Are you still saying “I got fired,” “my boss,” or “I need permission” even though you’re a freelancer and own your business?
The language you use can quietly keep you stuck in an employee mindset—and that can affect how you price your services, communicate with clients, set boundaries, and take time off. This episode shows you how small changes in the way you talk about your freelance business can help you think and operate more like the business owner you are.
By the end of this episode, you will:
Learn 10 corporate phrases to ditch and what to say instead.
Discover how to approach vacation, availability, client approval, pricing, and scope with greater confidence.
Shift your mindset so you can build stronger client relationships, set better rates, and step more fully into business ownership.
Listen now to discover the 10 language shifts that can help you leave your corporate mindset behind and start showing up as the confident business owner you are.
TRANSCRIPTSI want you to take a listen, because you're going to learn 10 corporate phrases you need to ditch, a lot about vacation and time off, and tips and tricks on how to deal with that, and also why you need to be stepping into the business owner mindset to get more confidence, and how this will help you.
Welcome back to the show. The other day, in our program, group program, unfortunately, one of my students lost her client, her long-term client, and she was very upset. And was talking about it, and she said, you know, she ended up letting me go. And I said, well, hold on, stop. First of all, it wasn't, like, really a letting you go situation. Her husband, like, I guess the client's husband had lost their job, his job, and she was short on money, and she needed to save as much as possible, so she was letting go of freelancers, cutting down hours, etc. for her business. I was like, first of all, you know, you don't really get let go, or you don't really, you know, end up getting fired from a freelance job. What happens is they end their contract, or they end their working relationship with you, right? And then that got me thinking, oh my god, how many times do we, from corporate, pull in all these terms into our freelance business that's actually kind of holding us back from fully stepping into a business owner mindset. And they're so small, they're so little, and the longer you're in corporate, the more they kind of linger, and the more you see them. But they really can change the way you think about yourself, and the way you think about your business, and even how you treat your clients. I want to talk about these corporate terms that we need to erase or shift or change. Mostly shift or change.
The first one, obviously, getting fired, or getting let go. And on the flip side of that, getting hired, quote-unquote. So you don't get fired, you don't get let go, you end your contract, okay? So that's the shift you need to make there. For getting hired, no, you need to… you began working together. You started your working relationship together, alright? So that's one of the big ones.
Number two is sometimes it's hard to let go of, say, like, my boss or my manager. This seems like an obvious one, but it's… it's not, because I sometimes did it as well when I was first starting out. I would just say, like, oh, my manager. No, that's not it. They're your client, okay? So, not my boss or manager, my client.
Number 3. When you say, oh, they pay me X amount, or they're gonna pay me on this day, or whatever. No, you invoice them. You invoice them. This is not an employee-employer relationship where they are paying you, you are invoicing them, okay? In terms of… or maybe I should say, on that note, when you say my paycheck, okay? Like, I get paid my paycheck, etc, no. You say my income, Or my revenue. Same thing with salary. I think, like, people will say, like, oh, the salary they gave me is X amount per year. No, they're your client, you're invoicing them, it's your income. Or your revenue that you are producing in that year. They don't hold the control there. You are the one that's billing them, so you're the one that decides on the pricing, and your income, and your revenue. There's no paycheck, there's no salary, okay?
Number 5. I got a raise, or they gave me a raise, or whatever you want to say, or they raised my fees. No. hopefully, like, even if they talk to you about this, and they say, you've been doing amazing, I'd like to pay you more money. That still is a discussion. It's not… like, I remember in corporate going to my annual review and sitting there, like, biting my nails, like, what are they gonna give me for a raise? What are they gonna get? And one year, I remember it was, like, $8,000, and I was so shocked, and the next year, it was $2,000. And I remember being like, what? And it was, like, still a stellar review, everything was great, but it was just, like, the budget, right? And what they were trying to save money on, and all that kind of stuff. So, they decided that, no, even if they decide they want to pay you more money, the client's like, you're so amazing, I'd love to, you know, help you out here, and I think you deserve more. you're still renegotiating your contract, right? Or renegotiating our scope of work. That's what it means when you are getting more money from a client. And sometimes you bring it up, too. Sometimes you say, hey, I've been with you for 3 years, and I've been getting paid this amount for all this time. I would like to actually, you know, have a little bit more. Renegotiating your contract or scope of work, okay?
Number 6. I need permission from my client in order to do this. No, you are waiting for your client's approval. You don't need their permission to do anything, alright? I mean. That one's a little bit of a gray area, right? But for the most part, just shift that to say, I'm waiting for my client's approval, or I need my client's approval.
