Double Your Freelancing Podcast

I talk about why I've been M.I.A., and share how focusing on expected results helped me win over a new client.

When you shop for anything, check with the business owners and ask, “How’s business going?” They will be happy to share their thoughts. Roadmapping involves interviewing and understanding a client to identify their needs and craft a solution for them. Take care of and protect your clients to develop successful and reliable results. My guest today is Lionel Martin, a software and DevOps engineer who helps technology startups improve how they build using the Cloud. As a freelancer, he experienced the income and project roller coaster, which was very stressful. Lately, he has been doing high-value consulting. Lionel shares tips he has implemented that may benefit your company. Tactics he uses that are game changers to make a good impression on clients and get them to pay him more include being more descriptive rather than prescriptive and not having a portfolio.

Learn how to take awesome conversations and translate them into increased scope of works to grow your business with heightened capabilities around marketing. Think about the impact, not just the deliverable. Paint a complete picture of marketing. My guest today is Ian Servin of Animus Studios, which is a production company that makes videos. Animus has a higher-level, holistic approach of using videos to provide a solution to clients. It focuses on content creation and plans that involve sharing that content and measuring results.

Advisors lead by developing a trusted relationship with prospects. This takes out a lot of traditional pitching for business and transitions to paid connections. You become more of a consultant than just a hired gun. Drew Sanocki and Michael Epstein are partners at Growthengines.io, which has grown from being brand new to generating $1 million in revenue in less than a year through retainer work. How has it gone from nothing to where it is at now in such a short period? What impact does that have on the way that it sells?

When your business is small, you need to carve out a niche and engage clients. Know what you can do for them, and put into words what you can deliver. You need to determine whether you want to work with others or not. How do you roadmap your business? My guest today is Matty McLain, who works for small companies and startups to help them tighten their sales process and get clients. What keeps business owners up at night and bothers them? Matty looks inside the businesses and determines how to make them better.

My guest today is Gabi Logan, who offers one-on-one coaching and has a recurring revenue knowledge base/database business, retreat center offering events, and weekly webinar. She also does high-end consulting engagement for travel destinations and serves as a certified executive coach. On today’s episode, we discuss hurdles she has experienced with roadmapping in her consulting business to get more clients and increase revenue.

My guest today is Dustin Robertson, chief marketing officer (CMO) of Drip. Dustin has been with Drip for just over a year and came from a business to consumer background. He started Backcountry.com, where he was educated on digital marketing while growing that business. After learning eCommerce and digital marketing, he wanted to venture into online travel and develop data marketing tools. Fortunately, he met people from Drip and discovered the company had a platform that could handle database marketing at scale for eCommerce marketers.

Jason Resnick is a consultant who also educates other consultants on systemization and building sustainability via his program, Feast at Rezzz.com. His mission is to help other freelancers and agencies create recurring revenue using automation. Jason has developed his skills working in both the independent and corporate worlds, and has learned the ins and outs of what customers want and why they buy. More recently, Jason has leveraged personalization for his clients and himself which is essential for creating trust and building longer term relationships with clients. He sat down with Brennan to discuss what tricks he’s learned about building sustainability into his funnel.

In this episode of DYF Podcast, Brennan talks to Joel Hooks whose site, Egghead.io, provides “video tutorials for badass web developers.” The site thrives by giving out tons of free content and supporting it with backend automation that brings in viewers. This strategy can work across business types (whether you offer a product or a service) with the big difference being scale. To find out how, and to hear tips for targeting, dealing with challenging customers, and scaling up, listen in to this week’s episode.

Greg Hickman facilitates automation for all types of clients, but on this episode of DYF Podcast he talks with Brennan about how automation works for consultants. Not only has Greg automated his own consulting business, but he also uses Active Campaign and InfusionSoft to set up campaigns for other consultants including some big influencers. In this episode Greg tells Brennan how his business started --almost accidentally-- and grew to serve an impressive list of heavy hitting clients in just a couple years.

Whenever Jennifer Nelson sees a new innovation for online business, she immediately learns it and apply it to her own work. This passion for finding the best way of doing things is how she became a certified Drip automation expert and a successful independent consultant and coach. Listen to this episode of DYF Podcast to see what strategies and innovations you can borrow from Jennifer and how to implement them into your daily practices. She’ll also discuss communication with different types of clients, managing multiple funnels, and how she gets her conference audiences to pay attention even after her presentation is over.

