Deliberate Freelancer

Trigger warnings: pet death, pet euthanasia, pet illness, grief over the death of a loved one, anxiety, bike accident I’m back! Back from my extra-long summer hiatus—longer than I expected or planned for. In this episode, I explain why it took me so long to return and share the grief, anxiety and other mental health struggles I’ve been dealing with this summer.  If you are dealing with grief or anxiety or similar feelings, scroll down for some links to previous Deliberate Freelancer episodes that deal with these issues, including interviews with therapists. This, obviously, does not replace mental health counseling, and I am not an expert, but you might find these episodes soothing or helpful in dealing with your struggles.  I sought out a new therapist this summer who said something I couldn’t believe that I’d never heard before: Anxiety can be a symptom of grief. My cat’s death in April, it seems, was affecting me in multiple ways and leading to my newfound anxiety this summer. After a horrible summer 2022, I am ready for a new season. In the U.S., Labor Day signifies the end of summer and gives nearly all of us a “back to school” feeling. So, I am embracing a new season and bidding farewell to a sucky summer. What better way to start off this new season than with a solo business retreat?! In the second half of this episode, I will walk you through what I did—and what I learned—during this week’s solo business retreat from my dining room.  I started my retreat with a SWOT analysis. SWOT is a business term that stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Corporations and organizations use the strategy, but you can certainly do it as an individual. I find it’s a good way to remind yourself what you’re great at, and for us, that means what our business should be focused on, as well as where we could improve.  Listing out your weaknesses is not an opportunity to beat yourself up. Instead, it might show where you need to improve or delegate, automate or terminate aspects of your business. See link to episode 26 below for more details on how to do this.  Instead of doing an analysis of Q2 this late in the year, I analyzed where my income came from for the entire year so far. I was going to rate and rank my clients—a tactic I highly recommend—but listing out all my clients showed me that I love all of them this year! Don’t roll your eyes. This is not me being too Pollyannaish. It was not a happy accident, either. I have worked hard these past nine years of freelancing to truly analyze what work I accept, who I want to work with, what to charge and when to cut clients loose. And I finally hit a 100% happy success rate!  To rate and rank your client: Make a list of all your clients. Create your own personal ranking system for a variety of things that are important to you, such as great to work with, pays well, pays on time, no scope creep, no phone calls, etc. Then, rank each client on a scale of 1–5. After you rank them, put them in order with the highest ranking at the top. Who’s on the bottom? Should you keep those clients that rank so low? How can you get more work from the clients—or the type of clients—that rank the highest?  Feeling so scattered this summer, I wanted to get ahold of my days and weeks again and create the perfect work day and perfect work week. No Meeting Mondays and Half-Day Fridays have been working great for me, so I’m keeping those. It’s the Tuesday through Thursday I need to get a better handle on. See episode 19’s link below for tips on how to create your perfect work day. Biz Bite: Set a hurdle rate The Bookshelf: “Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting” by Clare Pooley  Resources: Join the Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group.  Support Deliberate Freelancer at Buy Me a Coffee. Check out my new podcast! Association Station Book “Anxiety: The Missing Stage of Grief: A Revolutionary Approach to Understanding and Healing the Impact of Loss” by Claire Bidwell Smith  Episode #137 of Deliberate Freelancer: I’m Grieving. How Can I Keep My Business Running? Episode #90 of Deliberate Freelancer: Coping with One Year of COVID-19 Lockdown, with Therapist Emily Derouin Episode #70 of Deliberate Freelancer: Techniques to Deal with Anxiety from My New Therapist Episode #48 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Cope with Coronavirus Anxiety, with Therapist Mira Dineen Episode #52 of Deliberate Freelancer: Embracing Self-Care without Guilt, with Acupuncturist Rachel Brumberger Episode #26 of Deliberate Freelancer: Delegate, Automate and Terminate to Improve Your Business Episode #19 of Deliberate Freelancer: Visualize Your Perfect Work Day—Then Create It Episode #42 of Deliberate Freelancer: Tips from My First Solo Business Retreat of 2020 Episode #3 of Deliberate Freelancer: Host a Solo Business Retreat

