Recently I went to a regularly held conference for social entrepreneurs I hadn’t attended in several years. It had started as a clutch of upstarts. Now the world knows about this field. The convention’s a big deal and much more business-focused.
Seeing how happening this little convention had become was a lesson in staying connected even when crazy-busy. As one freelancer said, “I forgot that a few years pass and new people enter a business and build new connections.”
Here’s how Holly has kept her freelance pipeline full so far: “I’m good at quick turnarounds, and I fill a niche working with small businesses on tight budgets.” But she admits, “I depend on word of mouth. I’d like to know how to market my skills better.”
Word of mouth alone usually won’t turbocharge a freelance career. You can’t control who calls. And if your market or contacts dry up, you’d better have a plan unless you want to do the same.
Employees, surrounded by coworkers, can practically bathe in their network. Freelancers have to create theirs.
“I suck at this part,” one freelancer laments. “I’m good at what I do, but I can’t say I’ve got a strategy for getting work. About as bold as I get is gentle email reminders that I’m available.”
You need a marketing method you’re comfortable with that can grow with you. In this chapter we’ll look at extending your outreach and developing your marketing style alongside your freelance career.
Once upon a time, there were two hungry fishermen. One drags his tackle to the end of a pier, drops in his hook baited with leftovers, anchors his rod in a bucket of sand, and goes home to do chores.
The other fisherman rows to a place he’s learned trout gather, when he knows they tend to be there. He drops his line, juicy worm thereon, and waits awhile. Then he rows to a different spot and casts again. He observes the ways of the river and the fish. He enjoys the beauty of the day.
Which fisherman is more likely to:
a) Catch a fish (or two or three)?
b) Have a better chance of catching fish next time?
c) Feel happier?
We don’t question the common sense of knowing what kind of fish you want, going where they go, and learning the best ways to catch them. Fishing for clients isn’t that different. There’s a simple trifecta for happy marketing:
1 Have a strategy.
2 Let go of strategy.
3 Think give, not get.
Without a marketing strategy, the choices of where to drop your line (pond? lake? river?) and for whom (trout? salmon? grouper?) get overwhelming. A lot of freelancers troll for gigs online and talk to other freelancers in discussion groups. By themselves, these tactics are like Fisherman 1’s line-in-a-bucket approach: relatively easy; not very effective. You want to find prospects not by accident but by design, and network with people you’re pretty sure can help you as much as you can help them. That strategy’s driven by a very different philosophy. It’s not about finding people who want you, but about finding the people you want.
For that, legwork and face-to-face networking remain the gold standards—with straight shots of Internet added.
You can’t catch a fish without the right bait. So review your Key Skills List from Chapter 1, and your fabulous human traits—the intangibles that make you unique. Get the specialties your market wants. Specialists can charge more and be choosier about gigs. (Fisherman 2 developed a way with trout; Fisherman 1 had to take whatever he could get.)
Maybe you’ll develop a special service: massage therapist magical at shiatsu. Or an industry specialty: financial writer for banking institutions. Business size can be a specialty: website developer for start-ups. Specialists know their market’s likes, dislikes, aches, and pains and can quickly build a bond.
How much you market depends on client turnover. Freelancers with mostly one-time clients have to cast wider and more often than freelancers with lots of ongoing business. (For the one-time types, Level 4 products can add income streams; social media can broaden your reach.)
If you don’t deep-down know who you are and what you’re looking for, no one else will, either.
Where’s the growing edge of your market—the innovation, the energy, the spending? That’s where your chances are best for gigs now and later.
What’s the growing edge worried, wondering, or excited about? Look for what’s trending. Position your skills and services to the needs of that growing edge.
Then go where those fish go. Find out what they read, what organizations they belong to, what discussion groups they visit, what blogs they follow. Where do they network, get training, or look to hire people? Who are the players? “I read industry publications and make lists of people to contact,” Dave says.
Use the Internet to follow prospects. Check out their social media posts, blog, or newsletter. Study their website. Read articles mentioning or quoting them.
All this gives you something to talk with them about. Imagine the lame, generic lines tossed out to industry big fish. You’ll be able to connect much better because you’re attuned to their world.
While it’s fun to network with your own kind, you also need to fish in different waters to grow your freelance business. The shiatsu specialist might network with acupuncturists, yoga teachers, physical therapists, sports medicine professionals, and athletic coaches. Discussion groups can eat time, so lurk to learn whether they fit your networking needs before joining the conversation.
