Ask Rezzz

Today is going to be all about a process that I put into my business years ago that I reap the benefits from over and over again. That's onboarding for new clients. If you want to get my own Onboarding Email Sequence which is 8 emails with the delays I put in between. Along with instructions on how to use them too, head to rezzz.com/a263 and pick them up. What is onboarding Onboarding is a term that's thrown around quite often and it has a few different meanings. In the context of this show I'm referring to when a client becomes a client, how are you bringing them into your world. What sort of process to you have that helps that client understand what this engagement is going to look like. When you open up any box, there's a quick start guide right? Even for things that are commonplace like a TV, headphones, or even a mug that I got from my wife as a gift. That's what an onboarding sequence is for you and your business. I've heard it as a "Welcome Package." Whatever you want to call it, I want to share with you the 4 essential parts of it that you must include. Then share with you 2 other bonus tips that will help your marketing and sales. Go ahead and grab mine, the link is in the show notes or by heading to rezzz.com/a263. How to use your service That's the first part, you want to explain all the ways that a customer can utilize your services. This means how they will communicate with you. Set the boundaries right here. If you want them to use a ticketing system, email, text messaging. This is how you tell them to do so. Also share with them what they can expect when they do communicate with you. Will you give them a response in 24 hours? Will there be an automated response? What can they expect during off-hours? Define that process right from the start so that there's no confusion along the way. What to expect This maybe should've been the first since it's most important. If the client knows what to expect from you, then there's no way of misinterpreting anything. This can also be setting the tone. If you want the client to be open to your suggestions, then share that in a nice way. Be humble, but firm too. If you need the client to accomplish something by a certain date, share that with them. Don't assume anything. Even by spelling something out that they may know levels that field When to expect Share with them when they can expect certain things from you. If you send out weekly emails, then tell them when they can expect them. If you have a timeline of tasks, give them ample time to get the things you need but share with them a date when you need it. Open the line of communication Having something that immediately goes out to a new client in this way, allows you to open that line up. They feel comfortable because they know how to talk with you. You feel comfortable knowing that you have set the tone and boundaries. There is none of this awkwardness like it's the 7th grade winter dance and you are wondering who is going to start the conversation. Bonus Tips This is your opportunity as the professional to position yourself here. By doing this you are driving the conversation and because of that, you then can ask questions along the way. Want to know how someone found you? Ask in the very first email. Want to know why they hired you? Ask while it's still fresh in their minds. These are opportunities that you can take advantage of get amazing information that you can then turn into your sales copy and conversations with leads.

As we embark on the second year of Ask Rezzz, the format will change up slightly. The reason for this is so that you can take action. I'm all about that action taking as you know. Having a show each and every single day without a doubt can be overwhelming. You may already have a backlog of shows that you want to listen to. Maybe there's a bunch that you don't have any interest in hearing as well. With that, the new format will be this. Every Friday, you'll be a fly on the wall for a one-on-one coaching session with someone. I will have a conversation with someone who's applied to be on the show. They have a specific problem or situation that they want to get some help on. The objective is for you to hear what they are going through and maybe it'll help you too if you are in a similar situation. As the saying goes "a rising tide raises all boats." The big benefit of this is you, the audience. You as a Feaster can help and support them through offering encouragement, advice, and accountability. You may even want to work with them if you have such a need. If you want to be on the show, it's easy, just apply here. Every Tuesday there will be an actionable show. It will either be what you are familiar with already from the previous 261 episodes where I answer a question. Or I'm going to be introducing a resource or strategy that you can walk away from the show and put right in your business. For example, how to use Advanced Search on Twitter to find local clients to work with. Another example could be that I bring on a lawyer to the show to talk about contracts. Doesn't mean that you may not see the podcast show up in your podcatcher on other days, but this is what I'm committing to you today and what you can expect from the show. I want to make Ask Rezzz as actionable and valuable to you as possible. If you have any ideas for the show, let me know through Twitter or email. The Ask Rezzz show is dedicated to being the most accessible and most valuable podcast for freelancers out there. You can come on and get one-on-one coaching from me along with the support of the audience. Also get resources, strategies, and expert answers to your questions.

Chris Bintliff from Not Really Rocket Science, is someone who I met through Twitter, but someone I consider a friend. Chris appeared on Live In The Feast and we geeked out about marketing and creating delight for clients. Not only that, but if you want to know anything about home automation, he's the guy to talk with. During a conversation one day, Chris mentioned that if there was ever an opportunity in which I myself could be interviewed, rather than me doing the interviewing, he wanted it. There's no better day than on this very special, milestone episode of Ask Rezzz. I'll be honest, I really had no idea what Chris was going to ask me. He could've asked me anything at all. The only constraint was to stay within a certain time, the rest was up to him. Chris rose above and beyond to the task and asked me 3 amazing questions that I know you'll enjoy. Are you a Freelancer? Do you identify with the Unemployable? What advice can you offer to someone to embrace where they are in their freelance career so that they can take that next step? Where do you see yourself in 2, 3, or 5 years? ------------------- 👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you. -------------------

I was introduced to Chris Martin through a friend of mine Joe Workman. How do I know Chris? I've heard a few of his shows before in the past and when Joe mentioned that I should reach out to Chris to be on his podcast, Getting Work to Work, for me it was a no brainer. Chris was a great interviewer, genuinely curious, asking things that to be honest, I hadn't been asked about before. One topic that we talked about most was personalization and delight. I talk about personalization a lot, it is what I do for clients, right? In this episode, though, I talked about personalization in regards to leads and client interaction, not doing the wor ------------------- 👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you. ------------------- “Solve Problems by using communication and data.” In case you don’t want to read the rest of this, you can check out the full episode for all the details. In the episode, I shared a variety of things including: Last year I was talking with a coaching client of mine and shared some of the simple things that I do specifically to delight clients. He sent me this email "I finished a large project with a client and sent a small gift to them based on something you said in the conversation we had a couple week ago. The response I got was insane! I received a message from them thanking me for the gift card. They then followed it up with 'no one ever does that for me, so I really really appreciated it.'" That small gift was a $10 Starbucks card. What is one small way you can delight your leads and clients? Definitely go checkout Getting Work to Work Episode 227. If you have a chance too, check out a few of the other episodes as well. I’d like to thank Chris for being a part of it and including me along amazing folks like Liston Witherill, Tim Kelley, and Ilise Benun

Janelle Allen of zencourses.co is an Instructional Designer who specialized in custom online course that improve student results invited me to her podcast. I thought that I'd share an answer to a question that she asked me on the show. ------------------- 👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you. ------------------- She asks all her guests this question. "The zombie apocalypse has hit. You have 6 minutes to grab 3 essential items and your family is fine. What do you grab? As someone who's watched many zombie movies from a very young age all the way to today with The Walking Dead, this was a welcomed and fun question. Since I've actually thought about this over the years I had my answer at the ready. My winter coat, a broom, and my skis. A broom because you can carve the handle into a point and use it to defend yourself with some level of distance. That's the obvious item in this list. Like Janelle, you may be scratching your head a bit at the winter coat and skis. It's simple, first of all, there's never been a movie, tv show, or anything zombie related where it's taking place in the snow. So I'm going north when the zombie apocalypse hits. If you are thinking, "Jason, but you are basing your logic off of movies." Of course, I am, this whole scenario is predicated on a hypothetical movie scenario. But I'm open to the conversation, so let's look at it this way. Zombies aren't exactly fleet of foot. They often get caught up on branches, stuck in mud, and even caught up on fences. It stands to reason that in waist deep snow, they wouldn't fare too well either. Additionally, snowy regions tend to be less populated which reduces the number of potential zombies. If I can find a mountainous area, then there could be a natural way in which to protect myself and family as well. I pose this question to you. If your family is good, and you have 6 minutes to grab 3 items in the zombie apocalypse, what would you grab? Shoot me a tweet and let me know. If you are wondering how all this relates to your business, it doesn't. I just though that I would have some fun today in answering an oddball question so that you can maybe get a glimpse into other parts of my head. If you absolutely need it to relate to business, the one thing I can say is to put yourself in a position where the odds swing in your favor.

Inside of the Sustainable Freelancer someone asked a question that I've never answered directly in the previous 257 episodes of the show. This is a great question for a lot of people thinking about how to use social media for their business. Simply put, I don't like saying this, but it applies. The answer is, it depends. I'm going to put aside the paid ads on the platform because that's a different game altogether and really just stick to answering the question in the context of organic engagement. ------------------- 👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you. ------------------- Organic Engagement You have to remember that it's a social network, the key word here is "social". So that lends itself to the awareness stage, or visibility as this person puts it. That doesn't mean you can't use it for sales, but from my experience, sales needs to be at a deeper level on the platform, say in DMs, Lives, IGTV and that sort of thing. I say "it depends" also because I think the product/service you are selling has to make sense to where the person is on Instagram. If you are trying to sell full web builds, or branding, I think that's going to be tough to sell on any social platform, even Instagram. Not saying that it can't be done, because I've done it. Which I'll explain in just a minute. What I am saying is that the buyer who's scrolling through their feed or viewing stories of people they follow aren't in the buying mode. They could be standing in line waiting to buy milk, or in the back of an Uber. They are in consumption mode and most likely in some sort of passive state of mind. Now if you are selling a product, such as t-shirts, jewelry, that certainly works because of the visual elements there. If you have a lower tier service or product, say that or a similar price as a t-shirt, then that too may work for you too. Since you are most likely selling services, this could be something like a mini-course or an ebook. "Selling on social media" Back to how I sold a higher priced item on social media. As you know, my social platform of choice is Twitter. I've built up a following over there, from what Twitter tells me, for the past 12 years. Twitter in my opinion is even harder to sell on than Instagram. Especially higher priced items. Simply because it's a text-based platform. Sure there are images you can attached, but it's text-first and the percentages of selling something for a few hundred dollars or higher with a one or two sentences is pretty low. My following is not huge but it's an engaged, which means that I've built up trust. Of those that follow me, many of which I've had conversations with. I personally greet anyone new that follows me. I'm highly engaged there. Over the 12 years on Twitter, I never once pitched through a tweet "hey everyone, I have this thing to sell, it costs $750, DM me to get it" - just never happened. Until January 2019, where one of the more popular vendors I work with on a consistent basis changed their pricing, who they were marketing to, and to be honest, changed the direction of the company overall from a good portion of people who had been their customers in the past. Honestly, it's the free will of any business to do something like that. However, the way in which you do it is a delicate balance with your existing customers. Obviously this pricing change made lots of people upset. When people get upset, they complain. When people complain, they take it to the social networks. Twitter was all ablaze with people frustrated, upset, confused, and angry. In fact, I just wanted to help and so I tweeted this first. Then 4 hours later, I tweeted the pitch (with a typo in there too). Seeing as I had a service that could help people move from this platform to another, I threw that into a tweet and pushed send. Because of the trust that I built on the platform, the relationships I have formed, I had many conversations, 10 turned into sales...

