Lessons from International Freelancers' Day

One obstacle I've been experiencing lately is lack of ENOUGH work. It's getting harder and harder to find regular work in my industry. Magazines are dying out. Publications that do still exist are buying less from freelancers. And it just takes more and more work to prospect for whatever opportunities are out there. At times, I feel very frustrated about the whole idea. BUT, prospecting is still a large part of my job, and as they say in show business, "the show must go on." I still have to prospect. If I intend to stay in business -- and I do -- I still have to do what it takes to find the work, no matter where it is. I just have to dig deeper and learn something new, if that's what it takes.

So to overcome this obstacle, I'm participating in International Freelancers' Day.

I'm watching the introductory videos this morning. But I've already learned so much and am including a few tips for you in today's post. Even if you're not a writer or a speaker, but are somehow self-employed, you'll get a few take-aways from the lessons I'm learning. Here are a few:

1) USE LINKEDIN TO SEARCH FOR PROSPECTS
If you're not using LinkedIn's service to prospect for clients, you should be. It's free, and you can use the Company search (Advanced) function to find just about anyone you might like to contact, especially if you know the job title and company. Just make sure you search for "current" contacts.

If you don't have a large network on LinkedIn, specific names may not show up. But you can still find the contact names once your search is complete, and you have a title for that company. Just copy/save the title and company names that show up in your search and post them on Google. Your Google search will then likely lead you to the correct person to contact by phone or e-mail.

2) FOLLOW UP WITH YOUR PROSPECTS
One way to be sure you're getting as much as possible out of your job search or client prospecting is to follow up. If this is an area you struggle with, it's a good bet you're not tracking your efforts well enough. It's a good idea to either invest in or create your own tracking program. Copywriter Ed Gandia says a tracking program, or some formal way to track your contacts, will help you stay on top of your pitches, quotes and introductions. And you'll likely land more jobs, clients or assignments.

3) CREATE A "FREE" REPORT TO ATTRACT MORE CLIENTS
If you're selling a specific skill, talent or service, creating a FREE report that you can offer via your Web site could be an effective way to attract more clients. Steve Slaunwhite, one of the conference co-founders, says in one of the introductory videos that the time -- and sometimes money -- it takes to create a 10-page example of your expertise can be well worth the investment. He suggests these tips to ensure it's effective:

A) Pick the right topic, one that is both related to what you do and that would be of high interest to your target market.

B) Write it well. Your free report must include exceptional writing, especially if that's what you're selling, and solid content that is well-researched. If you can afford to hire an editor, do that as well.

C) Make it look good. Slaunwhite says you want to offer something that is well-designed, including an attractive cover and a clean layout. This is going to present an image of you, and you want that image to look good. He suggests it might be wise to hire a designer for this part of the job. One suggestion from me: Find someone who will trade services with you if you cannot afford the cost.

D) Be sure to pitch your services on the last page. This is where you include your bio, your relative background, and also how your readers can connect with you. In order for them to get the free report, they would have given your their contact information. Now it's their turn to get yours. This doesn't have to be a hard sell. Just let them know if they need your services, you're available, and here's how they can reach you. Include your name, phone number, e-mail address and Web site address. If you're just starting out or starting over, offering a free report can be a great way to help launch your business.

If these tips are helpful, I encourage you to sign up for the conference. Just click on the link above.

Have you taken your leap of faith?

"Lord, I don't know that I can understand this, I can't explain it all, but I'm choosing to believe in you."

This is a statement made by Sheila Schuller Coleman, daughter of Robert Schuller, founder of California's Crystal Cathedral, to explain what happened when she decided in college to stop questioning her faith.

When she made the decision to believe, she said, that's when "everything fell into place."

Can you recall a time when you've questioned something, perhaps your own faith? What happened? Tell us your story.

Here's mine:

It happened right after my then-husband told me he'd been living this secret life, had been cheating our marriage, had abused our wedding vows. He hadn't been acting in a cherishable way. He told me many things that I did not understand or want to believe.

I felt dumbfounded.

Not this man. Not my man. He was the happy-go-lucky guy. Nothing ever bothered him. He never got upset. How on earth could this be a guy who would abuse the relationship he had with his wife? This was not a man I thought would do something to hurt his family. He would not lie. He would not cheat. he would not steal.

This was not a man who would behave in such a distasteful way. He just wasn't.

Yet, he'd said he was. He said he'd done terrible things, the least of which was cheating on me with women. He'd even been with men.

I didn't want to believe it.

So for the next several months I worked hard at believing the reason he'd told me all of this terrible news was that he wanted it to stop.

I decided to trust in him.

But he wasn't being honest. He was, instead, being deceitful. I soon found myself not questioning him, but questioning myself. I kept telling myself that he had told me his story so that we could work things out. He wanted to free himself of the pain he was suffering. I kept telling myself that he was in such a vulnerable place that he did need time away. That's why he moved out, I rationalized for him. I kept telling myself that he was going to come back. I kept telling myself that I wanted him back.

