that. But you can control your attitude about your business and the things that are right for you and what things you need to say yes to. Okay. So I'm challenging you. I think this for me is like the biggest challenge for most writers, and that's why it's number one, is you have to say no to more things.
Say no to more things. I know that's hard. I know it's hard and I still struggle with it. So like I'm, I'm challenging myself along with you to say no to more things. One of the things that I'm gonna put out in the newsletter that I'm gonna talk about is I want to clear my calendar more like I've been, um, I've been averaging about 10 appointments a week.
And that's the average. So sometimes it can be more, go back to your hava hole, you spicy. Um, I've been, sometimes it can be more, sometimes it can be less. But I've been averaging 10 appointments for per week and that's just too many for me. Like it's, it's, it's breaking up my time too much. And it is a lot of time.
Like, it's a lot of time that I am putting into different things that, that then I, I need energy left to do other projects and I just don't have it cuz I'm on all these things all the time and I have all these appointments. So for me, one thing I need to work on saying no to is like more appointments. I need to block off more time for me to do other stuff and limit certain appointments.
Cause I only have so much time and energy. Right. Or else I burn out. Right. So that's something that I'm working on. , cutting down calendar appointments, like getting things to a place where, um, I'm not averaging 10 appointments a week. And, um, you know, also my client work and also like coaching stuff and also, uh, freelance wealth lab and also my community and also, all right, all that stuff.
So this is a challenge. Say no more often. Learn the smell. Learn like the stuff that should start to repulse you. You start getting requests in your inbox or dms or LinkedIn messages, whatever. Start learning the things, the attributes that for you specifically are no go, right? Maybe it's 24 hour turnaround, maybe it's like two week turnaround.
Maybe it's something, there's a few key words that a few red light clients have said to you where you're like, ugh. Like, no. Um, or maybe it's like an attitude. Maybe it's like a client who's treating you like an employee. Like you have three clients who all treat you like an employee, and you're just like, Ugh, I don't like that smell.
I don't like the, the, that attitude like, ugh. , learn the smell. Learn to say no more often. That's really important. That's why it's our number one thing. And we have a bonus thing. So the bonus thing, and then we're gonna get to Vicky's question. I see you. Woo. I see you. So our bonus thing, oh, you know what? I should make a little bonus thing.
I didn't, but I should. Okay, hold on. Let me do something really quick. I'm just gonna make this bonus. I'm just gonna say bonus here.
Bonus: Stop worrying about what you can’t control
Okay, so now I should have a bonus. Yay. Okay, so bonus tip. So bonus tip here, if you feel like this has been helpful, give it a thumbs up. If you feel like you wanna build a freelance writing business, you adore or build up to six figures, subscribe. Bonus. Okay? Bonus round, stop worrying about the things you can't control.
Okay? Stop it. No more. And. . We cannot control our clients. We cannot control their attitude. We cannot control their response. We cannot control anything that they're doing. They, they will, they will get back to you. When they get back to you. There's nothing that you can do that makes them get back to you faster.
I'm sure there's lots of tips and tricks and weird things that we can do, saying like, my schedule's filling up. Like, I've done these things, right? My schedule's filling up, which, you know, tell the truth. If your schedule is filling up, email them. Um, but like you can't control when someone signs a contract or when they send you money, or if they're late or if they're slowing down or if they're blah.
You cannot control that. We cannot control the economy. We cannot control the banks. We cannot control all these things, right? Focus on what you can control. What can you control in your sphere, right? We can't. Spend our time in 2023 worrying about the up and down and this and that, da da, we can't, none of that has been controlled.
Right. At what point in the last several years where all things have been all over the place, have you felt like you can control a lot of things? Probably pretty minimal. The stuff in your circle that you can control is pretty small. That's what we're gonna worry about. We're gonna worry about our impact on the planet, right?
Things that we can control just to be kind or to help people or to, um, you know, if we had a bad attitude about something, maybe we fix our attitude. Or, um, if we have been struggling with mental health, we get help or, um, we, you know, figure out how to treat our clients better. Like we create a better client experience, whether that's creating better onboarding with something like Dosa, or we create a better payment system for them, or we create a better way to turn in work for them.
That, that makes more sense. , you know, there's all these things that we can control that are worth your time and energy. If you spend too much time and energy and mental, you know, mental brain space, um, it just ends up wearing you out and you're not able , you know, you're not able to put your, your good stuff, your time and quality stuff into the things that really matter.
