Behance. Qualifying clients. Book resources.

I have updates to share with you!

First, Behance.

I’ve been wanting to get featured on Behance for a while now, and it FINALLY happened! HOORAY! This project, that I uploaded back in July, randomly got featured in the InDesign collection. I put my detective skills to work and realized that I did update an image in the project the day before it got featured.

Coincidence?

Perhaps.

I’m so curious as to how projects get picked to be in featured galleries (besides being great work). How do they choose?! How do they find great projects among so many that are out there?!

Next up, qualifying clients.

I had a huge realization about qualifying clients after a chat with a new friend about his email automation service. I connected with him to hear more about what he does and see if his service could be of use to my clients.

He explained his pricing as well as the minimum number of subscribers one must have before he could even work with them. He explained his three packages, with the first one being a mandatory step before going on to the other two.

And it hit me like a lightning bolt!

He had certain parameters/standards/qualifiers his potential clients needed to fit into before he could work with them.

And then I started thinking “well if I wanted to hire him, I wouldn’t qualify” and I found myself WANTING to qualify myself to be his client (even though I wasn’t even looking for his services!).

This will seem obvious, but it finally hit me, that I should not be trying to qualify (or prove) myself or my business to work with those who inquire. They must qualify to work with me.

Or to put it a little less pretentiously, I must see if we align–if they meet certain standards before I am able to consider working with them (my minimum price, willing to go through my process, fit into my schedule, being the right fit, etc).

Too often I am wishy-washy on my boundaries. Without parameters, I’m just a freelancer trying to qualify for (or prove) myself for jobs… or worse, I have a very expensive hobby.

I’m grateful I had that eye-opening experience.

And finally, my recent reading roundup:

Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
This is probably my favorite book of the year!

Ok, ok, so it was the first one I read this year, but still! I can’t recommend it enough.

It’s by a former FBI hostage negotiator. He teaches the negotiating skills he used in extreme hostage negotiations as well as how to apply it in business situations.

If you don’t read anything else, read this. If you HATE reading, then watch some of his interviews, like this one.

Work the System by Sam Carpenter
This book was recommended to me by a friend after I told her I’ve had trouble with the processes and systems in my business.

After reading it, I can tell you it has given me TONS of motivation to build my business with a foundation of documented processes.

Sounds boring, I know.

But this book opened my eyes to how businesses actually scale and how owners can start to delegate! I don’t want to be a slave to my business, and this book has helped me see how I can build it in a way where I’m not.

What’s great is, you can get a free copy by signing up for their email list!

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I hope you found some of these realizations and resources helpful this week. I’m going to share in the next few weeks about a collaboration I’m working on with a friend on how to sell strategy.

If you’ve made it this far, we’re probably meant to be friends.