Some people were fortunate enough to know the recipe early on in their lives but a lot of us have to find out the hard way, through years of struggle and doubt. There’s a lot of times that you’ll be within feet of the answer to your businesses problems but you’ll stop, turn around and go the other way.

Ready? The secret recipe to making your own luck only has two ingredients in it. I told you – simple.

Ingredient #1 – hard fucking work

If you want to get ahead in this world, you can become a snake and slither your way through the grass, biting unsuspecting people along the way, but eventually you’re going to find yourself under a lawn mower – trust me, you don’t want to know how that turns out.

So how do you get ahead the right way?

Hard work.

Anything worth having is worth fighting for, right? Then you need to get out there and hit the ground running. Learn how to kick start your hustle efforts, build a guerrilla marketing strategy, cut out the social media bullshit and put one foot in front of the other.

I know it’s not something a lot of people want to hear and maybe you don’t want to hear it either, but it’s the truth. If you look at successful people in business, a lot of them (and I mean, a lot) sleep for 4 hours or less per night, work for months on end without a single day off and are intensely focused. If you’re not ready to follow in their footsteps, don’t be surprised if you never end as far ahead in life as they are.

Ingredient #2 – more hard fucking work

What? You thought there was another magical ingredient? What you need to do is pile on a bunch of hard fucking work and then step back, stare at what you’ve done and multiply that by ten! You’re going to need to look at who you’ve got around you and cut people out who aren’t helping you get ahead. Then you’ll need to see what type of work ethic you’ve been accustomed to and totally rewire your brain.

Get some motivational quotes, print them out and put them around your house, office, car, etc. Sit down with some guerrilla marketing tactics, study them and figure out how you can use them for your business. Figure out how to build repetition into your business, get yourself an extra day per week to work and hit the ground running.

Seriously, do it now!

The truth about making your own luck

The truth is, there’s no secret formula other than hard fucking work. You want to be in the right place at the right time? Be there all the time and eventually wherever you are will become the right place. It’s that simple.

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Thomas Edison

I know you’ve heard the phrase work smart, not hard before, right? It’s bullshit. If you’re working smart you also need to work hard as hell. The four hour work week is a mirage. For 99% of the world it’s never going to happen. You can chase that dream or you can make your own luck, work really fucking hard and turn your dreams into reality.

The choice is yours.

Need more proof?

Fast Company wrote an article titled “How to Make Your Own Luck” back in 2003. Then in 2010, Psychology Today wrote an article titled “Make Your Own Luck“.

Thanks to Rob Dyrdek for putting the phrase “Make Your Own Luck” out there on t-shirts, on t.v. etc. It inspired this article and inspired me to be up at 3am writing this article because I know what I need to do in order to win.

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There’s a lot of reasons why we choose to be freelancers – freedom, power, independence, more time with family, etc.

There’s also a few reasons that we might not talk about openly as much as we should because the topics are taboo – poor upbringings, the ability to be better than those around us, money, power, respect.

Those are the things I want to talk more about because I don’t feel like they’re discussed enough in the freelance community.

Money is the motivation

If it’s not the main motivation to becoming a freelancer, it’s a close second in most cases whether you want to admit it or not. Being your own boss, building your own business and succeeding beyond belief are all reasons we freelance and they’re all steps to achieving the end goal – more money, financial freedom and success.

Most people put a stigma around making money your main motivation but for people who grew up poor like myself (and possibly you too), money was always the goal every day when looking around a house with one couch, no television, no heat and an empty fridge.

When did it become so wrong to want to become filthy fucking rich?

And who said we had to stop dreaming when we hit financial freedom?

Oh, I can support my family so I’m comfortable here now and don’t want to build and further than where I’m at.

That’s pretty fucking stupid.

If you’ve build a solid freelance business for yourself and you’ve got a good base started, what the hell are you quitting now for? Why do you want to just stop and throw in the towel at $5,000 per month? What’s really holding you back from getting to $10,000 per month or $50,000 per month?

Are you happy with your current financial situation? If so, that’s great and I’m completely happy for you. This article isn’t for you though, so you can just tweet it and move onto something else.

I write as a way to talk to myself as well as talk to all of you who are hungry for more. You have an insane drive for success and you’re ready to grab life by the balls and beat the living shit out of it until you get what you want.

You’ve been down before. You’ve been poor. You’ve been bullied and beat up by stress.

But not anymore.

You’re ready to fight back. You’ve got all of the tools a person could ask for right at your fingertips.

So what’s stopping you?

There’s nobody better than me

If you’re not saying that to yourself at least once a day, you’re headed in the wrong direction. Muhammad Ali didn’t become the greatest boxer to ever live by being humble and quiet. No, he got in your face and told you he was the greatest.

If you’re not telling yourself that you’re the best freelancer that’s walking the face of this earth, nobody else will tell you either.

You know that life is rough, so don’t expect any hand outs and pats on the back. You can find inspiration and encouragement in many areas of your life, but nobody is going to make you the best except you.

So tomorrow when you wake up, take a second and look in the mirror at yourself. Smile and tell yourself “I’m the best fucking freelancer walking the face of this earth and everything I do today will prove it”.

Then get your ass to work.

So why are you a freelancer?

If you’re being 100% honest with yourself and not giving the cookie-cutter response that everyone else gives, you might find the one thing inside of you that’s going to push you to the limit and make you a better freelancer and a better person.

For me personally, I push myself every day to make sure that I don’t end up living in a house with no heat and no food. I’ve got no safety net and no back up plan. I don’t have friends or family who will take me in if I get kicked out of my current residence.

Maybe you need to put your back against the wall for a bit and see how much of a fighter you actually are. You’d be surprised at what you can accomplish if you have no other option than greatness.

Go be fucking great!

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Below are a few Moleskine hacks & tips for freelancers (yes, that means you) and when used correctly, these tips and hacks can greatly increase your productivity and income returns.

Enjoy!

Tip #1 – Tracking time spent on projects

One thing that I like to do is time myself on projects, even if it’s not a ‘paid by the hour’ type of project. Doing this helps me push and get things done quicker, which means I’m able to spend more time working on other projects & making more money, or I’m able to spend time away from the computer.

So what I like to do is write a clients name and then a start time next to it. Once I’m done with the work, I write the finish time. Looking at how fast things can move is really motivation and definitely helps me as a freelancer, especially since freelancers are known to love social media, no matter how time consuming it can be.

Tip #2 – Multiple Moleskine’s for the win

Having one notebook for all of your notes, sketches and other various thoughts & ideas works for some, but for most of us it’s much easier to get a couple extra Moleskine’s so we can separate things.

I personally have a mini Moleskine that I carry around in my back pocket, which also doubles as a wallet (cash & ID inside) to jot down random thoughts and notes like grocery items, etc. Then I have my main Moleskine that sits on my desk, which is what I keep all of my important notes in for my business. The third Moleskine I have is a plain large Moleskine which is perfect for sketching out logo ideas, website wireframes, etc.

Tip #3 – Labels & Sections

Take a minute with your Moleskine, grab some sticky colored tabs and create some sections inside so you can do different activities in different areas. For instance, in mine I have an area for random notes (if I’m working and think of something to put on the grocery list or need to jot a number down, etc), a spot for business notes (marketing ideas I think of while working, etc) and a section for my to do list.

By breaking it down with the colored tabs, I’m able to quickly flip to the section I need and write down whatever I need to. This allows me more time to work and less time spent looking back over my notes later on for the 1-2 things I need the most.

Numbers and Index

One thing I do as soon as I get a new Moleskine is go through it and write a page number in the top corner of the page (front side – right, back side – left). This allows me to use the last page in the book to put together an index of important information.

So for instance if you happen to write down a guerrilla marketing strategy for your business, you can put that in your index in the back along with the page number. It’s also good for making sure you can easily find important client information you might write down (phone numbers, document information, etc).

Track your spending

In the back of your Moleskine, you will find a pocket where you can store extra items. I use my mini-Moleskine as a wallet so my ID and cash go inside the pocket, but in your bigger Moleskines (preferably your everyday use Moleskine), use the back to keep track of your spending by saving your receipts for the month.