Be choosy about professional groups, too. Check them out online. If an event’s open to nonmembers, go. Look for groups with good reputations, a membership you want to meet, and events where you can learn and network. Join because you want to get involved.
Conferences and conventions can cost time and money. Again, focus on the opportunities to learn and connect: “When I was trying without much luck to break into food writing, I went to a panel called ‘What Magazine Editors Want Today,’” Alison recalls. “The panelists, editors from the big food magazines, talked about how they preferred story ideas to be pitched. One mentioned the importance of talking about food in pitches. She said something like, ‘My mouth should be watering over your delicious food.’ I realized I’d spent most of my queries talking about why my ideas were good for their magazines, forgetting to talk about the delicious, amazing food I’d be writing about! From then on, I spent more time describing the recipes that’d be in my stories. Almost immediately I started getting more assignments.”
Have a question for the Q & A session. This gives you an opening to introduce yourself afterward (do that anyway): “Thanks for answering my question about runners’ knee problems. I’m a shiatsu practitioner and I’m interested in helping athletes recover from injuries. I’d love to know more about your work. Do you have a card?” Or email them to thank them for their talk, and ask your question.
You can even contact people you didn’t meet: “I was at Gizmofest last week and was impressed by your booth. I’m sorry we didn’t meet, because I’m interested in your work [et cetera].”
Here’s how one freelancer’s natural enthusiasm and smart conference prospecting paid off: “I attended a panel where one of the speakers was someone I hadn’t met who was newly assigning stories for a magazine I’d worked for a lot, but not since he started assigning. I got there early, got a seat directly in front of him, and adjusted my name tag so he couldn’t help but see my name (I knew he’d recognize it). I paid rapt attention to everything he said. The moment the session ended, I popped out of my chair, extended my hand, and introduced myself. He immediately said, ‘We have to get you back in the magazine!’ That one sentence made my attendance at the conference worthwhile. Even better, later that day I pitched him a few story ideas, and about a week later, he assigned one to me! It covered the price of the conference and then some.”
You could have the best idea since fish bait, but if your target market isn’t interested, it’s the wrong bait. Rethink your market, your bait, or both. Some guidelines:
Try stuff out. A journalist says: “I used to send editors longer, more detailed story ideas, and only one per query. But I think including several ideas makes an editor more likely to choose one he or she likes best, and making them briefer and less specific makes it easier for the editor to read what might interest him or her into the ideas. So ‘more, briefer ideas’ is one of my strategies for selling stories.”
Success? Share it with other freelancers and ask what works for them.
Have one request or question, not ten. “I wondered if you ever hire outside contractors to do . . .” “I wondered which newsletters or professional groups you think would be good to check out.” “I’m interested in how you established your freelance business. You’re doing things I’d like to do someday.” If all goes well, you’ll have other chances to talk.
No reports, please. Julie says, “I met this guy at a meet-up who started reciting a list of his achievements. It wasn’t a conversation. It was a monologue.” Linguistics expert Deborah Tannen calls this “report-talk.” It’s more like a presentation, whereas “rapport-talk” invites connection.
Fish with focus. Don’t just stick your rod in a bucket and leave.
Fish a little every day: Spend half an hour a day on some kind of self-marketing: research a new contact; visit a discussion group or blog; find a new list of names; write or call a couple of people; or reconnect with someone. That nagging thought, I should be doing more marketing, will vanish.
Track your catch. Make it easy to pick up where you left off. Track who you contacted (or want to), when, what you discussed, and your follow-ups. It could be on a spreadsheet or a legal pad: “I keep a running list of people with whom I like to keep in touch and a list of new people to contact. I call them my ‘master plans,’ because they remind me that living in the day-to-day doesn’t preclude dreams.” Or try a technology-based method such as a contact management system (CMS) or customer relationship management (CRM).
Make mini-casts. At events, talk to a minimum of, say, three people for five-plus minutes. Or invite one person you met to get together with you.
Have some give-and-tell. Examples: “I’ll send you a video clip of my latest animation project.” “I’ve attached an audio file of our new release. Enjoy!” “Here’s a postcard about my book/my class/my next show. It was fun talking with you about it. Thanks for your encouragement!” (See Think Give, Not Get.)
Come away saying, “I learned something.” Such as: how to contact them; people, ideas, books, a website, or an organization to check out; a shared interest; the answer to a question about their business, their market, or the kind of contractors they hire; or that they’d like to receive some info about you, receive your newsletter, or get together again.
Follow up all leads you’re given. Yes, all. Not following up on someone’s suggestion basically trashes their time and info—and the time you spent getting it. So follow up. Let them know you did. Thank them again.
Know what you’ll do with “No.” I like hearing no because it’s useful information. It sends me right into: “Thanks for your time. Is there anyone you’d recommend I talk to? Books or places with good information?”
You could handle nonresponses that way, too. Getting no response doesn’t necessarily mean no. It could mean: “Not now.” “I don’t know.” “Maybe, but I can’t talk about it.” “I’ll look at this later.” “Any email older than yesterday is dead to me.”
Find out what’s working. When prospects contact you, ask how they heard about you. Was it from a member of a networking or professional group you’re in? Which discussion groups are driving hits on your website? Where are your mailing list sign-ups coming from? Knowing where it’s working helps you know where to row your boat.
Here’s where we talk about enjoying the beauty of the day while learning the ways of the fish. About pursuing activities not just to make contacts, but because you want to. About enjoying the process, apart from the results.
No chanting or candles necessary. This actually makes rational sense.
When you hyperfocus, you miss stuff. Like the little stream of bubbles a few yards upriver, where the fish are really biting.
Part of your marketing strategy should be letting go of strategy. Once your line’s in the water, relax and tune in to the moment. You’ll be more likely to pick up useful information. And you’ll enjoy yourself more. Here are some tips that may help.
When I reach out to new organizations, I want to find out who’s the smartest, most helpful, or most knowledgeable person there. That’s not necessarily the person at the top.
Be democratic about your networking. Hierarchy and status aren’t the only barometers for meaningful contacts. Not every decision rests with senior management. The most important person in the room may not be the one you should meet.
Also, be low-key. Always selling is like having bad breath: No one will tell you, but everyone notices (“He must really need work,” “Oh, God, here she comes again.”). Josh says, “Not long ago I thought about recommending a guy I know for a project. I didn’t because he’s such a relentless networker that I was afraid he’d never stop calling me.”
When I was at the Kennedy School, I met a woman I’ll call Jane who’d recently left her position at a foundation. When I told her I was thinking about starting a freelancers organization, she suggested I call a friend of hers who was an executive at another foundation. Because of Jane, this woman was willing to talk with me, though initially she didn’t see a funding fit with her organization. But after an hour-plus of conversation, she said, “You know what? Let’s move it to the next phase.”
Ultimately, she became my first funder. Jane was the bridge connecting us. It never would have happened if I’d decided Jane wasn’t worth talking to because she wasn’t in a position to help me directly. But I wasn’t thinking strategically. I was just out there sharing my dream. There are people like Jane who’ll want to help you. Allow for coincidence and you’ll find them.
Be open to the serendipitous meeting—the idle conversation, the doing of a thing that seems to lead nowhere. The calculated life isn’t much fun. And it may not be as productive.
Sociologist Mark Granovetter studied and wrote about “the strength of weak ties”: the idea that each of us has strong ties with some people and weak ties with others we’d call acquaintances—and that it’s our acquaintances, with strong ties of their own, who are bridges to people, information, and opportunities we wouldn’t otherwise find.
Amazing coincidences can happen when you’re openly doing what you love. When Freelancers Union was new, we were desperately seeking an insurance company to partner with us to offer health insurance to members. We were striking out. One of my coworkers went to a lecture on a topic she was interested in. Coincidentally, she sat next to an insurance executive—who ended up helping set up our first health insurance plan for freelancers. We didn’t send her there saying, “Go find people who can help us.” She was pursuing an interest. Once there, when she met someone in a position to help, her passion was galvanizing.
Years ago, I had a fear of flying. The only thing that helped was talking (OK, babbling) to the passenger next to me. So, on a flight to California, I babbled on about Freelancers Union to the nice man beside me. I must have given him my card, because after I returned to New York, out of the blue I got a $250 check from him for Freelancers Union, with a note wishing me luck.
