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The power of visualisation and taking action

The Power of Visualization and Taking Action

I am not much for self-help writing; however, mindset is everything when transitioning into a new lifestyle or career. Lifestyle design, as Tim Ferris calls it, takes courage, faith and action. In this post, I will discuss the power of visualization combined with action and how it can serve you in achieving your dream location independent lifestyle.

 

Law of attraction

Say what you want about the law of attraction, popularised by Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret, but I know it has helped me towards the lifestyle I desire. Not manifesting myself a Ferrari kind of way, but achieving realistic goals, I have set for myself. 

In short, the idea behind the secret consists of three steps:

 

Ask – what you want

Believe – that you will get it (or already have it)

Receive – the universe will deliver

Your thoughts shape your reality

The things we believe to be true shape our reality. This is why it’s essential to take a moment and examine our thoughts and beliefs to make sure they are serving us well. Thoughts are things you may have heard. This knowledge dates back to the Bible and has been rehashed throughout the ages, most recently by The Secret.

 

“If you believe you can, you probably can.” – Mary Kay Ash

 

 

Your beliefs about how the world works will shape your reality because they will determine what your life looks like. If you strongly believe that something is impossible, for example, then it’ll be difficult for you to get anywhere close to that goal. Conversely, feed your subconscious mind with positive beliefs, and you will move closer to your goals.

Power of setting goals

Therefore, when you embark on a new mission, it is vital to know what you want. In this case, quitting your wage-slave job to go out on your own as a freelancer, entrepreneur or start-up business owner, write down exactly what it is you want to achieve.

 

Where do you see yourself in one year, five years from now?

What does your ideal day look like?

How many clients do you want?

How much money do you want to make? 

Where are you working from? Home office, inner-city co-working space? The beach?

 

The power of goal setting is well known and is continually written about, yet it’s incredible how little people do it.

 

“The reason people don’t get what they want is because they don’t know what they want.” T. Harv Ecker – Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth.

Visualize your future

Visualization is like goal setting, but you visualize it in your mind instead of writing it down. You can use visual aids to help you, like vision boards. The power of visualization, once you master it, is like a personal superpower.

 

A vision board is a collage of pictures of everything you want. Your dream home, car, office, holiday, spouse, etc. You can print photographs and stick them on a corkboard or create a digital vision board using Canva. The important thing is to keep it somewhere you will see it every day to keep the images front of mind. I keep one near my closet where I get dressed every morning and a digital version as the background on my computer.

Practice daily gratitude

Gratitude is powerful; there’s no doubt about it. In fact, I primarily have the power of appreciation to thank for turning my life around at one point.

 

Gratitude helps generate happiness and general well-being and improve attention, social relationships, and self-esteem.

Experiments have confirmed that grateful people are also more likely to volunteer in their communities. They are more likely to report a sense of purpose and meaning in life. Gratitude also provides a buffer against the negative effects of stress and depression.

 

 

Gratitude will serve the new freelancer, entrepreneur or new business owner when the going gets tough. And it will. When you find you are up against the ropes and not where you will like to be, practice writing down ten things you are grateful for. You will be amazed at how much it helps.

Feed the mind healthy content Photo by Giulia Bertelli on Unsplash

Just like your body will love you for feeding it healthy foods, so to will your mind for providing it with healthy ideas. Do this through reading. Besides the books I have already mentioned, so many more excellent books will serve your mindset as you strive for a better life. There’s too many to list, so I’ll just pick out a few more of my favorites here:

 

As a Man Thinketh by Denis Waitley

The Secret of the Ages by Robert Collier

The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale

The Success Principles by Jack Canfield

The Power of your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy

The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris

Digital Nomad by Tsugio Makimoto and David Manners

Focus on what matters and take action today Photo by Prateek Katyal on Unsplash

Your life gets better as you focus on what matters most to you. You become happier, and your career will be more successful if you take action today.

 

When working towards your own location independent lifestyle, try practicing the following:

 

Plan what needs to be done – plan your day and week ahead of time

Start the day with a clear goal

Focus on one task at a time without switching between tasks

 

If you want to be a successful freelancer or solopreneur, you need to put in the work. You should not rely on luck or other people for your success. The power of visualization will help you know what you want, believe you can get it, and enjoy the process of achieving your goals.

