Deliberate Freelancer

Today’s guest is Latisha Carr. Latisha is a trained life coach and self-care strategist who helps entrepreneurs build both a healthy personal foundation and healthy business cultures. Her signature framework allows her to help business owners find their essence—all while addressing thoughts and behaviors that are ineffective in helping them reach their goals and dreams. She leads events that help creatives and entrepreneurs develop new businesses, reach higher goals and create effective self-care plans. Latisha has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in counseling and then completed an intensive life coach and leadership training program. After earning her master’s degree, Latisha realized she wanted to help people “create a life that they love” so she became a life coach instead of a therapist. She now focuses on helping entrepreneurs and business owners embrace self-care and wellbeing practices. Latisha experienced burnout herself when she was working in the mental health field. She says we can lose our passion for the thing that we love very easily because being an entrepreneur or solo business owner is so tiring. She has “found it in my heart” to help people create a structure in their business and life that makes self-care and wellness part of the foundation. Latisha explains what burnout is and how it pops up in your business. Signs of burnout include resentment toward your work, colleagues or family, or a feeling of being lost or a loss of passion for your business. Burnout can be a normal part of your life experience. But when you’re an entrepreneur, it might bother you more because your work typically “sparks joy” and suddenly it isn’t. It’s best to recognize burnout when the symptoms first appear. And that means knowing the signs of burnout to watch out for. When you first recognize signs of burnout, Latisha recommends first writing down what you’re feeling in that moment. What is going on in that moment that is different from other times? Once you recognize burnout, identify the things in your life that make you feel “refilled” and that spark joy in your life. What makes you happy? Learn how to hit the reset button on your purpose and your passion. If you’re not fully burnt out, but if you’re just burnt out that day, Latisha recommends having an emergency self-care kit. She created a “happy playlist” of music that peps her up. Maybe you need to treat yourself to some chocolate or go for a 15-minute walk outside. She also points out that a lot of people neglect drinking enough water and go through the day dehydrated. Take some time to drink water, focus on your breathing, sit and relax.   Latisha has created a “refill plan” that aims to help people replenish their mind, body, spirit and business. She encourages people to look at the practices you can build into your lifestyle and business that help you stay refilled and replenished. In the area of your mind, you should set boundaries in your life and business, like setting specific business hours. You might want to adopt mindfulness practices. In the area of your body, adopt healthy sleep habits, have a nutrition plan, drink plenty of water and have exercise goals. In the area of spirit, do you have a connection with your God or with nature or do you have a spiritual component in your life? Consider building spiritual-filling practices into your lifestyle. For some people that’s prayer; for others it might be meditation. Being in nature can also be spiritual for many people. In the area of business, set boundaries like business hours and the way you allow your clients to reach you. Create effective systems in your business that help your self-care. For example, are you on your computer all day long taking care of everything—including administrative tasks like invoicing—without getting any help (like a virtual assistant or an accountant)? When discussing setting business hours and boundaries—not answering client emails 24/7—Latisha gives the analogy of Target’s business hours. If Target opens at 7 a.m., you can’t show up at 6:30 a.m. and knock on the door and expect to get in. Solo business owners and creatives should think the same way. Latisha also talks about imposter syndrome. She sees it from two perspectives: feeling like you don’t belong in the room, but also the flip side of the coin where you are “playing small” in your business. You might actually be the big fish in a small pond and could do more but you’re “sitting in your comfort” instead. Ask yourself: How do you show up as your full, equipped self in every space you go into? Not playing too small but also not feeling like the little kid at the big kids’ table. Acknowledging your imposter syndrome, especially for women, is important. For example, women minimize themselves often by saying “just.” Let’s delete minimizing words in our vocabulary. And acknowledge your achievements and experience and recognize that you are qualified for a certain task or project. Create affirmations to say each day. Saying “I am” statements can be powerful: “I am a leader in my community.” “I am a talented and creative ________.” Latisha says we have to stop minimizing our achievements, even in our day-to-day lives because it can have a big impact on your self-confidence.   Biz Bite: Build self-care and wellness practices that work specifically for your lifestyle and business.   Resources: Latisha is offering listeners a free 30-minute consultation. Go to latishacarr.com/schedule and click on “Discover Call 30 minutes.”   Latisha Carr website   Latisha’s The Refill podcast

