Answer this question: If you don't work today, will you still make money? What if you take the whole week off? Or the whole month?

This is the biggest drawback of being a freelancer. You have to work more if you want to earn more.

There are a number of consequences for this, but the biggest issue for creatives like us is that the more we work, the more we face burnout. The more we face burnout, the higher the chance that we'll lose the initial passion that drove us to this business in the first place.

That means that the more we earn as freelancers, the more we'll face burnout.

I'm sure you see the issue here... while you may love what you do, I'm sure you want to maintain a healthy balance between maintaining creativity and maintaining your bank account.

None of us want to feel like we're on a hampster wheel of working just to pay the bills, but this is the sad reality of some of the most successful freelancers I know.

They built amazingly successful careers (at least financially), but they unknowingly built a trap for themselves. As their income increased, so did their lifestyle and bills.

As their bills increased, so did their dependency on their freelance income. This created a perpetual cycle of saying "yes" to projects they otherwise would have said "no" to if they didn't need the money.

So how do we get out of this deadly cycle? Well... One method is to just keep your living expenses (and business expenses) as low as humanly possible.

The other method (and one I much prefer) is to break away from directly trading your dollars for hours.

This is the choice that Rachel Brenke took in her own businesses, which have allowed her to scale her income to over $9,000,000.

While she does offer 1-to-1 services just like any typical freelancer, she's also built something called an "ascension ladder", which has allowed her to keep earning money regardless of whether she works this month or not.

If you're still on the hours-for-dollars treadmill, and you want to break away, this week's episode of the 6 Figure Creative Podcast is for you.

In this episode you’ll discover:

The art (and science) of niching down
How to offer services and products in multiple niches
Automating and outsourcing the stuff you don't want to do
How to build an "ascension ladder" as a freelancer
Why relying on a single point of failure can destroy a business
The 80/20 of content marketing that actually brings in clients

For full show notes, visit https://6figurecreative.com/214

Mohnish Pabrai's Q&A at Clemson University - Wall Street South Investment Club on November 13, 2023

Chai with Pabrai

Introduction

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