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Get Clients Now – by C.J. Hayden

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Get Clients Now is one of my consistent go-back-and-read-this-again books. This

I recently read an amazing book that helped me reach a 40% increase in my revenue. Get Clients Now (by C.J. Hayden) has helped me identify a rhythm of marketing and promoting my services. This basic guided outline takes you through the different types of effective marketing strategies.

In episode 7, I break down the different strategies that I’ve used. You can listen to that episode by clicking this link here:

From MOST Effective to LEAST Effective Marketing Strategies:

1. Direct Contact & Follow Up
   1. This involves making a person-to-person connection with a prospective client through email, phone call, in person, fax, text message, etc. This tactic can include cold calling, warm calling, and lunch/coffee with potential clients. I touch on a few steps that I’ve done personally to land some of my first clients as well as some of my most lucrative clients.
2. Networking & Referral Building
   1. Meeting people face to face at networking events is just a drop in the bucket for this strategy. Building a list of contacts that you can tap into for referrals, clients, resources, ideas, or information should be the goal of networking.
3. Public Speaking
   1. Positioning yourself as a expert to your potential clients can start from public speaking. Public speaking will help you become more memorable and noticeable than if you were in the crowd.
4. Writing & Publicity
   1. Writing about your expertise can also be a powerful marketing strategy by gaining visibility and credibility among your peers and potential clients. Start small through social media, blogs, or your own website. Reach out to other blogs as guest writers can quickly lead you to more and more opportunities to show that you’re an expert.
5. Promotional Events
   1. Creating an event such as a trade show, fundraiser, or a conference can put you in direct contact with potential clients and bring the audience to YOU. This also holds true with participating in an existing event by owning/renting a booth. Cost is very real on both end at with this strategy: participating in an event or creating an event can be a very expensive cost per head experience.
6. Advertising
   1. There are generally two different types of advertising: organic and paid.Organic advertising is essentially word of mouth and low/no-cost advertising. Advertising by talking about and promoting your goods and products on social media or withing your mailing list is an example of organic advertising. This is the lowest cost engagement and can have some of the highest returns. Referrals are very powerful and builds trust.Paid advertising can help fill your pipeline with paying customers, but they don’t necessarily build trust in your product. Treat advertising as a way to increase your visibility and awareness to potential customers. The trust and eventual sale will come with them interacting with you directly.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business – by Charles Duhigg

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The Power of Habit is an interesting book that helps you understand why people do certain habits. Good and bad and how to help break or change that habit. This book looks at huge corporations and individuals and breaks down how habits are everywhere. From Starbucks to Target to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, habits are everywhere and can move mountains.

The Cue, Routine, Reward cycle is the basic concept behind the ‘Habit Loop’. Its what can be measured behind a habit. This can be in business or in life and we may not even be paying attention to it. By breaking down our habits, we can take control over our good or bad habits.

The Habit Loop have measurable stages in our habits. There is the Cue: the trigger for our habit. The Routine: what do we do during our habit. And the Reward: Why do we do our habit. This then restarts the Habit Loop and we’re back to it again.

Bringing this concept into our freelancing operation, we can create a Habit Loop to find and win customers and contracts.

Hooked: How To Build Habit-Forming Products – by Nir Eyal

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Excerpt from the book: 

Why do some products capture widespread attention while others flop? What makes us engage with certain products out of sheer habit? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us?

Nir Eyal answers these questions (and many more) by explaining the Hook Model—a four-step process embedded into the products of many successful companies to subtly encourage customer behavior. Through consecutive “hook cycles,” these products reach their ultimate goal of bringing users back again and again without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging.

Customers and clients have a trigger that we can tap into that rely on existing habits that they have. We go on autopilot when we take action on behaviors that we are accustomed to. Building upon the habits that we may already have in our day-to-day, we can understand and alter them to our benifits. The same goes to when dealing with customers spending and purchasing habits.