I always try to think about it like that. It's like almost like a power plant where I'm not gonna spend my precious power plant power slash energy on things that I can't control. Like now I've wasted all this power p you know, power, plant energy, and I still do it. I'm like, just as a regular human, I still do these things.
I still make mistakes, but I'm working on it. So like I'm trying to work on, you know, getting , getting to put my power plant energy into the things I can control, whether that's my business or my personal life or whatever. So going into this year, right? Focus on the things you can control. And like I said, yes, there are emails and there's things that we can do to, to prod things along and hopefully people will sign contracts or send up front payments or answer your email or whatever.
But you can't control other people. Like there's, there's no magic button to get someone to respond to your l o I or to, you know, respond to your contract or respond to anything like people are on their own timeline. I will. So focus on the things you can control. All right. Can control. Can control. Okay.
Question: How do I turn a full-time job offer into freelance writing work?
Vicky, let's get to your question. I'm gonna read Vicky's whole question cuz I just made it kind of like partially, I just made a simplified version. So Vicky's question, a friend in my network works at a tech company and he gave my name to the HR talent acquisition. People, whatever. Uh, they emailed me saying that they're looking for someone for a full-time job.
I looked at the description and found that I'm only ready to do half of the variety of tasks they need. How can I turn this into a conversation about either a series of freelance assignments or a part-time job covering the areas, uh, that I wanna do? It is, is it within the bounds of etiquette to move the conversation in the that direction?
Um, it seems like I should, I'll be talking to HR people, but should I be, uh, using the meeting to ask them who their communications and marketing contact would be? Is this polite to come into a meeting with these intentions? Is it better to just get it done by email and save a meeting? I assume the meeting discussion would have more flexibility for us to come up with ideas on how to help each other and at least solidify in their minds that I exist.
Okay. Lots of questions in there, Vicky, but good questions. I'm gonna let woo out cause she's having a Woo fast. Come on. Woo. Come here.
You can leave. You can leave. Everybody can leave. Goodbye. Alright, you guys can leave. See you later. Bye. Come on. Come on you guys later. Have a great day. Bye.
All right. Woo was just stamping a lot, so Woo. Needs to, woo, needs to leave. She's just being spicy tomato. So let me, there's a lot of questions here. So, um, oh, , she barked at me through the door. What a sass. Charlotte, go downstairs. Um, a lot of questions here. So one, I would not go, um, meet with the HR people until you have asked them.
Like, is, can we do this in a freelance or part-time capacity? So, um, I, this is totally possible. There are lots of times where, um, a where, uh, . Um, a company says they need someone full-time and then they talk to someone who, um, is a freelancer and they decide to go freelance. So before you ever meet with someone, um, I would go and clarify that you wanna do the, that you're not, you, you make it clear to them that you don't wanna do full-time.
So, number one, if you really don't wanna do full-time, make that clear from the very beginning. Two, tell them that you are interested in working in a freelance or part-time capacity. And like, are they open to that? Is it something of interest to them? Three, A lot of times when you get these job descriptions, they talk about a lot of things that you either never do or that you can learn on the job and aren't that hard.
Like the fact that you said you only knew know how to do half the things. Like it's not complicated. There's a whole bunch of stuff that people put in job descriptions just because they're like, put it all in there and see what happens. And it's just like not a thing. So, um, there's also a bunch of statistics that like, when, um, like people look at job descriptions, like women think they need to be a hundred percent qualified and like men are, um, statistically like they only need 50% and they apply to a job, right?
So there's also like some interesting statistics there about like how, um, people approach jobs. So honestly, like you don't need to have everything but you know, you can learn some things on the job. So that, that's something I'm not worried about. Um, the conversation needs to be clear from the very beginning.
Um, it's totally within etiquette to go in and say like, Hey, uh, whatever, you know, I wanna try to do freelance and full and part-time, but you need to say that. Like, email them that, like send an email, don't get on a call with them and then change gears on them. Send them an email and ask them if they're open to that first.
Then you get on a call. Cuz otherwise if you get on a call and you like change gears on them, now we've wasted everyone's time and it's like a huge pain in the butt. Um, what else did you say? So, . Um, the HR people may not know, but they might go talk to someone else and then you would have the meeting with the communications person.
Um, sometimes you do end up talking to the HR and the hiring people because they know the needs of the company. So, um, they'll say like, oh yeah, we know the marketing department needs this. And then you talk to HR and then eventually you talk to the marketing person. So it depends on how the company works.