Deliberate Freelancer is on a summer hiatus and will return toward the end of August. Take this time to listen to some previous episodes or relisten to favorite guests! Or make a playlist of specific topics, like finding clients or financial tips.  The Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group will still be active during this time, so please join us over there for great conversations with other listeners. You can ask for advice and share your experiences.  Also, please consider supporting the show by telling your freelancer friends, sharing episodes on social media, and leaving a rating and review on the Apple podcast app.  You can also support this free podcast financially at Buy Me a Coffee. Resources: Join the Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group.  Support Deliberate Freelancer at Buy Me a Coffee.

In April 2021, Jasmine Smith quit her full-time job to pursue freedom and creativity through self-employment. She is the Founder of SmithCo, an experiential marketing agency, and co-founder of Open Door Concept, a rental space centered around community, conversation and creativity in Washington, D.C. Motivated to share her experience and the experience of other Black entrepreneurs, Jasmine launched the podcast Built To Quit in February 2022. Jasmine centers both her life and business ventures around her personal pillars: builder, connector and human and is adamant about only doing work that’s in alignment with each of these areas.  Jasmine had had many side hustles and had been freelancing on the side for a year before she quit her job. She was burnout, exhausted and didn’t want to do some of the things she was being asked—like more sales work. Instead, she wanted to explore more of her side hustle work and have more freedom over her time and her work. As an employee, Jasmine was one of only about 5–7 Black people in executive meetings. And she was the youngest Black woman manager. She said it sometimes felt unsettling and uncomfortable. She didn’t feel like she could show up as herself, which wasn’t healthy. Now, as her own boss, she shows up as her full self and doesn’t feel the need to code-switch anymore. She has also found the freedom of creating her own structure therapeutic—how she works, what tools she uses, where she works that day. She has also enjoyed having the time to learn new things. The most challenging part has been continuing to bring in new clients and projects. As she reflects on the past year, she wishes she had paid more attention to her financials. She learned the hard way that there wasn’t a lot of work in December and January. Now, she always forecasts and tries to prepare for slower seasons. For those who are considering freelancing but haven’t quit their full-time job yet, she encourages you to start freelancing before you quit that job. Line up some work. Structure your business. Be strategic when you choose to leave so you can collect any bonuses and a full final paycheck. Jasmine thinks your first hire should be an accountant who understands freelancing. “If you start with good financial practices up front, then you won’t have to worry as much. You’ll be a bit smarter and ahead of the game later on down the line.” Jasmine launched a podcast this year called Built To Quit where she interviews Black entrepreneurs about their journey. She wants to explore the many different ways entrepreneurship can work for people. She recognized that Black people come to ownership—of homes, of businesses—differently and may not have the resources that white people have.   Biz Bite: Set Boundaries in Personal and Business Life   Resources:  Jasmine’s website, SmithCo Jasmine’s podcast: Built To Quit Jasmine on Instagram  Jasmine on Twitter Jasmine on LinkedIn Join the Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group. Support Deliberate Freelancer at Buy Me a Coffee. Subscribe to the Deliberate Freelancer newsletter.

Trigger warnings: pet death, pet euthanasia, pet illness, grief over the death of a loved one.   On April 25 my cat Bella died. We had to make the agonizing choice to humanely euthanize her. And I was heartbroken and full of guilt. But I still had a freelance business to run. So, how did I do that when I could not think or concentrate clearly?   In this episode, I share what led up to Bella’s death and how I coped in the immediate days after when I had several client commitments and deadlines. I also asked for advice on the Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group and share some of that advice.   The six tips I learned and that we should all keep in mind when grief strikes:   Take time off. Ask for deadline extensions.   Recognize that you are going to work slower.   Get outside.   Do visualizations or meditations.   Reach out to people.   Honor your pet or the person who died.   Biz Bite: Make a to-do list of things that don’t earn your business any money.   The Bookshelf: “Bewilderment” by Richard Powers   Resources:   Article “The Fog of Grief” by April Reese   Conversation about grief on the Deliberate Freelance Facebook page   Join the Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group.   Support Deliberate Freelancer at Buy Me a Coffee.        

