TCC Podcast #253: Successful Freelancing with Laura Briggs

On the 253rd episode of The Copywriter Club podcast, Laura Briggs breaks down the foundational steps to catapulting your freelance business. Laura is a freelance writer and coach who helps aspiring and current entrepreneurs who are ready to live life on their own terms. Already have a successful business? You’ll hear concepts and ideas through a whole new lens. – Don’t miss this one. Here’s what we talk about: Humans biggest question: “What do I do with my life?” Balancing a full-time job and growing a side hustle business. The best way to use Upwork and break into the freelance writing world. Whether or not you need a website in the beginning. Pitching to clients on weekends through LinkedIn. Your first portfolio and what it needs to include. Landing a 50k ghostwriting book project through Upwork. The pros and cons of Upwork and using it to its fullest potential. Why you need to personalize your pitches. How to overcome the “new writer” syndrome. How retainer projects help you with income projections and how to position yourself to secure the deal. Building your dream work schedule. When you should raise your prices. (and when you shouldn’t.) Creating a writing process that works best for you and your creative genius. Setting boundaries and tuning into the red flags. How to make decisions as a CEO and become an empowered business owner. Sales calls and being okay with the silence. What most freelancers are doing wrong and how to fix it. When you know you’re ready to level up. Delegating to others and creating time and space in your business. Creating a nonprofit around your core values. Offering services that are in demand and match your personality. Check out the transcript below or hit that play button to listen in. The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground Betterbizacademy.com   Full Transcript: Rob:  Being a successful freelance copywriter is about a lot more than just writing the right words for our clients. There are so many things to think about to do beyond the writing, things like finding clients, or pricing yourself effectively, setting up the right packages, things that our clients actually want to buy, and raising our prices as needed, figuring out retainers, project scope, all of that kind of stuff. Our guest for this episode of the Copywriter Club Podcast is Laura Briggs. Laura is known as The Freelance Coach. And in her business, like we do, she helps freelancers deal with these kinds of challenges. In a moment, we're going to hear how she built her own successful business and then helping others to do the same thing. But first, let me introduce my co-host for today, since Kira is still on maternity leave, Jacob Suckow. Jacob is, I would call him an offer doctor. Jacob, I don't know if you've got a better title for that or not, but he helps his clients really figure out their offers. Jacob:  Awesome. Well, hey Rob, thanks for the introduction, I appreciate it. I don't know if I've ever called myself an offer doctor, but I might have to steal that after today. Excited to be here with you today, excited to hear what Laura has got to say. Rob:  Yeah. I'm looking forward to this conversation also. If you want to find out more about Jacob Suckow, you can find him at top-notchcopy.com, but don't forget the dash. And one of the things, Jacob, I'm going to mention this, even though it's not really live here, you're playing around with this idea of a paid newsletter that you're thinking about doing, talking about all the things about starting a successful solopreneur business. Maybe just give us like a one-liner for what that might turn into when it gets launched. Jacob:  Yeah, sure. So there's a big gap in content out there for people like us who are just building something on their own. And typically,