- Why big projects are the best sources of income
- How to develop a new offer
- Helping your clients reach their dream outcome
- When to explore a new niche
- Client calls: why you need them
- RAISE YOUR RATES
- Using SOPs to make sure your business runs smoothly
- Staying top of mind with your network
- Using micro-gigs and upsells to grow your business
- Building your personal brand
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[00:00:00] Brian: Hello and welcome to the Six Figure Creative Podcast I am your host Brian Hood. If this is your first time listening to the show, first of all, welcome. Hi Hey, I'm doing the weird two handed wave thing. This podcast is for you. If you are a freelancer, you offer creative services, and you want to make more money from your creative skills without selling your soul.
[00:00:14] Brian: If that sounds like you, you're in the right spot. This episode it's the first of the new year for me. It's January 2nd right now. But second of the new year for you, because obviously this is like coming out the second week of January.
[00:00:24] Brian: And January for many people is the slow season for many freelancers, not all niches some niches. I'm sure it's like the high season in January, but a lot of niches fall into the kind of that famine period. If you're like in a feast famine cycle. And so January tends to be a slower or slowish season for many of you.
[00:00:38] Brian: So this episode I wanted to make something fun. It's been a while since I've done just like a fun episode. I've done so many series and like, I'm so serious all the time. And this, I guess this episode is going to be serious, but it's fun to me because I like listicle episodes. So we're going to do 11. Big projects you can take on that can generate big money for 2024.
[00:00:54] Brian: dubbing this episode, Big Projects, Big Money. I don't know if I'm going to title it that way, but I like that title.
[00:00:58] Brian: I got 11 of these, maybe there'll be [00:01:00] more or less depending on my, time situation.
[00:01:02] Brian: But I think the mistake a lot of freelancers make when it comes to this, this season of life, at least in January we hit the ground running, we got tons of energy, tons of motivation, and then it's slow season for us. And so what can happen is you end up squandering this either sense of motivation that you get in January, this burst of the new year, everything's possible all that past crap's behind us. we end up just playing video games because we don't have clients coming in the door or we tinker around with little tiny, not big needle movers in our business because Brian said to work on your business and so you go and work on your business, but it's crap. It doesn't matter.
[00:01:33] Brian: They're not big needle moving projects.
[00:01:35] Brian: So you squander this kind of season of life and I don't want that for any of us because if you miss out on these big projects, then you miss out on the big money, big projects, big money,
[00:01:43] Brian: And if it's not big money, it's at least big progress in your life or your business or whatever you're trying to do a big project around. and it makes sense if you look back at some of your biggest jumps in income or your best years or best months, they're usually following some sort of big project or big initiative.
[00:01:56] Brian: You took on something where you put a lot of energy into something.
[00:01:59] Brian: and maybe if you can't [00:02:00] think back to something like this, then it's at least the case for me. So I want to share from my experience, some of the kind of big projects I took on throughout my career and then kind of the results of that.
[00:02:07] Brian: So, Way back January, 2010, my second year as a freelancer I moved into my first commercial studio space because I outgrew my parents basement. That's where I started my studio. And it was a big project I had to like source. The location I had to negotiate the lease. I had to renovate the space.
[00:02:25] Brian: it was a very big project, but it ended up being my best year ever to that point. And I just happened to take that on in January, 2010, which was funny. Fast forward, January 15. I'm skipping a bunch of stuff, but I'm just going to give you just the first things that came to my mind when it came to like big projects, big money in my life.
[00:02:38] Brian: January 15, I created my first course. So up to this point, the five years since 2010 to 2015, I had just been hustling, grinding, doing my thing as a freelancer. I grew my studio to six figures in 2014. Into 2014, I start having this idea. Everyone's doing courses. What course could I do?
[00:02:55] Brian: By the way, I'm not saying to do a course. I'm just giving you my experience. This is 2015 So I [00:03:00] map out what it could look like start the project in January in earnest where I start actually like mapping these things out and filming and editing And myself being who I am. I overbuilt the hell out of it.
