Freelance Cake

In this episode, Austin L. Church talks to journalist, freelance writer, and coach Wudan Yan about the art of negotiation. The driving force behind The Writers' Co-op, Wudan tells the story of her transition from journalism to freelance narrative writing and sheds light on the two different cultures with their sets of norms.

Wudan goes on to share how her upbringing and academic background provided very little preparation for the freelance world where negotiation is often necessary.

When teaching freelancers and consultants how to negotiate, Wudan frames back-and-forth as a dialogue or conversation, not a confrontation.

Her personal journey and insights prove that negotiation can be a fulfilling and rewarding aspect of the freelance journey, even if it doesn’t come naturally to you.

If you’ve ever felt uncomfortable during a negotiation or felt like your skills are lacking, you’ll be glad you found this episode.

Key points

• Wudan’s Journey from Science to Narrative Writing (01:53)
• Negotiating a raise for the first time (17:44)
• Wudan's negotiation journey montage (25:37)
• Negotiating rush projects and rush fees (25:51)
• The importance of a conversational approach in negotiations (28:43)
• One simple yet profound tactic to become a master negotiator (36:58)

Notable Quotes

• “You're never going to get what you don't ask for, and you can never get more than the maximum of what you're asking for."
• "Negotiating is a conversation. If both you and I are setting really hard boundaries around things, there's no meeting in between."
• "Ask questions that invite a response.”

Resources & Links

• Business Redesign Group Coaching Program
• $300K Flywheel for Freelancers & Consultants
• The Writers' Co-op
• Jim Dethmer: Leading Above the Line
• Connect with Wudan Yan on Instagram and LinkedIn

This episode of Freelance Cake is brought to you by CrowdHealth

Healthcare in the US is complicated, confusing, and highly personal. Insurance premiums, deductibles, and copays can get really expensive, especially for freelancers and consultants who don’t have an employer paying for anything. Over the last 7 years, my family has saved $60,000+ in premiums, deductibles, and other out-of-pocket medical expenses that we would have paid with our previous insurance policy. Healthcare crowdfunding has been a game changer for us. If you live in the U.S. and you haven’t already explored what CrowdHealth has to offer, take the time to educate yourself. And if you decide you want to give them a try, go to www.joincrowdhealth.com. You can use promo code FREELANCECAKE during sign-up to save $99 per month for 3 months.

Listen, rate, and subscribe!

For specific beliefs, principles, and practices you can use right away to make the freelance game more profitable and satisfying, subscribe to Freelance Cake podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts!

A potential client named Andrew asked Austin that question when he first started freelancing.

Austin had just been laid off from his job at a marketing agency, and he chose $40 per hour as his rate because his agency had billed out his time at $85 an hour. If he charged half, then maybe clients would feel like they were getting a good deal.

He wasn’t confident in that rate though and would have agreed to less. With only $486 to his name, he was desperate for a paying freelance gig!

Does that describe you now?

Are you one of the many freelancers who think clients only want a good deal? Do you come down on price when clients push back? Do you feel like you have to charge less than the next guy or gal to be competitive?

Chances are, you're charging less than you should be.

But how do you know how much your work is worth? What are the actual costs of doing business? Who even decides these things? Pricing our services can feel like pulling teeth.

Here's something to think about:

Steve Jobs once paid a designer named Paul Rand $100,000 to create a logo for NeXT Computing. You read that right—$ 100,000 for a logo. In 1986.

Was Paul Rand’s work a hundred times better than the designer who charged $1,000?

Of course, not!

Talent or skill can’t explain a 100x higher price. So what gives?

What we’re able to charge often comes down to our confidence and mindset. Our target audience is certainly a factor too. What value do clients in that market or niche put on the outcomes you deliver?

Things are worth what people will pay, and what people will pay goes up with perceived value. Perceived value goes up with perceived expertise.

If you aren’t satisfied with your prices or your freelance income, you need to reassess self-imposed psychological barriers.

What if you knew that shifting to a particular pricing strategy could help you stand out from the competition? What if you were confident that your freelance pricing were sending the right signals about your brand, services, and value?

Your pricing strategy can attract the types of clients you want.

This episode will give you the chance to ponder your current pricing, identify your mental traps, and start upgrading your limiting beliefs. To get paid what you're worth, you’ve got to take your head trash to the curb.

If you do nothing else, follow the advice Andrew gave me: raise your prices.

Key points

• Intro (00:00)
• The great recession and my journey into freelancing (00:37)
• Learning about value-based pricing from an unlikely source (02:42)
• The most important lesson I learned from this experience (08:09)
• Price-sensitive vs value-focused clients (11:30)
• What signals are you sending with your prices? (12:55)

Notable Quotes

Resources mentioned in this episode:

freelancecake.com/coaching

Listen, rate, and subscribe!

For specific beliefs, principles, and practices you can use right away to make the freelance game more profitable and satisfying, subscribe to Freelance Cake podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Freelancing is hard work. There are so many moving parts in your freelance business: project management, marketing strategies, setting your freelance rates, you name it.

With all those priorities flying around, all that noise and motion, it’s easy to get off track. It’s easy to keep saying yes to crazy clients and boring projects. It’s easy to forget why you got into this in the first place.

One of Austin’s coaching clients experienced a record month, and said "It nearly killed me."

Can you relate? Do you ever feel like you’re getting dragged around by your freelance business? Take this podcast episode as your opportunity to reconnect with what you really want.

