S01 E00 - A Guy Named Fred

In today’s episode you will learn about a guy named Fred and a bit about his every day life, his hopes and dreams, his struggles, his successes and the reason he became a freelancer. If you are ready, I’m excited to be sharing with you Fred’s story.

So here’s a story about this guy named Fred. He’s 29 years old, living outside of the city in the suburbs. He’s has an amazing wife that supports what he does each and every day. They are starting to think about building their family and have their first child.

Fred has been freelancing now for a couple of years. He’s made some money, had some successful projects, but is starting to wonder if he’s missing something. He often feels that he’s traded in a full time job for a full time job times 2.

He is in this constant cycle of chasing down that next project. Even though he has landed some great clients and some of the projects he works on, he really loves. He wonders when it is that he’ll find this bit of freedom and flexibility that he hears folks talk about.

Fred gets up in the morning and puts on some coffee. He then picks up his phone and starts looking through emails thinking about what his day is going to look like. Wishing that he could stop reacting to emails and clients and start being more active in the business direction.

Once his cup has finished brewing he walks into his home office and shuts the door. He begins his day answering some emails, does a bit of client work until the first phone call comes in.

Around 4pm his wife comes home from work. He’s still in his office pounding away at the keyboard. He’s made a conscious effort to try and wrap up his days before his wife comes home, but it’s been 3 weeks since he’s done that last.

He stops work when dinner is ready and they enjoy a nice dinner and talk about their day.

Then around 11p his wife heads off to bed and he heads back into the office to work some more until around 2 or 3am and then climbs into bed.

This is his normal weekday routine. Once a month, Fred has to put in some weekend hours to catch up on a project as well.

He knows that he needs to work more on the business, but it’s just him. Who will do the work that the client’s need? He’s well known in his space and people are always raving about how great a job he does. His clients love him!

However, Fred has this wanting to build the business in a better way and stop feeling the constant nagging about thinking that there’s got to be a better way of doing this ‘freelancing’ thing. He didn’t leave his FT gig because he wanted to work more. He left so that he had the freedom and flexibility to live the kind of life that he wants. The kind of life to spend more time with his wife and future family.

Fred has contemplated at times that he’d be much better off just finding a job and going back to sit at someone else’s desk. At least then he knows that when he punches out, the work stops.

But that’s not Fred. He enjoys the projects and clients he has. He just wants to be able to have more flexibility and freedom. He hears others having it. He thinks he knows in part what he needs to do, just that he doesn’t know how.

Fred knows that if he went and worked for “the man” that there would be no way that he’d get to a point where he would be making enough money to have his wife the option to choose to work or not. And he wouldn’t have any choice on the types of projects and people that he works with.

So Fred trudges on. He goes to the gym 3 times a week and listens to podcasts while on the treadmill. Hearing all these things that he should be doing in his business. He thinks to himself, “I’m going home and putting that in place right away.” But then by the time he gets home, he’s got 3 more emails from clients to answer.

Fred has been freelancing for a little while and wonders what he’s gotten himself into. He’s not ready to give up on his dream, it’s just too important to him.

So what’s Fred to do?

Let me ask you a question, can you relate to Fred? Maybe you are Fred.

Well if so, this podcast, Live In The Feast, will help shine a light on your’s and Fred’s path.

You know what you need to do, I’m going to try and help you do it and ultimately help you reach your goals and dreams. I know you didn’t choose to be a freelancer because you wanted to work more. You chose because of something completely different. Family, travel, friends, whatever that ultimate goal is of yours, listening to Live In The Feast will help you take action on your business so that you can live that dream.

I’m Jason, not Fred, husband to an amazing wife. We are just about to have our first child. I’m a web developer by trade, and have been freelancing for the better part of my career.

Started my full time career prior to the .com explosion in the late 90s and yes, I survived through it all. I may be dating myself a bit here, but honestly, I enjoyed living through that because it was a time of growth, learning, failure, and I certainly wouldn’t be where I am today without it.

I actually struck out on my own freelancing full time for the first time back in 2003. I thought I knew what I was doing, I had been freelancing all on the side while working full time, so of course I could run my own business.

Wrong!