[00:03:09] Brian: I over edited the hell out of it wasn't until like q3. So around fall that I actually released this thing But it was my best year ever to that point that one course generated me 50k in 2015 and replaced a full service that I cut away earlier that year
[00:03:24] Brian: and that course has gone on to generate hundreds of Thousands of dollars for me throughout my career and I still sell that course to this day by the way, this is just for context. This was a course around mixing heavy metal music because that is a recording studio.
[00:03:35] Brian: That was kind of my specialties and making heavy metal sound, really good. So I just parlayed my expertise as a mixing engineer into educating on that subject, it was a big project and it was a big boost income. And to that point, my best year ever 2015 up to that point, there's a theme to this, by the way, 2019 Similar thing.
[00:03:52] Brian: I launched my second course, January 2018, and that led to my best year ever.
[00:03:58] Brian: In 2023, I hired [00:04:00] a coach, Q1, so quarter one, I think in quarters now. I think as we get more sophisticated and make more money as business owners, we start thinking in quarters instead of months. But that's just my brain right now and Q1, I hired a coach and then together we worked on a big plan.
[00:04:13] Brian: We executed that plan. It was like three massive projects for me. And then Q3 and Q4 of last year were my two biggest quarters by far. And that resulted in my best year ever, 2023. What I'm not telling you to do is go make courses. I could tell you to go hire a coach. That always works for me.
[00:04:29] Brian: But what I am trying to get you to do is brainstorm some big projects that you can take on in 2024 starting now, then prioritize those projects and then just knock them out one at a time. Maybe you only get one done, that one project could result in tons of money for you big projects, big money.
[00:04:43] Brian: That's the theme. So let's get into this. I'm going to get again, I've got 11 of these to share, give or take one or two. And I've actually split this into, two segments. If you're making under 50k, I'm going to start there. If you're making under 50k a year as a freelancer, if you're making over 50k a year, there's probably some projects you want to prioritize over those kind of projects we're going to talk about [00:05:00] with the under 50k.
[00:05:01] Brian: All of these projects could work for you, no matter where your income range is. I was thinking through like, this doesn't make sense for somebody who's not making very much money. Makes sense for somebody who's making a lot of money or vice versa. So use your own judgment here. Be a sane person. That's my motto for you. All right. So if you're under 50k, we're going to start here. So the first one I'm going to talk about, is huge leverage thing that is not a lot of work, but it takes a lot of brainpower and that's developing a new offer. Many freelancers, you're under 50k. The reason you're kind of either stuck or plateaued or struggling to gain traction is because you're just a copycat freelancer. No shame in being there when you start out, but eventually you have to evolve as a freelancer and create something more unique. Something that's differentiated. So when I talk about crafting a new offer, we kind of have a few ways we could do this.
[00:05:44] Brian: You could either do an existing service, so revamping your existing service, or moving into a new service. I want to talk about those both kind of independently. The first one is existing service. If you go back to episode 213, it's titled the four best ways to become more valuable to your clients so you can charge more.
[00:05:58] Brian: It was takeaways from the book, [00:06:00] 100, 000, 000 Offers. In 100, 000, 000 Offers, there is something called a value equation. I'm going to show this really quick. So if you're on YouTube, you can see this, if you're not, it'll be in our show notes page at sixfigurecreative. com slash two nine zero, where you can see all of our wonderful show notes, for this episode and this image will be there.
[00:06:15] Brian: This is the value equation. This is from Alex Ramosi, way smarter than I am. He's built way bigger businesses than I have. I think he's like a 200 million a year at this point or more, but this is kind of the key of revamping your offer as a freelancer. If you offer a copycat service, what I call a button seat service, where. Any but could be in the seat, matter if it's yours or not which is a lot of people. Chances are, a lot of times, you're stuck under that 50k a year range.
[00:06:36] Brian: And this value equation is the key to unlocking more income By creating more value. And when you create more value as a freelancer, you can charge more of that.
[00:06:45] Brian: as businesses, unless you're scamming somebody or unless you are, breaking the law, Generally speaking, as freelancers, our payment is a small percentage of the overall value we create. And in some industries, that's really hard to calculate. In some industries, it's really easy to [00:07:00] calculate.
