Why Clients Choose You: Mastering the Freelance Mindset

This brilliant, with its simplicity, question stands at the base of the professional journey called freelance. But how many freelancers can actually answer this question?

For a long time, I was following this false belief that the answer to this question was something only high-level professional freelancers could know. I thought of it as one thinks about math; that only talented wits can get it. But in the cloud of this mindset, I forgot about one absolutely important thing: freelance is all about experience, and every experience is different.

So the answer to this question is not one for everyone, but rather it’s a mechanism that sets the tone for future personal progress in freelancing.

Over the years, I learned a few ways that helped me to gradually grow in my independent work, or, as I like to say, that helped me to boost a right mindset for tête-à-tête business. These are three stages that every freelancer goes through that will help you to find your own answer and make the base of your professional growth solid and steady.

Stage One: Mentally in Jeopardy

• Imposter syndrome
• Low self-esteem
• Fear
• Perfectionism, Resistance, etc.

Everyone who has just started out as a freelancer tends to meet these things face-to-face. I call this stage being mentally in jeopardy because this is when you as a freelancer are most vulnerable. On this stage, almost everyone feels like giving up and itches to let the comfortable consume the better part of their lives.

If a freelancer at this stage gets the questions ‘why do you think I would want to hire you?’ it can cause a wave of emotional and even physical pain and fear and make the freelancer, who is still so vulnerable and skinless in the field, sink into despair and overwhelming doubts.

On this stage, it’s hard to imagine that you as a freelancer with zero experience deserve the time, money, or attention of your client, which brings ‘people pleaser syndrome’ to a new and absolutely unique level of nonsense.

I swear there were times when I worked for free because I simply did not feel like I deserved to be paid. Is it not absolute nonsense?

But the only thing you can and should do on this stage is to let your mind land on the idea of failure.

How will this help you to find the answer to the main question of your career? Simple. It will free you from the shackles of the idea of perfectionism and help you take your first steps into experience, and as we talked above, freelancing is all about experience.

Experience is not equal perfect.

Stage Two: Master of Failure (Crowned with Absurdity)

It’s natural to be afraid of being ridiculed or looking stupid or being refused. But this natural fear is also what stands like a massive barrier on the way to your success and growth.

Stage two is all about breaking through this massive barrier. It’s about becoming the master of failure. No matter what you are doing for a living, failure and absurdity are the two things that will never leave you alone.

For all the years of my work as a freelancer, the best experiences I can remember always resulted from failure, absurd situations, mistakes, and the moments when I was told NO.

No one can avoid these things. And being afraid of them is what stops you from figuring out your worth, getting experience, and therefore approaching the answer to the main question of this post.

Stage Three: Your Why (Ethics of Your Professional Soul)

Freelancing is a great opportunity to live the life of your dreams, and every day more and more people understand that. Yet, even among numerous specialists available on different freelance platforms, it’s still hard to find the right freelancer for a client.

Too many people come into the world of freelance for one thing only – easy and fast money. And let’s not forget about scammers and irresponsible people who also claim to be freelancers. However, freelancing is a form of business, and business is all about valuable ideas.

When you get through the first two stages and gain some professional muscle and a bit of experience, also learn failure and being refused at least a few times, it’s time to focus on the reason why you want to keep your freelance work. What value will it give to your future clients? Why you being in freelance is important for your clients? What do you want to achieve as a freelancer? Think, how can you contribute to your professional growth in order to make your work with your clients even better? 

Now, you have to think about freelancing as a business.

Going through all these three stages, slowly winning each stage, and learning more and more about yourself and your place in freelance, you will feel confident and mentally strong in your work. But what is even more important, you will learn your worth, and this will be the answer to the main question of your career:

Why do you think your client would want to hire you?

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My appreciation to each and every one of you.