Pop Quiz:  How “good at stuff” do you have to be to double any metric in your business (sales, traffic, etc) that you currently suck at?

• A) A Whole Lot Better
• B) Only A Little Bit Better

If you answered “A,” you failed. Print this article, keep it on your desk and read it every day for 10 days.

If you answered “B,” huzzah. You get 10 cool points, but you still need to print this article, keep it on your desk and read it every day for 10 days.

What They Told Me Every Day Was Dead Wrong

You know the old expression “Jack of all trades, master of none?”  It’s stupid, and it’s bad advice. I used to hear it all the time growing up, when I’d dabble in learning something new or figuring out just a little bit about a whole mess of topics.  People would pull up that phrase, as if to say that focusing on one single skill to the exclusion of others was the secret to success.

Now, I’m not knocking the idea that focused study will make you a master at something.  Can’t be a brain surgeon or rocket scientist without it.  But specialized mastery of one subject alone will not boost your chances of growing fast in your business.  A healthy dose of generalizing, however, will.  (Michael gets this.)

Here’s an example: Jack and Jill are two freelance writers – pretty good ones, too.  On a scale of 1 to 10, let’s say their writing skills are about an 8.  They are above average, yet both of them are struggling to attract clients because their the traffic to their websites sucks.  (On a scale of 1 to 10, their search engine knowledge is at a 1.  They know nothing about it.)

Jack kicks himself every day and wishes he understood this “search engine optimization thing” so that he could bring in more business.  But all that stuff is BIG and SCARY and he’d have to be REALLY GOOD at it to every make it work.  So there he stays at 1.

Jill says, “screw that,” picks up Naomi’s SEO School or Michael’s SEO teleseminar and says “I’m going to spend 5-10 hours or so learning about all this SEO stuff.  Jill does, and with 5-10 hours of training she’s now at a 4 on that sliding scale.

Fast forward 6 months and guess what?  Jill is eating Jack’s lunch, that’s what. She’s not an expert at SEO by any means, but she now knows enough to stop making stupid mistakes and she knows the bare minimum she needs to in order to make her pages rank better.  She’s doubled her traffic by just doing the few things she learned when her skill level went from 0 to 4.

Mid-lining: The Art of Getting To 4 (Or Thereabouts)

There are all kinds of things you can learn to make your business grow:  copywriting, SEO, graphic design, negotiation, sales, social media … tons of stuff.  Chances are you don’t pursue them because you think you have to get to a 8, 9, or 10 on that sliding scale, and that’s just something you don’t have the time for.

But you don’t have to get to 10 – or even close to it – to get a huge return on investment for your time.  Instead, work your way to the midpoint of that line – a 4 or 5 – and let that drive your business forward.

People drastically underestimate the monster advantage that comes with knowing even the basics about something, and they don’t realize that 99% of their competitors are sitting at a 1 on that sliding scale.  But mid-lining – just getting to a 4 or 5 – gives you a huge tactical advantage with a minimum of investment.

It Doesn’t Take Long To Get To 4

What does it take to mid-line and get to 4?  In a lot of cases, only 5 to 10 hours of study.  Seriously.  5 to 10 hours.  Sometimes even less, if you have the right mentor / book / course.   And getting to that mid-line can double your traffic, or your conversion rates, or your referrals, or whatever – because doubling small numbers is easy.

Think about that.  Going from $100 / month in sales to $100,000 / month in sales may require you to go from a 1 to a 10 (tons of work).  But going from $100 / month to $200 or $300 / month doesn’t take that much effort at all.  And most people tend to be stuck at flat or small growth, so mid-lining would be a huge opportunity for them.

Investing in yourself is one of the best things you can do – and if you’re not doing it, you need to set a budget for it (time and money) immediately.  There’s so much power in that 1-to-4 range that could change your business radically if you just took the 5-10 hours to get yourself there.

Decide Right Now To Mid-Line Your Business

What is it about your business that you suck at?  SEO?  Traffic?  Sales?  Something else?  Where are you feeling the pain because you’re at a 1and think you need to be at 8, 9 or 10?  Take ten seconds an think of it now, and then commit to yourself to learning the very basics of that topic – just 5 hours worth – and see where it gets you.

You need mid-lining if you want to grow faster without pouring money into high-priced consultants.  (Note: There’s nothing wrong with high-priced consultants.  Use them to do the 5-to-10 skill level stuff.  Just don’t pay top dollar for 1-through-4 stuff you can do yourself).

Where will you apply mid-lining in the next 30 days?  Let me know in the comments below, I’d love to hear it.

Last Wednesday we talked about the importance of having “Magnets” as business contacts so that you would be pulled towards growing, rather than keeping the status quo with your Grounders.  Magnets are essential to making the big leaps that get you to move past what you think you want and start chasing what you really want.  (Clay gets this.)

Now let’s talk about how to start attracting the attention of these Magnets so your business can grow like you want it to.  Here’s the big, deep, dark secret:

The Top Secret Strategy:  Givers Get.

I’ve said it before – the number one way to connect with people is to get to know what they are passionate about and discover how you can add value to what they are doing.  That’s it.  You want to get on a Magnet’s radar?  Find a way to make their life easier.  Find a way to help them get what they want.  Find a way to make them feel better, or more valued, or more confident.

Take note:  I’m not talking about ass-kissing.  That’s a stupid networking strategy, it’s not sustainable, and it doesn’t give you any leverage.  I’m talking about connecting with someone on a meaningful level and making their world better for your being there.

A long time ago I realized the secret of climbing the corporate ladder wasn’t to be a superstar at work (though that’s important for a lot of reasons).  The secret of climbing the ladder is making life easier for the people above you and helping them reach their business goals.  Then they notice you and want to reward you.

