Make $$ After Freelancing or Consulting

Hey, everybody, welcome to today's episode of

the course building secrets podcast, I am thrilled that

you're here. Hey, in this episode, I want to talk about

something that I don't talk about a lot. But But I think

it's a great conversation, especially some of the

conversations I've been having lately have led me to want to do

this episode. And the question becomes, what is the income and

impact driver that you're using long term to build your

business? Now, let me explain what that means. Because that's

a mouthful, is that like, you know, if you're a freelancer, a

consultant, a service provider, doing one on one work a coach,

whoever you are, doesn't really matter. In one way, shape or

form, you're probably doing one on one services with your with

your customers. And my question is always around like, okay, so

what happens when you either are maxed out working with those one

on one customers, or you get to a point where you're like, huh,

something isn't working, right, like you're on the revenue,

roller coaster, you are, you sell and then you get get

customers, and then you're working with the customers and

then something changes, and then you have to sell again, right?

Like you're just just constantly in this wheel, you don't own

your time, you don't own your impact. And or if you're a

freelancer or consultant, you're taking projects, right, you're

you're constantly working in an hourly capacity, helping other

businesses do whatever it is that you do, or consumers do

whatever it is that you do, or you're doing a project for them

or whatever, but it's a it's a, you know, specific time based,

you know, gig that you're doing. And what hap starts to happen

after time, is, you know, you're either growing the capacity and

you can't handle it all yourself. Or you are trying to

stay doing it yourself, and you just constantly kind of get in

this this place of starting over, right? And so one day, you

wake up and you go, Okay, wait a minute, like I literally am

doing the same thing that I've been doing for 20 years. And,

and why is that and, and I feel like I am, you know, bound to do

something different, or I'm ready to stop working quite so

hard, right? Like, these are questions that you may be asking

yourself at this point, or kind of down the road, when you think

about your future. It's like, well, wait a minute, like what

happens when I don't want to be, you know, on a project or, you

know, have somebody else dictating my time. And, and so I

want to talk about that today, because I think that there's you

know, kind of three different buckets of of, of phases that

you go through as you start your business. And so I want to just

kind of reflect on that and share a little bit of my story

around this. And then the transition forward, like what is

the opportunity that's out there for you to look at what you're

doing a little bit differently. So if you're a freelancer or a

coach or consultant, a service provider, anyone who's doing one

on one work, this episode is for you. Okay, so the very first

kind of aspect of this is really understanding how much of your

time you can you control. So if you're already you know, you're

you know, well into, you know, running your business, whatever

that whatever that is, you understand sort of the time

money. conundrum, right, is that when you're an employee at a

company, you are trading your time for a paycheck, right? So

they're controlling your time they're controlling when you're

there when you're not there. That's the definition of a an

employee versus a contractor right like your employer can

tell you what your hours or they can tell you where you need to

work and how you need to work. So it's pretty clear when you're

an employee who was actually like controlling your time. Now,

a lot of times when people leave their, their job or their career

in wherever they are, they're looking for more freedom, more

time, freedom, more financial freedom, more impact, feed,

freedom, whatever that looks like. And so, you know, you go

out and you do your own thing, maybe you go out and you are a

contractor, or freelancer or consultant, kind of when you

first get started to learn how your expertise translates into,

you know, more project based work, or hourly work or

whatever, that's kind of a common path that people take.

And, and the, the challenge with that is that you're still not

actually controlling your time, right. So you're either coming

into that company as an extra pair of hands, or you're coming

in, and, you know, kind of running them through a

methodology so that they can get the result that they're looking

for. But you're really still, you know, your time and your

income is really still tied together, right? Like, you get a

project you're working on the project. And, and your, your

output is not separate from the, the financial rewards you're

getting for that right. And so, this is what happened to me,

when I started my agency is when I first went out on my own, I

was contracting. And so I took a six month project as my sort of

bridge from my, my very, you know, safe corporate job to

started my own business. And, and then did that kind of work

for a while and realize, oh, wait a minute, like, I actually

don't control my time, this is just, I'm actually working a lot

more hours a lot harder on and doing the same thing that I was

doing in, in a job right, in a J, OB. And, and so you start to

go from there, go Okay, so now how do I start to buy my time

back. And and that's where then you know, you can hire a team or

you can put together systems, you can do all the different

things. But if you're keeping them one on one model, you're

keeping kind of the project based model, where you are

delivering on a service. You never actually like leapfrog

past that time money challenge, even if you add other people to

the business. And so and so that was sort of the the next phase

that I went into is okay, so how do I scale this beyond me? How

do I help people? How do I get help for the capacity challenges

that I was having? Right, like, I had too much work, I didn't

have enough time in my day to do it. So then I would hire other

people to take it on. But I was still managing the work I was

still involved in, in the process. And, and so as we got

more projects than the expenses went up, in the same way, right?

