Malika Bowling is a digital marketer and the Editor of Roamilicious. She’s the author of Culinary Atlanta: Guide to the Best Restaurants, Markets, Breweries and More! and Food Blogging 101. She has been featured on HGTV, Chowhound, Playboy, TravelGirl and has been a contributing writer to USA Today. Malika has also served as a judge at various culinary competitions and food festivals, including Taste of Atlanta. She is also co-founder of the Association of  Bloggers.

Follow them @Roamilicious on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest for behind the scenes content. And don’t forget to subscribe to their newsletter and never miss a contest, giveaway or the latest must visit restaurant!

Website: https://roamilicious.com/
Association of Bloggers: https://associationofbloggers.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Roamilicious/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Roamilicious
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MalikaBowling
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Roamilicious

Malika is a published author, runs a lifestyle blog, and the co-founder for the Association of Bloggers. We talked about what it takes to create and run a food, travel, and lifestyle blog. Her insight into the world of media management, blogging, and PR is very impressive and it shows in how she manages her blogs.

When you’re starting your blog, focus on the “WHAT” rather than the “HOW”. Shut down that ‘analysis paralysis’ …

Here are a few points of what we talked about:

• Malika started about 10 years ago after being laid off from her job in marketing. From there, she started writing a blog.
• She started out as “date nights” and slowly morphed into reviews and photos and a lifestyle blog
• She wanted to help manage others social media and newsletters and evolved into blogging as a business
• Social media is primarily used to drive traffic to her blogs. From there, she get clients, companies, brands, etc to partner with her
• Recently changed to include travel about a year ago. Immediate feedback from locations who wanted to partner with her
• Her books!
• You grow your equipment with your business, flowers, etc
• Include multiple multi-media content into your blog
• Analytics to test and respond
• Instagram TV (IG TV) strategy for your brand. Vertical for IG TV and landscape for YouTube
• Business vs Hobby
  • Market yourself. You have to put in that effort
  • If people are included in post, use back-links, mention in post, and send a request to
  • Media kit (canva.com for inspiration or resources)
  • Consistency
• Advertisements, Affiliates, and Traffic help you build your revenues
• Influence Network helps bring traffic to you and partner with brands (https://associationofbloggers.com/)
  • PERFECT turnkey solution to match influencers with brands
• ‘Exposure Bucks’
• Association of Bloggers
  • Any level of bloggers can join the association
  • You are now part of a network that will partner you with brands
  • Exclusive resources for bloggers include help building a profile, private support group, and coaching sessions
• Is this a business or a hobby? If you want a business, treat it like a business!!
  • If you’re looking to make money, you need to invest time, energy, and money into your blog
  • You will grow there where you need to start spending money in investing in yourself
• Planning and scheduling is important!
• Be consistent with your lifestyle blog content and release!
• There is a lot of work when it comes to growing and building a blog. Partner up with other blogs and people to get help.
• Work on documenting your processes. You will grow and having things written down will be your blueprint on how to run your business
  • Helps you focus on your lifestyle blog rather than getting down in the weeds
• Tools Malika uses
  • SEM Rush – Used for Keyword advanced research and related keywords ($100/month)
  • Keywords Everywhere – Basic keyword research (Chrome extension)
  • Google Trends – Helps you find trends with relational keywords
  • Yoast SEO – WordPress blog audit for SEO (Free)
• Content with Accessibility – 2 birds with one stone that can help with SEO tactics
• Use analytics to help guide you
• Social Media Tools:
  • Hootsuite – Schedule you social media posts
  • Missing Lettrs – Pulls in content, images, and information from your existing post and creates a drip campaign on social media
  • Post Planner – Used for topic research and find content
  • IfThisThenThat – Automate your life!
• Schedules on posting content should be consistent, but you don’t have to always hit exact dates
• Be mindful of the content that you create and use. You’re content is a reflection of you and your work
• Work on your craft and don’t be afraid to approach brands you want to work with
• Weave the product into a story revolving around you
• Grow and build your network by interacting and being involved
• Focus on the social media accounts that you are more comfortable with
• People want to know what is behind the blog – People want buy from a person and not a company
• Start a newsletter and use free giveaways to entice signups – Direct funnel to your audience
• Go to events and build connections
  • Meetup.com to find like-minded people and groups
• Common mistakes when blogging 
• Crafting your message 
• Favorite places to visit (so far) 
• Income from blogging? 
• Any other topic you’d like to talk about

Quick Picks

Malika

• SnapSeed.com app lets you edit images on your phone to give your images a polished look
• Perspective change options, update color scale, make colors pop!

