Simplify Your Life &
Align with Your True North

Start Here

Mind Training

Inner-Peace

Books

Choose Your Path

Messages from Within

Creative Visualization

Sophia Ojha 8/4/24 Sophia Ojha 8/4/24

Messages From Within

For years, I’ve been asking my inner-self for guidance.
For years, I’ve been receiving both specific and general guidance.

Specific guidance has been about what I should I do next that’s tailor-made for that particular moment in my life.
General guidance has been guidance that would be beneficial for anyone who is on the path to peace and self-actualization.

I am now sharing this guidance in the blog category: Messages From Within

Today, I will share the specific guidance I received that’s relevant:

”You are opening up to your real mission in this life: to uplift people and show them the way to peace and love. By interviewing people the way you are planning, you are assisting in a big shift, a huge transformation that people on this Earth are thirsty for. Remember that we want you to succeed so we will help guide you every day, every moment.”

Here’s today’s guidance for you:
”You are trying to create the new while also wanting the old to help you. But the old will only hinder you on this new path you are going on.
So create the brand new. Let go of the old. Let go of old chapters.
Ask yourself, ‘What will help me simplify my life?’”

Welcome to “Messages From Within” and I know that it will be fruitful for you in accelerating on your path and your life’s mission.

~ Sophia

—-
Peace. Want my writings in your inbox? I send SophiaNotes every Thursday morning with my words to inspire you along with success mindset insights from people I interview on the Be.Do.Have.Life Show. You can sign up here.

Sophia Ojha 8/1/24 Sophia Ojha 8/1/24

How to shift into your desired self | Niclas Upgrade to Life | Neville Goddard Student

Niclas from Upgrade to Life shares how he found the teachings of Neville Goddard , the mystic and teacher from Barbados and eventually went from CEO of a software company to a YouTuber sharing in his own way the Law of Assumption. He runs a community with the same name that has hundreds of students. Click the video below to watch or Watch on YouTube.

Sophia Ojha 7/31/24 Sophia Ojha 7/31/24

Forget the Noise - Inspired by Sara Blakely

“Business should not be war.” - Sara Blakely

But some do think that. They want to “beat “the competition. Or “kill it” in business. Or “overcome” the competitors.

All of this war mongering in business is far from what an impactful, inspiring business can be.

Look at one of my all time women entrepreneur inspirations: Sara Blakely.

She focused not on the competition. She focused on solving a real problem women were facing.

She focused not on challenging the status quo. She focused on challenging herself and her business to offer the best value.

It’s with a mindset of value that she and her team built a billion dollar business in a category of one.

Click to see her post on LinkedIn

The outward focus on comparing what others are doing or trying to be better than the other guy is counter productive.

What Sara Blakely inspires us to do is to be better than your past self. Put efforts in turbocharging your best efforts.

I am inspired by her example; not only the successful business she created but also the impactful work she is doing in empowering women.

Plus, she is a conscious creator who listened to Wayne Dyer tapes at 17 to lift herself out of a difficult stage in her life.

Today, I want to encourage you to follow your truth. Be inwardly focused so you can output from your authentic self.

Forget the noise.

Give your dreams and goals primetime in your mental bandwidth.

Your creativity and your business can be a channel for peace, love and personal growth.

Inevitably, this will have a positive impact on the people around you, the environment you are in and the world at large through an unseen domino effect.

Make peace. Let your inner-self speak through your words and your business.

Let me know what you think in the comments of this LinkedIn Post.

Sophia Ojha 7/24/24 Sophia Ojha 7/24/24

Pros and cons from my first year of my big revenue year

2022 was my first 100K+ revenue year running a freelance business. I hit a milestone that I had been working towards for the previous four years.

I was happy when I hit the mark. It proved to me that I could make it happen.

Looking back at that one year, there were pros and cons to that first $100K revenue path. I want to share these with you today.

They are very subjective, from my personal point of view. I am not discouraging you to go on this path nor am I putting this milestone on a pedestal. I simply want to share both sides of the experience.

First lets, begin with the cons so we can end this article with the pros and on a high note!

Cons:

Despite having my evenings and weekends blocked, I worked a lot of hours on client acquisition, client communication and product delivery and not much on the business.
I didn’t make the time to do other things in my business like long-term strategy, content creation or relationship building with colleagues and partners.
I didn’t make time for exercise or movement and gained some extra pounds as a result and felt tired and exhausted all the time.
I didn’t make time for skytime: my favorite free-time activity - staring at the open sky, watching clouds float by and dreaming.
I didn’t take a vacation or even a weekend getaway.
I didn’t go on a meditation retreat which is an annual goal of mine.
Not much time for friends and family - just work, work, work.
When the revenue crossed $100K, I was elated for a few days. Then it was back to getting the next project underway, back to the next thing in the business. The moment was great but it was not everlasting and didn’t solve everything for me! (Surprise, surprise!)
Getting demotivated, exhausted and on the edge of dropping it all.

Result: US$106,375 and accomplishing a long-held dream, slowly killing the Golden Goose

Pros:

I streamlined my offers to two main design packages which allowed me to get better at the workflow each time I completed a project and delivered dozens of websites.
I got really good in communicating with my clients giving them a red carpet experience
I was highly focused and didn’t let doubt or other negative mind states take up too much bandwidth in my mind.
I grew in self-confidence because I had achieved for me an important milestone on my freelance journey.
I had was able to fully fund my retirement accounts.
I was able to donate thousands of dollars to my chosen charities and non-profits which was a big deal for me.
I was able to save 10% of my income which came in handy next year. When Dad was admitted to a hospital an hour and a half away from their home and I was able to cover hotel, Uber and food costs for 13 days (which in the NY/NJ area is easily thousands of dollars) for Mom and myself without batting an eye.
It became clear to me that this way of working is not sustainable in the long-term. This clarity helped me to make personal changes in 2023 - I took more breaks, went on an in-person meditation retreat and an online meditation retreat and one short trip within the US.
The experience of 2022 also made me think strategically about what I truly want, who I want to serve and how I want to serve in the future. It helped me recognize that achieving any kind revenue goal is not really what makes my heart happy. It needs to be a healthy, wholesome approach to what I define as success.

Result: US$106,375, accomplishing a long-held dream, having many insights and realizations about my journey and making a ton of changes for the next phase.

So as you make your plans and goals, remember that there will be pros and cons. Be aware of the cost as well as the benefits. Take care of yourself, don’t get burned out, and constantly assess so you make smart moves toward your revenue and business goals. Don’t kill the Golden Goose which is YOU!

I truly hope this is helpful; please let me know your thoughts by responding to this LinkedIn post.

Sophia Ojha 7/17/24 Sophia Ojha 7/17/24

8 Entrepreneurial Mindset Tips

Lots of entrepreneurs teach strategy.

The how of running and growing a business.

Yet, starting and running an online business requires not just strategy but also one key criterion:

The Entrepreneurial Mindset

We can learn about processes and systems and strategies till the cows come home.

But if the entrepreneurial mindset is lacking, we are building on weak foundations.

I am on this journey of strengthening this mindset and have a long way to go.

Here are 8 mindset nuggets I have gathered along the way so far:

1. Don't wait for passion in order to begin.
Start with something that you like and are good at.

2. The thoughts about what other people will think are just that: thoughts.
No one is thinking about you! So do what you want to do anyways.

3. Don't listen to the perfectionist, pride-rich voice that creates obstacles in you way.
Learn to do things imperfectly and trust that you do get better over time with self-reflection and introspection.

4. Habits can break or make you.
Find books that show you how to build good habits. "Atomic Habits" by James Clear is a good place to start.

5. Listen to your intuition or that inner-voice.
That's your inner-guidance system. Trust it and act on it. It's showing you the shortest way to your goal.