If you’re like me, you walk into your house with a pocket full of receipts from the spending throughout the day, so walk over to your desk, put them into the pocket of your Moleskine and then when the end of the month comes, you can see what you’re spending money on and use that information to start adjusting your budget and spending habits. It’s always good for freelance business growth when you track your spending because you generally end up saving cash which you can use for your freelance business.

What tips and hacks to do you use?

I know there’s many moleskine users who read this blog so share your knowledge on Twitter with all of us and let us in on your tips & hacks for moleskine notebooks.

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See, when you break down what you do in a day, time gets taken away from you. Every time you list something that you have to do, the time you have left in a day drops.

So how do you find time? Where do you find time? Do you just create time out of thin air?

Finding time

For those who look hard enough, there’s plenty of places to find time. I’ve broken down how to find extra time before on this blog, but as a quick overview, let’s talk about them again here.

Stop Watching T.V. – One of the biggest time sucks ever invented. Unless you’re glued to documentaries when you’re watching T.V., it’s generally a huge waste of time (how many reality T.V. shows can you actually stomach in a week anyways?)

Cut Social Media Time – We’ve all got our addictions and yes, sometimes addiction is good for you but I’m sure you’ve realized by now that social media is time consuming so learn to cut down on social media time.

Reading “just because” websites – Also known as “browsing for the hell of it”, checking out random websites for hours on end will do you no good for your business. Unless you’re making money off funny cat videos, you’re probably wasting time when you browse Youtube every day.

Where else can you find extra time?

There’s a lot of places to find extra time, but the place that I’m talking about today that gives you an extra day a week to get shit done is in the place that most people are too afraid to look. When I talked about finding extra time for your freelance business before I mentioned it and got a lot of negative feedback from people.

Those people will never make it.

Why would I say that? Because they’re not willing to sacrifice in order to reach their goals. Hell, most of them probably don’t have goals.

But you have goals. I know you do.

And you want to reach those goals, don’t you? You’ll do whatever it takes in order to grow your freelance business and earn a living as a freelancer, right?

Well then you’ve got to cut something out of your life that’ll give you the extra day a week in order to do that.

The hours in a day

There’s 24 hours in a day. This means you’ve got the ability to allot time throughout your day for various tasks. Eating, sleeping, working, etc.

So if you’ve got 7 days a week and 24 hours in a day that means you’ve got 154 hours in a week to get shit done, right?

False.

There’s a specific amount of time a day that you spend sleeping which means you’re ripping that 154 hours to shreds before you even get the chance to do anything worthwhile.

Most people spend 8 hours a night sleeping. It’s what the doctor ordered. So if you multiply 8 hours a night by 7 nights in a week, you’re sleeping for 56 out of those 154 hours that you’ve got.

Crazy, right?

Yeah, I thought so too.

By sleeping less than you’re used to, you’ll actually gain some of that time back.

A lot of it actually.

Earning your extra day a week

Let’s take those 8 hours a night and cut them in half.

Sleep for four hours per night.

Will it kill you? No, it won’t. But will it allow you the time needed to grow your business? Yes, it will.

4 hours per night added up for 6 nights out of the week is 24 hours. That means you still get to take one day a week and get your precious 8 hours of sleep while still gaining an entire day to do something important for your business.

Can you sacrifice sleep in order to grow your business?

The correct answer should be hell yes, but I understand if you can’t say that. Your beauty rest is probably more important anyways. You probably don’t care about building a solid freelance business and leaving your crappy day job.

You love your cubicle. You couldn’t even begin to think about leaving that awesome job, right?

Give me a break.

If you can’t give up four hours of sleep per night for 6 days out of the week to gain 24 hours worth of time to work, you’re probably not cut out to be successful.

If you care more about sleep than growing your business, it’s painfully obvious that you’re reading the wrong website. So if that’s you, I’m sorry but I think this is the part of the article where we go our separate ways.

Still reading?

Good. I knew you would be.

You see, by looking past the initial shock of sleeping less than you’re used to, you get to see the benefits.

24 hours a week are gained. That means 4 days per month, or 48 days per year!

What would you do with a month and a half worth of time where you could work without any distractions?

What’s stopping you from doing that now?

You better not say sleep. You better answer that question with nothing.

Don’t let anything stop you because if you’ve got a drive and hunger to succeed, nothing will be able to stand in your way and stop you from being successful. I don’t want you to lose. I want you to win.