Freelancing can be rewarding and exciting. The more clearly you define your freelance goals and motivations, the better your decisions will be. Clear goals generate desire and intent.

Are you not making enough? Are you making enough but working too much? What needs to change?

Discipline is remembering what you want.

In this episode, Austin shares the goal-setting exercise that helped him and his wife break their overspending habit. He also goes over the 3 questions you need to keep your freelance business on the rails and get the kind of growth you want.

Listen through to the end, take 20-30 minutes to write down your goals and core motivations for your freelance business, and put them somewhere you can’t miss them.

Key points

• Intro (00:00)
• The quote that helped me beat overspending (00:38)
• Identifying your goals for your freelance business (02:17)
• 3 questions you must ask yourself to determine your freelance goals (04:16)
• Why setting your freelancing goals is important (07:40)
• Increasing your income opens up new opportunities (10:20)

Notable Quotes

“In our darker moments when the wave of emotions and the wind of doubt are tossing the boat around, our goals can act as a lighthouse.”

“When you stop worrying about money, when cash flow is no longer your primary limiting constraint, your imagination stands up, shakes out its wings, and takes flight.”

“You’ll find it easier to finish what you start if you focus on what matters most to you.”

Links and resources from this episode

freelancecake.com/coaching

Listen, rate, and subscribe!

For specific beliefs, principles, and practices you can use right away to make the freelance game more profitable and satisfying, subscribe to Freelance Cake podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Are you getting paid to uncover pains and problems your clients don't know they have? If not, you're probably in the same situation as Austin was: juggling multiple ventures, meeting with clients, and helping them get clarity around their problems (but not getting paid for that).

Discovering that his family was back in debt made Austin realize that certain aspects of his business just weren’t working. He had just stumbled on Brennan Dunn's The Double Your Freelancing Podcast, and Brennan shared an intriguing idea: project roadmapping.

Wait, you can sell project strategy on its own?!

This paradigm shift helped Austin break the relationship between time and money, get off the content and copy hamster wheel, and pivot to consulting and value-based pricing.

Freelancers have a creative skillset that gets us into freelancing: writing, graphic design, coding, you name it. However, soft skills are often just as valuable. Many clients don’t know what their real needs even are, and we can get paid handsomely to help clients get clarity, confidence, and traction.

More freelancers need to wake up to the possibilities!

In this episode, Austin shares his journey toward roadmapping, value-based pricing, and selling strategy as a standalone offer. This new path has offered more income and more time for creativity and relationships.

If you feel stuck and need help getting better leverage in your freelance business, then be sure to save this episode. Also, check out the link to the Freelance Cake coaching program below.

Key points

• Intro (00:00)
• Perfect start to their journey? Not my story (00:37)
• The deflating debt discovery at the beach (02:12)
• From $30k months to living paycheck to paycheck (07:05)
• The road trip that led me to the idea of getting better leverage in my freelance business (09:26)
• Getting paid for offering strategy for the first time (12:55)
• “Go find your most valuable aptitudes, not just your most valuable skills” (15:59)
• Do you want help getting better leverage in your business? (18:02)

Notable Quotes

"I haven’t had the Midas touch. And if we’re using mythical people, I have felt more like Sisyphus pushing a boulder up a hill."

“Go find your most valuable aptitudes, not just your most valuable skills.”

“Maybe why I really appreciate the people online who share all of the good, bad, and ugly in their stories is because my story has had some ugly too... I often find people’s failures more relatable than their successes.”

Resources

freelancecake.com/coaching

Listen, rate, and subscribe!

For specific beliefs, principles, and practices you can use right away to make the freelance game more profitable and satisfying, subscribe to Freelance Cake podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Freelancing isn’t easy, but many of us make it harder than it has to be. Working harder often doesn’t... work. Spending more time on the wrong things won’t produce better results.

The way to break out of the freelance hustle is to ask what six-figure freelancers do differently. For starters, they remember that the Pareto Principle, better known as the 80/20 rule, is at play in every business. 20% of your effort produces 80% of your results.

The trick is finding those points of leverage.

A good place to start is with a brand positioning statement or a positioning cheat code. When you make yourself the easy, obvious choice for your dream clients, you have an easier time winning the freelance projects you really want.

In this first episode, Austin introduces the concept of better leverage. He also covers how a positioning statement links up with the 80/20 rule and what both of those mean for smart, ambitious freelancers. If you want a step-by-step process for writing a positioning statement, then you listen all the way to the end and check out the link to the copywriting templates below.

Key points

• Intro (00:00)
• What is better leverage? (00:39)
• Why working harder is usually not the answer (02:24)
• A real-life example of a freelancer getting better leverage (04:44)
• Why your freelance business needs a positioning cheat code (07:57)
• A step-by-step process for creating your cheat code (09:55)
• The real benefit isn’t what you think (12:21)
• Now, it’s your turn. (13:25)

Notable Quotes

“Work harder is only good advice when the person that you're talking to is straight up lazy.”

“How could spending even more time on the wrong things fix the problem? To spend even more time on the wrong strategy or weak strategy would simply be pouring water through a sieve at a faster rate.”

“Freelancing is a real game with real money when you win and a positioning cheat code makes the freelance game easier. You can make more mistakes and still win.”

Resources

Click to create your own cheat code + copywriting TEMPLATES

Listen, rate, and subscribe!

For specific beliefs, principles, and practices you can use right away to make the freelance game more profitable and satisfying, subscribe to Freelance Cake podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts!