Deliberate Freelancer

On today's show, five Deliberate Freelancer listeners are sharing their tips. Specifically, they share the systems, processes and tools they use that have helped them create a successful freelance business.   Some of these listeners are previous guests. See the resources below for links to their previous guest appearances.   You will hear from: Amy Ragland Treasa Edmond Poornima Apte Danna Lorch C...

How did your first quarter of the year go with your business? I'm recapping my Q1 in this episode, but I'd love to hear about your Q1 also. Please share in the Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group your successes, challenges, lessons and any questions you have for your fellow Deliberate Freelancers.   As I talked about in January, I had a slow start to the year because my mental health was struggli...

On today's episode, I want to be open and candid about a failure I had this year. Here are three main thoughts or lessons around failure that I'm trying to always keep in mind: #1. Failure is not necessarily a bad word. There can be times when you completely mess something up, but there can be times when something just didn't work out or the client failed, but you feel like a failure anyway. It so...

Today's guest is Katherine Reynolds Lewis, an independent journalist based in the DC area. After Katherine was laid off in 2008, she started freelancing in the middle of the Great Recession. What does Katherine love about freelancing? Being self-sufficient, being able to write on a variety of topics and having control over her schedule. Katherine shares her 3 P's model that she uses when assessing...

Please email me your favorite organizational tips, tools, systems and processes for an upcoming episode!   What are the processes and systems that you have implemented that have improved your business? What tactic or app or software program can you not get enough of? Let's share with each other and help each other out!   Here's all you need to do: Use the voice memo app on your smartphone to recor...

Today's guest is Portia Wofford, an award-winning nurse, writer and content marketer who lives in Alabama. After dedicating her nursing career to creating content and solutions for employers, Portia now runs a content marketing agency, The PW Agency.  Her agency empowers health and nursing brands to grow their communities through engaging content that connects and converts. As part of her mission...

Today's guest is a freelance editor from Durham, N.C. Laura is the owner of Archer Editorial Services. She exclusively provides editing to university presses. She also develops and conducts training for editors and publishers.   As defined by the Success Alliance , mastermind groups offer a combination of brainstorming, education, peer accountability and support to sharpen your business and person...

In today's episode, writer Treasa Edmond walks us through several client scenarios many of us struggle with—scope creep, treating us like an employee, not paying us on time—and gives us the script for what to say and how to say it. This episode is like Treasa is handing us all templates on great client management.   Treasa is the owner of Edmond Editing and Writing. She is a ghostwriter and conten...

The Center for Independent Journalists, aka The CIJ, is a new organization—launched in September 2021—to provide advocacy, education and support to freelance journalists of color and those from other underrepresented groups in the media. Programming is open to anyone, and white journalists can also join the organization.   It's open to all freelance journalists, not only writers. Currently, member...

Atlas Katari is the owner of Katari Creative, a B2B organic content marketing agency focused primarily on LinkedIn marketing with some SEO and content creation.   Atlas is a self-described "LinkedIn nerd" and walks us through the latest LinkedIn offerings and how to best use LinkedIn for our businesses. They say that LinkedIn has an incredible organic reach you can use to promote your content.   S...

Today's show is all about how I'm feeling right now—that blah feeling of languishing. If you feel like that too, or are dealing with any mental health challenges right now, please listen to this episode and then join us in the Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group , where we'll be talking about this and solutions that might help each of us. Resources: Join the Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group ....

Today's guest is Molly Rose Speed, founder of Virtual Assistant Management, which provides trusted virtual assistant (VA) solutions and flawless tech execution for busy entrepreneurs. Molly Rose is the go-to professional for some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the speaker/author and content creator industry. She is also an awarded military spouse and solo world traveler who believes in cr...

On today's show, I talk about my word (phrase) of the year and what I'm hoping to do in 2022. Then, I talk about the importance of habit formation and give several strategies to build better habits.   As I begin to work on developing better habits this year, I want to point out that if you try to introduce too much change into your daily life, you're setting yourself up for failure. Humans are not...