You’re a success already, you just need to see that for yourself and give yourself the time to prove it to the world.

Sleep less. Work more. Be Successful.

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But what if I told you that this is the sole reason that your business isn’t growing at the rate you want it to? This way of thinking has you going in 20 different directions, tap dancing around what you really need to be doing.

The biggest piece of advice I can give you is to piss people off.

If you’re not pissing someone off, you’re not making someone else happy. You’re mediocre. Forgettable.

There’s a reason that people hate lukewarm. We either like cold pizza or hot pizza but who really likes pizza that’s been sitting on the counter all night and is just there? Nobody.

If your freelance business is trying to please everyone, you’re doing it wrong. If you’re trying to make sure the copy on your website is clean and curse-word-free, you’ve already fucking lost the game.

Your true self needs to shine through. It’s why there are numerous designers who talk about religion, a lot, on Twitter. That’s who they are. Some people don’t like them for it, while others fucking LOVE them for it.

Guess what? The people who hate you aren’t going to buy from you anyways, so there’s no point in marketing your business to them. Instead, you should shift your focus to the people who genuinely care about what you’re doing.

Once you get yourself out of the mentality that you have to please everyone, you’ll be able to devote proper time to the people who matter.

Try talking about your political stance on Twitter for an hour or so. See how that works out for you. People will unfollow you like crazy if they don’t like your stance.

But it’s these hard lines drawn in the sand that will put you on the right side of the line, with the right people.

This will make sure you’re on the right side of the fence. And yes, there is a right side and wrong side of the fence. Plus, nobody likes to straddle the fence.

Pick a team

So take a few minutes and figure out who it is that you are.

• What kind of music do you like the most?
• What’s your views on religion & politics?
• How do you feel about alcohol & drug use?
• What’s your favorite types of movies?

Once you start answering these questions, you’ll start to see a pattern emerge as to who you are and what types of people will generally gravitate towards your business if you put your true self out there.

And listen, remember what you got into freelancing for in the first people – freedom. You want the freedom to do what you want, when you want and get paid to do it.

Why pigeonhole yourself into a market that you’re not comfortable in? Or even worse, why are you trying to please everyone when it’s painfully obvious that not everyone fucking matters anyways?

Will this work?

There’s really only one way to find out. Try it. Do it on a small scale first if you’re chicken. Send out a few random Twitter messages talking about a topic you normally kept away from out of fear that people would hate you.

Send out a Twitter message mentioning that you’d like to find a dignified way of peeing in your pajamas and see what the response is.

If you have a newsletter that people subscribe to, try dropping the F bomb in the email subject line and see how many people unsubscribe.

You’ll be amazed at the results.

Yes, you’ll lose a lot of ‘fans’, but if they’re not fans of the real you, how valuable of a fan can that person actually be?

People will hire someone based on common interests and the “feeling” they get before they would hire you based on your accolades and awards.

Real world example

For my blog design business, I don’t do phone calls and rarely jump on instant messenger. Do I lose clients because of this? Yes. Do I care? Not really.

I didn’t decide to not take phone calls because I hate talking to people, I did it because I have anxiety and I’m much better at communicating through text. I found a great way to blend in my own personal humor into a serious business email; and it works.

Instead of spending hours a day on the phone, I’m able to type up replies to peoples questions in an email and keep moving forward with the work. It’s a simple, clear cut process with benefits that far outweigh the downside.

Countless times I’ve heard from clients how they were skeptical about the lack of phone communication but I totally won them over with the email replies within minutes of them sending questions. The replies they get are also full of detail and complete.

Do yourself a favor and never half ass anything, it’ll never work.

And the people who didn’t hire me because I don’t do phone calls? I don’t care what they think, because this is my business and I will run it the way I see fit. Your business is your business and you need to run it the way you see fit.

Be yourself. Be real. Be happy.

It’s the only way that freelancing will work in the long run, because if you spend your day kissing ass from the beginning until the end, you’re going to get sick of it and quit.

And nobody likes a quitter.

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Previously, we covered 49 motivational quotes to kick yourself in the ass and today we’re giving you 49 more. Why 49 and not 50? Well, I think you’ve got one that you could leave in the comments section in order to help keep the inspiration going.

