#6 From Marketing Laundry Detergent To Building A Highly Successful Freelancing Business with Caren Williams
Episode Summary
To think it all started with marketing laundry detergent and coffee, how one Brand Strategist and highly successful business owner, Caren Williams, built her freelancing business. Caren shares her journey as a business owner - what it was like to be responsible for marketing major brands such as Folgers Coffee and Tide and what brought her into the world of freelancing.
Caren Williams is a brand and marketing strategist with over 15 years of experience building brands on the agency side and also in-house. She loves sharing both her passion and expertise with brands big and small, old and new, helping channel their own passion into real growth.
Caren works as a member of brand and marketing teams to discover, craft and build some of the world’s leading and fastest growing brands.
Prior to working independently, Caren was a Director of Strategy at Interbrand, the world’s largest brand consultancy and also worked in-house at both Procter & Gamble and Nestle in Brand Management. When Caren is not strategizing about brands, you’ll find her volunteering with the four-legged type, both as a puppy raiser for Guide Dogs for the Blind and with the San Francisco SPCA in the Animal Assisted Therapy Program.
Join Caren and I as we chat about all things freelancing, including how to build a successful freelancing business, stand out from the crowd, and how to find dream clients.
Episode Takeaways:
How to stand out in saturated business, the importance of standing out, and key steps to build your own niche freelancing company.
The importance of selecting clients that are a great fit both ways - for you and for them.
How to build relationships organically - a key factor in securing business for a very long time.
Maintain contact with clients you have enjoyed working with as there may be other opportunities in the future.
How to deal with a gig that isn’t ideal and how it could lead to something that is better.
Don’t compromise your values and your integrity.
Articulate your services clearly. You can do this by asking yourself.. What is it that I’m selling? What are people buying from me? Why am I the person people want to buy from?
It’s critical to be really clear on what you offer and at what cost.
If what you offer is not clear to you, it is probably not clear to your potential customers.
An easy way to stand out from others is how you can describe your business and how you will answer your ideal client’s prayers. This is something many people struggle with, if you can nail this down you’re already ahead!
If you want something, put it out there. The more people you tell, the more they will ask you about it and want your help.
Remember...
If you want to become a freelancer, take that first step. The worst thing that could happen is that it doesn’t work out!
In this episode you’ll learn:
03:05 – Caren’s journey from employee to freelancer
05:33 – How to finding your brand identity, and why this is important as a freelancer
08:40 – How Caren began her brand strategy freelance business
15:20 – A day in the life of a freelancer, what really happens behind the scenes
19:10 – How to find dream clients
26:28 – …. and how to effectively manage those not-so-ideal client relationships while maintaining your professional integrity
34:45 – How to differentiate your brand
37:19 – How to hone in on your “what”, the exact services your freelancing company provides
44:28 – Practical steps to become a freelancer
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Website – www.caren-williams.com