I fell flat on my face and by 2005 I was working full time again. I learned a ton about how to freelance and running a business. I kept my head up and kept pushing on until 2010 I struck out on my own once again and haven’t looked back since.

Freelancing is tough. It’s not something for those that just want to not work full time for someone else. And because they have a skill feel as though they can have their own business.

Just doesn’t work that way.

However, freelancing, when you realize that it’s a business and not a hobby (as my friend Curtis McHale always says) you can live the life you want. You can have that flexibility and freedom to travel and be with family and whatever it is that you dreamt of when you start freelancing.

I’ve hit walls, I’ve had successes, I’ve had failures (many of them in fact). I’ve lived through them all and have built a successful freelance business that I’m able to support not just myself, but my family as well. Oh and by the way, I live in NYC too.

Now I know what you are thinking. Of course he’s able to do that, because he’s got so many opportunities in NYC to get work. And while that may be true, I don’t know. I’ve only had 2 clients during my entire freelance career that’s been from NY and neither of them are in NYC.

Since 2010 I’ve pivoted my freelance business twice. Both pivots were in directions that made my business more sustainable, more profitable, and allowed me to be able to live my dream.

I have a steady income that affords me to live in NYC, travel, and live a comfortable life. I’m just a regular guy living a regular life. I enjoy spending time with my family and friends and being able to have the freedom to drop an afternoon from time to time to head off to do something fun.

So I’m not going to talk about the “hustle” of traveling all over the world to events and conferences. I’m not going to talk to you about how you need to be working 15 hours a day. I’m not going to be telling you about the exotic vacations that I take every other month.

I’m just going to share with you what I know about freelancing, how to make it sustainable so that you aren’t in the constant cycle of the feast or famine, and that you are able to get into the feast part and stay there.

Bring in folks who have been on the same journey as you to share their hurdles and successes. Bring in folks that you may or may not have heard of before.

Live In The Feast is going to be an actionable podcast. At the end of each episode you will have some actionable takeaways. Some shows will be topical while other shows I will be bringing on a guest.

It’s not going to be a straight educational topic based podcast or a straight interview podcast. Live In The Feast will be a seasonal podcast where each season will focus on a larger topic, whether that’s Getting Clients, Building Processes, Automation, Client Fulfillment, Marketing, etc.

Then the shows in each season will be released weekly.

Some shows will talk about a specific topic that is within that broader topic. They will have tips and tricks for you to walkaway with. Others will have guests who may have things to give away.

This podcast is about you, helping you in any way I can. But it’s more so about you helping yourself.

I know that we are living in a time in history where each one of us can control our destiny like never before. I want to help you do just that because I know you can.

When you subscribe to Live In The Feast, and each week when an episode pops up on your podcatcher of choice, I want you to be able to walk away with at least one thing of value that you put right into your business.

Because of this, each episode will be 20-30 minutes long. That gives you another 30 minutes to be able to put that action item into place.

Let’s face it, there is at least an hour out of your every day that you take for lunch, or walk, or head to the gym, right? So when the show ends, I want you to say “nice, there’s another 30 mins to be able to put what Jason said in place.”

I’m all about process, systems, and optimizations. Not wasting time. Definitely not going to waste your time. If you give yourself an hour a day for lunch and you listen to the show during your lunch, I’d love for you to take the back half of your lunch hour and work on your business.

You aren’t taking time away from your clients or projects. But what you are doing is putting 30 mins, once a week into your business and I know that will have a HUGE impact on you being able to accomplish your goals.

If you are ready and you want to walk along this journey with Fred and get out of the famine for good, go ahead, subscribe to Live In The Feast right now.

In fact that’s your first takeaway and it doesn’t even take 30 mins to do.

Go ahead and hit Subscribe and let’s dig in.

I want to thank you for taking the time and allowing me to be in your ears for a little bit today and in the coming weeks. I don’t take it for granted. That’s why I want to give you as much value as I can and help you take the actions you need to live the kind of life you want.

You decided to become a freelancer, don’t lose sight of that reason why. I’m here to help you and push you to realize that freedom and flexibility you want so that you can live the kind of life you deserve.

In the next episode, we’ll jump right into this journey and open the doors to Season 1 - Getting Clients.

It’s your time to Live In The Feast.