Thread by @lovevalgeisler

There are two things that have helped me build my freelance business and nearly triple the salary I had in my in-house role less than one year ago: relationships and positioning. 1/

Relationships aren't an immediate gain either. I've never gone into meeting someone expecting that they would turn around and do something for me. That's called a transaction, not a relationship.

Real relationships are built from a place of "how can I help *you*?" or "this person is interesting to me". Going into new relationships with people under these two circumstances has yielded incredible results. 3/

I built relationships in my in-house role that have led to paying work as a freelancer because they ended up hiring me. Some have led to mentorship opportunities that I wouldn't have otherwise asked for. The most important piece is that none of it was forced. 4/

Also some took years. I just wrapped up work with a client who I met in 2015 doing something else entirely! I stayed in touch over the years, always asked how I could support them, and the work organically evolved from there. 5/

Positioning can help those long-term relationships better understand how they can turn around and help you. (Believe me, if you're coming from a place of service, they will be more likely to do the same.) 6/

Everything I know about positioning I learned from @Philip_Morgan and lots of people are surprised to hear that. Philip helps developers position themselves but the work translates to any industry. 7/

Nearly every person I interact with says some form of "your website is so clear" or "I love knowing exactly what you do" and I haven't even told them. It's all in the positioning. I took something I love doing and went all in on it. And it's paid off in dividends. 8/

Highlights from the last 6 months since taking on better positioning:
- booked $50k+ in contracts
- built up a wait list as I'm booked through May
- had the confidence to pitch a large co.
- wrote a big email marketing guide for a major brand
...more...
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- booked paid consults off of a single blog post; turned those into multiple full day rate work sessions
- doubled my half and full day rates
- gone from hunting down gigs to being asked if I have time to help
- been featured on two webinars as an email onboarding expert
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And I pitched three major conferences for speaking gigs (👏🏽 @litmusapp, @bosconference, @MicroConf)
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Look. I'm not saying this to #humblebrag. I'm outright bragging. I did the work to position my business for success. I've formed long term relationships that happen to fuel my business too. I'm more confident in who I am & what I do *because of* relationships and positioning. 12/

And you can too! Don't look at every connection as a potential client or referral. Look at them as relationships. As humans you want to hang out with. And focus instead on your positioning. The latter will only help the former. 13/

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