Did you know that all successful businesses have the same 3 foundations, regardless of their size or sector? These are: The audience it serves The solution it sells The service it provides For example: I help freelancers (audience) establish a more stable and secure business (solution) through coaching and hands-on support (service). This sounds astonishingly simple and yet many, many businesses exist without this clarity. And each piece is like a link in a chain: if a piece is missing or...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Reader, I'd like to get really real with you in this email. I have many things still to learn about running a business. But one thing I seem to have locked in is how to think about and use money. Many of you will know we welcomed our second child into the world in February. This has been beautiful for many reasons, but it has meant that working at home has been a challenge. Anyone remember this? Along with the toddler constantly blazing around, we now have the introduction of a wailing baby 😅...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader You may remember earlier this year I announced I would be starting an agency. After seeing my clients doing so well, I got excited. I wanted in on the action. After all, in the ~12 years before coaching I worked in six different agencies and founded two of my own, one as a co-founder. But as I acted on this urge, something began to surface... Knowing what you want (by doing what you don't want) I came flying out the stalls. I reached out to dozens of people, had multiple Zoom...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Reader, did you know that competing is a choice? Right now you might be seeing thousands of other people doing exactly what you do. I've had clients express their concerns to me about this. Even the ones with a loyal client base and a healthy bank balance. They worry that their skills are becoming a commodity, and that one day, there will simply be too much competition for them to make a living out of this. But if you truly embrace what I'm about to share here, your perspective will...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader On a group call a few weeks ago, someone who practices positive affirmations said "people would think I'm crazy if they knew how much I talk to myself!" It's understandable. In polite society we tend to associate talking to oneself with mental illness. As a boy I remember being terrified by this poor old guy on the bus who seemed to constantly utter angry sentiments to nobody, under his breath, sometimes whilst clenching his fists. But intentional, positive self-talk is a...
5 months ago • 1 min read
Reader, if you ever compare yourself to others and it's making you feel bad about yourself, I'm going to share a simple mindset shift to kick "comparison-itis" for good. (Seriously, bookmark this one because you'll want to return to it again and again). Why we compare Ever looked at someone who's way ahead of you and thought "I'll never be as good as them"? You begin to question yourself - your ideas, your business... even your own self-worth. Or maybe you've seen someone a few steps behind...
6 months ago • 2 min read
Reader, my business and life improved when I worked on the following areas. (If you want to command higher rates, reduce your chance of getting ghosted, and enjoy better client relationships, today's email is a must-read) Confident freelancers and business owners: 1) Challenge their clients Being confident isn't about throwing your weight around. It's about looking at the objective goals of a piece of work, then standing by the best course of action to meet them. This means saying no to...
8 months ago • 2 min read
Reader, does it sometimes feel like there aren't any clients out there? If you watch the news too much, you'll be told that nobody has any money to spend and that the economy is in ruins. But the truth is there are currently 4,894,356 registered companies in the UK. That's actually a 3.8% increase on the previous year. So you see - the entrepreneurial spark is still burning brightly. There are literally millions of people out there buying and selling - every moment of every day. I sometimes...
over 1 year ago • 1 min read
Reader, your fellow freelancers are dealing with the same stuff as you. Earlier this year, after hundreds of conversations, I created a list of the key challenges that freelancers spoke to me about. I then fed this list into a word cloud generator where each word is displayed at a different size. The more often the word comes up in the list, the larger the word in the cloud. In it, you'll find challenges around: strategy lead generation pricing positioning money All stuff we all deal with....
over 1 year ago • 1 min read