Today’s guest is Susie Jackson, a finance and pricing mentor for freelancers from the U.K. Susie helps freelancers figure out how much to charge and how to manage the financial side of our businesses so we can earn a decent living doing what we love. Susie is also a freelance copy editor and a Spanish-to-English translator specializing in academic texts for the social sciences. Susie likes that she’s able to build her business around her energy levels. She also builds in one weekday per month to get out into nature, which is critical for her mental health. A few years ago Susie became a financial and pricing mentor. Her dad was in banking, so she grew up with healthy conversations and lessons about money. She began offering her “Charge with Confidence” group program in 2020. Susie doesn’t like the approach that many people take: setting their rates based on industry averages or what other people charge. There’s no guarantee that those rates will cover your needs, which can result in a feeling of helplessness and defeatist attitude. And that often means that clients are dictating what they can charge. Susie believes we as service providers should be setting our own prices—and do so based on what income we need, not what we think our customers can afford. Not every client is going to have the budget to pay your rate. That’s normal. If you’re never hearing ‘no,’ you could probably be charging more. Value and affordability are two different things. Susie recommends including two options when submitting a quote or a proposal. One quote should align with their brief, but then include a second quote at a lower rate, which requires them to compromise on something. “A negotiation is a compromise.” Providing two (or more) choices is much better than saying, “I’m open to negotiation,” which Susie never recommends saying to a potential client. Before pricing a project, we need to do some groundwork. The first thing is to understand your financial needs for both your business and personal expenses and then know what your minimum financial goal is—and then also set an aspirational goal. You also need to figure out how many hours you can realistically do paid work without burning out. We tend to overestimate our available hours, and the only way to beat this is by tracking time, which helps us see what is realistic and sustainable. Susie also talks in detail about when and how we should think about increasing our rates. She also gives advice on what language to use with clients when raising your rates. Susie chimes in to the debate of whether we should put our rates on our websites. Susie recommends a “profit first” system, which is based off the book “Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine” by Mike Michalowicz. The book wasn’t written for freelancers, but Susie goes into detail of how she’s adapted this philosophy for her business. Susie also talks about how to track our proposals, projects and finances. Susie does not believe that people are inherently bad with money. When people say, “Oh, I’m just bad with money,” she replies, “How can you expect to be good with money if you’ve never been taught how to manage it?” Biz Bite: Use a Task Prioritization Grid Resources: Susie’s website Susie’s free resources, including a budgeting spreadsheet, virtual Finance Fridays office hours, blog posts and more. Blog post “Task Prioritisation and the System I Use to Manage My Workload” Susie on Instagram “Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine” by Mike Michalowicz. Join the Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group. Support Deliberate Freelancer at Buy Me a Coffee. Subscribe to the Deliberate Freelancer newsletter. Episode #28 of Deliberate Freelancer: Take Charge of Your Finances, with Pamela Capalad Episode #91 of Deliberate Freelancer: #91: All Things Pricing: Project Rates, Day Rates, Retainers and More, with Jennifer Duann Fultz  

On today’s show, five Deliberate Freelancer listeners are sharing their tips. Specifically, they share the systems, processes and tools they use that have helped them create a successful freelance business.   Some of these listeners are previous guests. See the resources below for links to their previous guest appearances.   You will hear from: Amy Ragland Treasa Edmond Poornima Apte Danna Lorch Clare Hastings   I hope you find their experiences helpful!   Biz Bite: How to easily record phone calls   The Bookshelf: “Into the Drowning Deep” by Mira Grant   Resources:   Join the Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group.   Support Deliberate Freelancer at Buy Me a Coffee.   Episode #115 of Deliberate Freelancer: Time Tracking Lessons from Deliberate Freelancer Listeners   Episode #59 of Deliberate Freelancer: Parenting while Freelancing (with or without a pandemic), with Amy Ragland   Episode #129 of Deliberate Freelancer: A Script for Tough Client Conversations, with Treasa Edmond   Episode #118 of Deliberate Freelancer: Crash Landing and Being Forced to Restart Your Business, with Danna Lorch  

