Freelance to Founder

Do you ever get the feeling you're attracting the wrong kinds of clients for your freelance business or agency? Today's guest faces the same question: "how can I turn down clients who aren't a good fit?"Paul Chris Luke spent his first few years out of college working at an agency doing digital marketing. But then he decided to leave it all behind, sell his house and most of his possessions and move to Cambodia—a place he’d never even been.After taking a year off to reflect on where his life was headed and finding his savings running out, he eventually felt the tug to get some clients and start working again.The problem is: when you start freelancing, it can be hard to find the right clients—or better yet—avoid the wrong onesNow, Paul finds himself wondering how to keep his company small while working with giant brands that want to scale. IN this episode, we answer the question “is it a good idea turn down new clients when your business is so young?"We also talk about growing slowly on purpose, delegating without losing control, naming your business and lots more.Be a guest on an upcoming episode:We'd love to feature your business and offer some free on-air advice for growing your business. To see if you're a good fit, click here.Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts:If you enjoy the show, can you do us a favor and leave us an honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts? We'll love you forever. Click here to leave a review.Support our sponsors so we can keep airing new episodes:Toggl — Simple time-tracking tool you'll thank us for later.Linkedin Jobs — Post healthcare and front-line jobs for free.Participate — Create a space for collaboration, communication and learning.SolidGigs — Get more freelance jobs.Dripify — Premium learning platform for entrepreneurs.Recently from the Millo blog:Is Upwork Legit? A Real-World Experiment Earning $8,000+***This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to Freelance to Founder, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Rocketship.fm and Creative Elements. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Imagine catching the coronavirus and losing half of your clients in less than 48 hours. That's what happened to today's guest, Jim Huffman. Jim runs GrowthHit, a conversion-focused agency serving tech companies and startups.When Covid-19 hit the U.S. in March of this year, Jim got an email from one of his clients asking to put their work “on hold”—which was all fine and well until another client cut them off….and another… and another. The pandemic had led to Jim’s company losing almost half a million dollars in potential client sales for the year. To top it all off, Jim caught the coronavirus while traveling for work.Not long after, Jim recovered from the illness and his business rebounded from the loss. And in this episode, we peel back exactly how Jim recovered and pull out lessons you can apply to your business as we all cope with Covid together.Be a guest on an upcoming episode:We'd love to feature your business and offer some free on-air advice for growing your business. To see if you're a good fit, click here.Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts:If you enjoy the show, can you do us a favor and leave us an honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts? We'll love you forever. Click here to leave a review.Support our sponsors so we can keep airing new episodes:Toggl — Simple time-tracking tool you'll thank us for later.Linkedin Jobs — Post healthcare and front-line jobs for free.Participate — Create a space for collaboration, communication and learning.SolidGigs — Get more freelance jobs.Dripify — Premium learning platform for entrepreneurs.Recently from the Millo blog:24 Places to Get Freelance Jobs on Autopilot in 2020***This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to Freelance to Founder, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Rocketship.fm and Creative Elements. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s show, we talk with Akshat Choudhary who runs a thriving business called BlogVault.Despite having over 10,000 customers and a growing team, Akshat’s not sure where to go next when it comes to getting more customers.That all-to-common problem leads us to a conversation on building an affiliate program to get new clients, using social media to build a front-of-mind brand, and taking advantage of email to boost revenue.Whether you’ve hit a plateau with your promotions or you’re just getting your first clients, this conversation is for you.Be a guest on an upcoming episode:We'd love to feature your business and offer some free on-air advice for growing your business. To see if you're a good fit, click here.Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts:If you enjoy the show, can you do us a favor and leave us an honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts? We'll love you forever. Click here to leave a review.Support our sponsors so we can keep airing new episodes:Toggl — Simple time-tracking tool you'll thank us for later.Linkedin Jobs — Post healthcare and front-line jobs for free.Participate — Create a space for collaboration, communication and learning.SolidGigs — Get more freelance jobs.Dripify — Premium learning platform for entrepreneurs.Recently from the Millo blog:What to do when a client doesn’t pay + how to prevent it from happening again***This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to Freelance to Founder, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Rocketship.fm and Creative Elements. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s episode, we have a great conversation with Will Gibbons—a product rendering expert who works with huge brands like Pelaton, 3M, Vizio and more.After a year of working for himself, Will is facing perhaps one of the best problems you can ask for as a freelancer:He’s got too many client requests coming in and too much work that needs done.So in this episode, Clay and I walk him through a few hiring, scaling, and management tips to help him move up the “freelance to founder” scale without losing control of his business.Be a guest on an upcoming episode:We'd love to feature your business and offer some free on-air advice for growing your business. To see if you're a good fit, click here.Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts:If you enjoy the show, can you do us a favor and leave us an honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts? We'll love you forever. Click here to leave a review.Support our sponsors so we can keep airing new episodes:Linkedin Jobs — Post healthcare and front-line jobs for free.Participate — Create a space for collaboration, communication and learning.Notion — The all-in-one workspace for all your notes, wikis, and important tasks.SolidGigs — Get more freelance jobs.Dripify — Premium learning platform for entrepreneurs.***This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to Freelance to Founder, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Rocketship.fm and Creative Elements. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week’s episode we have a heart-to-heart chat with Bri Earles, a freelance social media manager and virtual assistant.Bri has never had any trouble getting new social media clients. But whenever Bri thinks about having money conversations or raising her prices, she kinda freezes up—using words like “awkward” “greedy” or “selfish” to explain how she feels about charging clients.What many freelancers like Bri fail to realize is the only way to become comfortable with charging more is to gain confidence about the value you provide.Be a guest on an upcoming episode:We'd love to feature your business and offer some free on-air advice for growing your business. To see if you're a good fit, click here.Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts:If you enjoy the show, can you do us a favor and leave us an honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts? We'll love you forever. Click here to leave a review.Support our sponsors so we can keep airing new episodes:Linkedin Jobs — Post healthcare and front-line jobs for free.Participate — Create a space for collaboration, communication and learning.Notion — The all-in-one workspace for all your notes, wikis, and important tasks.SolidGigs — Get more freelance jobs.Dripify — Premium learning platform for entrepreneurs.***This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to Freelance to Founder, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Rocketship.fm and Creative Elements. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s call, we chat with Mihai Zamfir who has done some incredible work in building a presentation design company.Mihai gets a fair amount of new clients using sites like Upwork and other freelance marketplaces, but he’s ready to start finding better clients in more intentional ways. All of this leads us to an answer-rich coaching session all about short-term vs. long-term sales strategies. Cold-pitching vs. Content marketing. On the one hand, cold-pitching is hard and has notoriously bad conversion rates. On the other hand, content marketing is very time and labor intensive.So what’s the right path for you? We’ll help you answer that question and many more in today’s episode.Be a guest on an upcoming episode:We'd love to feature your business and offer some free on-air advice for growing your business. To see if you're a good fit, click here.Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts:If you enjoy the show, can you do us a favor and leave us an honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts? We'll love you forever. Click here to leave a review.Support our sponsors so we can keep airing new episodes:Participate — Create a space for collaboration, communication and learning.Notion — The all-in-one workspace for all your notes, wikis, and important tasks.SolidGigs — Get more freelance jobs.Dripify — Premium learning platform for entrepreneurs.More resources related to today's episode:Clay recommends finding a quality CRM. Here are our top recommendations: 10 Best CRM for Freelancers Ready to Get OrganizedPreston recommends using something like Reply.io to scale up your outreach.***This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to Freelance to Founder, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Rocketship.fm and Creative Elements. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week’s episode, we talk with Jason Vance, a former web design freelancer who’s building his next company in marketing.In just 9 months, Jason has hired 9 employees for his marketing agency because there's a whole lot of work that needs to get done.But now Jason feels like he may be holding his team back by causing a bottleneck.It's hard going from doing everything yourself to hiring and trusting employees to take on important tasks. But it’s a subject Clay and I have a TON of experience in which leads to a fantastic conversation with Jason about productivity, systems, empowerment, and trust.Be a guest on an upcoming episode:We'd love to feature your business and offer some free on-air advice for growing your business. To see if you're a good fit, click here.Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts:If you enjoy the show, can you do us a favor and leave us an honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts? We'll love you forever. Click here to leave a review.Support our sponsors so we can keep airing new episodes:Participate — Create a space for collaboration, communication and learning.Notion — The all-in-one workspace for all your notes, wikis, and important tasks.SolidGigs — Get more freelance jobs.Dripify — Premium learning platform for entrepreneurs.More resources related to today's episode: 13 Top Project Management Software Choices Made to Save You Time 10 Best CRM for Freelancers Ready to Get Organized ***This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to Freelance to Founder, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Rocketship.fm and Creative Elements. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week’s episode, Clay and Preston have a heart-to-heart chat with Rodney Little, a UX/UI designer who wants to build an audience-first business.But Rodney, a side-hustler with a full-time job, has been kicking this idea around in his mind for a whopping five years—so in this episode, Clay and Preston call him out. They dive into what’s been holding him up and what it’s really going to look like to build an audience-first business.It’s a very personal conversation for Preston especially—since his business began when he started a small design blog—and this episode features some of Preston and Clay's best advice for starting and growing an audience-first business like a blog or a podcast.Be a guest on an upcoming episode:We'd love to feature your business and offer some free on-air advice for growing your business. To see if you're a good fit, click here.Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts:If you enjoy the show, can you do us a favor and leave us an honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts? We'll love you forever. Click here to leave a review.Support our sponsors so we can keep airing new episodes:Participate — Create a space for collaboration, communication and learning.Notion — The all-in-one workspace for all your notes, wikis, and important tasks.SolidGigs — Get more freelance jobs.Dripify — Premium learning platform for entrepreneurs.Recently on the blog:13 High-Paying Part-Time Jobs (You’re Actually Qualified For) to Boost Income in 2020***This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to Freelance to Founder, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Rocketship.fm and Creative Elements. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s show, we talk with Spencer Blaiklok—a freelance animator who dreams of building something bigger.But, like most creatives, Spencer doesn’t want to give up the fun creative work in order to sit behind a desk or in meetings all day, hating his job.In this episode, Clay and I walk Spencer through a few different ways he can grow his business without having to become a typical CEO-type.Be a guest on an upcoming episode:We'd love to feature your business and offer some free on-air advice for growing your business. To see if you're a good fit, click here.Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts:If you enjoy the show, can you do us a favor and leave us an honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts? We'll love you forever. Click here to leave a review.Support our sponsors so we can keep airing new episodes:Participate — Create a space for collaboration, communication and learning.SolidGigs — Get more freelance jobs.Dripify — Premium learning platform for entrepreneurs.***This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to Freelance to Founder, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Rocketship.fm and Creative Elements. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today’s episode, Clay and I talk all about freelance pricing: what to charge, and when to raise your rates. We explore two very different pricing models and reveal 5 triggers you should watch for to signal it’s time to raise your rates.If you’ve ever wondered if you’re leaving money on the table in your business or if you’re charging the right amount for the work you do, this episode is for you.To dig even deeper, here are a few more pricing resources from the Millo team: How to Gracefully Tell a Client You’re Raising Your Rates How to Write a Price Increase Letter to Your Clients How Much to Charge for a Logo Be a guest on an upcoming episode:We'd love to feature your business and offer some free on-air advice for growing your business. To see if you're a good fit, click here.Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts:If you enjoy the show, can you do us a favor and leave us an honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts? We'll love you forever. Click here to leave a review.Support our sponsors so we can keep airing new episodes:Participate — Create a space for collaboration, communication and learning.SolidGigs — Get more freelance jobs.Dripify — Premium learning platform for entrepreneurs.***This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to Freelance to Founder, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Rocketship.fm and Creative Elements. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices