The Freelance Shift

The Freelance ShiftThe Words That Made Me Sound Like a Real Consultant (Ep 105)https://thefreelanceshift.comWhen I left academia for consulting, I expected to learn project management, business strategy, and client relationships. What I didn't expect was having to learn an entirely new professional language. In this video, I share how using words like deck instead of presentation and use case...

The Freelance ShiftThe 3 Jobs Every Freelance Business Has (Ep 104)https://thefreelanceshift.comMost freelancers think their business has one job: make money. I used to think that too. But after leaving academia and building my own consulting business, I realized that focusing only on today's client work is one of the fastest ways to create an empty pipeline tomorrow. In this video, I share th...

The Freelance ShiftHow I Use Copilot to Build a Project Plan in Minutes (Ep 102)https://thefreelanceshift.comStop spending hours building project plans from scratch in Excel. In this video, I'll show you how I use Microsoft Copilot to transform a simple task list into a complete project plan with dependencies, milestones, risk analysis, executive summaries, and a polished Gantt chart—all in ju...

The Freelance ShiftHow I Use A! to Plan My Entire Week in 15 Minutes (Ep 101)https://thefreelanceshift.comMost people spend the first 30–60 minutes of their morning digging through emails, Teams messages, and trying to figure out what deserves their attention. I don't anymore. In this video, I'll show you the AI prompts I run automatically before I even open my laptop—from executive briefi...

The Freelance ShiftHow Freelancers Can Reach Six Figures (Ep 100)https://thefreelanceshift.comWhy do so many talented freelancers struggle to reach six figures while others seem to break through? In this video, I share what I've learned after building a multiple six-figure freelance business and working alongside hundreds of freelancers over the years. The difference usually isn't talent, educatio...

The Freelance ShiftWhy My Biggest Client Started With a Tiny Opportunity (Ep 99)https://thefreelanceshift.com/Most freelancers think growth means constantly searching for new clients. But what if your biggest opportunities are already sitting right in front of you? In this video, I share the story of how a small, part-time gig supporting Zoom events with C-level executives eventually evolved into...

The Freelance ShiftI Turned Years of Freelance Work Into My Own AI Assistant (Ep 98)http://thefreelanceshift.comEver find yourself thinking, *"I know I already created that proposal, email, training activity, or presentation somewhere..."* only to waste 20 minutes digging through folders, emails, and old files trying to find it? As freelancers and solopreneurs, we spend years building va...

The Freelance ShiftThe LinkedIn Strategy That Helped Me Discover Freelance Opportunities (Ep 97)https://thefreelanceshift.comIf you think finding freelance work on LinkedIn is all about scrolling through job postings and submitting applications, you might be missing some of the platform's biggest opportunities. While LinkedIn does advertise freelance and contract roles, many of the most valuab...

The Freelance ShiftHow I Landed Corporate Freelance Clients Without Cold Pitching (Ep 96)https://thefreelanceshift.comWatch this next!8 Questions I Ask Before Saying Yes to Any Freelance Client (Ep 95)https://youtu.be/Iqgg4RnouZkWant to land corporate freelance clients without spending hours cold pitching? In this video, I share how I built relationships with agencies that led to projects with wel...

The Freelance Shift8 Questions I Ask Before Saying Yes to Any Freelance Client (Ep 95) https://thefreelanceshift.comLooking for the next step? Check out "The Power of Asking: A Freelance Negotiation That Paid Off," where I share how asking better questions helped me negotiate a better outcome—and why the questioning shouldn't stop once rates are discussed. https://youtu.be/yhJ_imu8vg...

The Freelance Shift The Easiest Way to Start Networking When You Know Nobody (Ep 94)https://thefreelanceshift.com Building a Freelance Business Clients Want to Return (Ep 53) (https://youtu.be/twvgphDeT6c) Networking doesn't have to mean awkward events, forced conversations, or trying to sell yourself to strangers. In this episode, I share how I built a successful freelance business from the g...

The Freelance ShiftHow I Landed Corporate Clients Without Upwork (Ep 93)https://thefreelanceshift.comBuilding a Freelance Business Clients Want to Return (Ep 53) (https://youtu.be/twvgphDeT6c) Tired of hearing that the only way to find freelance clients is through Upwork? I took a different path. In this episode, I share how I built a multi-six-figure freelance business, worked with more than 30 c...

The Freelance ShiftHow I Use AI to Catch Mistakes Before My Clients Do (Ep 92)https://thefreelanceshift.comDownload the five sample prompts to use to have AI stress test your work: https://aypcbusiness.systeme.io/promptsIf you think AI is just about replacing your expertise, you're missing out on its real superpower for freelancers - using it as a critique partner before your work reaches clie...

