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SHOWING 10 LATEST NEWS OUT OF 885

WEEKLY DIGEST #42 OF 2026

• The Only Skill That Matters Now Is The One Thing AI Can Never Steal! – Rick Rubin tells Steven Bartlett on The Diary of a CEO why he ignores metrics—and why the best work is often “indefensible.” The producer behind Jay-Z, Adele, and Johnny Cash splits creation into four phases (seed, experimentation, crafting, finishing), sets deadlines only once a project is 90% done, and argues you should pay the bills separately so money never pressures the work.
• Your Website is Fine. AI Still Can't Find You – Nigel Rawlins draws on his Wisepreneurs Podcast talk with Gill Andrews, whose own site lost traffic because AI tools couldn’t find her name anywhere else. He argues your website is now where trust gets confirmed, not where you get found, and suggests a quick test: ask an AI who it would hire for your work.
• From Burnout to Balance: Pacing Your Business as a Neurodivergent Freelancer – How do you build a freelance business that doesn’t burn you out? On the Being Freelance podcast, photographer Celie Nigoumi tells Steve Folland how tracking her time in Toggl led to a big price jump, why she merged two niche brands into one, and how she protects her energy with a buffer day every two weeks.
• Future is Freelance Forum – Struggling to stay visible? On October 20th, Sarah Duran hosts the next Future Is Freelance session, “Show Up Consistently: Building a Visibility Practice That Actually Works.” Alongside guest speakers Tangia R. Al-awaji Estrada, Katelin Tiernan, and Megan Bungeroth, this hands-on, collaborative workshop will explore what story keeps you from showing up, what you lose by staying invisible, and which visibility strategies actually work for people in your field.

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WEEKLY DIGEST #41 OF 2026

• How I Structure My Freelance Proposals So Clients (Usually) Say Yes – Why do some proposals get a quick yes while others go unread? Lizzie Davey shares the six-part structure she uses every time, built around the client rather than herself: keep it to two pages, restate the conversation, quote the client’s goal in their own words, map scope and timeline—including what you need from them—offer three price tiers, and link to similar work and testimonials. No slick template required.
• When The Business doesn't Fit Your Life, It's Time To Redesign – What do you do when the business you built no longer fits your life? Recapping a Future is Freelance forum with Ashley Cisneros Mejia and Mandy Ellis, Sarah Duran argues that adaptation is the skill, not the plan: stability has to be rebuilt again and again. You can’t control outcomes, but you can control whom you approach, what you offer, and where you focus. Start by asking “Does this work for who I am now?”
• 50+ Ways to Deliver Your Freelance Expertise – Your freelance expertise doesn’t have to be delivered 1:1. There are more than 50 other ways, says Elina Jutelyte—from audits and workshops to calculators, diagnostic tools, licensing, and train-the-trainer programs. She shows how a vague “I consult on marketing” turns into a defined 3-week positioning audit, and advises combining formats so each offer leads to the next.
• A Brief Existential Guide To AI – Feeling overwhelmed by the endless stream of new AI models? Jeppe Borg argues the answer isn’t chasing every tool—it’s tying your work to a problem worth solving. Drawing on the jobs-to-be-done idea, he suggests defining your focus as “I will help X do Y,” then choosing the medium, format, and content that fit today. Tools will come and go in the coming shakeout—the problem you solve stays.
• Stop Treating Your Annual Review Like a Performance Review – Tiago Forte used to punish himself into a better life with every annual review. In a 14-minute video, he shares the four mindset shifts that changed it. He explains why criticism distorts what you can see, why part of your review belongs on paper, and why emotions are the best data you have.

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NEW MEMBER: MIROSLAV BERAN

Meet our new member: Miroslav Beran, an online marketer specializing in Google Ads, Sklik, and Favi who helps e-commerce businesses build profitable advertising in the Czech market. Working with online stores of every size, from the smallest shops to large retailers, Miroslav focuses first and foremost on profit, applying the 80/20 principle to find the optimizations that pay off from the very start of a collaboration.

With more than 10 years of experience and credentials including Google Partner, Heureka Partner, and Mergado Specialist, he brings deep knowledge of shopping aggregators and comparison engines. The focus is on long-term partnerships rather than quick wins, and more than 90% of Miroslav's projects continue for over a year. One example: advertising costs held at 5% of revenue on roughly €2.05 million in sales, for a management fee of under €410 a month.

