As many of you may have heard, there’s a Wealthy Freelancer book in the works. Actually, it’s more than in the works, it’s written, edited and scheduled for release in the new year. (More details on that in the months to come.) This is one MEATY book, and it just may be the definitive… wait… I’m getting ahead of myself. I digress. All I wanted to say is that I think the book will come in around 280 pages, but I can sum up the essence of this book for you in one word.
It’s a word that you should PAINT on your office wall, or at least print out in huge font and stick beside your computer screen.
The word is commitment.
Commitment comes before success. Before, not after. True in freelancing, true in life. You don’t get to half-a** your way into something worthwhile, holding yourself safely back from full commitment until you actually achieve that “success.” Uh uh. You have to commit first. Usually, it feels risky. Usually, it feels uncomfortable. (Hint: those are the feelings you should be paying attention to. The path to your success begins just outside your comfort zone.)
Here’s what Goethe says about commitment…
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.
“Countless ideas and splendid plans” amount to nothing if you’re not committed. Here are some common challenges freelancers face, and the solutions to them. NOT the step-by-step, how-to solutions because we could fill a book with those (in fact, we did) but the fundamentals to those solutions: the commitment part that must come first…
Challenge: “My clients don’t pay well or take forever to pay.”
Solution: Commit to finding better clients by spending more time marketing your business. Do more of what works. Or do something new. If you’ve never sent sales letters out before, try it. If there’s a business networking event or trade show where potential clients might be, assemble some materials and go there. Ask your friends, colleagues, past employers and any decent clients for whom you may have worked for referrals.
Challenge: “A client called me for a project and I never heard back.”
Solution: Commit to establishing a ‘lead nurturing’ system. That’s just a fancy way of saying you need to stay in touch with prospects. Send out a regular newsletter. Look for interesting articles that are relevant to your prospects and mail or email them. Include a personal note. Send a “case study” which shows how you solved a problem for a client. Write a short special report. Record a podcast. Interview an expert in the industry, have it transcribed, and send it out. Do a variety of things.
Challenge: “I mailed out a bunch of sales letters / made some cold calls / sent emails / wrote articles and nothing happened.”
Solution: Commit to following up. Make more phone calls, send more emails, write more articles and sales letters. Send post cards. Send Starbucks gift certificates and an invitation to meet for coffee. Try things.
Goethe’s poem continues by the way, and ultimately finishes in a very famous piece of prose. Here’s what comes after the lines, “the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too…”
All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.
I find those words very inspiring, but you don’t have to be a Goethe to inspire someone with your words. If you’ve done something in your freelance business that demonstrates your commitment to its success, please take a few minutes to share a story or two with us here, and inspire your fellow freelancers to greatness. (And if you haven’t done something… Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it.)
~ Pete Savage, Co-editor
(image courtesy of lee.stevens)
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
The thing about commitment that trips up a lot of people is that it isn’t a one-time decision and then you’re done with it. The temptation to falter comes up over and over, and you must recommit every time until you’ve achieved that goal. To use the commitment to lose weight for an example, though it could be any goal, someone is sure to shove a plate of candy in your face and say “have one.” And your temptation in that moment is to think “maybe just one little one won’t hurt.” But you have to say, “no thanks.” Most people resist change–it’s scary and it’s hard and it’s just so much easier to stay in their comfortable little rut.
An inspirational article, Pete. I just came to your blog for the first time and downloaded your free kit. Thanks for offering it! I’ll be back to visit often
Excellent article, Pete. And very timely. Yesterday, I finished up the last of my projects and today…POOF!…I suddenly realized I had nothing new on the board. This is unusual for me, but I had a recent death in the family and was trying to keep working during that chaos…bottom line is I dropped the ball on marketing my services. Hey, it happens. So I did what any committed freelancer does – I panicked! Then I grabbed ahold of myself and said, “OK, you can either start prospecting, or spend this “free” time on other areas you’ve been neglecting.” I chose the latter. In fact, I chose to reinforce lessons learned from The Copywriting Summit by going over a few of the presentations again and taking better notes. I also caught up on a ton of emails and did some social media stuff. Lo and behold, the phone starting ringing, the emails started flowing, and by mid-afternoon, my project board was filling up. Eureka!
The moral of this story: Commit to something! But never let yourself do nothing. I could have given up, parked myself on the couch, gone shopping, cleaned the house…anything. But I chose to continue working, and those good ‘commitment’ vibes rewarded me big time.
@judith – Thanks for pointing out that commitment is an ongoing thing. Like a diet, like a relationship… these things take ongoing effort and energy. Avoiding the temptation to falter (or quickly getting back on track when we do) is key!
@victoria – Great story. One of those “unexplainables” where you do something over here, and you get an outcome over there. Commitment is commitment, sooner or later (in your case, sooner!) you reap the rewards. I’m glad you mentioned the Copywriting Summit because I had wanted to use that as an example of commitment when writing the blog article but it (the article) was getting too long as it was!
I was a presenter at that conference and I was thoroughly impressed at the commitment I saw while the conference was happening. Attendees were active in the forum… asking questions of presenters to clarify points so they could GET GOING right away on the things they were learning.
That’s commitment on two levels: 1) those attendees forked out, I think around $300 or more to attend the event and 2), they were propelling themselves forward with the learning, applying what they were discovering. I think point 1) begets point 2). Investing money in your development changes things. Makes you have some skin in the game. My business took off like a rocket after I paid Chris Marlow $3000 to coach me. Was her coaching program some sort of magic? Of course not. It certainly was a great program, but it was equally MY sweat, energy and commitment that propelled me forward. Making a huge investment (all of it on my credit card at the time, by the way
) demonstrated — to ME — that I was committed. And that changed everything.
So…kudos to everyone who attended that event and to everyone who has ever shelled out their own money (or plastic… been there) as part of their ongoing commitment to succeed… whether you invest $3000 in coaching, $300 for an event, or $15 for a book, each of those gestures is a major signal to yourself that you’re committed to orchestrating your success.
Interesting article. Commitment truly is THE word, THE mantra for freelancers.
Aside from that, there’s an article that states that the economic success of even a country (the UK) is brought about by entrepreneurs and self-employed freelancers : http://freelancesupermarket.com/news/2009/10/30/freelancers-are-the-key-to-economic-success.aspx
M Smith – I couldn’t agree more that entrepreneurs and solo professionals are key drivers of economic growth and prosperity. Here in the U.S., we don’t treat this group very well. We slap them with a tremendous amount of needless regulation, paperwork and other obstacles. We tax the crap out of them. And we make it hard for them to grow. It’s the sheer will and determination of many of these self-reliant people that keeps them moving, despite all the obstacles.
But I’d still love to see more education in this country (and everywhere, for that matter) about entrepreneurship and business in general. Why our schools don’t make such classes mandatory (or even offer them as electives) is beyond me! If more people understood entrepreneurship, free enterprise and how a business works, we would create even more prosperity for all.
But I digress…