In A256 - Where do you find freelance clients? we talked about the watering holes, those places where your clients come together to talk business. Today's episode goes a little deeper into that topic to talk about the context and intent of your client at these watering holes. ------------------- 👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you. ------------------- The human behavior part of this equation is what I'm fascinated most with. I'm not the first, nor the last person who will talk about context when it comes to marketing. In fact, it's the very first personalization that was done in advertising and marketing. It's why restaurants put their side dishes next to entrees on their menus. You are going to order a potato and veggies with that steak and they know that. So they aren't going to put sides on the last page, they'll put it directly after that filet mignon that you plan on ordering. Ad platforms these days put context on steroids. We have more information at our disposal about someone than ever before. We can target a specific employee at a global company in a certain town that has a hobby of white water kayaking. But what do you do with that information? Often you will jump all over that by pushing an ad out to come to sign up for your service or book a consult or something of that nature. While that's all fine to do, they may be looking at the photos of their niece's dance recital. That's not the most opportune time to pitch your abilities to build them a new website. To make this even more concrete, in the case yesterday where we spoke about the medical industry, you wouldn't walk up to 10 doctors sitting around a table ordering a steak and pitch them even though that's where they all are at the moment, right? If the content is king, then context is queen. As in the last episode, getting into the head of your client and then understanding the context and the intent of them in a specific setting can increase the likelihood of success of your strategy. In the context of my former employer, they bought booths at events that specifically spoke to marketing, technology, and business growth in the industry. At events that were smaller or not specific to the mindset where the doctors and organizations would be thinking about their website or marketing, my former employer would be there anyway, but in a different way. The sales team would be there to build relationships, set meetings up with clients and leads and of course network, but there wasn't a big push for sales. Ariel, The Urbanist, on a podcast, shared some insights in his strategy on this. His objective was to land gigs with big travel brands and online publications. Instead of creating ads pitching what he did. Instead, he created content as he normally would, then targeted those key individuals of the companies he wanted to work with so that he was sure that his content would be seen by them. Then when those individuals were looking for content that he does, he would be front of mind. He admitted that he couldn't directly connect a job to a specific ad this way, but he did admit that he got work from some of the brands and companies he targeted. In your case, if you are looking to inject some personality into your brand, how about creating a piece of content that's centered around you and your family, or your mission as a business to help a charity, or why you are in business for yourself, and then put that piece of content as an ad in front of your ideal clients while they are looking at those recital photos. It may not get that click, but if you do it consistently, when that person who is extremely family oriented, is looking to redo their website, best be sure that they'll remember that they saw "something about some designer who was playing with their kids talking about websites" and go look for you. Not Wix or GoDaddy.

Where you find your clients out in the world is a big question. I held an open door session inside the Sustainable Freelancer FB Group last Friday where I put the webcam on and anyone could pop in to talk about anything they want. ------------------- 👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you. ------------------- Resulting from that was a conversation around location of potential clients. Not necessarily any strategy about getting them, but more of where to look for places, online, offline, etc, where they may be. Amy Hoy calls these watering holes in the context of her Sales Safari exercise in they course 30x500. A watering hole is where all the animals in an ecosystem come together because they need water to survive. The idea fits perfectly because you want to find places where you clients come together to talk about business with other people in a similar market. These are events, meetups, conferences, online forums, trade shows, and the list goes on. You are a developer or designer and live online, so it's safe to assume that you know your way around the web. Because of that, you may want to find your clients on the web. You try Facebook Groups, Twitter, Instagram, and even online forum sites. While you may find them here, maybe it's not THE watering holes best suited for your clients. When I was working for an agency that focused on the medical industry, the sales team would regularly attend trade shows and conferences and buy booth space at these events. Sure they ran Google Ads and such, but a great portion of sales and revenue for the business came from these events. There were months of the year where the sales team would attend 10-15 events in one month, all over the country. The thing is that doctors and the medical industry doesn't spend the entire day on the computer and the web. They still don't. What they do is attend conferences and events to learn about new technology and studies, to meet up with colleagues and build relationships, and play golf (let's be honest). The sales team knew this, the business knew this, which is why they were so invested in putting effort into going to these watering holes and finding their clients. Understanding the behavior of your client will help you figure out where to find them. Pay close attention to your existing clients. Just because you found them in one spot, doesn't mean that's where they all are. Follow them, talk with them. Ask them about their weekend and what they did. If they tell you that they can't make a meeting because they are going to a conference, ask them what conference. Where you find your clients isn't about you. It's about them. Be curious, ask questions, pay attention. Get into the head of your clients and they'll lead you to more.