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TOO BIG TO DELIVER ALONE?

Landed a project too big to deliver alone? On Freelance to Founder podcast, Austin L. Church tells Preston Lee to skip both hiring first and winning first—build a micro-agency roster instead, testing freelancers on small, low-stakes jobs. Taking the leap anyway? Pad timeline and budget, write a precise brief ("if it's not in the creative brief, then it doesn't exist"), and split deadlines into many smaller ones.

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WEEKLY DIGEST #39 OF 2026

• No Killer Channel: Why 'and' Beats One Platform — Nigel Rawlins tackles the common question: Which single platform is best for getting clients? Citing marketing experts and industry data, Nigel shows why there is no "killer tool," and why sustainable visibility relies on combining short-term offers with long-term authority building into one coordinated campaign.
• How Freelancers Can Prove Their Impact — Elina Jutelyte reveals how freelancers can escape the "low-cost task-doer" trap and position themselves as high-value strategic partners—even without access to a client’s financial dashboards.
• 7 Lessons for Building a 7-Figure Freelance Business — How do you build a stable, profitable freelance business without burning out? On the podcast with Austin L. Church, Satta Sarmah Hightower shares 7 rules for success: treat your business like a business, market continuously (not out of panic), build long-term client partnerships, and have a crisis plan. Entrepreneurship should be a sustainable system that serves your life and respects the season you’re in—not destroy you.
• The 15-Minute Portfolio Polish — Most freelancers let their portfolios collect dust or get bogged down in endless redesigns. Sara Gibson shows how to polish your portfolio in just fifteen minutes: trim your weakest work, frame projects around business results, and implement quick micro-upgrades to convert more high-paying clients.
• Your Fellow Freelancers on How They Handle Rejection, by the Freelancers Union – This article gathers perspectives from independent workers on how to navigate professional rejection. Rather than letting a "no" damage self-worth, the contributors advocate for treating rejection as a statistical certainty (like a baseball batting average), recognizing it as a simple lack of fit rather than a personal failure, and recycling unused pitches into future opportunities.

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OVERCOMING THE ODDS

What if your biggest failures are actually your greatest breakthroughs? Tim Ferriss uncovers raw stories from Terry Crews, Tim McGraw, Jessica Lahey, and other professionals about turning crushed dreams into triumphs. The discussion focuses on self-reliance, strategic pivots, and managing non-linear paths—offering a grounded framework for handling uncertainty, processing setbacks, and maintaining long-term focus.

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WEEKLY DIGEST #37 OF 2026

• Why Great Tactics Fail Single-Person Businesses — In a conversation with Ricardo Brito, Elina Jutelyte explains why isolated growth hacks—like doubling rates or posting daily—fail solopreneurs. Without a holistic business system, tactical tweaks break down. Using her 8Ps framework, Elina shows how freelancers can align positioning, service design, and pricing while extracting hidden Intellectual Property from their daily work to build a resilient solo business.
• Drowning in Success: How Many Clients Can You Actually Handle? — How many clients can you juggle before you completely burn out? Sara Gibson addresses the "success trap" where booked-out freelancers drown in work. Because business operations eat up roughly 30% of total bandwidth, a 40-hour billable week is unsustainable. To solve this, she provides a realistic capacity formula alongside four key strategies to regain control of your schedule.
• How to Hire Help and Become the CEO of Your Freelance Business with John Jonas — “What is the thing that you're spending the most time on? Hire someone to do that.” In a chat with Austin L. Church, John Jonas breaks down the shift every independent professional eventually has to make: moving away from doing everything solo and toward outsourcing. That means handing off not just what you dislike, but whatever eats up the most hours, freeing you up to actually run your business like a CEO.
• Freelance Rate Calculator — What should I actually charge for my work? If this question is on your mind, an online calculator by Amy Suto can help you with the math.
• How Much Should a Consultant Charge? — Nigel Rawlins argues pricing shouldn't start with hourly rates. Costs define your floor, but the ceiling comes from the value created for the client. Pricing is a matter of positioning, scarcity, and trust. His article shows why freelancers undercharge for years and why their most valuable asset is strategic thinking, not execution.

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WHAT IS YOUR WORK WORTH?