On today’s show I am going to outline five lessons I learned at the She Podcasts LIVE conference that are relevant to freelance business owners. She Podcasts LIVE was an inaugural conference for the She Podcasts community, which started as a Facebook group that now has 14,000 members—all women podcasters. There’s also a She Podcasts podcast hosted by co-creators Elsie Escobar and Jessica Kupferman. While I learned a bunch of podcast strategies and tips at the conference, there were also tips and reminders that can be helpful for all freelance business owners, no matter what service you provide. Lesson #1 is brought to you by Erica Mandy, host of the very successful podcast the NewsWorthy. Erica is an experienced broadcast journalist who quit her job and launched a daily 10-minute news podcast just a few years ago. In her session at She Podcasts, she offered up the The Six Cs of Success. No. 1 is confidence. Erica says you have to have the confidence that you are resourceful and that you can figure out the solutions. She posed the question: What is the traffic jam in your business? We ask this of our clients, but we should also ask it of ourselves: What is the problem you’re trying to solve? This also reminds me of the book I’m reading right now: Marie Forleo’s “Everything Is Figureoutable.” Lesson #2 was also from Erica’s list: consistency. As Erica said: You have to take it seriously when no one is looking. It takes a lot of work to work ON your business, not just IN your business. Are we doing the marketing and networking and analyzing and planning when no one is looking? Lesson #3 comes from Phylecia Jones, creator of iFind You Close, a research company that helps people find speaking gigs. During a period of time when Phylecia was trying to get more people to pay attention to her and her podcast—which was called Ask the Budgetologist—she asked herself every morning: Who needs to know my name today? Think about it: Don’t you want clients and potential clients to immediately think of you when they need a freelancer that provides the services you do? Almost all of my work is from referrals. That means people know my name. My clients think of me when they have work, but they also think to recommend me to others. Lesson #4 is a combo. It’s spend more time with LinkedIn. At the She Podcasts conference, Karen Yankovich, CEO of Uplevel Media, presented a stellar presentation on how to maximize LinkedIn. A few quick tips: Put LinkedIn on your phone and log in and save the password, so you can more quickly respond to LinkedIn outreach. If you spot a green dot on someone’s profile photo that means they are on LinkedIn now, so you should contact them no. Make sure the keywords that pop up on Your Dashboard (on your profile page) are the keywords you want to be known for. Lesson #5: Take care of yourself. I’ve mentioned before how much I love conferences but also that I’m a complete introvert. I have to prepare myself for all that networking and people time. While I loved the overall She Podcasts vibe, a few sessions started out with bold  interaction, including describing our podcasts to a stranger in a superhero voice. I implore all conference speakers and meeting planners: I know you’re looking to make conferences more interactive, but please consider introverts. If you are doing some sort of interactive thing, you need to put that in the session description and you need to say it up front when people walk in the room. Please. As for individuals, You need to take care of yourself in all situations. There’s a balance between opening yourself up to new experiences and taking care of your own needs. This may mean walking out if you are uncomfortable, saying no, skipping sessions to relax alone in your hotel room. In your business, this means structuring your business around what works best for your productivity but also your mental health. It could mean not taking calls after work hours. Not working on weekends. Saying no to a project with glaring red flags. Saying no to volunteer activities because you’re overwhelmed. Notice how a lot of these examples are simply saying no. YOU are the owner and creator of your business. YOU are in charge. You don’t want to put off the vibe that you’re desperate and will do ANYTHING for a client or to accept a project. It needs to be the right fit for YOU. So, take care of yourself.   Biz Bite: Embrace whimsy The Bookshelf: “The Widows of Malabar Hill” by Sujata Massey Resources: Episode #24 of Deliberate Freelancer: Networking Tips, Especially as an Introvert Episode #6 of Deliberate Freelancer: Make the Most of Conferences Episode #25 of Deliberate Freelancer: Finding Your Community, with She Podcasts Co-Founder Jessica Kupferman She Podcasts Erica Mandy’s The NewsWorthy podcast “Everything is Figureoutable” by Marie Forleo  Phylecia Jones’ iFind You Close Ask the Budgetologist podcast Karen Yankovich and Good Girls Get Rich podcast

Today’s guest is Vincent Pugliese, the owner and founder of Total Life Freedom, an exclusive and intimate mastermind group of generous entrepreneurs and freelancers who are building and helping others create a life of money, time and location freedom. Vincent also wrote a book on this idea of money, time and location freedom called “Freelance to Freedom.” He is generously giving you all a free audio version of the book, so scroll down for a link to that book. Vincent was a professional photographer for 22 years, as a freelancer, a newspaper employee and then as a business owner with his wife, Elizabeth. Vincent is also the host the Total Life Freedom podcast. Vincent and his wife—who is also a photographer—now live in Pittsburgh with their their sons. Hear why Vincent was angry after winning a prestigious national sports photography award and what he did next. When he called his dad, his father told him, “I’ve been trying to tell you … You have a skill but you’re not using it correctly. You’ve settled for $32,000 a year and benefits. … You’re settling for security.” That day, Vincent called his pregnant wife and said, “We’re starting our own business.” People would often call the newspaper where Vincent and his wife were both photographers—in Evansville, Indiana—and ask if anyone there shot