I’m not suggesting you depend on coincidence to get work. Just don’t be too stuck in your usual habits of going about your business to tap into it. Do your best marketing; then get out and live. Go wide, go long. Pursue your interests. Share what you do. What you stand for. In places like these:
• Alumnae groups: high school, college, postgrad
• Hobbies/activities: teammates, book group buddies, hiking club members, et cetera
• Community groups, from civic groups to food co-ops to block associations
• Your local Rotary Club, Y, or Junior League
• Your spiritual community
• Your kids’ school, camp, and sports groups; parent groups
• Volunteer/charitable work
• Political involvement
Joining groups like these beautifully integrates work and life. It accelerates your networking because you have something in common with the members, which fosters liking, trust, and connection. Ply your trade for the cause: Design the postcard or brochure, raffle off a free consult, make the refreshments, be the event photographer or videographer, write the press release or the pitch letter, do the books, donate the fund-raiser favors (the goody bag at our first Freelancers Union gala contained handmade soap, lip balm, discount offers, and other items from members, which put their work in front of more than 200 people).
Who knows if it comes from a primordial urge to hook up with the most energetic (presumably the healthiest) specimen in the bunch, but there’s nothing more alluring than someone who’s got a lot of interesting stuff going on. Being into something—paid or pro bono, ventures you’re trying to launch, or any work you love doing—is attractive. When you give off that vibe, others will want to play in your sandbox. You’re busy being the capable person they could hire or recommend.
“Before I had any contracts for gigs, I prospected by talking about projects under serious discussion,” Travis says. “It was impressive to say, ‘I’m talking with the director of X firm about helping them with a new project, and I’m meeting with Y type of professional about a project on Z general topic . . .’ I made sure not to give away any confidential details. I’d see prospects’ eyes widen. They went from passive listening to active thinking. And they realized that if they wanted to hire me, they’d better get on it.”
There’s nothing like a little social validation (“What’s that feeding frenzy going on over there?”) and scarcity (“Wow, better take this bait before someone else does!”) to tempt the fish to bite, as Jody learned: “Last year, I had an opportunity to travel to Paris for a project. As exciting as this was, I was ambivalent about going, as I’d just begun courting producers and directors in Los Angeles toward developing a feature film for which a tiny window had opened. In Hollywood, it’s a game of striking when the iron is hot. I feared my iron would be stone cold by the time I returned.
“One reason feature film projects take so long to gain momentum is the time it takes to get everyone on board. This is heightened by studios and agents who might take days or weeks to return your calls . . . if they do.
“This phenomenon changed when I accepted the Paris job. I stayed up long enough for LA to awaken and to place my calls. It worked like a charm! First, because my calls were unusually noteworthy: I was calling from Paris. Second, the assistants in LA were quick to note my limited window of availability, creating an almost incidental call to action. I’ve never had such success in generating returned calls, new appointments, teleconferences.
“I’m experimenting with ways to re-create this phenomenon at home. I’ve discovered that not articulating when I’m available suggests that my schedule creates me and not the other way around, affording others a looseness in their actions that isn’t very rewarding.”
Being up to something interesting can change how you network, as Carrie found: “I meet a lot of people who are potential clients, and I often ask them, ‘Do you ever hire my kind of work?’ It’s always been a little embarrassing—not necessarily because I’m asking, but because it’s never felt like a very powerful way to ask. Recently, at a conference dinner, the marketing director of a very big company and his PR agency contact happened to be at my table. It was late enough in the conference that I’d sort of given up doing a lot of ‘work,’ so we all just had a great time over dinner. At the end of the evening, instead of my usual, tentative, ‘Do you ever need what I do?’ I said, “It’s my goal for this year to do more X-type of work, so if there’s ever anything I can do for you, here’s my card!’ And they both said, ‘We were thinking we’d like to work with you!’ Since then, I have worked with them. To me the lesson is that instead of asking potential clients and contacts yes-or-no questions, which asks them to immediately accept or reject my proposition, it’s much more effective to let them know what I am interested in and invite them to play. I told those potential clients what I was committed to, and they wanted to participate. So that’s my new strategy: share what inspires me and invite potential clients to play.”
I’ll never forget the excitement and honor of being invited to the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos Klosters, Switzerland. As a start-up nonprofit among heads of major corporations and foundations, I felt like a goldfish in a pod of whales.
In one workshop, I spotted the CEO of a major company who I knew slightly. I wanted to talk with him but knew he had no incentive to spend time with me. I started thinking about what I had to offer that would be interesting or helpful to him.