Nigel Rawlins argues that pricing should not start with your desired income or hourly rate. Your costs define the floor, but the real ceiling comes from the value your work creates for the client. That means pricing is also a question of positioning, scarcity and trust. His article explores why many independent professionals undercharge for years—and why the most valuable part of their work may not be what they deliver, but the thinking behind it.

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WEEKLY DIGEST #35 OF 2026

• The Top 3: The 5-minute Method To Finish Your Most Ambitious Project — Jessica Abel offers a practical cure for project overwhelm and procrastination: the Daily Top 3 method. Because endless to-do lists trigger shame and survival-mode thinking, she recommends choosing just 1 to 3 priority tasks each evening for the next day, ensuring your primary creative project gets a spot. Once you complete those core tasks, you've officially won the day, and anything else you finish is pure extra credit.
• Why Silence Scares Your Clients (And How to Fix It) — Sara Gibson highlights a common communication trap for freelancers: while you feel like you're crushing it behind the scenes, silence leaves clients anxious and doubtful. Waiting for them to ask for an update costs you leverage and makes you look reactive. Solution? Sending short, proactive updates—structured around recent wins, upcoming tasks, required action items, and clear reassurance—before the client ever feels the urge to check in.
• From $270K Freelancer to CEO — In conversation with Austin L. Church, Ross Simmonds highlights why creating exceptional work is only halftime—the real leverage comes from distribution. He breaks down why fear keeps talented freelancers from promoting their work and shares concrete ways to compound career growth, build scalable authority, and get top-tier content in front of the right audience.
• Why Taste Matters More Than Skill — As AI makes content creation instant, human taste—the discernment to choose what is truly great over what is merely acceptable—is, as Daniel Pink states, the ultimate skill. While machines produce endless options, they lack intent. By creating more than you consume, rejecting mediocrity, and evolving your standards, you provide what AI cannot: the human capacity to care and curate what is worth keeping.
• How to Improve Motivation & Overcome Procrastination, a podcast by Andrew Huberman — Oxford neurologist Dr. Masud Husain reveals that apathy isn't laziness, but a high neural energy cost in evaluating effort versus reward. To combat this friction, he suggests micro-stepping tasks to lower the brain's initial activation barrier. This shift optimizes dopamine signaling—moving you from decision fatigue to effortless momentum.

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WEEKLY DIGEST #34 OF 2026

• Your Old Content Is a Sales System — In this conversation with Austin L. Church, Kendall Cherry explains how she doubled her freelance income without the pressure of churning out a constant stream of new content or spending her days on discovery calls. Instead of creating from scratch, she recommends curating a "greatest hits" archive of your best-performing past posts, emails, and case studies. Combining this recycled funnel with clear service guides and smart intake forms reclaims your time for the work that actually matters.
• Freelance Business Bootcamp — Organized by Elina Jutelyte, Freelance Business Month is becoming a 1-month positioning bootcamp for experienced freelancers. Built around one goal—defining and actually implementing your positioning—the program offers live sessions and step-by-step guidance starting October 1st. Capacity is limited to 20 places, with early-bird pricing ending September 17th.
• Building Without Predicting — Derek Sivers details building an off-grid home by refusing to predict his needs. Starting with bare cabins, he added features only after real-world living proved them necessary. Based on the rule "all predictions are wrong," he argues for deferring decisions and testing actual demand—a metaphor for building lean, custom-tailored solutions in software, business, and life.
• Freelancers, Are You Running A Career Or A Business? — Elizabeth Day’s LinkedIn lesson highlights a common trap for freelancers: the employee mindset. Without realizing it, many keep operating like traditional workers—fulfilling briefs and waiting for permission. A business mindset shifts this completely by asking: What do I actually want, and how do I build a business around it?
• Future is Freelance Forum — Sarah Duran invites you to the next Future Is Freelance session on September 15th, titled "When the Business Doesn't Fit." Alongside guest speakers Ashley Cisneros Mejia and Mandy Ellis, this hands-on, collaborative workshop will explore the gap between what your business requires and what you actually have to give.
• The Disconnect Between Effort and Value — Seth Godin shows that effort and resulting value rarely go hand in hand. Exceptional work can happen quickly and easily, just as it can after years of exhausting labor. Real-world value doesn't depend on how much blood, sweat, and tears you pour into a project, but on whether it meets a need, solves a problem, or resonates with the audience.

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