I'm continuing here today with the eleventh and final lesson in the "Finding clients" series. This is the no-nonsense series of lessons that work in today's market to find clients you want to be working with on a consistent basis. Group coaching for leads. WHAT?!? 🤔 ------------------- 👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you. ------------------- You've heard about group coaching before in the context for your business. I met Lauren Pawell, founder of BixaMedia, a marketing strategy firm, a couple of years ago. In fact, she was the very first guest on Live In The Feast Season 1 Episode 3. She inspired this idea of bringing your leads together in one space so that you can then vet the good fit en masse. Let me explain how this works. You get a lead as you normally would, but instead of getting on a one-on-one call with them, you get them to an educational webinar. Get them to sign up and as a group, you run through some educational material for them, provide ridiculous value in a way that allows all the leads to walk away with something beneficial to them. They also know and understand the type of work that you do, who you help, and if you may be a good fit for them. Then towards the end of that webinar, you present them with an application for them to be able to work with you. Lauren shared some of her KPIs that she aims for with registration, attendance, and applications. The part of this I like the most is that you are spending one hour of time with say 5-10, maybe 20 people and weed out those that aren't a good fit. Rather than one hour with each individual to weed them out. As a result, you are only spending time on those that raise their hand to want to work with you. But those that don't still walk away with value from you, something that's helpful to them in that moment to move them forward. Lauren said that of those who fill out the application, she'll close 80% of them. That's such an amazing use of time. In fact, she sent me an email just last week that as of January 2nd, she's booked solid for 2019. The only work that they are taking on is Strategy Sessions. Since I heard about this idea, I've looked for ways in which I can leverage this in my own business. Because as I said, it's such effective use of time and provides the same amount of value as you would if you continued the sales process as you do today. A good place to start with this is with past clients. You already know who they are and that you'll want to work with them again. Remember in lesson 7 we talked about those up level skills? Take the skills that you've learned since working with them and package up something to sell. Send an email with some registration link and get them all on a call. Practice your delivery and then pitch with that application. It's as simple as that.

I'm continuing here today with the tenth lesson in the "Finding clients" series. This is the no-nonsense series of lessons that work in today's market to find clients you want to be working with on a consistent basis. Who are you surrounding yourself with? Who do you hang with? And I'm not talking about your family and friends either. That you are on your own (although support matters so choose wisely). What I mean is the group of business colleagues and friends you can trust. That you can bounce ideas off around with. That you can be frank and give them the real you. ------------------- 👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you. ------------------- There are different communities and groups you can join obviously. I'm going to share something very important with you in a minute here on why all this matters. Masterminds High level masterminds can be both paid and free. Maybe, like myself, you have been a part of one or both kinds already. What I've found from them is that you really have to connect with them like no other group. At first, find a common aspect that you can appreciate in the others. Find a common element within the group that makes the group stronger than the individuals combined. This could be something like a goal each of you have. It could be that each of you work online or have a store. It could be location too. That element will spark the idea to join but also be able to carry you through. Because once that initial euphoria and emotion and excitement dies down after a few meetings, you'll need that something to carry you through. Paid Memberships & Closed Groups These are very similar. From my experience though the closed groups are usually those that are ran by someone in business who you've become close with and then start up. Whereas paid memberships and communities, like Feast for example, are built on the specificity of the transformation of those who join. These are often built on the back of courses, but the community is often where bonds are formed and relationships are built because you want to accomplish similar things in your business. In those relationships too is gold. I have friends that have grown out of those communities that I paid to be in. I've received lots of work from inside those communities directly or indirectly through referrals. When you joined a mastermind or closed community, you know that the people in there are willing to invest into their growth. Whether that's time and/or money. They are also amazing avenues for warm leads too because they are running a business, understand what you do, and then can refer you work when the opportunity arises. Here's the biggest, most important reason why who you hang with is important though. Accountability. You don't want to disappoint someone who you respect. When you tell that someone you will do something, you'll want to rise up no matter what and do it. If you don't respect someone, then you won't care whether you disappoint someone or not. Who you hang with is vital to your business growth, finding clients, because it's your reputation and reputation matters in business now more than ever.

