Author: James Cross

If you think that running paid ads for your freelance business is a complete and total waste of time and money, with no chance of ever getting you clients…

Don’t bother reading any further.

I get why many freelancers believe this – especially if you’ve tried to run ads in the past and been burned with low-quality leads, high costs, and NOTHING to show for it.

It can be easy to conclude that “paid ads just don’t work.”

So here’s a fun fact:

Google and Meta made $424 BILLION from ad revenue in 2024.

That’s $48.5 million an hour.

$808,000 per MINUTE.

These platforms are printing money because they work.

So the question isn’t whether paid ads generate results…

It’s whether you know how to use them properly.

That $808k a minute?

It’s coming from businesses who figured out how to make the math work (and that includes my business).

Most freelancers are burning money on the wrong platforms with the wrong strategy.

We’re here to fix that.

We broke it all down in this week’s episode:

Meta vs. LinkedIn vs. YouTube vs. Google.

Which one’s best? Which ones to avoid? And how to know if ads make sense for your business.

Joining me is Dennis Schneider, one of our coaches who’s spent over $15 million on ads (not a typo).

He’s also the person running our ads right now.

By the end of this one, you’ll know:

• The exact platform we use to bring in thousands of leads every single month
• Why some ad platforms are a total waste for freelancers
• And 4 specific situations where you should NOT run ads

• How these patterns form
• How they masquerade as productivity
• What to do when you catch yourself spiraling.

Back in 2011, I made a list called “My Future Wife.”

A bullet-point breakdown of everything I wanted in…you guessed it…my future wife.

The whole dream package.

But after reading through it, I had a sinking realization:

I wasn't the type of guy who would be attractive to that type of woman.

So I spent the next few years becoming that man.

That list changed my life, and eventually led me to my actual wife who IS the perfect-fit person for me.

I came across that document recently and it made me realize:

Most freelancers never do the same exercise with their business.

They dream about high-paying, low-drama, “perfect-fit” clients…

But never ask the hard question:

Am I the kind of freelancer my dream client is looking for?

In this week’s episode of the podcast, I share the 4 traits that make you magnetic to your dream clients (the things many freelancers completely overlook).

It’s not just about being good at what you do.

It’s about being the kind of person your dream client is drawn to.

Let’s make you irresistible (in business, anyway).

“I don’t want to bother people.”

That one thought has killed more freelancers than bad pricing ever has.

“I don’t want to bother people with emails.”

“I don’t want to follow up too soon.”

“I don’t want to come off pushy.”

Translation?

You’re broke because you’re assuming you’re bothering people…

When in reality?

They’re probably happy to be bothered.

I would rather be annoying than irrelevant.

That’s why for this episode I brought in Danielle Weil (our in-house email marketing strategist) to break down 3 simple emails that stop leads from slipping through your fingers without being pushy or annoying.

These aren’t newsletters.

They’re not long, complicated sequences.

They’re short, strategic, and designed to put money back in your pocket.

If you’re not doing email marketing (or doing it badly), this is your wake-up call.

• The 4 scenarios where you never give a number
• My actual templates you can use to stay in control
• How to filter out bad-fit clients without scaring off the good ones

If you’ve ever fumbled this question (or avoided it completely), this is the episode that will fix it.

Hard to explain. Not specific enough. Too wide an audience.

Freelancers kinda suck at crafting offers.

Even the good ones.

Especially the good ones.

If your best-fit clients cannot easily repeat back who you help, the results you promise, and how you deliver it…

You're probably doing this wrong.

We’ve worked with hundreds of freelancers at this point, and if WE have no idea what the heck it is you do…

How are your clients gonna know?

Congratulations, you just killed the sale with confusion.

In this week’s episode, I bring on our Clients by Design coach Stephen Hutson to break down the five pieces every great offer needs.