One thing I knew was philanthropy. So I wrote out ten ideas for what his philanthropy strategy could be. As we were walking out I kind of cornered him, reintroduced myself as one of the nonprofit attendees, and said something like, “By the way, I’ve been thinking about ways you might develop a philanthropy strategy and came up with these ten ideas.”
We ended up talking for close to an hour. It drove home the point that if you want to connect with a major player, while all the others are scheming how to get their pound of flesh, you might get that person’s attention by thinking about what you can give, not what you can get.
When you do, you’re building a kind of wealth called social capital. As political scientist Robert Putnam notes, it’s the trust that grows from the give-and-take between individuals and groups.
I think we’re turned off by people who are always selling because we sense they just want to take something from us. It’s also why, once you find the people, places, and groups that might be receptive to your work, you need to spend time just hanging with them, not starting in with requests. Participate. Give. Become trusted as a regular. You’ll build genuine relationships that genuinely help your work. And you’ll be a happier fisherman.
1 Attend the events. “For years, I paid dues to a professional women’s group and never attended the events! Finally, I decided I’d either save the money or go and get to know people. I’ve enjoyed it much more than I expected.”
2 Help organize something. Join or form a committee. Suggest an event and lead the effort. Volunteer to tweak the website or assist with social media outreach. Help set up seating for the lecture. Step up.
3 Post comments on the group discussion board. Or spearhead starting one.
4 Start your own professional group. (See Chapter 12.)
5 Make introductions; give referrals. If you know people others would like to meet, set them up. Give referrals and let the person know you referred them.
6 Share things. Share stuff you know your contacts and prospects will appreciate: an article about an industry trend, the link to a cool blog, a review of a movie they wanted to see.
7 Comarket with other businesses. Link to one another’s websites; put postcards or flyers in one another’s offices; serve your catered hors d’oeuvres at their gallery show; colead a workshop.
8 Offer to speak or teach for free. It’s great give-and-tell for your skills or specialty. Could be a lecture, workshop, or webinar; business-to-business or for the public. It could be sponsored by a professional group or through a local business, school, or nonprofit (maybe with a pay-what-you-wish donation for the venue). All of you can promote the event to your respective contacts (including the media).
9 Help out at a trade conference. Conferences are prime fishing spots. Ask how you could help: “I saw a blurb in a trade magazine about a new conference. I figured the organizers might be open to event ideas, so I talked with my professional group and we pitched a panel discussion. The organizers loved it. The next year, we did two sessions. They just contacted us about year three. We pass out brochures and cards and get free admission to the exhibit hall and all the workshops.”
10 Give to your clients, too. Give your Blue Chips a discount or throw in an extra service for being such loyal clients. Check in with clients you haven’t talked to in a while—not to ask about available work, but just “how’s it going?” Send a suggestion and don’t frame it as a pitch. Give a short talk on something that’s happening in your industry and invite clients and friends. Have a reception, holiday party, or “business birthday” party for clients, contacts, and prospects. Celebrate a year of getting to know all these cool and interesting people. Have examples of your work on display and a spot where guests can pick up your card, brochure, goody bag, or other take-aways.
Working for Free: Giving Too Much?
Some freelancers are fine with working for free: “As someone who has written for a living for more than twenty years, I respect anyone who has actually taken the time to write. I’ll read work from friends, acquaintances, and business associates and offer constructive comments for free.”
Working for free isn’t the same as doing work on spec, because no one asked you to. True giving is freely given and feels great. Only you can judge when it’s that way for you.
Keep the task short in scope and schedule so it pops like the onetime, special thing it is. Or do free work only for people and projects you feel a strong connection to: “I work for free when it’s for a good cause, like a friend’s start-up or a nonprofit organization I care about.”
If you’re new to freelancing or looking to break into a new type of work, working for free can add to your credentials and spread word about you. It can be a win/win: “I’ve done a lot of work for free, mostly freelancing while working a day job. Almost all of it led to paying work, mostly from building experience and being able to show future clients my work or my knowledge of a subject.”
But in case that doesn’t happen, you should be totally OK with doing the work for its own sake.
It’s smart to set up pro bono work in writing so everyone’s clear. Some items to include:
• A description of what you’ll do, any drafts or revision rounds, and delivery date(s).
• Any assistance, materials, or resources the organization will provide (Copying? Envelope stuffing? Tables/chairs set-up? Screen, podium, and mic?)