Marion

• Goodreads.com Book Challenge
• Goodreads is a digital library of what you’ve read or want to read. Get recommendations from other people and can connect to your Amazon.com and Audible.com accounts

The post FHS 38 Lifestyle Blogs ft Malika Bowling 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.

How many times have you thought of an idea and said to yourself “I need to start a business around this!”? But you start and stop, sit and stew, or just do nothing. A lot of time we focus on how we are going to execute the idea rather that WHAT the idea is. Or if its even a valid one.

It’s very easy to get caught up in the weeds of how you plan on implementing your idea. Where you’re going to sell. What website you need to make. What the logo is going to look like.

But you’re more than likely forgetting a key step: Is this something that people are willing to pay for?

Your Baby

You need to sit down and specify who you’re wanting to sell to. Specifically, your goal is to finish this sentence:

“Oh, me? I help __________ to __(single group of people)__ which saves them a lot of time and money.”

if you’re doing services or  

“I sell __________ to _(single group of people)_.”

If you’re selling products

You’re then going to fill in the blank of one thing you do to a single group of people that helps them save time and money.

As a business owner, you’re going to need clients and customers. These are the people who are going to buy your idea from you. There really isn’t any way around it. You can’t operate on zero sales. Who doesn’t like sales?

We need to shift our mindset and take a hard look at our own product and idea and scrutinize it. Are we holding onto that idea or product because its “MY BABY!”? Yes, it’s your idea, but let’s take the time to do a little research to see if its a valid idea. Don’t be shy to modify and adapt. We’re going to do a little Market Research.

Market Research is a tool that will guide you to identifying EXACTLY who is willing to buy what you’re selling. Market research will help you find that group of people that your product may be interesting to. I generally 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/

Finding your customers, what their pain-points are, and understanding the value of your services is going to give you that head start that you’re looking for. It’s going to help get you out of that feeling stuck mode.

Finding and researching your customers is a shortcut to having people pay for whatever you’re selling. You’re able to accurately know what your customers and clients are willing to buy.

Finding Customers/Clients

That “group of people” piece from up above is now your identified customers and clients. Now we’re going to start identifying where your market lives.

The main tools that I personally use is Reddit.com, Meetup.com, and LinkedIn.com. This is the first step to finding and researching your customers.

Now that you know where your customers are, you can then start to research what you’re trying to sell them. You want to validate what you THINK they want to buy to what they are REALLY willing to buy. This is the second part of finding and researching your customers.

http://www.Reddit.com

Reddit is a forum style website that has millions of users and thousands of communities. One of these communities are going to be exactly your client base. On Reddit’s homepage in the upper right corner, you can search for what’s called subreddits. These are the specific communities where your clients and customers live. Within a few days or hours of using Reddit, you’re be able to identify at least 3-5 subreddits that focus on your niche. This may be one of the easiest places you’ll use when finding and researching your customers.

http://www.meetup.com

Meetup.com is a site that lists communities that line up with who your customers are. You can even find people who have similar tastes, ideas, or industries. Let’s say you’re that web developer that wants to find non-profit animal shelters. You could search “animal adoption drives” or “animal lovers of Atlanta” to find people who have similar interests. Then you can hone in on where and when they congregate. There are dozens of topics or groups or industries that meet all over the world and the States.

http://www.LinkedIn.com

You can think of LinkedIn as a social network for professionals. You can join specific communities within LinkedIn, connect with similar professionals, or target specific people in specific companies. LinkedIn has a very extensive search option that lets you find almost exactly who you’re looking for. You can pay for their premium level account and open up even more options for finding that specific client or audience.

Don’t be downhearted if you think you’re taking a while finding and researching your customers. What you’re actually doing is refining your niche and zeroing in on your customers and clients. I would honestly spend about 40-60 hours of effort to find and research your customers, and in turn, your product. 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!

Set Your Milestones

You may have a vague idea of what you’d like to accomplish with your product or service. And count that as good enough. But, each goal needs a plan, or it’s just a wish.

Once you’ve settled on WHAT you are going to be selling and to WHO, you can then slowly look at the vehicle to make it happen. It should be easier now because you know where your customers live, play, work, etc. You’ve gotten over one of the more difficult parts; now focus on getting your things in the hands of your customers/clients.