weddings. But the journalists always said no. Vincent now told his co-workers to send all those calls to him. He also began to read business books in between his photography assignments. Before they had shot a single wedding, the couple told people they shot weddings. Immediately after they booked their first gig, Vincent’s wife built their website. “It’s funny how things start working out when you put yourself out there,” Vincent says. The couple built their wedding photography business in the Evansville area from there, all from building a network and getting word-of-mouth referrals. They made a classic freelance newbie mistake of taking on a lot of different projects, not just weddings. But then they read about the 80/20 rule: 20% of what you do leads to 80% of your success. They realized they needed to cut out the smaller shoots that didn’t pay as well and that they didn’t love to focus all their attention on what they loved, were great at and paid well: weddings. Vincent and his wife focused on building their business not to become rich with money, but to become “time rich,” so that they could spend time together with their three sons. When people asked for photography that Vincent and his wife didn’t do, like portrait photography, instead of saying no, they would find a photographer to recommend instead. That built their network with other photographers and clients because people on both ends appreciated it. After about 10 years in wedding photography, Vincent got bored and wanted to try something new. He wasn’t feeling challenged anymore. He had already been coaching photographers on how to run a business, an area they struggled in. He began to expand the coaching business and wrote a book called “Freelance to Freedom.” People who do want time freedom often get stuck on the money—they don’t know how to start something new or cut back because they’ve gotten to a place where they need the current amount of money they’re making. “They trap themselves,” Vincent says. “When you realize you don’t need that much to get by to do what you really love to do … Our biggest advantage is we don’t need that much and I don’t care what you think. And when I think that way it allows me to do whatever I want to do. And doing what I want to do led to the time freedom.” Vincent argues that when you can free up some time to lessen your stress and take a break, that’s when you’ll come up with smart ideas. “When you can take a three-hour walk, you’ll come up with ideas you’ll never think of when you’re stressed out,” he says. “The time freedom led to mental freedom, and the mental freedom led to the ideas, and the ideas led to the money. It wasn’t about going for the money.” The time freedom has allowed Vincent’s family to travel for months at a time—they home school their kids. But too many people are afraid of making huge changes. Vincent talks about how employees are scared to change and make mistakes because they’re used to following the rules and we are not rewarded for making mistakes. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, are given credit for making mistakes. So, it’s helpful for new business owners to think of themselves as entrepreneurs. Vincent has created a mastermind group that is for entrepreneurs who want a life of time, money and location freedom. It’s not for the faint of heart. It’s for the people who want to take action. You can build your network through being generous, by helping others and not focusing on what you’ll get in return. This is possible for introverts too, who often don’t like promoting themselves. Biz Bite: Be curious. Don’t act like you have the answer—dive into new things.   Resources: Get a free copy of Vincent’s book, “Freelance to Freedom” Vincent’s website, Total Life Freedom Connect with Vincent on LinkedIn Connect with Vincent on Facebook    

On today’s show I talk about how sometimes I’m just not feeling it. Sometimes I just feel blah and unmotivated. But, I have client work to do. But, I’m having a hard time kicking my butt into gear. Two interesting reasons I might be feeling blah that I learned about in recent years: One, I learned from my acupuncturist that some people feel blah or out of sorts when seasons change. The past two years, I’ve noticed this feeling as winter turns into spring—which is strange because I’m a much bigger fan of spring than I am of winter—but I feel out of sorts around April. And now, this week, my favorite season, summer, has slowly disappeared as October has arrived. That change of seasons might be causing some of my malaise. Another thing that women should be aware of: When your hormone levels go down, you might feel a little unmotivated and not like yourself. This can happen before or during your menstrual cycle, and for those of us in our 40s, it can happen as we head into menopause. A lot of women start experiencing menopausal symptoms in their 40s, so you might want to talk with your doctor about this. Back to feeling blah. As an employee, you can feel blah and show up to work and go through the motions. Maybe you won’t be that productive that day and not on your game, but you’re there and you’re collecting a paycheck. But as a freelancer and business owner, it’s all about discipline. If you don’t work, you don’t get paid. So, how do you push through that malaise and get to work? First, consider taking the day off and NOT pushing through. It will depend on your schedule, but we should not feel guilty for taking a Mental Health Day. So, if your schedule allows, take the day off and do something fun. Treat yourself. That wasn’t an option for me this past Monday. I had work to do. But I ignored my 7 a.m. alarm and dragged myself out of bed at 8 a.m. I took a shower, which is a morning requirement for me, but I realized I needed a plan to push through my lack of motivation. A plan might not help me feel better, but I needed to work. I started by making myself some tea with caffeine. Then I did a few guided meditations for 15 minutes using the Breathe app. Then I listened to a few fun songs, but I cannot listen to music with lyrics while I’m working, so I turned the music off after a few minutes and dug into my email. I asked people on Twitter what they do when they’re struggling like this. Here’s what some of them said: Sarah Brodsky said: I break up the work into 100-word chunks. After writing each chunk, I watch for a few minutes as a reward. I asked Sarah how she keeps from watching too much TV because I think that would be my challenge, even though I really like this idea, and she said the dread of not getting the work done usually keeps her focused. For me, I think I would either need to set a timer to stop watching TV or stand up the entire time, so I’m just watching 10–15 minutes.   