Ready to be inspired?

Day 1

As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do. Andrew Carnegie

Day 2

I just love it when people say I can’t do it, there’s nothing that makes me feel better because all my life, people have said that I wasn’t going to make it. Ted Turner

Day 3

Winners lose much more often than losers. So if you keep losing but you’re still trying, keep it up! You’re right on track. Matthew Keith Groves

Day 4

You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good. Jerry West

Day 5

Some people are committed to having their goals and others are committed to wanting them. Wanda Grindstaff

Day 6

The poor, the unsuccessful, the unhappy, the unhealthy are the ones who use the word tomorrow the most. Robert Kiyosaki

Day 7

Putting off an easy thing makes it hard. Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible. George Lorimer

Day 8

Never confuse motion with action. Benjamin Franklin

Day 9

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Day 10

No action, no change. Limited action, limited change. Lots of action – Change occurs. Catherine Pulsifer

Day 11

I don’t build in order to have clients. I have clients in order to build. Howard Roark from The Fountainhead

Day 12

Don’t run when you lose, don’t whine when it hurts. It’s like the first grade, Jerry…nobody likes a crybaby. Gordon Gekko

Day 13

There are many talented people who haven’t fulfilled their dreams because they over thought it, or they were too cautious, and were unwilling to make the leap of faith. James Cameron

Day 14

We walk faster when we walk alone. Napoleon Bonaparte

Day 15

I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion”. Muhammad Ali

Day 16

A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t. Jack Dempsey

Day 17

Don’t sleep too much. If you sleep 3 hours less each night for a year, you will have an extra month and a half to succeed in. Aristotle Onassis

Day 18

You have to be prepared for people to hate you, Average people love to be average, because nobody bothers them. Kelly Cutrone

Day 19

Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get. Ray Kroc

Day 20

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. Bill Gates

Day 21

Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits. Thomas Edison

Day 22

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. Henry Ford

Day 23

Fortune favours the brave. Terence

Day 24

A ship is safe in harbor, but thats not what ships are for. William Shedd

Day 25

If you’re not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business. Ray Kroc

Day 26

I never lie because I don’t fear anyone. You only lie when you’re afraid. John Gotti

Day 27

I’ve never really viewed myself as particularly talented, where I excel is ridiculous,sickening work ethic. While the other guy is sleeping, I’m working. While the other guy is eating, I’m working. Will Smith

Day 28

It is better to risk starving to death then surrender. If you give up on your dreams, what’s left? Jim Carrey

Day 29

You either got time or money, you cant have them both, a [blank] with money, don’t have no time , a [blank] with time – don’t have no money, you only got two choices. You either want time or money. Big Meech

Day 30

I work hard, so I surround myself with people that work just as hard. It’s important if you want to create a successful brand. Also, the concept of being “tired” doesn’t really apply to me. In fact, I don’t even consider “tired” tired. If you want to succeed and be successful, you can’t let it bother you. Dame Dash

Day 31

You don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour. Jim Rohn

Day 32

I can no longer obey; I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up. Napoleon Bonaparte

Day 33

People who ask confidently get more than those who are hesitant and uncertain. When you’ve figured out what you want to ask for, do it with certainty, boldness and confidence. Jack Canfield

Day 34

If you know what to do to reach your goal, it’s not a big enough goal. Bob Proctor

Day 35

The harder I work, the luckier I get. Samuel Goldwyn

Day 36

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them. Walt Disney

Day 37

Sleep is forbidden. When I’m working, I’m a machine and I don’t look at other people like they are human. Sean Combs

Day 38

I didn’t get there by wishing for it or hoping for it, but by working for it. Estee Lauder

Day 39

For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer. Arnold Schwarzenegger

Day 40

A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions. Confucious

Day 41

I’m not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it. Niccolo Machiavelli

Day 42

People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little. Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Day 43

You’ve got to put your head down and do the work. There are no shortcuts. Russell Simmons

Day 44

If you want to learn to swim, jump into the water. On dry land, no frame of mind is ever going to help you. Bruce Lee

Day 45

Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success. Napoleon Hill

Day 46

Discipline is doing what you hate to do but doing it like you love it. Mike Tyson

Day 47

If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done. Bruce Lee

Day 48

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one. Elbert Hubbard

Day 49

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake. Henry David Thoreau

Your turn

Leave a comment below with a quote that you find inspirational and help inspire the rest of us!

