The Freelancers' Show

Panel: Reuven Lerner Kai Davis In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Reuven and Kai talk about planning for 2018. Reuven mentions that you should always plan your year if you are in a freelancing business. Ask yourself, how do you want to grow your business?How will you implement the changes to scale your financial growth? The end year is an important punctuation and new beginning for your freelancing business. The Freelancer’s Show is here to help guide you through questions they ask themselves in their own businesses. This is a great episode for freelancers who are looking to grow their business in the next year, and the possible things they can do to have a positive impact on their freelancing career. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:  What are my goals or system to put in place to reach the goals?Concerning healthSaying no to certain opportunitiesTraining to advance your careerTraining internationallyExploring new line of businessKilling it off - if it does not workWhat do I want to accompl

Panel: Phillip Morgan Reuven Lerner In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Reuven and Phillip discuss designing a product ladder. The panel discusses the importance of offering a suite of products with a defined path from low tier to a high tier value.  Furthermore,  services and or a blend of products and services is also apart of the tier offerings. Phillip and Reuven talk about specific strategies for how product ladders are implemented. Perhaps a freemium product that entices one into the bigger valued product. This is a great episode for freelancers to understand how to formulate a product line for your freelancing business. In particular, we dive pretty deep on:  Offering lower and higher tier productsA blend of service and productsThe Brain AuditComparison of Apple products and purchases to top tier productsBuying into Apple products with  iTunes on WindowsFunctions of a product ladderWhat is your product ladder?Advance, Intermediate, and Basic UsersIncreasing expertiseBasic level product to c

Panel: Reuven Lerner Jonathan Stark Kai Davis In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Reuven, Jonathan, and Kai discuss “Why” conversations. Jonathan outlines that, “Why” calls are the preliminary conversations of a sale call. To understand the underlying purpose of why the client wants to engage in a project with you. This is a great episode to understand how to pivot a project to increase the value of your time using a fixed rated. Also to ensure the prospect is a good fit for skills and rates. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: Why do sales call? To find out what the client needs“Preparing to reject their self-diagnosis”Engage in a conversation to increase the value of the projectThe customer is usually vague and they leave out the specifics fo the projectThrowing objections at then customers to bring all considerations to surfaceUnderstanding why now?Urgency is the key to the project?Why hire someone like me?Confidence to get paid what you wantHourly rates? Market rate? Fixed pricing.Is hourly

Panel: Reuven Lerner Phillip Morgan Kai Davis In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Reuven, Phillip, and Kai discuss pricing and positioning as a freelancer. The discussion covers positioning your business to charge premium rates,  charging more verses looking like a discount service, and getting more clients when rates are higher.  The Freelancer also discuss what signal prices send to the customer?  Does this matter in reference to value, and is the price justified? Also, how to position your price internationally, concerning culture and prices.  This is a great episode understand your position for your fees on products, sales, or services. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: What do you position yourself to charge premium pricing for your services?How not look like discount servicesLooking at the market price of your servicePricing to low for your service - why you should avoid itPrice is the lever we fall to -  Is this the advantage?Becoming price locked with your client.What signal prices se

Panel: Jonathan Stark Phillip Morgan In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Johnathan and Phillip discuss aging as a freelancer. The topics cover the meager beginnings of a freelancer’s life to the advance contractor's success.  Phillip and Johnathan talk about things concerning personal energy levels in a brick and mortar job vs. freelancing, insurances, repetition of the job, staying interested in your job, and networking, and the highs and low expectation of contracting throughout a freelancing career. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: Aging as you work for yourselfEnergyMultiple forms of insuranceStability in your careerGrowing in your careerLiving out of a car or small spacesExpectation of freelancingBoredom on the jobFinding yourself doing the same thing as your younger peersMaking a difference in the worldHaving to learn new platforms to keep your career excitingLaborious feelings about specializationDoing vertical moves, or lateral movesMotivation and expertise to adviseAnd much more! Pi

Panel: Reuven Phillip M. In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show speaks with Louis Grenier about Freelance Marketing 101. Louis is a first time guest on the Freelancer’s Show. Louis is the host of the podcast call Everyone Hates Marketers, where he teaches tech and tech marketers to sell more, without shady or “in your face marketing” tactics.  Louis is also the content strategist at the company HotJar Louis and the panel talk about what bad marketing is about, and how you can avoid the pitfalls of bad marketing. Louis cover topics on good marketing vs. bad marketing tactics, understanding your audience, actively researching your audience, and much more. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: Understanding the people you are reaching out tooTreated like numbersPsychological NumbingWould sleazy marketing work in the long-termGood products vs. Bad productsResearching your audiences and launchingThe long patience wayEmpathyFace to Face conferencesNetworking and hasslingFocus on your bullseyeStart with the

Panel: Jonathan S. Kai Davis Phillip M. In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show the panel does a Q&A show about positioning. The Freelancers answer questions from students and readers for the discussion topic of the episode. The discussion goes focus positioning, marketing yourself, marketing your business, confidence, value proposition, the difference between specialization and positioning, and many more aspects of positioning. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: Laser Focus positioning statement and marketing yourselfBeing clear about who you serveReaching goal with the help of employees50% of the business is marketingSpreading yourself thin across the companyHom page problemCredit unionWaffling and leaving behind confidenceConfidence is the key elementTarget marketsWorking outside of your focus - will is dilute your credibilitySpecifically focusing your energyThe difference between positioning and specializationSpecialization  - Target MarketPositioning - Pricing, Premium optionsSpecialize on

Panel: Jonathan S. Kai Davis Phillip M. Special Guest: Jason Scott Montoya In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show welcomes freelancer and author Jason Scott Montoya. The Freelancers dive into a discussion about Jason’s book, “Path of the Freelancer”. Jason defines and outlines freelancing for those on the path or getting started. Jason talks about the 4 stages of freelancing: survivor, dreamer, visionary, and achiever stage. Furthermore, Jason provides what he calls the 8 achievements and a formula of intentionality to streamline your path, workload, to grow your business. Jason helps you to ask yourself the right questions, to gain your full potential, as a freelancer. Listen closely as Jason and the panel outline some frequently asked questions as a freelancer. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: A freelancer is someone who works for multiple clients and multiple streams of income.A consultant and a freelancerFour stages of freelancingStages of maturityManaging money8 achievementsFormula of int

Panel: Reuven L. Jonathan S. Kai Davis In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, the discussion topic is Self Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing. The panel talks about the books they’ve published in the past and the details of each experience before and after launching a book. We learn the pros and cons of self and traditional publishing. Each panel member discusses their experience with contracts, deals, cash advances and royalties. Also, some in-depth discussion on the when and why you would want to self-publish. Lastly, the panel talks about what is next with their publications. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: What it means to go to traditional publishing companyAdvance payments and royaltiesLimitation on book sales and ending royalties at the same timeTranslations of book salesCollaborative processSoftware develops should at least write one bookTradition publishing helps get the book completed and distributed.Help with including in different resources in the traditional route.Traditional

Panel: Reuven L. Jonathan S. Phillip M. In this episode of the Freelancer’s Show, Reuven follows up on a previous episode, episode 257, about a launch on a product by Reuven. The team centers their discussion around ideas that were executed well, things that could have been done better, and next steps post-launch. Reuven gives a brief summary of the Python exercises or classes he turned into a subscription service. Reuven talks about his marketing strategy, and the audience he pitches this course to. The Freelancers talks about the many different areas of marketing and production building to launch a successful product. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: Reuven talks about his subscription service, both on a monthly and annual billing modelSome discussion about why followers unsubscribeHow Reuven was promoting the course or subscription to the audienceReuven talks about how he uses tools like Zapier to help with the email marketing strategy.Tools used like Easy Digital Downloads or EDD.Issues with

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Tweet this Episode Branden Silva is the Executive Director of his agency Ambition. He helps his clients tell stories.    This episode dives into how to create a story around you and your business. Freelancers can use the tool of storytelling to impact culture and business. Branden guides the listener through shaping a story, the elements of the story, and how to connect with your audience. Some of the areas we dig deep on in this episode are: Honing in your clients' stories and how to be a facilitator of the storyHow to uniquely position yourself  and your process and inject them into their story.The structure of a good story. The form, the tension, the obstacles, etc.and much much more...   Links:  The 100 Most Trusted People in America Picks: Curtis: Has the Smartphone Destroyed a Generation? Philip: Ira Glass Interview Branden: Pixar Storytelling on Khan AcademyHis websiteHis podcast (coming soon)

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FS 261: Q&A This episode of The Freelancers’ Show features panelists Reuven Lerner and Jonathan Stark. They are answering questions from the audience. Tune in to hear their answers! [00:01:15] When you sell someone an app or website, do you sell them a maintenance package with it? Reuven does not. He charges by the hour. He would probably consider a monthly retainer. Jonathan thinks that for the typical freelancer, maintenance work is not highly profitable unless it is your main business. He calls it “janitorial work.” Developers do maintenance work because they think clients want them to. They think that because it only takes a couple hours a month it is something they can do. What do you do when clients ask whom to call when something happens? Jonathan says he can’t help them but that he’ll put them in touch with someone who can. This may mean that he will put them in touch with a service provider or that he will train a junior developer internally who is capable of doing the work. If you are aware

