Deliberate Freelancer

On today’s show, I quickly go over my top 10 favorite books of 2020—and the one I absolutely hated—before listing out my most anticipated books of 2021. The 2021 list will include several nonfiction books that could help you as you think about your freelance business.

For more in-depth descriptions and information on my top 10 list for 2020, read my blog post “The Best—and Worst—Books I Read in 2020.”

My Top 10 Books (listed in the order I read them) of 2020:

1. “Daisy Jones and The Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid
2. “Long Bright River” by Liz Moore
3. “Evvie Drake Starts Over” by Linda Holmes 4. “The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett
4. “The Family Upstairs” by Lisa Jewell 6. “The Warmth of Other Suns” by Isabel Wilkerson 7. “We Were Liars” by E. Lockhart 8. “Eight Perfect Murders” by Peter Swanson 9. “Mexican Gothic” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
5. “Know My Name” by Chanel Miller

Honorable mention: “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires” by Grady Hendrix

My most hated book in 2020:

“Leave the World Behind” by Rumaan Alam

My Most Anticipated Books of 2021

12 Fiction:

“Hour of the Witch” by Chris Bohjalian — available April 20 in the U.S.

“The Four Winds” by Kristin Hannah — available February 2

“The Survivors” by Jane Harper — available February 2

“Malibu Rising” by Taylor Jenkins Reid — available June 1

“The Whispering House” by Elizabeth Brooks — available March 16

“The House on Vesper Sands” by Paraic O’Donnell — published January 12

“Before She Disappeared” by Lisa Gardner — published January 19

“What Comes After” by JoAnne Tompkins — available April 13

“My Year Abroad” by Chang-rae Lee — available February 2

“The Wife Upstairs” by Rachel Hawkins — published January 5

“Ring Shout” by P. Djèlí Clark — published October 13, 2020

“The Women in Black” by Madeleine St. John — paperback published February 11, 2020

9 Nonfiction:

“A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload” by Cal Newport — available March 2

“Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind” by Dr. Judson Brewer — available March 9

“Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It” by Ethan Kross — published January 26

“Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting” by Lisa Genova — available March 23

“Unbound: A Woman's Guide to Power” by Kasia Urbaniak — available March 9

“Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019” edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain — available February 2

“The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power” by Deirdre Mask — paperback published January 26, 2021

“The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart” by Alicia Garza — published October 20, 2020

“Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America” by Maria Hinojosa — hardback published September 15, 2020; paperback available August 31, 2021

Biz Bite: No Talk Mondays

Resources:

MelEdits blog post “The Best—and Worst—Books I Read in 2020.”

Episode #51 of Deliberate Freelancer: Reading and Book Recommendations during Coronavirus

Episode #69 of Deliberate Freelancer: 9 Nonfiction Books that Improved My Freelance Business

Read in January 2021: “The Promised Land” by Barack Obama

Today’s guest is Satta Sarmah Hightower. Satta is a journalist-turned-content marketer who lives in Boston. She produces content for agencies and brands in the industries of technology, health care IT and financial services. She previously worked for AOL and the Tribune Company and holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University and a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School.

Satta became a full-time freelancer in August 2014 after her second layoff in five years. She realized early on that she could make more money writing B2B content than doing only journalism. Then, she realized she was good at, and enjoyed, writing about B2B technology.

In 2016, Satta hit her goal to make six figures, during her second full year of freelancing. It had been a goal after she came close to that mark in 2015.

Satta believes it’s important to balance higher-earning client projects with your own passion projects, such as coaching, essay writing or podcasting. For Satta, that means developing her fiction writing by taking online fiction writing classes through GrubStreet in Boston.

Satta won’t work for free or do unpaid tests. In fact, she doesn’t like to do any test projects because her resume, clips and experience should be enough for a client to assess whether they want to work with her.

It’s difficult to earn six figures if you’re focused on lifestyle journalism and content (parenting, fashion, health and wellness). The niche is saturated with writers, which brings down the rates. You can still write on these topics, but Satta suggests mixing them in with other, higher-paying niches, such as technology, health care or financial services.

Be easy to work with. As someone who also assigns articles for her clients, Satta has come across too many freelancers who miss deadlines, are hard to reach and/or difficult to work with. Be collaborative with clients and communicate in advance if you run into challenges.

Satta struggles with turning off work at the end of the day. To be present with her young son, it helps her to physically separate herself from her workspace and her work tools. This means sometimes leaving her cellphone in a different room.

