This Is Why Nothing Is Changing in Your Freelance Business
When I started freelancing while working full-time, I thought the hardest part would be finding clients.
It wasn’t.
The hardest part was figuring out why I could spend hours learning about freelancing…and still feel like my business wasn’t moving.
I was reading newsletters, watching videos, taking notes, and saving ideas for later.
Yet at the end of the week I’d sit back and think:
Why does it feel like I’ve gone nowhere?
Over time, I’ve noticed something with freelancers I’ve coached.
There are Learners. And there are Doers.
My parents knew someone who collected degrees every time life got hard. By age 65, she had four master’s degrees.
The problem? She never actually used them.
Learning had become a very productive way to avoid doing.
Learners look incredibly productive. They constantly sign up for courses, cohorts, programs, love to ask Chatty the next best course of action they should take, and sometimes even manage to post educational content. They are the ones that come and go in my group, never committing to stay in the game to push themselves further.
Their business never actually moves forward, though to them, it looks like progress.
Full confession: I still fall into this trap.
I love learning, strategy and backend marketing work.
What I don’t love is the uncomfortable part of putting offers into the world and seeing if anyone bites.
And then I gave myself ONE rule:
Spend 20 minutes every day pushing your business forward.
I call it “closing the loop”.
When you give your brain monumental tasks such as “update webpage copy”, “plan posts for the week”, or “reach out to podcasts”, it feels insurmountable. Your brain procrastinates because it hates big tasks.
So instead, we don’t do it at all.
But 20 minutes? Your brain is totally cool with that.
And from there, you move from a Learner —> Doer.
Doers are those that go out there with the intention of doing whatever it takes to get clients. They assimilate everything and then act upon it. They take the risk, even if no one buys, no one shows interest, and no one picks up what they’re putting down. They understand the famous Michael Jordan quote, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”. They are actually taking the shots.
Before you know it, you are making progress and things begin to snowball.
Learners feel productive.
But Doers are the ones who eventually build the business that lets them close the laptop at 3pm and go pick up their kids.
The difference between freelancers who eventually succeed and those who stall out isn’t intelligence.
It’s movement.
The Doers close the loop every day, put their business out in a myriad of ways, and continue to take risks.
Even if it’s just closing the loop for 20 minutes.
And if I’m being honest, most freelancers know exactly which category they’re in.
So here’s the question:
Are you learning today…or are you doing?
Hi there, I’m Kiri - a mentor and coach for freelancers looking to not just create a business of their dreams, but one that is a stable career that brings maximum profitability and flexibility. If you are looking to move from hourly to package rates with ease, I suggest you check out my Profit Pathway Training.
You don’t need to build an agency to scale - it’s one of the biggest myths in our industry.
For me, scaling was earning more money and time in my life, as well as being able to hire carefully and move through scaling slowly. I wanted to keep my reputation intact.
Tell me - what do you think is one of the biggest myths in our industry?
