Freelance To Founder

On today’s show we chat with Augusto who’s running a local branding and video marketing company in the United States. Augusto has chosen to target local latino businesses because he feels they’re underserved and can really use his expertise. But Augusto keeps hitting a wall: his target audience is overly cautious when it comes to spending. Which makes it hard to charge premium prices for his work. So what can you do when you’re worried you’ve got the wrong target audience? Today, I’m joined by guest-coach Bobby Macey to answer as many of Augusto’s questions as possible because we both know all too well: if your audience isn’t aligned with your service, it’s almost impossible to effectively promote your freelance business. Get your own on-air coaching call We'd love to feature your business and offer some free on-air advice for growing your business. To see if you're a good fit, click here. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts: If you enjoy the show, can you do us a favor and leave us an honest rating and revi

On today’s episode we chat with Adii Pienaar who recently published a book titled Life Profitability: The New Measure of Entrepreneurial Success. As someone who’s very motivated by the lifestyle that freelancing and entrepreneurship can offer, I was intrigued when I first learned about Adii’s book. So today, Clay and I have a heart to heart chat with Adii all about the lies about "work/life balance" and how to build a business that doesn’t ultimately consume you. If you’ve ever felt burned out with the business you started in order to find more freedom in the first place or you've thought to yourself “this isn’t what I signed up for”, Adii’s advice will be the best thing you hear this week. Get your own on-air coaching call We'd love to feature your business and offer some free on-air advice for growing your business. To see if you're a good fit, click here. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts: If you enjoy the show, can you do us a favor and leave us an honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts? We'll love

On today’s episode, we have a conversation with Matt Essam who helps freelancers attract and find their dream clients. Have you ever felt like you are more of an employee than a partner when it comes to your client relationships? Maybe you feel like you don’t have any creative input on your projects. Or maybe you feel like you’re underutilized pushing pixels, moving commas, or doing some other menial tasks for your client. If this sounds familiar, you’ll want to listen to our conversation with Matt today. He’s got a pretty great solution to this problem plus some great advice on finding the perfect clients for your business. Get your own on-air coaching call We'd love to feature your business and offer some free on-air advice for growing your business. To see if you're a good fit, click here. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts: If you enjoy the show, can you do us a favor and leave us an honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts? We'll love you forever. Click here to leave a review. Support our sponsors so

On today’s show, we check in with Margaret Ryland. Now, if that name sounds familiar, that’s because Margaret joined us originally on Season 8 to talk about her branding and design business. Since we last talked, Margaret has had some luck on collaborating with other creatives, but is still struggling to build out the processes required to actually make a first contractor hire. It’s a big hurdle, but if she can’t push through it, she might be stuck as a one-person business for the rest of her career. We’ll get into some advice and tactical tips for Margaret and anyone unsure about building a team in today's episode. Get your own on-air coaching call We'd love to feature your business and offer some free on-air advice for growing your business. To see if you're a good fit, click here. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts: If you enjoy the show, can you do us a favor and leave us an honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts? We'll love you forever. Click here to leave a review. Support our sponsors so we can ke

On today’s show, it’s just Preston and Clay. That’s because in early January, Preston asked Clay how things were looking for the new year and his response was something like: "I’ve already hit my 6 month revenue goal." Yeah, it was January 7th. NUTS! A couple weeks later—Before January was even over—Clay shared that he hit his complete revenue goal for 2021.  That’s 12 months of revenue just in January. Naturally, Preston had to get clay on a call and find out what he had been doing. It’s a conversation you won’t want to miss. Get your own on-air coaching call We'd love to feature your business and offer some free on-air advice for growing your business. To see if you're a good fit, click here. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts: If you enjoy the show, can you do us a favor and leave us an honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts? We'll love you forever. Click here to leave a review. Support our sponsors so we can keep airing new episodes: Gusto - The all-in-one people platform for payroll, benefits,