FACEBOOK UPDATE: The Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group is now live! Please join at www.facebook.com/groups/deliberatefreelancer . In today's episode, I look back at my time tracking for 2021's Q4 briefly and then I dive into analyzing the entire year. At the end, I share some questions that can help you evaluate last year and plan for this year. My average weekly time in Q4 was similar to the p...

This episode is all about books! And it's the last episode of the year. My next episode will be January 6, 2022. Happy holidays! As of December 5, I read 51 books this year. I will likely finish book #52 this week, but I probably won't hit my goal of 60 books in 2021, which is OK. I set a goal just because I have fun tracking my books along the way. In this week's episode, I rank my top 10 books o...

On today's episode, Ashlee Sang talks about how you can work with purpose-driven solopreneurs and service providers. She also explains how you can base everything you do in your freelance businesses around a set of core values—and how that will help you make decisions, find the right clients and grow your business. Ashlee lives in Central Illinois. She owns Ashlee Sang Consulting, where she works...

On today's episode, I'm leaning in to the theme of the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. and sharing seven things I am thankful for in my business. Beyond just telling you about these things, I'm sharing why I'm thankful and asking questions to you that I hope will prompt you to think about how to improve your business life. Thinking about my business this way got me thinking about how I shoul...

On today's show, I want to talk about simplicity and how to pare down your network. I talk a lot about building business relationships, which is a different way of considering how to build your network. Former podcast guest Anna Hetzel talked about this also, how to build community intentionally. By definition, a community will be smaller than a network. A network is often vast and you can't make...

Today's guest is Danna Lorch from Brookline, Massachusetts. Danna has been a freelance writer for 11 years, mostly focusing on journalism. She has covered the visual arts, design, architecture, the trades and parenting. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Architectural Digest and many other publications. Before becoming a writer, she managed nonprofits in the Middle East a...

It's time for my third quarter roundup. Each quarter I review and analyze my time tracking, hours worked, money earned and client mix. My hours in Q3 were similar to Q2. I worked an average of 28 hours a week in Q2 and an average of 27 hours a week in Q3 when you take out my vacation. However, I made less money, so I have to analyze that a bit more. Nothing like time tracking to show you when you...

I'm replaying this January 2021 episode to hopefully motivate you, inspire you and encourage you to do some of these things if you haven't already yet this year. The year is starting to wind down, incredibly enough, so let's embrace these concepts and set up our businesses for success now. This episode might also be a good reminder of how to think like a business owner and how now to take time to...

Today's guest is Emma Siemasko, the founder of Stories By Us, a content marketing business. Emma, who lives in San Jose, California, also offers freelance writing coach and is co-host of the Freelance Writing Coach podcast.  Emma has been a solopreneur for six years. She is an expert on writing case studies to promote our businesses. She created the DIY Case Study Kit and has created dozens of cas...

Today's show is all about the benefits of time tracking. But it's not about my experience today. Instead, five Deliberate Freelancer listeners sent in audio files about their time-tracking experiences and explained the various ways time tracking has helped their freelance business. Information is power. I believe if you know how you're really spending your time—rather than making assumptions or in...

Today's guest is Courtney Chaal. Courtney is an American now living in Vancouver in Canada. Courtney helps creatives, coaches and consultants stop being broke and start getting more clients by creating an irresistible service that they can eventually turn into a scalable offer. End goal? Freedom! Courtney is a copywriter turned business coach obsessed with making complex concepts (like business mo...

Today's guest is Anna Hetzel, from Columbus, Ohio. Anna is the owner and founder of Strange Birds, a business they started five years ago in which they convert copywriting and strategy for websites and community design and strategy.   Anna works with service providers and entrepreneurs who are trying to expand their reach and figure out how to talk to their ideal clients and build more scalable of...