Hooked is based on Eyal’s years of research, consulting, and practical experience. He wrote the book he wished had been available to him as a start-up founder—not abstract theory, but a how-to guide for building better products. Hooked is written for product managers, designers, marketers, start-up founders, and anyone who seeks to understand how products influence our behavior.

Book Yourself Solid – by Micheal Port

Purchase on Amazon today – Click Here!

Booked Yourself Solid has a basic premise: promote yourself. This book highlights strategic ways to get customers to notice you and your services. A lot of times, we are focusing on promoting our clients work and ignoring our own business. 

Book Yourself Solid is a handbook for self-promotion that translates into results.

• Build a solid foundation for a stellar public image
• Enhance your reputation for trust and credibility
• Perfect your pitch and pricing to attract higher-caliber clients
• Adopt the six core strategies that will keep you booked solid

The strategies in this book helps us focus on building the foundation of our reputation, how our clients view us, and the type of work we’ll attract. Starting small and eventually building a promotion can help you effectively land the types of jobs you’re looking for in a consistent way.

Whats Next?

I’m finding more and more that I’m moving towards using Audible for books. I tend to also stock up on other podcasts and listen on the go. Here are a few books that are in my queue, but haven’t listened or read yet.

• The Millionaire Next Door – Thomas J. Stanley
  • This book identifies common traits that a lot of successful and wealthy that keep showing up again and again. Its on my to-read list for sure.
• The Total Money Makeover – Dave Ramsey
  • One of the classic books that MOST people have heard about. Its a powerful guide and program to help get you out of debt. The ‘snowball effect’ has helped me, as well as tons of others out there, reduce debt and build a financial platform.

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Christmas is my favorite time of year. I love the lights, the sounds, the smells, and finding that perfect gift! Let me give you a few suggestions in a couple of different price brackets with this 2017 Holiday Gift Guide. These gifts are sure to please that freelancer or entrepreneur no matter what they specialize in.

Gifts for under $10

Foot Hammock – $7.89
This foot hammock is easy to use and carry. Great for under the desk or when you travel by plane or train. You can quickly set up and grab some comfy Zzz’s with this foot hammock.

Click Here to Purchase on Amazon

To Do Notepad – $8.99
This notepad is going to help keep you organized and on track with what you need to do. A perfect mix of action tracking and completion.

Click Here to Purchase on Amazon

Wooden Puzzle – $7.99
Keep your mind sharp with this fun little puzzle. Its small enough that you can keep it on a desk or in a travel bag.

Click Here to Purchase on Amazon

Gifts for under $50

Anker High Capacity Portable Charger – $41.99
Its so frustrating to be in a situation where you need to charge your phone and you don’t have access to a charger or a plug. With the Anker high capacity portable charger, you’re able to take care of multiple devices at once and hold a ridiculous charge at the same time. You can charge your phone 7 times over with this bad boy. WHAT?!

Click Here to Purchase on Amazon

Amazon Echo Dot – $29.99 Sale (Regular $49)
The Echo Dot is a great companion to your office or home. It allows you to vocally ask an assistant a mullion questions. You can also perform thousands of tasks with just your voice! Light control, calendar organization, make phone calls, play music, set reminders, dictate notes, and even play games. The Amazon Echo (the large unit) has a larger speaker for bigger rooms, but the Dot has the exact same functionality…minus that large speaker.

Click Here to Purchase on Amazon

Sony Extra Bass Smartphone Headset Over the Ear Headphones – $34.99
These Sony Headphones are perfect for working on something that needs your attention. You can grab these bad boys and help down out some distractions. It does have an inline mic and volume control to help you manage phone calls as well.

Click Here to Purchase on Amazon

Gifts for under $150

Blue Yeti USB Microphone – $80 Sale ($150 regular)

The Blue Yeti microphone is a great microphone for people who do alot of conference calls or recordings. This microphone can pick up some pretty specific noises with its various profile selectors. You can choose to set it up for single voice recording, omnidirectional recording, or entire room/location recording with the turn of a selector. Pair this up with a shock stand or a microphone arm and you’re set!

