Freelance Transformation

Key Takeways from my chat with Patrick McKenzie:

The Easiest Path to Earning Higher Rates: Create an Elite Club of One

• Find a problem that can have an amazing payoff for your client, and which you are uniquely suited to solve.

• You shouldn't be competing with everyone who can create a Wordpress site. You should be competing at most with an elite club of several hundrend people worldwide who can be a subsitute for you.

• For example many people can code, but relatively few people have the combination of specific software engineering and marketing skills that Patrick is able to offer.

• You can start off undifferentiated - but look out for a differentiating skill or specialization so that you are no longer competing with everybody - the easiest way to become a member of an elite club is to start your own.

Find Clients With an Expensive Problem that You Can Help Solve

• The natural temptation is to take your expertise and start finding ways to apply it. Patrick suggests inverting this to first looking at the "richly compensated problems in the world" then filtering down to the ones that you can "conveniently move the needle on with your expertise".

Examples:

• Target businesses that have high margins. For examples there are lucrative challenges to solve in healthcare, financial industry, high-end services such as accountants and lawyers (a lawyer making $600/hr is less likely to be scandalized by you making $500/hr).

• Target businesses for who their online presence is the core of their business, not just a small component.

• Pick your favourite service (such as any number of SaaS apps), who are in the business of providing a service but not custom solutions. Call them up, let them know examples of what you've done usign their service, and get on their referral lists for consultants who aid implementation.

• Go to agencies in the same field who specialize in services parallel to yours, and establish a relationship where they subcontract to you.

• Pay attention to the revenue a company makes. Successful changes can have a greater impact and they are more likely to be willing to hire you at your rates in the first place.

• Just ask: who are the people that need expensive problems solved?

How Patrick Would Rebuild a Client Base (and his rates) if He Had to Start Over Today (without his online fame and past projects)

• Prerequisite: Start by being good at what you do. 

• Speak in front of people who can consume your services/products.

• To speed up getting invited as a speaker, create your own event and speak at it! Give a talk on some topic in the format "How to do x for the y industry".

• Your speech should deliver 95% educational content and 5% pitch for your services.

• Connect with the attendees after the event (they will want to talk to you). Find out why they attended and then schedule a coffee meeting to discuss their problems further. Turn these coffee meetings into a sales conversation. At the coffee table you are in a market of one - you are the one expert at the table and no one else has that positioning right now.

• Review Einar Vollset's outbound email strategy.

Jared Tendler shares how he became a mental game coach to top poker players (what a niche!). Then we try something different - Jared coaches Matt right then and there on how to think through a major life decision involving Matt's web agency and a several thousand kilometer move that he is undertaking. Jared helps Matt dig deep into his psychology and the real issues present, and shares powerful techniques for making this decision. Techniques that you can use to make your own big tough decisions. Show notes: http://freelancetransformation.com/episode19

Casey Meehan of Epic Presence shares how to find clients for higher-ticket services such as $40,000+ retainer engagements.

Including:

• Learn how to filter out conferences and events that are likely to result in clients and how to make effective use of these opportunities instead of returning empty-handed.

• How to use find your audience online and reach them with content marketing.

• How to use prospecting to reach out to highly targeting people in a way that helps them.

• The growth marketing tactics that did NOT work for Casey and why not.

Show notes at http://freelancetransformation.com/episode18

Brian Casel shares the key actions that he took that made it possible to remove himself from his website creation business, Restaurant Engine. We chat about streamline processes, hire new team members, retain good talent, how he is scaling audienceops.com from day one, and how to use content marketing to get leads. Show Notes: http://freelancetransformation.com/episode17

Keith Perhac has successfully grown and runs a digital marketing agency in a small city in Japan, while working with clients that have included Toyota, Ramit Sethi, Patrick McKenzie and Nomadic Matt. Keith shares with us:

• How Keith started DelfiNet while living in a small city in Japan and why he was living there in the first place.
• How his agency has grown and evolved over time, and how it's a constant work in progress (I can completely relate).
• Powerful advice for getting the right kind of referrals that will grow your business.
• Why success isn't about saying yes, but about saying no.
• How Keith structures his marketing engagements and billing, and what has and hasn't worked.
• Why specialization can be so powerful, and the problem with being a jack of all trades.
• His advice for consultants starting their business today.

Show notes: http://www.freelancetransformation.com/episode16

Learn how Nagina of MasalaBody.com sells premium weight loss and food coaching that her clients are happy to pay for and which delivers results.

You will learn:

• The power of speaking to your audience in their language and in terms of the problems that they face.
• The real reasons why people buy premium coaching services such as Nagina's (hint: it's not as simple as weight loss)
• How Nagina gets in front of her prospective clients and the level of persistence reflective of someone who is determined to succeed.
• The exact process she uses to deliver value, earn trust, and to sell coaching services that start at $1,997.
• Why Nagina is able to do all of this while also working as a management consultant and taking care of her family as wife and mom.

Show notes at www.freelancetransformation.com/episode15

It's possible to create an amazing business and lifestyle by providing services through freelancing, consulting, etc. But what if you find yourself with the product building itch? Andrew Wicklander shares how he built a product creation workshop through his software development consulting business. http://freelancetransformation.com/episode14

Kristin takes on her journey of leveraging her journalism career into founding a brand communications agency with 4 offices in Colorado. Kristin's mindset on her life, the value of her clients, and the importance of her team demonstrate why she succeeded and built her dream life in the process.

Kai Davis explains how he repositioned himself from being an SEO consultant to an "Outreach Consultant", and how this has allowed him to stand out. Kai also shares how to find your perfect target audience, study what they need, and establish yourself as an expert in that group.

The Freelance Transformation Podcast just passed 10 episodes and over 5,400 downloads. In the process a wealth of information has been generously shared by the 9 guests so far. What do these experts have in common? Matt reviews the 5 key themes that have continued to come up over and over.

http://freelancetransformation.com/episode11