 

You got this.

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How to Set Up a Freelance Business​

How to Set Up a Freelance Business

One of the most common questions I get asked as a freelancer is whether it’s a hard way to make a living, let alone be super successful. While it does take a certain amount of grit and determination, it does bring exceptional personal and professional growth. While starting out is arguably the hardest part, setting up a freelance business is hte easiest part. Luckily, it doesn’t take much nowadays, and I’ll explain how you can do it for next to nothing.

My quest to becoming a digital nomad started by setting up a freelance copywriter business. I didn’t have a clue about setting up a freelance business. It had no guidance whatsoever. It’s safe to say I winged it. And boy, was it a learning curve. Once you’ve chosen your location independent career you will need to set up your own freelance business. In this post, I will tell you the mistakes I made so hopefully you don’t make them yourself.

Freelance Business Plan

I rushed out and had business cards made with the business name, Cool Copy. Then followed these three main steps to set up a freelance business:

 

I had the logo designed by a graphic designer on Fiverr for $6.34.

I bought the domain name “coolcopy.com.au” for $20 for one year from Cheap Domains.

I registered the business name with The Australian and Investments Commission (ASIC) for $35 for one year.

 

I had spent $71.34 in setting up my freelance business (without a website). But after getting feedback from friends and family, it turned out Cool Copy wasn’t so cool after all. Ironically, because it included the word “cool” apparently made it “uncool”. So, I ditched Cool Copy, cut my losses, and started again. Awesome.

 

I checked if killercopy.com.au was available. To my surprise, it was. And my friends and family approved this business name, except for mum. She thought, because it had the word “killer” in it, people might think I’m a serial killer or something… thanks mum. But, none the less, I went with Killer Copy anyway… sorry mum. I bought the domain name killercopy.com.au, and registered the business Killer Copy Creative.

Freelance Business Tools

For $8.40 AUD per month, a Google Workspace account will get you a customized and secure business email, along with access to their suite of tools including Drive, Docs, Sheets, Meet (video conferencing), and calendar, etc. Even if you do not have a website up yet, having a custom business email is the next most professional thing you can show potential clients. In my early days as a freelance copywriter, I used my Gmail email. Not a good look.

Other freelance business tools I use are:

 

Slack : For communications and collaborations ClickUp: Freelance project management Hubstaff : Freelance time management

 

 

You need a website

I decided the logo would set the tone for the website branding. I was happy with my logo design through outsourcing site Fiverr, so I decided to stick with them for a web developer. An attractive woman’s profile called Sarah caught my eye. Sarah claimed she could build me an SEO & mobile responsive website for AUD $289.81. She had good ratings and reviews, and the turn-around was only nine days with several revisions allowed.

 

Sarah turned out to be a BIG MISTAKE. Fast forward two months later, and Sarah had still not completed my website. She gave me numerous excuses as to why it was dragging on. But it was when she told me her village was under attack that I knew something was off.

 

The problem with Sarah’s village under attack was that her photo was of a white western woman. Something was definitely off. It turned out that she was not even a woman. Sarah’s real name was Sandeep, and he was from a remote village near the border of India and Pakistan! Crickey, no wonder my attempts at flirting had gone down like a lead balloon. I’d been trying to flirt with Sandeep while he’s trying to make a buck as his village is under attack!

Do not attempt to flirt with your web developer

Sandeep’s digital strategy was to lure guys in with a hot avatar called Sarah. And I was the sucker who fell for it… Righto, no more Mister nice guy:

“I. Need. This. Website. Finished. Now Sandeep!!” I demanded.

 

Eventually, I had a website that was far from perfect, but it would do for now. Baby steps. But Sandeep had the nerve to request I tip him for all the time and effort he put into it! After it was delivered over two months late!!

 

“Yeah, I’ll give you a tip Sandeep. Change your profile photo and name to your real identity, deliver on your promise and on time!”

