Double Your Freelancing Podcast

Links & resources can be found on the show notes page: https://dyf.link/episode91In this episode, Zach talks to Kim Swagemakers from Kimpact, about her experience going from employee to freelancer to a productized agency owner. On this episode Kim shares her insights about immersing yourself in client pain points to inform your trajectory, choosing a niche based on past products, finding good productized service ideas, building automated lead flows, and much more.This was recorded for our private community as an expert interview and if you want to check out the community for yourself, it includes 1-on-1 coaching with myself, weekly check-ins, plus when we have calls like this one, members can join live to ask questions directly with the guest.More details and links on the show notes page: https://dyf.link/episode91  

Links & resources can be found on the show notes page: https://dyf.link/episode90In this episode, Zach talks to Jesse Hanley from Bento - the email marketing tool.In today’s episode, you’ll find out how Jesse went from solo freelancer to scaling a 25-person agency, then selling it all and starting a SaaS email marketing product.Jesse talks about the challenges of scaling an agency including client lead flow, having a lean team, and the benefits of a simple business model.We dive deep into how being genuinely helpful online can lead to big customers, and whether you should chase scaling your business or focus on doing your best work every day.More details and links on the show notes page: https://dyf.link/episode90

Links & resources can be found on the show notes page: https://dyf.link/episode89In this episode, Zach talks to Joana Galvão from Gif Design Studios.Joana Galvão is the co-founder of award-winning design agency Gif Design Studios and a leading business coach for ambitious creatives who want to take the shortcut.Based in Porto, Portugal, her agency specializes in brand identities and conversion-obsessed design and serves industry leaders in 17 countries on five continents.Her coaching program, Ambitious Creatives Booked Solid, helps freelancers get booked solid with dream projects, to 6-figures and beyond, without burnout.Joana speaks internationally on entrepreneurship and the power of design and creativity and her work has been featured in the Guardian UK, Brand Brilliance, and Digital Arts magazine.Join the DYF Accelerator community at: dyf.link/community Check out the Start The Right Type of Business beta course within DYF University, which is at dyf.link/university

Delia Monk, a freelancer who earned $100,000 in her first year freelancing through cold agency outreach, shares her cold outreach philosophy and approach for booking clients. She provides her email template that drove multiple five figures of business. The podcast also explores transitioning to freelance writing, crafting a unique brand story, outsourcing and collaboration, and the importance of personalizing outreach messages. Delia emphasizes the significance of a clear call to action, thorough research, and having a separate email domain for freelancing success.

Links & resources can be found on the show notes page: https://dyf.link/episode87They’ve worked with big names like Pat Flynn and featured on Forbes, SPI, and more.One of the cool things about their business is how systematized it is — they pay all their contractors fixed rates for projects, and have their process so dialed in that Prerna’s effective hourly rate (EHR) for copywriting is about $1,000/hr.Tons of great insights in this episode — enjoy!More details and links on the show notes page: https://dyf.link/episode87

Nicolas Cole, ghostwriter-turned-agency-owner, shares insights on scaling a 7-figure ghostwriting agency through cold outreach, content marketing, and community engagement. They discuss the importance of cold outreach for freelancers, specializing and building expertise, and the power of educating and providing value in cold outreach. Cole also talks about choosing a niche and scaling your freelance or agency business. They highlight the ideal candidates for the premium ghostwriting academy and address common objections.

Brennan Dunn, the founder of DYF, discusses his journey from employed developer to scaling a bespoke agency to $2M/yr. He shares insights on running a 7-figure agency, transitioning to SaaS and education products, personalized marketing, the shift from hourly billing to a team-based approach, financial aspects of running an agency, and the emotional impact of feedback. The podcast also explores the transition from agency work to product development, the approach of Right Message and service, suitability for the bespoke agency route, and the challenges in starting outreach and promoting a business.

I talk about why I've been M.I.A., and share how focusing on expected results helped me win over a new client.

When you shop for anything, check with the business owners and ask, “How’s business going?” They will be happy to share their thoughts. Roadmapping involves interviewing and understanding a client to identify their needs and craft a solution for them. Take care of and protect your clients to develop successful and reliable results. My guest today is Lionel Martin, a software and DevOps engineer who helps technology startups improve how they build using the Cloud. As a freelancer, he experienced the income and project roller coaster, which was very stressful. Lately, he has been doing high-value consulting. Lionel shares tips he has implemented that may benefit your company. Tactics he uses that are game changers to make a good impression on clients and get them to pay him more include being more descriptive rather than prescriptive and not having a portfolio. Today’s topics include: Organizing your business and personal life: Schedule, time, and bandwidth Making mindset changes by setting up hands-on consulting and roadmapping to be able to implement strategic or tactical changes 4 Phases of Engagement: Diagnosis (identify problems), Prescription (recommended solution), Implementation, and Reapplication Expressing empathy during diagnosis and prescription to understand why client is willing to spend money on you; walk in their shoes before going directly to your comfort zone Having hesitations and being confident enough to talk with any client in any industry and deliver value Having curiosity, willingness to help, and asking questions - talk business with people Getting qualified leads and clients involves content marketing and focusing on strategic conversations for productizing (3 months for productizing to packaging) Building trust and positively changing your relationship with clients through roadmapping; others deliver biased advice geared toward their services Waterfall vs. Agile Development: Where do you need to get to, where are you now, why is now bad, why is there better, and how can you help them get there? Assess risks Hear It Before They See It: Investing time to talk to client, offering proposal, and getting them to buy an option Resources and links: Lionel Martin Lionel Martin Email

Learn how to take awesome conversations and translate them into increased scope of works to grow your business with heightened capabilities around marketing. Think about the impact, not just the deliverable. Paint a complete picture of marketing. My guest today is Ian Servin of Animus Studios, which is a production company that makes videos. Animus has a higher-level, holistic approach of using videos to provide a solution to clients. It focuses on content creation and plans that involve sharing that content and measuring results. Today’s topics include: Be willing to pay more to reach your end goals with videos for your business Disconnect between sales and production regarding goals and purpose of videos; make the product on the backend aligned with the expectation on the frontend Add intentionality, process, and formalization to deliver in a package that feels like a real product and offering Animus reaches out to new customers or customers contact them with a video need; Animus guides new customers through big picture marketing and setting expectations Onboarding and roadmapping is tailored around video and includes initial question asking and information gathering; never deliver a proposal that is a surprise Animus financially qualifies a client and works with them on a small scale to funnel them into the onboarding package; doesn’t want to waste its or a client’s time and money Discover how to make better content strategically; take ideas to helps customer develop a creative story and think outside of the box to make sales Generate sales and leads through email generation, boots on the ground work at events, and building a content marketing campaign Resources and links: Animus Studios Videostrategy.org