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First things first, do your homework

If you have a specific type of client in mind that you’d like to work for, start doing your homework to find out where they hang out at. There’s no sense in marketing yourself and putting yourself out there as a freelancer if you’re in the wrong areas.

The areas you can canvas could be local areas if you want to work for local clients – coffee shops, office supply stores, etc. Online, you can find people by looking through Twitter searches, Facebook, Linkedin, etc. You should also look for forums and other message boards where your prospective clients hang out at. If you want to work with sports companies, then sports blogs and forums would be a great place to start looking for prospective clients.

Put together a plan of action

Once you get together a bunch of names and information on your prospective clients, it’s time to start putting together a plan of action. To cut down on the time it takes you to write each email (if you’re emailing them or contacting them in any way online), I’d recommend putting together a skeleton file where you have your introduction paragraph already typed out and your concluding paragraph already typed out.

This way, you can write a little bit in the middle about the person you’re contacting so it’s personalized to them and you don’t have to rewrite your name, where you’re from, what is the link to your portfolio, etc. You might only save 2-3 minutes on an email, but after you send 100-200 of these, you’ll see how much time you can actually save over the year.

Now you contact them

If you’re writing an email, go ahead and send the emails out to everyone, as fast as you can without feeling like you’re missing something important. For instance, make sure there name is in the introduction (everybody hates “to whom it may concern”) and ensure that you’ve got the right website address or company name in the email.

If you’re wanting to call the prospective clients, make sure you’ve made some quick notes on paper so you can look at them in case they ask questions. I’d point out that you were searching _____ (insert place here) and came across their website and wanted to see if you’d be able to talk with them about working on their website/logo/copy/etc in order to help them boost their profits.

They might ask you how you could do that for them and this is where your expertise and planning goes into action. Point out (quickly) a couple of areas that you could improve and that you’d love to sit down with them for a free coffee (on you of course) to discuss things a bit further.

Google is your best friend

Another way you can hustle yourself and find extra work is by searching through Google. I didn’t mention this in the above places because I feel like it’s severely underused and I’d like to shine a little bit more light on it. The method of finding work here is simple, yet effective.

If you’re looking for blogs to design, search Google for “keyword blog” and start looking at every result that comes up. If you feel like you can help make their blog better, find their name and contact them with your skeleton email that I mentioned above. I’d personally go through the first 5-10 pages in order to make sure you’ve got enough contacts out there. Out of every 20 you send, you’ll generally get 5 or so responses and if you’re a smooth enough talker, you can land a couple of sales. Not bad for an hour or so of leg work, right?

Start working on free stuff

A great way to get your name out there more as well as show off your skills is to put together some freebies. For writers, you could release a free guide that gives tips to people you’d normally like to work with. For designers, you can release design freebies on sites like Design Moo.

This will allow you to build a reputation as a skilled freelancer, plus you’ll get backlinks to your website which is always good and could land you some extra work from people who might want something you’ve done customized a bit (this happens a lot with WordPress developers and xhtml/css coders).

Sleep Less

Listen, I know a lot of people out there feel like they need 8 hours of sleep in order to function, but in reality, it’s just an excuse that people use in order to work less. If you’re not where you want to be in your life, you’re going to have to change something. Watching less television and youtube videos is a great start, but by cutting out a few hours of sleep every night, you’ll be able to accomplish much, much more.

When you sleep less, you’ll be able to get emails sent out at night so that way you’re on the top of the list in the morning when people open their inboxes. This will increase your open rates and will hopefully land you some more sales. All while your competition is sleeping.

Study your competition

Speaking of your competition, are you studying what they’re doing? If not, you need to be. A lot of business owners talk about how they don’t care about what anyone else is doing, but in reality they’re full of shit and if they’re not personally checking it, they’ve got a team watching the trends.