 

After giving Sandeep a negative review, he messaged asking me why, explaining how much he relied on good reviews to earn a living. I now felt compassion. Sandeep doesn’t have the opportunities afforded to me and was probably using Avatar Sarah out of necessity. Or maybe not, I don’t know. Maybe his village was never under attack. Either way, I amended his review and gave him a tip. Besides, he taught me valuable lessons as a freelancer, the most important being:

 

Always deliver on your promise.

Seriously, just hire a local developer

Or, better yet, do it yourself. If I added up all the money spent on fixing my website, it cost more than hiring a local web developer in the first place. Communication and transparency are crucial. Your website represents you and your brand to the rest of the world. Invest either your time and/or money into it.

 

Today, there are incredibly user-friendly content management platforms (CMS), such as Squarespace and Wix. Much of it is drag and drop, and they provide training. They are also affordable options as they are act as your domains host. 

 

WordPress is more complicated but is the best for SEO and functionality. One of your website’s most important aspects is having well-written SEO optimized copy that also converts readers into paying customers. Yes, that was a shameless plug. But there’s a reason why almost a third of the world’s websites are WordPress. There are several affordable courses on WordPress on sites such as Udemy. Or, if in doubt, just Google or YouTube an issue. If you decide to go with WordPress, I highly recommend downloading the Yoast SEO plug-in to assist with your websites’ online presence. 

 

 

Whichever way you go, learning to use you chosen CMS is a great skillset to have because it means that you can manage your website and not have to pay someone else to. It’s also much better cyber security practice because you’re not handing over your passwords to a third party. You can bet that after dealing with Sarah/Sandeep that I changed my passwords.

Final words on setting up a freelance business

In saying the above, I have outsourced many tasks to Fiverr since and all in all they have delivered excellent value for money, especially for tasks above my technical expertise. Fiverr are also great to outsource for your own work if you’ve got work overload, which I will discuss in another blog post. 

 

So, there you have it—just a few of the lessons learned from setting up a freelance business. And there will be many more lessons to come. I’m sure of it. Had I done the process again today, I could set up a freelance business for less than a few hundred dollars. The reality is, taking the leap and going out on your own is just one massive learning curve. But that’s okay. You fail forward. The trick is to view every mistake you make as a lesson that allows you to grow and move closer to your location independent freelance goals. 

The post How to Set Up a Freelance Business​ appeared first on Tim Roberts.

Is Freelancing a Good Career Option?

Is Freelancing a Good Career Option?

It depends on your personality.  Freelancing certainly isn’t for everyone. But for some, they couldn’t imagine having it any other way. I’ve experienced both worlds as a corporate employee and as a freelancer. And at the time of writing, I’m doing both – working full time as a company employee while freelancing on the side. As such, I feel highly qualified to answer the question, is freelancing a good career option?

Is freelancing better than a job

It’s important to note that my employer allows me to work fully remote, which is kind of like having the best of both worlds. But more on that later. Freelancing takes hard work to make it worthwhile. However, with the proper guidance and attitude, anyone can get to a stage of freelancing where it is not only a legitimate career but an enviable lifestyle. In this post, we will look at the pros and cons of freelancing and starting your own freelance business as a solopreneur.

The pro's of freelancing Be your own boss

This is obvious, but there is pure joy in knowing you don’t have to answer to anyone except your clients! However, you are accountable to only yourself, which is an excellent lesson in discipline. Moreover, one gains immense confidence in calling the shots and not being monitored by that pesky micro-manager.

Work from anywhere

Most freelancers are location-independent, meaning they can work from anywhere. The terms Work from Home (WFH) and Work from Anywhere (WFA) has arisen during the pandemic, and I suspect the trend continues. The future of work has changed as people choose to move from big-city centers to coastal and regional town centers. When it comes to asking yourself, is freelancing a good career option, this is the best reason to say yes.

Holiday whenever

Okay, this one is a double-edged sword. Although being your own boss means you can choose to go on a vacation whenever you want, do not be surprised if you find yourself working on said vacation (see con’s). However, choosing when you want to take a trip away is liberating, especially knowing that you can WFA if needed.