Create goals and milestones for yourself that can help you gauge if your idea and delivery methods are working. Don’t be afraid to change course when you realize something isn’t working. Your goals should have a something that is measurable behind it.

Say you want to sell T-shirts to concert attendees to a specific band. With your market research, you should have an idea on where those fans hang out (online, offline, conferences, etc) and you’ll be able to target them. Keep track of the performance of your sales when you sell in person, online, through 3rd party, etc. From those metrics, you’ll be able to refine HOW you are going to sell your products.

Now, this is a basic example but you can essentially track everything about your product and its performance. The HOW part. Eventually, you’ll find out a rhythm to what you’re doing and find that sweet spot.

Don’t forget, each goal needs to have a plan on how you’re going to achieve the goal and what ‘success’ will look like. One method in creating and achieving goals is the S.M.A.R.T. method.   

Focus on WHAT then HOW

Your product or service may go through many revisions before you will find if have an audience. Focusing on getting a product created and delivered before you even know if people will care will lose you a lot of time and money. Focus on the WHAT first; will people actually care about what i am offering?

If you find that the answer is “Yes”, THEN focus on How to deliver.

The post FHS 21 Figuring out the “WHAT” appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

Working remote can be a win-win for everyone if done right. Most people rant and rave about how awesome working remotely can be, but few really talk about the reality of working remotely.

When you do get the opportunity to start working without an office, you’ll honestly be glad you can. I just want to make sure you’ve got an eye out for the downsides of working remote.

There are usually three things you’ll want to consider when making your remote workspace easier to work in: Equipment, Software, and Location. Let’s get you set up working outside of an office a little easier.

Benefits

Where do I begin! Working remote is a new level of freedom to get the job done. You’re able to work wherever you’d like and usually whenever you’d like as well. Being a freelancer or Entrepreneur already give you a lot of freedom to make your own rules. Being able to work remotely adds another layer onto that delicious cake.

• You decide WHERE your office is
• You decide your own schedule because you can start and stop when needed
• You save a good amount of money by not having to rent a space
• You can have more effective meetings
• You can network more effectively because you value connections more
• You can become more focused with less distractions that happen within an office
• You can avoid office politics

Drawbacks

You have to also realize that working remote is not 100% roses. With anything that you’ll experience, remote working has a few drawbacks. They honestly are not show stoppers, but you’ll have to be aware of them.

• Sometimes you’ll feel left out but keeping yourself involved helps reduce this feeling
• Networking with other people may be harder and may require you to find other groups
• You’ll have to be a self starter and focused on the task at hand. Distractions are real
• You have to self motivate as there really isn’t anyone checking in on you
• You’ll have to keep up with your own training
• It can get lonely sometimes if you’re a social butterfly

Equipment

Working remotely often means that you’re literally working from anywhere you choose to! You are not tied down to a specific location and can roam wherever you’d like. What type of equipment you’d be looking for almost always boils down to something that is going to power up your different devices.

High Capacity Charger

When out and about, you’ll need to have a way to juice back up your devices. One of my favorite devices to use is the Anker High Capacity Portable Charger ($42 on Amazon.com) to keep your devices charged when need.

Portable/Light Laptop

When you’re on the go, smaller and lighter is better. Ounces add up really quickly and device that can shave off ½ an ounce will be appreciated. Look into getting a light Chromebook such as the Asus Chromebook Flip ($497.50 on Amazon) that can be a table or a laptop when needed to reduce that weight. If you’re a developer, you’ll need a more horsepower to keep your build time down. I personally like the Dell XPS laptops that are carbon fiber bodies.

Check your Sack

Lugging your devices and work around is important when working remotely. Get yourself a backpack or satchel that is comfortable and can carry your work with you. I’ve checked out the 17.3 Inch Laptop Convertible Backpack ($45 on Amazon.com) as a great middle-ground for backpacks or over the shoulder.

Software

When you’re working on the road or if you’re a nomadic worker, there are a plethora of software and apps that you’ll use to keep your day streamline. Since you’ll be working from almost anywhere, your software should be able to be accessible from anywhere as well.

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.

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

Google Drive – Free

Google is my workhorse, honestly. I use Inbox for my emails but Google Drive for my bulk work. I love the integrated office tools such as the ability to create documents, presentations, spreadsheets, and PDFs. All within the cloud.

