Inflection Point

Hey honeys and hustlers,

When I look back over my career, I can pinpoint certain moments in my business journey that marked an inflection point. A turning point can mean a turn for the worst or a turn for the better – in this case, I’m focusing on the latter. Big wins are simply the culmination of weekly habits and little wins that happen regularly. Here are some of the decisions, investments, and habits that paid off for me (and might be things you can replicate in your business).

• Networking for 3 months straight. When I first moved to North Carolina, I knew I had to get established in this market. While social media may seem like an obvious first step, I didn’t just want to be connected with a lot of people online who couldn’t vouch for my services or who didn’t know me well enough to recommend me to potential clients. So I decided to meet as many people as I could in person. There are an unbelievable amount of networking events here in the Triangle, and when I wasn’t working my day job, that was one of the main places I spent time. After 3 months, I started getting jobs from word of mouth and grew my social following with location-relevant posts featuring my client work. It was exhausting but it paid off. I don’t network as often now, largely because I don’t need to. Now, when I do network, I strategically plan to attend industry-specific events.

• Investing in a course. A few months before I went full-time, I invested in a course for freelance service-based business owners and it changed my perspective on pricing, online marketing, and sales. It gave me a pricing calculator, ideas for how to find my target audience online, and how to craft a sales process that fits my business. I’ll be sharing robust versions of all of these based on my experience in my MFA course coming soon (respond to this email to be put on the waitlist). Knowing how to confidently charge, when and how to raise my prices, how to convert more leads into sales, and how to find my target audience online really helped me spend less time on these systems, and spend more time on the parts of the business I liked (being creative).

• Posting online daily. I started writing online daily in September 2021 and it’s been a game-changer for inbound leads and my creative progression. Writing is the foundation for almost everything in my creative business: my website copy, my email communication with collaborators, pre-production planning for films, creative briefs, YouTube videos, podcast episodes, this newsletter, and more. Getting into the habit of sharing my work and getting better at packaging my thoughts and ideas has been a huge part of my success.

• Building a website. And not just any website. An SEO-friendly, visually pleasing, and easy-to-navigate website. A website should be a portfolio of your best work that represents your business while you sleep. I’ve used different website platforms over the years, had different website layouts, and even rebranded my business. The thing that hasn’t changed? When people reach out, they know what to expect from me as a creator and have proof that I deliver on creative projects. Your portfolio should always be your biggest online asset and best-converting landing page. Not social media.

You can make your own “luck” with a little bit of consistent effort.

Quote of the Week

In Readworthy News

Spotify Podcast Follower Count

Spotify recently released Joe Rogan’s podcast follower count, among follower stats from other top podcast creators. As the gift that keeps on giving, they have also rolled out some new features for all podcasters, one of which will display the follower count on podcast profiles. Whether this is petty or truly encouraging for indie podcasters remains to be seen.

Adobe Podcast Studio Beta is Live

Adobe Podcast Studio has launched a competitor app that operates similarly to Descript for audio recording and editing. While many are focusing on the supposed Descript rival, I’m truly interested to see if this new product will cannibalize Adobe Audition or draw some Adobe Premiere Pro users. Try it out and let me know what you think!

We’ve made it to the last week of March and the end of the first quarter of the year. I’m rooting for you.

Please Hustle Responsibly,

🤙🏾✨

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