The Freelancers' Show

Fernando Angulo joins the Freelancers' Show panel to help the understand how and why to build content that will show up as answers to questions and other results in Google beyond the results listed in Google on a search. Panelists Brooks Forsyth Brad Large Charles Max Wood Guest Fernando Angulo Sponsors Cloudways Use Promo code "Devchat" for 30% off for 3 months on all plans Sentry Use code "devchat" for $100 credit CacheFly ____________________________________________________________ "The MaxCoders Guide to Finding Your Dream Developer Job" by Charles Max Wood is now available on Amazon. Get Your Copy Today! ____________________________________________________________ Links Fernando Angulo - SEMRush - "Content for people and for Google" - GCEFlesch-Kincaid readabilityYoast Picks Brooks Forsyth: True Lemon Pack Brad Large: Obviously AwesomePia Silva Charles Max Wood: The Name of the Wind Fernando Angulo: Getting Things Done

Felipe Millan joins the panel to talk about mistakes that freelancers make. The panel joins in with mistakes that they've made as well. The episode wraps up with Felipe talking about how he finds people online that are good prospects for outreach for SEMRush. This episode revolutionized the way that Devchat.tv finds sponsors. Panelists Brad Large Charles Max Wood Brooks Forsyth Guest Felipe Millan Sponsors CloudwaysCacheFly ____________________________________________________________ "The MaxCoders Guide to Finding Your Dream Developer Job" by Charles Max Wood is now available on Amazon. Get Your Copy Today! ____________________________________________________________ Links Find That LeadListen NotesGrowth Marketing & Outbound GroupSAAS Growth Hacks Group Picks Brad Large: Bomb PancakesBomb WafflesThe Irresistible Consultant's Guide to Winning Clients Brooks Forsyth: Watchmen Charles Max Wood: Hunter.Io Felipe Millan: GmeliusAudible

Olga Andrienko is a Search Engine Optimization and content marketing expert at SEMRush. She walks us through the process of selecting keywords and designing content to get a snippet, or better spot on Google and other search engine searches. Panelists Brad Large Charles Max Wood Brooks Forsyth Guest Olga Andrienko Sponsors G2iSentry | Use the code “devchat” for $100 credit CacheFly ____________________________________________________________ "The MaxCoders Guide to Finding Your Dream Developer Job" by Charles Max Wood is now available on Amazon. Get Your Copy Today! ____________________________________________________________ Picks Olga Adrienko: Everybody Lies Charles Max Wood: The Man In the High CastleMagician: MasterReady Fire Aim Brad Large: YoastKai Davis' Emails

In this episode of The Freelancers Show, Mike Volkin describes a successful marketing funnel. One common problem in freelancing is finding your next client, a marketing funnel will be constantly bringing clients to you. Mike’s direct response funnel starts with a Facebook or Google ad. This ad will bring potential clients to your landing page. The landing page will contain a sign up for a webinar that will teach them to solve a specific problem. At the end of the webinar, they will be offered your cost-effective solution.  The panel discusses different examples for this solution and Mike explains how this funnel can be used for any business, podcast, courses, products, and coding. The panel shares their concern with the costs of ads. Mike explains how you can optimize your ad budget and the importance of targeting a specific audience to increase your ROI. You can better target clients by niching your solution. Mike explains how you can use Facebook to find your niche and target your audience. The panel shar

In this episode of the Freelancers Show, Mike Volkin leads the panel on a discussion of what he calls the nine traits to attract high paying clients. The first is to be attentive. This doesn’t mean overcommunicate but to better outline how and when you are going to communicate with clients. Second, is be mindful. Time is money, so put away your phone and avoid distractions during your designated working hours.   The third trait is to be caring. Care about your reputation, your clients and prospects. The fourth trait is to be resourceful. This is accomplished by doing your research on prospects, their problems and other experts in your niche. Fifth, be respectful. Respect your rates, don’t beg or lower your rates.    Sixth, be a good listener. When on a call, listen to their pain points and problems. Don’t oversell yourself, all they need to know is your name, expertise, how long you’ve been a freelance and a small part of your story. The seventh trait is to be a good communicator. This means outline your

In this episode of The Freelancers Show the panel interviews Christian Lüdemann. Christian consults on Angular development and creates online training courses. Today they are talking about building online training courses and marketing. Charles Max Wood shares some of the reasons you might want to create online courses. They start by discussing how to build courses.  Christian recommends starting with an in house workshop for building courses. They can look over your work and give you valuable feedback before you get in too deep. He also explains how targeting a specific need can create more value for your course. Christian has a background in DevOps as well and uses that in his courses to create more valuable content.  The panel considers what courses to build. They recommend listening to the market and find a need. Christian explains that a course should just cover one thing but should provide a package to meet a need. With information readily available on the internet, the purpose and value of a course a