How did your first quarter of the year go with your business? I’m recapping my Q1 in this episode, but I’d love to hear about your Q1 also. Please share in the Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group your successes, challenges, lessons and any questions you have for your fellow Deliberate Freelancers.   As I talked about in January, I had a slow start to the year because my mental health was struggling. I was definitely languishing. Things perked up in February and March, so I began to do a bit more work and have more energy.   Accounting for vacation time in Q1, I worked 299 hours over 11 weeks, which averages out to about 27 hours a week. Interestingly enough, without me keeping track of my weekly hours from week to week, that number is close to my average of 28 weeks last year. Therefore, that seems to be my mental lode in a good week. That’s what my energy level can take.   When I analyzed how I spent my hours, I was happy to see that although my paid work was way down, I was meeting or exceeding my secret hourly rate for my work, which I often bill as project rates or per-word rates.   In looking at the breakdown of my hours, I spent 50 hours on administrative work. What in the world was I doing in all that time? In quarter two, to keep better track of those little minutes here and there that I slot into “admin work,” I’m going to write down on a sheet of paper next to my desk what types of “admin” I’m actually doing when I choose that in my time tracker app.   I did not consistently hit my monthly financial goal, particularly since January was a slow struggle. However, this is where my savings account and cash flow are really important. I wasn’t panicking because I knew I had money in the bank.   In addition, I knew I could make up that income throughout the year. I also often tally two months’ income together and divide by two to see if I hit my monthly goal that way. A good cash flow allows me to do that. (For example, I went from billing only $4,000 in January to billing for $12,000 in February!)   A good cash flow also allows me to prioritize my mental health—and not beat myself up for not marketing, not looking for new work, for not working that much at times. This mindset was way healthier for me in quarter one.   I did a bunch of outreach in early March and even did a three-hour mini retreat to plan that outreach and brainstorm on some big decisions for my business.   During my mini retreat, I created a simple Excel client tracking sheet. I had one in the past but didn’t keep it updated, so I started over.     I also sent individual, personalized emails to about seven clients I hadn’t talked with in awhile, asking for new work or referrals. I think we sometimes forget how critical email outreach is. Surveys and studies consistently show it’s the No. 1 marketing tool, yet we sometimes focus way more time on social media—which might have a much lower return on investment.   I also sent out a mass email to my contact list (current, past and potential clients I had talked to at least once, plus colleagues and other freelancers). This was not a cold list. These were people I have built some sort of connection or relationship with.   That mass email netted two referrals to potential new clients, and I got work already in one of those cases. One of those individual, personalized emails also prompted someone I had talked about working with before to say, “let’s do this.”   Later this year, I want to create a new list of cold contacts and start emailing and tracking those people.   I also made four big decisions related to my business: dropping one of my anchor clients, no longer using a virtual assistant, changing my Deliberate Freelancer newsletter from weekly to quarterly, and going on a podcast hiatus this summer. Hear more about these decisions in the episode.   Biz Bite: Separate your work and your schedule into head work and heart work.   The Bookshelf: “The Book of Cold Cases” by Simone St. James   Resources:   Join the Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group.   Support Deliberate Freelancer at Buy Me a Coffee.   Episode #126 of Deliberate Freelancer: A Real Talk About Mental Health—and Languishing   Episode #123 of Deliberate Freelancer: My 2021 Business Review and Questions to Help You   My marketing strategist, Emily Broderick (I hired her for a VIP Day in fall 2021.)    

