Are you closer to leaving your corporate job than you realize and missing the signs that your freelance business is ready to take the next step?
If you're balancing a full-time job while trying to grow a freelance business, it can be hard to tell whether you're making real progress or just staying busy. This episode helps you recognize the signals that you're building the momentum, confidence, and client pipeline needed to make the leap from corporate to self-employment.
By the end of this episode you will:
Learn the six key clues that indicate you're closer to quitting corporate and attracting consistent clients than you think.
Discover why relentless, ethical client acquisition can accelerate your freelance growth and separate successful business owners from those who stay stuck.
Understand how confidence and being authentic can be a clear competitive advantage and help you win more clients and build a sustainable business.
Press play now to discover whether you're already showing the signs of a successful transition and gain practical insights to help you confidently move toward leaving corporate behind.
TRANSCRIPTSBy the end of this episode, you're going to find out the 6 clues that show you're closer to quitting corporate than you think, why you need to be relentless sometimes, and why ease and flow can be one of the best things for your business.
Welcome back to the show. I was just thinking the other day about the time period where I was working, you know, my job, my corporate job, and also working on my freelance business, and it was just so all-consuming. I actually mean that in a little bit of a good way. I know a lot of the marketing jargon out there right now is about the soft business and the anti-hustle movement, especially post-COVID, which I understand. I do. I really, truly do understand that, because I feel that, too, sometimes with two kids, and just being exhausted, right? But there is a little bit of hustle involved in building a business, and I think that there is a time when it's okay to have that hustle, right? Because you love it, and you're obsessed, and it's lighting you up, and you just want to do it all the time, and you feel it in your bones and I remember that, for me. I think if you have that spark, and if that why is in there, deep inside, and you're just so excited about your business, there's nothing to be ashamed of that. And if you're hustling because of that, because you love it, that's okay. And this got me thinking about these clues that might be in your life right now. That might mean to you that you're closer to quitting corporate. And getting more clients than you actually think. Based on that, you know, going back and thinking, you know, what are those clues? What were they for me, and what are they for some of my students?
The number one clue was being obsessed. You're just obsessed, and you work on your business every single spare moment that you get. Like, all you want to do is work on your business. Not because you need to catch up on work, right? And you feel things piling up, and there's so much you need to do, not busyness. But working on it because ideas are flowing, and you're like, what if I did this with my offers? What if I did this with my business? What if I tweaked something this way? What if I decided to get clients like this? It's just a rejuvenating, amazing feeling to feel so passionate about something. And this is what people feel about, you know, crafting sometimes, about sports, about tweaking their game, you know, and their performance. When they go into playing a sport, how can I improve myself? That is the same kind of obsession and clue you need to think about in terms of what if I change this about my business? And it's really about the performance, and you get joy out of it. So that would be, like, the first clue, I would say, is if you're obsessed and you're working on it all the time because it lights you up, and it makes you excited. That's a really good clue that you're probably closer to quitting corporate and getting more clients, because just having that obsession is gonna allow you to expand and take risks and try different things in order to get clients.
Number 2. Speaking of getting clients, is you are relentless in getting clients. I think this is what separates my successful students versus those who are not as successful, or those that are slower in how they are able to see success, is really it comes down to how relentless are you in getting clients. When I was obsessed, right, and when I was starting out, I wanted to get clients at all costs. I was following up like crazy, I was pitching like crazy. I was posting like crazy. I was doing everything possible to figure out what did my client want, and how could I get them to sign up with me. Right? Me. I was the most important person that I wanted them to sign up with, and the one that I wanted in their life. And so when you've got that relentless drive in you. And every day, you're going out there trying to fish for clients, essentially, right? I mean, that's what you're doing, thinking of the sport of fishing. I was just doing that this weekend with my son in New Hampshire. There's this dock on the lake, and you cast the line, as he told me, he's 4, but he was like, it's called casting, Mom, so we cast the line, and then we get these little fish, and we throw them back in, because you can't do anything with them. But then, literally, like, people talk about fishing for Clients, and I think Jesus talked about fishing for men and stuff like that, like, you literally are fishing for clients. You're throwing out all your marketing and your sales development, whatever you need to do, and you're fishing for those clients, and you're relentless. You sit there, and you hope that someone bites, and then you can reel them in, and finally land them on a call, slash get the fish on the dock, right? There is something about that being relentless, about getting clients, that is a really good sign, okay?
Number 3 is related. You have no fear or shame in the way that you go after client acquisition. So that ties into the relentlessness, but it's almost… maybe I should make this, like, a 2A or 2B, right? It's like… This is a subset. Don't let people's opinion of what you're doing, friends seeing you on social media, you trying to be like someone else, don't let that hold you back, because damn it, that is not how you get clients. You get clients your way, and you try whatever you can to get clients. And to reel them in. Like, don't have that fear or shame of it. And I think in the corporate world, we are told and taught to hold back a little bit. And if you're a woman, even more so, right? Like, whole societies tell you, hold back, don't be so much, don't be so bold. But fortune favors the bold, folks. And the business owners out there who get clients, they just go, go, go, and they are relentless in their sales. And they have no fear or shame in how they're getting clients. And now, I don't mean to be unethical about this, okay? That's not appropriate. Here's another interesting story, which, I was on Instagram way back, this was, like, even before Reels, and I saw one of my competitors out there post this, like… was it a carousel? I think there were carousels back then. But it was how they handle some kind of Excel sheet thing, and I saw she didn't blur out her clients on the Excel spreadsheet, and, like, their names were there, and their email addresses. And I was like, what are you doing? You're just sharing that information? Like, what? And my husband's like, man, you should… you should just grab those email addresses and let them know that she's doing this, and see if you can get them as a client. And he was joking, he was, like, not serious. And I was like, well, that's not really ethical. I mean, you guys could argue it was a mistake, it is ethical, but no, not for me. That was not ethical, right? And he was laughing about it, he wouldn't really suggest that either, but, like, that is what I talk about when you have no fear or no shame in client acquisition, that is not what you want to do, alright? Because that's just, like, meh, you know, not ethical. So be ethical, but I guess what I mean by that is…Stop worrying so much what people are gonna think when you're trying to get clients. Do it your way, and figure out how to do it your way, and it's gonna be all good for you. And that's gonna work 10 times better, instead of just trying to follow what someone else is doing, or being too scared to put yourself out there, okay?
Number 4. There's a flow in your content creation. I love this. Like, you're thinking of ideas all the time. You don't need to struggle, use ChatGPT or anything for your content ideas. You are just constantly thinking, this is what my audience needs to know right now. I'm gonna make a reel out of that, or I'm gonna make a Substack post out of that, or I'm gonna make a LinkedIn post about that. I am gonna tell people about this, because they need to hear it, my clients need to hear it. I sometimes have a running list on my phone of, like, yes, that's a great thing I need to tell, like, remind freelancers about. Oh, yeah, this experience, I remember this, I'm gonna tell them how to avoid getting in a sticky situation because of something that one of my students did, or something that I did, right? And it's just so… flow, there's ease to it, and there's a flow, and you're always getting excited about what you can talk about, and the content creation you can put out there, and there's that flow of just ideas that are just coming out of you. And that, to me, is a really good sign, because when you have those ideas flowing, you know exactly what your client wants, and you know exactly what they need, and that's gonna help you get more clients, and get you even closer to quitting your full-time job, because the ideas are flowing. I think nowadays, sometimes we spend too much time on ChatGBT, hoping that it gives us ideas and content, and don't get me wrong, it's so helpful, and I 100% will admit, I use it for this podcast sometimes, when I'm like, I've talked about, like, a few things already. What's another angle I could take on this, right? I don't let it, though, like, fill in the gap for me. it would be like, you could talk about XYZ, but I won't ask it to fill in, like, the actual points, because I know what my client needs and what they need to hear. Suppose they did say, okay, well, you could talk about clues that you're closer to quitting corporate and getting more clients than you think. By the way, it did not give me this. But I could say, okay. And then I'm the one that comes up with all the clues. I will not let ChatGPT do it for me, because there's something more… authentic and real, and I think the clients can tell when you've thought of it yourself. we're all getting very good at knowing AI slop, and knowing when AI has provided something, versus when WE actually have done something, and we create that Authenticity through our own knowledge. Again, nothing against AI for this, but I think there is something magical about that flow that you get in, that flow in content creation, and I think it's super, super important.
Number 5. This is a big one, and it's gonna tie to number 6 as well. You know how to be confident on discovery calls. That helps you get more clients, and that's so good, because, again, corporate doesn't teach us how to talk to potential clients, and how to be confident, and how to win them. Corporate doesn't teach us that. We teach it our own, on our own. So when we start getting more confident, and we start knowing what the client's probably gonna ask, and how to answer it, and how to answer it in a way that's appealing, and how to price our offers so that we know that they most likely will go with us. Binko, that's when magic happens. And that's such a strong clue that you are gonna start signing clients if you haven't already, right? Because they're gonna wanna go to you, because they're magnetically attracted to what you're saying, and you know them so well, because you just are confident on that call, and what they need. Now, I remember my first calls. Oh my gosh, I want to put my foot in my mouth. Like, they were horrible, like, I was so nervous. I was shaking. I remember once I left work early just to do a call at my house, and I was pacing the room, and I was… thank God, like, we didn't do Zooms that much back then, but, like, oh my god, I was so nervous for this call, and I bombed it. It was, like, probably, like, my first or second call, and I'd over-prepared. I had spent 2 hours, like, researching this woman's business, and she was a small solopreneur. I didn't need to spend 2 hours researching her business, but they did! And I bombed that call. But as I did more of them, which is, of course very important, as I did more of them, I got more began understanding what… not only what clients wanted, but what I actually wanted to offer my services as well. Like, I started getting bites for all kinds of things, like copywriting, and newsletters, and social media management, and I was just like, no, like, after a while, I just couldn't do that. Like, that wasn't for me. As I did more calls, I learned, like, okay, what's the price point that people are gonna bite? that I'm also okay with. And that I can showcase my skills to the best of my ability. It was a process, but the more confident I got on the calls, the more I landed clients. Not only because of my offers, but because of what I could bring to the call that showed my value, and didn't talk about hours, and just showed that I could make a real difference in their business.