Um, but yeah, I would, I would get it done by email first. It's totally fine to ask. And you also wanna be clear about that because if they just want, they want someone full-time and that's not a fit for you, then we don't need to ha any more conversations. So, um, what else did you say? The other thing would be that if, um, HR is not the right person and they do say like, Hey, we do wanna discuss freelance, you'll have a different meeting where you can talk about how you can help each other and how you can help them with stuff they wanna work on.
Um, cuz the marketing and communications person would know that better. Like HR might know they, they might need someone or that they need someone to do specific tasks, but the communications and marketing people will know what those tasks entail and like how much of that job description or whatever you need to meet.
And most of the time, like I said, like there's lots of things that we get hired to do as freelance writers that we never think about, like as a job description. We just do it. And then if it ends up in a job description, we're like, we don't know how to do that. But we've done it a ton of times. We just don't call it that or we don't think of it that way.
So, Vicky, make it clear. So to, to get through kind of the bulleted list. Email them, make it clear you want freelancer full-time, uh, freelancer part-time, not full-time. You wanna make sure that's before you ever get on a call with someone and. , if they agree to that, they'll either set you up with HR or com or the, uh, communications and marketing people to talk through things.
It's totally normal. A lot of times freelance writers say like, Hey, thanks for reaching out about this full-time job. And um, you know, like, would you consider, um, doing freelance instead? Or would you consider like doing part-time contracts? Stuff like that. Um, I think that's kind of the general gist, but yeah, like my opinion is also like, if I can save someone time, which is meetings, right?
Time is someone's most valuable asset, they're not gonna get it back. So if we can save a meeting or if we can just send an email and they're like, no, that's not gonna be a fit, then now we've saved everyone time and we've moved on and we don't get on a weird call where we're like, I wanna do this. And they're like, oh, we had no idea, and why are we on this call?
Um, but yeah, so the, the qualifications thing, if it really is like outside your wheelhouse, if they're asking you to do like, , I don't know if they're asking you to do like in-depth content strategy or SEO strategy or brand messaging and you don't know how to do that. Like that deep work, like that complicated stuff, that's way different than like listing a bunch of tasks that a content, um, writer or a freelance writer would do.
But yeah, so just be clear with them. Send 'em an email, see how it goes, um, and see if you'll talk to the marketing person. But this is a normal thing. Happens all the time. There's lots of times where you'll have a friend, um, recommend you or mention something as a full-time thing and you're a freelancer and there are times, plenty of times where like they, instead of getting a full-time person, they get a freelancer and that's cheaper than getting someone full-time.
Did that help Vicky? I don't know if you're still here, but I hope that. . Okey dokey. Okay, so those are all our questions. Those are our five things. So I'm just gonna go over them. Last thing that we're gonna do, so five, raise your rates. Number five thing, right? Five. I'm gonna have my hand out. So five, is that in camera?
There we go. Five. Raise your rates. Four. Schedule more downtime. That means you need to think ahead. Three, you need to learn more about your ideal clients. Okay. And that means you need to get scrappy on stuff when you need to. Two, you need to ask more detailed questions of your potential clients. Your clients, and other freelance writers.
You need to ask more detailed, more specific questions, um, and be more curious about that stuff. And number one is, um, you need to learn how to say no more often. Okay. Good. Vicky says that helps. Sweet. Okay, good. Those are our things. And our bonus tip. Our bonus tip was that don't worry about things you can't control.
Focus on the stuff that's in your control. Spend your P Power plant energy on that. Cool. Okay. So I hope that this was helpful. If you feel like it was helpful, give it a thumbs up. If you wanna learn more about building a freelance writing business you adore, or a six figure freelance writing business, subscribe.
We're here every Friday, um, at noon central time. Yeah, Vicky, just email them. Just, you know, meetings. There's, everybody has like 10,000 meeting it. It better just to email and see how that goes. Um, so I will see you guys next Friday at noon Central Time. You can pick up, we talked about raising your rates.
So my updated pricing guide, um, pick it up at mandy ellis.com/pricing guide. It's free, and you get my weekly emails with my tips and tricks, um, which is like this live stream, but like way condensed. It's not the live stream. It's like totally different stuff. So my tips and tricks email is different than the live stream every single week.
So every week you get different tips and tricks in the email and different tips and tricks here on YouTube and Bena and some of my other students, Margaret, who else? We'll be there for the, um, masterclass on Monday on interview skills. So it should be fun, . It should be a good time. So I hope everybody has a good weekend.
I hope everybody has a good Friday, and I will see you next Friday. Ooh, have a great weekend to you too. Flower power. All right, I will see you guys next Friday and uh, too, Lou. Bye.
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