Hey everyone,
First off, happy dang holidays!
I hope you all had a great Turkey Day and got to spend some time with your family. I flew from Denver to LA to visit mine, and now I’m heading back to tackle the snow.
A couple of updates:
You’ll be hearing from me on Fridays from now on.
You’ll get an original story that hasn’t been posted anywhere else (yep, not even on Medium).
You’ll find links to my Medium stories for the week at the bottom of the page.
I’ve been told by the Substack gurus not to send my tribe repurposed content anymore, so it shall be done! So, with that being said, here’s something new.
Everyone wants to feel wanted.
Do you know the other thing everyone wants?
Money.
Cold hard cash.
A hundred-dollar bill is a time in tangible form. When you don’t think you have enough dollar bills, you connect the idea that people don’t want you.
It’s sad. Freelancers get the worst of it. In their valiant effort to get away from the 9-5 “rat race,” they usually fall into this feeling.
“No one is hiring me. Clients don’t want me, and now I don’t have any money.”
Often, the best way to improve is to recognize your faults. Here are three significant reasons why clients won’t hire you, as well as solutions (because I’m not going to leave you hanging, my friend).
You’re not skilled enough
I’m starting by being a Debby Downer.
I’m not sorry about it, though. You need to hear this. Consider why you submit bid after bid and don’t get any calls back is because you don’t have a good enough portfolio.
Don’t cry about it. This is a call to action.
You are the only one responsible for your portfolio. Everything else is bupkiss. If you have to work for free, do what you have to do. To gain the experience you need to land the kind of client you want, you have to get your hands and knees dirty and do the work, even if that means free.
Here’s the good news: you don’t have to be the best at your (enter job title here) to land a client.
I’d be damned if I relied solely on my skill level as a freelancer. I’m comfortable enough to openly admit I’m not the best photographer or web designer. You could throw me in jail and throw the key in an alligator-infested river if I ever said otherwise.
The truth is, you just have to be knowledgeable enough to get the job done. Your client just wants the work done. Of course, they care about quality, but they have a different perspective than you.
Read that again.
Their perspective is a different version of quality than yours. You can deliver your best possible work but still think it’s not good enough. But that’s your opinion because you’re biased.
You’ve heard this before: we are our own worst critic. Here’s another way to look at it, write this down:
Creative people are the only ones out to get themselves. They are biased against their work.
Take that idea with you and glue it to your brain the next time you submit a project. You’re better than you think.
You’re not a great communicator
It’s simple: communication is your most incredible tool.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a freelancer, public speaker, or have a full-time job. Nobody wants to hire you if you have the personality of a piece of Home Depot cardboard.
Communication goes beyond speaking up in meetings when someone calls your name.
Having good communication skills means you ask the questions that lead to productive solutions. It means talking to other employees and getting to know them personally. It means explaining in detail your progress on a project, so your client trusts your work ethic.
THere’s a lot that goes into this. The bottom line is you have to practice being a clear and concise human being.
Here are a few ways to get better:
Give your parents a call (they miss you.
Ask your date what projects they are working on. It’s more interesting than asking what they do.
Talk to your dog and try to interpret their reactions.
Being a communicator boils down to asking questions and saying just the right amount of words in meetings.
You’re making too many cold calls
You’re looking for work in the wrong places.
$30 Upwork gigs aren’t going to pay the bills unless you're wired like Data from Star Trek. When job boards fail, the next best thing is to email and call every company you can think of, right?
You should tell them what you can do to improve their business, hmm?
WRONG.
Big X all over that idea. The problem isn’t eh cold call, and it’s the content in the cold call.
You don’t want to tell anyone what you can do because clients wish to results. They want tangible facts to improve some aspect of their business that they don’t have any idea how o fix.
Instead, show them what you can do.
HEre’s how (and this is just a simple example you can be inspired by)
Look at a brand’s Instagram. Let’s pretend you’re a label designer and you see a snack brand with a mediocre label (I don't know, I’m a horrid graphic designer.)
Now, instead of emailing them and saying, hey, I can make you a better one, just design a better one and send it over to them FREE OF CHARGE.
You do this because the good people over at the brand don’t know what they don’t know. They can’t understand what they’ll want until you lay it on the table and show them, “look how much better this is.”
Remember, clients, want tangibles.
Now, let’s package everything I just said into a little goody bag.
Put it in your car, and don’t open it up until you get home. Pull the three lessons out and apply them to your life at your own pace.
One last thing, don’t be so serious. No one, not even the big, scary client, truly knows what they are doing. Everyone, even the person paying you for a project you asked for, is human.
Humans just want to feel connected.
In case you missed them:
I’ve Been a Knowable Creator for Months — Here’s What I’ve Learned
7 Thought Processes That Are Killing Your Potential as a Writer
If you read this and said, “Damn, I really learned something new today,” consider sharing this post with a friend. I’d appreciate it!