When You Give, Give Strategically

Face it – your time, energy, and personal bandwidth are limited.  There’s not “enough of you to go around” for everyone.  So when you start networking via this giving strategy, you have to choose the people who you give to strategically.  You can’t just give to everyone without limit.

Think about what your end goals are, and begin to give accordingly to the types of people who can not only benefit from what you give, but also are in a position to give back according to your goals.  A great example of this strategy is guest posting on people’s blogs.  (James gets this.)  I’m doing this like crazy right now, because it works both ways – I bring good content to other blogs, and I get exposure to their audience.

This is also the reason that links to other blogs work so well when connecting to bloggers.  You’re giving them something they want (exposure) without asking for anything in return.  And more often than not, what goes around comes around.

These are blogging examples because that’s my giving strategy at the moment – I’m working on raising the profile of this blog, so I’m helping other bloggers achieve their goals.  Many people keep the focus on themselves, but shouldn’t – the payoff for helping others is nothing short of amazing.

Of course, there’s another benefit to focusing on being a giver – it makes you a nicer person to be around.

In my next Rock Your Business article, I’ll go into how to start choosing strategic networking connections.  Stay subscribed so you don’t miss it.

A Few Networking Posts You Should Read

A while back, I started writing a few networking tips articles that I think you’d enjoy.  Check them out if you’d like, and please leave a comment if you’ve got a moment.  That’ll put you on my radar

• 5 Must-Have Skills For Million Dollar Networkers
• Become A Master Networker By Changing These 3 Beliefs
• Confidence: The Networking Strategy That Works Every Time
• How To Build A Huge Network Without Traveling Anywhere
• How To Start Building Your Networking Plan

How’s your business growing?  If it’s expanding by leaps and bounds, then “good on ya,” as Michael Martine is fond of saying.  If it isn’t – and you’re struggling to bring in more traffic, more customers, more sales, then the problem may not be your business model as much as the people in your peer group. You may limiting yourself based on the expectations of your business friends and associates who don’t drive you to be more, do more, and demand more from yourself.

Two Types of Business Forces: Grounding And Magnetism

There are two types of people you can hang out with in the business arena:  Grounders and Magnets. Here’s what makes one type different from the other.

• Grounders are people who are roughly at the same level as you are in your business.  People with similar sales levels, or brand awareness levels, similar connections, skills, etc..  These are great people to connect with because they are able to work with you where you are and  understand where you’re coming from.  Additionally, there’s often opportunities to team up and do cool stuff to expand your business.   But there’s a limiting factor as well – it’s often hard to find people who are willing to think outside of the box, push themselves harder and raise their standards in huge ways.  Long-term, you tend to stay at the same level if all the people you connect with are Grounders.

• Magnets are people who are well above your level in their businesses.  They are bigger names, stronger brands, and more connected people.  Most people thing Magnets are “out of their league,” but it’s often not the case.  If you can find the right way to connect with Magnets, they can take you under their wing, showing you what’s possible beyond your comfort zone and even providing things like mentoring advice, first-hand introductions, and the occasional kick in the pants. Magnets are powerful contacts because to continue connecting with them, you have to raise your own standards just to keep up.  Sometimes this is tough work, but sometimes it’s actually easy because your Magnets show you ways to get the results you’re currently getting with less work – freeing you up to grow.  Long term, Magnets can be the strongest factor in your business growth.

Don’t Spend All Your Time With Grounders

If you want to grow your business at a faster rate, you need to, need to, NEED TO carefully strike a balance between Grounders and Magnets in your life.   You can’t spend all your time with Grounders because you’ll grow slowly – or stay at the same level forever.  This is not to say Grounders are bad to spend time with. Far from it – in fact, you’ll have a lot of Grounders in your life because they are your peer group.  They have valuable things to contribute to your business growth, and you have many valuable things to contribute right back at them.  And most importantly, Grounders are the people who will have more time for you.

And in reality, you’re a Grounder too, to other people, just as I am.  So I’m not knocking it.   Not at all.

The Psychology of Magnetic People

Why do I call the other camp of people Magnets?  It’s because of a basic psychological principle that we tend to perform according to the expectations of our peer group. If everyone else we like to hang with is doing things a certain way, or achieving a certain level of things, then we want to do the same things too.  It’s just natural.  But if all you have are Grounders, your peer group doesn’t drive you to push yourself to higher levels.

When you include more Magnets in your peer group, you’re going to feel that psychological pull to behave in ways that match what your Magnets are doing – to employ better strategies, to think in bigger-picture ways, and to move outside your comfort zone.

And the coolest part – when you grow as an effect of hanging out with all of your Magnets, you become the Magnet to all of your Grounders. You get to take them with you, if they’re willing.  And how cool is that.

A Quick Shout-Out To My Magnets

There are a few solid people a rung above where I am that have been m most powerful Magnets to me over the last 6 months, helping me create a business with more growth than I’d seen in 5 years (cumulative!).  These Magnets are awesome people who you likely already know, but I want to give them a special shout-out to say thanks for all they’ve done to help me:

• Freelance writers James and Harry at Men with Pens, for getting me into freelance writing and helping me build my brand,
• Home business resources maven Naomi at Ittybiz, who has given me valuable technical and marketing advice,
• Freelance entrepreneur Christine O’Kelly at SelfMadeChick, who helped me with strategies to gain long-term, well paying clients,
• Social media web designer Jon Phillips at Spyre Studios, who helped me get huge exposure as one of the original writers at Freelance Folder
• Marketing and Copywriting superhero Sonia Simone at Remarkable Communication for her real-world advice and support as I’ve jumped into the freelancing waters.
• Blog consultant Michael Martine for helping me understand more about creating blogs that drive clients to you.

