We leverage things all the time.
We leverage Facetime to stay in touch with family
We leverage who we know to get work. Like my daughter smartly did to land her her first job. At a company her dad formerly worked closely with.
We leverage a toaster to heat bread. (Or to make charcoal, if you’re me! 🔥)
I think of leverage as: using something for your advantage.
Or the dictionary definition: “to use for gain”. Or: “exploit”.
But with its positive sense. As in “exploit your talents”.
Being familiar with the word is useful… because it pops up all the time in the business world.
One of the things I encourage every freelancer to do is:
Leverage the heck out of everything!
Using leverage, you can build a staircase for yourself…
By taking advantage of the steps that came immediately before.
Here’s what I’m talking about:
In my early days of freelancing I gained a UX Copywriting certification. Did some assignments. And made a few samples.
But at this point, never had a client.
I started doing the job-hunting thing on Upwork.
So did some research on what I should include in a proposal. Wrote plenty I cringe at now.
But managed to write one that resonated with my first client.
All I had were: samples, confidence, and a bit of time.
They could see I could write what they wanted — an About page for their ecommerce clothing store…
Because I just happened to have a couple of About page samples to show them.
So got the job with just that. And with:
Zero client experience.
And it gets better…
I did the work. I did it so well that when I asked for a testimonial they said:
“Chris was truly amazing! He listened to my needs, made sure he fully understood the project and had what he needed to be successful, and executed in a timely manner.”
I was rather chuffed with that.
But my chuffedness wasn’t where it ended.
I asked if I could use the work for her as a sample.
Why?
Leverage.
In the very next proposal I wrote to a prospect… I was able to say: “A previous client of mine said XYZ”.
And then just pasted in the testimonial.
Plus: I could now send my new, real-world sample to future prospects.
I didn’t leave the feedback or the sample just sitting around on my Upwork profile, waiting for someone to hopefully see.
I put them to work…
I leveraged them
Now I’ve got a selection of testimonials and client samples. I don’t need my assignment samples any more.
Since then I’ve produced a massive amount of emails for myself and clients…
So I can pick from the ones that are most relevant to the next job I’m talking with prospects about.
(But always making sure I check that clients are happy for me to use them as samples.)
Leverage can massively help getting traction with freelancing.
And momentum builds over time.
It’s good to keep the perspective… that for most of us in the freelancing game… it’s a step-by-step thing.
But we can play to our best advantage.
A bonus leveraging tip:
When I was working on a client job and prospecting for others…
I would write in my proposals things like: “I’m currently working with a client doing XYZ.”
I’m simply showing them that someone else has trusted me to do this. And hints that you can trust me as well.
Of course, you don’t want to push this kind of thing into being deceptive.
So I was careful with things like: not talking in the past tense about “clients” if I’ve only ever had one previous client.
And I’d not pretend my samples were for actual clients.
It’s gotta be above board… to build good, ongoing client relationships.
A recap is in order:
- Create samples. Either through course assigments. Or just make the ones you need.
- Leverage samples to get your first client.
- Ask for a testimonial. And see if you can use your client work as a sample.
- Leverage your testimonial and/or client work samples to help get your next job.
So… go forth and leverage!
And if you’re ready to build your email list… go here…
EmailForTheWin.com
Chris Milham