I'm continuing here today with the eighth lesson in the "Finding clients" series. This is the no-nonsense series of lessons that work in today's market to find clients you want to be working with on a consistent basis. Today's lesson will introduce the phrase "You get what you're paid for." Yes, I said "you're paid" not "you pay". ------------------- 👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you ------------------- I walked to the office every single day back in 1999-2001 from Penn Station up to 37nd Street. Most days, usually if there wasn't terrible weather, there were the same vendors on the street selling their wares. Scarfs, souvenirs, jewelry, music, and handbags. Of course all for the "best price." People would be lined up to haggle, especially during the holidays or on nice days. A "Rolex" for $10, a "Louis Vuitton" bag for $25 - people would be there buying these things. Sure they knew they weren't getting the real thing, so why did they buy it still? Well one day, I saw a pair of "Oakley" sunglasses for $8 and I always liked the style of them, I just didn't want to pay the $250 for them at the time. So I picked them up. I didn't care so much for them in the end, but I only paid $8 for them. Had I lost them, sat on them, or they broke after a month of use, it was only $8. Like myself, the other people felt much in the same way when buying from these vendors. It was the cheap knockoff that looked like the real deal. Ultimately there wasn't any respect for the product, because it was the "best price". We, as the customers buying these knock-offs were paying for something that we had already come to accept certain flaws and imperfections and were willing to pay the "best price" for. Is your price worthy of respect? You want your clients to value what you do. You want them to respect your suggestions and experience. When was the last time you looked at your pricing? Are you charging by the hour or by the project? Is what you are charging positioned with other vendors in the market or positioned based on the ROI to the customer? Charging $1000 for a full website design and build is not a price that's worthy of respect. Charging $50 per hour for full-stack development is a price that's not worth of respect. These are the "best price". If your platform for getting work is something like Upwork or one of these freelance job boards, have a listen to how other business owners talk about their use for these boards. They are looking for "best price", first. There's nothing wrong with selling something at the "best price". But then don't expect that your clients will look at what you do for them in any other way. They will want it a certain way and want to get a specific use out of it and looking for that bottom basement price. Attracting clients that respect your value, respect your experience and expertise comes with respecting yourself and what value you put on your work through your prices. Someone who is looking to buy the real Rolex or Louis Vuitton handbag isn't going to be worried about the price. They want the quality, the luxury, the experience that product brings to the table. The price of these products attract the kind of customer that respects and desires those things. If you ask yourself why clients micromanage you. If you want your clients to respect your suggestions. If you want to have clients stop haggling you on price. Then think about your pricing and what how it's attracting the type of customer you are getting. You get what you're paid for.

I'm continuing here today with the eighth lesson in the "Finding clients" series. This is the no-nonsense series of lessons that work in today's market to find clients you want to be working with on a consistent basis. Today's lesson will help leads relate to your existing clients. It will also give your clients a boost. Can I share with you 2 ways to do this so easily and so effectively that doesn't require you to build out a new page on your site or take hours to put together? ------------------- 👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you. ------------------- Testimonials, social proof, and portfolios are all bits of proof for our track record. They are the curated elements of your business that showcase what it is that you do and prove that you've done it. However, there's a piece missing to the puzzle that's most often overlooked. The reason the track record needs to be there is not for you, but for the leads. Someone who may be looking at your services wants to see that you've done it, but also that you've solved their specific problem, maybe with a business that's just like theirs. Replace a social share No doubt you are shooting out links or resources into the social media firehose. I encourage you over the course of a week, replace one of those shares with a quick win you gave to your client. If you wrapped up a project recently with a client, put out a tweet sharing that. But not saying you completed a project with Company X. Simply share what the benefit was to your client by completing the project together and then tagging your client's Twitter account. This can be as simple as something like "Stoked to be able to help Client A save 10 hours a week by building them automation that no longer requires hand copying and pasting." Or could be a share on Facebook or Instagram where you can dive a bit more into the design decisions of a project and share a nice visual. Write about your clients to your leads I hear it time and time again that you don't have an email list. You have had someone write you an email to do work for them, right? Well, that's your email list. Next month, in your monthly newsletter, highlight a client of yours and the benefits that the client got out of the project and working with you. Doesn't have to be some elaborate write-up. Touch upon 3 items and the benefits of each one. The reason this is effective is leads don't know all the corners of everything that you can do. They also don't know the full benefits of what they can get by working on their project with you. Often I'll hear something like "Oh really, I didn't realize that was a part of that" or "Oh! That's pretty sweet. Didn't even think of that" Keep it simple, but put it out there into the world and you'll get these types of reactions because your track record is now about them, not you.