What parts of your funnel should be automated? How can you create urgency without building extensive “limited time offer” workflows into your automation? Is it possible to give even better service with less person to person contact? In this first episode of DYF Podcast Season 2 on Automation, Franz Sauerstein addresses all of the various steps in his sales funnel and how he helps others automate thiers. He shares tricks of the trade like getting clients to self-qualify before he even becomes involved. He and Brennan also discuss the next step in optimizing automation: Personalization. Go in depth with Franz as he walks us through his process from beginning to end.

Does content marketing have the power to attract “whale leads?” In this episode, Brennan talks with Benji Hyam, founder of Grow and Convert, a content marketing agency based out of San Diego. Grow and Convert was started when founders, Benji Hyam and Devesh Khanal were introduced and immediately launched into a heated discussion about whether content marketing could attract high quality leads. Their debate turned into a partnership and the team set to work proving the untapped value of content marketing through hard work and simple, honest strategies. Key Takeaways: How to build trust through transparency Why credibility matters and how to build it from scratch How to make content marketing measurable How to create actionable case studies How to get guest posts published (script provided)

Will guest appearances on podcasts benefit your consulting business? Is it worth it to start your own podcast even if your audience is limited? Matt Inglot thinks it is! In this episode of DYF Podcast, Brennan talks to 2016 DYFConf speaker, Matt Inglot, about using podcasting to get consulting clients and expand your audience. When Matt started his podcast, Freelance Transformation, he didn’t expect it to have any effect on his web-development agency. More than 145 episodes later, he has found that the impacts have been manifold. Not only has his podcast become one of the most prominent in the freelancing community, but it also helped him develop his contacts and directly led to a $60,000 gig. Other benefits have been less obvious but just as empowering, and Matt has learned all of the right and wrong ways to podcast along the way. Key Takeaways: How to determine if podcasting is right for you How to book your first few guests How to build your listenership How to use podcasts to build your authority What tools and setup do you need to get started

Where has Brennan been all this time (it's been 6 months!)? And what's next for the Double Your Freelancing podcast?

My guest today is Kelsey Kreiling, co-founder of Presence Agency and creator of Week of the Website, a productized website design business. Kelsey is a designer and website builder who has grown multiple businesses from the ground up. Her newest business, Week of the Website, builds amazing websites for their customers in only five days. On today’s episode we discuss her experience transitioning from client work to a productized service business model.

Today I’m talking with Joanna Wiebe, the founder of CopyHackers.com. CopyHackers is an online resource for everything you need to know about copywriting, including many informative case studies. Her new project, Airstory, is a fantastic content production tool for high-performance writing teams. Joanna taught me how to write effective sales copy and on today’s episode we discuss her Rule of One: how you can make sure that when you do write, your writing is focused on talking to one customer archetype.

My guest today is Meryl Johnston, founder of the international accounting agency Bean Ninjas. She has a background in accounting and began her first business as a consultant. She has grown her current business from the ground up and is now generating over $100,000 in recurring revenue through monthly productized bookkeeping services. We discuss her career, how she transitioned to a productized service business and lessons learned along the way.

Today I’m talking with Barry O’Kane on niching down and creating a location independent business. He’s a Double Your Freelancing Academy student who has been working with Philip Morgan for the past few months while living in Edinburgh, Scotland and running his online business: Happy Porch. Barry has over 15 years experience in the web development industry and became location independent four years ago.

My guest today is Todd Tresidder, a former hedge fund manager and founder of FinancialMentor.com. He is a personal finance and investing expert coach who teaches how to grow wealth and reach financial independence. He emphasizes the importance of personal development and fulfillment in attaining the goal of financial freedom.

Today I’m talking with Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid and four other bestselling books. I came across Book Yourself Solid at a bookstore when I first started freelancing, and loved the online marketing techniques he describes. He has been running Book Yourself Solid programs around the world and training freelancers for the past 14 years. Michael describes six core self-promotion strategies that freelancers use, and more importantly goes into the backend of how to close sales and actually book business. He is a networking and direct outreach expert that has a daily routine to open doors and bring in clients. Even as an introvert, he has used public speaking, teaching and networking to create an international brand.

Today my guest is Jonathan Raymond the former CEO of E-Myth, he became the CEO in 2011 when the owner wanted to modernize the brand. He decided to break out on his own in 2015. The idea behind the E-Myth is that running a business is different than being great at whatever the business does. An example would be a great dancer who opens a dance studio and discovers there is more to running a dance studio than being a fantastic dancer. Jonathan now focuses on what it takes to create a great business and the culture, scale and team involved with doing so.