• The type and manner of any credit you receive (in the show program or the gala journal; on the website; on the video?) or reward (free gala ticket? free admission to the exhibit hall?)
• Whether you can include the organization in your client list and mention or show the work on your website or in your portfolio.
• Whether you can use metrics for self-marketing: funds raised, tickets sold, website traffic increased.
• A testimonial for self-marketing if they like your work.
The Internet is an amazing marketing space—we’ll talk about it in Chapter 9. But a website is basically a digital wallflower that sits there with millions of others, hoping to be noticed (thus the competition for top placement in search results).
Online searches and pitches—emails, job boards, bidding sites—all have their place. But you’re always one of many vying for attention. And an email pitch, no matter how customized, is still just words on a screen.
You are a walking, talking, thinking, movable feast of potential: flexible and responsive to any time, place, or person you encounter. When you network and prospect in a way that’s the right fit for you, lavishing your wonderfulness on the right people and places, you’re working your Freelance Portfolio Level 2 like a master. You’ll spend a lot less time wondering where the next gig’s coming from. And you’ll be one of the fortunate freelancers who gets gigs by competing less, connecting more.
At the law firm where I worked, I struck up a mentoring relationship of sorts with a woman several years younger than I. Eventually, it became clear that she couldn’t give back in the reciprocal way natural to networking. She just didn’t get that I was a person, not an endless source of professional advice.
It made me realize that networking is really about being genuinely interested in the other person, and ultimately about how you live your relationships over time. And that’s about knowing how you interact with people.
In Chapter 4, we talked about how the best marketing happens when your marketing style feels natural to you. Here are seven keys for refining the fit:
1 Go your own way. Make it clear you’re on a path: “I’ve been tutoring kids and coaching sports for years. I want to add a teaching component to my paid work.” People will respond to your passion and have a better idea of how to help you.
2 Practice varying your pitch. Have a technical one for professionals; a super-short, laid-back one for the backyard barbecue; and a medium-size, understandable-to-the-masses one. When the “What do you do?” question comes, relax and answer naturally.
3 Cultivate your connections. The Internet makes this easy. Joe’s company just launched a new product. Bob has an amazing, opinionated industry blog. Heather has been posting about the trade show. You can congratulate Joe on the new product launch (which could lead to a conversation about how Joe’s company markets its products, and eventually maybe how you can help). When you tell Bob, “Your blog posts are fierce! How do you come up with your topics?” Bob will love talking with you about that. Now when you comment on his posts, he’ll recognize you. To Heather, you can say, “Your posts are so good that I’ve been sharing them in my social network. I’m thinking about exhibiting at the show next year. Do you think it’s worth the expense?” Now you’ve built the basis for connecting around mutual interests and reciprocity.
4 Let them get to know you. Have ways people can learn about you. It starts with the info on your card. It might continue with your “Thanks for our talk” email: “I’ve attached the video clip I mentioned. If you’d like to receive my newsletter, just click on the link below.” And then there’s your website, portfolio, video or audio clips, press packet, bio, or anything else that helps people know what you do.
5 Don’t buy into status marketing. You’d be surprised what you can do with just a handful of business cards and a professional profile posted online, or a basic website. Maybe others have achieved self-marketing world domination (website-blog-newsletter; social media moguldom, ubiquity at lectures, workshops, and conventions; professional memberships out the wazoo). All that can come later, if you want. Don’t let anything stop you from getting out there now: “I started with homemade business cards, a one-page bio, and a one-page résumé that I emailed to people. Later I posted my bio on some professional websites so people could find me there. Then I started posting comments on social media. But with just the cards and the two docs, I had enough to get started. My pipeline filled pretty fast.”
6 Keep it up. Like friendships, contacts fade with disuse, leading to scrambles for work. So don’t wait until you need something. Do a little something daily to stay in touch. Eventually, you’ll have a lot of active connections to mine for info and work.
7 Take steps toward financial stability. Being more financially secure will help you network with confidence and not give off that frantic vibe that puts people off and alerts prospects that they can have their way with you at the negotiating table. For some quick financial relief, look for ways to pare your expenses in the short term. Chip away at longer-range stuff: pay down debt, save small amounts regularly, and even look at where and how you live. You can’t change everything at once, but making your life fit better with freelancing is a huge pressure-reliever.