How To Get The Attention of Magnets

On the next Rock Your Business post, I’ll go into the strategies I used to get my Magnets to pay attention to me and help become part of my business growth.  Check back next Wednesday or subscribe to this blog for free to get updates automagically sent your way.  Huzzah!

As I’ve discovered that the vast majority of my readers are freelancers and entrepreneurs, I’m tossing a business section into the mix at Rock Your Day every Wednesday-ish when I can get to it. I’ll be covering what I’m doing to grow my freelancing and audio coaching business, some networking tips, and maybe even a shout-out or two to those who are helping me rock my own business.

I’ve been fortunate to experience some fast growth due to some of my background in business / online marketing (the ethical kind, not the scummy snake oil kind) , and I want to start sharing what I know with you so you can make more money (without having to go through a huge learning curve).

I’m well aware that many of my readers bust their asses just to put food on the table, so I want to help you do a little less ass-bustin’ so you can spend more time with the people who matter to you.

So Speak Up, Bub, And Tell Me What’cha Want

I’ve got plenty to talk about over the upcoming Wednesdays, but I’m really interested in what kinds of business challenges you’re facing right now.  I can’t promise I have the answers, but if your challenge sees to be a common one with other readers, I’ll definitely give it a go and see what kinds of tips I can work up for you.

One thing though – do try and keep your questions in the realm of blogging / online marketing / freelancing, as that’s what I’m doing right now.  Questions about how to handle an international import/export business or how to break into emerging third-world markets aren’t my area of expertise.

Comments are open – so what’cha, what’cha what’cha want?

PS – don’t forget to subscribe to catch all the upcoming Rock Your Business posts.

Subheading Scanners, Unite!

• The Last 7 Days of Freelance Smackdown – Did It Blend?
• My Biggest Lesson From The Last 30 Days
• What’s Coming Up For The Next 30 Days
• The Moral Of The Story + The Oscar-esque Link Love

The Last 7 Days of Freelance Smackdown – Did It Blend?

The results are in – upon today’s payday I will have generated $1,225 in freelance income over the past 30 days, simply by following the steps outlined in Christine’s eBook. It definitely blends. For those curious, the breakdown goes like this:

• $1,075 in outsourced work (meaning someone else contacted me with jobs)
• $150 in sourced work (meaning I got off my a$$ and found the jobs myself)

And, moving forward, I have

• $700 in contracted work over the next 60 days (sourced)
• $700 in potential add-ons for that work (also sourced)

Since my goal was $1,000 to $2,000 over this 30 day period, I feel 100% satisfied that this experiment was a complete success – not just because I hit the immediate monetary goal, but because I have some sustainable income over the next few months. I easily see being able to bump it up to an ongoing $1,000 in the future.

These last seven days had a lot more effort in looking for higher paying business.

• As I mentioned in last week’s report, one of the 5 emails I sent out to SEOs panned out, so that’s contributed to my sourced income and will stretch on for 2 months. And it’s at my higher, ideal rate of $X, so it’s more roughly twice as profitable than the outsourced work I’ve been doing.
• This week I contacted about 25 SEOs, and received about two potential bites, but nothing else. Given that it took a while for my current SEO client to reply to my email, I understand that a certain part of this game is waiting, so I won’t stress.
• This week I also netted a long-term contract at my ideal rate from an old coaching client of mine from a year ago … who just happens to be an SEO expert. I still have no idea why her name wasn’t on the top of my list of contacts. It’s forehead smacking time.

I’m pretty wiped at this point, since generating the lion’s share of this income came from article rewrites and writing endless product descriptions. While that has been amazing for creating a steady stream of income, I don’t think I could be happy sustaining that much rewriting year-round. I’ve discovered that more than ever, I love to do the creative work, writing new things instead of rewriting old – especially since I’ve tasted the higher rates that come with doing original content.

However, it’s nice to know that the rewrite income is there for the taking. I simply wouldn’t have been able to make my goal this month without it. My key advice to new freelancers: don’t think that a less creative job is beneath you – if you’re just starting out, take it, generate some income and then use the magic of dissatisfaction to push you to seek out higher-paying projects as quickly as possible.

My Biggest Lesson From The Last 30 Days

If there’s one lesson I’ve reinforced to myself, it’s that pulling the trigger and taking action is more important than anything. Just jumping in to “see what might happen” has been invaluable – and profitable as well. I have to admit I had my doubts that I could bag writing work at my ideal rate of $X so quickly … but it happened. Not because I was one slick marketer, but because I just got the word out about what I do and what my rates were. Lucky roll of the dice? Perhaps. But the point is that I actually rolled the dice, instead of wondering “what if.”

That’s where having a steady stream of work coming in at 1/2 $X really saved me. If I were a freelancer full-time, or if I was in a tremendous financial pinch, I would have been terrified of using writing as my full-time income. I just couldn’t see myself as being able to ask for $X right from the start, because I’d be afraid of being turned down by everyone and having no revenue stream. But since I had money coming in, that took the edge off. I was able to try to source work without fretting about being rejected, because I had a cushion building. If you’re feeling afraid to ask what for the rate you think you deserve, try this strategy. It just feels better.

What’s Coming Up For The Next 30 Days

Time is tight for the next 30-60 days, so I have to use every moment wisely. I feel very fortunate that I was able to book all my upcoming work at my ideal rate, so my focus will be to get more of the same-paying work in the pipeline. To do that I will try a few strategies to talk the 2 SEOs I’m sourcing work from into giving me additional work. Just as it’s much more profitable to market to existing customers rather than new ones, it’s a more leveraged use of my time to get added value out of my clients.