Click Here to Purchase on Amazon

Amazon Fire HD Tablet – $120 Sale ($149.99 regular)

The Amazon Fire HD 10” tablet has an impressive HD quality display with 10 hours of battery life. You’re able to surf the net, check your email, take notes, and relax with some Netflix. This tablet is light enough that you can take it on the go to meetings on the road or keep it in your office to do quick and light work.

Click Here to Purchase on Amazon

Year Subscription to Audible – $165 (I know I cheated a little here…)

Audible is an subscription based audiobook marketplace with THOUSANDS of books. One of my favorite books to start with is “Book Yourself Solid” by Micheal Port. This book will seriously transform how you think about finding and acquiring clients. Each month you get a credit for a single book, regardless of the purchase price. It’s hard to listen to that many audio books…..

Click Here to Purchase on Amazon

Gifts for under $500

Asus Chromebook Flip – $497.50
A Chromebook is an awesome alternative to a traditional laptop. This Asus Chromebook Flip is a perfect mix between a tablet and a laptop. You can change the physical aspects to display a presentation, use as a tablet, or use as a laptop.

Chromebooks are lightning fast, light, and super agile and this Asus is no exception. Most freelancers and entrepreneurs can take advantage of some new hardware so pick this Chromebook up for the holidays.

Click Here to Purchase on Amazon

Samgsung 500GB Portable Harddrive – $169.97
Make sure your data is secure and always with you with this massive hard drive. You will have that peace of mind with this Samsung portable hard drive with 500GB of space. With impressively fast transfer speeds and an option to secure your information with a lock-tight password, this portable hard drive is a must have.

Click Here to Purchase on Amazon

Google Wifi Mesh Network – $269.99
Wifi coverage can be a pain in the butt when you’re trying to work. Its annoying and unproductive if you have coverage in only ONE spot in your workspace. Spread out the wifi and blanket your home or office with some awesome speeds. You’ll be able to extend the range of your existing Wifi and increase coverage dramatically.

Click Here to Purchase on Amazon

Gifts for under $1,000

Google Pixel 2 XL – $899.99

The Pixel 2 is the newest phone from Google with an impressive camera. The low light, portrait, and new Augmented Reality features are ridiculously good. You’re going to have problems finding a phone that has comparable photo abilities. If your purchase the new Pixel 2, you have unlimited Google Photos storage until 2020.

Additional features that you’re going to take advantage of with this phone is the Google assistant with a quick squeeze of the phone. Thats right…squeeze. You can also use the new Google Lense to learn more about landmarks or look up books, movies, albums and artwork. Its pretty accurate and will bring more info that you thought.

I cannot recommend this phone enough. Stop reading and grab this powerhouse.

Click Here to Purchase on Amazon

Samsung 34-Inch Curved Monitor – $749.99
Having a workstation that can help you multi-task or have multiple programs displayed gives you hyper productivity. Most people have multiple monitors already, but not that many have a single CURVED monitor. This Samsung curved monitor workhorse bring you a fantastic HD experience and crisp resolution. You’re also getting the desktop space of almost 3 monitors side-by-side! I love this monitor because the footprint that it takes on the desk is limited and it gives you the impressive desktop space.

Click Here to Purchase on Amazon

iRobot Roomba 980 Robot Vacuum with Wi-Fi Connectivity – $897.99

I have yet to meet someone who enjoys cleaning their place up. The iRobot Roombas have been around for a good while and have been synonymous for their awesome Roomba robots. The new Roomba 980 have Wifi connectivity that allows you you clean, schedule, & customize cleaning preferences from your smartphone; compatible with Amazon Alexa and the Google Assistant. You can control the Roomba with your voice!

The iRobot Roomba can clean your office with their iAdapt 2.0 Navigation with Visual Localization Runs for up to 120 minutes. It will then recharges and resumes cleaning to complete the entire job on the fly. No need to babysit this guy.

Click Here to Purchase on Amazon

The post FHS Bonus: Ultimate Freelancer 2017 Holiday Gift Guide appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.