Satta is a very early morning person. She often starts her workday at 4:30 a.m. She does this partly to get her work done early so her husband can watch their son in the morning before she takes over in the afternoon. She also knows that she can write easily very early in the morning but struggles to write late at night.

She works about 5–6 hours a day and reserves Fridays for administrative work, recognizing that her brain is tired from writing by the end of the week. She also tries to reserve personal errands and chores for the start or end of the work day, not the middle of the day.

Satta doesn’t work for hourly rates because they penalize her for being efficient. She works for flat fees or retainer agreements. But she does have an “internal hourly rate” that she aims to earn. Tracking her hours and having an internal hourly rate helps her know how to price projects and know whether a proposed fee is fair for her.

Ongoing marketing is crucial to keep the work coming in. You can’t start marketing only when work dries up. Satta gets a lot of work through referrals, including from other freelancers. Working with agencies is helpful because one editor can refer you to other editors at the same company.

LinkedIn is also a good way to get clients. Keep your profile up to date with relevant keywords, and post your work on LinkedIn so potential clients can see that you know certain topics or have worked with certain clients.

Satta tried having a virtual assistant, but it took time to train the person, plus she realized she didn’t want to be anyone’s boss. She prefers the “consultant model,” in which she outsources tasks to third-party services like a transcription service or payroll provider.

Biz Bite: Use an email scheduling tool.

Resources:

Satta on LinkedIn

Satta on Twitter

SattaSarmah.com

GrubStreet in Boston

Book: “Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng

ASJA (American Society of Journalists and Authors)

Quinn popcorn

Temi transcription service

Today, I want to hopefully motivate you, inspire you and encourage you to consider the aspects of your business that need improvement or to make a plan to work on things that you personally struggle with. This episode goes through seven areas that I would love for you to improve upon, if you haven’t already. They are:

1. Embrace a business owner mindset

This idea is what this podcast is based on. Think of yourself as a freelance business owner and all that that entails. Words matter, and the words you tell yourself and others can help to change your mindset.

1. Raise your rates

The pandemic has been a hard year economically too, so raising rates for all clients might not be doable. But there are some clients who fared well, and it may be time to raise your rates. It’s certainly time to raise your rates for potential clients — they don’t know what your past rates were!

Also, if you have a secret hourly rate — which helps you determine project rates and/or is the amount you aim to earn every hour you are working for clients — I encourage you to raise it by at least $25 an hour.

And don't ask your client about raising your rates. Remember, you are a business owner and costs go up. So, you can send an email and say “I wanted to let you know that my rates are going up as of such and such a date. My new rate will be this.”

1. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

It’s important to have anchor clients, but when you commit too much time to an anchor client or become too comfortable with that gig and that income, it can hurt you if you lose that client. Ideally, I would consider not having one client that is more than 35% of your income.

When I talk about don’t put all your eggs in one basket, I also mean your services. This can mean your services and/or your industry. Do you need to expand your niche to have niches that are similar? Can you use your skills to add more services for clients?

1. Don’t compare yourself to others

Sometimes you do this without even thinking about it. You look at others in your field, even friends of yours who are freelancers, and see their amazing careers or their clients or the big achievements they’ve reached. I can fall prey to this just like anyone else.

We have to stop comparing ourselves to others. You are a unique individual, and your business is unique. You have different strengths and weaknesses and values and responsibilities and desires.

First, social media. What social media platforms are you on often and how do they make you feel? Are you happy when you scroll through Instagram and see what people are doing and read motivational quotes? Or does it make you feel lazy or like a failure or that you need to do more? Maybe it is time to get off Instagram! This goes for all social media platforms. Take a critical look at how your viewing and interaction with these platforms make you feel.

Another suggestion: Start a gratitude practice. Perhaps you want to start a gratitude journal to write down one to three simple things that you are thankful for that day. I embrace the word “savor” and try to remember to savor all the little things throughout the day.

Another way to express gratitude in your life is to acknowledge and thank other people. You can still do that as a freelancer. You can let your direct client know if a staff member is really helpful on something. Complimenting and acknowledging people is like volunteering; it makes you feel good to make other people feel good.

One more way to stop comparing yourself to others is to be alert for the word “should.” Anytime you say you “should” be doing something, catch yourself or have your partner or a friend call you out on it.

“Should” often comes with shame and guilt. It makes you feel bad and does little to improve any situation. So stop shoulding yourself.