Chloe Brooks recommended: Break it into chunks with rewards in between! Give yourself 30 minutes to work on something you’d rather do and then bust out the client work.   Chloe tells Siri to set a timer. And her rewards may be as simple as stretching in a different room, taking a quick walk around the block, doing a load of dishes/laundry so it stops bugging her. But sometimes she eats some chocolate or watches an episode of something funny. She’s a fan of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Bob’s Burgers.   Chloe also recommended just moving to a different room of the house, which also works for me and was a good reminder.   KiKi L’Italien said: I’ll turn off all notifications, shut my office door, set the Insight timer app for 15-20 minutes, and practice a little deep breathing and purposeful NON-action. It works as a reset! Usually I realize how lucky I am to have the work in front of me and it shifts my mindset.   Jackie MacDougall said: I give myself one small task. That’s usually enough to trigger motivation. OR I take the day and get up the next day at 5 a.m. to do it.   Sometimes I too would rather take the day off or take the afternoon off and just get up super early the next day.   A few more tactics that I use:   Time tracking. Time tracking usually keeps me on task. I like breaking up the day into chunks of time and time tracking—for whatever reason—keeps me accountable to myself. For example, if I waste time by playing on social media or I take a long lunch while catching up on “The Voice,” I have to look at my time tracking that I scribbled onto a piece of paper. I don’t like the look of spending 30 minutes on Facebook randomly scrolling in the middle of the day or taking a two-hour lunch when I have work to do.   Pick one thing. I choose one thing that I absolute have to do that day and focus on getting it done. Its sounds simple, but the concept is described in detail in the book “Make Time,” which describes how you pick a highlight for your day and then laser focus on getting it done by eliminating all distractions.   Pick three things. Michael Hyatt, who wrote the book “Free to Focus,” chooses just three things on his to-do list each day and works solely on those. That’s not possible for all of us every day, but when it is, it’s a way to keep you focused. Zero in on those three things and don’t allow yourself to get sidetracked by anything else.   Reach out to people. This helped me feel a little better by Monday afternoon, even though I did it on accident. As an introvert, I like to be alone, so when I’m feeling down, I definitely don’t think immediately, “Hey, I need to be around people. I should call my friends!”   But three things happened on Monday that made me realize I needed people interactions: I interviewed an inspiring podcast guest who lifted my spirits. Then, by reaching out to my Twitter community and asking them how they dealt with these feelings, I connected with my network online that knows exactly what it’s like to run a freelance business. And the third thing was my husband offered to take my walk with me that afternoon and we spent an hour walking and talking about non-work stuff.   Please know that as freelance business owners, sometimes we’re going to feel unmotivated and severely lacking in discipline. Whether you can take the day off or have to push through those feelings, that’s OK. It’s totally normal to feel like this occasionally.   I’d love to know what you do to keep on track when crappy moods hit you. Feel free to email me at melanie@meledits.com or tweet me @MelEdits.   Biz Bite: Spend Your Morning Focused on Email   The Bookshelf: “All You Can Ever Know” by Nicole Chung   Resources: Episode #5 of Deliberate Freelancer: Track Your Time for Better Efficiency   “Make Time” by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky   “Free to Focus” by Michael Hyatt   Breathe guided meditation app   InsightTimer guided meditation app

Today’s guest is Cat DiStasio, a freelance writer and project manager who specializes in human resources, business, marketing and technology. Cat also consults with small businesses on HR processes, teaches content marketing writers how to market their services, and blogs about the business of freelancing.  Cat has also been a virtual assistant—or VA—although she is now transitioning out of that kind of work. But she still knows a lot about hiring a VA and graciously helps connect freelancers and VAs to each other. Cat says to think of a VA like an executive assistant in the corporate world: an administrative person who can do a lot of things, such as proofreading, research, travel support, email and calendar management. They can also help you with brainstorming and developing processes. A good VA can be a sounding board for your business. Cat recommends making a list of the things you keep putting off or tasks you are bad at. And then find a VA who loves doing those things. Think you can’t afford a VA? A VA is a freelancer just like you, and you can scale up. You can hire a VA for just 2–3 hours a month to start. Do the math. You can spend $100 a month, for example, to hire a VA to help free up a few hours so you can focus on your work and make more than $100 during that time.  