6. Get clear on what you want. Ambiguity leads to confusion.
If you can get specifics clear, great. If you are not there yet, start with getting clear about how you want to feel. A good question to ask yourself is, "If money, time, resources and my own limitations were not an issue, how do I want to live my life, what do I want to invest my time in, how do I want to serve people?"

7. Don't be afraid to experiment.
A voice within you may say you've got to stick to this one thing. But everything has a time, has its season. When the energy is finished, let go and move on.

8. Give more than you receive.
Whether it is working with clients or interacting with people. Let go of the "whats in it for me" mindset and cultivate "how can I make another's life better" mindset.

I will continue to add to this list as I learn and grow.

What entrepreneurial mindsets you've picked up along your way? Share them in the comments of this LinkedIn post. I’d love to know your wisdom nuggets.

Sophia Ojha 7/14/24 Sophia Ojha 7/14/24

[Season Finale] 5 Factors of choosing the right ETF

July 14th 2024

Master these 5 and you will get it right 99% of the time

There are five main factors for choosing the right ETF for your investment portfolio.

1) The index that the ETF tracks should represent the asset class that you want to invest in (e.g. the S&P 500, the price of gold, or US treasury bonds)

Make sure that your chosen ETF covers the index you want to invest in.

It is super important.

Some ETFs sound alike but are very different. Some names of ETFs indicate something that may or may not be the true focus of the fund.

So, make sure you have the right underlying index.

If the ETF doesn’t follow an index at all, it is an actively managed ETF. It takes even more expertise (and some luck) to find the right active manager.

Stick with passive, index-tracking ETFs.

That way you know what you’re getting into and usually incur substantially lower costs (i.e. expense ratio). Double-win!

2) The ETF must “replicate” the index, meaning it buys the actual components of the index, not placeholders like futures or other derivatives

The fund must buy the actual components of the index, not placeholders like futures or other derivatives.

If it’s an S&P 500 ETF, it should buy all 500 stocks of the S&P 500 index. If it’s a gold ETF, it should buy physical gold. If it’s a 2-year government bond index ETF, it should invest in real 2-year government bonds.

That is called “replication”.

Replication lets you, the investor, indirectly own the companies/commodities/bonds/etc. for real.

It’s important to avoid introducing other types of risks such as counterparty or credit risks.

3) The ETF’s expense ratio should be as low as possible, ideally in the single or very low double-digits (so you get to keep as much of your money as possible)

Managing an ETF undoubtedly costs money: salaries, research costs, other admin, etc. need to be paid. However, it should cost the investor as little as possible.

That’s what a fund’s “expense ratio” expresses.

The most popular index funds charge as little as 9, 5, or even just 3 basis points (1 basis point = 0.01%).

5 basis points, for instance, means that management fees of $5 per $10,000 worth of the ETF are deducted annually.

The most affordable actively managed ETFs cost around 25 to 30 basis points. That’s 5–6 times as much as the lowest charging passive funds. And many charge way more than that!

An active manager has to consistently outperform the market average (i.e. the index) to make their higher fee worth the investor’s while.

80–90% of all actively managed funds don’t reach that goal, statistically. So, stick with passive!

4) How much money the ETF manages (called assets under management): generally, the more the better, with a minimum of $10M (otherwise the risk of it closing is too high)

The biggest ETFs in the US (and the world) manage several hundred billion dollars.

Size matters.

Size expresses general investor interest and implies two things:

Liquidity (easy buying and selling)
Fair pricing throughout the trading day (less chance of overpaying when buying and receiving too little when selling the ETF).

Size also reduces the risk that a fund may be closed down by its manager because running it is not worth their while.

If an ETF cannot win the interest of at least $10 million, it may become under pressure to be closed down.

Why?

Say, an ETF charges 10 basis points in expense ratio and has $10 million in assets under management. That’s $10,000 in revenue for the management form. To run a fund, paying managers, traders, software, data feeds, regulatory and legal fees, etc., will easily cost that much money. Where there’s no space for business profit, the business must go out of business sooner or later.

When an ETF closes, you get paid out your share of the current value of the ETF’s assets under management.

That means you don’t have control over the timing of the sale. Plus, it’s a taxable event that may not fit in your tax plan at all (unless held in a tax-deferred account).

Sticking with the larger ETFs will most likely avoid such unexpected events.

5) How many of the ETF’s shares are traded daily on average: the more the better, so you can buy and sell it easily and cheaply

Heavily traded ETFs are more likely to exhibit a fair value in their market price than thinly traded ones.

Plus, the difference between the immediately available prices for buying and selling shares of the ETF (called the Bid-Ask spread) is usually lower the more trading volume there is.

If you select an ETF that is traded more than an otherwise equal competitor, you can reasonably expect to incur lower implicit transaction costs (i.e. the lower Bid-Ask-spread) and receive a more reliable price — which benefits your bottom line as an investor.

Are these 5 factors all there is to selecting the right ETF?

Well, there are more factors to consider if you want to get all nerdy.

But if you master these 5, you will get it right 99% of the time.

Thanks for reading.

Shine your light,
Cristof

—

This article is intended for residents of the United States only. Not all of the products and services mentioned on this site may be available in your state.

The information in this article is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell specific securities. Nor is it an endorsement or recommendation of the specific securities mentioned. It does not constitute personalized investment, financial, legal, or tax advice. Nor should it be misconstrued as a solicitation of investment advisory services. It is for informational and educational purposes only and presents the author’s interpretations and opinions which are subject to change without notice.

Research for this article was done thoroughly from sources the author believes to be reliable and trustworthy, but the author cannot guarantee that the presentation is complete or correct.

Investments in stocks, ETFs, and other securities can lose value. There is no guarantee that this information will lead to investment returns or profits. Historical results and analysis are not a guarantee for future results. Model portfolio returns may not be achievable by all investors.

Each person’s situation is unique. Please seek professional advice from the qualified financial advisor of your choice about your investment decisions, and your attorney and accountant concerning legal and tax questions.

My firm Pine Ridge Wealth LLC (PRW) is an investment adviser registered with the State of North Carolina. PRW may only conduct business with residents of the states and/or jurisdictions in which it is properly registered.

Neither PRW nor its representatives are affiliated with the issuing companies or fund sponsors mentioned in this article. However, PRW and its representatives may own, plan to own, or otherwise have an interest in individual securities mentioned in this article, and may benefit from you buying these particular securities.

For further information, including PRW’s current full-disclosure brochure, see www.pineridgewealth.com.

Sophia Ojha 7/10/24 Sophia Ojha 7/10/24

Making it out to the other side

A post I wrote on building an online business with financial freedom and peace of mind as goals. #solopreneurjourney

This year marks the 14th anniversary of my solopreneur journey.

I started in 2010 and the path has not been starightforward.

I tried many things:
1. Proofread English documents while living in Germany
2. Designed photobooks for families celebrating milestones
3. Taught meditation and ran visualization workshops
4. Set up email marketing systems for solorpreneurs
5. Built websites for creative entrepreneurs (and continue to do so now)

I've struggled to figure out how to make it work as a self-employed biz owner.

I have had many moments where I wanted to give up.

Yes, crying on the living room floor was part of it.

During one of those years, I made less than 13K and lived in a 450 sq. ft apartment.

But I made it out the other side.

In the last four years, I've:
+ Built a 6-figure web design business
+ Served more than a hundred clients
+ Got noticed by and then worked with one of the biggest website-building platforms
+ Encouraged and helped hundreds of web designers on their path

So, what do I want to say with all this, you may be wondering:

It's this.

No matter how challenging your solopreneur journey is:

Don't judge yourself if you don't stick with one thing.

Experiment and try new things.

Keep showing up consistently.

Don't chase perfection; focus on commitment.

Keep a positive mindset. Negativity from others or your own mind is poison.

Remember you are good enough with or without your worldly accomplishments.

And...

Never ever give up on yourself.

Sophia Ojha 7/4/24 Sophia Ojha 7/4/24

Best ESG US Small Cap ETF in 2024

XJR vs ESML

ESG stands for environment, social, and governance. It’s been an investing theme since 2004 and has gathered more than $30 trillion under management according to Wikipedia.

Most of the money is invested in large companies, so-called large-caps. I showed in last week’s article that large-cap ESG investing can keep up with the broad market.

But there are small-caps, too, that are good corporate citizens.

Investing in smaller companies has paid investors a higher return in the very long term. That is likely to continue because investors need to be compensated for the additional risk that’s to be endured when investing in this part of the stock market.

This article compares two US small-cap ESG ETFs to see which one is best.

What’s going on here?

We’re comparing XJR with ESML, two ETFs that invest in the ESG space and select only US small-caps for their portfolio.

XJR

The iShares ESG Screened S&P Small-Cap ETF has existed since September 2020. It follows the S&P SmallCap 600 Sustainability Screened Index.

According to the index’s fact sheet, it excludes companies involved in controversial weapons, small arms, tobacco, and fossil fuels.

As of this writing on July 5, 2024, XJR has $73 million in assets under management. The three largest of its 615 holdings are Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), Fabrinet (FN), and ATI (ATI). It charges an expense ratio of just 0.12%.

A hypothetical investment of $10K on its inception date (September 22, 2024) with dividends reinvested would have grown to almost $15.8K (after the ETF’s expenses but before taxes and other potential fees such as brokerage commissions or advisory fees), see the following chart.

Chart of the value of a hypothetical investment of $10,000 in XJR on 9/22/2020, according to Morningstar

ESML

The iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA Small-Cap ETF has been in existence since April 2018. It tracks the MSCI USA Small Cap Extended ESG Focus Index.

The index’s fact sheet states that the index “targets companies with high
ESG ratings in each sector. Tobacco, Controversial Weapons, Producers of or ties with Civilian Firearms, Thermal Coal and Oil Sands are
not eligible for inclusion.”

As of this writing on July 5, 2024, ESML has $1.6 billion in assets under management. The three largest of its 917 holdings are Casey’s General Stores (CASY), Janus Henderson Group (JHG), and KBR (KBR). It charges an expense ratio of just 0.17%.

A hypothetical investment of $10K on September 22, 2024 with dividends reinvested would have grown to a bit more than $15.3K (after the ETF’s expenses but before taxes and other potential fees such as brokerage commissions or advisory fees), see the following chart.

Chart of the value of a hypothetical investment of $10,000 in ESML on 9/22/2020 (not ESML’s but XJR’s more recent inception date, for better comparison), according to Morningstar

What does that mean?

Laying both ETFs into the same chart, you see that they correlate highly.

Chart of the value of a hypothetical investment of $10,000 in ESML and XJR on 9/22/2020, according to Morningstar

However, youth has a tad more energy:

XJR, since its inception, has outperformed its two-year older brother ESML.

The risk levels were comparable, by the way, with a 3-year standard deviation of 21.37% (XJR) and 21.11% (ESML).

Since both, the performance and expense ratio, are better, XJR looks preferable over ESML for the long-term investor who wants to invest in ESG-filtered US small-caps.

Why should you care?

ESG-screened small-caps have outperformed their broader market peers.

Comparing ESML from above (ESML instead of XJR because of its longer history) with IJR, one of the oldest and biggest non-ESG-filtered US small-cap ETFs (why IJR, see here), you can see the additional return in the following chart.

Chart of the value of a hypothetical investment of $10,000 in ESML and IJR on 4/10/2018 (ESML’s inception date), according to Morningstar

Investing with a conscience feels good and makes good karma. For the ESG-aware investor, this stance has paid off in terms of portfolio growth, too.

None of us knows what the future holds. But with our earth getting warmer and political and social issues boiling up, ESG small-caps outperforming their non-ESG counterparts may very well continue.

