Coaching Series: Can Zach take this entry-level freelancer (Maia) to a 6-figure income ($8,333/month) in 6 months?
Follow their journey through the ups and downs and watch them grow!
Milestones from today’s episode:
- Focus on growing the agency rather than building products
- Manage multiple open client projects and stay on top of work
- Create coaching and tailor-made services to increase prices
Coaching highlights from today’s episode:
- Write SOPs for repetitive tasks that can be delegated
- Blueprint-style customer interviews to obtain feedback on the new service offering
- Use pricing tiers for customer services and increase rates
Original recording date of coaching call: 08/01/2023
The DYF Accelerator Community includes weekly live 20-minute one-on-one Zoom coaching with Zach that follows the same format you saw here.
You’ll also have access to our huge library of all past coaching calls, as well as a text-based community and weekly accountability check-ins.
Click here to find out more “
- 12:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. — Zach introduces the podcast series, focusing on freelance success and describing the goal of helping freelancers like Maia reach an annual income of $100,000.
- 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. — Zach discusses the format of the series, comparing it to coaching sessions in the Life Accelerator community, and mentions the possibility of coaching through the community.
- 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. — Maia talks about her current workload, including design projects and one-on-one mentoring, and discusses the challenges of managing multiple projects and intensive client interactions.
- 6:00 – 8:00 — Zach and Maia discuss the nature of his coaching projects, wondering whether to focus on process improvement or re-evaluate the viability of these projects.
- 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. — Zach suggests strategies for streamlining Maia’s coaching services, such as group sessions for cheaper packages and weekly individual sessions for more expensive coaching, addressing the need for better pricing and better customer segmentation.
- 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. — Maia discusses her relationships with clients, including a loyal and successful client and another who she feels she doesn’t charge enough but enjoys working with, emphasizing the attachment to clients and the challenge of the increase in prices.
- 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. — Zach suggests differentiating service levels for customers and incorporating “done for you” services into premium plans, focusing on providing value and potential rate increases.
- 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. — Maia agrees with Zach’s approach, sharing his success with bundling services and the idea of adding value through content creation and coaching, while avoiding tasks like as community management.
- 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. — Zach discusses positioning services productively, focusing on deliverables that provide value and save clients time, particularly in content creation.
- 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. — Maia examines the impact of providing comprehensive social media services on clients’ workload, with the aim of reducing their involvement while maintaining quality and engagement.
- 8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. — Zach suggests automating content planning for clients, emphasizing the importance of clear rules and effective time management for urgent changes.
- 22:00 – 24:00 — Maia confirms the client’s awareness of the need to focus on collaborations and live events. Zach emphasizes the importance of using freed up time effectively.
- 24:00 – 26:00 — Zach suggests adding a coaching component to Maia’s service, ensuring clients use their saved time effectively. Maia sees this as a valuable addition to its offering.
- 26:00 – 28:00 — Maia recognizes the need to consolidate its service offering, by considering group coaching. Zach sees value in Maia’s approach of gradually refining services based on customer feedback.
- 28:00 – 30:00 — Zach advises Maia to define in detail her ideal service offering, taking into account the impact on businesses and customers’ lives, and to accurately calculate the time and costs involved.
- 30:00 – 32:00 — Zach advises Maia on calculating project costs and setting a target hourly rate, emphasizing the importance of pricing services based on value delivered.
- 32:00 – 34:00 — They discuss determining a simple pricing strategy, taking into account customer revenue and perception of value.
- 34:00 – 36:00 — Zach suggests that Maia conduct a “Trojan horse” interview to validate her service offering and advises her to check the time spent coaching clients.
- 36:00 – 38:00 — They discuss the importance of identifying and delegating repetitive tasks and ensuring consistency of service offerings before delegating.
- 38:00 – 40:00 — Maia shares her progress and confidence in growing her business, and Zach shows interest in viewing her time tracking report for a better understanding of her workload.
- 40:00 – 42:00 — Maia discusses time spent on various clients and tasks, pointing out that she is not achieving her desired hourly rate.
- 42:00 – 44:00 — Zach encourages Maia to track all business-related activities to get a complete view of her work hours.
- 44:00 – 46:00 — Maia realizes she needs to track her time more meticulously, especially for tasks like telegram support.
- 46:00 – 48:00 — Zach shares his own time tracking methods and categorizations, emphasizing the importance of seeing the distribution of work at a glance.
- 48:00 – 50:00 — Maia reflects on the importance of putting effective systems and processes in place before they become a necessity in her business. Zach reassures her that sometimes it’s okay to wait until systems are needed before setting them up.
- 50:00 – 52:00 — Zach discusses the importance of having systems in place in a business and suggests Maia move to a more comprehensive time tracking tool like Toggl.
- 52:00 – 54:00 — They discuss the need to accurately track time spent on various tasks, particularly coaching support, to understand the true scope of work.
- 54:00 – 56:00 — Maia plans to audit her hours and evaluate the effectiveness of her hourly rate, considering creating a new service offering.
- 56:00 – 58:00 — Zach suggests that Maia conduct interviews to validate her new service offering and follow up on all business-related matters.
- 58:00 – 1:00:40 — They conclude with Zach setting goals for Maia, including creating a hypothetical service offering, conducting interviews, and tracking all business time.