As your income increases, you can outsource more work to a VA—or even more than one VA, focusing on various skill sets. Working with a VA is scalable, flexible and customizable. How can you find a VA? It can be difficult to find the person right for you who is skilled, reliable and nice to work with. Tip 1: Get involved in social media groups about the topics you cover. VAs will look for work in those groups. Tip 2: Ask. Referrals and word-of-mouth are some of the best ways to find potential VAs. There is a gap between all the VAs and the people who want to hire them. There isn’t one well-known organization that everyone knows they can go to to find a VA. There are virtual assistant agencies, but Cat is skeptical of their model, in which you pay the agency to connect you with a VA. Let’s talk VA rates. Cat believes $15–20 an hour for a VA is too low. She doesn’t think that is high enough for someone you’re expecting professional work from. She recommends looking for a VA in the $30–35 range and expect fantastic work for that pay. Some VAs with more specialized skills might charge more than that, especially if they’re doing project management work for you. A well-paid VA is going to be happier and more engaged and be a partner in your business. How should you interview a VA? As far as personality, it’s similar to how you vet clients: Is the person easy to communicate with? Do you enjoy talking with them? Does it seem like they understand what you’re saying? When it comes to their skills, test them. Hire that VA for a small project that might take a couple of hours and then see if you are happy with the results. And definitely pay them for their time. Don’t ask them to work for free. Consider finding 3–4 candidates and test them all at once—not one right after the other, which wastes time by dragging out the hiring process. When you’re ready to hire a VA, consider whether you need a contract and also a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) because you’ll be sharing client information with them. You need to know if your contracts with your clients have any clauses about hiring any subcontractors. Be sure you’re following those clauses when it comes to your VA. You might also want a confidentiality agreement between you and your VA.   Biz Bite: Give yourself a break! #1: Don’t be too hard on yourself but also #2: give yourself an actual rest break.     Resources: Cat DiStasio website 10 Tasks You Can Outsource to a Virtual Assistant blog post and.co = an app to help freelance business owners; Cat uses it to create contracts

Today’s show is a follow-up episode to last week’s episode with guest Pam Capalad, who taught us how to take charge of our finances. Pam is a certified financial planner and accredited financial counselor in Brooklyn. She created this cool program called Brunch & Budget, which provides people a more comfortable space to talk about their money—over brunch with Pam. Pam gave so many great tips in that episode—and my interview with her served as a good kick in the pants for me to do a bunch of financial stuff I had been putting off or didn’t think I needed to do. So, in this episode, I’m going to update you on my progress and talk through why I did what I did. Hopefully, that will inspire you to take some needed steps to improve your financial situation. I took three steps after Pam’s episode aired last week: I used Pam’s 12-month cash-flow projection spreadsheet. Here’s how that works: At the beginning of the year, you try to anticipate how much money you will make that year and you determine what your income goals are. You can break this down month to month and client to client. Because we’re nearly finished with this year, I did a retrospective cash flow analysis, filling in how much money I already made this year each month and from each client and then analyzed that. I plan to use this spreadsheet again to plan for 2020.  I separated my personal and business accounts by opening up a second checking account just for business purposes. The plan is that I will deposit my checks into this second “business” account. I will pay all of my expenses out of that account. And then I will pay myself by transferring money from that new account into my old personal checking account to pay personal bills like my mortgage, utilities, groceries, etc. I opened a business-only credit card. Now, as Pam pointed out in the last episode, while having a separate business card will make tracking my expenses easier, credit card receipts DO NOT take place of actual receipts for individual items, especially in an audit. So you still need to keep all your receipts and hang on to them. So, that’s it. I’m on my way with these new financial commitments to myself. I’m going to project out my income by client and by month for 2020 and then track it better to see if I’m hitting my monthly financial goals.  I have a new checking account that will be business only, so I will have separated my personal and business finances. And I have a business-only credit card to help me better keep track of business expenses. I’d love to hear what areas of your finances you’ve made changes to lately or areas you’re struggling with. And feel free to send me questions for future guests. Also, please send me your financial tips—things you’ve done over the years to improve how you handle your money or improve your overall outlook on money. I’d love to hear from you. Email me at melanie@meledits.com or tweet me @MelEdits.   Biz Bite: Schedule a Power Hour   The Bookshelf: “The Lost Man” by Jane Harper   Resources: Episode 28 of Deliberate Freelancer: Take Charge of Your Finances, with Pam Capalad   Brunch & Budget 12-Month Cash Flow Projection Template—Download and use this worksheet.