Finally, clue number 6, and again, this relates to the confidence on the discovery call, is you know what differentiates you from competitors, alright? So, sometimes this takes a while, especially if you're new, but this is the final clue that's like, once you can figure out why should someone go with you. Versus your competitor, or someone else, who's very similar in what you guys offer in your services. Once you know what differentiates you. Bingo. Because then you can start speaking to them, and really helping them understand, like, this is what I offer, and this is why I'm amazing, and also maybe it turns them off, and they're like, that's not really what they need. And again, I'm thinking back in my past, I remember trying so hard to get this client, because they were an acupuncturist, and I love acupuncture, and I still do, and I really, really, really wanted to win them as a client. But they needed a lot of experience in launching. And I hadn't had any experience in launches, none at all. And yet, I still told them I could do everything, because that is one of my philosophies, like, say yes and learn it later, right? And I knew I could keep up. But I couldn't go into detail on, like, when she was talking about another person she was interviewing. like, what I would do better, or what made me different, and what… I was just like, oh, I can do that as well, yeah, that's not a problem. Instead of being like, well, what did they suggest? Or, this is how I would do it, because I had no experience in it, right? I mean, that's an extreme example. It was something that was completely out of my wheelhouse. But in terms of, like, actually knowing what differentiates you, like, when I think about my coaching right now, and I think about the coaching that I provide for freelancers. I really have honed in on, like, you have to have a corporate past, and you have to want to build a stable business. This is not for people who want to just apply on Upwork, or Fiverr, or apply to jobs. Like, my programs are… and my goal is for you to build something that will carry you through the years. You're not doing Feast or famine. That changes your mindset, and you realize, like, you are in control of your business, and you are a business owner. And I think that's different from some other coaches. Like, some coaches are strategists, and I think I definitely obviously have a touch of that, but some… a lot of people don't work with people trying to bridge that little section between corporate and freelancing. They don't do that, because it is kind of a tricky background to have, and you need to have someone who's in the corporate space to understand it. Like, a lot of my clients are in the corporate space, I come from the corporate background, and so I can speak that language and understand the mind blocks that some people might be having, right? So that is where I'm able to differentiate my coaching and myself from other coaches, because I speak these specific people's language. And I think that starts helping you get more clients, because you know exactly how to win them over by saying, okay, well, yeah, that person can do that, but I can do this, right? And other people do this, but this is how I would do it. And when you can say that differentiation, that's gonna help you get clients. Alright, so to recap, we're gonna go quickly through, again, the 6 clues that you are closer to quitting corporate than you think, and getting more clients.
Number one, you're obsessed, and you want to work on your business all the time. Not to stay busy, but because it brings you joy, and you are getting a thrill out of it, and it's helping you come alive, right? Number two, you are relentless in getting clients. You understand that every day you have to be trying to get clients as best that you can. It's not something you can be putting up… putting off. You know, like, follow-ups. proactive pitching, etc. Number three, you have no fear or shame in getting clients, right? The client acquisition process, you are authentic, you are trying whatever you want to get clients, and not caring what other people think. Number 4. there's that flow and that ease in content creation. You just can think of what your client needs to hear and be able to use that in your marketing. And number five, you have to be confident on discovery calls. Once you're confident, you know how to get more clients. And number six, that plays into that, you know what differentiates you from competitors. I hope this helps you all.
Stay tuned, because next week, we're going to be talking about the 3 corporate habits you gotta unlearn in order to succeed in the freelance space and see massive growth, okay? So you gotta unlearn some stuff from corporate, it's there, we all have it, I know. Once you unlearn those, you're gonna see much better growth. Until then, I love you all, and if any of this is resonating with you, please click the links in my show notes to set up a call with me, because I get it, I've been there, I've been in corporate, and I know what it's like to be in that whole, like, hey, I feel like I'm so close, but there's something missing. Sign up in my show notes. I would love to hear from you. Until then, keep flourishing.