New freelance business mindset

Hi,
I’ve been thinking a lot about the mindset I want to bring into the 2nd year of my freelancing…
In Jan / Feb especially, I was feeling quite down about things and struggling. Sending pitches and not getting many commissions back. But I can also see that my mindset had got into quite a low place. I felt very exposed, vulnerable, conscious of rejection….
I took a few weeks off in March for my birthday and realised, wow, I think I just needed a holiday! And how much the first year had taken it’s toll on me, including how much it had stretched my comfort zone. And a few weeks by the beach did wonders for rebuilding that armour which I felt had been worn down.
Now that I have nurtured myself and am on the brink of starting again, including pitching to people, I want to make sure that this is coming from a new place.

Ingredients of my new business mindset include:

– Seeing myself as a business boss bitch!!! Not just a writer, but as someone who is driving the train in all aspects of my business. And recognising my worth around money and asking for it.

– Stepping into total confidence — last year I showed myself I could do it, so this is no longer in doubt. I want to be seeing the amazing skills I have to offer – and communicating them to others in a way that is selling myself! The energy of, they’d be lucky to work with me, and if they don’t want to, they’re not the right client for me.

– Upgrading the language in my pitch emails so that they’re coming from this place of rock-solid self-belief, even if I’m acting like it until it becomes easier. Thinking that people would be lucky to hear from me and work for me! You’re offering them an amazing opportunity…. and radiating that self-confidence!

– New relationship with rejection = when I get a no, have a protocol of dealing with this. Eg, take a moment to really feel it, and feel that it sucks! Then remind myself it’s such a win that I sent the ask, because that’s more successful than not out of fear. Celebrating it in some way. And tending to myself if I feel the need to do something to go inwards, step back, fill my cup back up with something soft and nurturing (eg: a bath, a walk, coffee and journalling, a swim, netflix on sofa…). So that it doesn’t build up so much again that I need a full holiday to recover from burnout… Also things to be onto myself around not making it mean anything about me, thought-wise.

– Taking action on the ‘working IN my business’ for income generation AND the ‘working ON my business’ each week = a mix of this, where I’m still prioritising income generation and not letting the other more backend stuff takeover or hiding in that for safety. This essentially means pitching ideas regularly, and chasing them up when people don’t reply, and organising a system for these too – as well as challenging myself by pitching to people I might otherwise feel scared to!

– Re systems, trusting and validating my way of doing this, and not shaming myself for adhd- related organisational challenges or trying to fit into a box of how I think I should run my business. I.e. making it ok if I do the things that work for me. Eg checking my emails in one big batch maybe less often. Or chaotic to-do lists that I organise regularly while embracing the creative genius around them! And showing up on social media in a way that is sustainable for me, ie not all the time, on my terms.

– Instead of feeling exposed and vulnerable sharing my work – to use bridge thoughts to support becoming more comfortable with being seen, where you absolutely know your why for it, and that it maximises the impact your work can have on people who need it.

– ENJOYING it – and reminding myself regularly how cool is it to be creating my dream career like this… because it IS so fun getting to do the exact work I love, and when it’s working it does feel like that. And feeling excited to see how I can use alllll of the amazing lessons I learned in year one to make this a huge success in year 2…. And feeling less graspy and desperate with it out of panic, low self-worth etc?

– Trusting that this year I will earn enough to make it sustainable through this mindset and the actions of putting myself out there – even though my first year I didn’t earn that and not making this mean anything about my second year of it.

– Embracing the finance admin and money knowledge side of it; being open-minded and having a learning mindset around upskilling with this info…

Is there anything you’d recommend adding to this, or on how to embody this and lean in?

Thanks so much

 

Answer:

As with recipes, there’s often a process that you go through to combine everything. Set the oven, grease the pan, mix the dry and wet ingredients, then combine, and so on…

If you could give yourself a place to start, where might that be? Secondly, this is quite the list (and it’s all awesome stuff) but sometimes when things are lengthy, it’s challenging to keep it all straight. What do you think are the essential, non-negotiable ingredients for this recipe to work? Where are you willing to improvise? Where can you lower the bar and still consider yourself successful?

Notice how your brain responds to the idea of constraint being part of the support you need to embody and lean into this list. What comes up for you?