Today’s guest is Pamela Capalad, a certified financial planner and accredited financial counselor in Brooklyn. Pam created this really cool program called Brunch & Budget, which helps people who feel ashamed or embarrassed about money have a safe and friendly place to talk about their finances—over brunch with Pam. I think this is genius. It makes people more comfortable and really open up to Pam, whose mission is to make financial planning as affordable as possible for the communities who need it most. We didn’t get into it in this episode, but Pam and her husband teach hip hop and finance workshops to kids, teens and college students across the country through a program called Pockets Change. They also host the Brunch & Budget podcast, where they discuss how personal finance and racial economic justice intersect. And—if that’s not enough—they started a financial planning program designed for the needs of people of color called See Change. In this episode, learn how Pam went from working in wealth management to financial planning—first, for her friends. A conversation with a friend led to Pam’s business, Brunch & Budget. While the first meeting is usually an in-person brunch, Pam then meets with clients virtually every month to help them put together a financial plan and to actually implement it. Pam goes over the most-asked questions she gets from freelancers, which includes issues related to quarterly taxes and an inconsistent income. Pam also helps freelancers figure out how to raise their rates. Pam gives us the scoop on new IRS rules that benefit freelancers—the IRS won’t be charging penalties if you didn’t pay your 2018 taxes on time every quarter. And going forward, they’re going to less strict about freelancers paying taxes every quarter as long as you get all the taxes paid by January. Pam explains why it’s important to build a good relationship with an accountant who works with freelancers. Pam is a big believer in creating a 12-month cash flow projection of how much money you anticipate you will make and what your income goals are. It’s important to have monthly, quarterly and annual goals, partly because a freelancer’s income can be inconsistent. That cash flow projection will help you notice income patterns as income ebbs and flows throughout the year. Then, you can plan your action steps around your income goals and track and measure whether you’re hitting your income goals. She also encourages freelancers to take a VACATION when the months are low. Pam talks about how imposter syndrome relates to money—and sometimes increases as you get more successful. When you are setting your rates, you need to figure out how to take the emotion out of it. Pam admits undervaluing herself when she first started providing her financial planning services. But then Pam took the emotion out of creating her rates by making herself stick to a rule that every time she gained two or three new clients, she had to raise her rates for all future clients. She also recommends coming up with the “least I’m willing to take” rate. If you do take a project below your rate, consider what non-monetary things you can negotiate with the client—a referral, a longer contract, additional projects. Pam helps us figure out how to commit to a savings account. She recommends a “high-yield” savings account so you can gain a bit more interest than what you would at your local bank. Know what your minimum personal expenses and your minimum business expenses are each month. That way when you exceed those, a chunk of that money can go directly into your savings account. Make sure you have a separate savings account just for taxes. That money is not yours. Set aside 25–30 percent of whatever you make and pretend that money doesn’t exist. From there, take your monthly income, subtract the minimum personal and business expenses and put the rest in savings. Pam touches on the supposed upcoming recession. Planning for a recession or an income loss is helped by having a savings account. A potential loss of income is also why it’s important to diversify where your income is coming from—so strive to have several clients and not rely too much on one big client. Pam believes in paying yourself first. Think of your savings account as another bill you have to pay. Think of savings as “self care”—a way to take care of your future self. Pam also recommends having a separation between your business and personal expenses. Don’t co-mingle those—it makes it harder to figure out taxes and track your income and goals. Plus, freelancers are 10x more at risk for audits, so plan ahead for that. Furthermore, you can pay yourself like a regular employee into your personal checking account, which makes budgeting for personal expenses easier. Having all your business expenses on one, separate credit card makes it easier to track also. But note that you can’t use credit card statements for an audit, so continue to save your receipts.   Biz Bite: Outsource! Hire out for work you hate.   Resources: Brunch & Budget Brunch & Budget 12-Month Cash Flow Projection Template—Download and use this worksheet! (Thanks for sharing, Pam!) Great article about Pam and her husband in Forbes, “This Couple Created A Multilevel Curriculum To Teach All Ages Financial Literacy.” Brunch & Budget on Twitter Brunch & Budget on Instagram