If I need to send or create a document on the go, Google Drive a quick solution for me.

SharePoint – ~$5/month

SharePoint is another workhorse that can get a lot of things done for you. It’s a platform built by Microsoft that allows you to use almost any Microsoft Office program you need. You can configure and manage SharePoint to do almost any business operations you need to do. It does take a little bit of configuration to get done, but SharePoint is my go-to for behind the scenes business processes.

Need a way to streamline our social media postings? Bam, SharePoint can do it for you. Have clients you need to keep track of? SharePoint. Keeping track of your expense and taxes a pain in the butt? SharePoints got your back.  

Evernote – Free

Evernote is an awesome note taking solution that allows you to save all of your notes online. You can jump onto your phone, laptop, tablet, or whatever device you choose. You can easily do search across all of your notes to find that information you’ve been looking for. For the paid version, you’ll have the option of OCR (optical character recognition; fancy way of saying it reads your handwriting)

Rescue Time – Free

Rescue Time is a tool i use to help me focus on my day. You install it on your computer or phone and it keeps track of the things you do. You have two main categories: Work and Entertainment. You get graded for how long you work versus play. You can set goals for yourself and RescueTime will keep track of what you’re actually doing.

It can measure how long you play games on your computer, how long you’re on Netflix, on Reddit, or any other sites. You can also set parameters such as your working hours and what programs constitute as “fun” versus “work”.

I love metrics and what better way to see where you’re leaking productivity than RescueTime.

Slack – Free

Slack is a collaborative chatroom for your workspace. You can create private chat rooms for your productivity team to talk about your project, deadlines, or general information. You can also create or join groups that have different topics or ideas. Create your own or join in on an existing group.

I use it to keep tab of my industry, connect with colleagues, or chit-chat with friends. Slack is great for working on and keeping tabs on projects that take a lot of people and a lot of moving parts. The ability to communicate in a chat room setting, and have offshoot private conversations, is what won me over.

Skype – Free Skype-to-Skype

If you’ve never heard of Skype, then I feel bad for you. Skype is a great video and chat took that you can use to conduct conference calls. You can have a lot of people on a single call and see little to no degradation of performance. The ability to join from any device such as your phone, laptop, or table is a great way to let you work from anywhere.

Just slap in some headphones and you can jump into the call anywhere you want!

Locations

Don’t discount the notion of working in a shared work space with other Freelancers or professionals. You have the options of working for anywhere you choose from. The major point that I learned when it comes to working remotely is to make sure that you keep your work location separate from your fun location.

If you play video games, don’t work in the same location you have your game system. If you’re a book lover, work in a separate location from where you love to read.

Its very easy to blur the lines and get distracted by the “fun” activities. You’ll also notice that your productivity increase and distractions decrease if you keep the two locations separate.

Suggested places to work to reduce distractions:

• CoOp work space
• Library study rooms
• Coffee house (headphones)
• Home Office
• Desk in your bedroom
• Front porch or back deck

The post FHS 18 Working Remote appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

When looking up Impostor syndrome, you can find the definition from Wikipedia: Impostor Syndrome (also known as impostor phenomenon, fraud syndrome or the impostor experience) is a concept describing individuals who are marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud”.

Simply put, Impostor Syndrome is that feeling that you get when you think you’re a fraud or don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. Hey, it happens to everyone! The trick is to identify WHEN its happening and then you’re able to slowly overcome it. There dozens of examples and ample evidence that indicate that you’re actually a skilled person and quiet accomplished already.

Book Recommendation

We Are Legion (We Are Bob): Bobiverse, Book 1 – Dennis E. Taylor

Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it’s a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street.

Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he’ll be switched off, and they’ll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty.

The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad – very mad.

Click Here for Your Free 30 Day Trial and a FREE Audio Book with Audible

What Type of Impostor Are You?

Perfectionist

This person thinks that everything has to be 100% of the project failed. You have difficulty accepting less than 100% perfect on extremely high goals set on by yourself. There is never a “good enough” with this person. Its done or it’s wrong! Success is rarely satisfying because you’re constantly thinking “I could have done better”.

As a perfectionist, you’ll have to learn celebrate accomplishments to avoid burnout. You need to find contentment and learn from mistakes in stride. Realize that mistakes are a natural part of your process and learn from them.

