Marie is a DIY enthusiast and a self-taught woodworker. Well actually, she’s more of a DIY addict and an amateur woodworker if we’re being honest. For as long as she can remember she’s had a deep curiosity for understanding how stuff is made and figuring out how she can make it myself.

The funny thing is that I remember my brother buying me a giant toolbox one Christmas, and I wondered to myself What on earth was he thinking? But I guess he knew even before I did that one day I would have a shop full of tools.

While she wishes writing about DIY projects and making how-to YouTube videos was her full-time job, she also has a full-time career as a market researcher in the pharmaceutical industry. Marie is also passionate about cycling and hockey, but these days woodworking takes up most of her time.

Marie lives in Montreal, Canada, where she works on projects out of her small garage shop. While she’s been DIYing for a long time, Marie decided to launch diymontreal.com in August 2016 in order to share projects with other DIY enthusiasts like herself. Then, just recently in 2017, Marie started a YouTube channel.

Website: https://www.diymontreal.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/diymontreal
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diymontreal/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/diymontreal/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DIYMTL/

We’ll be talking about your story about how you started woodworking and the journey you’re taking with your YouTube channel. I always find myself relaxing at the end of the day watching DIY channels and getting inspiration from the projects that are created. I also feel that it would an interesting story to hear about how people manage and create content for YouTube as an entrepreneur.

Here are a few points that we talked about:

• Marie started her journey by starting a blog to showcase and talk about her DIY journey
• She’s been blogging for about 2 years before jumping into YouTube
• That honey-do list is a perfect opportunity to get started in DIY
• Planning, research, and figuring out “how to do this…” is a long process. Don’t rush the process!
• The beginning is the hard part – little to no traction can deter
• Instagram and sharing on social media was a turning point for Marie
• The more you share, the more you’ll position yourself as the expert in that field
• The truth is, not every project makes the cut
• Have a bank of projects that you can pull from when needed
• Start with projects that you need to be done around the house
• Monetization is different depending on the category, views, and size of your audience
  • Build your audience and you’ll find success. This can take time
• Mix up your revenue stream so you’re not relying on a single point
• Don’t do this to make money from the start
• Make this your passion and the quality will show!
• Build a process – Create a check-list of things you need to do for your projects, channel, marketing, etc. After a while, it will be second nature
• Interact with your audience on your social media platforms. Work on growing your community.
• Build that mailing list!
• Challenges are real when running a YouTube channel
  • Time is the major challenge
  • Think of the composition of the piece
  • Work on the “Beauty Shot” of the item. This will get better with more practice
• Starting off, you need…
  • to not focus on fancy camera equipment – Use your phone
  • pay attention to lighting – Use lamps, flashlights, or other sources to light up your subject
  • to use the basic video editing software until you find what you need or can upgrade
• Marie would love to eventually collaborate with other makers in the DIY space
• Marie would also like to push out more frequent projects on her channel and blog

Quick Picks

Marie

• Pixel 3 – This phone was ALMOST the upgrade phone, but have heard enough bad stories that she held off. Don’t upgrade.
• Udamey courses – Great way to learn things that you may not be aware of.

Marion

• City of Savannah, GA – Possible family trip that may be a tradition
• Spending time with family – <3

The post FHS 42 DIY YouTube Channel ft Marie of DIY Montreal appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

School Days

During my early years, I would frequently take things apart. As a curious child, you can find me behind the TV taking the phone apart because I wanted to know how it worked. I feel that at was the turning point in becoming an entrepreneur; I wanted to know how the world works! One thing at a time.

Getting candies, toys, and small trinkets is every child’s dream, and it certainly didn’t pass me by either. I started to paying attention to how much things might cost and how to then get that amount to buy my own candy and toys. I didn’t want to wait for mom or dad to reluctantly buy me something.

I raided my parent pockets for coins! I raided the seat cushions, the dresser, the cup holders in the car. I was relentless.

I saw an opportunity to help my parents just give me their spare change. To them, it was low value, but to me, it was very high value. Creating a system where they could just put their spare change in allowed me to efficiently collect them. Collecting that spare change was my goal, and I made it easy for my parents to fork it over.

High School

By my high school years, I expanded my efforts to get actual dollar bills. I started to look around the neighborhood to see what we could do as kids. Raking leave, mowing the grass, taking out trash, or whatever menial job that kids could do. I wanted to start doing that for pay because I was already doing that for my parents.

So I started going door-to-door and offering lawn service to people in the neighborhood and signing up work. From there, I would recruit my friends to work with me and split some of that profit. I would keep 60% of the payment and they would be paid out 40%. It worked well that way because I was the one finding the work, locking in the agreement, and paying out my friends.

I learned from that experience that partnering up with people and taking a smaller cut can still make you money. You don’t have to take it all on yourself and think you need to take on the world solo.

Time @ INPO

INPO stands for Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. We helped regulate the nuclear power industry here in North America. Similar to how the NRC inspects and verifies the operations of power plants, INPO does that but kicks it up a notch.

INPO was during my college internship days and I worked on the help desk. I was the first level support and picked up the phones or answered the phone calls for any problem. We were the first line of defense. Then I started to notice patterns that we were having.

From there, I trained myself to become the subject matter expert for that specific problem. With time, I became the ‘SharePoint’ guy for our 400 people strong company. I became more senior and was able to sit with Project Managers and other experts to learn how to manage projects, have conversations about the budget, and direct technology in a way to meet the goals of the project.

The employees at INPO had specific roles that they performed when they went out to inspect these power plants. You had the woman looking at the chemistry of the plant because she was the “Chemistry Woman”. The gentleman focusing on the auxiliary pumps because he was the “Pump Man”. They were very specialized…..and VERY well paid..

I learned that specializing in a specific field can help you become the expert in the room a lot quicker and command higher compensation. From observation, I realized it the power of specialization.

My First Company

When I was getting more senior at INPO, I would be approached to work on personal computers and devices. This lead me to start offering that as a service on the side to work on peoples machines.

A friend of mine at INPO was in the same boat as me. We would both be approached, but we would often share customers if we could not work on them ourselves. We also both had that entrepreneur spirit with finding and acting on opportunities if we found any. His family ran and operated a public gymnastics gym in North Georgia.

We started a company installing public access points in public locations. The first (and only) location that we were able to start with was his family gym. We had an inside track with the operating team, and installed the internet, access point, and configured everything. We then started shopping this idea around to other gyms, locations, and other public locations.

In the end, we folded the company because we realized we wanted to focus on graduating more than driving around everywhere fixing issues. This was also in the time before smart phones were super popular, so WiFi was slow and unreliable. Which was a huge headache when trying to get dozens of people on a single access point.

We both learned how to create an MVP, shop it around, and what to do WHEN things go wrong. It took a lot of patience, determination, and elbow grease to just get things started. We grew a lot while we operated that company!

Setting Out on My Own

During my time an INPO, I also started to expand my Rolodex and circle of influence. I wanted to keep people around me that I felt that I could help and grow with. I knew that I wanted to eventually work for myself and felt that keeping up with potential clients and past clients would work out in the long run.

I started moonlighting on the side and slowly built up my experience and confidence in working with strangers. I used these opportunities to start saving in my warchest for emergencies and backup income for when I DO step out on my own.

That war chest enabled me to take on more risk, be patient and picky about the clients I wanted to take on and find quality work. As I grew into freelancing, I increased my rates and kept evolving. Word of mouth and Referrals started to work for me and allowed me to step further and further into working for myself.

I fell upon a W-2 job that luckily allows me to currently work both Freelance and have clients. The catch is that that single W-2 job is good bulk of my income at the moment and that makes me worry. That is a single point of failure if I am let go.

Whats Next?

These coming years, I want to focus on diversifying my income even more. I want to make sure that I don’t have a single point that is getting me the largest ‘operational’ income. I want to ensure that the load is spread out as much as possible.

In the mean time, I am enjoying my W-2 work and I am able to balance this with my clients. I want to work on a few passive income projects, course work, products that you can purchase, and maybe additional client engagements.

We shall see what 2019 and 2020 brings!

The post FHS 41 How I Started appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

Chef Jack – Digital Marketing Consultant

Chef Jack wants to provide you with the best choices in food.  Whether you are seeking personal chef services, cooking classes, full-service catering of events, or connecting with masterminds over an amazing dinner, Chef Jack ATL is ready to meet all your food and catering needs. You can follow his delicious posts on Instagram.

Website: http://chefjackatl.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mastermind_dinners_atlanta (@Mastermind_Dinnners_Atlanta)

As a guest at the table you will be sharing and exchanging with other pros about what’s working, what’s not, and how to improve your business.  While working towards the next level of your business, you will be dining on a custom-made, gourmet dinner prepared on-site by the award-winning Chef Jack.​

Prepare to be inspired, motivated and encouraged on your entrepreneurial voyage with the support and advice of people who are in the same lane as you.

Mastermind Dinners Atlanta are invitation only events.  The best way to be offered an invitation is to register with the Guest List and learn when and where dinners are being conducted, and who the host/moderator is.  Some dinners have themes to be of the most benefit to certain business niches.  By filling out the short Guest questionnaire on ChefJack.com you can receive a special invitation to a themed dinner matching your profile.

Check out more about the Mastermind Dinners here: https://www.chefjackatl.com/mastermind-dinners

Here are a few points that we talked about:

• Unique foods served by Chef Jack
• What is a Mastermind Group (Also what is a Mastermind Dinner)
• Social lubricant
• Involvement increases at Mastermind Dinners helps make your groups more related
• Elements of the foods spur different conversations
• History of the Mastermind Groups
  • Junto Group with Benjamin Franklin in Philly
  • Napoleon Hill of the 1920’s
• Where to meet people
• Partnerships formed with 2 people who had parts-of-skills
• Strategies and importance of networking
• Group is more intimate and encourages discussion
  • ex. A woman spoke up about a great ideas, but execution needed help. Group stepped up and guided her idea to get started.
• Diverse groups bring diverse ideas
• Every problem that you’ve got, more than likely someone has already solved it
• 12 People maximum helps get the conversation flowing and a good pace
  • Effective sizes is about 8-10 people
• Tries to match groups together if possible
• Its OK to share, there are millions of people and ideas out there already

Quick Picks

Chef Jack

• Jason Gaignard – ‘Mastermind Dinners’

Check it out on Amazon. Click Here!

Marion

• Chick-Fil-A Sandwich recipe
• Diary Queen ice cream
• Wendy’s Chocolate Ice Cream

The post FHS 35 The Power of Mastermind Dinners ft Chef Jack appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

Bobby Kircher – Digital Marketing Consultant

Bobby Kircher runs Papaya Internet, a digital marketing consultant that helps individuals and small business grow their business online. He has over 15 years of SEO experience, 10 of which include using WordPress! When he’s not figuring out Google, he’s collecting records, hitting the gym, and performing improv around Atlanta. You can find him at https://papayainternet.com and on most social media with the handle @bobbykircher

Website: http://papayainternet.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BobbyKircher @BobbyKircher

Here are a few points that we talked about:

• What is SEO
• What are some basic mistakes people make
• Strategies for SEO
• How effective would auto-playing ads be?
• Difference between mobile vs desktop vs applications
• Tracking usage in a an app
• Basic SEO strategies

Quick Picks

Bobby

• WordPress Community
  • TONS of WordPress meetups around the area in Atlanta and across many other cities
  • Very helpful and open to new commers
  • Diverse skill sets and levels of expertise

Marion

• Orlando, Fl
  • OMG so much stuff to do besides Disney/Universal Studios
  • Great for families of all ages
  • Beach is 1.25hrs either east or west

The post FHS 33 Optimizing WordPress for SEO ft Bobby Kircher appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

Where to Start

Most freelancers or entrepreneur start off as moonlighters working on side projects. You can transition into a full-time endeavor when you’re ready to take the plunge. “When” is always up to you, but starting a business may not be as hard as you think. Keeping the business running and operating is the real challenge. But we’ll get to that part soon enough. For now, let’s take things one step at a time. No matter what type of business you want to start, you will need these basic 6 steps.

1. Research your customers
2. Register yourself
3. Taxes and finance
4. Get online
5. Marketing
6. Getting help

When you’re just starting out and wondering where to start, your mind is full of tons of ideas that you just want to get out there and hit the ground running. But hold up a minute, we need to start planning this out. We’ll first need to find out who our customers are. We need to research our customers and do what is called “market research”.

1. Who, specifically, are you going to be facing (niche)
2. What is the problem that you’re hearing the most often
3. What are they willing to pay
4. Is it sustainable
5. Where do they hang out

Finding your customers, what their pain-points, and understanding the value of your services is going to give you that head start that you’re looking for.

After you’ve got a grasp on who and where your clients are. You’re ready to make things legal with your state, federal, and the IRS. Register yourself will help keep them off your back so you can make transactions happen without having to worry about Uncle Sam.

I have an interview with a CPA about taxes and registering with the IRS to keep them off your back. Check out FHS 3: http://freelancerheadstart.com/llc-vs-s-corp-and-the-tax-man/

During the registration process, you’re able to also get yourself a bank account. You need to keep your personal and business money separate, so go ahead and take care of that now.

Once you’re good and registered with a shiny new bank account, you can move onto getting an online presence. The world is smaller than you think and getting online will help you reach all corners of the earth. Grab yourself a domain name and host to do it yourself or purchase a pre-made package. A better and ideal way would be to hire a professional to take care of and grow your online presence while you work on your business.

When you’ve got a place to shuffle clients to see what you’re about, online marketing can help you gain even more traction. You’ll be able to focus your sales funnel, track engagement, and carry clients through your pipeline. As a result, you’ll be able to have a steady flow of potential clients.

And finally, when you’re look for where to start, always ask for help. Don’t be shy to talk to people about what your idea is or what your planning on doing. Make friends in your industry, reach out to Meetup groups, engage in forums and blogs, and generally “show up”. You’ll be surprised at how many people are going to be willing to help you through your tough times. The second pair of eyes and ears can bring about a new perspective on what you’re trying to do!

How to Get Clients

Finding and getting clients is one of the most common challenge for freelancers and entrepreneurs. There really isn’t a secret to finding clients, you have to put in some social effort and go where they are! To find clients, you need to have something that someone needs and be willing to pay for it. The easiest way to get a client is to show them how you are going to better that client from where they are now. They are essentially investing in what you have to offer to help them 2x, 10x, or 20x their returns.

In order to get your clients rolling in, you first need to work on your client profile. You need to be able to pick your client type, industry, and budget level out of a lineup. If you don’t know who your target client is, you’ll be shouting into the void hoping someone will stop by. Finish this sentence, then you’ll be ready to begin finding and winning clients

“I help __________ to __(single group of people)__ who have a yearly profit of _____________”

What you’re doing is making it easier for you to combine your services or products with the companies or people out there. Finally you can start using that to start looking for clients with laser focus.

Common places to find clients includes

• Job Boards
• Conferences
• Chatroom
• Face-to-face networking events
• Cold calls
• Cold emails
• Yellow Pages

If you’re like me, you want to maximize your exposure to potential clients and not a huge fan of shaking hands and kissing babies. Well, there are a lot of online sources where you can find GREAT clients and start to work on your sales funnel. Here is a rundown list of where to find clients and jobs online that I’ve used in the past:

1. Authentic Jobs
2. Behance Jobs
3. Craigslist
4. Drupal Jobs
5. LeadPages Jobs
6. Reddit /r/forhire
7. Smashing Jobs
8. Stack Overflow Jobs
9. We Work Remotely
10. WordPress Jobs

Once you’ve identified your niche, your client profile, and potentially where they’re hanging out, you’ll be able to create a proper sales/client funnel. Where to start is becoming more clearer.

Basic Funnel

Here are the steps that you’ll need to do EVERY DAY to keep your pipeline steady. Take at least an hour:

1. Visit each site above and filter to find projects.
   1. Subscribe to RSS feed or email to get listings automatically
2. Bookmark or note at least 5 potential
3. Research each lead
   1. Carefully read the description – understand the goal of the work
   2. Research the contact person and company. Learn their products, competitors, etc.
4. Contact the lead through email
   1. User verbiage that quick, short, and to the point. Don’t come off as sleazy, rude, or know-it-all. Keep it casual.
   2. Include information that you researched
   3. Include a simple call-to-action that lets you know they might be interested
5. Followup with the sent email at least twice, per listing. Once every week.

That’s a basic sales cycle for cold-emails, but it will help get your pipeline steady with potential clients who may need your services. The pattern is similar if you meet people face to face or on the phone. Don’t think you have to stick to one type of client outreach. You can use combinations if you’re comfortable.

Validate an Idea

So you’ve got a big idea or service that you think will change the world, but you don’t know if it will fly or where to start. Do NOT pursue an idea or product unless you have a little glimpse of proof that you wont be wasting time or money. Sometimes the market is not ready, sometimes you may need to tweak something, sometimes you’ll find something WAY better. Validate your ideas or products with market research. A little goes a long way!

Market Research is a technique you can use to validate your idea. Market research also will help you find that group of people that your product may be interesting to. You can break market research (finding and researching your customers) into two sub tasks; finding customers and reaching customers.

You’re going to want to do what is called “market research” to help validate your idea

1. Who, specifically, are you going to be facing (niche, market, clients, customers)
2. What is the problem that you’re hearing the most often
3. What are they willing to pay
4. Is it sustainable
5. Where do they hang out

I talk with Patrick Selby about how he focused on the “What” with a few pointers and what he learned from his mistakes. Check out FHS 19: http://freelancerheadstart.com/fhs-19-market-research-building-product/

Additional Sources

• http://www.reddit.com Sub-Reddits specific to your industry
• https://stackexchange.com/ – A list of communities where people ask specific questions. Perfect for collecting common, popular, and hot problems.
• https://feedly.com/i/welcome – Feedly is an aggregator of websites that funnels everything into a single dashboard. You can subscribe to a bunch of websites that give you up to date content that you can consume in a single location. You will get a better understanding of what is commonly being said across your industry.
• Mailing list – Create or join a mailing list to collectively gather people who will be your potential clients/customers. You can then interact with this gold mine to get ideas or questions answered.
• Conferences/Tradeshows – You can’t beat the ‘heard it from the horse’s mouth’ effect. Hit the pavement and attend shows or conferences that are specific to your niche. You’ll be able to rub elbows with your clients and get a direct quote of what their problems may be.

I would honestly spend about 40-60 hours of effort to find and research your  customers. If you can understand what your audience is thinking, what their pains are, and a way to help, you’re ready to position yourself as the expert!

Running your Business

Running your business day in and day out may be the easier part of being a Freelancer or Entrepreneur. You’ll get into the rhythm of things and do a lot of your processes automatically. You’ll also get to a point where you can use tools to help take care of the lower-hanging fruit for you. Such as your invoicing, email marketing, contacts, client on-boarding, and other task.

The main rule for being self employed: 1/2 your week is finding clients/work and business admin tasks…the other half is active work

Don’t think that you’re going to be up to the ceiling in client work. You have to keep your machine running and clients coming in. You have to make sure the bills are literally paid, your emails are sent, and your plants are watered. This goes outside of physical client work and we sometimes forget that part of working for ourselves.

Plan your day (or week) where you work on your business and yourself. Don’t overestimate the amount of work you’ll need for client work and pace yourself.

Don’t Forget about Yourself

When you start down the road of actually servicing clients and producing contents or widgets, you’ll slowly start to forget to work on yourself. We get caught up in servicing our clients and customers with 100% of our efforts, we don’t think we need the same amount of effort or services for ourselves. We think that since we’re the experts, we don’t need our own help.

Candace Schilling and I chat about ‘minding your own business’ and working on ourselves. Check out FHS 24: http://freelancerheadstart.com/fhs-24-minding-your-own-business-ft-candace-schilling/

When I, myself, was starting out I slowly noticed that I was polishing my clients websites more than myself. I was putting it a lot more effort into their content and website rather than my own….. We’re the experts but sometimes we need to look internally at our business or ourselves to make sure that we’re using our own talents. We sometimes forget that WE are the experts! Don’t forget to turn our own skills on ourselves

Take a Time Out

Leave time in the week and the day for yourself. Unwind and de-compress. Your business is mostly you and its WILL suffer if you overwork yourself. Make it a priority to take an hour a day to do nothing. Have lunch outside of your work area. Go see a movie. Walk in the park. Play a level of your fave video game. Whatever it takes, make sure you pause your work day. Where to start will depend on your personality, but allot time out of your day to take a breath.