On today’s show I am going to outline 10 micro habits that you can consider implementing in your life to improve your work-life clarity. Building habits into my life helps me commit to work-life clarity. Micro habits are tiny, incremental things you can start to do that seem so incredibly easy that you might just continue to build them. And, if you find they are working for you in some way, they might grow into larger habits and eventually habits you don’t even think about. Not all of the micro habits I’m recommending are directly related to your business. Your life and your business are intertwined. Plus, I think we should all be focusing on our health. So, some of these will be healthy micro habits, and some will be things that will lift your energy and put a smile on your face. I’m not recommending you implement all 10 of these micro habits. It’s better if you start small and just try a few of them. Plus, some of these might not be relevant for your individual life or may not interest you. But I hope they will spark your own ideas of what micro habits you can try out. Brush your teeth after dinner. I first heard about this micro habit as a recommendation on the Happier podcast with Gretchen Rubin. The idea is if you brush your teeth after dinner, you will be less likely to eat again that evening. Set an alarm for bedtime. Listen to a podcast in the morning. Take a lunch break—and do it without your phone. Play with your pets. Learn something new in five minutes a day. Text one important person in your life each week. Drink one glass of water in the morning. Meditate for one minute each day. At the end of your work day, take 5 minutes to write down how you felt about the day. Biz Bite: Download Restaurant Apps The Bookshelf: “Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones” by James Clear   Resources: Happier podcast with Gretchen Rubin Duolingo language app        

On today’s show I am going to go over three concepts that will help you better manage your time and focus on the parts of your freelance business that you love. But first: an update on my early morning walk. I’ve actually become so hooked on walking that I’ve been getting up earlier 5–6 days a week to do my daily walk in the morning. I walk fast for about an hour while listening to podcasts. And I have a loop around my neighborhood, which means I don’t have to think about which direction I want to go in each day. Let’s discuss three concepts to improve your business: delegate, automate and terminate. I actually stumbled upon these concepts gradually as my freelance business started to grow, and I realized I couldn’t do it all. There’s only one of me and there are only so many hours in the day—more importantly, there are only so many hours that I want to WORK in a day. But it’s not just about managing your time or even managing your energy. I believe you should delegate, automate and terminate so you can actually focus on the things you LOVE to do. I talked about this previously in episode 2 of the Deliberate Freelancer, Discover Your Unique Brilliance. I explained how a coach of mine I was working with on another project realized I was having some serious work-life balance issues and offered to help me. She drew a quadrant on a piece of paper and labeled each square: incompetence, competence, high competence and unique brilliance. Michael Hyatt talks about similar concepts in his new book “Free to Focus.” However, he breaks up his quadrant into the Drudgery Zone, Disinterest Zone, Distraction Zone and Desire Zone. The idea is figure out how you can spend the majority of your time in the Desire Zone—or by focusing on your own Unique Brilliance. What are the things you absolutely LOVE about your freelance business? Think about both the services you provide AND the business side of your business. What is your unique brilliance? What do you love to do? What WOULD you like to pursue that you’re not doing now? Or what would you like to scale up that you’re not doing as much of now? Now, on the opposite end, what would fall in your incompetence quadrant or your Drudgery Zone? Consider things outside of work also, things that you are required to do as a responsible human being, like clean your house or apartment. It’s that incompetent zone we need to tackle by automating, delegating and terminating. First, sit down and write out a massive to-do list. Don’t get too stressed over it—this will not actually be your to-do list, but it’s all the things you think you have to do right now, all those projects you have hanging over your head, those phone calls you know you need to make, that online research you know you need to do, the chores and errands you keep putting off. Now, make a second list called the business boredom list and write down all the things about your business that you don’t like to do. Let’s start with terminate: On the massive to-do list in particular, ask yourself if you really have to do all those things. What are the things on the list that won’t make much of a difference if you just forget about them, just terminate them? I encourage you to push yourself here, especially if you made promises you can’t keep or if you’re a people pleaser. Another aspect of terminate is actually terminating clients. Firing clients. They don’t have to be horrible clients, but are there projects or types of services you’re providing now that you want to cut back on or no longer want to do? Maybe the pay is too low. Or maybe it’s tedious work. Or maybe it’s taken too much of your time away from projects that you love. You can fire clients. I’ve fired bad clients, but I’ve also fired clients I liked because I didn’t want to do that type of work anymore. In that case, I simply said that I was going in a new direction and cutting back on that type of work. And I connected those clients with other freelancers to replace me. Now, you can’t cancel everything. So, now let’s focus on what you can automate. With automate, we often think about apps and tools, but that’s not the only one way to automate. You can create processes and habits that are also a form of automation. Take my morning walk, for instance. I walk the same route every day, and all my gear for my walk is in a cabinet by the front door. I don’t have to hunt for items, and I don’t have to think about the direction I’m heading during my walk. I’ve automated my exercise routine. Another great way to automate things is by taking the time to create a checklist. Checklists ensure you won’t miss a crucial step, but they also save you time and brain power. Think about the projects that you do that every time you have to stop and think, “OK, what do I do first again? How do I start this?” Taking the time to create checklists will remind you in the future.  