1. Set boundaries

Boundaries tell you and those around you what is acceptable, appropriate human behavior. They vary from person to person. Knowing what your boundaries are and setting them is critical to building healthy, respectful relationships in your life. So, please check out episode #45 of Deliberate Freelancer for tips on setting boundaries.

1. Get ahold of your finances

For many of us, 2020 blew up our financial goals and plans. Now that the dust has settled a bit, if you haven’t already, I highly encourage you in this first quarter of 2021 to get ahold of your finances. This could be a variety of things — it will be different for everyone,

If you need help with your finances, I highly recommend episode #28 of Deliberate Freelancer, with my guest Pam Capalad. Pam is a certified financial planner and a whiz when it comes to this stuff.

1. Take a vacation or staycation

Plan time off now! Some freelancers tend to be bad in genera...

Today’s guest is Laura Pennington Briggs. Laura is a teacher turned entrepreneur, two-time TEDx speaker and freelance writer. She’s the author of the award-winning “How to Start Your Own Freelance Writing Business” and the Amazon bestseller “Six-Figure Freelancer” and the founder of Operation Freelance.

Laura started as a freelance writer and virtual assistant in 2012. Now, she continues to write but also does book marketing and book launch strategy for authors. She started out as a part-time freelancer. But after 18 months of freelancing—only six months of that as a full-time freelancer—she hit the six-figure mark.

To get to that financial goal, Laura tracked her income and financial projections on a legal pad.

Freelancers are often told not to go on Upwork, but Laura used Upwork to build and scale her business. In fact, she earned over $450,000 through the site over the years. But she points out that it’s important to have a strategy when you are using Upwork.

When she was a new freelancer, she aimed to get Upwork jobs primarily for the feedback, not necessarily the fee, so that she could build good ratings on the site, opening the door to better and more work. She called these her “fast, cheap and simple” jobs to deliver the service easily and quickly to get a fast five-star review. She now has more than 200 positive ratings on Upwork, which lands her good work.

You also have to know what the red flags are, such as clients with ridiculous expectations and a very long description for a simple, short project. Also, when clients tell you they’ve worked with lots of other freelancers before and it’s never worked out, that’s a red flag! You can also read other freelancers’ reviews of clients. Trust those reviews.

The two ways that have worked best for Laura to find new clients have been Upwork and emailing cold letters of introduction (LOIs). Laura says if you send 50 LOIs and only one person responds, there’s something wrong with your LOI or your strategy. It’s important to take the time to research the client and explain why you like that company. Make the beginning of an LOI personal and hook the person. Don’t use a standard template for the entire LOI, which is a common mistake.

Great tip: Laura emails an LOI, and then about 30 minutes later she connects with that person on LinkedIn saying, “Spoiler alert: I just pitched you via email.”

Remember: Your perspective clients don’t really care about you, only that you’re qualified. So keep that part of your LOI to about two sentences and focus instead on how you can help them.

Sending LOIs is also a numbers game—you need to send a lot to get responses. You cannot just send a 1–2 LOIs a week and expect to get a bunch of new clients. Laura recommends sending five pitches a week for three months, tracking them and seeing how people respond. Make it a weekly habit.

Laura is a morning person. She works in batches based on the type of work, not the client. For example, she spends time on pitches for different clients during the same time slot, not focusing on all tasks for one client before moving on to another clients’ tasks.

When it comes to pricing, Laura recommends newer freelancers take on smaller projects and try out their rate, rather than committing to a rate and a long-term contract. You should try out your pricing and make sure you feel comfortable with it. Experienced freelancers should examine their pricing every six months. Clients are paying not for your time, but your years of experience and expertise.

Laura does not commit to pricing over the initial phone call. She tells potential clients she will get back to them by email. She may be nervous to quote over the phone, but she may also actually need the time to consider all aspects of the project and what it may truly cost and entail.

Remember that you can negotiate everything, not just price. You can negotiate length, deadline, scope of work and the amount of communication (no phone calls, no strategy sessions unless they pay more). You can also give a discount if they sign a long-term contract.

Laura advises that you have to get comfortable with calling the shots. You might feel like you’re pitching yourself as a freelancer to a client, but you have to believe that you’re a CEO too and you get to decide what your company policies and deal breakers are.

Laura tried to be an agency owner for a year, outsourcing her writing to subcontractors. And she hated it. You do not have to outsource your client work if you don’t want to. Instead, if you want to scale, you can outsource certain pieces of the process, like marketing, administrative work, invoicing or LinkedIn outreach.

Biz Bite: Hire a virtual assistant

Resources:

Laura’s website: Better Biz Academy

Laura’s book “