On today’s episode we have a coaching call with Shelley, who works in the music industry—which can be a tough gig right now, but Shelley is making it work. There’s just a small problem with her principal business—booking artists into venues. Getting clients to understand the value Shelley brings to the table is proving more difficult than she imagined. After digging a bit deeper, Clay and I realize this is a simple messaging problem. A common pitfall in marketing. If you, like Shelley, want to get clients to say “yes” more quickly with less hesitation, stay tuned because, like Shelley, you might just need to tweak your messaging. ========= Get your own on-air coaching call We'd love to feature your business and offer some free on-air advice for growing your business. To see if you're a good fit, click here. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts: If you enjoy the show, can you do us a favor and leave us an honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts? We'll love you forever. Click here to leave a review. Support o

On today’s show, we have a chat with Erica who, frankly, intimidates both Clay and me. That’s because Erica is working with some of the brightest people in the world to solve some of the biggest problems faced by humanity. But despite working with some incredible clients and solving some meaningful problems, Erica is stuck when it comes to moving her business to the next level. What we uncover during the conversation is Erica (like so many of us) is perhaps getting the cart before the horse by developing a massive, university-level course for PhDs before she ever tests the market to see if people will buy. Since Clay and I are both admittedly more salesmen than educators, we offer an alternative approach that seems to resonate.  If you’re stuck in “create” mode and can’t seem to get to the “launch” or “revenue” stage in your business, then have a listen, because we’ve got some good advice for you in this episode. ========= Get your own on-air coaching call We'd love to feature your business and offer some fre

3 Ways to Spy on Your Target Audience  On today’s episode, we have a coaching call with Nikolai—a freelance Webflow developer living and working in New Zealand. Nikolai’s entire freelance business completely turned around when he decided to focus exclusively on Webflow, showcasing the power of finding your niche as a creative. And while Nikolai has seen a nice bump in new leads and more projects from sites like Upwork and networks like Dribbble, he’s not 100% sure how to find more of his ideal audience. From that question, Clay leads us into 3 ways he has successfully “spied” on his target audience to learn what their pain points are and eventually create the perfect product to sell them. ========= Get your own on-air coaching call We'd love to feature your business and offer some free on-air advice for growing your business. To see if you're a good fit, click here. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts: If you enjoy the show, can you do us a favor and leave us an honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts? We'

On today’s episode, we have a great coaching call with Andrea, who’s growing her agency—helping companies get the most out of the popular marketing software, Hubspot.  Andrea has hired contractors to help grow her business in the past and just a month before this conversation, Andrea hired her first full-time employee. Which is a big deal. It’s also led Andrea to start wondering what exactly she needs to be doing as a manager or a leader which launches us into a great conversation about entrepreneurship vs. leadership. ========= JOIN OUR FIRST-EVER GROUP CHALLENGE HERE (code 'podcast' to save 30%) It's our 5-Days to Recurring Revenue challenge and it's going to be insanely fun and helpful. After 5 days of live video calls, worksheets, homework, and community chat, you'll leave with an irresistible service product to offer clients for a flat recurring fee each month plus everything you need to pitch, sell, and scale this high-revenue model. Only ~25 people get in on this first round, so click here to claim you

On today’s episode, we chat with Yusef who’s building his own small product design agency. Yusef’s got a lot going for him: he’s got great cashflow, he’s getting new clients regularly, and he enjoys the work he’s doing. But when it comes to the most profitable projects in his business, he’s limited to working on only 8 at a time. That’s a big problem. And since Yusef hasn’t built out the infrastructure he needs to scale the most profitable part of his business, he can feel the impending plateau. So we walk Yusef through a few ways he can get over this hurdle and keep growing—without giving up 100% of the work he loves to do on a daily basis. If you’ve ever wondered: how can I scale my business without giving up all of the “fun” work, then this episode is for you. ========= JOIN OUR FIRST-EVER GROUP CHALLENGE HERE (code 'podcast' to save 30%) It's our 5-Days to Recurring Revenue challenge and it's going to be insanely fun and helpful. After 5 days of live video calls, worksheets, homework, and community chat,

