Episode 213: 5 Things I Didn't Do As A Freelancer To Hit $250K Per Year 

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Brandi: [00:00:00] In a world obsessed with hustle and more, more, more, I'm here to tell you that sometimes less is truly more. So if you're tired of running on this endless hamster wheel of more, and ready to streamline your path to success, You're in the right place. Today, I'm going to go over how I went from 30, 000 to 250k my first full year as a freelancer.

This isn't to brag or boast. This is to give you the action steps of what not to do in order to hit your goals. And then I'm going to share with you the three things I did focus on. This is going to be such a huge episode that's tailored for you. Your freelance business, no matter if you're offering ads, copywriting, social media management, proofreading, whatever you're doing, this episode is going to show you exactly what not to focus on [00:01:00] and what to focus on.

We're going to talk about the pitfalls that can keep you stuck in a rut and not hitting your goals to the focused action items that can lead to you hitting every single one of your revenue goals this season. So I'm excited for you to dive into this episode so we can take the overwhelm out of your business and replace it with daily wins.

So if you're ready to do the dang thing, let's jump on in. 

Welcome back to the Serve Scale Soar podcast, the go to place if you want to start, grow, or scale your freelance ad management business. I'm Brandi Mowles. And today we're diving into the five things I did not, did not do to hit 250, 000 as a freelancer in my first full year [00:02:00] Of business and as a bonus i'm gonna share the top three things I did do In order to hit consistent twenty thousand dollar months and I am so excited to share this episode with you Because I truly believe that So I'm going to talk a little bit more about that in a second, but in the online space, it's more, more, more, more, more.

And I couldn't disagree with that more. And so with that being said, I don't want you doing more. I just want you to focus on the right things because when we do more, we end up in this hustle, hustle, hustle. And when we focus on what actually moves our business forward, we're out of that hustle and grind.

, and overwhelm and we step into winning every single day. And so I want you winning every day because it's way more fun to have a business where you're winning in than one where you are in constant state of overwhelm. And so many freelancers I work with either one on one or in our programs, one common trend I see.[00:03:00] 

Soon as someone gets an overwhelm and they don't get past it and they stay stuck that's when they give up on their goals. That's when they give up on their business because they don't think they can do it. Which couldn't be further from the truth. I was just telling our conversions for clients. Do just, I'm sorry, students the other day where there's overwhelm, there's growth.

And we have to break through the overwhelm to get to the growth. And so if you're not experiencing overwhelm, one, you've already broken through it or two, you're just not stepping outside of your comfort zone enough. And overwhelm usually doesn't come from doing well, it comes from two places, one, focusing on the wrong things at the wrong time.

And then two it's because you're stuck and you're not sure how to get unstuck. And so today I want to talk about the five things I didn't do in order to hit 250, 000 my first year as a freelancer. And I'm going to share with you the three things I did focus on. So I want to jump on into this and [00:04:00] just for context, I started my business, um, July 20, 2018.

I was trying to think how old Rylee is. 2018. Started my business July 2018, and at the end of that year, from July to December, I did 30, 000. So, not bad, but not fantastic. Like, it was fine, but I was working a whole freaking lot. Like hustle, hustle, hustle. And then in 2019, something happened and I really started leaning into the three things that I focused on and stopped doing all the things.

And when that happened, when that shift in my mindset and my services happened from January 2019 to December, 2019, I had a 250, 000 a year that doesn't include the affiliate revenue that I brought in. Or any revenue from my membership surf scale store at that point. So this is purely from my Freelance business.[00:05:00] 

And I did that without a team. So let's dive on in. If you're ready to learn how to do this, let's dive on into this week's episode. Okay, so let's talk about So the five things that I did not do because I think that's a lot of times more important than talking about the things we do do because most people will tell you like, Oh, I did this and then they don't tell you like, but I didn't do all these things.

And there's usually magic in the things that people don't do that you may actually be sitting there doing that's not moving your business forward. So the first thing I didn't do was charge by the hour. I did, when I first started, because that's what I was told, charge by the hour, and I started at 15 an hour, y'all.

Like, 15 an hour. Talk about starting from somewhere and building up. Janessa started at 15 an hour with us, as well. So I started at 15 an hour, and I was burned the F out. And I got all the way up to 30 an hour as a social media [00:06:00] manager, and I was just like, And I was calculating how many hours there were in a week, how many I could actually work, which at that point I was working about 40 hours a week and so exhausted and I knew I was never going to hit my revenue goals at this point.

So when I switched in January, I no longer offered any hourly services. I actually moved the clients I still had in January. I'm going to show you how to do that in just a second, but I'm going to show you how to do that in just a second. works. We have a podcast episode for you where I talk about your clients, how they rather be on package pricing than hourly.