Use tools to your advantage

It’s 2018….don’t fight the digital age! Adopt a few and simple tools that are going to make your everyday work easier. Since we’re in the digital age, we’re also able to work online with most of our content and tools. Here are the two main tools that I use almost daily to run my business:

Dropbox – Free for 2GB. Up to 1TB of space on paid plan

Dropbox is a dynamic synchronizing file stored on your devices. It automatically back things up to the cloud and allows you the ability to access the files and content from anywhere you want or need with your freelancer tools.

Dropbox is my main work space because it allows me grab files, share content, and move things around multiple machines whenever i need. I also use Dropbox to allow my clients a quick and easy way to send me files if needed.

Check it out here: https://db.tt/i1gKYQepsg [Referral/affiliate link]

Get Harvest – http://try.hrv.st/1-294321 (Free for 2 project OR $130/year for unlimited)

Harvest is my go-to for invoicing. It definitely pays for itself with your first client. You can send out an invoice and give the option of 2 payment routes: PayPal or Stripe. Invoices get sent electronically either with a PDF, link, or an email where the clients can pay online directly. You get reporting on who is late and who paid on time. The invoices also have automatic reminders that are sent out at specific intervals.

You can also use Harvest to keep track of time to bill hourly (which is what I use daily), keep track of projects, and keep track of expenses. Reporting is not bad. It won’t tell you categories in your spending like Mint does, but it will let you know if you’ll be pretty close to blowing your budget out the water in overspending. If you have a team of more than one person, you can also keep track of spending and income per-person or per project.

Conclusion

Working for yourself is a fun and exciting challenge and is full of different paths on where to start. You’re the boss and you make all the decisions…good or bad. It may not all be roses and peaches at the end of the rainbow, but for most, its SO worth it! This shouldn’t discourage you from starting down the path of becoming self employed.

To sum it up, these are the 6 starting points when you wanna work for yourself and where to start.

1. Research your customers
2. Register yourself
3. Taxes and finance
4. Get online
5. Marketing
6. Getting help

Don’t think your idea or product is stupid one. You never know what you’re going to find with market research and validation.

Start by finding clients online and create a basic sales funnel. From there, you can refine what works for you and where your niche clients are hanging out.

Take time out of the day and week to take care of yourself and that business admin work. There are tons of tools out there that you can use to make your day-to-day easier. Don’t push yourself to the limits and burn out. Its too easy to do that in the beginning.

And lastly, don’t forget to work on your own business! We sometimes forget that we need our own help. Take a look at your own processes and look for ways to improve or change it.

Once you go down the route of becoming your own boss, yes, you’ll com across a lot of obstacles. But I promise you that it only looks like a mountain from where you’re standing. Take that first step and you’ll realize you’re only on a small hill.

The post FHS 32 Where to Start appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

You’ve probably heard that joke “How do you eat an elephant” and thought that it was kinda clever. Well, there is a good piece of wisdom to the punch line: “One bite at a time”. Big tasks get MUCH easier when you break them down. And, yes, ‘big’ can be relative to whatever you’re doing, but the statement still stands. Breaking up your task into manageable quick-wins helps you keep that momentum and feel/see progress!

In Short; Getting Sh*t Done!

Eating the Elephant boils down to “Getting Big Sh*t Done”. We all have things that we need to do for our freelancing business and they all range in size and complexity. Most people just have a giant check list of things that they need to do and try to get that box checked. Without realizing the effort that is needed to get that box checked, we can sometimes focus on one task…and one task only.

This approach leaves everything else by the wayside, slows down your progress of getting things done, and doesn’t help you prioritize what you actually need to be focusing on. Are you getting caught up on the HOW and not the WHAT of your business?

Need help getting past that Analysis Paralysis we often have when figuring out our business? Get past the HOW and focus on the WHAT! Check out FHS 21: Figuring Out the WHAT

Your To-Do list may also be a place where ideas go to die. Throwing things on your To-Do list that doesn’t need to be there is pretty common.

Don’t use your To-Do list as a dumping ground for tasks or ideas.

You’ll easily get overwhelmed and discouraged from actually getting sh*t done. But how do we actually get sh*t done? Well…you need to learn how to chew that elephant!

How to Chew

This is where that “one bite at a time” answer comes into play. Any task that you need to do can be done. You just have to attack it with a strategy.

Taking a look at what you ACTUALLY do every day, you’ll realize that you’re only getting on average 3 things done per day. I challenge you to focus on widdling down your to-do list to only 3 things. Try it for a single day and you’ll see that you’re much more hyper focused and effective!

• Break it apart – Take you big task and separate it into small sub-tasks that have actions you can do.
• Set time limits for your work – Don’t think you have to do everything TODAY! Pace yourself and set limits on how long you’ll work on the task each day until its done. Work in 25-minute shifts and take a break after.
• Take breaks – You are not a machine. Take frequent 5-minute breaks after your 25-minute cycle so you wont burn out.
• Focus! – Don’t distract yourself by doing all of the sub-tasks at once. Focus on one task during that 25-minute cycle and one task only! Focus on that elephant!

Choose 3 tasks to do today that you can do within 8 hours. You’ll be hyper focused and proud of your progress.