Choose who you work with

This may not be a choice for those starting out freelancing, as you may be required to take any work you can get, especially if you are building a portfolio. However, if you stay the course, you will get to a stage in your freelance career where you can be picky with who you work. Ideally, you want to get to a stage where you have three to five great paying regular clients as a freelancer.

Learn to run a business

Even if you are a freelancer working for yourself, you are still running a business. This means wearing multiple hats, including marketing, accounting, and general admin. The skills and confidence I’ve gained just from my hands-experience of running my freelance business have been invaluable. And if you plan to expand, grow, or run a start-up, then the business of freelancing is a great training ground.

The cons of freelancing Continually looking for your next gig

Again, this is more of an issue when you are starting as a new freelancer. You may find yourself having to market yourself and chase the leads to keep the work flowing in. And that’s okay; it’s part of the hustle. But there are times when you might find it challenging. Having the right mindset is crucial for when work dries up. It also helps to be on some freelancer outsourcing platforms like Fiverr. Yes, they generally pay less, but they can be handy to fill in the gaps. Any work is better than no work.

Dealing with difficult clients

Most of the time, your clients will be fine, some even great (hint, these are the ones you want to keep), but you will get a shocker once in a while. They will either be demanding, bad communicators, late paying up, or all of the above. The good news is that the more experience you get, the better you become at spotting red flags from the start. And when you do, you can just tell them you are booked up for months or provide them with an outrageously expensive quote. It seems to do the trick.

Chasing payments

Touching on the above, sometimes you will find yourself chasing invoices. Again, most people are great at paying on time, but there are some, for whatever reason, who take their sweet-ass time. For some reason, creatives often don’t get paid on the final delivery of their work. This is where the question, is freelancing a good career option, sways to the downside. A plumber recently came to my home to fix something. He finished the job and then pulled out an EFTPOS machine, and I paid him straight away. Why shouldn’t it be the same for creatives?

Hard to plan holidays

As discussed in the pros, the freedom to take holidays can be both a blessing and a curse. Several times when I have planned to take a few weeks off, I have had a regular client ask for work to be completed right before I fly out. I almost destroyed a relationship while working remotely from Africa because of this. I have since learned to set an auto-responder email saying I’m unavailable, but even that sometimes doesn’t work.

Deadline stress

This is a big one, and it’s real. Occasionally, you might bite off more than you can chew and find yourself having to hit multiple deadlines at once and suffering from imposter syndrome. And it can be stressful. Very stressful. As a freelancer, looking after yourself and managing stress is essential. For me, a good walk or swim at the beach helps. Also, not taking on too much work at once!

Is freelancing worth it?

Is freelancing a good career move? In my opinion, the pros outweighed the cons. But the situation I have now – working for a company whose values align with my own and writing about a subject (travel) that I love, plus the freedom to work from wherever and whenever, is ideal. But I would not have got here without working for myself and cementing my independence. There is a certain confidence one gets from learning to earn income location-independently. Freedom is the solopreneur’s biggest reward, however, is does take rigorous self-discipline and hard work. As the cliche goes, nothing good comes easy.

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Digital Nomad Jobs for Beginners

Best Digital Nomad Jobs for Beginners

 

Time to skill up so you can achieve your location-independent dream. Fortunately, we live in an exciting time where technology enables us to learn and work from anywhere. With more companies allowing their employees to go fully remote, and job sites specifically for digital nomad jobs hiring, there’s never been a better time to become location independent and work from anywhere. In this post, I will describe your options to go fully remote and the best digital nomad jobs currently out there.

Free and affordable education for remote work jobs

To learn how to become a digital nomad, you first need to upskill. We live in an amazingly lucky time where tools and technology that cost thousands and were out of reach for most are now easily accessible. That means just about anyone can learn the skills required to get digital nomad jobs no experience. The days of spending thousands of dollars and getting into massive student loan debt in order to future-proof your career are numbered.