In today’s episode, we chat with an up-and-coming agency-builder, Maddie. And during our conversation we come up against one of the most common issues hold many of us back: Getting out of our own way. The thing is, Maddie is extremely bright. She’s got a lot of great things going. And she’s got more freelance work than she can take on alone right now. But, like so many of us, she might be overthinking a few decisions in her business that could affect her success over the next few years.  Follow along as we work through each of these in today's show. ========= JOIN OUR FIRST-EVER GROUP CHALLENGE HERE (code 'podcast' to save 30%) It's our 5-Days to Recurring Revenue challenge and it's going to be insanely fun and helpful. After 5 days of live video calls, worksheets, homework, and community chat, you'll leave with an irresistible service product to offer clients for a flat recurring fee each month plus everything you need to pitch, sell, and scale this high-revenue model. Only ~25 people get in on this first ro

On today’s episode we mix it up a bit with Craig Solid—a consultant in the healthcare space. Craig’s business is going well and he’s trying to figure out how to better serve his clients on an ongoing basis and potential find some subscription revenue as well. What we uncover is a potential mismatch between the target client and product offering. All of us leads us into a much-needed conversation about offering the right services for the right people at the right time. It’s an eye-opening episode for freelancers and agency builders at any stage. ========= JOIN OUR FIRST-EVER GROUP CHALLENGE HERE (code 'podcast' to save 30%) It's our 5-Days to Recurring Revenue challenge and it's going to be insanely fun and helpful. After 5 days of live video calls, worksheets, homework, and community chat, you'll leave with an irresistible service product to offer clients for a flat recurring fee each month plus everything you need to pitch, sell, and scale this high-revenue model. Only ~25 people get in on this first round,

On today’s show I (Preston) have a really great conversation with James O-Reilly, an indie artist who’s working on making the transition from freelancer to founder. James has had heaps of work come in over the last year which is good because he's making good money as an artist, but he’s not exactly sure where to go next with his business. Should he hire more artists? Should he hire a project manager or a sales person? And if he hires now, will work dry up and he’ll be in a bad place financially? In this one-on-one conversation I had with James, I found he was asking all the right questions. And it’s these fantastic questions that lead us on a journey to discovering exactly what James must do next to grow his art business. ========= JOIN OUR FIRST-EVER GROUP CHALLENGE HERE (code 'podcast' to save 30%) It's our 5-Days to Recurring Revenue challenge and it's going to be insanely fun and helpful. After 5 days of live video calls, worksheets, homework, and community chat, you'll leave with an irresistible service

To listen to more episodes or subscribe to Remote Works, click here. On today's bonus episode, I share with you a fun podcast called 'Remote Work' from the team at Citrix. You know how, before Covid, only a relative few of us knew how great it was to work from anywhere? Well, Remote Works is on a mission to highlight the new ways that millions of people are now working—from wherever they want. Remote Works features stories of digital nomads working from the beach in Barbados, Bali and beyond. But it’s not just stories about remote work on the beach. Each episode is full of insight and advice you can apply to your work and your team. I personally really enjoyed the episode about two women working in a tiny trapper’s cabin in the Arctic and dodging polar bears while fighting climate change.  I got a special sneak preview of season 2 of Remote Works, and I’ve been dying to share this episode with you so today, I’ve included, with permission from Remote Works, the full episode for your listening enjoyment. You ca

On today’s episode, we chat with Chase, a co-founder at Electric Eye. They help Direct-to-Consumer Shopify brands make more money. Like Clay and me, Chase started out as a freelancer, but over the last five years he and his business partner have grown their agency to eight employees. In this conversation with Chase, we talk about all the things we three wish we had known about making the transition from freelancer to founder. We cover everything from hiring (of course) to when you should niche, fighting imposter syndrome, onboarding clients, sending client gifts, fixing major screw-ups and more. It’s a jam-packed episode and a must-listen for anyone wanting to know the truth behind what it’s like to go from freelance to founder. ========= JOIN OUR FIRST-EVER GROUP CHALLENGE HERE (code 'podcast' to save 30%) It's our 5-Days to Recurring Revenue challenge and it's going to be insanely fun and helpful. After 5 days of live video calls, worksheets, homework, and community chat, you'll leave with an irresistible s

