Freelance: Recent Episodes
Robert Williams
A podcast about how to be effective at independent remote work featuring companies like Disney, Basecamp, Convertkit, YNAB, and more.
For the curious
- Jean's company: LIFT media
- Rob's company: Folyo (use the coupon code: podlistener)
For the curious
- Chris' awesome blog: Hot Dogs and Eggs
- Rob's freelance design job newsletter: Folyo
- Rob's new customer support app: Charm
For the curious
- Charm - announcement list
- Charm - old sales page
- Amy's post on shutting down charm
For the curious
- How to Win Friends and Influence People
- Why no intro music on this episode? I switched to using Logic Pro X and haven't learned it fully. š
For the curious
- Jason's company: Rigbooks
- Rob's company: Folyo
- Amy Hoy's course: 30x500
- Company of One by Paul Jarvis
For the curious
- Leiserson Research Group
- J.D Reeves' portfolio
- Folyo (use podlistener for 10% off)
For the curious
- Corey's portfolio website
- Folyo (use the promo code podlistener for 10% off)
- Last Week In AWS (website redesign project Corey landed on Folyo)
- Corey referenced Workshop on the call which is a previous version of my current product: Folyo.
For the curious
- Carrie's website: Carrie Considers
- Carrie's book: The Ultimate Guide to Selling Your Blog
- Book recommendation for writing copy: Building a Story Brand
- Rob's website: Folyo (use promo code: "PODLISTENER" for 10% off)
For the curious
- Theresa's Agency: Guidea
- Folyo: use the promo code PODLISTENER for 10% off
For the curious
- The Behance Blueprint
- Freelance Jumpstart
- Folyo (use promo code: "PODLISTENER")
For the curious
- Julia's company: Rigits Remote Bookkeeping Services
- Folyo (use the promo code: PODLISTENER for 10% off)
For the curious
- Folyo.me (use code: podlistener for 10% off)
- MikeJulian.com
- LastWeekinAWS.com
For the curious
- Profit First (amazon link)
- Clockwork (amazon link)
- Bonus resources mentioned by Mike
- Folyo (use promo code: podlistener)
For the curious
- Review of April's new book
- Amazon Link to the Book: Obviously Awesome (I strongly recommend it)
- Aprilās blog post on why a positioning statement is dumb
For the curious
- Joey's Company: Made by Munsters
- Rob's Company: Folyo (get 10% off with coupon code: PODLISTENER)
For the curious
- Rezzz
- Live in the feast
- Fix My Churn by Val Geisler
- Pipedrive
- Folyo (use promo code PODLISTER for 10% off)
For the curious
- Time Management Magic by Lee Cockerell
- Creating Disney Magic Podcast
- Motivation-based Interviewing by Carol Quinn
- Folyo (use promo code PODLISTENER for 10% off)
For the curious
- https://megcumby.com/
- https://folyo.me/ (use the coupon code PODLISTENER for 10% off)
For the curious
- Jesse's software company: You Need a Budget
- Jesse's book on Small Business cashflow: Pace
- Jesse's book on budgeting: You Need a Budget
- Double Double by Cameron Herold
- Rob's website: Folyo
The books definition of Positioning:
āPositioning is the act of deliberately defining how you are the best at something that a defined market cares a lot about."
Five Components of positioning:
- Competitive alternatives
- Unique attributes
- Value (and proof)
- Target market characteristics
- Market category
- Relevant Trends (Bonus)
Ten Step Positioning Process:
- Understand the Customers who Love Your Product
- Form a positioning team
- Align Your Positioning Vocabulary and Let Go of Your Positioning Baggage
- List Your True Competitive Alternatives
- Isolate Your Unique Attributes or Feature
- Map Attributes to Value āThemesā
- Determine Who Cares a Lot
- Find a Market Frame of Reference That Puts Your Strengths at the Center and Determine How to Position it
- Layer On a Trend (but Be Careful)
- Capture Your Positioning so It Can Be Shared
For the curious...
- Obviously Awesome on Amazon
- Obviously Awesome: A Product Positioning Exercise
- Userlist's Positioning Overhaul
For the curious...