[00:07:00] Brian: But no matter what, all of us can follow this value equation. It's dream outcome multiplied by perceived likelihood of achievement divided by time delay and effort and sacrifice. So I'll just talk through this. If you're listening, you don't have to see this. It's like. sometimes I'm like on a podcast walk, I'm like, I don't want to see your damn show notes.
[00:07:17] Brian: So if that's you, I'm going to explain this in detail and then you can go back to episode 213. Again, the four best ways to become more valuable to your clients. You can charge more takeaways from 100 million offers. Longest title ever. Actually, it might be our longest title ever for an episode. But you can go back to that episode and listen to this.
[00:07:30] Brian: If this is project you decide to take on. Again, just listen, brainstorm, maybe have a little Google Doc or your Apple Notes or whatever. Open or Evernote's my favorite thing. So I'm using it right now for this episode. So just brainstorm these ideas out there and then we can talk about like prioritizing them later. So dream outcome. Dream outcome is what outcome are your clients hiring you for? If you're a copywriter, they're not hiring you to write copy.
[00:07:51] Brian: That's not the outcome they want. They want to probably sell more stuff. That's the dream outcome they have. If you're a music producer like me, that's my background. They're not coming to you [00:08:00] necessarily to record or produce their songs. They're coming to you because of the dream they have of what those songs will do for them, to play in front of thousands of people on stage, to go on tour, to get signed, to stroke their fragile little egos.
[00:08:12] Brian: But whatever the dream outcome is, if you position your service to help them with that dream outcome, and you're actually messaging that as well, a lot of your offer revamp comes around messaging as much as it is. Actually changing your service up, but whatever you do, making sure you can help them with that dream outcome, that's the big thing when it comes to revamping your service, any services, any resources, any people you can connect them to, anything that helps them get closer to that dream outcome creates more value.
[00:08:36] Brian: The next part of the equation is multiplied by perceived likelihood of achievement. This just means how likely do they feel like you are going to help them get to that dream outcome. For example, I'll just use the same two examples again. If you're a copywriter and you have tons and tons of proof that you have helped people, launch.
[00:08:52] Brian: Six figure seven figure courses then obviously that's a highly perceived likelihood of achievement you have case studies testimonials You have numbers to show [00:09:00] actual data real data or again. Let's go back to my old profession, which is music producer where it's a lot harder to have a stats based approach to perceived likelihood of achievement.
[00:09:09] Brian: Well, I've worked with clients who have gone on to get signed and get on to minor and major labels, if I have billboard charting releases, which I have both of those, if I have taking bands from, ground zero, local bands with very little proof of success and help them achieve success,
[00:09:25] Brian: Then that helps other people think and Brian must have some special sauce those two things alone can do wonders for
[00:09:33] Brian: Making your service More valuable or at least perceived as to be more valuable. So In that case, it could look like maybe you have all the proof already, maybe you need to get case studies, maybe you need to get testimonials, start collecting reviews, anything that makes the perceived likelihood of achievement higher.
[00:09:46] Brian: And then below that, now we're talking about the negative things, the things that are going to hurt your value. That is time delay and effort and sacrifice. time delay could be how long does it take them to get to that dream outcome?
[00:09:56] Brian: Maybe in my case, with music producer clients, my clients [00:10:00] years to get to that dream outcome. That's the reality. But anything you can do to shorten that up can help. Same with copywriter. If you're a copywriter, you're offering your freelance copywriting services to somebody, how long will it take you to Get the project done, get it into their hands, and get them that dream outcome that they want.
[00:10:14] Brian: That 100, 000 launch, that seven figure year, whatever your service does. And then effort and sacrifice, how hard is this going to be for your clients? What can you do to make this easier for your clients? is it going to be like pulling teeth? Or is it going to be like giving them candy to work with you? Is it a pleasure or is it a pain? All these things are what Amounts to the value you create as a freelancer, and that is one of the big keys to Earning more and getting past that 50, 000 a year mark again That's for existing services And we have a whole episode on that you can get to on our show notes page at six figure creative comm slash two nine zero
[00:10:43] Brian: Now, let's say you watch that you saw the value equation. You're thinking, I don't know how I can do anything to make my service more valuable. It might be time for a new service. This is a big project. This is only for those of you who don't have traction as a freelancer already. I wouldn't just willy nilly launch new services if you already have traction on the one that you have.