If I can generate 5-10 hours a week of work at my ideal rate of $X, I’ll be very content with freelance writing. So that’s my focus for now. The other 5+ hours I’m allotting for business will be spent building my own blog content and building my client base (or better yet, finding even higher-paying work).

The Moral Of The Story + The Oscar-esque Link Love

Take action, and don’t be afraid to be rejected. Value yourself, and the work will follow (as long as you’re getting off your a$$ to help find it – or at least to find someone else to find it for you). So buy the $12 eBook already, use it, and join me in a profitable adventure.

Here comes the link love:

• Christine, for writing words that kicked me in the a$$ and got me going,
• James and Harry, for constant encouragement, understanding, and awesomeness,
• Naomi, for inspiring me to reach out to the “itty bitty businesses” (ka-ching, baby, it works!),
• Jon, for giving me a platform for the callout in the first place,
• To all my commenters, new email contacts and readers – you put a smile on my face every day.

Let the commenting begin – I’d love to hear how the Freelance Smackdown series has inspired you to kick a$$ in your own special way. And go ahead and subscribe to this blog if you haven’t already – it’ll do you good!

See you in the comments,

Dave

Today’s post is going to cover:

• How To Guarantee Your Blog Post Doesn’t Get Noticed
• The Last 7 Days of Freelance Smackdown Activity
• What’s Coming Up For The Next 7 Days
• The Scary Lesson I Learned This Week
• What’s The Scariest Lesson You’ve Learned As A Freelancer?
• How To Increase Your Blog Stats And Get Backlinks

How To Guarantee Your Blog Post Doesn’t Get Noticed

I’m posting on Thursday today, because last week I made the not-too-wise decision to post on Friday night at 9pm (which alone was bone-headed), and as Feedburner doesn’t email out notifications for my blog until 8:45pm or so, it didn’t get sent out until the next day. So not much comment love. Now I know why I keep getting Naomi’s updates so damned late. Lesson learned, though – so let’s get this edition kicked out by end of lunchtime.

If you haven’t read last week’s Freelance Smackdown! update, check it out now and watch me kick the Law of Attraction below the belt and teach you to use real, actual true-to-life magic to increase your freelancing income. (And by real magic, I mean a metaphor.)

The Last 7 Days of Freelance Smackdown Activity

Two things happened over the last seven days:

1. I worked my a$$ off on that long-term contract I mentioned last week as well as a new “ASAP” rush job that I cranked on. My brain is fried (for reasons I’ll describe below) but it’s worth it – I’m going to finish out the week with about $650 in freelance writing income. That’s more than I earned over the previous 4 weeks combined. While I won’t put in nearly the same number of hours for the upcoming weeks, it was nice to start off the month with a chunk of change that I plan to use to flip my Visa card the bird. The other thing that happened this week was:
2. I received a reply to one of the emails I sent out a few weeks ago advertising my copywriting services and rates, just as Christine advised in her eBook. I sent out only 5 emails, and though just one person responded (after a long wait), it’s paying off. The SEO outscourcer was willing to bill me out for my rate of $X on one article, which makes me smile because it’s roughly double what I’m getting from the projects that are outsourced to me using a third party. But it gets better – I used one of the tips on creating ongoing services that Christine talked about and got the SEO’s client to commit to ten articles instead of one. That will help me insult my Visa balance in new and exciting ways over the coming months.

So the moral of the story is, get the damn eBook already, and if you have it, use the hell out of it. PS - that’s a straight link, not an affiliate one, so I’m not getting paid to say I dig it.

What’s Coming Up For The Next 7 Days

Unless work magically comes knocking on my door at my ideal rate of $X, I’ll continue chugging along on my 1/2 $X work that will carry me through the end of March. This is going to be a busy month for me, so I won’t be able to take on much extra at all. The N hours of writing will take up about all the time I’ve allotted for freelancing, so there’s not much leftover unless I get more efficient at writing (which I’m working on).

Since I’ve got a steady stream of work going, I’m considering taking the small amount of remaining time I have budgeted for freelancing and using it solely for shooting out more of those emails. I’m kind of juiced about how 15 minutes of hunting down SEOs and 5 minutes of emailing has netted me ten hours of work at my ideal rate. The idea of cutting my workload in half and still making the same amount in April is definitely attractive.

So at this rate, it looks like I’m going to finish out this 30-day experiment damned close to the high-end of my $1000 – $2000 goal. Once again, I thank everyone for their support, encouragement, comments, links and of course, subscriptions to this blog, and I’ll continue to post on what I learn as I dabble in this new world of freelance writing.

The Scary Lesson That I Learned This Week

I took a rush job this week that paid well and is responsible for the majority of the $650 I’ll be pulling in on payday tomorrow. But I honestly don’t know if I would do it again, given the chance, because it was more mentally taxing than I thought. Here’s what happened:

• I got an email saying “Would you like to do these 70 ultra-short writing jobs this week? The pay is good!”
• I tried one of them and timed myself. It took only a few minutes! (gets calculator) … Yay! This will only take N hours of work! I’m in!
• Then, reality proceeded to kick me right between the eyes.

Let me say it once and say it clearly: When you are writing the same thing dozens of times in a row, your productivity does not increase. It goes straight to hell.

Sure, it was easy to come up with a quick turn of the phrase to describe something … but after a dozen or so times, you start running out of different ways to describe it – especially when it’s a rush job. My brain started to rebel against me, and by the time I sent in the final files yesterday, I was burned out.

Lesson Learned: If you’ve got repetitious work, spread it out as far as you can. You don’t want to spend 2xN hours writing about the same topic, non-stop.