On today’s episode, I want to be open and candid about a failure I had this year. Here are three main thoughts or lessons around failure that I’m trying to always keep in mind: #1. Failure is not necessarily a bad word. There can be times when you completely mess something up, but there can be times when something just didn’t work out or the client failed, but you feel like a failure anyway. It sounds cliché, but I think it’s important to learn from our failures. Do a candid debrief with yourself: How did this happen? Why did this happen? How can I prevent this in the future? #2. When I set an overarching goal for my business—and I remember to stick to that goal—I’m less likely to fail. Here’s what I mean: My overall goal is to be a go-to and respected writer and editor in the membership association industry. While it’s important sometimes to go out of your comfort zone, I also do better when I stick to my goal and choose projects and clients related to my goal. #3. Stick to Katherine Reynolds Lewis’ 3 P’s model. As she explained in episode 132, when Katherine is deciding whether to take on a project, an assignment or a new client, she always considers the 3 P’s: pay, portfolio and passion. Following this model helps you know your WHY and can keep you on track. In this episode, I outline a failure I had with a client this year and the lessons I learned from it. I also talk about previous failures in episode 71 (link below).   Biz Bite: Establish a personal board of advisers.   The Bookshelf: “Hell of a Book” by Jason Mott   Resources: Record and email me a voice memo about your organizational tips, processes and systems to melanie@meledits.com for a future podcast episode.   Join the Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group.   Support Deliberate Freelancer at Buy Me a Coffee.   Episode #71 of Deliberate Freelancer: 3 Failures and the Lessons They Taught Me   Episode #132 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Choose Projects Using the 3 P’s Model, with Katherine Reynolds Lewis  

Today’s guest is Katherine Reynolds Lewis, an independent journalist based in the DC area. After Katherine was laid off in 2008, she started freelancing in the middle of the Great Recession. What does Katherine love about freelancing? Being self-sufficient, being able to write on a variety of topics and having control over her schedule. Katherine shares her 3 P’s model that she uses when assessing whether to take on a project: pay, portfolio and passion. Any project or assignment we say yes to should fulfill at least one of those P’s and ideally all three. As you work on the project, always keep in mind why you are doing the work, which P it falls under. At the end of the work, this model will also help you decide whether it was worth taking on the project or client—and help you assess future projects. A few years ago, Katherine was setting new goals for what she wanted to do in her career. One of those was to write a long-form journalism narrative article for a big magazine. So, she started looking for opportunities. If successful, the article would be a key piece in her portfolio, that could lead to fellowship opportunities, writing a book or receiving awards. Katherine tracks her time diligently, and for that particular goal she committed to using some unpaid time to do the research and reporting needed for that article, before she could sell it. The final article called “What If Everything You Knew About Disciplining Kids Was Wrong?” was published in Mother Jones magazine and remains its most viewed online article.   That success led to a literary agent and a book proposal with multiple offers. That launched her paid speaking career, and she won awards on her eventual book, “The Good News About Bad Behavior.” Researching and writing the book also led her to connect with authors and other people she had admired. Katherine also talked about the mindset it takes to be a successful freelancer: We are business owners. We have to be accountable to ourselves and know how we’re spending our time and our money. Time is our most valuable resource. Katherine says, “The biggest myth that I hear is ‘Well, something’s better than nothing.’ It’s not … because any time you take a gig that pays poorly or it’s not exactly in your lane, you are moving yourself further from your goal and you are using up that most valuable resource—your time.” Katherine also encourages freelancers to shift their mindset from supplicant asking for work to thinking of yourself as a valuable partner that your clients need.   Biz Bite: Streak (Gmail plug-in)   Resources:   Katherine’s website and book   Katherine’s Mother Jones article: “What If Everything You Knew About Disciplining Kids Was Wrong?”   The Center for Independent Journalists   Episode #128 of Deliberate Freelancer: New Organization Supports Freelance Journalists of Color, with Chandra Thomas Whitfield and Katherine Reynolds Lewis   Katherine on Twitter   Katherine on Instagram   Katherine on Facebook   Join the Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group.   Support Deliberate Freelancer at Buy Me a Coffee.

Please email me your favorite organizational tips, tools, systems and processes for an upcoming episode!   What are the processes and systems that you have implemented that have improved your business? What tactic or app or software program can you not get enough of? Let’s share with each other and help each other out!   Here’s all you need to do: Use the voice memo app on your smartphone to record a short message, maybe 1–7 minutes, explaining your favorite system or process or app or software and how it has helped you in your business.   Then, just email that file to me at melanie@meledits.com. That’s it! I’ll use your name and your voice memo on a future episode.   Resources:   Join the Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group.   Support Deliberate Freelancer at Buy Me a Coffee.