Checklists are great to pair with batching. Batching is when you do a bunch of similar tasks at the same time. For example, do all of your invoices at the same time each month or on every Friday and follow your checklist. This can be much more efficient than trying to remember the entire invoice process each time. The other aspect of automation are the tools and apps we think about. What areas of your massive to-do list and business boredom list can you use tools for? Social media scheduling tools is an obvious one. Look at the Resources list below for all recommended tools. You can also go the simple route and just create an Excel spreadsheet, which I do quite often. I use an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of my client work each month. Each document represents one month, and I have separate tabs for each client. The last category is delegate. What things on your massive to-do list and business boredom list can and should you delegate? I’ve said it so many times before, but hiring a house cleaner changed my life. When I got to the place where I could afford a regular cleaner, I was so much happier. To hire a cleaner, I had to get over my Midwestern hang-ups about how it was my responsibility to take care of my own house. No one I knew growing up had a house cleaner. That was for rich people on TV. But I finally convinced myself that I could focus more on the things I loved and on making money rather than doing something I dreaded. If you’re thinking there’s no way you could afford a cleaner, or you’re thinking, “but I’m just a single person who lives in a small apartment,” please reconsider your options. I encourage you to investigate this a bit. Ask on your neighborhood listserves for recommendations and find out what a person would actually cost. Then, if you can’t afford it, maybe set that as a goal to make that amount of money each month so you can afford it. Delegating of course also means delegating for your business. The first thing to think about is a virtual assistant. What are the items on your lists that must get done—but they don’t have to get done by you? Depending on a virtual assistant’s skill set, they can help you with many more things than administrative tasks, such as social media management, marketing or prospecting leads. Another area of delegation is subcontractors. There are a wide variety of ways you can hire subcontractors. You can pair up with people on a project, but you can also hire people on a regular basis to do the stuff you don’t want to do. The thing I love about running my own freelance business is the freedom to do almost anything I want. And if I can’t afford to do something right now, I can figure out the steps and the goals I need to set to make that happen. So, dream big and aim to build a business where you’re focusing the majority of your time on the parts you love. Biz Bite: Create a Computer Cleanup Day CleanMyMac X The Bookshelf: “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed” by Lori Gottlieb. Resources: Episode 19 of Deliberate Freelancer: Visualize Your Perfect Work Day—Then Create It Episode 2 of Deliberate Freelancer: Discover Your Unique Brilliance “Free to Focus” by Michael Hyatt Buffer Hootsuite MeetEdgar TweetDeck Rev (transcriptions) Calendly FreshBooks TextExpander

Today’s guest is Jessica Kupferman, co-founder of She Podcasts (the podcast, the brand and the live event). She Podcasts has an incredible community, primarily through an awesome female-only Facebook group. The She Podcasts brand currently supports over 13,000 female podcasters and has a digital marketing reach of over 50,000 content creators. And October 11–13 in Atlanta, for the first time, She Podcasts is becoming a conference: She Podcasts LIVE, which was funded through Kickstarter. Jessica talks about how she got started in podcasting around 2013—when very few women were podcasting and especially not about entrepreneurial topics. As her then-podcast, Lady Business Radio, became popular, she was getting pitched a lot of guests and saying yes to many of them. Then, she realized her show was becoming an opportunity for guests to use her show for their gain, but she wasn’t having the conversations she wanted. She decided to let that show go and focus on She Podcasts. Jessica talks about how she met Elsie Escobar, her She Podcasts co-founder, about the same time Jessica realized that the men in the podcasting world weren’t giving advice that was conducive to women or those busy raising children or doing podcasting while holding down another full-time job.  Jessica has been an entrepreneur since 2005, but until 2011 she didn’t have a community of like-minded, supportive people in her industry. But then she took an online course that came with an online community and she realized what she was missing. Jessica talks about all the benefits of forming your own community. Jessica explains how She Podcasts LIVE came about. Hint: The travel bug plays a role. She Podcasts LIVE is happening thanks to a very successful Kickstarter campaign—an idea Jessica and Elsie got from Podcast Movement, which started six years ago with a Kickstarter. The She Podcasts LIVE Kickstarter was a huge success, doubling the $25,000 goal and selling 200 event tickets. Jessica explains how she is planning for a different vibe and aesthetic for this conference, as well as having amazing speakers. She wants the event to have  an atmosphere that is nurturing, that encourages people to ask any questions they have and to feel like they’re in a room full of friends. Diversity is also important to Jessica and Elsie. The 100+ speakers are about 45 percent women of color and/or LGBTQ. Biz Bite: Notion is an all-in-one workspace. Resources: She Podcasts LIVE She Podcasts LIVE Announces Speakers (press release) She Podcasts (the podcast and website) She Podcasts Facebook group—only for women podcasters She Podcasts on Twitter Jessica Kupferman on Twitter Lady Business Radio—Jessica’s first podcast