When you break down your goals into smaller manageable and bite size pieces, you’ll see the fruits of your labor much more quickly than trying to take it all at once. Set a time-box (about 25 minutes) for how long you’ll work on that one piece and keep at it until you’ve made significant progress.

You’ll look back and have that sense of accomplishment and fulfillment pushing you further!

Marathon vs Sprint

Your elephant can be broken down into smaller chunks. Don’t rush through things just to get it done. Take your time by focusing on once piece at a time that will eventually finish the overall goals. You’re going to need some sort of Time Management system in place to keep you on track. One method that I use the Pomodoro method by Francesco Cirillo.

The Pomodoro Method is a simple and effective way to manage your time to help you focus on the tasks at hand

Basic Pomodoro Cycle

1. Choose a task from your list
2. Set a time for 25 minutes
3. Work on task until the timer goes off
4. When timer goes off, put a check mark on your piece of paper
5. Take a 5 minute break
6. Every 4 pomodoros, take a longer break (about 20 minutes)
7. Repeat

While going through the cycle, you’ll get a better idea on how to break that elephant into smaller and more realistic and manageable tasks. You’ll get better at taking off 25-minute chunks of your task.

It doesn’t matter how large of a elephant you have. You’ll still be able to break it apart into manageable tasks. You may even have to break THAT task even one more time. The point is to keep going until you’re able break the task apart into smaller and smaller pieces. Don’t think you have to finish large nearly-impossible tasks in one sitting.

Pace yourself when eating the elephant and you’ll make it through.

Eating the Elephant

Dont think you have to take on that mountain of a goal. Breaking things up into smaller and more manageable chunks are going to put you on that path of completion. Eating the elephant is a process that combines time management, task management, and focus.

Take a task that you need to accomplish that will go towards your elephant. Work on in for 25 minutes. Take a break, and repeat. You’d be surprised to see how much progress you’ll get done with a simple 25-minute focused session.

One tool that I use to keep track of my tasks is Trello (www.trello.com) and its 100% free. Its an online and virtual whiteboard where you can organize and share your thoughts or tasks. I’ve created myself a “To-Do” board where I have a ‘Need To’, ‘Doing’, and ‘Done’ board with dates and check boxes. It keeps my thoughts and to-do’s organized and related to each other.

The post FHS 30 Eating the Elephant appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

What is a Contract and Do You Need One?

Some people shy away from the word “contract” because a lot of time it triggers that feeling of “being sued”. A contract, by definition, is a promise or set of promises that are legally enforceable and, if violated, allow the injured party access to legal remedies. In short, its an agreement between two or more people.

My favorite tool to use for creating, managing, and signing contracts is Hello Bonsai. Its an online portal that allows you to quickly and easily create and send a contract. Hello Bonsai also keeps track of when that contract was read and signed. Pretty handy when you’ve got a lot of moving parts in your project.

If you’ve ever done work for hire, the answer to ‘do I need a contract (an agreement)’ is YES! You should never do work for money unless there is something written down and agreed upon. Even if the work being done if for a friend or family member. Especially if its a family member.

A contract is NOT a piece of paper that you can bully people into doing something against reason or their will. Its a way for both sides of the table to have an understanding of what was agreed upon. We want to make clear our understandings with each other. Whether you call it an agreement, a contract, or bargain, both sides of the contract need to agree to the contract terms.

Contracts are tools used to help both sides understand the expectations from everyone when it comes to work being done.

When creating a contract you’re going to have at least 4 main parts to a contract:

• ID the Players
• Scope of Work
• Payment
• Schedule of Work

As always, please consult with a lawyer for your specific needs and verbiage for your contract.

If you want a copy of a Contract Template, click here!

4 Minimum Parts

ID the Players

You want to know what is a part of the contract for both sides. Who is doing the work and who is receiving the work. The first section of the contract should identify this and spell it out in a way that makes sense for everyone. You need to have it outlined as to who you are dealing with as well as who the customer is dealing with.

The contract needs to specify who you are actually doing work for, who is the point of contact, and what everyone’s roles are. Your goal is to remove guess work and assumptions.

An example would be

I am a freelancer in the United States in Georgia. I work through MowenWorks, an LLC, as a consultant. My client is XYX, INC, represented by Sean Smith.

Your definition of who the different players are and how they are being represented my change depending on your type of work. You will still be outlining who you are doing work for and who has authority and final say of your work.

Scope

The scope of the work should also be defined within your contract. It spells out WHAT you are actually going to be doing for your client. Where does this definition come from? Well, it should come from your Roadmapping Session (FHS Episode 22) that you did earlier in the project.

The scope will include not only what you will be doing with the project but what you will NOT be doing with the project. This can and should include things such as

• Hours of operations
• Deliverables
• Client deliverables
• Disabilities
• Your limitiations

In this section, you should also discuss what the agreed upon outcomes will be for the project. We need to spell out what they are hiring you to do and what the client will be, possibly, doing as well to help reach that goal.

You will spell out what is defined as “DONE” with the project so everyone can agree upon and have and understanding. You wont know if the project is done unless you actually define done. Never ending projects are no-fun…

If you want a copy of a Contract Template, click here!

Payment

Payment agreement is pretty important to…get paid… So we have to talk about expected costs and payment schedule up front. The payment section will outline the total cost and any milestones that will be needed to complete the project.

