My Favorite Strategy for Getting More Freelance Clients

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Do you want more freelance clients? Is the sky blue on a sunny day? Of course you do, and the only purpose of this short post is to share my favorite strategy for getting in the way of more opportunities—meeting more people.

Allow me to make the least controversial observation of the year: The freelancers who know the most people have the least trouble getting new projects if they stay in touch.

So let’s talk about staying in touch before we talk about meeting more people.

If you don’t stay in touch, then you don’t stay top of mind. If you don’t stay top of mind, then the next time Suzy at Kitty Leashes Incorporated needs a fill-in-the-blank she won’t think of you. She’ll think of Oscar whom she just met at the fundraiser for the local animal shelter. He seemed smart, and he had that gorgeous Tom Selleck mustache. Worth a shot, she thinks.

Nothing against Oscar, who really is terrific, but don’t you want all of Suzy’s fill-in-the-blank projects? All you have to do is reach out every three months or so and ask her to tell you the latest happenings with the business. Voila! First right of refusal.

When your creativity and cleverness desert you, you can fall back on these ten words the same way I do:

I was thinking about you this morning. What’s the latest?

The contents of any one email, text, phone call, card, package, or video message matter less than your consistency. You don’t have to be especially memorable if you make yourself hard to forget. You don’t have to be especially brilliant if you make yourself the convenient option.

You don’t have to have a good memory if you have a system (CRM) tied to a habit (follow-up messages) on a specific day (Mondays).

Set up a simple CRM in Notion or Moxie (my affiliate link), add the folks you want to stay connected to, and set up reminders to say hello every ninety days.

Now, back to the thesis, and the question it begs: What if you don’t currently know enough people who can send you projects? You meet more people.

My shy readers will now be thinking, “Nope, not gonna reach out and be the rando asking for a virtual coffee. So cringe.”

Whatever. Let’s assume you’re right, and highlight this important truth in bright purple: The more cringeworthy things you do, the faster you will grow. Whether you’re an intro-, ambi-, or extravert, building a business you don’t need a vacation from will require that you press into discomfort like it's your job.

Oh wait, discomfort is your job! You’re an entrepreneur after all.

Many introverted freelancers and consultants gravitate toward content marketing precisely because the thought of “networking” makes them sweat. Just take the word networking out of your vocabulary and reframe the idea as expanding the surface area of good things that can happen.

For example, think about someone in the creative industry whom you admire. Could even be a competitor. Someone with a podcast or a Youtube channel you enjoy. Someone who writes good stuff on LinkedIn or whose portfolio is bursting with work that, frankly, you wish you’d done.

Would you like to ask Ahmed what ideas have been messing with him? Or ask Dafne where she goes for inspiration? Or ask Sam where he sees the industry heading?

I want those conversations, yet sometimes I catch myself taking the least direct route to what I want because I don’t want to embarrass myself by saying the wrong thing. I don’t want to make mistakes in front of people I admire. I don’t want them to ignore me or reject me.

I don’t want embarrassment, failure, and rejection, but I know I can live with them.

You can too.

You may admire certain people, but you don’t need their admiration to survive or thrive.

And that, my friends, is the secret to connecting with people you think you might like to talk to, or know, or be friends with—to not need their attention or approval and to show up with open hands ready to receive their willingness to have an enjoyable chat, their lack of response, or even outright hostility.

You and I, we believe in our own worthiness enough to know we have something to offer each and every person we want to meet even if they don’t see it.

If they have no interest in meeting or make us feel small when including a little bit of kindness or tact with a firm no would have cost them nothing, that says nothing about us.

To get more freelance clients, connect with more people who can help you, and here’s the most important point: Get to know them before asking for anything.

Cool? Cool.

For those of you who are feeling ambitious, read “The 100 Connections Challenge” piece from Phoebe Dodds, follow her process, and make one hundred connections. Expand the surface area of good things that can happen.

For those of you feeling less ambitious, shoot for thirty instead. This is what my friend Austin Saylor does, which I summarized here.

Reaching out to people you genuinely like or admire and asking to chat is the single best and most direct strategy I know for growing your freelance business. Try it and prove me right.

When you’re ready, here are ways I can help you:

1. ‍Freelance Cake Community. Build the business you really want with people who really get it
2. 1:1 Business Coaching. Gain clarity, confidence, and momentum in your freelance or consulting business.
3. Free Money. A pricing and money mindset guide for freelance creatives. If you’re unsure about your freelance pricing, this is the book for you.
4. Morning Marketing Habit. This course will help you build an “always be marketing” practice, become less dependent on referrals, and proactively build the business you want with the clients you want. My own morning marketing habit has enabled me to consistently make 6 figures as a freelancer.
5. Smart, Strategic Pricing Bundle. For setting freelance prices you’re really confident in - priced meant to be so laughably low that you think there must be some mistake.