Honest Brutal Truth as a Freelancer
I had 0 new clients in the past two months, even after some previous client successes.
Every freelancer goes through a phase called the 'feast and famine' cycle.
Feast: where you have clients lining up to work with you. Suddenly, you see $1k pop into your account, then another, and another. Famine: where you have NONE.
When I landed my first client, I naively believed, 'This is it! My time has come. I have clients paying me in USD now, and I'm going to get more of them next!'
Ha! Little did I know, I got zero clients the next month, and the next, and the next. It's in moments like these that you truly feel like a total failure.
I'm not going to give you the usual motivational talk, you know, the...
'It's fine, just keep doing what you're doing.'
'Keep posting content, keep showing up, keep engaging, your time will come.'
'Your ideal clients, those who love your design style, will find you naturally.'
While I admit these are all important - consistent work and trust in the process are necessary, the feeling of having no clients absolutely sucks. Especially after you've had some previously.
(As I write this, it's been two months without new clients, until today, while I continue retainer work and build my personal brand)
I'll admit, I'm currently in the famine cycle and going through this 'messy middle phase', where I've seen client successes, but I'm grappling with what to do next.
I recently listened to the 'Therapist Rising' podcast, specifically the episode 'From Plateau to Profit,' where I learned about the 'messy middle phase'.
It's that point where you're working harder than ever, but growth doesn't reflect it, leading to a plateau. Your service works, but inconsistent marketing leads to inconsistent sales, and you're drowning in conflicting advice about what to do next.
Honestly, when I landed retainers and quit my full-time job, I was left wondering, 'What's next?' Suddenly, you're lost at a life junction, and things become stagnant. I'm now thinking, how do I get past this plateau?
While reflecting on my own business growth, here are some pieces of advice I found useful from the podcast:
You need three critical mindset shifts:
Think Like a CEO:
Right now you're likely making decisions based on your current capacity, not on what your business actually needs.
You need to:
Identify what only you can do in your business
Create simple systems to delegate or automate
Make decisions based on where you want to be, not where you are now
Optimize Your Customer Journey:
Map out every conversion point (leads > customers > long-term customers)
Measure the conversion performance of each step
Create a repeatable system for your weakest conversion point
Get Help from The Pros:
Recognize when you've hit the limits of what you can figure out on your own, and invest in the right support
These things are definitely worth thinking about.
A lot of us get stuck when it comes to implementation stage, where we possess ample information and advice, yet lack the necessary action. So, writing down three persistent problems and figuring out if they're about information problems, implementation problems, or transformational needs.
Like Alen said the other day, 'If you can’t solve personal problems, it's really hard to solve business problems,' but then he was also like, 'Don't worry about the ups and downs in the game; ride them out. After all, all seasons have storms that come and go.'
BRB, coffee and reflection time.
Towards a better self,
Elaine
