010 : MARKETING, MOTIVATION, MENTAL HEALTH

Hey Freelance Friend,

Welcome to episode 10 of FreelancerOS, let’s dive right in.

1. Marketing, Gamified

You have a skill.

You became a Freelancer to make money using that skill (the dream)

When you get in front of a potential client, you usually land them, because you are good at what you do.

The issue is, you need to do this “marketing” thing to ensure you keep getting in front of potential clients.

The problem is, the whole thing can seem overwhelming. 

You aren’t a marketer after all.

But what if we could make marketing simple, like a game.

Remember playing SIMS? Or any character development game?

You would fill the characters health bar or gain XP.

If you did good things, their health bar would grow, if you did bad things or left them too long (Tamagotchi Pets / FarmVille crops anyone?) their health bar diminishes.

Lets imagine that you are the main character of your game, and the health bar of all the other characters is their awareness of what you do as a Freelancer, and their likelihood to hire you or recommend you someone.

You start the game on day 1 as a Freelancer, you are sitting in a room alone, and you just made a website, the domain name is just your name.

WELCOME TO LEVEL 1

Nobody knows what you do, but the first level is the easiest level.

Your mission:

Tell 10 Friends and Family that you just became a Freelancer.

GREAT! You just filled 10 of their health bars to FULL.

If any one of them, or anyone they know, talks about needing your Freelance service, you are top of mind and they will hire you or recommend you!

The health bars of these people are sturdy and long lasting, they are your close friends and family after all, they (probably) won’t forget you.

NOW FOR LEVEL 2

How about you start posting on social media. You know, those 500 people on your Instagram you know but kinda dont know.

You do a post about your services. 320 people saw the story. You now filled their health bar up maybe 20% each.

How about posting on LinkedIn? Maybe you have 1000 followers. You do a post and get 3500 impressions. Amazing!

You just filled the health bar of 3500 people, maybe by 2% or so each.

What would you need to do to increase their health bars?

You would need to keep posting, keep positioning yourself as the ‘go-to’ person for your service.

Over time you will keep filling their health bar until the point where if they think of your service, they think of you.

Stop posting and reminding them of your existence? That bar will go down.

You get the point by now.

You want to treat your marketing efforts like a game, a game of people knowing you and knowing the service you offer.

Want to go to Level 3?!

Here are some pro tips for getting low health bars from strangers to FILL:

• Show them your work

• Position yourself as a thought leader

• If someone hires you, do AMAZING WORK for them

• If you see someone asking for help in your area of expertise, help them

• Offer valuable tips and resources to people

• Be a nice person that they wouldn’t mind recommending to their friends / family

• Keep showing up consistently

• Build an affiliate network (they will definitely remember you if they get paid to refer you…)

Your marketing efforts are just an effort to stay top of mind both directly with your ideal clients, but also importantly with those in a position to recommend you.

Now go check on your tamagotchi, it's been a while…

2. Motivation

Motivation comes and goes.

Unfortunately.

I felt it recently with some health related downtime. Trying to make my LinkedIn comeback but feeling totally out of the rhythm and without motivation to get involved.

What used to genuinely excite me, going and commenting and having genuine conversations with LinkedIn people, actually had me at a loss.

I would usually have 3-4 post ideas popping off around my head at any given time.

Then I found myself staring at the screen with nothing.

I relied heavily on this seemingly endless supply of motivation for 4 months. I would log on and post that last idea I had, with loads more in my notes app ready to go.

What I never did during this time though was develop systems. I didn’t get into a habit of writing and scheduling posts 1 day per week like a lot of people do.

I didn’t set up a repeatable system for generating ideas.

I didn’t even have content pillars set up, so I had no idea what I should even be posting about.

The point here is, you may be super motivated doing whatever it is you are doing right now, but you need to leverage this motivation while you have it and set up repeatable and reliable systems.

Why?

Motivation propels us, but without it we fall.

But we only fall as far as our systems.

As long as we keep adhering to the systems and processes we set up, that habit we built should take care of most of the “i’m not motivated” inertia as our brains have learned to do the thing we need to do.

Ask yourself this:

If I lost excitement and motivation for this thing I am doing, how could I ensure that I would still be able to show up and do it regularly, with minimal motivation requirement.

3. Mental Health

A huge part of the Freelance life is mental health.

It is not easy.

You get freedom, but at a cost of stability.

In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, safety & security are the second most fundamental pillar after food, water and sleep.

Self Actualisation, where creative endeavours and achieving ones full potential sit, is last.

Being on your noble cause to build a life out of something you enjoy and are good at (with many of you being Freelance creatives) fits right into that last category.

The issue is, you are causing some fractures in the more foundational area of safety and security needs with the unstable lifestyle of Freelancing.

So, you need to look after yourself.

Having 17 years of money saved up is one thing, or a never ending list of people desperate to work with you for the next 10 years.

But failing that, here are some things that we want to get rid of to help our mental health, followed by things we want to add or keep.

THINGS THAT ARE OUT

1. Comparing ourselves others

2. Sitting all day

3. Not socialising with other people

4. Forgetting to eat proper, nutritious food

5. Overcaffeinating ourselves

6. Sacrificing sleep

7. Not setting and enforcing boundaries with clients

8. Buying courses from people who prey on your insecurities and promise us everything we are working towards, but quickly and easily

THINGS THAT ARE IN

1. Moving our bodies often

2. Enjoying the summer (go work outside)

3. Unplugging 3 x per day to make nutritious meals

4. Drinking enough water

5. Meditating

6. Journaling

7. Calling / Meeting our friends

8. Reading

9. Using our Freelancing Freedom to design our days for enjoyment and fulfilment, not just for work

10. Sleeping enough

11. Learning to emotionally regulate ourselves

12. Cold showers

13. Dopamine detoxing (yes, that means your phone too)

14. Enforcing boundaries

15. Dance Breaks

Next Week

011: LEADS, LEVERAGE, LUCK

With you next Thursday at 11:00am (UK TIME)