By seeing what your competition is doing and building on their successes and making your offers better, you’ll be able to stay one step ahead of them. You can also learn a lot about the direction the market is headed by studying your competition and seeing what they’ve done right and wrong. Don’t worry about what they’re doing now – think about what they’re going to do in the future and do it first. Put yourself in their shoes and think “what would I do next?” and then go do it.

Comment on blogs you read

If you read blogs, comment on them. You never know who’s reading the comments you leave, so make sure they’re insightful and useful. By doing this, you’ll not only build up some face recognition in peoples minds who are reading these blogs (as well as the blog owners), you’ll also put yourself in a place where people you’d like to work for will find you. Viperchill mentioned that in a previous month on their blog, there were 800 clicks from their site to commenter’s URL’s. EIGHT HUNDRED!

If you’re not putting yourself in the position to be one of those clicks and commenting on blogs that you know your target market hangs out at, you’re leaving money on the table. Hell, comment on blogs that are run by people you’d like to work for. They’ll remember the same face commenting on every article and will feel happy about hiring you when they need your services.

This post was written in response to a comment that was left by Rick Wolff on our Benefits and drawbacks of being a hustler post. If you’ve got questions you’d like answered, or if you have topics you’d like to see covered, just send me a twitter message or contact me any time!

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I bet you say things like this all of the time.

You just can’t find the time.

You are so busy lately.

You don’t know if you’ll be able to today.

Bullshit. It’s all bullshit and I am going to prove to you that you can find the time, just by looking in the right places.

Sleep less

Oh, you like your comfy 8 hours of sleep a night because “that’s what the doctors recommend”? Stop it. You’re kidding yourself. Entrepreneurs and business owners defy these numbers all the time by sleeping for 2-3 hours a night (don’t believe me, here’s some quotes from famous business owners who sleep 2-3 hours a night on average).

Stop watching T.V.

Gary Vaynerchuk warned you to stop watching fucking Lost, and I’m going to remind you again that watching reality T.V. or any other television will never gain you business or help your business succeed. It’s a giant waste of time, 99.999% of the time. Yes, there are moments you need to unwind and T.V. might be the thing you use to unwind, but if you can stop watching two of your favorite thirty minute episodes each day, you just bought yourself an extra hour of time to work on your business.

Cut social media time

Networking is essential in building a trusted and solid brand online, I get that. But how much time in your day is wasted browsing through other peoples Twitter updates? What about random updates to your Facebook page that aren’t building your business? If you spend 3 hours a day on social media websites, take it down to 2 and use the extra hour to actually get some work done.

Remove your “just because” websites

Do you like watching funny Youtube videos? What about reading funny websites like The Oatmeal? Stop it. Just for an hour, take yourself away from those websites and use that time a little more wisely and build up your business. The funny cats will always be there, the chance to blow your business up will not.

Stop reading so many blogs

Lets face it, if you have an RSS reader with over 100 websites in it, you’re probably wasting time. Find a few (ie: under 10) websites that truly contribute to your business and helping you build your freelance business and keep those. The rest, unsubscribe to. For instance, if you currently read 5 blogs related to freelancing, cut four of them and keep mine (hey, I had to say it). Read a lot about marketing? Stop skimming over the ‘others’ and just keep the ones you really benefit from.

Where do you find the extra time?

Here’s where you get to boast a little bit about the extra time you found this week. Why boast about it? Because it means you’re doing something right and when you do something right, it feels good. So gloat, you deserve it!

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Benefits of Hustling

Having a massive amount of hustle in your blood can bring you things in your business that you would have never dreamed possible. It’s the drive and determination that you possess that will get you steps ahead of your competition who don’t have a hustlers spirit. Below are some of the benefits of being a hustler.

• Name recognition – The immediate benefit of being a hustler is that you’ll be in everyones face so often that they won’t be able to forget you. People like Gary Vaynerchuk who use Twitter as much as they do are hard to forget and easy to think about when you’ve got something that needs to be done and that person is someone in the industry who can do it.
• Work Load – When you hustle and can pull 16-20 hour days on a consistent basis, you’re going to be able to do the work of two of your competitors who are only working for 8 hours a day each. This means you’ll be able to get more client jobs done, build your own passive income streams and keep connected with everyone through social media sites.
• More Money – The more you work, the more you make. It’s simple logic but something that gets lost in the minds of those who want the quick fix in life. Hustling will get you more money, which will in turn allow you to better support your family and do things you would otherwise never be able to do with a normal 9-5 or a lackluster freelance career.