Superhero

This person thinks that they are working among people who are the “real” professionals. They feel that they have to go WELL above and beyond the call of duty and try push themselves to overwork. The mindset that the more they work and the harder they work, the closer to measuring up to their colleagues they will be.

You can easily classify these as workaholics or people who are addicted to validation that comes from work and the work itself. Your insecurities stem from needing approval from your colleagues.

The Superhero needs to be more attuned to their own accomplishments. The fact that you’ve made it THIS far is a major deal. Look around you and realize that your skills are competent and very much needed. You’ll also need to learn to take criticism constructively and not personally.

Gifted

This person was told by a lot of people around him that he is talked, smart, or great at something. They’re easy to pick up or understand something and find success based on their abilities versus effort. When tasked with something that is hard for them, they assume that they are bad at it.

If something can’t be done quickly or in a timely manner, they automatically assume that they’re incompetent.

To overcome this, you have to realize that you will always be learning. You will not be 100% at everything you try. Don’t beat yourself up for your shortcoming. Focus on bettering yourself with specific changeable behaviors or goals that you can do over time.

Individualist

This person feels that if they ask for help or assistance, that they’ll be found out. You constantly feel that you need to accomplish things on your own come hell-or-high-water. You push help away even if you need it.

To help break this cycle, realize that the fact that you asked for help is an awesome opportunity to better yourself. You’ve just pinpointed something that you can focus on and level up. You’re still the expert when it comes to what you’re doing. That person helping you will not forget that.

Fake Expert

The Fake Expert believes that the client/customer was tricked into hiring them. You seek additional training in what you’re already hired to do because you feel that the person who hired you ‘catch on’. You never feel that you’re good enough and may get into that cycle of always training and not working. This can be a subtle form of procrastination.

There is no shame in realizing that your responsibilities have evolved and changed. You can learn new skills as needed. You also need to understand that there is no shame in asking others for assistance. Seeking advice does not indicate that you’ve bamboozled your clients. It shows that your resourceful AND you gain additional knowledge. Pretty much a win-win.

Check Your Confidence

A common culprit of impostor syndrome is slip in your confidence in who you are and your abilities. What’s got you riled up and shook? Are you facing a new opportunity? Have you been invited to sit in on a very important meeting? Are you thinking of pursuing that high-profile client?

Identify specifically what’s possibly triggering your low confidence. Write it down and talk to yourself about that problem. Use the Rubber Ducky method (you can use it to talk through not just coding problems…) and say your problems out loud. I PROMISE you you’ll be able to talk yourself out of that doubt. You may even find that the underlying problem is just a huge assumption made of nothing.

Don’t forget, you didn’t just accidentally stumble into that meeting. You didn’t just tripped and found a new opportunity. That high-profile client is not a mythical creature, you can talk to them like a human being. You’re already oozing with success, you just think your tank is empty!

Change Your Tone/Language

Alter the way you talk about yourself and what you do! How you discuss your projects or the skills you have will have an assertive affect on yourself. Eliminate doubt from your sentences such as “I don’t know but, I just feel…” when talking about ideas or pitching to clients. Assertive phrases will slowly start making you believe in what you’re saying. And your clients/customers will notice!

Try words that show confidence in what your ideas are such as “I don’t recommend that…” or “Based on experience, option B would….” Champion your ideas through assertive language.

You’re Not the Only One

At the end of the day, you have to realize that Impostor Syndrome is not a rare THING that people. Almost every celebrity, CEO, actor, athlete, etc, have had a bout of Impostor Syndrome. EVERYONE starts from the bottom and build their way up! Just because you feel that you’re not as successful as you think, you need to take a step back and realize the path you’ve take to this point in life!

Mentoring other people is a GREAT way to break through your self doubt. You have so much knowledge and skills in what you do that other are lack. Its crazy on the number of people who DON’T know what you know and wish they did. Mentoring someone rising in your field/industry is a perfect way to see that.

The post FHS 16 Who the Hell Do You Think You Are!? appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

Lisa Treadwell – Boss Lady

Lisa is the QUEEN of pursuing those “What if…” ideas and making them into reality. Lisa is a Senior Business Analysis hailing from Chicago who take challenges head on an isn’t afraid to overcome her fears. Recently, Lisa took on the challenge of becoming a truck driver after many years as a Business Analysis. She planned on pursuing a trucking career to learn the ins-and-outs about trucking to one day own/operate her own logistics company.

