The Daily Freelancer: The Mindset Shift of Being an Expert
As I’m essentially building the plane while flying the plane in this freelance journey, there’s something I’ve been learning and trying out recently that’s been a challenging but also relieving mindset shift for me.
It’s the idea that when you submit a pitch or a proposal, you’re positioning yourself as the expert who can help your client, not someone who’s just hoping to get picked for a job.
This can be challenging to someone who’s come from the 9-5 world. For example:
In the 9-5 world, you’re not the boss. Granted, you may be a boss, but you’re always likely to report to someone else. In that kind of traditional top-down hierarchy, there’s always a vying for placement, and an attempt to prove yourself. If you do good work, you get rewarded, and maybe a good performance review. You work hard to get noticed for a promotion, but at the end of the day, the work you’ve done is for someone else, furthering someone else’s goals.
In the 9-5 world, you’re hoping to get picked. We’ve all submitted our fair share of resumes over the years, and we write really elaborate cover letters that essentially say, “Pick me! Pick me!” But this is another example of a vertical hierarchy, where you hope someone who will become your boss will notice you for all the things you’ve done that fit what they’re looking for.
In the 9-5 world, you’re not the expert, either. Even if you’re a subject matter expert, or have been trained in a specific area, chances are your 9-5 doesn’t allow you to focus on just that one thing. And ultimately, your job can be changed at any time by those above you (just ask me). In one extreme case, I witnessed the guidance of certified professionals — experts in their field — be overridden by someone without any training in that area because he was the one who ultimately made decisions. What hope was there for anyone with an area of expertise then?
When I started as a freelancer, you can imagine that I was coming at it from this 9-5 mindset. When I submitted pitches to clients, I saw myself as being hired as an employee, with a “Pick me! Pick me!” attitude. My pitches demonstrated all my experience that hopefully would attract attention. But I wondered how my proposal would ever get seen in the sea of proposals, like getting a resume seen in a sea of resumes. And because my area of expertise had value but not nearly enough value to previous job settings, I had no idea I could use it to my advantage.
But freelancing isn’t a vertical hierarchy — it’s horizontal. I’ve only been into this a few months, with mindset shifts happening all the time, but I’m starting to view freelance more as a B2B concept. Instead of being an employee hoping to get a boss’s attention, I’m a business looking to help another business with my services. The reason a client is looking for someone like you is because they don’t have that expert area, and need someone to provide that expertise for them — not that they already have their expertise but just need another employee to delegate it to. In this regard, you can position proposals that show what you know and how it’ll help them.
Similarly, I’ve tapped back into my customer service roots to help me out. In a customer service setting, you’re inherently the knowledge expert, and someone is coming to you for help in answering their question. I spent ten years as a bookseller, and six years as customer service point person for a university (I even piloted their info desk), so I’ve been drawing on those philosophies as well: How can I help you out with what I know, and guide you in the right direction?
Hopefully this helps you out on your journey!
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