Double Your Freelancing Podcast

Today’s guest is Naveen Dittakavi. We had a great conversation about how his business has evolved and how important it is to overcome the belief that just because you’ve read something you’re making an improvement. In actuality, you have to act on what you’ve learned to make a difference. Naveen started his software business company in 2003 out of his dorm room at Georgia Tech and today he teaches software freelancers how to build recurring revenue. Today’s highlights include: How Naveen began freelancing Building a recurring revenue stream “Active Reading” Deconstructing goals Daily routine Content Consumption vs. Content Production Naveen starts his day with the tasks that are most important to him. It’s the most cognitive time of work for him and he uses this time for exploration and the development of his own business. Once he’s taken care of the high value or strategic work then he moves on to the work of helping his students or clients. This is what it took to get him where he is today. The systems Naveen has created allow him to work on the things he loves and wants to work on. He is still working on systems, trying to get certain tasks automated, which continues to free up time in his own week. Working on things that you can invest in and systemize allow you focus on larger opportunities or your family, or other things you want to do. There’s a lot we can all learn. Buying a course isn’t enough. You can’t just consume. You need to digest and process. The systematic approach to business growth is what works. Links and Resources Proactive Selling Spin Selling Ruby on Rails You can learn more about Naveen Dittakavi at his website, HowToBuildRecurringRevenue.com If you liked today’s podcast, please leave a review for the show in iTunes.

Taking the time to understand yourself, and manipulating your strengths to get your message out can sometimes be all it takes to push yourself over the edge, and into full-blown success. Today we’re focusing on how to have an authentic brand and establish your brand identity, so you can do just that.   Our guest today is Jeffrey Shaw. He’s a business coach, and he excels in, and focuses on how companies like ours can avoid being generalists. When you generalize your position in the market, you make it harder for yourself to stand out; and that’s where Jeff steps in. He’s also a pro speaker, photographer and is the host of his podcast called “Creative Warriors.”   Today’s topics include: The biggest challenge of going to work for yourself How to create a standout statement and use it to your advantage The role of branding as it relates to your customers Why “niche” needs to be completely redefined for freelancers The paradox of being in business on the internet How to use uniqueness to market yourself The importance of balance How the world sees you is essential to your success, and this applies to more than just freelancing. When people see something in you that they want to be a part of, you know you’re on the right track. We’ll be doing a high level overview of what it means to be a brand, what the implications are and what we can do with it. So, how can you start to develop a unique message for your business? If you liked today’s podcast, please leave a review for the show in iTunes.  Your reviews are what keep us up-to-date on how to improve the show so you can have the best listening experience possible. Be sure to join us next week for another all-new episode. Links and resources: Eight Essential Elements by Jeffrey Shaw Creative Warriors Unite

Today we’re having a crazy interview, but in the best way. We’ll be talking to Julia Kelly, she’s a caricature artist, and the first one we’ve had on the show. She also has a degree in Accounting, so she loves the numbers side of things. We go through how she and her team charge hundreds of dollars an hour for caricature art, and all the ins and outs of her work and business strategy. She’s applied everything I cover on the website and podcast when it comes to value based pricing and price anchoring, and has now applied it to her craft and company. Today’s topics include: •Julia’s transition from BC sales to BB sales •Why selling the outcome to your clients is so important •How she discovered being a booth caricature artist •Her pricing strategy •How she’s a lead generator for businesses •Julia’s business growth plan of action Basically, Julia is a bridge between a potential prospect at a trade show and the customer, and through her testimonials and how she pitches herself, she helps to serve as an investment to their business. So essentially, she’s selling outcomes. It’s about getting results. It’s not about your qualifications or your education, it’s about what you provide for the customer. We explain why it’s important to communicate that you’re a professional by explaining the outcomes they’ll get by working with you, and delve into the challenges she faced when changing her type of work events and shifting the focus to her clients instead of herself. Julia actually works with a team, where the work is divided into about 50/50. More than anything, Julia realizes the importance of making it more about the business and less about the fun in itself, because the business side of things is what keeps it all afloat. Make sure to visit Julia’s gorgeous website at www.jkexpressions.com, and if you want to contact her, feel free to e-mail her at julia@jkexpressions.com. Personally, I’ve recently been in heads down mode in the second edition of my annual class: “Double Your Freelancing Clients”, where it’ll be launching in November and kicking off in February. We work with masterminds and mentor led students, every six weeks for 6 months, to help each memory student stay accountable and get tailored advice about how to apply the course contents to the business. We’ve had incredible results with our pilot class, and it’s only once a year. So if you’re interested, head on over to www.doubleyourfreelancing.com/clients and check us out.

