Are These Mental Demons Crushing Your Freelance Income?

Courtesy chb1848 on Flickr

“We’d like to offer you a $5,000 a month retainer for one project a month, plus a few hours of consulting time. Will that work for you?”

The comment was music to my ears. I had been working on this client for the past 4 months. And now, finally, here was the offer… and it was a good one. I knew that one project would only cost me about 10 hours, or about $500 an hour. At the time, that was good money for me and I was ecstatic.

I say good money, but I should actually say “outrageous” money. It was way more per hour than I’d ever made in my life.

So, on the outside it was all joy and rejoicing.

But, on the inside, the mental demons of doubt, fear, and unworthiness began at once to go to work.

Over the past 5 years, as I’ve spoken with, coached, and presented to thousands of freelancers, I’ve come to realize that I’m not alone in harboring a few pesky mental demons.

These little terrors are masters at self-sabotage. Let me show you what I mean…

Within a month, I took that super-sweet contract of $5,000 a month and botched the first project. The company was even patient with me, giving me very detailed feedback so I could get it just right. But my internal system just couldn’t handle that kind of dollar to hour ratio. I had to get rid of it.

So, I did. And I did it in a way that I could blame them… at least at first. But the truth was, I was at fault not theirs. It was my mental demons sabotaging my own success.

The most common mental demons I find sabotaging freelancers are named fear, doubt, and lack of self-worth.  Have you seen them hanging about your place as well?

The biggest question is not do you have them (of course you do…) but how do you defeat them so you can land big clients, make great money, and do it all in 30 hours or less each week so you have time to enjoy all that income?

I have three very specific actions for you…

1. High Definition Marketing Plan – Fear is overcome by action. Action is produced with clarity. Clarity is the result of a little bit of mind work in creating a HD self-marketing plan. Here’s what I mean…

Sit down and define the exact amount of money you’d like to make this year. Now paint the picture of how you can do that. How many clients, who, how much per project, per hour, etc…

Now, ask yourself this key question: “What is the very next physical action item I need to accomplish to get one step closer to my goal?”  It could be “Call Bob at XYZ Company and discuss proposal”.

Now take that step and break it down even further. “Find Bob’s number. Schedule exact time to call. Put a tickler in calendar. Mentally review conversation. Simulate desired outcome. Tweak numbers to make the project irresistible.”  etc….

This kind of mental clarity wipes out fear. Why? Because it takes big projects and puts them in simple, easy, fearless terms.

2. Things as They Really Are. To overcome the doubt you should do two things:

First, take off the rose-colored glasses. You’ve been raised in a very hierarchical society. We practically worship doctors, gurus, CEO’s, and the like. We do the same with clients. They are above us and we are below. And, worst of all, we do it with other freelancers.

Sit down with 10 of your favorite magazines in your field, take off the rose-colored glasses, and really examine the articles, ads, reports, press releases, etc… You’ll find that 95% of the stuff out there is garbage. It’s just junk. Go to 100 websites in your industry and you’ll find even more pathetic work. My guess is, you’ll discover that you are way better most the people out there.

Second, base your confidence in the systems you have and the training you’ve received. If you are like the other freelancers I know, you’ve been to dozens of seminars, have a mountain of books and “how to” products, and have spent a small fortune on getting “good enough”. Well, you are good enough. The systems you’ve got work and are proven, so rely on them and confidently move forward.

3. “I’m so proud of you son!” I’m out of time to deal with the self-worth issue, but I can tell you it probably stems back to your family system and venturing into new waters.

The day I made more than my parents and siblings combined, I realized I was outside my family system and it tweaked me really hard. I didn’t feel worthy of all this month. So, at the suggestion of a good friend and mentor, I went to my mom and siblings, sat them down, looked them in the eyes, and said, “I made over $300,000 this year working less than 40 hours a week. Do you hate me? Will you still love me if I’m exponentially richer than you? Can we be friends still?”

They thought I was crazy.  My mother said, “I’m so proud of you son. I always knew you could do great things.”  It was just what I needed to feel comfortable doubling and tripling my income. In fact, it removed many of the barriers I had in my head.

There is some system inside your world that is holding you back. Go confront it head on and defuse it.

The bottom line is this:  95% of your income is NOT attached to techniques or skills or training. It is on the battlefield of the mind that you secure effortless riches or persist in a life of struggle and frustration.

Aufero obex – Destroy the Barriers.

________________

Joshua Boswell is a freelance marketing consultant, business development coach, and copywriter. His clients include thousands of freelancers and companies like Sony, Corel, Google, Microsoft, St. Jude Christian’s Research Hospital, Agora, and dozens of others. You can find him at www.JoshuaBoswell.com