 

The new avenue for learning from experts online is much more affordable, even free, and more actionable than traditional education. A few affordable and free courses digital nomad jobs without degrees worth checking out are:

 

Fiverr Learn

Udemy

Thinkific

Teachable

Hubspot free courses

Amazon Web Services certification

Google Analytics Academy

 

Of course, not all skills are suited for everyone, which is why I’ve compiled a list of the best digital nomad jobs 2022.

Digital nomad jobs 2023 Freelance writer

A freelance writer can come on many forms, some of which include:

Copywriter: Writes for sales or marketing content, i.e., Ads, website content, sales letters, marketing emails, landing pages, press releases, etc.

Content writer: Writes for content marketing purposes such as articles, blog posts and white papers.

Ghostwriter: Writes a publication on behalf of the client without taking credit as the author.

Most freelance writers can do their work remotely, enabling them to travel freely and choose where they live. As a result, freelance writing is one of the most popular remote work professions

Search engine marketing

Managing Google Ads and Bing Ads is a complex task to perform successfully. Luckily for you, Google offers free courses that will get you certified – which helps if you want to manage campaigns for other businesses. It will take some time, effort, and dedication, but if you can get Google ads, Bing ads, LinkedIn ads or Amazon ads certified, you should have no problem finding clients of your own or landing a remote work job.

Social media marketing

Are you very active on social media? If so, this could be the choice for you. Social media is now a powerful marketing tool that many businesses either do not have the time or knowledge to leverage successfully. And the skill can be largely self-taught, especially if you love social media. Content calendars are key here as successful social media marketing is all about consistency. Of course, being a completely digital medium, you can manage social media marketing from anywhere.

Full-stack digital marketer

Rather than specialising in one area, a full-stack digital marketer is a versatile professional proficient in most, or all facets of online marketing, encompassing strategy, execution, and analysis. They possess a comprehensive skill set of the above plus SEO, content marketing, email marketing, PPC advertising, web analytics, and more. This expertise allows them to create cohesive, data-driven campaigns that effectively reach and engage target audiences across various digital platforms, and potentially get paid a pretty penny for it.

Stock trader

Technology has enabled us to trade just about anything from your mobile phone, including shares, ETF’s, options, currency and even crypto. It will require some capital and if you want to take it seriously, you’ll probably want some larger screens than just your phone to keep an eye on all those charts. One of the riskier location-independent jobs but if you can master a bulletproof system, it can be the perfect digital nomad job.

Cloud specialist

 

Okay, so this one’s a bit more high-tech skill set, but is in demand as businesses move to the cloud. And that is exactly what a cloud computing specialist does; helps companies migrate their data and services into the cloud. If you are tech talented and can help with the digital transformation of businesses, then the world is your oyster. And guess what, you can do it all remotely.

Programmer/coder

Another one that requires some serious technical expertise. In short, you need to learn how to code, arguably one of the best skills you can learn to future-proof your career in this day and age. Not to mention one of the highest paying digital nomad jobs today. Once you have a few programming languages under your belt and landed some clients, you will have one of the best location independent jobs to work from anywhere because, like cloud specialists, you’ll be paid very well for your skill set which will easily fund your location independent lifestyle.

Graphic designer

 

Graphic design is a crowded market, but it can be an ideal digital nomad job if you can establish a niche and excel at it. If you are creatively minded, and enjoyed art class at school, then this could be the job for you. Graphic design can be done from anywhere provided you have a computer and internet connection. Just about all the outsourcing sites such as Fiverr have graphic designers on their books, which can be a good place to start. But if you can work towards finding your own clients you will be able to charge much more for your services.

Video producer

There’s no doubt that video content is massive now. A video producer edits footage for marketing purposes. They are skilled professionals who combine creativity with technical expertise to craft compelling visual content. They excel in conceptualizing and executing video campaigns that resonate with target audiences, utilizing a range of techniques including shooting, editing, motion graphics, and sound design.

More location independent jobs

Of course, there are many other location independent jobs pathways to take, but if I were to list them all, then this post would turn into a novel. For a more comprehensive just Google digital nomad jobs Reddit. However, above are what I believe to be the best options, not only for working remotely but also as valuable skill-sets to future proof your career in the digital age.

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