6 Figure Creative

If you've ever felt like your freelance life has been a neverending feast-or-famine roller coaster, chances are you're missing one (or more) pieces of a full client acquisition machine. You've likely "dabbled" with bits and pieces here and there, but you've never fully built each of the individual parts and refined them to the point where everything is working as a well-oiled machine bringing you...

Did you know that closing too many clients can be a bad thing? I know it sounds completely backwards, but a high sales conversion rate (70%+) is usually a sign of an unhealthy business. In episode 224 of the 6 Figure Creative Podcast, I break down the two reasons why a high sales conversion rate is a bad thing, and what two actions you can take to build a happier, healthier freelance business. In...

How much is an average client worth to you? Whatever that number is, imagine how much more they'd be worth to you and your freelance business if they were paying you that amount every single year. Now imagine how successful you'd be if every single client you've ever had was paying you the amount every year for the rest of your career. That's the reality for those who run recurring subscription bu...

Love it or hate it, email marketing is the closest thing there has ever been to a "magic pill" for anyone looking for stability in their month-to-month income. The sucky thing is...most of us "fall victim" to email marketing ALL THE TIME. You get tons of tons of emails from people offering their products and services, but you never make use of this powerful tool yourself. Most freelancers I see ar...

Here are a few of the biggest lies when it comes to marketing your freelance business. "If I'm good enough, people will find me and hire me" "The only marketing I need is word-of-mouth" "If I market myself, I'll come across as desperate" "This sort of stuff doesn't work for freelancers" If any of that sounds like you, my guess would be you likely have very little predictability in your income. You...

Every successful freelancer has hit that wall where you can't say yes to even ONE more project...this is usually the same time you start getting more inquiries than you've ever seen before. In these busy seasons of business, there are a few options you could take... You could turn down all those extra projects (and say goodbye to that extra $$$). You could say "yes" to those projects and just hate...

In this episode, Colleen Welsch breaks down the cold outreach process she used to land some of the biggest brands in the beauty industry. This email process can work in any industry to start bringing in consistent clients no matter how much experience you have. If you've ever wanted to see a proven process for cold outreach, this interview is for you. In this episode you’ll discover: Why failure i...

The most difficult part of freelancing is attracting high-quality clients to you (especially early in your career). Most people resort to two main "desperation tactics" when their schedules thin out... Desperation Tactic 1: They start sending cold emails/DMs to people who don't have any idea who they are. Desperation Tactic 2: They start publishing desperate-looking "hire me" posts on their social...

I recently came across one of the coolest freelance businesses I've ever seen, and I wanted to bring this to the 6 Figure Creative audience. I'm not going to spoil anything, but this freelancer is earning over $1 Million per year without a staff, without contractors, and he's able to accomplish this just by taking inspiration from a totally different industry than his own. If you're feeling stagna...

No matter how much you love doing what you do, there are always going to be things that you hate doing but still need to be done. This is the life of a business owner, and one of the root causes of burnout. What if I told you there was a way to spend less time doing the stuff you hate so you can spend more time doing what you love? There is, and it's something called the "Easy Ates" framework. Thi...

By FAR the easiest way to monetize your creative skills is by offering freelance services. The only issue with that approach is that it puts a cap on how much you could ever hope to earn per hour. $50 per hour? Sure. $500 per hour? Maybe... $5,000 per hour!? Possibly $500,000 per hour? As a freelancer? There's no way that I know of... The other issue with the freelance business model is that if yo...

Answer this question: If you don't work today, will you still make money? What if you take the whole week off? Or the whole month? This is the biggest drawback of being a freelancer. You have to work more if you want to earn more. There are a number of consequences for this, but the biggest issue for creatives like us is that the more we work, the more we face burnout. The more we face burnout, th...

I'm super excited to share this with you today because this is the stuff that really moves the needle in your business. This is how you can charge more without losing clients or getting rejected. This is how you make your clients SO happy that they refer all their friends to you. This is how you become more attractive to your "dream clients". And this framework comes from a business owner earning...