I highly suggest you check that podcast episode out. This is something I'm so against. And even as we're in the process of interviewing right now, for people, we're We tell them [00:07:00] the first 90 days, we do want to have you on hourly. So we make sure that you're like not working too much and not getting paid enough.

But then after that, we move them to package pricing. Because I believe in package pricing so much that even the people that work for me, they are not on hourly. Because the better you get at your job, the more you're, Hurry, I got you. Here, here, here. All right. All right. All right. Okay, okay. Some of these misinformation is actually positive.

So you can find this on some of our websites and even on our Facebook pages and also on So just so that you know, Be careful, If you want to break through. Misinformation. You need to remain calm. you may just And we all know that that's not true because I guarantee you can name one person in your life who hustles and grinds and works all the time and they're still not any further than they were 10, 20 years ago.

And the people I think about is my dad. My dad's one of the hardest working people I know and he works, works, works. The more he works does not equal the more money he makes. Yeah, from an [00:08:00] hourly, but. There's so many, there's only so many hours in a day. You can't really get ahead that way. So, it's not about working harder.

It's about getting better at your craft so you can work less but charge more. And so that brings me to point number two, is point one, I didn't charge by the hour, point two, I didn't offer a laundry list of services. When I first started, I did. In that 30k, I did. I was doing social media management, Pinterest management, email marketing, funnel builds.

I was doing graphic design, Pinterest, you name it, I was freaking doing it. Except for proofreading. No one wants me proofreading. No one would pay me to proofread. And so I bring no value to the table there. And so I was doing all the things when it came to like the marketing aspects and it didn't serve me because I wasn't getting good at any of them.

I mean, I was good at some of them, but I wasn't an expert. [00:09:00] And so when I got into January and I went all in on one service, Facebook ads, and this for you may be something else, but for me, it was Facebook ads. I became known. In the industry, I became looked at outside of just a virtual assistant, which there's nothing wrong with being a virtual assistant, but you become a specialist when you only provide one service, and I got paid a heck of a lot more for it.

So, when you stop offering all the services, and you go in on one, maybe two, the real magic there is is that you get to become an expert. You get to be seen in your industry. You get to be known as someone that does that. You're easier to refer. So if you're like, Hey, I'm offering all the things and I'm not sure which one.

I'm biased. I tell you going to Facebook ads. But I know that's not the right move for everyone. So we'll link up in the show notes. We have the 45 premium services that you [00:10:00] can offer and it's a workbook. You go through, you do the workbook and then you'll come out with one or two services that really excite you and go all in on those.

And here's the deal. After 90 days, if you don't like it, pivot, learn a new skill. You know, it's not that serious, but we have to give it a little bit of time to work. So I always do the 90 day rule. Give it. And then worst case, you just learned a new skill. Whenever you can learn a new skill, there's value in that, because not only can you take it in the online space, but if you wanted to go back and get a nine to five, you have a valuable skill that you know that you can put on your application.

It opens up more job opportunities or more freelancing gigs for you. So we'll link that up. I think it's serve scale source slash 45. So check that out. I'm pretty sure that's it. surfscalesstore. com slash 45 and that is our 45 premium services that you can offer. Don't offer all 45. Offer one or two after you go through the workbook.

And then send me a DM and let me know which one did you [00:11:00] land on. But of course I'm a little biased and think you should go all in on Facebook and Instagram ads. Okay, so I didn't charge by the hour. I did not for a laundry list of services. Three, I didn't hire a team. I did not hire a team. And this doesn't mean that you can't have people supporting you.

Janessa did come into our business in March of 2019, but she didn't come in for my one on one services. She never supported me in one on one services actually until this year. She's always worked on the course side of my business, never the one on one services. So, she was doing some of the, like, our YouTube transcription.

She helped with SurfScale SOAR, getting all that up. But actually, until this year, so 2024, Five years after I brought her on now, she also helps manage my one on one clients. Cause she does all of our inbox management payments, all that kind of stuff. So with that being said, I didn't have a team [00:12:00] because one, a lot of times when you go to hire a team, your prices aren't priced to a point where it makes it profitable for you to do.

So two, you don't have the systems in place to know How to check on that team member how to manage that team member what is expected you're just kind of like Hiring and then a lot of times people don't hire the right person that they actually need So even scaling to a million dollars per year It was janessa and I and we had steph our podcast manager and that was it.

That was it y'all That doesn't mean that we didn't bring on people to help us with other projects when we needed them But we did But full team members, that's who we had. And so when I talk about didn't hire a team, it was just me. Now there was one point, September of 2019, where the creatives, I had a lot of clients and the creatives were taking me a while.

And so I did bring on a graphic designer just to help me on a case by case. And I paid them that, [00:13:00] um, case by case, like, here we go. Just doing graphics. So when I say I didn't hire a team, I didn't have employees. I didn't have anyone that was like full time I didn't really have anyone that was part time.