FS 260: Ari Lamstein on Making Money From Open Source  This week on The Freelancers’ Show the panelists are Philip Morgan, Curtis McHale, Jonathan Stark, and Reuven Lerner. Special guest Ari Lamstein is here to discuss how to make money from Open Source. [00:02:05] Introduction to Ari Ari is a trainer and consultant who specializes in teaching the R programming language. He wrote Chloroplethr, which is an R package that makes it easy to make Chloropleth maps in R. [00:03:45] Chloroplethr A presidential map is a chloropleth map that expresses value for states using just one color. Other things that can be measured using a chloropleth map would be population, disease rates, and unemployment rates. The package that Ari wrote makes it easy to write maps in the R language, which is why Chloroplethr is spelled as one word. [00:05:26] How did you get into Open Source R? Ari worked as a software engineer in San Francisco. In 2013 he discovered the R programming language while trying to figure out how to do a

FS 259: Anthony English on Making a Radical Change in Positioning  On this episode of the Freelancers’ Show panelists Jonathon Stark, Curtis McHale, Philip Morgan, and Reuven Lerner talk to special guest Anthony English. Anthony discusses making a radical change in positioning. Tune in to learn more about this topic!  [00:02:30] Introduction to Anthony Anthony has an IT background working with mid-range systems. He has recently been transitioning into being a business coach. [00:03:31] Who do you work with and what kind of advice do you give them? Anthony works with people who are service professionals and highly technical but not necessarily in IT. They all share similar characteristics. They feel like they can’t sale, hate networking, and do not know how to translate their skills to clients. The first advice he gives professionals is to stop talking about their technical skills to clients because it only takes seconds to prove to the client that they are expert in their field. The questions they sho

FS 258: Positioning, Outcomes, and States of Market Awareness Panelists Philip Morgan, Jonathan Stark, and Reuven Lerner lead the discussion this week. They discuss Positioning, Outcomes, and States of Market Awareness. Tune in to learn more about these three topics! What does this mean? Jonathan explains the specifics of positioning outcomes by reading from an email he recently received. He talks about pitching to the wrong audience and using activities as key points instead of outcomes of the services offered. He uses the analogy of a website that sells drills and the headline. He points out that the headline on the website should not say, "So you need a drill?" Instead it should say, "So you need to hang a picture?" Sometimes buyers don't understand what outcomes a tool or service can provide and they are often looking for the outcomes. If they do not understand the tool, it's impossible for them to connect the availability of the tool to the outcome they are looking for. In some cases talking about the

FS 257 Reuven’s Launch On this episode of the Freelancers’ Show, Reuven Lerner discusses product launching. He is speaking on the topic just twelve hours before the launch of his newest product. Tune in to hear him speak on his history with products and hear his tips on getting ready to launch products. [00:2:29] Background Reuven has been trying to sell products online for years, meeting only medium success. The first product he tried to sell was an online course, which was a live Python course. A friend told him it would be tough to sell to people that he had never sold to before. This was an introduction to an idea called a product ladder. This is the idea that people who are happy with cheaper products will then move on to buy more expensive products: first need to build products up. Reuven wrote an e-book titled Practice Makes Python because his students asked questions about what to do after his course was over. It sold a fair amount of copies. He then wrote another book called Practice Makes Regex

FS 256 Boundaries with Clients Today’s episode features a discussion centered on Boundaries with Clients. Philip, Jonathan, and Curtis explore how you set these boundaries for yourself. Tune in to find out what they have to say! What boundaries do you have with clients? Jonathan keeps Thursdays completely free to do things he enjoys even if they are concerning work. Curtis only does calls on Tuesdays. Why have boundaries? It eliminates and helps make decisions. For example, if a new client can’t do a call on Tuesday then Curtis knows he can’t work with them because they won’t be a good fit for each other. It protects the ability to get stuff done. If you have a do not disturb mode on your phone turned on, you can tune texts out from everyone and only receive important phone calls. A good book to read on the subject is Boundaries by Dr. Henry McCloud. When people want to schedule things, have to make sure it fits into your schedule. If it is an emergency you can make adjustments. “You should be comfortabl