I'm continuing here today with the seventh lesson in the "Finding Clients" series. This is the no-nonsense series of lessons that work in today's market to find clients you want to be working with on a consistent basis. Today's lesson will help you work with clients you had in the past with things that you now know because it's the future. ------------------- 👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you. ------------------- In lesson #4, you learned about the Sneak Peek. You are on this constant cycle of learning. You improve your craft each and every day because it's that practice that refines the skills you have and allows you to learn new things. You solve problems every single day whether you realize it or not. If you are a developer, you learn that a new library will help you build out something that once you would've had to build yourself from scratch. If you are a designer, you learn that there is a new technique or trend that's making sites perform better on mobile because it makes the UX better. We gloss over these in our every day because they happen quite often. Our clients though, they don't stay on top of the things we do. They get what they paid for, they love it and then move forward. 3 months ago you no doubt had a project where there was a challenge that you had to overcome in some way that due to time, budget, or both, you and the client agreed on a particular path for solving that problem. Today, that problem is solved by a new piece of software you found, a step-by-step how-to on YouTube, or that you merely learned a better way because the client you are working with today gave the breathing room for you to explore the better path to the solution. Go back to that client from 3 months ago, open the door of the conversation by refreshing their memory on the conversation you both had. Then share with them how you solved it today and why it would benefit them. If what you did today is the same recipe, the same solution for your past client. You've put in the time and effort and already have had the solution paid for. Offer that solution for a price that makes it a complete no-brainer to your past client. They'll say "yes" and here's why. You already know that they wanted it because you did something already with them that was a solution. They see the benefit and value in it. But there were sacrifices to be made there because of costs or time or both that prohibited the full solution to be implemented. Second, they trust you. If you did a good job with them, they'll be receptive to you and understand that you are coming to them with something that will help them. Lastly, say this 100%, A+ solution was an investment of $1,000 for your client on this project and took you 10 hours to get done. It cost your client last time $250 and took 3 hours for the B solution. Offer your past client the A+ solution for $500, get it done for them in an hour or 2. It's a win-win for the both of you. Your client gets the full benefit they want, but didn't have to pay the full-price, and you've built something you can now offer, that does a great job at solving a problem that 2 clients had. So you know there are others out there with a similar issue. That's the beginnings of a productized service.

I'm continuing here today with the sixth lesson in the "How to Find Clients" series. This is the no nonsense series of lessons that work in today's market to find clients you want to be working with on a consistent basis. Today's lesson is something that will have you stand out above all others to your market by going onto a podcast that has the ears of your potential clients. ------------------- 👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you. ------------------- Podcasting is HUGE and growing every day. You are listening to (reading the show notes from) one right now in fact, right? With Spotify kicking the door of Apple's podcast castle a couple of weeks ago, it's a medium that's firmly planting itself into the mainstream. Ask your clients what podcasts they listen to. If your clients don't listen to podcasts, then pull up Apple Podcasts and search for the industry that you work in. Non-Profits, E-Commerce, Manufacturing, Drone Photography, Sports, etc there is a podcast out there. Go listen to a few episodes of a podcast that has more than 35 episodes and their most recent episode is in the past few weeks. This is so that you know that they do have an audience they are broadcasting to. You can also look at the number of ratings and reviews too. If they have some, then you know that the audience is engaged too. Look at the episodes, see the kinds of topics they talk about, but also pay attention to some of the gaps that are missing that you can help fill. This is the important part to remember. If you are just adding to the firehose, the host won't pay attention However if you do reach out, you want to make your ask super relevant and focused. Bonus points if you go ahead and share some episodes and tag the host. You'll pop on their radar and when you go ahead and contact the host, they'll at least recognize you a little bit. Every host knows that when they receive an email or DM asking to be on the show that it's self-serving, so don't try and beat around the bush too much. Keep it short, super relevant and focused on adding value to their audience and you'll be positioned to land that guest spot. If you know another guest that's already been on the show, ask that person for the introduction. And finally, when you do make contact, keep it about their audience and not of yourself. The only time you should mention anything about you is where you fill in a gap. "Hi Pete - I loved Ep 27 when you were speaking about how important it is for marketability of the business to leverage local Google search. Then in Ep 34, you shared a few tools that you use to do some comparative analysis. My name is Jason and I provide a service to my clients for marketing comparative analysis. If you think that it would resonate with your audience, I'd love to share all that I know and the process that I walk through with my clients with your audience."

I'm continuing here today with the fifth lesson in the "How to Find Clients" series. This is the no-nonsense series of lessons that work in today's market to find clients you want to be working with on a consistent basis. Today's lesson will help you stay front of mind 2 different ways. ------------------- 👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you. ------------------- We are all busy and there's only so much time in any given day. Business though is all about the people. Whether you are a running a solo owned and operated business like myself or running an agency, you have to be out there not just seen to sell, but also to provide value. If you are always out there every day pushing ads, pushing leads, asking 9 out of 10 times, then you'll be put on the top of the pile. Just like all that junk mail you get both in your inbox on your phone and the thing that's hanging off the front of your house. What I want you to do in the next 24 hours is this. Goto Starbucks and send an e-gift card to all of your clients. Just to say "Thank you!" It's nothing overly difficult to do, right? The gesture goes a long way though. Expect nothing from them either. What you are doing is creating a memorable moment in their minds. Do this once or twice a year and switch up the gift. Since you did an e-giftcard this time, go ahead and send some customized gift next time. The second way is to answer a question. I've built half of my business in 6 months with this lesson alone. The social web is full with questions, pick out a topic or problem that your clients have and then monitor the web for those types of questions and keywords. Then when one hits, jump into that thread and share a link, resource, or helpful answer. I do this with my Drip and ConvertKit services. And early on in my business, I did this with WooCommerce as well. It doesn't have to be a specific platform or tool either, although that makes it someone what easier. Look at the questions your clients are asking you, and then pull out those keywords. "get more phone calls from my site", "install X", "what's the best way to Y", etc are all easy to jump into those conversations. As you continue to do that, you'll be in a much better and more referable spot to get work.