To give or not to give your business card? Actually, the question is how to do it well and not come off like the March Hare (“Here’s my card, here’s my card . . .”), Attila the Hun (“Take. My. Card.”), or Homer Simpson (“Forgot ’em . . . D’oh!”).
You also want others’ cards so you can build a list of people who might want to know about your products and services, or receive your amazing info (stuff we’ll talk about in later chapters).
Some ways to do the handoff:
Give something. Promise to send information about something you’ve discussed. Of course, you’ll need their contact info . . . which you’ll get when you exchange cards.
Just ask. “I’ve really enjoyed talking with you. Do you have a card?” If they don’t, ask them to write their contact info on the back of one of yours for you to keep, and then give them one of your cards.
Segue to it. “If you’d like more info about that, it’s on my website, listed here on my card.” Or, “I can email you some info about that. Do you have a card?”
Keep your cards in a convenient pocket or in your bag (no undignified digging!).
If they’re barely holding up their end of the conversation, consider them card-UNworthy and make your exit: “It’s been nice talking with you.”
If you’re introverted or think you’re no good at networking, read on.
The best networkers are master listeners, able to draw people out. Think of your elevator pitch as explaining how you help people. Or envision your quintessential client—and describe that person.
Make smaller events your specialty, like the meet-ups at Freelancers Union, with twenty-five to thirty people or fewer. Lisa says, “My professional group recently started having small dinners at members’ houses with about eight people, where we really get to know each other. It makes the larger luncheon events easier, because I know people from the dinners.”
“I’ve learned to work with my shyness so it works for me. I tell myself, ‘You’re gonna go to the premeal mingling because once you sit down, it’s harder to network.’ So I do that. Before I sit, I wait for my tablemates to show up and introduce myself. Hardly anyone else does this, and they like it. There’s no awkwardness about avoiding eye contact with people across the table because you don’t know their names. Then when I say good-bye, I ask for business cards. The next meeting’s that much easier.”
Other tactics:
Keep expectations low at first. You don’t even have to talk to people. Just stroll the space and scope things out.
Get there ahead of the crowd. It can be tough to walk into a roomful of people. Arrive before it gets crowded. Then you can start conversations as others arrive.
Get involved. Get on a planning committee and you’ll get to know all the committee members. Bad at names? Ask to give out the nametags. Professional organizations need volunteers for everything. It’s a natural way to meet people, give, and get your mind off yourself so you can relax.
Ask about the other guy. Remember they’re looking to talk to you about what they’re doing. Ask questions; show your natural interest; let the conversation develop. When it’s your turn to talk, you’ll be relaxed and ready.
Have a give-and-tell. Maybe after your handshake, you give out a fun little freebie, or a postcard for a first session/first purchase discount. You’ll stand out and it’s a great conversation starter.
If you’re willing to pay for the service or share the profits, partnering with a great networker can work: “The best years I’ve had were when other people marketed my skills. I had agents represent me. It was worth the percentage. My income soared.” Or hire someone to help you hone your own—a career or marketing coach specializing in solopreneurs.
Super-social folks can get so excited by all the great people to meet and things to do that their marketing can lose focus.
There are only so many people with whom you can develop the kind of relationship that builds real trust, referrals, and work. Consider what will really propel your career, learning, or enjoyment, and focus on those relationships.
Choose some subjects you want to get really knowledgeable about and go to those events. You’ll get more out of groups personally and professionally if you get involved—so how many can you realistically join? People will notice if you’re doing more flitting than fitting in.
Listen to yourself network. Are you sucking up all the oxygen in the room? Ask at least two questions of every person you meet.
As you sort through the business cards you picked up at an event, ask yourself what you learned from each person. It’s a good test of “Did you talk less, listen more?”
Self-marketing should not be about selling to anyone who’ll listen, but about finding people who want to listen. And it’s about relaxing and knowing that wherever you go, something might happen that could help you in ways you can’t begin to imagine. It might happen at the event you attend with your meet-the-players plan. Or it might happen in the conversation you strike up with the stranger sitting beside you on the plane.
What it takes to be a successful freelancer is really what it takes to have a successful life. You care enough to have a plan. You care enough to put yourself out there. You care enough to help others who are doing the same. The most powerful marketing is letting people see and feel that you care—in the integrity, commitment, and quality you deliver in real time, over time. The best marketing plan is the one that elevates your game and shows your best self. That’s how you’ll find clients worth keeping.