The Freelance ShiftHow to Start Freelancing Fast 5 Steps That Actually Work (Ep 91)https://thefreelanceshift.comMany freelancers assume AI is mainly for generating content, but one of the most valuable ways to use tools like is as a critique partner before client work is delivered. In this post, I share how I used Copilot while serving as the subject matter expert for a large financial firm’s Exce...

The Freelance Shift You Don’t Need More Clients—You Need Better Systems Here’s Why (Ep 90) https://thefreelanceshift.com One thing I’ve noticed after building my own multiple six-figure freelance business and working with freelancers inside The Freelance Shift is that the freelancers earning more money usually aren’t the ones working the hardest—they’re the ones using technology more effectively....

The Freelance ShiftWhy Two Freelancers With the Same Skills Can Earn Completely Different Incomes (Ep 89)https://thefreelanceshift.comMany freelancers assume they’re struggling to land higher-paying clients because they need more experience, a stronger portfolio, or better credentials—but after building a multiple six-figure freelance business and working with corporate clients, I’ve learned that...

The Freelance ShiftHow Freelancers Can Think Like Analysts—Without Becoming One (Ep 88 )https://thefreelanceshift.comAs a freelancer, I’ve never been intimidated by numbers or technology—but I’ve always been short on time. Client spreadsheets, reports, survey results, and dashboards often held valuable insights, yet like many freelancers, I’d skim for patterns, trust my experience, and move on bec...

The Freelance ShiftThe Hidden Skill That Can Save Freelancers Hours—and Add Thousands to Their Bottom Line (Ep 87)https://thefreelanceshift.comWhen people hear “IT skills,” they often assume I’m talking to developers or tech consultants—but after years of freelancing, I’ve learned that some of the highest-ROI skills for *any* freelancer have nothing to do with coding and everything to do with usin...

The Freelance ShiftEp 86: The Hidden AI Tool in Microsoft Copilot That Helps Freelancers Think Like Expertshttps://thefreelanceshift.comFreelancing teaches you that the hardest part of client work usually isn’t building the deliverable. It’s doing the thinking that comes before it. In this podcast episode, I explore how the Researcher agent in Microsoft Copilot fits into the real workflow of freel...

The Freelance ShiftEp 85: AI Generated Headshots for Freelancers - Should You Use Them, and How to Do It Well?https://thefreelanceshift.comFor freelancers, your headshot often shapes a client’s first impression long before a proposal is read or a discovery call begins—and that’s why AI-generated headshots are getting so much attention. Tools from companies like Aragon AI and HeadshotPro can create...

The Freelance ShiftEp 84: Microsoft Designer vs Microsoft Create -A Freelancer’s Perspective on AI Powered Design Toolhttps://thefreelanceshift.comAs a freelancer constantly balancing speed with professionalism, I've been exploring Microsoft Designer and Microsoft Create—two AI-powered tools that are often mentioned together but solve very different problems in my workflow. Microsoft Designer is a...

The Freelance Shift Ep 83: The Honest Truth About Freelancing: What You Gain and What You Give Up http://thefreelance shift After my sister found a new job and said she hopes to stay there until retirement because she never wants to interview or onboard again, I realized how fundamentally different my freelance life is—I'm always interviewing, constantly onboarding, and working with multiple compa...

The Freelance ShiftMicrosoft Create - The Hidden Hub That Makes Office 365 More Useful for Freelancers (Ep 82)https://thefreelanceshift.com Microsoft Create is a surprisingly useful tool that many freelancers may already be paying for through their Microsoft 365 subscription without realizing it. Rather than being a new standalone app, it acts as a centralized launchpad for tools like Microsoft Wo...

The Freelance ShiftLet's Talk Tech - Why Dropbox Still Deserves a Place in Your Freelance Toolkit (Ep 26)http://thefreelanceshift.comAfter freelancing for years (and running a yoga and Pilates studio for 18 years before that), Dropbox remains one of the most reliable tools in my digital toolkit because it does what freelancers actually need: stores all my files—audio, video, documents, presentatio...

The Freelance ShiftHow Raindrop.io Turned My Freelance Bookmarks Into a Searchable Knowledge Base (Ep 50)https://thefreelanceshift.comAs a freelancer doing knowledge work, I save countless links—articles, tools, examples, client resources—and the real challenge isn't saving them, it's finding them again, which is why I use Raindrop.io for bookmarks. The free version does everything I need: unlimit...