[00:10:58] Brian: It's probably easier, a lot easier to [00:11:00] just adjust the one you have versus. Completely launching a new service, but that is a big undertaking. Something you can do and it's going to start with creating what's called like a no brainer offer. What can you do that has no risk for the client? Helps you build your portfolio and then launch that new service and start getting feedback and input and data and case studies and things like that. So that's kind of the first big thing is developing a new offer for freelancers. These all won't take this long, I promise you, but that's a big one and that's a huge project and one that will have a lot of impact on your business if you can successfully implement it.
[00:11:26] Brian: Next on the list is breaking into a new niche. Many times freelancers get stuck under 50k a year because they have a great skill set. They are very talented they do. That value equation is really good, but the problem is The value you're creating for a specific niche or a specific client is pretty low. again, looking back to my career as a music producer, I'm working with bands again back in 2014, 15, 16, 17, before streaming really took off a bit more. I'm working with bands who are not going to generate much revenue.
[00:11:54] Brian: They're not going to Make much money as a, band. So that's a tough niche to be a part of. There's some pros and cons and I built [00:12:00] a good business there, but like a better example is in the podcasting niche. I've used this example before where if you're working with amateur podcasters as a podcast producer or a podcast agency, we're doing full service.
[00:12:10] Brian: You're working with amateur podcasts, sports bros talking about sports in their basement comedians who are not popular or not good, Or just like friends getting together to talk about whatever they want. That usually doesn't go very well. If you take that same exact skill set and that same exact service and just shift to another niche, that all of a sudden is creating more value.
[00:12:27] Brian: If you're helping businesses launch podcasts, businesses that are already generating 1 to 5 million a year in revenue, all of a sudden that same skill set becomes Way more valuable. So that's an extreme example, but that's one that hopefully illustrates the point sometimes just taking the existing skills that you have and Shifting into a bigger and better niche is a great way to up your income.
[00:12:46] Brian: Now, there's a balance here We talked about earning more money without selling your soul sometimes moving into a niche Let's just say you are
[00:12:52] Brian: graphic designer and a graphic designer who does something you love but doesn't generate a lot of money I'm not gonna try to speculate here, but then you're like well lawyers [00:13:00] have a lot of money I could do branding for lawyers I don't like lawyers. I actually hate lawyers. My uncle was sued by a lawyer and he lost everything. But I want that sweet, sweet money. That's selling your soul. Don't do that. But do think through, again, when you're brainstorming, what niches could you pivot into that are going to, by nothing else changing, going to increase the value of what you do. The only thing you're changing is the niche. but you increase your value because that niche is more valuable or that service that you offers more valuable to your niche.
[00:13:25] Brian: Great project to take on this year. That can be again, big project, big money. next big project for you that you could take on is actually taking lead seriously. , this is the bane of my existence as a, podcaster, I spend so much of my time. I did an entire series on this lead generation series.
[00:13:40] Brian: Go back and listen to that. It'll be link cleaner show notes at the same page that I just pitched earlier. 2 9 0. Getting freelancers to actually take lead generation seriously is insane. It's so hard for me. ' cause you don't do it. You don't take it seriously. Your idea of lead generation is just like, well, I'll put a form on my site.
[00:13:55] Brian: How's that working out for you? Probably not very well.
[00:13:58] Brian: Again, I've already done a whole series on lead [00:14:00] generation. All I can do here is just say, hey, this is something for you to take seriously. More leads is more income for you. You want to make big money in 2024? Start taking the lead generation seriously. If you've got an offer, you know, works well.
[00:14:12] Brian: You're in a niche that you like, but you're still under 50k, it's probably time to start taking lead generation seriously. And there's two ways to do this that series that I talked about before mostly talks about, value focused lead generation where you're creating like a lead magnet that's educational or informative.