On this week’s episode, we check back in with one of our favorite guests from last season: Amy Kuo. Amy’s business is growing well and she even hired her first intern this year. But she still has a lot of questions about hiring and outsourcing. And since Clay and I believe whole-heartedly that people are the best possible investment you can make in your business, we have a lot to say on the subject. If you’ve ever worried about introducing your employees to clients, letting go of important tasks, or if you’ll have enough work to give someone after you hire them, then today’s episode is for you. ========= JOIN OUR FIRST-EVER GROUP CHALLENGE HERE (code 'podcast' to save 30%) It's our 5-Days to Recurring Revenue challenge and it's going to be insanely fun and helpful. After 5 days of live video calls, worksheets, homework, and community chat, you'll leave with an irresistible service product to offer clients for a flat recurring fee each month plus everything you need to pitch, sell, and scale this high-revenue

You'll be happier and wealthier if you can learn how to attract the right kinds of freelance jobs in your career. On today’s episode, I’m joined by a special guest coach, my friend Matt Olpinski, as we offer some coaching to Wyatt Hill.  Wyatt’s got a really unique situation: his boss allows him to make connections with customers at his day job and then pitch them his side-hustle services. While this setup is incredible, it also has Wyatt a bit worried: as he gets more successful, if he chooses to quit his day job, his client pipeline could dry up. So we spend the bulk of this episode showing Wyatt a few ways to attract the right kinds of projects on his own—without help from his boss. We talk about lots of tactics from SEO, to better contact forms, to online portfolios and Linkedin. With our advice and lots of hard work, Wyatt wants to double his side-hustle revenue next year and we think he can do it. ========= JOIN OUR FIRST-EVER CHALLENGE HERE (code 'podcast' to save 30%) It's our 5-Days to Recurring Reve

On today’s show, I’m joined by a good friend of mine, Chelsea Baldwin as a special guest coach. Together, we coach Australian freelancer-turned-agency-builder Caroline. She has built up a nice freelance business and has begun to work with subcontractors to begin scaling her business. But she’s realizing it’s harder to transition from solo freelancer to full-on agency than she initially expected. Chelsea and I coach her on two critical tasks: How to get her clients to start treating her like an agency—instead of a freelancer. And how to get the word out about her new agency and start bringing in fresh clients even if she doesn’t feel quite ready. We wrap up the episode with some really strong advice from Chelsea on getting new clients with Linkedin. Join us on this jam-packed episode. Apply for your own on-air coaching call We'd love to feature your business and offer some free on-air advice for growing your business. To see if you're a good fit, click here. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts: If you enjoy th

On today’s episode, Preston has a one-on-one conversation with James Rose. James is a total rockstar when it comes to automating tasks in your business. In fact, as you’ll hear by the end of this conversation, in order to accomplish everything James automates in his business, he’d have to hire a full-time employee. Instead, he leverages affordable tech and brilliant workflows to save money and get more done. If you find yourself bogged down, short on time, or hoping to save money as you scale your business, then this episode is for you. Resources mentioned in this episode: James' personal site focused on automation hacks; He's also got two great courses for only $17. ContentSnare — James' software for helping freelancers and agencies collect content from clients. Getting Things Done Book by David Allen SaneBox — Email management for any Inbox Cold Emails that Convert — My workbook course for pitching strangers and getting business. Zapier and IFTTT — Our two favorite automation tools. TextExpa

On today’s show, we have a really great conversation with Natalie, who has built a nice freelance design business but has also encountered some serious trouble when it comes to hiring. And even though Clay and I both know how critical hiring can be to your scaling success, we can also empathize with her feeling like too much of a control freak (her words, not ours) to make the best decision. So how do you start hiring without losing control of the most important aspects of your company? It’s a tough question that we get into on this episode of Freelance to Founder. Apply for your own on-air coaching call We'd love to feature your business and offer some free on-air advice for growing your business. To see if you're a good fit, click here. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts: If you enjoy the show, can you do us a favor and leave us an honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts? We'll love you forever. Click here to leave a review. Support our sponsors so we can keep airing new episodes: LinkedIn Jobs — Fi