Today I have part two of my interview with the amazing Sean D’Souza. We needed to go deeper into the 7 bag framework that Sean’s developed that covers the 7 objectives that need to happen prior to a successful sale. In this interview, we dove deeper into all of this. I really wanted to get his perspectives on how to use the principles that were so foundational for my own businesses and tailor them to people like you: freelancers and consultants. More and more companies are making the same fundamental mistake that’s hindering their sales and keeping them from moving up in the charts. But what mistake is that, exactly? One of the most important aspects of sales is knowing how to listen to your customers and speak to them in a language that they’re familiar with, and more importantly, that they can relate to. Episode highlights: How to optimize your sales so they’re more attractive to customers How to uncover the customer’s problem and it use it to your advantage How to use Sean’s “Yes-Yes” sale method What you should be paying closer attention to when it comes to your customers How to establish your business credibility When you create a product, it’s because you have a solution to a problem. When someone asks you why you created that product isn’t when you start talking about the wonderful solution you came up with. It’s your perfect chance to present the problem and explain why you have the best solution.   “It’s not just about bringing up the problem, it’s bringing up the consequences of not dealing with that problem.” We wrap up the episode while talking about having multiple pages, the importance of testimonials, and the reason why you’re not getting more customers. If you liked today’s podcast, please leave a review for the show in iTunes.  Your reviews are what keep me up-to-date on how to improve the show so you can have the best listening experience possible. Be sure to join us next week for another awesome episode, joined by the talented Julia Kelly.

Today is the first episode of  a two-part edition with Sean D’Souza.  Sean’s book, The Brain Audit, had a big impact on me as well as countless others.  The Brain Audit is designed to give somebody the tools to understand what goes on in the brain of a customer and how to respond accordingly.  It includes the Seven Red Bags which is a sequential process to move the customer through various stages.  We take a look at the principles of the book and how freelancers can benefit from Sean’s information. Sean says websites or information freelancers give to potential clients about their services may not focus enough on “the problem.”   Freelancers need to address a client’s specific problem.  The client may not realize the problem initially. By identifying the problem, a freelancer will be able to tell the client how their specific service will solve it. Episode Highlights: What Sean’s book means by The Seven Red Bags How companies like Apple and Domino’s Pizza have achieved great success by focusing on one aspect of problem-solving How freelancers can effectively use a target profile and a develop their niche Sean invites listeners to sign up to receive his booklet, How To Win The Resistance Game. Check out Sean’s podcast, The Three-Month Vacation Podcast. **Be sure to join us for the second part of my interview with Sean.   ** You can sign up now for the 2016 class of Double your Freelancing Clients.  Fill out the opt-in form and I’ll contact you with details in November.   If you liked today’s podcast, please leave a review for the show in iTunes.  I’m trying to get listed in new and noteworthy on iTunes and would appreciate your help!  

The Double Your Freelancing Conference that took place last month In Norfolk brought a lot of great people together to share information and ideas.  In this episode, 5 of the speakers from the conference join me to discuss what value they got from the conference and their overall impressions. The Panel: Mojca Mars - owner of Super Spicy Media, social media consultant Brian Casel - owner of Audience Ops, content marketing service Julie Elster -  owner of Just Tell Julie, virtual accounts receivable service Kurt Elster - ecommerce consultant who helps shopify stores double their revenue Kai Davis - outreach consultant who helpsconsultants and product creators increase their traffic and grow their audience We discuss some of the highlights of the Double Your Freelancing Conference, including: The sense of community we all felt that began with Slack conversations before the conference and continued through the event The fact that the speakers felt like attendees too Looking at attending conferences as an investment in your business Learning that so many people were forward-thinking with their businesses Brennan’s desire to have an actionable conference The speakers that inspired us to take action, apply their direction in some way to our own businesses and strive for productivity and focus a core theme of: be intentional in your business With the success of the first Double your Freelancing Conference, I’m planning a European version, possibly in June 2016!   Resources and Links: Slack Super Spicy Media Audience Ops Just Tell Julie Kurt Elster Kai Davis You can sign up now for the 2016 class of Double your Freelancing Clients.  Fill out the opt-in form and I’ll contact you with details in November.   If you liked today’s podcast, please leave a review for the show in iTunes.  I’m trying to get listed in new and noteworthy on iTunes and would appreciate your help!  

My good friend Paul Jarvis is my guest on this episode of the Business of Freelancing Podcast. Paul began as a web designer and applied what he learned in his work to writing for creative freelancers looking to better run their businesses. Today we discuss building products, especially for those freelancers who may not have a huge audience and a solid idea for a product. Paul has authored numerous wildly-popular books designed for a particular audience.  Paul’s product training wheels involved a book based on his vegan diet called Eat Awesome.  It served to teach him some important lessons around product development.  Some of those lessons he talks about that can help freelancers get started on a product include: The importance of working with an audience you like and want to serve Allowing the audience you’ve worked with to help spread the word about your product Finding your product through the people that come to you with their problems Getting the before, during, after and after-plus interviews with clients in a spreadsheet The importance of having processes in place with a built-in mechanism for data collection Allowing yourself to be an expert to your audience   Paul is a firm believer in the importance of data collection to drive your business decisions.  Paul says be confident in the data even if you aren’t confident in yourself.    To find out more about Paul, head over to his website pjrvs.com.  While you’re there sign up for his weekly newsletter, The Sunday Dispatches. Paul also offers Creative Class -  12, self-paced online lessons where you’ll learn the business of freelancing from Paul. You can sign up now for the 2016 class of Double your Freelancing Clients.  Fill out the opt-in form and I’ll contact you with details in November.   If you liked today’s podcast, pleaseleave a review for the show in iTunes.  I’m trying to get listed in new and noteworthy on iTunes and would appreciate your help!     