Thanks for reading.

Shine your light,
Cristof

This article is intended for residents of the United States only. Not all of the products and services mentioned on this site may be available in your state.

Research for this article was done thoroughly from sources the author believes to be reliable and trustworthy, but the author cannot guarantee that the presentation is complete or correct.

For further information, including PRW’s current full-disclosure brochure, see www.pineridgewealth.com.

Sophia Ojha 7/2/24 Sophia Ojha 7/2/24

What is behind this need to empty?

An enquiry into my soul's wantings

Back in 2011, I had this phase when I started feeling this powerful urge to let go of things and items that belong to me. Personal letters, cards, essays and papers written for school and college and also reducing my vast collection of books. One day, I let go of piles and piles of creative writing assignments from my university studies, with no desire to scan and digitize them. I began with this stack of papers and lay them before me. I wanted to simply “reduce”. At first, I realised that this is a lot of painstaking work that I am simply discarding. To ease the process, I began separating those items that I felt some emotional connection to and made a little collection of them to keep. Very soon, the huge pile of papers was suddenly down to a handful of articles. And the big brown paper bag filled with my essays that I had sorted out for recycling, seemed like a big relief.

Then I went through some of my diaries and other self-awareness notes just from the previous two years. I began letting go of them as well. With some more things left to go through still, I decided to call it a day and went to bed. As I lay in bed, I wondered why I was going through this process of letting go of my belongings?

I realized that in the previous few years, I have intensified the process of recognizing my ego and bit by bit untangling myself from its grip, and making friends with it to serve my higher purpose. The next morning as I woke up, I had an epiphany. I realized that this letting go of my belongings was another way of disentangling myself from things that have become a form of attachment for my ego and a source of identity for myself. So it seems that intuitively, I embarked on this process with the desire to find out: what lies behind all this stuff that I call mine? I wanted to know:

What will I find when I take away all of these things that I own? What remains behind all of this stuff? Who am I without all of these things?

I feel going through this process physically, enabled me to feel a powerful impact. I don’t think I am done with this process yet and still simplifying my belongings. Here are some of things I experienced as a result of decluttering my personal writings and items.

As I let go of things:

I feel light.
I feel unburdened with the care and organization of stuff that I do not actively need, use or connect with on a daily basis.
I feel free.
I feel greater appreciation and even love for those things I do decide to keep.
I feel more spacious.
I practice being grateful and thanking my belongings for the service they have offered and letting them go.
The flow of energy out, feels good and uplifting. I am making space for all that is wanting to emerge through me and to me.
I make room for the flow of gifts of life and the universe.
I have more time to do things that fulfill me.
I feel more mobile, light and limber.

Moreover, I felt a general sense of peace and joy filling my being. And I am not yet done. I am eager to go through some more of my things, and some more and some more, until I feel a sense of equilibrium and peace about the whole thing.

And this has the potential to open up the door for me to come to the realization of the question: What remains behind all the things I own? Who am I?

Emptiness and Simplicity are the catalysts for inner-peace within me.

The seed of this article was written on November 5th, 2011.

Sophia Ojha 6/27/24 Sophia Ojha 6/27/24

ESGV vs. VOO: Is ESG investing in or out?

Does making good karma with your investments pay off?

ESG stands for environment, social, and governance.

ESG investing means that you care about the impact that your capital makes. It’s most prominently used for stock market investing but can also be applied to bonds, commodities, and other asset classes.

It’s been a growing investment theme ever since it was incepted by the UN in collaboration with major financial institutions in 2004. According to Wikipedia, more than $30 trillion is under management using the responsible investing approach.

That’s a lot of money.

How does it perform?

How risky is it?

This article looks into a US ESG ETF and compares it with the broad market.

What’s going on here?

One of the leading ESG stock market ETFs is the Vanguard ESG US Stock ETF, ticker symbol ESGV.

