Recruiter Skye Moffett stopped into a freelancing Facebook group to share her frustration with how consultants position themselves:

“My number one issue is coming across a LinkedIn bio that is incomplete or super vague. Stop. Doing. This. It is literally costing you money with each gig you lose out on.”

The riches are in the niches

Many freelancers resist creating a niche within their field. This resistance is typically fear-based. We live in a multi-hyphenate world, and we think we’ll get more work if we can do many things.

When I hear a consultant tell me that they’re an expert in multiple huge topics (e.g. SEO…

Before the term influencer was a thing, I started watching YouTube. I only watched a few channels at first. I was still more into TV.

At some point, I discovered a creator with a channel called Cloudy Apples. I gravitated towards her content because she highlighted natural beauty and skincare, and did thoughtful but funny videos on topics like why women wear makeup and confidence issues. She was bright, articulate, and generally worth listening to. She kind of used YouTube like a blog with a visual element.

In February 2016, right after the no-makeup video, Cloudy Apples disappeared.

Initially, I…

I recently had one of the worst and best vendor experiences of my career. Let me explain.

I hired a company to help me complete an important project task. My contact was friendly and engaged, but a number of things went wrong throughout the course of the project.

The first time, I thought there was an oversight. The second time, I started second-guessing. By the third incident, my confidence in this vendor was seriously shaken.

But if I were doing a similar project today, I would still get this vendor to bid, and consider them for the job.

No, I’m…

My whole life, I’ve loathed exercise. Loathed it. With the exception of walking and dancing, physical effort of any kind made me miserable.

I grew up with my face perennially stuffed in a book. I would lie there, immersed in other worlds for hours. If I wasn’t doing that, I was watching TV.

When you’re young and naturally thin, being sedentary doesn’t feel like a threat. You don’t worry about the health implications of neglecting your body because the issues that often result are years, if not decades, away.

When I did engage in movement, my body was not used…

“All my life, I’ve felt like I needed permission to do anything.” I heard that on a podcast and felt a deep internal resonance. Many of us never leave behind the feeling of needing “permission” to do anything outside of our normal existence.

This is the scariest thing about approaching new prospects — our internalized need for permission.

If you have permission, after all, that means there’s no chance of getting rejected.

Lessons forged through shame and humiliation are difficult to forget. At some point in our lives, we’ve all overreached and been corrected. We’ve all had bad outcomes. …

I was watching a YouTube video when an ad for Yellow Tail wine started to play. The tagline?

“Add a splash of yellow.”

Um…

Did anyone else’s mind go where mine immediately went?

I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.

Just to be certain, I texted the tagline to friends. The response? “LMAO!!!”

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

I work in market research, so I’ve spent a lot of time testing ad concepts and executions for agencies. It can be a little dicey because many agencies strongly dislike hearing the public’s true opinion of their work. …

My Inauspicious Beginning

When I started freelancing, I let clients take advantage of me. I’m a people pleaser by nature. Combine that with my feelings of insecurity about whether or not I could make it on my own and the result was a near-lethal case of “doormat-itis”.

Around year three my confidence had grown enough that I wanted to find a productive way to set boundaries. This was easier said than done. Setting boundaries was new to me, so I found I’d overcompensate and come down with way too much conviction. Clients found my strategies overly intense to the point of being alienating.

…

The “Don’t”

I recently hung out with my friend and former colleague Amy, who regularly hires consultants as part of her work. She shared that she no longer sees our mutual friend Kirk, who is also a consultant. Why? Because whenever they spent time together socially, he would “pitch” her for business.

This was surprising to me. Kirk is genuinely fond of Amy, so I’m not sure why he would spend their “friend time” pitching. But more than that, Amy is well aware that Kirk is intelligent and capable. So why pitch?

By contrast, Amy and I get together every few months…