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In this episode of the Sound Design Live podcast, I talk with Brennan Dunn from The Business of Freelancing and Double Your Freelancing. Dunn tells the story of how he went from making $50/hour to $20,000/week by solving business problems for his clients instead of delivering services.
Download the Audio Contractor to Consultant workbook
Major points covered in this episode:
- To be a successful freelancer, you have to understand both the business that your client is in and how they make money.
- Stop thinking about yourself as merely a skilled artist and craftsman, and start also thinking of yourself as a consultant.
- Being a consultant allows you to make more money and have more creative freedom.
- How to use Socratic questioning to discover your client’s underlying business problem.
- How to gather the information you need to package your services as a solution.
- Strategies to build confidence and deal with imposter syndrome.
- The importance of using case studies to show credibility.
- How to start a conversation about your clients about RoI.
- Make sure you only work with clients who respect and trust you.
- Best habits for growing your business.
- The biggest benefit of joining mastermind groups.
No one pays money for audio engineering. They pay money for the outcome they get.
Show notes:
- All music in this episode by Dynamo Team
- Charge what you’re worth
- Socratic Questioning Script
- Podcast motor
- Quotes
- If you are selling your technical services, you are selling a commodity. To the buyer, all commodities are equal.
- I started shifting toward the questions, what underlying business problem are they willing to spend money on and how does that need to be solved? When I started doing that, everything shifted.
- What is the number one problem behind the project and how does that affect you financially?
- If this project gets done, paint me a picture of what your business should look like tomorrow.
- No one pays money for audio engineering. They pay money for the outcome they get.
- If the client wants a solution and you are giving them technical information, then the client is responsile for translating that into the solution they are looking for.
- When you engage with a new lead, try to understand the problem they need to solve.
- Consulting is an equal exchange of value.
- Businesses pay money to either make more money or loose less money.
- The word client comes from the ancient French, to protect. So when you have a client, you are offering them protection.
- The way to [not be a commodity] is to not sell audio engineering.
- The one thing that we have that is limited is our availability. It’s a non-renewable resource. So you want to make sure that you kinds of projects that you work on are the kind that move you and your business forward.
- If you don’t have any data on how your business is doing, then it can be easy to second guess yourself.
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