In this episode of The Freelancers Show the panel interviews Mike Volkin. Mike explains what neuroplasticity is and how it can make you a better entrepreneur. He outlines five tips to increase your neuroplasticity. The first tip is to get enough sleep. They discuss ways to make sure you get enough sleep and how to wake up the right way.  The second tip is to stand up or kneel while working. They discuss ways to do this, setting a timer, using standing mats and kneeling chairs. Tip number three is continuous learning. Mike explains that it doesn’t have to be something for your business, it can be anything that makes you happy. The panel shares some of their hobbies and discusses time management and the importance of setting goals.  The fourth tip is to reduce stress. Mike recommends meditation and mindfulness. He explains the difference between the two. The panel discusses their experiences with meditation. The final tip is creative visualization, the practice of visualizing your goals and how you will accom

In this episode of The Freelancers Show, the new panel is introduced and they discuss getting into freelancing. Brooks Forsyth is brand new to the show. He is from Connecticut and works mostly with Angular and Ionic. He has consulted for large firms but has recently been doing more independent contracting.  Charles Max Wood has been on The Freelancers Show before but it has been a while so he introduces himself as well. Charles is the owner of DevchatTV, before that he did freelancing. They start by discussing how contracting with a large corporation compares to other contracting jobs. They also consider how those compare to moonlighting contract work.  As CEO of DevchatTV Charles has hired contractors to help him run the shows, he shares some of the ways that he has found his employees. He and Brooks discuss Upwork and sites like them. They share how they got started in freelancing and how they found their first jobs.  Charles tells the listeners that it was worth it and gives them some advice to help wit

In this episode of The Freelancers Show, Reuven Lerner gives some insight into recessions, how they work and how you can prepare for them. He explains that an economy will rise and fall but is always growing. A recession is when instead of growing the economy decreases, there is less business activity, layoffs, etc…  Reuven explains why some people are talking about an upcoming recession. It is impossible to predict a recession but economists can use various events as signs of possible recessions. He explains how the long expansion, trade wars, and the inverted yield curve all point to an upcoming recession. Recession doesn’t always affect every sector, Reuven shares examples of recessions and the sectors they hit.  Reuven lists ways to prepare your business for a recession and share examples of how he has been doing this for his own business. First, make sure you cast a wide net for potential clients. Next, specialize in something specific and make sure the world knows your name and what you do. He stresse

In this episode of The Freelancer’s Show the panel discusses setting boundaries on the scope of engagements. This means not taking jobs that are too big or too small for you. They begin by define projects that are too small. They explain how many may not realize that there is such a thing a project that is too small.  A too-small engagement may be too short in duration or not profitable enough.  An example Erik Dietrich shares is a two-hour job that is three hours away and they are only paying your $200, between travel, and labor that is 8 hours of work for only $200 which is not worth it. Jeremy Green shares an example from his past. He fell into the trap of taking on 2-hours per month retainer contracts. The problem with contracts like these is that clients cannot intuitively understand how long things will take or may feel that the 2-hours they paid for should roll over when a month goes by without using them.  They explain how setting boundaries defining what is too small is better than trying to use yo

In this episode of The Freelancers Show, Erik Dietrich explains the term economic buyer and how it can affect freelancers and business owners. An economic buyer is the person within an organization who has the authority to purchase something. Knowing who your economic buyer is will affect how you market your product, for freelancers, this includes labor or services.  Starting with the most desirable, Erik lists the main types of buyers’ situations. The first is the autonomous buyer situation. A lone buyer makes the decision about purchasing a product. Erik shares the example of a manager taking the team out for lunch. They didn’t have to consult anyone and decided to do that on their own. The next situation and the second most desirable after the autonomous buyer situation is the buyer and research assistant/influencer. For this situation, Erik uses the example of the CIO or director of engineering choosing the new IDE for a new project. They may not care about the finer details or don’t have the technical

In this episode of The Freelancers Show the panel share advice and experiences for publishing technical books. Each of the panelists has experience publishing books. Reuven Lerner published a book, Core Perl back in 2000, using a publisher and has self-published two more books in recent years. He is currently republishing one of his self-published books using a publisher.  Erik Dietrich has written three books, two of which were published through a friend and the third was self-published. Jeremy Green contributed to The Independent Consulting Manual and runs a SAS called Remarq, a tool for those who want to self-publish. Why write a book? The panel warns listeners that if your goal is to make money that most likely will not happen. They explain that authors who make real money from their books are rare and authors who make money off of technical books are even more rare. One reason to write a book is so that people will know your name and want to hire yours. Another reason is that writing a book will give y

Episode Summary In this week’s episode of The Freelancers Show the panel discusses the importance of defining success. Jeremy Green explains why this concept of defining what success means to you is so important. Without success behind defined you might put your nose to the grindstone and miss your own success. Inversely you might be grinding away, missing the signs that what you are doing isn’t taking you to success and you need to stop and reevaluate.    The panel considers some of the obvious signs of success like key performance indicators. Are you making enough to pay your bills, save and play? It is easy to think success is making a million dollars. If that is your definition of success, the panel explains that you will all your success along the way. They invite everyone to sit down and really think of what success means to you. How do you want to spend your time? Are you doing something you love? Do you want to spend more time with friends and family?    Jeremy explains why he wanted to talk abou