Whew. Glad that’s over with. And that’s what I have to report for this week.

What’s The Scariest Lesson You’ve Learned As A Freelancer?

Take a moment to relive your store of horror, despair, or passive-agressive enuii in the comments below. How bad could it be? (bwuhahahaha)

How To Increase Your Blog Stats and Get Backlinks

The secret is simpler than you might think, and oh-so-effective: Ask at the end of every post, like this:

• If you dig the Freelance Smackdown!, keep updated by subscribing to this blog via email or RSS.
• If you want to share the love, please link back to this page (or Smackdown Central) with snarky commentary on your own site. Rock it!

You know what to do,

Dave

Today’s post is going to cover:

• The Last 7 Days of Freelance Smackdown Activity
• What’s Coming Up For The Next 14 Days
• The Magic of Working For Less Than You Want
• How To Use The Magic For Fun And Profit
• What To Do When You’re Starting From Scratch

The Last 7 Days of Freelance Smackdown Activity

‘Tis Friday once more, and I’m closing in on the end of Freelance Smackdown: Week Two. Numbers are a little skewed because I didn’t actually do much freelance writing (less than $100 incoming cash this week). But the good news – I locked in about $1,500 worth of writing assignments to be spread out over the next 45 days.

February’s total for part time freelancing since I read the eBook is $594.25, though (again), to be technical, only $229.50 of that was after the call-out. It’s been a good month for this part-time experiment, and I want to thank all of you for your support so far.

A special not to all people who have commented/emailed me without getting a response: I’m not ignoring you. You’ll hear from me soon.

What’s Coming Up For The Next 14 Days

I’ve been doing a bit of thinking about how to move forward as a long-term part-time freelancer. By “long-term part-time” I mean I’m not looking to leave my day job anytime in the near future – I’m freelancing simply to generate a second stream of income. Effectively, I guess I’m giving myself a raise.

But because I’m not aiming to do this full-time, that gives me an enormous amount of flexibility when it comes to how I want to evolve. I don’t have to reactively do certain things just to make ends meet, so I’m free to choose what I want to work on, and what I don’t. Having spent 15 years in the corporate arena, I’m not used to that, so it’s interesting to get used to the idea.

Of course, I didn’t feel this way before last week when I was trying to think of the fastest path to making lots of money. If you haven’t been following the Smackdown, you can read about why I decided that wasn’t my optimal path. Or I can sum it up for you: it was simply easier to leverage other people to find the work for me, and let them take a cut.

I won’t make as much (short term) from this strategy, but it has given me a valuable asset: a secure cash flow for the next 45 days. I’ve essentially booked 90% of the hours I have available to freelance, and the $1,500 that’s coming in over that time meets my goal perfectly. However, it didn’t come without a price – it’s essentially easier, lower-paying work. Not what I want to do long term, but it’s what I’m doing for the next 45 days.

So why did I book 90% of my time with lower paying work, when I could go running after more lucrative jobs like sales page copywriting, which people routinely bill out $100 or more per hour for? Because doing this is magical. Really.

The Magic Of Working For Less Than You Want

There’s no magic in dreaming of making more money, regardless of what The Secret tells you (”Secret” lovers, please refrain from flame wars in the comments). Dreaming doesn’t make things happen. Action does. And I’ve learned from experience two things that seem contradictory at first glance:

• Every hour you spend planning saves you five hours of implementation. In other words, Ready, Aim, Fire.
  
• It’s more important to pull the trigger than to overplan and overanalyze. In other words, Ready, Fire, Aim.

Don’t these two statements contradict each other? Yes, of course they don’t. Yes, they are polar opposites of each other when looked at one at a time. But if you do them both, and you do them in the right order, they work hand in hand for magical results. Here’s what I mean.

Overplanning something you’ve never done before doesn’t guarantee success. It might just get you a very carefully crafted plan that won’t work. Think of all the times you planned something out in detail, or worked hard to get what you wanted, only to find out it wasn’t what you wanted at all. This is what happens when you do Ready, Aim, Fire, 100 percent of the time.

Sometimes, out of fear of failure, we get stuck in Ready, Aim, Fire mode forever. Except we spend all our time in the Aim phase, because we’re waiting until we get things perfect before we take action. That’s a recipe for slow (or no) success.

On the other hand, when you just pick a direction, pull the damn trigger and take action, you get a result – you get something. You’ve done the Fire part. And you can look at your result and see if it’s what you really wanted. It it is, continue. If it isn’t, now you have more clarity on what you really want. And you have it immediately.

And there’s a balance. Use Ready, Aim, Fire just to make sure you’re firing in the general direction of where you want to be, and then use Ready, Fire, Aim to rapidly figure out how to get closer to the target (or more importantly, if you need a different target entirely). And do it fast.

This isn’t that different than a lot of people’s experiences in college. You choose X as a major, take some core classes, decide that you don’t really want to do X, so you choose Y instead. Y doesn’t do it for you, so you switch to Z, and so on. By trying something you quickly ferret out what you do and don’t want by experience, something you can’t do when planning on paper.

And here’s why this is magical. When you’re just planning what you think you would like to do, there’s not necessarily an internal pressure to get it done. But when you’re doing something and you don’t like it, you have a real incentive to change. And you magically have the motivation to take more action. And action is the true currency that gets you to your goals.

If I know I can earn $X an hour doing freelance writing, but I don’t know how to attract clients who are willing to pay that, I might not take action. But if I work for one quarter of $X, I have a magical incentive to change, because I can look at my workload and say, “Crap, I can cut 40 hours a week down to 10 if I just figure this stuff out!” And off I go. And off you’ll go, too.