- Trevor's Freelance Website
- Folyo: The Best Place for Remote Design Jobs and Contracts
For the curious
- Awkward Marketing
- Rachael's Freelance Website
- Don't Hire a Web Designer
- Folyo - the Best Design Contracts, Jobs, and RFPs
Brian's products mentioned on this episode:
- ProcessKit
- Sunrise KPI
- Automation Guides
- Bootstrapped Web Podcast
- AudienceOps
Rob's products mentioned on this episode:
- Folyo (use the coupon code: PODLISTENER for 10% off)
If you micro-manage yourself, then you don't have to be afraid of a client doing it.
For the curious
- Zack Burt's Company: Code For Cash
- Rob's company: Folyo
For the curious:
"You need to make a connection with your prospects. Everyone thinks you need to find the killer headline. But it's more about engaging with the conversation that a customer is already having in his head. What keeps them awake at night? And how can you help them with it?"Books mentioned:
The One Thing
Million Dollar Consulting
Links:Rob Palmer's website: GoFreelance
Rob's product: Folyo
For the curious
- Robby's product: Beaver Builder
- Rob's product: Folyo
- Beaver Builder's new product: Assistant
Favorite quotes
One thing I've discovered in the past year is: I'm just not that good at work.I'm just not that good at it. I don't have great discipline and I'm not very good at focusing for 1 or 2 hours on one thing. It doesn't matter if I'm the best person to do something if it doesn't get done.
The biggest breakthrough is the removal of guilt. That has been so enormous for me. I used to be riddled with guilt. This constant internal conversation in my head about what I should be doing.Ā I've tried to just let as much of that go as possible. If there's something I don't get around to doing, I just don't feel bad about it. I just move one.
For the curious
- Jordan's company CartHook
- Rob's company Folyo
- Jordan's podcast Bootstrapped Web
For the curious
- Keith's website: https://developyourmarketing.com
- Rob's website: https://folyo.me
For the curious
- Pavlok, Maneesh's company
- Mark Cuban calls Maneesh a con-artist
- "What is the one thing I can do that by doing it makes everything else easier or unnecessary?" a quote Maneesh thinks about every day.
- The art of speed-reading people
- Folyo my referral newsletter for designers
In this episode, Jason Forrest and I go over the top 5 ways we've been able to focus as internet business owners who work from home.
For the curious
- Why giving your clients homework is crucial.
- How you can use JTBD in your business today.
- Ideas for using JTBD to productize your service.
- Brian's JTBD files.
- Sign up for Folyo today.
Your company is amazing. Find a special designer for it.
I'd love to introduce you to a few designers I trust. Click the link below to share your job with me and my community.
Let's feature your job
First-come first-serve. You only pay after you've found a designer you're happy with.
For the curious
Kung Fu
Skateboard, Bike, Car image
What happens to user experience in a minimum viable product?
Are you a product designer? Join my referral community
Need to put an end to staff shortages? Use Folyo for Hiring
In this interview Val talks about her approach to writing emails that build a relationship with your customers by providing something useful that will help their lives outside of your product - and help you keep more customers.
For the curious
- Mike Julian is not a lawyer and this is not legal advice
- Check out Mike Julian's newsletter Monitoring Weekly
- To have Rob help you find and hire a designer check out Folyo: Hiring
- To join Rob's community of product designers go to Folyo
In this episode, I talk about how I'm helping design agencies fix painful staff shortages with my referral community for product designers.
For the curious
- You haven't read Margo's blog? WTDH
- Check out my private referral community Folyo
For the curious
- Kaleigh has a great contact form for her writing clients on her website
- She teaches a freelancing course called Creative Class with Paul Jarvis
- She specializes as a freelance writer for SaaS and eCommerce
- She's hosting a retreat for like-minded business folks soon
What's Rob up to?
- Join my private design referral community
- Add me on LinkedIn (I share a ton of referrals)
From the episode
A lot of people get frustrated with low numbers and say āAh! Itās terrible I only get 100 downloads per episode.ā Iād challenge you to picture yourself talking in a room of 100 people every week. Thatās actually pretty incredible.For the curious
- Join my private design referral community
- Check out Liston's website and podcasts
- Add me on LinkedIn (I share a ton of referrals)
I'm growing a community for agency owners and freelance designers designed to help you share projects, referrals, and tips on running a successful business in 2019. Check it out here: Folyo
Please rate the podcast on iTunes if you liked this episode.
Check out Jason's newsletter Grow Your SaaS.
I run a Slack for freelance designers where companies share projects, referrals, and tips for running a successful business. Get access for free here.
To get more info on this topic, I'll be sharing with my newsletter in January. Sign up here.
And be sure to rate the podcast on iTunes if you liked this episode.
What's Rob up to?
- Join Folyo and get remote projects hand-picked by designers free.
- Take my short course on Where to find design clients in 2018
As an indie developer, how do you create plugins and products that customers want? Joe Workman stops by to talk his process and how he's made $280k/year selling niche plugins as a one man shop.
How do you figure out which clients to go after?
Can you choose to target better clients and improve your business forever? Yes!Ā
In this episode Philip Morgan and I talk about the exact step-by-step strategy Philip recommends to narrow in on your ideal client and choose a specialization.
He's helped dozens of designers, coders, and other freelancers become high-value consultants by specializing and we talked about how.Ā
For curious
- Philip is the author of the Positioning Manual
- Philip wrote an excellent (and free) follow-up course to our conversation.
- Philip and I are in a small mastermind group where we talk about our businesses.
What's Rob up to?
- Join Folyo and get remote projects hand-picked by designers free.
- Take my short course on Where to find design clients in 2018
For the curious
- Letās talk about startup costs by Justin Jackson
- Article about how I cut $5k article from last year
- Jasonās newsletter for Saas owners
For the curious
Paul has a new book coming out called Company of One in January. He also publishes a weekly newsletter that's one of my personal favorites called the Sunday Dispatches.
On the podcast heĀ broke down some interesting revenue numbers. His business makes about $500k per year and he isn't trying to grow beyond that.
He spends $90k of that on living expenses and about $70-80k on business expenses (mostly freelancers almost, no software). After taxes, the rest goes to savings (over half of his revenue).
That's amazing and we talk about how he did this on the podcast.
- The story behind Knapsack Creative, Benās design firm, that goes against the grain - and why he designed his business model that questions common advice, like always charge more.
- How Benās tiny 3 person team, low pricing, and a fast, fixed turnaround approach came about.
- The exact structure Knapsack implements including: the reasoning behind their one day turnarounds, the concept of timeboxing, and their weekly innovation system.
- How Ben used product design to rethink his company/serviceās structure.
- How Knapsack is designed around Benās personality, and structured to let Ben do what he loves: no email, meetings, or design prep.
- How Knapsack helps clients be more decisive with preparation and makes sure they nail it on delivery dayās live collaborative design session.
- How they keep costs low with questionnaires, making sure projectās donāt lag beyond their timeline, and get great feedback from clients.
- How they make sure clientās love their outcome and where they draw the line on quality.
- Pitfalls to avoid if you want to build an agency with a similar model.
James of Bootstrappers.io and Robert of Folyo.me talk about going from consulting to products, selling community, creative constraints and more.
Topics covered
- How does Adam come up with new product ideas?
- What does scratching your own itch mean practically?
- How exactly do you work in public to build an audience?
- Is podcasting and video content better than written?
- How can you make live streams engaging and fun to watch?
The more business-related content I consume, the less I get out of it.
Itās gotten to the point where I feel like I have a constant stream of invisible opinions and rules running my business for me ā that I never approved.
It limits what Iām capable of, sucks the joy out of having a business, and itās a huge time waster. So it ends today.
Iām starting the Content FOMO Challenge. Itās simpleā¦
No more reading articles all day, everyday. Instead give yourself one day to binge on business-related content all you want ā then move on.
For me that day will be Saturday. If I come across a link that looks interesting on any other day, Iāll set it aside using Pinboard and Feedbin.
When I get the urge to read or consume something (which I undoubtedly will, because letās face it weāre all addicted to this stuff) Iāll work instead.
Take the challenge today.
Jonas Downey, a principal designer at Basecamp, joins me to talk about one of their guiding beliefs: that your company should be your best product. We do a deep-dive on why Basecamp, the company, is designed how it is.Ā
For the curiousā¦James is the owner of Bootstrappers.io, a site he took over earlier this year. I asked James to come on and have a mastermind call with me. Hoping to do this regularly, so if you enjoyed it ā please do let me know.
Show Highlights
- 1:45 What is Bootstrappers.io?