We show you:

• Why your Franken-service is repelling clients
• How to instantly raise your rates without changing your service
• The one litmus test to see if your offer actually makes sense

Crafting a great offer is both an art and a science, and it’s one of the first steps to building a Client Acquisition Machine.

Get this right, and great clients will instantly know what you do, why you’re worth the price, and how to say “hell yes.”

Get this wrong, and you’ll keep selling the what… while they walk away confused about the why.

If you’re great at what you do…

If people look up to you, hire you, refer you…

And you’re still struggling with client acquisition…

You know what you SHOULD be doing.

So what’s holding you back?

Sometimes, after being so good at what you do for so long, the idea of starting something you might not be great at right away can feel uncomfortable.

We forget what it’s like to be a newbie, making mistakes.

And now? That fear of sucking again is keeping you stuck.

I get it… “marketing” can feel like a wild west with zero rhyme or reason.

Paid ads? I could end up donating money to Zuck for nothing.

Building funnels and automations? Seems complicated.

So it’s easier to stick with what you know.

Even if it’s not working like it used to.

How much is that inaction costing you? How much longer can you afford to NOT fix this?

But guess what… The people who grow the fastest are the ones willing to look dumb for a while. Willing to dare to suck.

This week’s episode is all about that feeling (and why being okay with sucking again is often the first step toward real growth.)

You know that meme…

Charlie Day, crazed look, wall of string, pointing at chaos?

That’s the typical freelancer trying to make a decision.

A simple pricing change? You’re mapping out lifetime value, market benchmarks, “CFO-level cost abstractions” (whatever the hell that means).

Meanwhile, someone else just ran a quick test, got a client, and moved on.

While one person’s “trying to decide on a niche”…

Another one has tested 5 different offers and actually figured out what will sell.

If you’ve been stuck in “procrasturbation”…

Tweaking your logo.

Updating your website.

Getting ready to get ready…

Instead of launching offers, testing, having conversations, and figuring it out by failing fast…

Listen to THIS EPISODE now

And then DO SOMETHING. Move fast.

Speed is king.

And indecision is the tax you’re paying.

There’s a specific reason I’m bringing this up now…

Because I get so mad when I see freelancers getting stuck on this stuff when there is a simple path that leads directly to the 3% of clients who are ready to hire you right now.

Later this week, we’re offering something special to a handful of freelancers

And it might have something to do with us handing you our entire client acquisition system. That includes funnels, follow-up, CRM. And we're covering the software cost too.

More about that later this week.

In the meantime check out the episode.

Just one nightmare client can ruin your business.

One soul-sucking, scope-creeping, micromanaging clown who drains your time, sanity, and confidence.

And the frustrating thing is, you probably felt the red flags on that first call (and ignored them)…

Thinking, “it’ll be fine”…

“I’m probably overreacting…”

“I can manage them, they really do need my help”…

And my favorite: “It’s good money.”

So you said yes (even though your gut said no).

And now they’re making your life miserable.

The solution?

Stop relying on “gut feelings” and use my simple scorecard that filters out the clowns and makes it easy to say “thanks, but no thanks.”

In this week’s episode, I break down the C.L.O.W.N.S. Framework 🤡:

6 red flags you must spot on your next sales call if you want to avoid the clients from hell.

You’ll learn how to sniff out the “red flag” clients that are more trouble than they’re worth.

Ever hop on a discovery call…

Only to find out they “might” be ready in 6 months, have no budget, and just want free advice?

Not only did you get your hopes up, you ALSO just wasted your time.

Yeah, it sucks – and today we’re going to fix it.

Way back in the 1960’s, IBM developed a pretty cool framework called BANT to weed out bad leads…

And in this episode, I’ve adapted it for freelance businesses.

This 4-question system will help you spot bad leads before you ever get on a call:

• You’ll save hours each week by not chasing dead-end leads.
• You’ll feel more confident on sales calls because you’re leading the conversation.
• You’ll close more high-quality projects because you’ll be talking to the right people