More and more freelancers have taken to becoming nomads who live and work a location- independent lifestyle.  My guest, Paul Kortman, is a nomad who travels with his wife and four children and runs a digital marketing consulting business from various locations. On this episode Paul offers some thoughts on this lifestyle and how to make your business work in a non-traditional setting.  Paul believes that if you want to pursue the life of a nomad there are a number of things you can do to help make the process easier and far more enjoyable.    We talk about some of the issues that people can face when they don’t have the same location to live in and work from everyday.  Paul discusses some of the concerns people may encounter and the benefits that can result from living a location-independent lifestyle: problems with internet and cell service stability to do your work batching work and coordinating things that need to be done before tackling projects traveling with children and the benefits and skillsets they can develop from a nomadic lifestyle how split shifts and working with a team in various locations actually helps productivity Paul’s sales funnel is referral marketing.  He returns to his home base once a quarter to network and continue to build referrals.  He says while the lifestyle isn’t for everybody, it’s very possible to get the best of both worlds.  Paul has started a website called Nomad Together which provides a community and resources for others looking to find a location-independent lifestyle.  There you will find a guide which covers eight basic categories that will help you make the leap to becoming a nomad.  The site also has a supportive community to share any troubles and issues that may arise.           Please check out my Business of Freelancing new course offering for a new one hour webinar training video, How to Qualify, Sell and Close a New Client.  You’ll find examples of actual client communication and proposal excerpts.    Before you go... Want to hang out with me and 100+ other freelancers in person? On September 16th, the inaugural Double Your Freelancing Conference kicks off in Norfolk, Virginia. I've arranged to fly in 14 experts, and they'll be covering how to sell, market, price, and grow your business. You won't want to miss this. Get your ticket here. If you like today’s podcast, I would really appreciate you taking just a minute to leave a review for the show in iTunes.       

Welcome to the Business of Freelancing Podcast.  Today I am talking to Nick Disabato, a good friend who is the founder of Draft Revise. As well as the author of Cadence & Slang, a guide to interaction design. Draft Revise is a service that helps companies optimize their content. Nick and I are going to discuss the company he’s built, how he’s done it, and what advice he has for those wanting to get into productizing. Nick is the go-to-guy for productize consulting. Productizing Consulting is a service based on personal experience and expertise. Companies hire productize consultants to troubleshoot their business. Once a month or every quarter Nick’s company will test your business website to see if your site is functioning at full optimization. Along with an explanation of his company’s service Nick explains why he makes the choices he does in his business. Including: Why he is selective about his customer base. How “boring work” can still be a good thing when it is steady. Don’t base price on a set fee. Look at the customer needs. Nick’s service is not for beginners. He thinks the best way to move into full-time freelance is to start small. Research your client base and educate yourself on your niche in the market. You are providing a service, understand why you are providing that service. To learn more about Nick Disabato visit nickd.org for a more personal introduction and visit draft.nu for a business one. Also check out Nick’s book Cadence & Slang. Thanks for listening today and i you have a few minutes click over to iTunes and please leave us a review of the show. We have more great content coming in the months to come!

Our guest will be one of the speakers at our Norfolk, VA for the Business of Freelancing Conference this September. Kai Davis is an expert in building up an audience from scratch; building up your authority and targeting the clients you want to work with. If you’re looking to build an audience on your own you will love this episode. In this episode, Kai explains the answer to the most important question any businessman asks himself. Who is my audience? And how are they related to an average freelancer like me? Does a personal touch or your own brand visibility play a major role in getting the right audience? Kai and I discuss building trust and value for the products and services you will be offering without sounding like a salesman. He mentions a lot of helpful tips on how to convert current contacts into income-generating leads naturally by delivering not just the job but also how to deliver great value as well for the customer’s business and in the end getting new referrals that would lead to other referrals. We also talk about the degree of expertise needed vs. being exposed for being lacking in some areas. Understanding who you are and the solution you can offer to your client’s need, is an important point that needed looking into. Kai also touches on the value of self-marketing and how you can convert it into a revenue generating activity. He explains the intricacies of the Tripwire concept, SEO and digital marketing, were interesting talking points that will educate your audience into signing up for your services. If you would like to learn more about Kai and his expertise around audience building, head over to DoubleYourAudience.com or reach out to Kai on Twitter @KaiSDavis. As a special gift for Business of Freelancing listeners, Kai has put together a special checklist and video Q&A all around audience building and the steps you can take to get started today, head over to doubleyouraudience.com/dyf. If you like today’s podcast, I would really appreciate you taking just a minute to leave a review for the show in iTunes. The show continues to climb in the iTunes rankings, in big part to all of you who have taken the time to leave a review and rating. Thank you so much.