TRANSCRIPT
Jump right into this episode where you're going to learn 3 mindsets you need to break in order to get clients, why you need to find motivation yourself, and a really handy template that you can use when responding to emails.
Hello, and welcome back to the show. Today, we're going to be talking about corporate mindsets, and I work a lot with corporate people. In fact, that's, you know, generally who I market to. And I come from a corporate past, and I know what it's like to build a business while working in corporate. It's hard, it's rewarding, it's fun, it's all of those at once. But one thing that held me back, I think, for a long time, were the corporate mindsets that were hard to shake, not only when I was building my business, but also when I went full-time with my freelance career. So I wanted to get into that a little bit today, and see if this kind of resonates with any of you, and you feel like, alright, yup, that's me as well.
Number one. I work with this with my students so much, is responding to emails right away. Because, as you know, if you have a history with corporate, they expect you, most of the time, to be available between, like, 8.30 and 5.30, or 9 to 5, or whatever the hours are, even if it's, like, 7 to 4. You have to be available in those hours, and technology is wonderful in the sense that, yeah, we can work from home, or anywhere, or even work from your phone, and that's where I think a lot of people get tripped up. You put your email account on your phone, right? And you start responding to emails right away. And this can be your client's account, this could be your own business account, whatever it is, you're responding to emails too quickly. And that is something from corporate, which you just don't need that anymore, okay? And what I suggest to my students is, like. If a client wants you to have their email account on their phone, if there's, for some reason, you're dealing with a client who has a lot of sensitive and personal stuff that needs to be done urgently, then you need to charge more for that, okay? Because they're having greater access to you, and they're taking away a little bit of your freedom and flexibility, which could be why you signed up to be a freelancer and work on your business to begin with, right? One of my students did have a lot of trouble with stepping away from that mindset of, oh my gosh, I need to be available all the time. And she was an executive assistant background, and my fellow EEAs out there, you know what this is like. Like, you have to be always on time, and always on point, and always getting back to people right away. But you don't have to, especially not as a freelancer, and you can figure out how to do that. So what I gave her was this template. to step back from that. So she just couldn't let an email go unread and not respond. It was really, really hard for her, and I remember what that was like for me, too. So, the template that I gave her was… When the email came in, she would just start saying, thank you so much for this Or, no, I think it was… I got this email, I will respond in a few hours. Or, thank you so much for the assignment, I'll be able to get it to you by X date. Does this work for you? And through those templates that we worked on, I think we had, like, 3 to 5 of them, she was able to send those, so she'd satisfy her need to, like, respond right away, because she couldn't quite break it, right? The feeling of… I have to respond. So she couldn't quite break that corporate mindset. But using these templates helped her feel like she was responding, but then she was able to give herself space. And one of the problems she had was bringing her laptop and phone with her everywhere when she went to kids' events, and feeling like she had to work as soon as something came in. And this allowed her to give her the space so that she was able to breathe and enjoy the present moment. Now, one of the ways you can use this in your business, as you're building your business, is a lot of times if you have a client reach out to you, and they say to you, oh, I need to talk right away, or how about this time, and that time, and you're like, oh my god, I'm working full-time, I can't do this. Look at your schedule and see, when can you do this call? Could you do it during the lunch break and go to your car? ask them to do a phone call instead of a Zoom call, right? Like, I know that feels so different nowadays, right? Just say, is there any chance you'd be open to a phone call? I really prefer phone calls for introductory calls, or… I'm so sick of Zoom lately. I understand if you want to see me on camera, but is there any way we could do a camera… I mean, do a phone call? So that's one way to do it. Another way is to ask them if they'd be willing to do an evening call. I recently hired a subcontractor who only had 8pm calls, because she also had a job, and so because of that. I made sure that I was going to talk to her at 8pm. I had heard great things about her, and it didn't bother me. So that's something that you can think about as well. If they like you enough, they might be willing to do that. But remember, this is your business, and you can take calls
Now, number two, something you really need to think about as you build your business, and even as you have your business, is you are allowed to schedule calls on your own time, and you're allowed to reschedule calls, alright? That's okay. Now, if it's a prospective client. Be careful, that's a little sticky, you don't want to lose out on them by pushing out a call, but you can Ask to schedule calls.nat a certain time. So when I was working corporate, I would sometimes take a call in the car, or when I was on a walk, especially if it was an intro call, and I would ask them if they were okay with a call instead of a Zoom, which Zoom was, like, barely done back then, but I know post-COVID Zoom's done all the time. But keep in mind, this is your business, so if you want to even ask them for an 8pm call, you are totally okay to do that, okay? And no, you don't have to tell them you have a full-time job unless you want to, but I recently hired a subcontractor because I had heard great things about her. And she had an… only had 8pm calls, because she is also working full-time. And that was fine with me, because I really, really liked her, and I'd heard a lot about her. And I think what you need to realize is you own your schedule, and this is really hard for me, too, so I still cling to this corporate mindset where I can't reschedule calls. I will be so sick, and be like, I have a call, I need to get to it. And it's ridiculous, because most people are super understanding, right? And now I've slowly been breaking that, and this is crazy, because it's been 12 years, right, that I've been doing my own business. But I've been breaking that bit by bit by bit, to the point that I'm even able to reschedule calls now. If I want to go take a walk, or go to the beach, or play hooky, or whatever I want to do, I just don't want to deal with work that day, I will reschedule calls now, and it feels so good, and I know that is lingering. From my last corporate job, which was so long ago. For you, you need to think about breaking that, because it's gonna show you and your potential clients that you own your business, and you are calling the shots, and it sets off the relationship in a really good way for you to have more success moving forward, because it's a simple mindset hack that you just… just break it. Just break that, and you'll be able to get a lot further.
Number 3, and I think this is something that's so important, especially if you come from any kind of job background. This doesn't even have to be corporate, okay? The first two were really corporate-centered. This can be any job that you're… you're working in right now, or have been. No one is telling you what to do. You need to get over the whole, Let me learn from other people online, let me observe people online, let me wait for some sign from the universe, or something like that. I'm all about manifestation, I will link that episode in the show notes, but you need to get to a point to understand that no one is telling you what to do. And this relates to so much in your business moving forward. So this also means you have to put yourself out there, right? You need to go out there and say, this is what I offer, and this is what I can do for you. You need to find the motivation, right, to get out there. And push yourself every single day. It's different when you have a job, because when you have a job, you just show up, and then you're… you do your role, and you get paid, and hopefully if you do your role well enough, you continue to get paid, right? I'm not saying a job is more stable than a freelance career. I'm not saying that at all, because we all know you can be let go. Suddenly, with no severance, right? Or severance, depends on the company you're with, but what I'm saying is, like, you show up to work, and your assignments are handed to you. That's not the case here, right? You don't have a job. You need to find your own motivation, you need to put yourself out there, and you need to do things like choose your rates. You need to choose your own pricing strategy. It's… it's crazy when you think about everything that was chosen for you at corporate or any job, right? You might have gone in and been able to negotiate a little bit, but when you're a freelancer and you own your own business, you can double your prices when you want, you can lower your prices, you can do whatever you want to do with your pricing, right? No one's telling you what to do. you can increase your rates, and you… and I guess another good point is, like, you need to know when to work and when you can fuck off, right? Like, in all honesty. That's a hard thing to go around, because I think a lot of people come in and they just work long, long hours because they were trained in their mindset to sit their butt in a chair and to work, right? Or, you know, be at a retail store for a certain amount of hours. Like, you had to work during those times. But there's also the other side, that once you start working for yourself, you're like, whoa, I'll just take today off, I just won't market myself, or I won't do this, I won't pitch, I won't… it'll all work out, I'll figure it out, and then you just continue to fuck off, and you're gonna lose income, and you're not gonna get clients, right? So that's a mindset that you need to understand, is like, where's that balance? Because no one's watching you anymore, right? And it comes back to, no one is telling you what to do, so you better know when you can take that time off and afford to, versus when you need to buckle down and work, right? You could work all day. If you wanted to. I mean, I remember pre-kids, I would have days where I was, like, working 7.30am to, like, 6.30pm, because I had so much work. But you could also not work at all, which is dangerous, and you need to be able to find that balance. I think it comes back to the two big corporate mindsets that you are allowed to break, and you'll get more clients and see more success when you do this, is don't respond to emails right away. And it's okay to reschedule calls, or choose calls on your own time span… time frame, right? Your own windows of availability, and clients need to understand that. Once you try to shift that mindset, you're gonna look like a more experienced freelancer. You're gonna look more in control, and the relationship Will be much better for you in the long run, with any client that you take on. Number 3 is, like, no one's telling you what to do. This is any job that you've had. That mindset is gonna be there no matter what, or even if you're in college, because in college, yes, you have to have a balance of, like, doing your homework, but you still have to show up for class, and there's some kind of rigidity and structure there. This is not the case when you own your own business. You are the one that needs to be motivated. You're the one that has to put yourself out there. You're the one that chooses your rates. Everything comes back to you, alright? These are just 3 that I found that as I worked through 10 years of owning my own business, just felt like, man, to break these, you'll see more success, because everything's going to come back to you. You're the one that's going to be going out there getting clients. You're going to call the shots from the beginning. You're not going to respond to emails right away. You're going to choose to reschedule calls if you want to go have a day outside in the beautiful sunshine. Please remember this moving forward. If you find yourself on your phone ready to respond to an email just wait a few hours. Use one of the templates I suggested, and then you'll be much more present and much more in control of the situation.
Tip of the week is coming up on Thursday. We're gonna be talking about a visibility strategy that's so important for your marketing in order to get more clients. And then next week, the lesson's really important for you to tune into. It's talking about how are you… how do you get clients when the economy is bad? I've been hearing this a lot in circles, the economy's not as good as it once was, and the economy is horrible. How do you actually get clients in an economy that's not so great, alright? Stay tuned for that. My name is Kiri Mohan, I'm the founder of Flourishing Freelancer. I would love to talk to you about your freelance business, so you can set up a free call with me. Link in the show notes. Until next time, keep flourishing.