So the company grew, but it was growing in a, you know, in the

same with the same things, right? Like revenue was growing

expenses were growing, we never quite could leapfrog past that

to increase profitability. And to make it into something that

was a viable solution. Even if I wasn't actively there right now,

like, I could take vacations. I could I could check out for a

while. But, but the business ultimately did not run without

me. So that was the next sort of phase that I got through as I

was like, okay, so what does this look like? Then I kind of

got to a point where I was like, okay, so this is this is great,

but what, what's gonna happen when I don't want to actively be

doing this anymore, or I want to step away, now I could sell the

business, that would have been an option. But I still had this

desire to create an impact, create an income outside of, you

know, kind of the work that I was doing, and have something

that was sort of a legacy builder for me, right? Like,

what was it that I was able to,

to sort of leave or our impact with all of this expertise and

knowledge and, and growth that I had done in my lifetime and one

of my biggest things is, I have a high desire to continuously be

learning all the time. So like, what what was eventually going

to happen with that? And and so because of that, I moved into

phase three, which is like how do I package and productize my

service my expertise, so that people can learn from me and I

can help people build their in this case builder businesses so

that I'm able to help make an impact based on my experience,

right? So how do I shorten the learning curve for people? How

do I help people get over obstacles and hurdles that

they're going to run into as they're going through this

process that I went through? And and how do I build? Build a

business that allows for it to grow, even if I am not feeding

it, right, even if my time is not involved in it. So how do I

create something once, and then sell it over and over and over

again, and have it expand, regardless of the amount of time

I'm putting into it? So that was phase three. So I got to that

place where I was like, okay, great, like, like, I'm going to

package my expertise, I'm going to productize my service. And

therefore, then I can deliver that, because I own my own

intellectual property, I own my own signature framework, I can

deliver that in an infinite number of ways, right, I could

write a book, I could do signature talks, I can have a,

an online or automated program that allows people to come in

and learn what they need and get the tools and techniques and all

the things, I could have a coaching program, I could I

could do a retreat, I could do a mastermind I could do all sorts

of things, right? Because I was able to package what I had

learned and what I had done in a way that was scalable, that

could survive and grow without me and my involvement. And that

was the turning point where I really started to realize that

not only was I had, I kind of recruited myself into a job, but

I also wasn't offering my highest level of service, either

because I was just, you know, in one company helping them out or

in, you know, 10, or 15, or 20, companies working on

implementing our proprietary framework, versus being able to

impact at a greater level. And started having conversations

after I had started this, I started having conversations

with a lot of my colleagues, freelancers, consultants, other

people who were in various, sort of degrees of business, when

they went out on their own outside of their job. And one of

the biggest questions that I always got, or kind of the

conversation points that that always happened was, like, what

happens when I don't want to take on projects anymore? Like,

what's next? Do I move into a job? Do I try and find a

leadership role? Do I go and do something totally different?

Like, one person was like, well, maybe I should just like, open a

coffee shop or do something completely different. And so

that was where the conversation started to go. And, and they

felt really trapped. And so I don't know, maybe you feel like

this, maybe you don't at this point. But like, they were just

like, well, I just don't know what else to do. Right? It

doesn't feel like I can do anything else. So I should just

keep taking on projects. Or I'm so busy, I can't possibly do

anything else. But I want to, I want to take a break, I want to

spend more time with my family, I want to be able to do other

things, and not just constantly be working at new companies all

the time doing projects. The other conversation that came up

quite a bit was like what happens when I no longer want to

be doing this? Right? Like so when you want to retire? Right?

What? What happens, like, what happens to my business? What

happens to all of these things that I've been doing for the

last 30 or 40 years? Like, where does that go? Is it? Do I just

like, shut the door and walk away? Or is there something else

that I can be doing and not really having clarity on what

that looks like? And so, you know, for me, it's an easy

conversation, right? Because it's like, well, we need to get

your, your intellectual property packaged, so that you can

continue to make an income and impact beyond your hours that

you're working right beyond how many hours you're sitting at the

computer. And, and so, you know, I was involved in those

conversations. At the time, I was still building the agency

and I was like, Yeah, you know what, I totally get that. I need

to be thinking about that too. I had built you know, kind of

these this online business, but still wasn't really in that

place of like, what does this look like? Like what is The

bigger picture. And and so, you know, this year I turned 51, I'm

just gonna say that out loud. Most of the time I say I've

turned 28 Like a number of times. But but when you turn 50

or 51 in this case, like, there are some questions that you

start asking yourself, right, like, what does this look like

as we move into the future? And, you know, physically, I'm not

really interested in sitting at my computer 16 hours a day is

day anymore, nor can I. And so what does that look like? How do

I continue to grow my income and my impact? And really step into

my zone of genius? What does that look like? So asking myself

those questions. And in having something infinitely scales

beyond your ability, or need to feed, it is such a powerful

position to be in because you're able to get time freedom,

impact, freedom, income, freedom, and you have choice.

And I think for me, that's the biggest thing is like, being

able to have choice I have, I can take on any projects that I

want to. But I don't need to because I have that income

coming in, that allows me to not have that revenue rollercoaster

not have that feast or famine, not have that fear of what's

coming or what's not coming. And, and so if you're in that

place, like I just encourage you to get curious about what it

would be like to package your expertise, get it out there in a

different way, so that you can deliver it and make it into an

asset. Maybe it's a legacy asset that continues to serve you. As

you move forward, as you move into being able to build your

empire, being able to take on more things that are outside of

maybe the hours for dollars that you were working before. So if

you are interested in learning more about this, or if you need

help, or if you're just not really sure where to get

started. Definitely reach out to me we'd have a conversation. And

and sometimes it's just about like, uncovering what it is that

is your secret sauce, that, that that differentiates you from

someone else. So there you go. Hopefully this episode is

helpful. If you are in that place where you're thinking

about legacy or you're thinking about like how on earth do I

start to package what I'm doing so that I can make an income,

either a full time income, or maybe it's just that that you

know, that money that's coming in month after month. That just

keeps you sort of in that choice zone. Give me a shout and I'm

happy to help you through this and, and go as we move forward.

Alright. Have a great day.