Episode Summary   In this week’s episode of The Freelancers Show, Reuven Lerner teaches about B2B and B2C business strategies, giving advice and examples from his own life. He begins by defining B2B or business to business, selling your services to businesses. This type of exchange usually happens behind scenes, Sysko being one example of a B2B company. B2B doesn’t necessarily mean businesses, it could be government agencies or non-profits.    Reuven defines B2C or business to consumer, selling a product or service to individuals. This type of business is seen all the time in advertisements and tv commercials, Coca Cola is the example he gives. The first thing to decide is what you want to sell and then to whom.    Next, Reuven explains why most freelancers go with B2B. It is an established and safer route, especially if you are offering something like web development or web design. Companies are always looking for that kind of help, using contractors and agencies. Reuven does Python training for compan

Sponsors Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry’s small plan Adventures in DevOpsViews on VueCacheFly Panel Erik Dietrich Summary Erik Dietrich, the owner of Hit Subscribe, does a solo episode on the journey from freelancer to agency owner. He starts by defining three different roles in this journey, freelancer, business owner, and agency owner. He overviews the typical journey from freelancer to agency owner and evolution of roles and responsibilities that occurs on this journey. He then outlines his own journey.    Erik discusses the possible motivations one might have for becoming an agency owner, money, equity, and time. He also addresses the struggles of being an agency owner. He lists questions to ask yourself before deciding to go down this path. He ends the episode by giving advice to those who decide this is something they want. Links https://daedtech.comhttps://join.dynamitecircle.com/https://www.facebook.com/freelancersshow/ Picks Erik Dietrich: Built

Sponsors Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry’s small plan Adventures in DevOpsViews on VueCacheFly Panel Erik Dietrich Summary Erik Dietrich does a solo episode sharing his content marketing expertise. Erik runs a content marketing agency, Hit Subscribe, he starts by sharing his background and how he got to this point. He defines marketing as a strategy to show your goods to your customer, content marketing is doing this with content. He explains that by offering free content you build trust with your audience. Listing the various types of content, blogs, video, podcasting, email and more, Erik ranks them on their effectiveness and gives his recommendations.   Start with one source of content and make it sustainable, this is Erik’s first recommendation, once you have that down, expand but maintain that sustainability. Unless your situation is desperate, Erik encourages everyone to start content marketing. He explains the benefits, filtering out clients that are a

Sponsors Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry’s small plan CacheFly Panel Erik Dietrich Jeremy Green Summary Jeremy Green and Erik Dietrich discuss the unforeseen pain points of becoming a freelancer and share solutions that they have used in their lives and businesses to address these pain points. They considered pipeline management, not having enough work, having too much work and having ill-fitting work. How companies treat vendors and dealing with rejection are discussed. The loneliness of a freelancers life and how to combat it are considered. The hidden cost of working on your own and owning a business are addressed, including health insurance and taxes. The positives and negatives of time and money management are compared. They warn against bad clients and give warning signs against them.  Links https://www.facebook.com/freelancersshow/ Picks Erik Dietrich: The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About ItThe Pump

Sponsors Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry’s small planCacheFly Host: Charles Max Wood Episode Summary Charles talks about his journey as a podcaster and his mission with Devchat.tv. Devchat.tv  is designed to home podcasts that speak to all developer communities. Charles also plans Devchat.tv to host shows for technologies that are on the verge of a breakthrough and will be a lot more widely available in the near future such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). There are new shows being added continuously to reach out to new communities, some examples of which are: a Data Science show, a DevOps show and an Open Source show. As a kid, Charles would record his own shows on a tape recorder. He was always interested in technology. While studying Computer Engineering at Brigham Young University, he worked in the University's Operations Center. Upon graduation, he started working for Mozy where he was int

Sponsors Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry’s small plan CacheFly Panel Erik Dietrich Reuven Lerner Summary Erik and Rueven define indefinite engagements, warning against staff augmentation type of consulting and contracting gigs. They explain how this is not a good business strategy. Thinking of yourself as a business is the first step to breaking out of these types of engagements. Erik and Reuven give more advice for breaking away including having savings before breaking away, identifying what your best at, market testing and weaning your current client. The benefits and drawbacks of working shorter and more high powered gigs are considered. The episode ends with a discussion of the importance of maintaining good relationships and a good reputation.  Links https://www.facebook.com/freelancersshow/ Picks Erik Dietrich: https://TubeBuddy.com/http://HitSubscribe.com/ Reuven Lerner: https://YouTube.com/reuvenlerner Long, daily walks -- try it!

Sponsors Sentry– use the code “devchat” for 2 months free on Sentry small plan Paymo |Opt for monthly & get 30% discount on paid plans for 6 monthsCacheFly Panel Eric Dietrich Reuven Lerner Summary The panel shares experiences and advice for managing finances as a small business owner. They discuss the differences in personal finance as a salaried employee and consultant. The panel explains unexpected expenses when becoming a freelancer such as health insurance, taxes and gives advice on how to handle them. The importance of savings and retirement are considered. The panel advises keeping personal funds and business funds separate and consider what you can expense to your business for tax right offs.  Picks Eric Dietrich: Expensify.comstreamable.com Reuven Lerner: The Tick - Season 2https://store.lerner.co.il/pandas