It was as needed. So when you need help, you can bring people on but bringing on subcontractors, building an agency, the first thing you have to do is make sure you're at the right pricing and a lot of times you're not pricing yourself correctly. Or have a consistent lead flow in order to do that. So I'm not against hiring a team at all.

I've never been against hiring a team, but I want to make sure your business is set up to support them and that you're still profitable and you're getting profit in your pocket because that's what it's all about. That's why you have a business. So through that year, I didn't charge for per hour. I had packages.

I didn't offer a laundry list of services. I offered one and I didn't hire a team. And so then the fourth thing I didn't do is I didn't create digital products or grow an email list [00:14:00] or an Instagram following or anything like that. That first year in business, I had 300 people on my Instagram, and most of them were service providers because we were in the process of launching Rylee.

So in 2019 I did launch ServeScale SOAR, but that 250, 000 that I talked about for clients, that was not included in there. At all. That year, ServScale SOAR brought in, I think, 80, 000 from, um, May when we launched the beta to December. And that was in addition to the 250. That was not included in that. So when I say I didn't create digital products, I didn't grow an email list, I didn't have an Instagram following, that was because that was never the focus for my one on one clients.

Having an email list is not usually how you land clients unless you're really good at nurturing them. Having an Instagram may help you if you're doing outreach on Instagram. So if you are doing outreach, that may be something I wasn't. That's not how I was finding my clients. I didn't create digital [00:15:00] products to try to get people in because the thing is the DIYer is usually not the person hiring for done for you.

So different audience. So if you have the goals, To eventually launch a digital product, then maybe creating an email list is important. Yes, 100%. Do you need an email list or social following or create a digital product to hit 2050 as a service provider? Absolutely not. You need clients and that's not where they're coming from.

So even though people are like, if you want to scale, you have to do this. You have to have an agency. You have to create digital products. You don't have to do anything that you don't want. And you sure as heck don't have to do it to get to 20, 000 a month. Now, I will say, if you're trying to get to 30, 40, 50, 000, I would say 30, you could do it on your own, but 40, 50, 000 a month.

If that's your goal, that's another story. We do probably need to implement some of these, but 20, 25, 000 a month, maybe 30. You [00:16:00] don't need to have digital products, an email list, a social media. So it's really defining where are the next steps for your business right now. And a lot of times we try to jump over steps and sequence is important.

And so you can't get to a 30, 000 a month if you haven't hit an 8, 000 a month. If you haven't hit a 10, you have to go through those to get to the 30, 000. Does that mean you can't go from 8, 000 to 30, 000 in one month? I'm not saying that, but still along the way you're going to hit those marks. You have to.

Sequence is important. So, even though we want to set our business up for whatever our end goal is, we still have to put in the actions that where you are. So someone who is at 5, 000 a month, it doesn't really make sense for them to bring on a team yet. But maybe at 30, 000 a month, it does. So when we look at that, we just have to make sure we're following the sequence and making sense for our business and what stage we're at when we take advice.

Okay. Key topic number [00:17:00] five. I didn't look for the get rich quick. scheme or the quick fix. And when I say this, I'm thinking about like this whole MRR stuff. That's going around right now, this whole affiliate thing. And y'all, I'm a fan of affiliate. I preach affiliate marketing. What I'm talking about is the stuff that's going on right now where you buy a course.

They teach you how to affiliate market. And then they say, Oh yeah, Sell our course. There's nothing wrong with that. The marketing around how these programs are being promoted as the quick fix, the easy button, you're gonna make four million dollars in the next 30 days and you don't have an Instagram account, that stuff is garbage.

Like, that's the easy button. And whenever we have someone telling us this is the easy button, that should just be a cautionary tale. Like, let's just take a thing back, like, step back. Because if we think about it, Do most things in life that are worth it come super easy? Some, yes, but I always think about my children.

They're the most amazing, like, thing that I've ever done. [00:18:00] You know, like, I created that. I look at them every day and I'm like, Wow, I made you. I'm a superhero. And when I think about that, it's not easy to have children. They gotta bake for nine months and mine like to stay in there for a while. And then you have to go through all these appointments and it's like a whole process.

And then they're like the best thing ever. Same thing with my husband. Best thing ever. But it took six years for him to put a ring on it, y'all. And then, it's a constant work in progress. Like, marriage is work. Like, you have to have the good times, you have the bad times, you have the middle times. And it, like, you have to finesse it.

And anything that's ever worth it in my life, And maybe this isn't true for you, but I know like when I look back even at our bankruptcy, like that was like rock bottom. But what was so beautiful that came out of that is me starting my freelance business. Which has created a [00:19:00] lifestyle that I never knew was even possible.

