Freelance to Founder

Today is our mega-productivity episode. It’s nearly an hour of our best tips, tricks, tools, and advice for getting more done and making more money with less time and effort. That’s the dream right: keep growing your business without working yourself to death. And in today’s show, that’s exactly what you’ll get. It all starts right after this message from our sponsors. Support our sponsors so we c...

On today’s show, we chat with Carey from PodcastFastTrack.com where his business has taken off over the years. Carey is a bit further along in life than many of our guests and is contemplating retirement.  But instead of just selling his business, he wonders: can he just hire the right people to keep the business running smoothly and send him a paycheck each month? The answer is “yes” and by the e...

On today’s show, our guest skipped out, so Clay and I hit record to discuss something we see a lot of business builders get wrong: marketing budgets. You know that phrase, “you’ve got to spend money to make money”? Well, you might have thought: "that’s not necessarily true. I get referrals for free." But you DO have to spend money in order to predictably SCALE your business. So how can you know ex...

Today we have a coaching call with Joseph, a digital nomad working in Mexico. Joseph is building his Wordpress development company on the side of his day job with dreams of becoming a full-time entrepreneur. But there’s one major thing standing in Joseph’s way. As you’ll hear him explain during the show, Joseph is charging what he calls “employee” prices which just doesn’t give him enough cashflow...

On today’s episode, we have a great conversation with Will Gibbons—a product rendering guru who works with huge brands like Pelaton, 3M, Vizio and more. After a year of working for himself, Will is facing perhaps one of the best problems you can ask for as a freelancer: He’s got too many client requests coming in and too much work that needs done. So in this episode, Clay and I walk him through a...

On today’s episode, we have a coaching call with Mohcine who’s building a facebook ads business from Morrocco. Mohcine has had some great success getting jobs on Upwork, but he’s ready to diversify his marketing and has decided to go with cold outreach for starters. Clay and I give Mohcine enough great advice to fill 3 pages with notes about cold pitching to grow your business. ATTENTION: We Need...

Today, I (Preston) got a text from Clay. "I just let my entire team go." It took me completely by surprise, but also got me thinking about what it would take to start all over. On today’s episode, Clay and I answer the question: “what would we do differently if we had to start freelancing from scratch today?” We think you'll be pleasantly surprised by some of what we share. Have a listen. ATTENTIO...

On today’s show, we’re joined by Chad who’s working on building his agency in Utah, USA. Chad works with clients all over the world. They hire him because they like and trust him.  But now, Chad is beginning to hire some freelancers to help get the work done in his business and he's wondering: how can I get my clients to trust my team? Building trust in your team can help take some work off your s...

On today’s show, we chat with Kendrick who is building a video production agency in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.  Kendrick’s a talented videographer with a highly-skilled team, but he’s feeling stuck when it comes to building a process to generate new business on a regular business. Kendrick and his former partner went their separate ways recently, leaving Kendrick without someone to handle all the busi...

On today’s episode, we have a coaching call with Denise, a freelancer from South Carolina, USA.  Denise works in higher education and is happy with the way her freelance business is going. But after finding some early success in e-learning thanks to Covid and other factors, Denis is ready to branch out and grow other segments of her business. Throughout the call, we keep coming back to two critica...

On today’s show, our guest Nouman slams us with more questions than any guest before and we do our best to deliver some good answers. Nouman has quickly grown his agency from 3 partners to over 20 employees in just a couple years. But most of Nouman’s clients still come from Upwork or Fiverr and he’s unsure how to break into more legitimate, bigger clients—particularly in countries where cultures...

On today’s show, we have a conversation with Rachel Cooke who designs high-ticket training experiences for massive clients. Rachel’s business is doing well. She’s happy with the amount of money she’s making and where her business is headed.  But she doesn’t necessarily like the fluctuation in revenue and not knowing exactly how much she’ll make in the coming months or years. So Clay and I walk her...

To listen to more episodes or subscribe to Compiler, click here. Technology can be bold. But it can also be complicated. Compiler breaks down the big questions about tech and the tech industry in this new original podcast. On today's bonus episode, I share with you a brand new podcast called 'Compiler', an original podcast from Red Hat. Becoming a manager can be a triumphant milestone of working l...