But I didn't.

I knew better. I knew deep down that the we I thought we were was over.

But what I wanted, what I needed, was for him to be honest with me, so that I could stop pretending that all was going to be well. But he wouldn't come clean any further. It was as though he'd said more than he'd meant to, and now he wanted to pretend that he hadn't.

Finally, the day came that I took a leap of faith to trust--in me again. It took a lot of praying, but I finally reached that day.

I invited him to breakfast to call him on something he'd said. And things happened just as I expected. While he ordered his bacon and eggs, I simply ordered coffee. When the waitress left our table, I asked him the question I needed to ask. When he hemmed and hawed, couldn't be honest even then, when he couldn't--or wouldn't--tell me what I suspected he really wanted, I decided to speak up for myself. But I didn't need words.

I dropped a few dollars on the table, excused myself, got up, and walked out the door.

When I made that decision, I let go of whatever fear I felt beforehand. Fear disappeared, and I was able to walk away with my head held high.

I could let him live his lie, but I knew--I realized--I didn't have to live it, too.

I walked away, and I never looked back.

That's the story of my leap of faith.

What's yours?

Recovery: Celebrating you

I truly believe we are all in Recovery. Every one of us.

Think about it. We've all suffered setbacks. We've all had to deal with trying times. We're all faced with challenges--almost all the time. Most of us would be out of work if this weren't true. Innovation comes from a challenge. New therapies stem from personal dilemmas. Researchers everyday spend time in labs to find the answer to a pressing need. We're all in Recovery. Or maybe that's the way we should be operating, because it implies that you're taking responsibility.

I tell my life stories here at BIKE WITH JACKIE, and they're not always pretty. I do it to let you know that it's okay to be real and raw. I've learned from my own relationships with people who hid who they really were that you can't be intimate with them. You can't trust them. You can't rely on them. And you can't be real with them in return. That's a much larger loss than the eventual breakdown of the relationship itself.

So my mission in life is to help other people get real with their life challenges, to admit them, and then to deal with them, simply because they stop us from moving forward. To accomplish my mission, I teach, sometimes indirectly, how my spiritual navigation tool (the mental BIKE) can be applied to your life. This is briefly explained at the top of this page.

But, basically, I spend time here sharing the lessons I learned from the seat of my bike, lessons that are never-ending. I continue learning new ones, as we all do if we're paying attention, because Recovery IS on-going. It's what we do while we're living life. It's only when we stop living that Recovery ends.

You see, for me, my special brand of BIKE represents rebirth, growth and most especially moving forward.

To do that, I've learned one most important lesson: You must celebrate your successes. Your successes, no matter what they mean to anyone else, are your big deals. They deserve the attention they've earned. And that what's today's post is about: celebrating you, celebrating your successes.

With that, I'd like to announce my most current one:

I just found out my book (pictured above with a goofy grinning me beside it at Barnes & Noble, Kierland Commons, taken by my friend Rebecca A. Allen) is doing so well that I've earned half of my advance already--in just three months!

That's a pretty good track record, folks--one that had my publisher sending me a Royalty Statement a year before I was expecting one. When I opened that letter yesterday, I was pretty darn happy. I know I've been working hard to sell the book, to pitch the book, to get the word out, but I had no idea I was doing that well--not until my publisher told me. So I celebrated. I shared the information with a neighbor, and she popped open a bottle of wine, and we toasted. Then my boyfriend took me out to dinner. And now I'm celebrating here, by sharing the message with you.

Here's why it's so important: Ten years ago, I certainly didn't think I could ever write a book. It would have been too overwhelming a task for me. I know. I tried. I was assigned to do a chapter of a travel guide for a publishing company, and I had to turn the project back in. I had to give up on the job. For personal reasons that were going on in my life that I didn't even know existed, I just couldn't do it.

Clearly, that wasn't the greatest moment in my life. But when I was able to put that behind me and forgive myself that part of my life, the world and all its possibilities opened up again. I began looking for them, seeing them and embracing them. So the travel guide pictured above became yet another symbol. It, too, relates to my BIKE message, which empowers you think differently about yourself. For one thing, you'll be able to recognize when your "tough hill" is ahead, and you'll know you can climb it anyway, because:

You can make mistakes and overcome them.

You can be a better person than you thought you were.

You can do much more than you ever thought you could.

You can choose to associate with people who will help make your dreams come true.

You can change your mind and create new dreams.

You can grow yourself physically, no matter how out of shape you think you are.

You can grow yourself mentally, no matter how doomed you feel.

You can celebrate your successes, because you've earned them.

And your success deserves your respect. It's great when other people celebrate with you, but that's not the important thing. The important thing is that you celebrate you.

So, let me ask you? When was the last time you gave yourself this gift? Write it down here so we can watch you shine.