Laura Briggs, The Freelance Coach – InnovaBuzz 252
Laura Briggs, The Freelance Coach
In this episode, I’m really excited to have as my guest, Laura Briggs, who is a Freelance Writer and Coach. Laura spent most of her life preparing to be an educator and then burned out after working as a middle school teacher. She started a freelance writing career on the side, and quickly replaced then surpassed her day job earnings and hit the six-figure mark in just 18 months.
Since 2013, Laura has worked full-time for herself helping clients with content and project management by leveraging time management and digital teams. She now teaches others how to build fulfilling lifestyle businesses from home as a coach. Laura is also the author of “Launch Your Own Freelance Writing Business” and a 2 time TEDx speaker.
In our discussion, Laura and I talked about:
- Rapidly scaling up your business
- Building a virtual team
- Setting up our business with recurring revenue
Listen to the podcast to find out more.
Listen to the Podcast
Never assume that there is only one person who can do all the extra things on your to-do list that you don't. That person does not exist. @SixFigureWriter on #InnovaBuzz podcast Click To Tweet
Show Notes from this episode with Laura Briggs, The Freelance Coach
Key points and takeaways from this episode include:
- People need blogs every single month.
- Business owners wear a lot of different hats but the reality is that we shouldn’t be doing a lot of the tasks that we do at the beginning. As a business owner, you have to know what your zone of genius is.
- Never assume that there is only one person who can do all the extra things on your to-do list that you don’t. That person does not exist.
- Don’t look for someone who is a second version of you. Look for someone who can fill the gaps in places where you can’t be.
- Hiring the most affordable person is not always the best solution. Hire the right person for the job even if that person is not necessarily the cheapest.
- Good people are hard to find. Make sure that you know the type of personality you are trying to hire for.
- Have a really good customer avatar and get in the mindset of that person. You want to meet that person right where they are at to help them through the process and increase the chances that they will feel that trusting relationship with your client’s content.
- There are 2 primary ways that you can niche as a writer – by project type and by client type. You can either do one or do both.
- Try to think specifically about your clients’ pain points and the challenges they have had in hiring other freelancers. The more that you can understand them, the easier it will be to create materials for those projects.
- No. 1 tip for building courses: Don’t create the course first. You don’t want to spend a lot of time on an unwanted course. Pre-sell it and see if it sells first.
- Create assignments and provide options in your online course where people can invest at different levels to ensure accountability.
- People don’t like courses that are very long and they feel confident when they get a small win. Create a course that is shorter with a very clear output of what the person is going to achieve.
- Podcasting helps build trust faster.
- Landing a TED Talk is ultimately about time and persistence. TEDx event organisers are looking for a really good balance and variety of speakers so don’t take it personally when you get rejected. Just keep working at it.
- Just because you work from home doesn’t mean that you can be unprofessional. It doesn’t mean that it is not work. You have to put in a lot of hours and a lot of effort on your part to make it work.
- Researching, writing, and editing are all different. They are distinct tasks.
Don't look for someone who is a second version of you. Look for someone who can fill the gaps in places where you can't be. @SixFigureWriter on #InnovaBuzz podcast Click To Tweet
The Buzz – Our Innovation Round
Here are Laura’s answers to the questions of our Innovation round. Listen to the interview to get the full scoop.
- #1 thing to be more innovative – Always be questioning everything that you are doing and be self-reflective.
- Best thing for new ideas – Get out of your environment and find your tribe of people.
- Favourite tool for innovation – Toggle
- Keep project / client on track – Breaking down a big project into different pieces.
- Differentiate – Know who you are and recognise that not everyone will like you or will want to work with you. Embrace your strengths and weaknesses.
To Be a Leader
You can’t do it all by yourself even if up to now you’ve been able to. You need other people to help you get things done.
Reach Out
You can reach out and thank Laura through her website.
Suggested Guest
Laura suggested I interview Michael Vann, author of Buying Out the Boss. So Michael, keep an eye on your inbox for an invitation from us to the InnovaBuzz podcast, courtesy of Laura Briggs.
Links
- Website– The Freelance Coach
- Twitter– @SixFigureWriter
- Advanced Freelancing Podcast
Book
Cool things about Laura
- She recently won the Best Business Book Award of 2019 at the 2019 Author Academy Awards for “Start Your Own Freelance Writing Business.”
- She grew her revenue to $200k+ per year as a solopreneur.
- She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science and Economics, and a PhD in Public Admin Policy.
You can't do it all by yourself even if up to now you've been able to. You need other people to help you get things done. @SixFigureWriter on #InnovaBuzz podcast Click To Tweet