I’m super excited to share today’s interview with Ryan Waggoner with you. Ryan has an amazing consulting business and is pushing more than a million a year in profit. Ryan is killing it with mobile consulting, where a lot of people in that space struggle to make $100,000 plus. Ryan is an all around sharp guy, but I’m specifically bringing him on because he is really good at cash flow management. He has a great perspective on splitting up personal and business finance, and I want to capture that story.

Today I am talking with Diana Huff, the President of Huff Industrial Marketing a business that helps industrial manufacturers grow and succeed. Diana just released her new book Cash Flow for Freelancers. Today we will be talking about how to manage cash flow when you have a variable income. Diana started her business in 1998 when it was known as DH Communications. She is now a marketing consultant, but when she began she was focused on freelance copywriting in the B2B market. At the time, she had a 12 month old son that she wanted to stay home with. Over the years, her business has evolved, but last year there was a huge transformation.

It's time to officially announce the opening of the Double Your Freelancing Academy. Get details and an insider’s scoop on the Double Your Freelancing Academy in today's episode.

Today our guest is Reuven Lerner, who teaches Python, Ruby, Git and PostgreSQL to companies around the world. Today we are discussing using training as a productized offering. Reuven will also be giving an extended presentation on this topic at the Double Your Freelancing Conference that we are having June 22nd through June 25th in Stockholm, Sweden. Reuven has over 20 years of experience as a software engineer and over 15 years experience teaching in high-tech companies. He has a PhD in Learning Sciences and incorporates student feedback into his courses. He offers on-site training courses that not only teaches programming, but teaches students how to think in new more productive ways. Reuven has been involved with the Internet since its inception, and his first website was even on Tim Berners-Lee’s list of all of the websites in the world. Reuven now lives in Israel. Enjoy the conversation.

Hello everyone, today I am talking to Budi Voogt. He is an awesome guy from the Netherlands. He runs a recording label consultancy. I love looking beyond the typical web designer, copywriter, marketer kind of business and seeing how other types of entrepreneurs are successfully charging more, getting better clients, and putting systems in place. Budi is in the Hague, Netherlands. He went to school for Business Administration. Then started working in artist management and booking. From 2012 to 2014, he was Co-Founder of Heroes Managment which is now merging into Heroic Audio. He wrote “The SoundCloud Bible” and created the Music Marketing Academy.

Today I have an awesome interview with a long time student of mine, Eric White. When Eric started he was a typical commoditized freelancer, but he made the transition to high-value business consulting. He has a background in developing business software. He enjoyed working with people and was the guy who spoke with clients to find out what they wanted in their software products. Eric’s current consulting work is understanding what clients actually want with their software. He wants to meet them in the right place and discover what the solution for their problems are. He likes the job of figuring out what is motivating each side and what they need to make the project happen. His specialty is the higher-level people portion of managing software projects.

Today I am talking with Bryce Bladon. He is the curator of “clients from hell”. Today we talk about everything from qualifying new clients to setting expectations. He runs a website whose sole purpose is to showcase crazy clients. We both feel that sometimes we can do things a bit differently to help avoid having clients from hell. So the theme of this show is to have fewer clients from hell.

Today I am interviewing Jane Portman. Jane is from Russia, and she used to work with me on Planscope which I just sold. She is an amazing designer who is very focused on the design and the copy. I recently redesigned Double Your Freelancing. Which is appropriate for today, because Jane’s expertise is building really great user experiences. Jane is an amazing UI designer and business consultant. Jane has been designing for over 10 years. She worked for a large agency in Russia. She is also a mom, and now works full time in the US as a consultant. She wanted to build authority, so she started writing books and implemented a lot of my advice for consultants. She is currently focused on helping SaaS founders to build simple products that make money.

Today we are speaking with Alex Mathers. Alex is an illustrator who specializes in vector illustrations, maps, diagrams and landscapes. He is also a blogger and writer. He runs the Red Lemon Blog which helps creative entrepreneurs market and promote their businesses. He has worked for clients like Google, Sony and the BBC. He is also a speaker and does one on one coaching for select clients. He lives in London, UK, and he also runs the Ape on the Moon design blog. Alex studied geography in London. After that, he wasn't sure what he really wanted to do, so he studied real estate and received a Master's degree. During this time, he got back into what he really enjoyed which was creating illustrations. At first, this was part time, then full time, then he felt he needed to share everything that he had been learning with the world, and Red Lemon was born.