Answer this: What have you done this week to bring in new clients? 99% of freelancers would say "uhhhh....." and proceed to stare at me blankly with a distant look in their eyes. The sad reality is that most creatives sit around and wait for clients to find them. This is perfectly OK if your business is at the point where you're 100% booked up for the next 6 months with nothing but your ideal clie...

You're finally out on your own as a freelancer... no more bosses, offices, fluorescent lights, and no more commute. 🥳 That also means you're now responsible for your own survival. No more regular paychecks, retirement accounts, paid time off, or coworkers who can cover for you. Do you have all of the skills that it takes to make survive as a freelancer? If not, this is going to be a rough ride on...

If you struggle with low self-worth, perfectionism, procrastination, or self-doubt, then you might be making the mistake of letting fear into the driver's seat of your business. Fear is a plague in our creative community. So many of us let fear... drive our rates down to pitiful levels (and keep us from ever raising them) drive us working extra hours for free (so we don't "ruffle feathers" by aski...

Are you one of those bland, boring, vanilla freelancers who are trying to appeal to everyone? Are you terrified of the thought of offending someone or pushing away "potential" clients? The problem with being a "Vanilla Freelancer" that is you're invisible to the vast majority of people because you have nothing interesting to say, and you likely stand for nothing. You're not alone. There's a massiv...

Have you obsessively perfected every single step of what your clients experience before, during, and after working with you? Most of the struggling freelancers I know have failed to do this, and it's costing them client, after client, after client, that they could have otherwise gained. The reason should be obvious: clients might forget the details of what it was like to work with you, but they wi...

Ever felt like you wanted to reach out to someone, but didn't want to bother them? Maybe it was an old acquaintance, a past client, or even a prospective client you've had your eyes on for a while... Creatives typically have this voice inside our heads that say "don't do that... you'll just be bothering them". Here's something that may surprise you: That voice is usually a lying, thieving, horribl...

The dark side of freelancing (that no one wants to discuss) is the wasteland of low-dollar "Fiverr Freelancers" charging bottom-dollar rates for "butt-in-seat" projects. Whether you're on Fiverr or not, you may still be trapped in this low-dollar wasteland that is essentially just another soulless day job you've created for yourself. These projects tend to be unfulfilling and draining, and you end...

If you ever want to break 6 figures as a freelancer (or whatever your goal is), let me ask you something important... Are you running your business (and life) like a 6 figure creative? Most people think they can keep acting like a 4 or 5-figure freelancer and that eventually (with enough hard work and perseverance), you'll somehow break that elusive 6-figure goal. The reality is that you have to B...

Ever felt like your industry is just too saturated to stand out? Like you're just a tiny drop in a massive ocean? You're not alone. Nearly every freelancer has a moment (or ten) where they doubt themselves and their ability to stand out in a crowded "red ocean". That's why I was so excited to talk to James Martin from Made By James. James is a designer who's had immense success in the crowded nich...

"I need more clients". That's the #1 problem our community has in every single poll we run. The issue with getting clients is that no matter how good you are at what you do, you will never be able to get enough clients if no one knows you exist. That's why we wanted to dedicate an entire episode to discussing our favorite 3 methods for building awareness and growing your business. Creatives have t...

Here are the two rules for attracting your dream clients. Rule #1: Be attractive. Rule #2: Don't be unattractive. That's literally it. The hard part comes when you actually look at what is "attractive" to your dream clients. I'd bet you have a long list of alllll the things you want to see in their dream clients/projects, but very few people take the time to look at themselves and ask the most imp...

As a creative, what have you done recently to promote your work? If you're like most, you might have posted on social media a few times (if even that)... but that's about it. Unfortunately, self-promotion doesn't come naturally for most creatives, and it's to our own detriment. We might be the best in the world at what we do, but if no one knows we exist, we'll never make a living from our creativ...