So that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing. To say “poof! gimme some motivation, sucka!” And it’s working. But there’s more magic to be had.

How To Use The Magic For Fun And Profit

The key to making this magic trick work is to leave yourself some wiggle room, some time to think about how you’re going to optimize your client-catching ways. This is where you dip back into Ready, Aim, Fire mode. Now you’re planning again, but you’re planing from a smarter frame of mind, because you know more about how the whole system works. Experience is a key advantage when making plans, so it’s good to get it early.

I told you that there was more magic, and sure enough, there is. If you’ve done the Ready, Fire, Aim deal and you’re actually doing something to bring in money, a magical thing seems to happen – you start to suddenly meet people who can help you make more money and help you make more connections. It’s like … like some secret law of attraction draws them to you.

Except it’s really not magical at all, because there is no law of attraction. In truth, it’s just simple human nature. People prefer to work with other people who are active and successful rather than people who just dream. In other words, people look over and say “Damn, that guy is busting his ass and making money! I bust my ass too when I want to make money. Suddenly I feel a strange affinity with him!”

Oooh, magic. Except without the hocus-pocus. Like the old saying goes, “When you’re on fire, people will come from miles around to watch you burn.”

Indeed.

So Here’s Your Homework, If You’re Starting From Scratch

I have a feeling I’ll be breaking this topic out into a bunch of blog posts, so I’ll wrap it up here. If you’re one of those people who, like me, wanted to break into a freelance gig but didn’t know how you could make the big money, jump in and make the small money first. Contact other freelancers who you respect and who have more experience and say up front, “Listen, I’m want to break into this field. I’m willing to work for cheap for a little while to get my feet wet and get used to the business. Outsource some work to me and take your cut.”

If you’re really brave, you could even work for free – but only for someone you truly respect who can show you the ropes in return. I don’t recommend just doing this for anyone, though, because some people will screw you over in a heartbeat. But if you can find a really successful person who has top-notch character, it might be worth it.

Just do something. Ready/Aim just a little bit. Then Fire. Then lather, rinse, repeat. This advice won’t apply to all the readers of this blog, but if it strikes a chord for you, leave a comment below and consider subscribing to this blog if you haven’t already.

You know what to do,

Dave

freelance smackdown index | next article in series

Dave

Today’s post is going to cover:

• The last 48 (or so) Hours of Freelance Smackdown Activity
• Second Thoughts and Refining My Ideas
• They May Take My Rates, But They’ll Never Take My Freedom
• I Still (Want To) Know What You Did Last Summer (For Pay)
• Good Things Come To Those Who Expect Them
• We’re No One Without Someone Else

The Last 48 (Or So) Hours of Freelance Smackdown Activity

‘Tis Friday, and I’m closing in on the end of Freelance Smackdown: Week One. Total bank for part time freelancing since I read the eBook is $505, though to be technical, only $140 of that was after the call-out. But I’ll count the whole $505 since it’s all post-eBook freelance earnings.

I started to put out the word via email to a few SEO shops that I am available for writing services, along with my rates, but I’m backing off on that strategy. Not because it’s a bad strategy (it’s actually a great one), but because of some bigger picture concerns I’ll go into below.

Second Thoughts and Refining My Ideas

One thing that is so attractive to me about freelance writing is the schedule. I don’t have to interact with people at set times, which is great since my freelancing time is limited to early, early morning and late evening. Not having to depend on real-time communication is of prime importance to me since I’m essentially unavailable during business hours (read = day job). So it got me to thinking about the “A-Team” conversation in the comments of the other day’s post.

Do I really want to assemble a team? Do I want to create a layer of overhead that has me outsourcing work to this person and that person, finding clients and negotiating contracts and following up on this and that? Do I really want to – dare I say it – manage something else while I have so many projects in progress right now? I don’t think that I do.

But I still want to connect people with opportunities. I just don’t want to manage whatever it is I have to manage to get a cut. I’d rather just meet as many people as I can and throw the damn work I find at them. Because when I think about it, my primary goal isn’t getting a cut. My primary goal is creating goodwill, networking like a madman and leveraging the hell out of my connections so that everybody wins, big time. That’s worth a lot more than 10% off the top.

I’m thinking a little clearer now that I’ve run out of that lovely prescription cough medicine (mmm, codeine) and replaced it with Killian’s Irish Red (mmm, beer). Editor’s note: There is no need for any of you Canadians to tell me to put the word “beer” in quotation marks. I know yours is stronger. Remind me to tell you some funny stories about some Canadian girls I knew in college sometime.

They May Take My Rates, But They Will Never Take My Freedom

So I’m taking a step back in order to take two steps forward. I’m not going to go out there and try to extract the highest rates possible for my writing and strive to sell big giant packages. If freelance writing were my primary objective, you bet your ass I would, though. But it’s not. My objective with this 30-day experiment is to:

• See if it is possible to follow Christine’s advice to build a freelance (side) business in the $1000-$2000 range without a metric crapton of effort.

Now, given that, I have some “unspoken” objectives in this experiment as well:

• Create an income stream doing something that comes to me easily,
• Do it without adding additional stress to my life,
• Meet awesome people along the way as I surf this new experience.

Managing the “A-Team” takes care of my spoken objective but not my unspoken ones. I don’t want additional responsibilities that take me away from my core business desire, which is to build an online library of in-demand coaching products that bring me passive income. Passive income = freedom.

Writing when I feel like it = freedom.

Managing the A-Team = Second Job.

I don’t want to hand over freedom for a little extra money. So for the time being, I’m taking page 17 to heart, and letting other people do the legwork of finding new work for me (details in just a bit). Let them take their cut – they deserve it – and I’ll take the peace of mind I get by not chasing after new clients

This is just part time, after all.

I Still (Want To) Know What You Did Last Summer (For Pay)

That said, I still want the emails, comments and introductions to keep coming. Tell me who you are, what you do, where you want to go over the next 12 months. Connect me with your connections, and let me do the same for you. Every good thing in my life has come from as a result of my ability to connect people with opportunities. And for the love of all things leveraged, do it in the comments. That way everyone can learn about you.

What goes around always seems to come around. I’d love to be able to pass business your way as I learn about it, and with as many people as I meet every week, the chances are high that if your skills rock, I might come in contact with someone looking to be rocked in the way that only your freelancing badass can rock. (Yes, that’s repetitive, but so is the line of empty Killian’s bottles I’m stacking next to my laptop.)

Good Things Come To Those Who Expect Them

I went into this experiment with a sense of expectation that I would meet my goals within 30 days. And it looks like that’s going to happen. I just got confirmation on the phone of over $1,000 of work coming to me next week (well, it’s spread out over 4 weeks, but it’s over $1,000 all the same), so unless it falls through (which seems unlikely to me), I’ve hit my goal for now.

How did it happen? By doing what the good eBook says – focusing on leveraging strategic partners. I went after someone who already had connections with high-volume clients, so it turns out I’m getting a slice of the overflow work. Lower rates than solo? Yes. Higher leverage? Hell, yes. Now I can simply schedule out the hours for this work (and any other work that comes my way) and use the remainder to network and build my business as well as spread the love to those I meet via this blog. And that’s what Million Dollar Leverage is all about.

Leverage is also about optimization, rather than maximization – in other words, getting more of what you really want rather than just “more.” Relationships are more valuable than cash, though ironically better business relationships bring in more cash long term.

We’re No One Without Someone Else

And speaking of better relationships, I have to give a big, major, incredible shout-out to Mr. X, the guy who got me my first freelance writing work (and hopefully even more down the road). I’m calling him Mr. X because I don’t know if he wants me to say who he is – I’m still don’t have my footing on how the whole outsourcing culture operates, so I’m not making any assumptions as to whether Mr. X wants the world to know he’s outsourcing some of his work.

It’s probably no big deal, but I’m erring on the side of caution, because this week has seen more than it’s share of me putting my foot in my mouth in both the online and offline world. All I want to do now is say thanks, bro, for believing in me. This cash will really help out in launching my core business ventures, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

We are no one without the people who support us, who believe in us, and who trust us. We gain the most when we give without expectation or return. There is enough to go around, if you hold on to that expectations and dig like hell for the opportunities. That’s a really long way of wording what Naomi would probably say as “Give, people.”

So give, already. Network in the comments below. Get in my field of vision, so if things come my way that are a good fit for you, I can get in touch with you and let you know there’s something up your alley. Be sure to put a website link in the appropriate comments field, but no phone numbers, please. I’m an email-only kind of guy.

This is just part time, after all.

Dave

freelance smackdown index | next article in series

Dave

Today’s post is going to cover:

• The last 24 hours of Freelance Smackdown Activity
• How I’m (Really) Expanding My Services
• How I’m Really, Really Expanding My Services
• A Big Thank You To Everbody

The Last 24 Hours of Freelance Smackdown Activity

First off: On Tuesday, this blog exploded as far as traffic goes. Thanks to you Stumblers and all who backlinked. And thank you for all comments here and on Christine’s blog. Tuesday was a day of work, where I finished up the billable goodness that had come my way in the evening after my day job. I was actually in the good position of having to turn down a piece of work this week. Would have been nice to have the cash, but I decided it was better to work on doing things to raise my rates and expand my services. (Remember, I have a day job, so I have to cram in all my efforts early in the morning and late at night).

Which brings me to the main point – I had a call with Christine last night, and it was amazingly helpful in terms of helping me expand my services. She basically whacked me on the head and reminded me that expanding services was about more than just offering more services … it was about adding related services all around the primary service you’re offering. This way you’re selling a package and not just a one-off service. Bonus points if you make it something that’s ongoing. Here’s how I’m doing it.

How I’m (Really) Expanding My Services

Old and busted: “Dave writes articles. Please hire him.” New hotness: Packages of killer value. Behold:

The Cornerstone Content Package

• 5 in-depth, 800-word “cornerstone content” articles about your topic of choice
• 1 tie-in 800-word article linking out to the 5 articles

The Instant Authority Package

• 7 in-depth, 800-word “cornerstone content” articles about your topic of choice
  • All articles crosslink each other where relevant (boosting pageviews)
  • All articles contain relevant graphics
• 1 tie-in 1000-word article linking out to the 7 articles
• Related PDF download to use as incentive to subscribe to RSS feed
  • RSS feed plugin to restrict PDF to subscribers

Each service will also offer this optional ongoing service:

• X Additional on-topic articles added to the blog each month

Note to Readers: Any suggestions for additional ongoing services? I’ve got to add more of Christine’s going to throw something at me.

I’ll likely tweak the hell out of these packages based on comments & Christine’s advice. But I now have more than I did before and it’s time to start putting the word out.

How I’m Really, Really Expanding My Services

As I build up a client list, they’ll undoubtedly have additional needs I simply can’t handle (or won’t want to). So, the operative word here will be outsourcing. That means you, if you’re interested. If you’re a web worker of any stripe, and you’re looking to provide services than will be useful to bloggers / SEO clients, then give me a shout out via the comments and send an email to me at dave (I hate spam) davenavarro (I really hate spam) com. Sheesh, is there an easier way to put my email address here without worrying about spambots harvesting it?