I'm continuing here today with the fourth lesson in the "How to Find Clients" series. This is the no-nonsense series of lessons that work in today's market to find clients you want to be working with on a consistent basis. Today's lesson will help you position yourself and share insight into what problems you are solving. ------------------- 👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you. ------------------- You are smart and I know that you are constantly learning and evolving your skills and business whether it's on a project you are working on, or in passing as you read articles online when sitting on the couch. When you come across something new that you've learned, don't hold it back like it's the One Ring. Share that knowledge either in a tweet, Facebook share, or a blog post or video for YouTube even. When you share your knowledge online, there will be someone who will search for it who doesn't know. My friend Val Geisler shares teardowns of Saas business' onboarding emails on her blog. She stated in her 2018 review "I honed my voice and writing skills and got to build a nice little portfolio of spec work while I worked on moving more firmly into this specialization." And she was able to break the 6-figure mark too. I can also attribute a few clients to one specific article on my site where I break down a number of well-known brands and how they should improve their checkout process. But in there I share how it could be improved as well. This gives potential clients a sneak peek into what you can do and how you do it. But it also gives the web the ability to have a piece of content to serve questions like "how do I improve my checkout process?" or "how do I improve my email onboarding sequence?" By sharing what you know instead of holding it back will position you and your expertise in the world. Instead of spending a tremendous amount of time figuring out an algorithm on how you can get your profile to outrank other freelancers on a platform, spend that time pushing out a piece of content that gives a sneak peek into your brain.

I'm continuing here today with the third lesson in the "How to Find Clients" series. This is the no-nonsense series of lessons that work in today's market to find clients you want to be working with on a consistent basis. Today's lesson will help you build a pipeline of high quality leads into the business of people and businesses that you want to work with. ------------------- 👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you. ------------------- You know I'm not a fan of discounting your services. However, this is more like buying highly qualified leads. I can't take credit for this lesson all on my own, and to be honest, I haven't yet implemented it (yet). So I'd like to thank Ryan Bowles who runs the Create or Die Tribe FB Group for this. I think it's a smart way to leverage your services and the relationship that you have built up with the client. But also be able to have built in a testimonial and referral system in one. I'm changing it slightly from Ryan's original. When you onboard a client, maybe a touch after you've been working together for a little bit, ask them this. "Would you like $X off on the final invoice, simply by referring 5 business colleagues or friends that would be a good fit, if I've done a great job?" When they say yes, reply with "Awesome, we'll talk about it when we get there." Then after you've gone ahead and done a great job, remind them about your offer. Ask them to create a quick 30-second video about how it was working with you, or better yet, ask them to answer this on the video. "What challenges did you have prior to us working together and how did I solve those challenges for you?" Then have them send that video and the 5 referrals to you. Send those folks the video testimonial and ask if you can help them in any way. Not only do you have a great, relatable testimonial, but you'll also have a built-in system to continuously generate new, targeted leads based on clients that you want to be working with. That's the important part of this lesson and where I modified this idea from Ryan slightly. Ask them if they would like this offer after you have got to know them a little bit better. This will further your chances to get better leads that you actually want to work with. You'll also be in a better position to make sure that the client is sending you leads that are legit as well.

I'm continuing here today with the second lesson in the "How to Find Clients" series. This is the no-nonsense series of lessons that work in today's market to find clients you want to be working with on a consistent basis. Today's lesson is solely targeted toward getting repeat clients by you adding in a built-in opportunity in your existing projects. ------------------- 👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you. ------------------- With any project you have, no doubt you'll either be asked to do something the client wants that isn't in the scope or want to throw something in just because it is quick. We all do it. We are humans after all. But we are also running a business. So when you do these one-off add-ons you should keep track of them and make your client aware of them too. When you do one, whether you are doing hourly work or on retainer, add the task to the invoice. Along with that, add how much it would cost normally and then zero it out. Meaning make it no charge. Even if it's something that takes 15 or 30-minutes to do, mark that down, describe the task in the line item and then put the $50, $100, or $200 down. When you do this, you are putting value into the project that may or may not be perceived by your client. Ever have a client ask you "is there anything you can do better on price?" Especially when scoping out a project? This is where all that added value comes into play. If you give $500 worth of zero line items in Project A, there's no way that a client will ask for a discount on project B. Here is where you get the repeat work though. By adding in all the zero line items into the work, you are keeping track of all the possibilities to add-on repeat work. For example, say you are designing blog images for your client and they ask you to create a few Facebook images for those blog posts along the way. Say you have the bandwidth and did 2 of them. You now have an opportunity to re-visit those blog posts and do a comparison on the images you did vs what they did otherwise. If the shares that had your images performed better, guess what? There's your opportunity to pitch additional work. Here's another example. Say you are a developer and your client asked to add in an additional feature to their app that allows their users to log in via Facebook or Twitter. You obviously know that those APIs change pretty regularly, right? Well when they do, go back to your client when it does happen and sell them on the update. The Zero-Line Item is your best friend when it comes to positioning yourself, but also leaving a built-in opportunity for yourself to them go ahead and get additional work later.