Drawbacks of Hustling

Even though the life of a hustler might seem like a glamorous life and something everyone should do, there are downsides of being a hustler which you should also be aware of so you can make a conscious choice if you are a hustler or not.

• Burnout – You hear people talk about burnout all the time in the freelance world because it’s true (for most of us) and it does happen. At some point when you’re working for 18 hours a day and sleeping for 2-3 hours a night, three months will go by and you’ll crash and burn. A couple things to help keep burnout to a minimum is to do a job that you truly love so you never get bored or tired of doing it and being an insomniac isn’t bad for it either.
• Stretching Yourself Too Thin – When you take on 10 or more jobs at one time, you’ve got to be a really good juggler in order to keep up with everything you’re doing for each of your clients. Stretching yourself too thin when you’re in your Mega Hustle mode might just creep up on you and cause clients to get mad that deadlines may not be met or you may forget important items on their items to do which makes your business look less than professional. A way to keep this at a minimum is to keep great to do lists and make sure you’re fit for the challenge of multitasking your life.
• Your Health –

I personally couldn’t see how freelancers wouldn’t want to hustle their way to success. If it takes 10,000 hours to be a master at your craft, wouldn’t it seem smart to run like hell towards that finish line? Plus, the more you hustle and the more work you get, the more money you make and the more you can support yourself and your family as well as buy the extra things you wouldn’t be able to get if you weren’t out there busting your ass on a consistent basis.

Hustling is in your blood and if you have the hustle gene, you’re definitely going to know it. It’s not something that everyone has, but it’s something that everyone can get if you want it bad enough.

Below is a video to a song by Paul Wall that I listen to on a daily basis. It gives you an inside look at a hustlers mind and will motivate you to do more.

Please be aware that the above video does have foul language in it but we still feel that it should be played at a high volume

Are you a hustler?

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It’s your client calling and you know it’ll take ages to get off the phone.

We’ve all been there. Those of us who get nervous (read terrified) talking to clients break out in a sweat at the thought. To us, 15 minutes seem like 50.

If only there was some way to cut those calls short and hold future correspondence through email!

The good news is that with a little ingenuity, it is possible. Be prepared to take drastic measures though.

Call back when the client is busy

Every now and then, let your voice mail pick up your client’s call. Then call back at a time when your client is most likely to be busy. Either the client won’t pick up and you can shoot him an email immediately or he’ll tell you that he’ll call back.

Don’t say “All right” if the client says he’ll call back. Jump in and say “No problem. I’ll email you instead”. If the client is due to give feedback, simply saying “Email would be better.” will work too.

Since the client is busy, he won’t have the time to come up with an alternative. Hang up with a cheerful good bye and do a little jig. Go on, just a little one.

Get an ‘assistant’

Can’t keep those client calls on track at all? Have an ‘assistant’ start picking up your calls. You don’t have to have a real assistant of course – your spouse or child can act the part. Get them to screen your calls and email the clients instead.

If you’re alone and really want to avoid a client call, then be your own assistant. Come on, you can do it!

Pretend that you don’t know

So you can’t avoid this call and it’s dragging on. The client wants to know something. You have the answer but if you give it to him, he’ll only just want to discuss it more. Grab the chance and tell him you’re not sure about it but you’ll find out and get back to him ASAP – via email!

Hey! I was just writing you an email!

As soon as you pick up the client’s call, immediately give them a big greeting and let them know you were just writing an email to them with update/details/whatever.

“I’m almost done. Why don’t I finish writing it and send it to you? You can get back to me through it.”

Hang up and get typing that email – fast!

Got any more ideas?

Do you have trouble talking to clients on the phone? How do you deal with your chatty clients? Make sure you leave a comment and let us know. We can never have enough of these types of tips in reserve

May the freelancing gods save us all from clients who love to talk and call back frequently for updates. Amen.

Editors Note: If you’re looking for more phone tips like this to boost your productivity and cut down on distractions, you can check out Samar’s previous article on how to cut calls short with family and friends – it’s a good one too, full of great tips.

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