So, to recap again, if you’ve got web skills, whether it be programming, design or whatever, shoot me an email with your skill sets, references/portfolio/etc., and most importantly, your rates.

A Big Thank You To Everybody

I just wanted to take a second and thank everyone again for showing up. My RSS count and traffic is really humming in the midst of this 30 Day Challenge, and I’m meeting a lot of great people. So my thanks to all, and I hope you take the time to subscribe to this blog if you’ve liked what you’ve read so far and want to see how the Freelance Smackdown progresses.

You know what to do,

Dave

freelance smackdown index | next article in series

If You Scan Blog Headers, This Is For You

Today’s post is going to cover:

• The last 24 hours of Freelance Smackdown Activity
• How I’m Expanding My Services
• How You Can Easily Do It, Too

The Last 24 Hours of Freelance Smackdown Activity

Monday wasn’t too productive a day for me as I was feeling a resurgence of bronchitis (walking through freezing rain in DC last week didn’t help). Tried to sleep in as much as possible so I could go all out in the evening. Last night I was successful in booking some extra freelance writing work but didn’t actually do anything billable (head was pretty fuzzy so I didn’t want to write), so I worked on my game plan for the next seven days. (Tonight I do the tasty, billable writing stuff).

She Gets Up How Early?

So Christine makes good and is on the phone at 5 am this morning (well done!). I’d like to claim my Early Riser program got her to do it, but she’s already an early riser. She bought the program anyway because she’s pushing her day’s start to 4 am. Now that’s a sign of a hard-core entrepreneur. We have a great 90-minute coaching call that focuses around what she needs to do to take on new projects while decreasing her overall workload at the same time. (In other words, how to do more, but how to take less time to get it all done).

Like a lot of coaching calls, I can sum it up as “This person is smart enough to know what they need to do, but just needs a kick in the ass to make this one thing a priority out of all the other things they know they need to do.” James Chartrand kicked my ass like that a few days ago. (Thanks, James). We are all so immersed in our too-busy lives that sometimes we just need that external kick to move us forward. I have no doubt that Christine will see results she likes this week, because she’s an action-taker.

She also cracks me up, because I overheard this on her blog today:

I have never been so pumped up at 6:30am as I was today after my phone call with Dave. I’m almost tempted to get shirts made up on Cafe Press that say “I heart Dave Navarro.”

(Christine, let me know when those are available so I can order one for my wife, just to see her roll her eyes at me. )

Another Idea For Expanding Services

As I hang up the phone, it hits me that I just accomplished what I talked about yesterday – getting someone to figure out the best “next step” and the easiest way to make it happen. Kind of a commando/swat team “quick in-quick out” results extraction mission. I really love doing calls like that because it’s a quick way to help someone get immediate traction on improving their strategy.

So I’ve decided to offer an additional service – the “Time Management Urgent Care Package.” Basically, two 30-minute phone calls where I help you

1. Figure out what your biggest time management issue is
2. Set you up with the easiest way to make immediate progress on nuking it and
3. Follow up to help you steer past any obstacles you hit

Two 30-minute, highly targeted phone calls that will help you plan a surgical strike at the heart of your biggest time management problem. I’ll even have both calls recorded for you to download and keep.

I’m targeting this service towards very small businesses* that don’t have a great deal of cashflow, so the investment for the two calls will be a price any small operation* can appreciate. I know how hard it is to spend money when you’re a small business* – especially one person – so the price will be $50.

* Damn, Naomi, you don’t know how many times I wanted to write “IttyBiz,” instead of “small business. You’re a friggin’ noun, now.

$50 is a lot less than my regular coaching rate ($125/hr), but that’s because I’m aiming at the “ittybiz” who just needs an extra edge and doesn’t have a whole lot of money to spend. Also, there are three conditions to the deal:

• When we’re done, I would like a short note from you about how the calls helped you out, to add to my “success stories” file.
• If you’re outside of the continental US, you must either initiate the call or meet me on a conference line.
• The cost is non-refundable (unless you request a refund before we schedule the calls, of course). I’m investing my time, which I can’t get a refund on. I’m certain as an entrepreneur you’ll understand.

If you’re interested, keep in mind that this is a “one per customer” deal. I’ll be open to taking on five to ten small business owners each month, with no repeats (since these are much lower rates than a typical coaching contract).

If you’re interested, this is where you can sign up (first come, first served). It’s a straight PayPal link, so if you pick up the package you’ll get an email from me or my assistant within a few hours. I’ll automate the page later

How You Can Easily Expand Your Freelancing Services, Too

If you want to pull in some extra cash in your freelancing business, then I strongly recommend creating a small, affordable consultation package where you take advantage of your specialized knowledge to train others. No matter what you do for your freelancing biz, you know the ropes. You’ve “been there” and learned something that a beginner hasn’t. You also know specialized processes that others need to use – but don’t want to spend huge money getting trained on.

Consider what you’re good at, and put together a small consultation package to make it accessible. Follow my lead and make part of the terms of the package a “testimonial” clause so you can use that to draw in new customers. And most of all (as page 3 of Christine’s eBook) will tell you, clearly define your outcome. My outcome for the Time Management Urgent Care Package is a roadmap of the next steps that a client needs to take, and a list of ways to make the process easy.

Brainstorm Below, And Don’t Forget To Include Your Link

Come up with your package and tell us about it in the comments below. Even include a link to your page about your expanded services (it should go without saying that anything even remotely spammy will be deleted, but I’m saying it anyway). And if you’re new here, subscribe to this blog if you’ve liked what you’ve read so far and want to see how the Freelance Smackdown progresses.

You know what to do,

Dave

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