If you are like most service business owners I know, then referrals is where you get most of your work from. Yet you can't figure out how to make those more predictable. Today I'm going to share with you a process that I've developed and used based on business practices that have been in the wild for decades, if not longer. Whether you are just starting out or been in business for a little while, you have a network. ------------------- 👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you. ------------------- A network of trusted colleagues, friends, family, and individuals who you look to for advice. You also have a network online if you are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, etc. Why is it that you hear time and time again, to attend chamber of commerce meetings or local business events? It's because it's networking. Though in those meetings it's often hard to really get what you do and who your serve out there in an effective way. Most people are there to hand their own business cards out. But those networking events have worked for a long time helping local businesses connect and find new business. By taking that concept and turning it into something you can do for the 21st century, I present you with targeted referrals. I want you to reach out to your network. Reach out to folks who do similar work as you, who are your trusted colleagues and friends. Also, reach out to those people who you look up to as well. Create a list of people. Don't confuse this. This is a relationship building exercise. Once you have the list, grab 5-10 people from that list. What I encourage you to do is to reach out to them asking them about their weekend. Ask how their latest project went. Congratulate them on a job well done that you noticed them doing online. This can either be done via phone, text message, even your social media platform of choice. Create engagement with no expectation of anything else. When they respond, continue that conversation and see where it takes you both. There will a natural point of the conversation where they will ask you what you are up to. This is where you want to share exactly what you are doing. Share with them a couple of sentences about a successful project or client problem you solved this week that you are excited about. Don't bore them, keep it short. Then follow up with your positioning statement of who you help and the problem that you solve for them. So this could sound like "This week I was able to help a client of mine land 10 new customers under their new pricing, which was double the number and twice the price than what they had last week. I love helping online business build better relationships with their customers through email marketing." Again, expect nothing from this conversation. You are building the relationship, but more importantly, you are creating a circle of trust, a tribe if you will, of folks who truly understand who you help and the problem that you solve for them. On the flipside, you should also be mindful of what they are doing, being curious about what they do and problems they solve for their customers. Building a relationship that will continue to grow, but also when they encounter someone with a problem that you solve, they will think of you. I've done a form of this for building my email list as well as with trusted colleagues and folks I look up to so that I stay top of mind when they encounter people who can become a client of mine. It doesn't take long to do, but it's something that if you do it regularly, and keep track of your connections, you'll build a nice consistent flow of referrals into your business.

You are selling a service or product and want to have a system that continuously attracts clients and customers in a predictable way, right? Can I share with you 11 of my top lessons to do so? These aren't tips and strategies that are overplayed. These are pretty unique and work amazingly well. ------------------- 👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you. ------------------- As you know we are coming up on the magical episode 261 here on Ask Rezzz. And as such, over the next 11 shows I want to share with you 11 of my top "getting clients" lessons. Thanks to my good friend Mark Asquith for inspiring this series of shows. Mark, is currently running a series of podcasts on his show The 7-Minute Mentor called 11 Podcasting Lessons To Help You To Become An Audio Influencer in Your Niche. So how do you get more clients? I thought I'd create a series that does just that. Over the next 11 episodes, I'm going to share with you my top lessons that are tactful, repeatable, and help you establish yourself as an expert so that you not only clients, but get your clients on a consistent basis to build that pipeline. There are more freelancers and competition out there in the world than ever before and tactics that you see out there that worked last year, 3 and certainly 5 years ago, just won't work anymore. Platforms like Upwork and Toptal and others are a race to the bottom. They force you to try and manipulate algorithms and compete with other people on the wrong thing. That's price. And while these platforms have many companies and opportunities coming to them every single day, those companies are looking for one thing, the cheapest price possible. What I believe, and with great reason since I did it myself, is that you can build a sustainable business providing services for clients without selling to hundreds and thousands of people. You certainly do not need to be dropping your prices, racing to the bottom and spend tons of time trying to figure out an algorithm to stand out. You can build a business that's built around your life and your dreams with a small number of carefully selected clients. Then you can build a system that continually feeds into your pipeline so that you can build a predictable income. When I say recurring income, most people, and maybe you as well, think that means providing a monthly service. It's not. It means that you are selling a service or product that continuously attracts clients and customers in a predictable way. So that's what I'm going to share with you over the next 11 episodes. Lessons to build your business with a core type of client and attract those types of clients that you want to have more of. They are all based on strategies and tactics that have worked for decades in business that I myself still use to this very day that has allowed me to build a profitable and sustainable client services business for close to a decade here in NY. If you want more, then head on over to rezzz.com and subscribe. No one taught me when I started out, which is why I failed quite often, but I stayed persistent and share with you over at rezzz.com those tips and strategies that work in today's market.