Number 7. Vacation and time off. This is a huge one. I used to, like, ask for permission. It's so embarrassing. Like, I could not let go of that corporate mindset where I had to ask for permission. Oh my god. Cringe. No. Now I just let people know when I'm not gonna be in office. I let my clients know when I'm going to be unavailable. So in an email, I might say, hello, I am now taking off these days and will be unavailable. I don't say I'm taking vacation, I don't say I'm taking PTO, Anything like that, because that's not the case. I am gonna tell them when I am unavailable, okay? And they don't need… they don't need to give me any blessing of approval. Nope. I tell them. And that's a big one. Like, it takes a little confidence. Like I said, I used to be like, hey, I'm taking off this time. And I always offer a discount, right? I always offer, like, hey, I will give you a discount for this, if… because I do a lot on, like, retainer packages, and I do monthly fees, so if I'm going to be out for a week, I actually…
Okay, tangent. Here is a really fun thing that I teach my students, and also what I have done that actually was taught to me by my own client. So, when I am going to be out for a significant amount of time, because the retainer package is, let's say, a week, 5 days. That's a significant amount of time that I want to be completely unplugged and unavailable. If that is the case, that I'm going to be unplugged and unavailable and not working, the client has two options. One. Either they keep all the work for me, and wait till I've come back, and then I have to basically double time to make up for it, or two, they handle the work themselves while I'm out. Now, if they choose number one, where they hold all the work, then I ask them to actually pay me for that vacation time, pay me for the time off, and not change the fee, or whatever, right? But if they decide to do the work while I'm gone, for whatever reason, then I subtract that daily fee for that week, times 5, And I get paid less, because then I don't have anything I'm coming back to. And it was a client who taught me this, I can't believe it, like, he said to me, well, I don't do the work when you're gone, so why are you subtracting the price? Because you have to do it all when you come back, right? And I was like, oh, yeah, I do. So he said, yeah, no, Kiri, then you just keep the same price, because I don't want to do that work, and you're still doing it when you come back. Bingo! Light went off, revelation, oh my god, angels from heaven. So that's what I teach my students, and that's what I do going forward, is like, hey, if you're going to be doing the work, great, I'll subtract a price. Again, this only applies if you're doing you know, a retainer project. But you could do it hourly as well, and ask, because, like, I think freelancers struggle with being completely unplugged. They take their work with them everywhere because they want to get paid. But here's a fun way just to go around it. Okay, tangent on that, tangent over. Okay.
Number 8. Talking about my work hours. Like, don't talk about your work hours, because you're not in corporate. You're not clocking in, you're not clocking out, I mean, you might be if you're time tracking, but those are not your work hours, those are your availability, okay? Because when you think work hours, you think it's, like, 9 to 5, there's a lot of, wait on that, that doesn't need to be there. So, we're gonna do instead, talk about my availability, because that puts you in control. My availability, alright?
Number 9, they gave me more work than I expected. No, the client expanded the scope. Not they gave me more work, the client expanded the scope. I think that's a really big, huge mindset shift.
And finally, number 10. part of my job, or not part of my job, like, that is part of my job, or that's not part of my job. Nope, again, let's remove job. Job? Nope, that's totally being employed. So, either it was included in my scope of work, or it was not included in scope of work, or this is not included in my scope of work. this would be an additional fee, okay? So make sure that, like, you're removing job from the lingo, you know, like, obviously, you're not gonna say, this isn't my job, you're gonna say, this is my business. So make sure that you removed the word job from other parts of your lingo as well. So, really, what I'm trying to teach you guys here is we want to recreate this employee-employer hierarchy, right? Like, what I'm doing is making these subtle shifts for you so that you are helping yourself realize that you are owning the business, and they are purchasing from them. You're deciding what your business charges, right? And I think freelancers often carry this corporate assumption that the person paying them automatically gets to dictate when and how the work happens, but really, it's the business owner that negotiates, and when you start using these shifts. Even saying something like, they rejected me, is instead they chose not to move forward. Like, just even small shifts like that completely change how you start working with clients and give you more confidence in your business and who you are, which eventually will lead to better clients, better rates, etc. It's a little bit of a snowball effect. But these mindset shifts seem small. But really, what it's doing is shifting your identity. And that's one of the biggest things you can do when you're trying to quit corporate, is shift your identity, manifest a new way, and start changing the way you talk and work with people.
To recap, we talked about 10 corporate phrases that I'm in favor of you completely changing and shifting, so that you can enter the business owner mindset. A lot of that talks about, you know, the way the job is, and the way the business is, and like, how you deal with vacation, time off, getting raises, paychecks, income, revenue, all subtle shifts. That will help you step into the more confident business owner mindset that you need.
Alright, so stay tuned, because the tip of the week is coming up on Thursday, and that is going to go into the secret advantage you have as a corporate professional when you start freelancing, and it's something that I've talked about before, but I think you guys need to hear it again, alright? So, if you are in corporate right now, or you have this freelance business and in corporate, and you're just kind of, like, struggling with both, and you want to find out what to do and how to grow the freelance business so you can quit. I'm your girl, sign up for a call, free call, in the show notes. I'd love to talk to you.
Until next time, keep flourishing.