What Seth Godin wants you to know about freelancing

A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed by Edward Ford from Advance B2B (thanks Edward!) for their podcast on growth & marketing. The episode will air soon, I’ll keep you posted. This interview made me realise that I’ve not been listening to podcasts in a really long time. So I opened my iTunes and went through the list of podcasts I have saved in the past two years.

I got stuck listening to Seth Godin’s podcast Akimbo. That man is simply a bundle of wisdom shaped into human form. If you don’t know Seth, promise me you’ll check out his blog and podcast. You won’t regret it!

In the episode "Freelancers & Professionals", he talks about freelancers, entrepreneurship and the difference between those two. In only 20 minutes he provides so many nuggets of wisdom and inspiration that I could work with that for the next 2 months to come.

If you’re a freelancer and/or an entrepreneur, I highly recommend listening to it now. If you don’t have time, don't worry, I’ve written a summary of the most important things and I thought you’d benefit from it too, especially if you’re a freelancer.

Summary of Seth Godin's podcast episode "Freelancers & Professionals":

• Freelancers do the work. Entrepreneurs set up systems that create jobs and/or do the work for them.
• There will always be people who will do things better and cheaper than you. Don’t race with them to the bottom, instead, choose to race to the top.
• Develop skills, tools and a reputation that can be summarised in one sentence.
• Being for everybody is a trap. (I love this one!)
• Invest in skills instead of tools: emotional skills and tactical skills (tools can be replaced, skills are harder to replace)
• Choose an industry that welcomes you and your work
• Choose the smallest viable market that can sustain you. Specialise! If you’re a one-woman-show, you might only need 6 companies to be your clients.
• Find a balance between doing your work and working on your business.
• What gets you picked is when you’re in the category of 1 → be the only choice!
• Do exceptional work, quirky work. Do the work that initially people dislike. This is the path to uniqueness.
• Decide what you do for free and what you do for money (e.g. blog posts are for free, consulting on specific matters is not), with the free stuff they get to know you, with the stuff you sell, you create value.
• Build relationships, practices and skills that nobody can give away for free.
• You are your own Sales Rep - understand your value!

I hope this nuggets of wisdom help you to adopt a new mindset of approaching your work, be it as an employee, freelancer or entrepreneur.