I had to go through that hard time to get to the good time. Now I'm not saying you have to go through bankruptcy to have something good or nine months of something. But usually the easy button is never, ever, ever. The quick fix that they promote it to be. So when I wanted to create my business, I wanted something sustainable, predictable, profitable, that was gonna last the time.

Test of time. And as we see, I think if you've been in the online space for a while now, you've seen. Pre 2020 to now things have been different businesses have come and gone Big names that were big names in 2020 have shut down their businesses um people overhired um Burnout all of that and that's because sometimes when we get the easy button and i'm not saying 2020 was easy But we did see a peak in in the online space.

And I, I'll be [00:20:00] honest, like we had a fantastic year in 2020 financially, our first million dollar a year. And there's this peak, but we set our business up to be sustainable through the downtimes. And so as people peaked, they grew and they added all this stuff that they couldn't maintain after the peak was over.

And what I want you to know is there's always going to be peaks and valleys, but I want you to create businesses that get you through the valleys and the peaks. And so when people are promoting the quick fix, the easy button, I've always said, conversions for clients is not a hundred K in 90 days. Like I've never done that type of marketing.

It is 10 K months. Let's create an ad manager, 10 K months. consistently when you get there. Like some people it will be 90 days. Some people will be a year. It's business. There's different stages in people's lives and everything. We don't put a [00:21:00] timeline on that because it's different for everyone and we're not looking for the easy button.

We're looking for the predictable, profitable, sustainable button. And I know that's not sexy, but I'm okay with that because it's the truth and I don't want you to have a peak peak. And then be burned out in the valley and quit. I want you to withstand. The Valley and in order to do that, you can't be looking for the quick fix or the MRR or the affiliate promo because here's the deal.

Those people, probably 99 percent of them are full of poo. And this is a kid friendly show, so they're full of poo. They are not making 4 million in 30 days or whatever it is. And I'm just like, this is such garbage. I know how to run ads, y'all. I know how to run ads and I'm really good at it. And I'm really good at marketing and we're not doing that.

And I'm not saying that doesn't mean someone else can, but like if it quacks like a duck, it's a duck. And [00:22:00] so we just have to think like, is this really true? And the online space has so much garbage in it. And there's so much goodness as well that you have to be able to look through it and see, is this, am I looking for the easy button or am I looking for something that's going to sustain me through the valleys?

And it's really easy to want the easy button. But it's so much more amazing when you look back and you're like, wow, look at all the people that took the easy button and I'm still here. And unfortunately, because they went for the easy button, their business isn't. So, the five things I didn't do to hit 250, So I did say I was a freelancer before this video.

So I didn't charge hourly. I didn't offer a laundry list of services. I didn't hire a team. I didn't create a digital product. I didn't look for the easy, but in the quick fix. And so the three things I did focus on though, y'all, because I don't want to leave you like, okay, but what now? I did focus on attracting consistent [00:23:00] clients.

And that's going to be my conversion to a peer review. I'm going to be talking about how to do conversion to a peer review. I'm going to be talking about how to do it and how to do it the right way. And then I'm going to be talking about it. So stay tuned and join me. We're going to be talking about Esther's journey into the life of a career and the role that Esther plays in a career.

So let's get started with our conversion. Three, I built scalable systems that didn't require a big team that made sure I still was at the table every single night for dinner. I wasn't checked out on the weekends. I was checked out when, or I was checked in with my family, checked out of work where I would be able to go on vacation without being slacked.

And so those are the things I focused on. Tracking consistent clients, becoming an expert in my field and building scalable systems. Anything else was a distraction. And so I hope that you see that you don't have to do a ton of stuff to hit your revenue goals. You just got to focus on the three things that actually matter.

And so what I want to ask you now is what have you caught [00:24:00] yourself doing that you thought you needed to do to grow your business? But it isn't actually moving the needle forward. And that's the first thing you can drop And maybe when you hear attracting clients, becoming an expert, and building scalable systems, Which of these do you need to focus on right now?

And I would guarantee you for 99 percent of you listening, it's attracting consistent clients. And so, if 250, 000 per year Or maybe 100, 000 per year Or 30, 000 per year Without charging by the hour hiring a team You Offering a laundry list of services, creating digital products, and you want a business that's consistent, predictable, and sustainable while being profitable, head to BrandiMowles.

com slash ad training and register for our upcoming live training. Now here's the deal. This is if you want to become an ad manager. But even if you don't, maybe pop in, see what it's all about. And everything I teach is also applicable to [00:25:00] all freelance businesses. So go to BrandiMowles. com slash ad training, save your seat.

I love checking y'all out live and being there and giving you some real valuable, tangible, actionable steps to scale your freelance business, specifically your ad management business. So until next week, my friends go out, serve your clients, scale your business and soar into the success you deserve.