Looping yourself out of every aspect of your business can be a bit terrifying. But it's also incredibly liberating. Hear why on today's show. On today’s show, I talk with Joe Babi who’s building his own SEO agency. Not long ago, Joe found himself overworked and missing out on important life events. That’s when he realized he HAD to make a change.  So over the last year or two, Joe has scaled his a...

How can you get agency-level leads (big budgets, long timelines) when you're just a freelancer? On today’s show, we chat with Ilias a Shopify developer from Morocco. Ilias has been freelancing for over two years and thinks it might be time to move from freelancing to building an agency. He hits us with a lot of great questions, including: "how can I find agency-quality leads?" Projects with big bu...

On today’s show, we share over 10 free or inexpensive marketing tactics you can use in your own business right away. And no, we’re not talking about posting on Instagram and crossing your fingers—these are real-world, high ROI marketing tactics we’ve used or continue to use to build our own businesses. Get your own on-air coaching call We'd love to feature your business and offer some free on-air...

On today’s show we catch up with Sara Noel, a freelancer with a pretty interesting journey. Sara didn’t study copywriting or marketing at school but now, she’s got a six-figure freelancing business doing just that: copywriting and marketing. In our conversation, Sara shares exactly what she did to decide on a skill, teach herself that skill, and then monetize her brand-new skill into a full-fledge...

On today’s show, Preston has a one-on-one conversation with freelance podcast expert Noah Tetzner who built a six-figure Upwork profile in under 90 days. Noah has studied the Upwork algorithm in order to find success quickly and together we discuss getting jobs on Upwork, achieving “Top-Rated Plus” status (and why you want it), plus how to replicate his success even if you're just getting started...

On today’s show, we chat with Mateo Melgar who’s calling in from Mexico. Mateo has been working hard as a freelancer and making pretty great money at it too. But even with all his success, Mateo still feels like he’s just trading his hourly work for a paycheck. He’s ready to go from freelancer to agency and build a business that makes money beyond himself. But being ready and actually feeling moti...

On today’s episode, I’m digging into our show archives to bring you a conversation that most of you missed because we aired it so early on. If you haven’t heard this episode you’re missing out because it’s an early conversation between me and Clay about how he built his first agency to over $100,000/mo in recurring revenue. Those of you who are quick at math have already figured out that means ove...

Sales is one of your most important tasks as a business owner. But hiring for sales can be a nightmare. On this week’s episode, we talk with Jason Vance, a former web design freelancer who’s building his next company in marketing. Jason stumbled on a creative idea that led him to pivot and start a marketing agency late last year. Now, just 9 months later, he’s got 9 employees and a whole lot of wo...

With millions of potential clients spending time on Linkedin, it's worth learning how to get it right. Today, we share our top tips for getting clients through LinkedIn. On today’s show, we have a coaching call with side-hustler Corey who’s building a web design business for physical therapists and other health professionals. Among other things, we end up talking in-depth about using Linkedin to g...

Freelance job sites are a great way to get your foot in the door as a freelancer. But are they the best long-term strategy for growing an agency? On today’s show, we have a coaching call with Ron, who has been freelancing on Fiverr for over 10 years—and he’s done quite well for himself. Ron gets a ton of new business from Fiverr, but he’s worried about two things: first, it can be difficult to bui...

New clients are often the lifeblood of a freelance business, but what if taking on new work is holding you back from growing your business? On today’s show, we give some coaching to Will Gibbons—a product rendering expert who works with huge brands like Pelaton, 3M, Vizio and more. After a year of freelancing, Will is facing perhaps one of the best problems you can ask for: He’s got too many clien...

On today’s show, we have a conversation with Corbett Barr from CorbettBarr.com. Corbett has had a huge impact on my life and business and, after a recent conversation with Clay about hustling and burning out, I knew I had to introduce them. That’s because Corbett is one of my favorite thinkers when it comes to balancing life with the hustle of entrepreneurship.  Corbett’s insights lead us down a p...