I got an email with an interesting question the other day. It came from a Pro-Lancer on my email list named Mike. Mike’s new to freelancing, and he just landed his first two clients.
Now Mike wants to make sure he builds on that success and continues to grow his business. So he asked me for ideas about how he could stand out from the crowd — especially since he doesn’t have a lot of experience yet.
Before I show you what I told him though, I want to highlight an important takeaway for all freelancers hidden inside my response.
It’s based on a Japanese martial art called judo — which means “the gentle way.”
The philosophy behind judo is to turn your opponent’s strength into a weakness — and your own weakness into strength
Well, you can also apply the judo philosophy to your freelance business.
For example, Mike’s “weakness” is a lack of experience.
But now let’s apply the judo philosophy to that.
Ask yourself, how could a lack of experience actually be a strength?
Or to put it another way — how can a lack of experience actually be a benefit to your clients?
Stop and think about it for a second.
Done? Okay…
Here’s how I told Mike to position his lack of experience as a strength instead of a weakness.
I told him to say something like this when talking to a potential client…
“As you know, I’m a newer copywriter. But the good news is that means my schedule isn’t packed with other clients.
With more-established writers, they’re usually juggling a lot of clients. And that means they often can’t give you as much of their attention, take longer to do your work, and may even delay the start of your project for a few months while they put you on a waitlist.
On the other hand, I’m available and ready to work now.
And I can usually turn around what you need in half the time it takes other copywriters — without sacrificing the quality of the work. So not only does working with me save you money, but it also gets you results faster, too.”
See how this turns the “weakness” of not having experience into a benefit for the client?
Because using the judo philosophy, you can turn almost any “weakness” in your own freelance business into a benefit for your clients, too.
And that will help you close a lot more new clients.
Also, speaking of closing more clients…
Want to see how you can make freelance clients come to you — like clockwork — using one simple, 30-second conversation?
Then claim your free copy of 30-Second Referrals now. Inside this free PDF, I’ll show you how you can use this short conversation to get two referrals from every client you sign — like clockwork — and bring in more high-paying jobs than you can handle. I’ll even show you exactly what to say during this conversation with the word-for-word script on page 13.
But there is a small catch…
30-Second Referrals is only available to members The Freelance Like A Pro email list.
So enter your best real email below to join us and claim your free copy of 30-Second Referrals now. (And you’ll get my members-only emails to help you run a more profitable and stress-free freelance business, too.)
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Thanks for the freelancing guide and the emails that you've been sending out — the 30-second referral method is so stupidly simple, that it's genius!
Connor Inch, Freelance Copywriter