Indie Business Club

This episode is called All Together Now and we’re talking COMMUNITIES.

We’ve both been part of various communities as freelancers, and in this episode we mention...

Freelancer Magazine including its virtual co-working sessions and The Marketing Movement on LinkedIn by editor Sophie Cross.

You Are The Media including the annual event Creator Day by Mark Masters (who features on the episode).

Being Freelance, the community and podcast by Steve Folland.

The usual beg to please follow, like, review, whatevs...

Spotify / Apple podcasts / Amazon Music and AudibleThanks for listening,

Mel & BenFind our producer and theme composer Ant Henderson on LinkedIn - you’ll hear he’s taken absolute audio liberties during the “Your Friend And Mine” segment 😏

And our indie business club page is on LinkedIn.

Hi, Mel here.

On 14th February we shamelessly crowbarred in a Valentine’s Day theme - Client Relationships 💞

We spoke about how to foster a great relationship with your clients before, during and after a freelance project.

It all relies on the foundations you’ve laid and how well you’ve managed expectations.

On both sides.

We spoke about...

how your marketing/personal brand/reputation is the start of the relationship and your first chance to manage those expectations

onboarding, and how I’ve changed my process to start with a briefing form so the client has to prove they’re serious early on

using templates for emails, both for ease and to keep you in control

how it’s important to establish in advance how you check in with the client throughout the project (all the more important when it’s a long one)

the difference between being an employee and a freelancer

We also bigged up Tom Albrighton, who’s just released his book The Freelancer’s Business Brain. We’ve both met Tom (I interviewed him for Freelancer Magazine, Ben’s met him IRL coz NORWICH crew) and can confirm he’s a lovely man. So knowledgeable about all things copywriting and freelancing.

Tom talks about the importance of meeting with clients, at least on a Zoom. Ben then recounted his experience visiting an agency to discuss their project in person, and how on reflection it put him on the back foot a little. I’ll stick to Zoom calls I think.

A slightly abrupt end to this recap. Soz. We were trying out AudioJack and had a 10min limit, but still ended up using the Zoom recording anyway because of echo echo echo.

We spoke more in the audio event (but not the recap) about how to keep the conversation going with clients after the project ends:

make keeping in touch less gross by sending genuinely helpful info e.g. “saw this blog and thought it might be useful” now and then

build a project review into the project e.g. a 1:1 zoom call three months later

Jodie Newman speaks about “sowing seeds of delight” into your processes, and how important it is to ask for feedback and testimonials (bleugh!)

So, what do you do to keep your clients happy?

Huge thanks to our paid subscribers including long-time listener Lorna Smart who recently supported us. We’re edging ever closer to this moving from “podcast experiment” to just “podcast”.

We haven’t yet set the next audio event date. We both have half term next week *shudder* so we’ll give it a ponder and let you know as soon as we know. Won’t be long though, promise.

See ya,

B&M

Find us on LinkedIn:Mel BarfieldBen McKinney

Mel Barfield and Ben McKinney have been learning all about podcasts.

Especially about how microphones work. And how they don’t.

First sound guy (and sound guy) Ant informed Ben his microphone was back to front. Then Ant insisted an episode be re-recorded because Mel’s mic was “way too hot”. All good fun though.

This episode is “What’s The Story” - a shorter introductory episode to give some background to the podcast. Mel and Ben detail how indie business club came about and try to give one another's back stories. With mixed results.

You can follow the podcast on...

SpotifyApple podcastsAmazon MusicAudibleAnd follow indie business club on LinkedIn for random video snippets too.

This episode is called Flaming Lips, and we’re talking about public speaking as a way to build your profile and attract more clients. We’ve both spoken on large stages, and one of the reasons we wanted to start a podcast was to...

improve our public speaking

get more speaking gigs, both in-person and on podcasts

In the talk we mention Ben’s speaker performances at Creator Day this year and at Copy Cabana in 2017, which you can watch here.

In this episode, Pascalle Bergmans gives us her top tip for people who want to start delivering event talks. Her website is presentales.com.

And as always we have our regular “Your Friend And Mine” feature where we big-up a fellow indie business owner we think is great.

Please follow, like, review, whatevs...

Spotify / Apple podcasts / Amazon Music and AudibleThanks for listening,

Mel & BenFind our producer and theme composer Ant Henderson on LinkedIn and our indie business club page is on LinkedIn.

Save the date: Our next LI live audio event is on Monday 15th April at 12 noon. Topic: BALANCE. We’ll send the link nearer the time. The “Millennial Pause” at the start of this video is magnificent. At least I didn’t laugh though. Ben and I spoke about how and why some freelancers and small business owners might like to get their voices out there. As always, we’ve recorded a little recap.

The benefits of public speaking are:

affirmation and attention!

it positions you as an expert

maximises networking opportunities at real life events - as a speaker you tend to talk to more people during the breaks

other opportunities can follow, like podcast appearances, being invited to deliver training, etc.

when delivering live talks, the energy in the room is an excellent legal high

you shorten the gap between you and your potential clients and your network

it can increase your revenue streams e.g. being paid to speak and/or offering consultancy work on top of your “day job”

Things to be mindful of:

you don’t necessarily get instant ROI

maybe you don’t need slides?

likely you’ll have to do it free of charge to begin with

it takes brain space and takes time to create a decent talk

most people are rooting for you, but if you get the odd hater you’ve made it

the longer-term ROI isn’t just being paid to talk at stuff, it’s the broader rate increase, raised profile, wider audience, higher-quality clients, etc.

How to dip a toe in:

put it out there that you want to speak at events and on pods (if you don’t ask...)

listen to other people talking at events/podcasts/webinars (e.g. TMM) is a really useful way to learn how to do it well

use Canva to record yourself (might be a pro feature, not sure) - the benefit is you can re-record each slide if you fluff up

prep a short talk so if you get interest you have an oven-ready bio, talk description and theme

talk in front of the mirror to build confidence

get along to Keynote Club run by Max Hopkinson, Becca Lamb and Becki Wilson for a gentle, welcoming space

record some videos to put out on LinkedIn, doesn’t need to be long (literally 30 seconds is fine)

record your voice and listen back - get over that gross bit of hearing yourself

no need for special equipment - send yourself a WhatsApp voicenote and listen to it on repeat as exposure therapy

Who to follow:

Pascalle Bergmans for snackable videos about public speaking techniques

Jackie Goddard for her “Speak Like A Speaker” series

Bonnie Harrington for a 1:1 to improve your presentations

Shameless self-promo:

Ben spoke at Copy Cabana when he was a baby copywriter

Mel has a dedicated speaking page

And finally, a huge thank you to our paid supporters Ralph, Nikki, Lorna and Jen. It blows our minds a little and we’re so grateful.

Also, apologies for any nagging emails Substack sends about upgrading to paid - it has a mind of its own.

Speak soon,

Ben & Mel

Catch us in action...

Ben is speaking at Creator Day in Poole on 25th AprilMel is speaking at CopyCon in London on 8th November

PS: Mel wrote more speaker tips here.