[00:14:27] Brian: And then taking the interest from that, people that raise their hand that indicate they could be a good fit for you. book a call and then you close them as a client.
[00:14:34] Brian: It's pretty straightforward. The other one I don't think I talk about as much and it's worth noting is you can do what's called an offer focused lead generation. campaign. It's where you're just talking about your offer and promoting it somewhere like meta ads, LinkedIn ads, DMs, any things like that, cold email, and just having a straight up offer.
[00:14:51] Brian: And the better your offer, the more this will actually convert, and it's way more difficult than this because it takes some good communication, some good messaging skills, being able [00:15:00] craft either a video talking about your offer or good copy to present your offer to people. Or a good email if you're doing cold outreach, any of this stuff is hard to do, but it tends to convert at a higher level because you're just getting straight to the point.
[00:15:12] Brian: Are you a business doing one to five million a year? You've seen all this hype about podcasts and you've seen the investments made in podcasting. You know, your friends who have podcasts are doing well, but you just can't make yourself do it because you know, the big slog that's going to happen as you get into the weeds trying to figure all this stuff out.
[00:15:26] Brian: What gear do you use? What platform should I use? What do I talk about? Do I do guests or solo? Do I get a co host? All these things are swimming around your head. And because of that, you do nothing to actually get started. What if I were to do this all for you? What if I were to take all this off your shoulders and help you actually get your podcast launch?
[00:15:43] Brian: If you're interested, I can walk you through all the things that you're going to need to do. And I can tackle 99 percent of it where all you got to do is show up to the microphone, be yourself, et cetera, et cetera. Again, I'm, I was literally making this pitch up from scratch. I don't even have notes for this.
[00:15:55] Brian: That was just a pitch from Brian's brain, how I think when it comes to like making a straight [00:16:00] offer, that's the kind of, lead generation you can do. And those leads convert at a much higher rate than those, what we call marketing leads where you're doing value based educational stuff. either way, doing marking lead generation with value focused lead gen or lead generation with offer focused lead gen. Either one can work. The point is, just take one of these seriously. Make it a big project for you in 2024 and actually start tackling that.
[00:16:21] Brian: The next one on the list, and this is the last one I have for the under 50kers. Then we'll get to the over 50K a year Freelancers. This is honestly for either side, but setting up what we call client calls. This really goes with anything in the episode, but client calls are really helpful for a number of things.
[00:16:32] Brian: If you're trying to get feedback on a new offer, if you're trying to get feedback on a new niche, if you're trying to get feedback on a new service or anything like that, client feedback calls are wonderful for actually getting feedback. Knowing how you're going to message things, knowing what goes on in that little brain of theirs of like why something resonates or doesn't resonate.
[00:16:48] Brian: This can be really informal. You can just have a list of questions like, hey, I was thinking about launching a new service. Since you're like my favorite customer ever, or my favorite client ever, whatever wording you use in your business, I wanted to run this by you and just see what you thought. Not trying to sell [00:17:00] you this, just trying to get feedback from you.
[00:17:01] Brian: These sort of like client calls are really, really effective on getting real feedback really quick Before you go off into your cave and huddle up into your goblin mode or hoodie or what do they call it? Cozy's?
[00:17:13] Brian: Snuggies? Whatever they call it. I'm trying to picture somebody with like a Snuggie on like they're all bundled up as a goblin with their laptops Mapping out their new offer with no feedback or outside input from anyone. Client calls. It can be a big project doesn't have to be super big, but this is just something that supplements all the other work you've done.
[00:17:29] Brian: So that's all I got for under 50k Let's talk about over 50k for making over 50k a year. You got Subtraction, obviously, you've got some good things going on for you. There's some room for improvements What kind of big projects could you do if you're making over 50k a year the first I get this in all Caps here the first one This isn't even a big project.
[00:17:43] Brian: It's just big money. This is tiny project big money. This is the outlier of this episode. Raise your damn rates. Just raise them. Just raise your rates. What are you doing? Freelancers under charge. It's criminal. Just raise your rates. That's all you gotta do.
[00:17:58] Brian: You make more money. just raise them. Right [00:18:00] now. Go wherever you, whatever invoicing software you use. Just add a zero. Or just double it. you'll make more money. I guarantee, just, that's it. That's the point. Raise your damn rates.
[00:18:10] Brian: That's the first tiny project, big money. It will fix everything in your business. I promise you, you will have the best year ever if you just raise your damn rates. I have never met a freelancer earning 50k or more a year who was charging the proper amount, first of all. And who didn't make more money by raising the rates.
[00:18:25] Brian: Next project, this is a bigger project. And this is for you if you are starting to kind of lose track of things. Things are falling through the cracks. And it actually kind of brings up two ideas. The first of these two ideas that Brian has is a CRM. finally setting up a CRM for you. maybe you're starting taking lead gen seriously. You've got a lot of leads. You got a lot of deal flow coming in. You've got those clients you're following up from a year ago that finally have their together. You lose one project it slips through the crack you forgot to follow up.
[00:18:49] Brian: it fell in your inbox and whatever you miss one of those that can be thousands or tens of thousands of dollars Through your lifetime one of those because that client was gonna refer three more clients to you and those three clients We're gonna refer a couple more [00:19:00] clients to you and there's 50, 000 gone because you didn't set up your CRM
[00:19:04] Brian: Maybe it's time to start doing that. That's a big project for you 2024 the next and this is one that just popped in my head is a similar thing when it comes to the delivery side Of what you're doing at 50k a year or more. You've got projects in the door. You've got things moving around. You can drop the ball for delivery as well for fulfillment.
[00:19:18] Brian: forgot to send something. missed the ball here. You under projected how long it was going to take or whatever. Like you just forgot to do a task. This is where a project management system can be super helpful. There's simple things like Trello. There's really advanced things like ClickUp, depending on your, technical ability, your needs.
[00:19:34] Brian: And how many things you want to deal with as a project manager, one of those two softwares can work. And there's tons of other ones out there. I use ClickUp, Trello works fine, but that's kind of the same vein of like you're dropping the ball, one's in sales, one's in fulfillment, both are very important because if you don't fulfill and you drop the ball there, you get off clients and won't refer to you.
[00:19:51] Brian: So both of those can help you get a good amount of income this year. Next is in the similar vein. Fixing or setting up a really good onboarding and delivery process at this [00:20:00] level you have prizes coming in the door You're fulfilling on projects, but maybe your onboarding is always a mess. You're always having to follow up six more times to get files or get information from your clients.
[00:20:08] Brian: The contracts aren't getting signed in time. You don't have systems set up to remind them or whatever. This is just, again, part of a really good onboarding process. We have a guide on this. It'll be in our show notes page. actually, I think it's just six figure creative. com slash onboarding. Yes, that's it. There is a, uh, entire like five step process for getting your onboarding together that you can get for free. The five steps to onboarding every new client the right way. ultimate client onboarding process. Super helpful for those of you who want to take onboarding seriously. And the same with delivery, your delivery process.
[00:20:34] Brian: This varies so much from niche to niche. can't even begin to help you on this episode for that. But anything that actually is you fulfilling or delivering on the promise you've made to your clients, created all this perceived value. Now you're actually executing on that value and delivering it.
[00:20:47] Brian: What can you do to fix that, to revamp that, to make it smoother, faster, easier, better, whatever. Next idea for big project, big money. For over 50k a year freelancers is creating what I call an intentional networking system. Listen, hear me out, many [00:21:00] freelancers, you know, networking is a big part of client acquisition for yourself, And yet you don't do anything systematically to build and nurture your network. You listen to Brian, you think, Hey, he says lead nurture is an important thing. There's a bunch of different ways to lead nurture. You can do, emails, you can do content marketing, you can do retargeting ads, things like that. And so you start doing all those things and you ignore the fact that like, most of my clients come from my local network or regional network.
[00:21:22] Brian: And maybe if I took the time to implement those same ideas of Becoming a familiar face, a trusted resource, someone that I see that I've gotten to know like, and trust. You can do the same thing on a one on one scale, and it works way better for many freelance niches. I tend to focus on digital marketing here a lot versus like network marketing, which has got a horrible connotation for many reasons, but you can do something similar for yourself in a non sleazy, way, right?
[00:21:44] Brian: So the question to answer for yourself is, how can I systematically grow and nurture my network? This can be as simple as just saying, Every Tuesday and Thursday, I will set up a lunch with someone in my network. I will set up a coffee date with someone in my network. Tuesdays and Thursdays, every week.
[00:21:59] Brian: And that means if I'm going to do [00:22:00] that every week, I need to reach out to seven people a week. Because those seven conversations will turn into two lunches. So that means that every day, I need to reach out to one person. Or every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, I need to reach out to One to two people, whatever.
[00:22:12] Brian: Maybe it's 10 people you need to reach out to, whatever. That's the system. It is a clear input. Reach out to two people a day, Monday through Friday, and then a simple output. Two lunches booked on my calendar that I'll show up to and actually have a conversation. There's no agenda on these.
[00:22:24] Brian: It's just familiar face, being a friend, getting divided to other things, letting synergy happen. But this is, again, wonderful thing to do. No one really thinks about it or does it. And if that sounds like something you should take on, write it down on your list. Next is similar to under 50k a year freelancers developing a new offer, but there's some other things we can do as over 50k freelancers that are making more money that are probably better spent for you versus trying to completely revamp your offer. Which there's always things you can do around the value occasion.
[00:22:50] Brian: That should just be a continuous improvement thing. But, two big things are, in the new service category, and in the scalable projects category. Let's talk about these individually. One is [00:23:00] new service, launching a new service, similar as before. But, I don't think you're, should Do this willy nilly there's one area that this could really work well like micro something called micro gigs never really talked about this before but I've seen these around Where you're taking your service and you're creating a micro version of it It's an easy foot in the door think about it like a foot in the door What service can you put together against your foot in the door that could lead to more more clients?
[00:23:19] Brian: I'll just give you the example. I saw there's a big photographer here in Nashville He's well known, he's well respected, he's very good, he offers like these little micro sessions where you can come in and you can pay like a nominal fee, a hundred, two hundred bucks, and he'll do some headshots in his kind of pre setup studio, he's got it really systemized, dialed in, doesn't take him long, if he doesn't do this, he's stupid, but he doesn't look stupid, I don't know the guy, I would imagine he will If you go in there, you pay that, he will upsell you to other things, he will cross sell you to other services, and the average client for that is probably not 200, it's probably like 1, 000, 2, 000.
[00:23:48] Brian: So, The micro gig turns into the macro gig, the big gig, it's a project to take on, that's why it's on this list, big projects, big money, but it could be a service for you to explore. The second kind of new service to do, or new pricing model, is something around the [00:24:00] recurring revenue world, if you're not doing something that's like, Retainer or a monthly fee or something?
[00:24:05] Brian: There's almost always a way to add that on or tack that on or to revamp your service or offer a new service That has a recurring element so it could be big projects done Now if that's done, what can I sell them on the back end to keep them around start building recurring revenue as a freelancer those are two kind of new services you could offer or new ways to price some of the existing things You're already doing but i'm going to talk about the scalable projects scalable services I talked about this before this is where I was 2015 And 17, there's two big bumps in my income were from what I call DIY scalable products.
[00:24:31] Brian: those are courses, but there's actually an easier one to do that I probably recommend people to do now. And that's done with you. This is essentially where you take your service. Like I could talk about the podcast production service or my world music production. And instead of doing it for them, you're doing it with them.
[00:24:45] Brian: You're setting up a weekly call or you have a curriculum for them to go through and you're implementing things, reviewing things, teching things, doing quality control, coaching them, whatever, to make sure it gets done. Doing it with them could be a wonderful way to scale your time to where you're making a disproportionate amount of money for each hour [00:25:00] that you work because you're charging a flat fee or one big upfront fee or some sort of recurring revenue thing there and they're getting help and education and things done with them.
[00:25:08] Brian: It's obviously generally more affordable for them to do than for you to just do it for them. So actually recording the stuff for them or doing the service for them. We do have kind of an episode on this episode 214, how to stop trading hours for dollars by creating an Ascension ladder, this with Rachel Brinke. She has a cool way of doing it that's similar to what I just talked about there.
[00:25:28] Brian: But there's other things you can do as well when it comes to like scalable products. Things like templates, other resources. There can be some in each niche, like photography niche. You can create stock photos, you get royalties on it. Things like that in the music production world. you're a musician yourself, you can actually use your production skills to create songs for music libraries or get sync placements.
[00:25:45] Brian: Those are all scalable sources of this. Very hard to get into. But again, We got time right now, right? So January, if it's slow season for you, think about mapping this out as a defined end project, something with a start and a finish that will give you some deliverables or some sort of value longterm. And then the final two here, I'm just going to kind of lump [00:26:00] these in together because they're basically the same thing.
[00:26:02] Brian: And that is building a personal brand. Again, you're over 50 K, especially if you're going to do one of those things I just talked about like launching a course or, done with you kind of offer building a product ladder, ascension ladder, whatever I just said, this is a big part of that because the bigger your personal brand, the easier it's going to be to sell those sorts of things.
[00:26:19] Brian: And when it comes to scalable services, that's where you really have to have your marketing chops down. As a freelancer, a lot of times you can just have a good network, being personable, being likable, being around other people, and all of a sudden you get clients. It's pretty straightforward for a lot of people.
[00:26:31] Brian: So you can get away with not knowing a lot of digital marketing, but in the scalable services world, where you're trying to scale to six figures, multiple six figures, or even in the agency world, where you're trying to build a team and have others around you doing the services, and you're trying to keep their rosters full as, subcontractors, that is the world of actually getting good with marketing.
[00:26:47] Brian: So to do that personal brand or a brand for your business getting good at all these things is a big part of that that's kind of like Content marketing like this podcast is my personal brand thing. Brian starting to talk to himself in third person.
[00:26:58] Brian: That's part of my personal brand. I guess from now [00:27:00] on, that's really stupid. I hate that I do that, but whatever. But all these things, again, are big undertakings, but big project, big money, right? So no matter what, here's advice I have for you. So you're going to create this list. You're going to prioritize this list.
[00:27:10] Brian: You're going to think like, what should I do here? Is there so many good ideas? I don't know which one to do. No matter what, this is my advice for you. Find and fix your bottleneck. What is the thing holding you back from making the money that you want? And just start there.
[00:27:20] Brian: Maybe it's lead generation, maybe it's sales problem, maybe it's on the fulfillment side of things. Maybe your average annual client value is too low. So raise your damn rates, right? But whatever it is, prioritize them and just knock them out one at a time. And if you want. our help in doing this, this is literally what we do with our clients.
[00:27:35] Brian: We look at everything you have. We find the bottleneck, create a list of projects for you to do. We prioritize them and then we coach you through implementing it over a long period of time or a short period of time. However much time you need. We create this whole plan for you.
[00:27:47] Brian: We pitch it to you and we don't even work together unless you approve that plan. So if you want to start a big project this year. I would love to do it with you. Just go to sixfigurecreative. com slash coaching. Fill out the short application. Book a call. We can chat with my team about it. [00:28:00] I can tell you as somebody who has invested a lot of money in courses, coaching, alternative education, I've spent well over a hundred K in my lifetime, probably 150 K at this point. It is well worth it. It's way easier than doing sitting in your basement, huddle under a snuggie, typing up stuff on your laptop.
[00:28:15] Brian: It's trying to do it all yourself, having accountability in place is a huge part of having success long term. When you get past this big initial burst of motivation in January, I just hired a fitness coach for this exact same reason. Having the accountability there is a big part for me. and so that's one of the big things we do with our clients is actually holding them accountable politely, but firmly.
[00:28:32] Brian: So sixfigurecreative. com slash coaching. That's all I have for this episode. Thank you so much for listening and I'll see you all next week.
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