For example,

The Client will pay the Contractor in milestones totaling $1,100.00 (USD). The milestones will be invoiced as follows:

• $550.00 (USD) on March 15, 2018

• $275.00 (USD) on April 1, 2018

• $275.00 (USD) on April 22, 2018

Make sure to include that you will need to take a deposit before work will begin. This is important as it signals the start of the actual project. Another tactic that you should use is to require the last payment be made at the agreed upon end date of the project.

Since you’ve defined what “DONE” is within the project, you’ll also define WHEN “DONE” is going to happen. Your last payment should fall upon this date or before (when the project is done).

Include verbiage into the contract that allows for penalties and fees if certain payments are missed, late, or the project is cancelled prematurely. This helps solidify the financial commitment for both side to work on the project until completion.

Schedule

How long is the project expected to take? We need to have an agreed upon end time and milestones for the project. The Schedule section talks about time frames, deliverable, and end dates. Don’t shy away from making this section as specific as you need to be. A lot of times, the project can have scope creep and the schedule section will help rein in on what is to be delivered.

Here is an example statement for the Schedule:

The Contractor will begin work on March 15, 2017 and will continue until the work is completed. This Contract can be ended by either Client or Contractor at any time, pursuant to the terms of Section 6, Term and Termination.

The milestones of what will be done is included in the Schedule section. You need to specify what is going to be completed and when. This also includes payment milestones for the work done.

Additional Sections

These four mane section described above are not always the end of a contract. There are usually additional sections that you’ll want to include with the contract. Here are a few of them

• Ownership and Licenses
  • Who owns what and how can they be used
• Competitive Engagements
  • You agree to not work for a competitor while the work is being done
• Non-Solicitation
  • You wont take the clients customers from them while working on the contract
• Representations
  • Defines the roles of the people on the contract
• Confidential Information
  • Information and work is confidential
• Limitation of Liability
  • No one is liable for breach-of-contract damages that are reasonably unforeseen

If you want a copy of a Contract Template, click here!

The post FHS 29 Contracts! appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

Matt Rix – Game Developer + UI/UX Expert

Matt Rix is a talented game developer behind Trainyard, Scorekeeper, and Disco Zoo. Now he’s making FutureGrind (He’s one half of Milkbag Games). Matt pays attention to how games, apps, and projects behave with polished user experience and user interfaces.

Website: http://magicule.com/ or  http://www.milkbaggames.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MattRix @MattRix

Here are a few points that we could talk about:

• What are some of your techniques to help with user acceptance
• What do you hate seeing in UI/UX
• UI = How it works
• UX = How it looks
• UI/UX is very closely related. Its hard to change how something works without changing how it looks.
• Having a good UX is more important because you’re losing users
• What do you consider “bad” UI/UX
  • Popups on mobile sites with tiny close buttons
• ‘Dark Design’ – User experience used for malicious use
• What do you consider “good” UI/UX
  • Should be one key thing that a user should find
  • Group functionality with similar designs
• Learn what people want to use your site for and focus on that functionality
• You don’t want to assume how people are using your site
  • Google Analytics
  • User Testing
• ‘Intro movies’
• Developers will sometimes have to make design decisions
• How important is it to have a good UI/UX person
• Car websites almost all look the same
  • Non-mobile friendly site
  • Flashy intros
  • Focusing on the wrong parts
• Gesture are sometimes nice to have
  • Don’t force them
• Companies focus on external UI/UX more than internal
• Flat Design comes and goes
  • Useful in some situations
• Affordance
  • Sometime that looks like how it should be used
  • Push door without handles
  • Coffee mug handle
• Pokeyoke – ‘Idiot proof’
• ‘Screaming Face’ game icon
  • Common app using a design to gain quick users
  • Possible Clickbait/Garbage App
• Children are easily susceptible to ‘Dark Design’
• Inspiration can sometimes come from other products
• Sometimes short-term ticky/clickbait works on us
• Old-school gifs

Quick Picks

Marion

• Spotify Family level – $15/month
  • Premium Spotify for multiple people
  • One payment for 5 people at the same address
• Refactoring UI
  • Website for practical examples of how to build and design a UI/UX
  • Learn how to design awesome UI’s by yourself using specific tactics explained from a developer’s point-of-view.

Matt

• http://www.massdrop.com
  • Community driven commerce
  • Crowd voted products and group buying
  • Awesome for parts for your computer
• Philipp Stollenmayer
  • Minimalist puzzle games
  • Zip-Zap
  • Supertype

The post FHS 28 The Importance of UI/UX ft Matt Rix appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

Pete Rorabaugh – Writer and Editor

Hi! I’m Pete Rorabaugh, a husband, father, teacher, writer, and lover of hammocks and ultimate frisbee. I live in Atlanta, GA, and soak up as much of the film and music scene there as I can. I’m fascinated by the fiction of Cormac McCarthy, the films of the Coen Brothers, and the life Malcolm X.

I am an Assistant Professor in the English Department at Kennesaw State University. I earned an M.A. in English Education and a Ph.D. in American Literature and Rhetoric, both from Georgia State University in Atlanta. My research interests include contemporary American fiction, religious rhetoric, networked culture, and the intersection of digital and critical pedagogy.

Website: http://peterorabaugh.org/about/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/allistelling @AllIsTelling

Pete and I chatted about pop tech and pop culture and the digital age/culture. How technologies, companies, and culture intersect in today’s world.

A few points we talked about include:

• What subtle ways tech has moved into pop culture
  • Entertainment such as Black Mirror is almost “one more step before its real…”
  • Don Glovers show ‘Atlanta’
• Snowballs Effect of giving up our own personal data for convenience
  • See “The Circle” movie
• Terms of Service; Didn’t Read
  • Find out who is actually protecting your data versus getting you just agree on anything
  • https://tosdr.org/
• Has it always been there? (Are we now noticing Tech is merging into Pop culture or has it been there since the 70’s/80’s/90’s)
• Always-connected/sharing culture
• Good and bad
• Targeted marketing exists and knows more about you than you think
  • Woman living with father had Target accidentally reveal pregnancy with advert targeted to new mom
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation
• Aubrey Watters
  • www.hackeducation.com
  • Technology and education blog
• Civic Hack Night – Code for Atlanta
  • https://www.meetup.com/codeforatlanta/
• Data mining
• DuckDuckGo – Privacy search and browsing experience
  • https://duckduckgo.com/
• OwnCloud – Private cloud storage
  • https://owncloud.org/
• Be aware of your media sharing

Quick Tips

Marion

• Korean Short Ribs
  • OMG Amazing: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/10/grilling-galbi-recipe.html
  • Marinate the ribs for about 8 hours. They cook really quickly.
  • Costco or Sams Club has the best prices for beef short ribs in bulk. Check your local butcher
• Japanese Hardcore Metal
  • Lady Baby – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8-vje-bq9c
  • Babymetal – http://babymetal.com/
  • Dead Lift Lolita – https://www.dl-lolita.com/mv

Pete

• Japandroids – 2 piece rock band
  • http://japandroids.com/
• David Byrne of the Talking Heads
• Hip-hop
  • Run the Jules, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole
• Spotify Playlist – Underground Kings Playlist
  • https://open.spotify.com/user/madchildbaxwar/playlist/0MdJZWbfOCaM4csxERAzg0?si=wxULHz7-QWWrri5pvxIyhg
• Multiple music depending on mood

The post FHS 26 Pop Tech ft Pete Rorabaugh appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

Candace Schilling – Writer and Editor

As a writer, editor and writing coach, I work primarily with motivational speakers, coaches and authors.

I help people find the words to finish creative projects they care about. I’m in the Inspiration Business!

Think about your own website for a minute. Is your website, including its content, as dynamic and powerful as you are? Are you proud of it?

I’ve met website designers and developers whose websites are broken or outdated. I’ve seen photographers without a good headshot, who specialize in headshots!

I love helping entrepreneurs solve this problem because, for years, I was the writer with nothing to say for herself. I had no website. I wasn’t telling people about my two decades of communication experience as a writer, editor, trainer and strategist, including more than 9 years with State Farm.

I did great work for my customers as a freelance writer and editor, but I had “creative laryngitis” about my own business. Entrepreneurs often give their best work to their clients. It’s time to confront our potential, to unfold into our greatness.

Full wingspan. Deep joy.

Words build relationships. When your messages are heartfelt and authentic, they energize you and your work. The words we choose when talking about ourselves or our business can move us, and, as entrepreneurs, our business will change as we do. Ready to strengthen your connection to your business, the people you’re meant to serve and the GIFTS your business brings into the world? Connect with me.

Website: candaceschilling.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/candaceschilling/

Highlights of the episode includes:

• “If I spot it, I probably got it”
• Don’t be an online ghost. Make sure you’re findable
• Put your energy back into your business
• What’s your JOY point
  • What do you enjoy and light you up?
  • How big is your JOY point?
• We are sometimes worried about letting people know that we’re experts
• Your energy is contagious and shows!
• Identify projects you want to attract and reduce
• Roadmapping Session
• Imagine trade show booth. Who do you want to walk into it?
• Helping yourself help yourself
• Make sure your own work is polished and ready
• Treat yourself as a customer!
• Everyone that you meet has a need and you’re always helping!

Quick Picks

Marion – Bury the Hatchet – Roswell, Ga https://burythehatchet.com/atlanta/

Their website sums it up: “Come learn how to throw an axe from a trained professional before playing in a tournament style game with your friends. Tournaments are similar to playing a game of darts or bowling – except way more fun and exciting.” Throw axes. At a wall. With an axe….YEAH!

AND I wont the overall tournament with an awesome trophy on my mantel.

Candace – Sony Noise Cancelling Headphones WH1000XM2

Automatically detects your activity, whether you’re travelling in an airport, walking on a crowded street, or sitting in a quiet area — then balances the noise cancelling levels accordingly. You can customize them to your preferences with the Sony I Headphones Connect App.

These headphones are her go-to and she cannot help but rave about these! One story she told me about these headphones is the power to “…drown out 2 pressure washers outside…” They also have a touch pad that allows you to do a quick “pause” mode on the noise cancelling. You’ve also have an option of ambient sound turned on  That’s pretty slick!

The post FHS 24 Minding Your Own Business ft Candace Schilling appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.