She has shown time and time again that pushing through that barrier of ‘what if’ has success on the other side. Her resilience and drive to go after her goals and blaze her own path is inspiring. I talk to her the process and ideas she goes through when she looks at something and says “What if…”, because more often than not, she’s going to accomplish that goal.

Her History

• In the mid 2000s, she was off-on short term contracts
• Spiritual motivation
• Chicago was not working as expected, moved to Charlotte, NC on a whim
• Learned within 6-months did not like Charlotte
  • Finished Masters degree
• Moved back to Chicago, but soon moved to Ga
  • Joined CDC contract
• Epiphany: in order to gain some control in her life, she sought creating a company
• Get license for Trucking to start own trucking company
• Passed license course first time!
• Planned and put into motion to go out on the road for about a year
  • Lasted 4 months: learned a lot in the process
• Shifted goals to focus on Dump-trucks versus 18-wheelers
  • Refined goals to be more specific

What motivates you

• Reduce risk
  • False sense of security with a single company
• Control your income
• Unlimited potential income
• Self motivated rewards
• Long term – End life goals

Suggestions on pushing through the negativity

• Naysayers will be around and you can’t let them get to you
• Can’t let fears stopping you from your dreams
• Spiritual strength
• Looking where you cam from to where you are now
• Being realistic with your goals

Setting goals

• Make sure your goals are measurable
• Short term, medium term, and long term
• Write your goals down!
• Progress up the ladder
• Review your goals
• Focus on what you want to do

When to put things in motion

• Support from friends and family
• Financial safety net

The post FHS 15 Turning “What if…” Into Reality ft Lisa Treadwell appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

The first (and often missed) crucial step to proper goal setting is to make sure that your goals are well thought out. A lot of people approach goal setting with a general idea of what they’d like to accomplish and consider this ‘good enough’. This does not count as setting a goal; you’re having a ‘wishful thinking’ moment.

Each goal needs to have a plan on how you’re going to achieve the goal and what ‘success’ will look like. One of my favorite method in creating and achieving goals is the S.M.A.R.T. method.   

Specific: The more specific and detailed your goal is, the more likely you are to achieve it. Write down your specific goals and make them visible! Seeing your goals on paper will help you subtly keep that goal in your mind. Remember, out of sight, out of mind.

Measurable: The more you are able to track progress, the more likely you are to succeed. How do you know where you stand if you do not know your starting point or where you currently are? Take stock of what your current situation is and have a metric that you can measure against. Let’s say you have 2 clients right now and you want to get 2 additional clients. THAT is a measurable goal.

‘I want to have more free time’ is also measurable. Keep track of your current free time and go from there. The point is to ensure that your goals have a “right now” and a “Where i want to be” number.

Attainable: Make sure that the goal you are setting is realistic to where you are starting and attainable. Every single person starts from the bottom. No-one starts off being #1 right out of the gate.

Make sure your measurable goals are realistic and attainable. Saying that, don’t be shy to push yourself a little.

Relevant: How relevant is this goal? Setting relevant goals will help keep you inspired and on track to reach your immediate and your long term goals. This also helps you to think deeply about what you are doing and if it is keeping you focused on your own personal ‘bigger picture’.

Building that momentum to achieve your goal is very easy in the beginning. Keeping it going is going to be the hard part! Create a goal that will contribute to your larger goal to keep yourself moving.  

Timely: Setting time limits helps maintain focus on the plan ahead and keeps you motivated and inspired to stay on track. Create small milestones for yourself that helps you gauge the progress on your goal!

Include rewards for reaching minor and major milestones as well. Everyone loves prizes, why not give yourself one for doing an awesome job?

Don’t set goals that are extremely far away or long. Break them down into attainable and smaller goals to keep that momentum going. Want to make 6 figures in your business? Start with 3 figures first then build up! Your accomplishments will seem like a piece of cake and you’ll be able to level up in no time.

Don’t forget, be real with yourself. Don’t create goals that are too far fetched or unrealistic. At the same time, you need to stretch yourself and push yourself to do the best you can.

You can always adjust and adapt your goals to changes of real life! No-one said that your goals are set in stone and CANNOT be changed. No-on said that you can change your goal marker of success. Do what you need to do to ensure that you’re winning!

A goal without a plan is just a wish.

The post FHS 14: A Goal Without a Plan is Just a Wish appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.