Karl Sakas is the president of Sakas & Company which is a consulting company that specializes in helping digital marketing agencies grow. I had an opportunity to chat with Karl today, and I found myself nodding my head the entire time. The meat and potatoes of the interview focused on helping businesses grow in a holistic way not just focusing on the technical aspect of what the business offers. Karl emphasizes using a SIT framework which focuses on strategy, implementation and training. Working with agencies, Karl discovered everything they offer fits in the strategies of the SIT framework. The first part of the framework is strategy where the client is saying tell me what to do. The second part is implementation where the client is saying do it for me. Training is the third part, where the client says teach me how to do it. They want to do the project or maintenance in house and they need to get up to speed. Success is more than just completing the project, it is knowing that what you delivered solved the problem at hand. Strategy, implementation and training is a perfect framework for cross-selling and creating the best long term solutions. Communication and understanding client goals can help avoid client problems. Today’s topics include: Getting paid for offering training as a service Benefits of helping the transition of the product hand-off Pitfalls of hiring technical and business employees Being kept on as a trusted advisor is an ideal client situation Questions to ask potential clients and avoid communication issues

Today I am talking with Jesse Strauss. Jesse is a New York-based lawyer who owns a firm specializing in debt collection for freelancers. When it comes to things like small claims court and debt collection, freelancers are usually on their own. Jesse discovered that there were a lot of freelancers with payment disputes while he was working on wage and hour cases.

Today I’m talking with a good friend of mine, Keith Perhac. Keith is the founder of the digital marketing consulting agency DelfiNet and the online course software Summit Evergreen. He has managed to build a thriving consultancy agency while working remotely in Japan. Working remotely, can be an issue for many freelancers, but Keith says he is there when his clients wake up and there again when they go to bed. He says it’s like magic when they tell him what they want, and it is done for them when they wake up.

Today’s show features service scalability strategist, Mandi Ellefson. Mandi helps entrepreneurs develop a system to free up time and remove themselves from their business. In today’s interview we discuss scaling your business and things to consider before going down that route. Mandi has discovered that scaling is a common issue for freelancers, and she is passionate about helping them.

Today we’re joined by Bart Mroz: consultant, co-founder of Sumo Heavy, and long-time friend. Bart is an expert at experimenting new things in his business and using the discoveries to increasingly improve it and their strategy. Not only have they done this with billing models, but with trial periods, sales processes, and basically everything else.

Today’s guest is Liston Witherill. Today we got the opportunity to talk about getting into the head’s of your clients. It’s important to understand your client’s mindset, the worldview of the people you work for and their values, problems and needs. It’s what separates you and allows you to position yourself as an expert consultant and reliably solve the problems of your clients.

Today’s guest is Naveen Dittakavi. We had a great conversation about how his business has evolved and how important it is to overcome the belief that just because you’ve read something you’re making an improvement. In actuality, you have to act on what you’ve learned to make a difference.

Today I sit down with branding expert Jeffrey Shaw to talk about how positioning your brand as the front row of your identity will lead to better sales, happier customers, and a more prosperous business

Today we’re having a crazy interview, but in the best way. We’ll be talking to Julia Kelly, she’s a caricature artist, and the first one we’ve had on the show. She also has a degree in Accounting, so she loves the numbers side of things.

Today is Part 2 of my conversation with Sean D'Souza. Tune in to hear his incredible insights on copywriting, conversion, and how to sell successfully.

Today I sit down with Sean D'Souza for Part 1 of our 2 part series on Why Clients Buy. Sean is an expert in the psychology of selling and has influenced much of what we know of sales techniques.

The first ever DYF Conf was last week in Norfolk, and I was able to catch up with a handful of the speakers to get an insider view of what they took away from the conference. It was a great perspective.

My good friend Paul Jarvis is my guest on this episode of the Business of Freelancing Podcast. Paul began as a web designer and applied what he learned in his work to writing for creative freelancers looking to better run their businesses. Today we discuss building products, especially for those freelancers who may not have a huge audience and a solid idea for a product.

More and more freelancers have taken to becoming nomads who live and work a location- independent lifestyle.  My guest, Paul Kortman, is a nomad who travels with his wife and four children and runs a digital marketing consulting business from various locations. On this episode Paul offers some thoughts on this lifestyle and how to make your business work in a non-traditional setting.  Paul believes that if you want to pursue the life of a nomad there are a number of things you can do to help make the process easier and far more enjoyable.   

Today I am talking to Nick Disabato, a good friend who is the founder of Draft Revise. As well as the author of Cadence & Slang, a guide to interaction design. Draft Revise is a service that helps companies optimize their content. Nick and I are going to discuss the company he’s built, how he’s done it, and what advice he has for those wanting to get into productizing.

Today I sit down with my buddy Kai Davis to explore why building an audience is so important for freelancers, and how you can get started today.