- 2:58 Sending out a survey to find out what to build.
- 5:04 Amy Hoy and Kai Davisā formulas for finding out whatās worth your time.
- 9:43 How NOT to use surveys.
- 11:48 Giving away samples as a marketing tactic.
- 13:43 Is email marketing still effective?
- [1:00] How Ashley got the idea for her podcast Bootstrapped Digest.
- [5:00] What's better in content marketing? Short or Long form?
- [7:34] Where Ashley focuses for creating better quality content.
- [9:45] How do you know if your content is going to be interesting.
- [15:26] How do you market a product as a solo-founder in a difficult industry?
- [24:30] Why Ashley is doubling-down on content marketing.
- [30:45] The process of rebranding her SaaS, With Jack.
- [50:25] What success means as a solo founder vs taking investment.
Topics:
- What did I have in place already?
- My existing audience on Folyo, Workshop, Medium and Twitter and how I built those things.
- Why I decided to change things up and how I approached the change.
- How Iām changing the product design, marketing and churn rate for this new business.
- Business examples I drew inspiration from: Scotts Cheap Flights, and Amazon Prime.
- How I de-risked changing everything up all at once.
- The results of my change: getting 60 customers in 60 days with a flywheel effect.
- My plan for content, social media marketing, and publishing moving forward.
- Why Iām putting a heavier focus on SEO and how it feels good.
- Ruben Gamezās article on Keyword SEO research.
- How Iāll be adding value to product long-term with exclusive projects, co-working, and setting up customer-first processes.
- If you want to join my new virtual co-working group, itās not open to the public yet but if youāre a Folyo pro member email me and I can send you an invite.
*For the curiousā¦*
Today's guest is Laura Elizabeth, the founder of Design Academy and Client Portal. She's been able to quit freelancing and move to selling those awesome products full time.Ā
*Show Highlights*
- 0:30 When to hire a freelancer vs DIY.
- 4:32 When to hire a freelancer vs hire a full-time designer.
- 11:53 How Laura got the idea for Design Academy.
- 17:59 What Lauraās latest marketing strategy is.
- 22:25 How to pick what content you should create.
- 24:10 How to approach sales and get customers.
- 39:57 How to develop your message and create tons of content.
- 42:27 Consulting vs. product life.
For the curious...
Iāve played over 600 Fortnite matches myselfā¦ and yet Iāve never spent a dime on the actual game. Fortnite gives that part away for free. Their revenue instead comes from upsells that happen inside the game.
On the podcast I take a look at how theyāve taken away the hardest part about getting a customerā¦ the paywall. Whether paywalls are absolutely necessary in my business (and yours). And how Iāve taken parts of the Fortnite freemium business model and put them into my business, with some ideas for how you can too.
Show Highlights
- 0:25 - A quick recap of Fortnite's business model.
- 6:68 - The results of giving away my product away for free via Folyo.
- 8:04 - Fortnite's lead designer talks about how re-using parts of the product to create the free game mode.
For the curious...
On July 2nd, Convertkit announced they'd be rebranding to Seva. So I reached out to talk to Nathan Barry about the process of designing a new brand name in 2018.
Show Highlights
- 1:30 - Why Nathan changed the name of his company and how Amazon influenced this huge decision.
- 5:01 - Why Aweber and Constant Contact are going to fail and why Drip's rebrand didn't resonate with current customers.
- 9:32 - Whether Nathan would blog if he were starting his company today.
- 17:47 - How to actually promote your content in a smart way that optimizes for the long-term.
- 38:43 - How freelancers should think about the problems a CEO of a large-scale business before they pitch them.
For the curious...
The Sweet Setup has been on a roll recently, releasing 3 new courses. All the things: a productivity course on the app Things 3, Day One in Depth, a course on journaling with the app Day One, and Time Management Training, a course on taking control of your time.Ā
- 3:38 - What I've gotten out of Shawn's course on Things.
- 16:18 - The 3 apps Shawn uses everyday for daily productivity.
- 35:10 - How Shawn stays engaged with his work + a music recommendation for focused work.
- 39:41 - How Shawn gets great writers to write for him.
If you want to follow along, Shawn is a great follow on Twitter, and Instagram.
