Freelance Radio, Episode 23: The Hard Ask
The twenty-third episode of Freelance Radio, the official FreelanceSwitch podcast, is now available! This episode, we talk about a number of topics, including making your “asks” better, finding out information about new freelancing fields and handling holiday gifts to clients. Subscriptions to the podcast are available via iTunes and an archive of all podcasts will appear in the podcast section. We hope you enjoy it!
Subscribe to Freelance Radio on iTunes
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You can subscribe on other podcast aggregators by using our podcast feed–it’s simply http://feeds.feedburner.com/FreelanceRadio. You’re also, of course, welcome to directly download the MP3 file itself.
The Shownotes:
- Theme of the Episode: This episode’s theme is the “hard ask.” John shares some insights from the campaign trail and the panel discusses how to improve the ask.
- Mailbag:We talk about project management freelancing (and how to find out information about new fields in general) and holiday gifts.
- Freelance Radio Recommends (Gift Edition!):
- Dickie: Starbucks gold card, available from your local Starbucks or from the Starbucks website.
- John: Custom merchandise solution Zazzle.com
- Kristen: Self-made baskets with goods from Home Goods.
- Prescott: Custom calendars (see calendar instructions)
- Von:Netflix gift subscriptions, available from the Netflix homepage.
Other links mentioned include the custom cutting machine from Cricut.
- Outro: This week’s song is by Isisip and is called The Lotus Flower from the album My Music Collection. The song can be obtained by going to Isisip’s page.
And that’s the episode! If you like it, please feel free to rate it in iTunes or your favorite podcast aggregator (check us out on Digg at http://www.digg.com/podcasts/Freelance_Radio), and don’t forget to email your questions/comments via the Freelance Radio form. If you’d like to record a question/comment or submit an original outro song, you can upload them via this form!
Awesome! Its back again! Thanks for the great show!
Keep Rocking
It seems like i cannot listen to it from the embed media player. It shows an error opening the file.
Sorry about that! Should be all fixed now.
Has the podcast already been updated in iTunes? Because Episode 23 isn’t listed yet.
The feed hasn’t been updated–we’re working on it, though. Sorry about the delay!
This is adorable! I really enjoyed it!
And what if I want to just download the MP3, not having ITunes. It would be helpufl if you provide a link to it.
Thanks!
Really enjoyed that!
Thanks!
This is the link for direct download: http://freelanceswitch.s3.amazonaws.com/podcasts/freelanceradio_23.mp3
It would be great if you put the link in the post so we don’t need to look for it into the code.
Thanks!
I agree with Arjan. Could you add a link to the MP3 file?
Thanks.
Feed updated and direct download link added to the top. Enjoy!
Nice production. Great conversation. pertinent topics, especially the Hard Ask. Not a terribly extroverted person, I sometimes avoid taking chances with cold asking. Not because I’m afraid of rejection, but because I think that I’ll never have a second chance at a first impression. So if i want to approach an appropriate prospect, what i really need to do is hone the pitch (hopefully citing experiences and problem-solving relevant to this person) and get on with it. There, I just psyched myself up..!
Regarding research [into a whole new field] I’ve always wondered about using research librarians, and have never gotten around to asking one directly. (Time to make the approach now!)
Another source and network of experience is SCORE (Service Corp of Retired Executives) http://www.score.org/ You can tap into their collective knowledge; surely they can always refer you to another person, then another…
I’m a new subscriber to your podcast and I’ve been listening to the past episodes because the information is so valuable. Thanks especially for the encouragement to go for the “hard ask.”
I am in a new town and recently lost a consistent customer so I’m scrambling for work. As I typically do when I relocate, I’ve been attending some local events and had brought my digital SLR and miniDV cameras to the local Tax Day Tea Party event last month.
The pictures turned out great and I posted them to my Flickr account and sent the link to the local radio station talk show host via his show blog. He announced my comment on his radio show two days in a row and, when I called him to thank him, he put me on the radio, paid me great compliments on the photos, and asked me to bring my cameras to his July 4th event.
Later, I wrote him to ask him if he ever planned to stream his show or podcast it, because I am not able to get good reception where I live. He was appreciative of my inquiry and I found out he, as the program director, and the station manager were hoping to do something like that in the future.
After hearing this episode on the “hard ask,” I decided to write to him the following email:
*****
Every time I manage to catch part of your show while running errands in the afternoon, I wish I that was able to get reception of W*** where I live (I work my own business from home). Your presentation is so exciting and informative! I’m glad you have the blog, because even though my own news sources are extensive, you often manage to report on something I had overlooked or hadn’t heard about yet.
I am wondering if there might be anything I can do to help you move things forward with your hopes of broadcasting your show online. I don’t know if my expertise matches up with your goals, or maybe I can just offer a sounding board for your ideas and give you some support for approaching your boss.
Would you care to sit down and talk in person about what your vision is for expanding your reach?
I’ve got a bit of free time (if you can call hunting for more freelance work “free time”), as I have recently had some client turnover due to the economy. I would enjoy meeting with you over lunch or coffee to brainstorm on what possibilities for collaboration we might have.
What do you think?
*****
Within twelve hours, he responded via email. We scheduled a phone conversation and I talked to him for ten minutes to get a better idea of where they would like to go with this project. It’s a small town and a small station with a very small budget, but I agreed to put together some ideas for him in a proposal.
It may not turn into a project that will generate any income for me, but I told him in our phone call that I was hoping our working together on this might open up doors for me for some work with local businesses. He is very supportive of the underdog and enthusiastically agreed to help me get to know some people around town.
Whether or not this turns into a positive cash flow, it is a success story for me. I gained a lot of confidence in the experience and realized that this is a good place for me to be the “big fish in a little pond” if I start to network with the few people here with whom I’ve done business so far (insurance agent, personal banker, hairdresser, etc).
Having just established my LLC, I am working on my website so that I can start handing out business cards and talking myself up more around town.
Thanks so much to the Freelance Radio cast and crew. So much of your advice has been valuable to me, as I am new to freelancing with respect to needing to solicit business from new clients.
Since starting freelance last year, I haven’t had to market or sell myself, as I have been working only with previous employers. I’ve gotten so spoiled by working from home that I am extremely reluctant to hit the pavement for a 40-hour week job at someone else’s location, especially since I am still in debt for the hardware and software I bought for this last client’s work, who decided to put everything “on hold for the time being.”
If only I had been smart enough to have her on contract, but she was a former employer and I thought I could trust her. Live and learn!
Keep up the good work.