*For the curiousā¦*
On April 15th, 2018, Basecamp announced that Highrise was āmoving back in with Basecamp.ā This meant that Nate Kontny ā and the team he had built during his time as CEO of Highrise ā would no longer be working on the product. If you want to follow along Nateās story, heās been vlogging daily over on his youtube channel, thatās the best place to to subscribe.
*Show Summary*
- 4:52 Nate talks about what he learned from Paul Graham and starting two YC companies. Clip of Paul Graham talking about cockroaches is from this interview.
- 10:08 Nate talks about what happened at Highrise and whatās next. Clip of Jason Fried explaining reason for Basecamp name change is from this interview.
- 16:48 Nate talks about how he thinks about ājobs to be doneā theory and how he used it at Highrise. Clip of Clayton Christensen explaining JTBD used is from this video.
- 20:48 Nate talks about why Basecamp took back over Highrise. Clip of Amy Hoy talking about using every advantage is from this interview.
- 41:55 Nate talks about how heās decided what to work on next, a new tool that heās built, and why he chose to work on this next.
*Highlight:*
Nate Kontny: Highrise is over. Iām struggling a bit with whatās next, what do I do now? My wife and I were both at Highrise. Now Iām back to square zero. Am I going to create a product? Am I going to find customers from scratch?
I didnāt start Highrise from scratch. I came in to try to rescue that company. It was Jason and David that started that product.
Robert Williams: Is there a part of you that thinks that because you didnāt start Highrise from scratch, it didnāt feel like it was yours?
Nate Kontny: I threw myself into Highrise like it was my baby. Maybe because I have so much founder experience and because I had no choice. There was no team that came with the Highrise deal. There was no passing the buck to anyone else it was just me.
I couldnāt blame Basecamp for not being there to support it.
Because youāre not the founder, you donāt have the experience of like āwhy was this built in the first place?ā Who are the core customers? What pleases them? Itās tough to make decisions and we spent a lot of time trying to learn.
Early-on we made a change to the activity feed that upset a lot of people and I feel bad about that. We ended up reverting back when we started to really understand where people were coming from.
We had to go through these crazy JTBD interviews, which were useful but in many ways may have been unnecessary to do if we had understood the product like a true founder had we started the company.
So yes, not being the founder makes it a lot harder.
Robert Williams: I feel like when you hear about Jobs to Be Done you think itās going to be the key to unlocking everything ā and then you realize doing these interviews is hard ā and at a certain point itās not as actionable as I was hoping ā itās not like it gives you a clear cut answer.
Nate Kontny: Totally agree. Itās sold and marketed as a panacea that will cure anything in your business and for good reason but itās harder than people give it credit.
Look at Basecamp, theyāve been doing Jobs to be Done interviews for years, and the insights keep changing. And theyāre worldās better at doing these interviews today than they were years ago, so it is a lot harder than you think.
And so it still takes quite a bit of unpacking to get actions from it. And even then the actions are still experimental, and you have to try them out. Some of it feels risky.
Half of the people you talk to might think of your product this way and half might think of it this other way. Which one are you gonna choose? Good luck.
You still kinda have to take a leap. I still recommend it and I think itās a good way of looking at it but itās not going to be a super quick success.
Robert Williams: You mentioned that ultimately the jobs interviews didnāt skyrocket your sales. Is that ultimately why Basecamp took over Highrise?
Nate Kontny: Thatās a complicated question. Itās tough to talk about. Thereās a lot of things that shifted over the last year. From trying to find a new home for Highrise.
The bottom line is Highrise has had a really tough time growing ever since Basecamp decided to not focus on it.
When 37signals decided to rename themselves Basecamp, it put an enormous dent into the Highrise business. All the traffic disappeared for own. The 37signals brand was a huge brand halo around Highrise, and it just disappeared.
People thought we were shutting down. Dozens of websites cropped up saying āHighrise is shutting down, come on over to our CRM.ā There was tons of Linkedin groups saying the same thing.
So there was this lack of traffic and sense that the company was shutting down and it was really hard problem to market yourself out of. You can do JTBD interviews but you still have to figure out how to refresh the traffic and convince people that itās not shutting down.
Thatās not even a jobs problem, thatās a momentum problem. Youāre not going to fix it with some messaging on your website.
So that was tough and it was something we were fighting the entire time.