According to its latest fact sheet dated March 31, 2024, ESGV

Has $8.4B under management — quite a heavyweight.
Costs the investor only 9 basis points (0.09% or $9 per $10K market value) per year in expense ratio to access the world of US ESG equity investments through this ETF.
Is a passive fund tracking the FTSE US All Cap Choice Index. The index uses screening criteria for environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) aspects.
Is invested in a current total of 1,436 different stocks.
Has produced 15.15% annualized return over the last 5 years, and 31.43% in the last 12 months.
Incurred a standard deviation of 18.71% — a figure that measures risk (the lower the better).

What does that mean?

Let’s put ESGV in context. A good comparison would be an S&P 500 investment and a total market investment.

Over five years, ESGV has performed virtually identically with VOO, one of the leading S&P 500 trackers.

A hypothetical investment of $10,000 in either of the two ETFs on June 27, 2019, would have grown to more than $20,300. You can see this in the following chart.

5-year chart of a hypothetical investment of $10,000 in ESGV and VOO, according to Morningstar

In the post-pandemic stock market rally, ESGV had a bit of a lead. But it gave it up again during early 2022 and lagged by the end of that year. Since then, ESGV and VOO have been neck-a-neck.

Consequently, the picture looks quite similar if we look at only the last 12 months. Hypothetical investments of $10,000 each in ESGV and VOO on June 27, 2023, would have grown to virtually the same amount today. See the following chart.

1-year chart of a hypothetical investment of $10,000 in ESGV and VOO, according to Morningstar

In terms of risk, VOO would have been a tad lower and thus better. Its standard deviation of 17.6% beats ESGV’s 18.71% by more than a whole percentage point.

Why should you care?

If it’s important to you to care for how your money is used, an investment in an ESG-driven stock selection process looks like ticking two boxes at once: making a market-like return and doing good with your capital.

If we broadened the comparison from large caps (S&P 500) to the total market (e.g. ticker symbol VTI), ESGV would not only have matched the market. It would even have outperformed it.

The index that ESGV tracks specifically excludes stocks of certain companies related to weaponry, “vice” products such as gambling, alcohol, and tobacco, as well as potentially harmful energy such as nuclear power, coal, oil, or gas.

Your money would also not go to companies that do not adhere to certain environmental, labor, human rights, and anti-corruption standards. Even companies that do not meet a minimum level of diversity are excluded.

So, do you care and want good returns (with a tad more risk)?

ETF Nerd Summary

Doing good deeds, acting with a conscience, making good karma, and avoiding harming people and the rest of nature, seems to pay off not just in life generally but also in investing.

ESG investing, as represented by ticker ESGV in this article, has grown its investors’ money in a very similar fashion than a mainstream S&P 500 investment would have.

With the earth heating up and social conflicts seemingly on the rise, this trend of the last years may very well continue.

Thanks for reading.

Shine your light,
Cristof

This article is intended for residents of the United States only. Not all of the products and services mentioned on this site may be available in your state.

Research for this article was done thoroughly from sources the author believes to be reliable and trustworthy, but the author cannot guarantee that the presentation is complete or correct.

For further information, including PRW’s current full-disclosure brochure, see www.pineridgewealth.co m.

Sophia Ojha 6/13/24 Sophia Ojha 6/13/24

Now Is Where the Future Is Made

Sow now what you want to harvest down the road

Photo by Francesco Gallarotti

Now is where the future is made.

I read this quote by a Buddhist monk called Ajahn Brahm the other day. It was on the T-shirt that my wife brought me as a gift from the meditation retreat she’d gone on.

“Now is where the future is made” is the unofficial motto of The 5-Day Nest Egg Challenge (starts June 17), too.

Why?

Because the seeds you sow right now, given enough nourishment, will grow into big plants and trees with gorgeous flowers and juicy fruits on them.

Similarly, what you do now regarding your financial future will yield you unbelievable benefits down the road — through the power of consistency and compounding.

That’s especially valuable for us solopreneurs and self-employed folks who cannot rely on any corporate retirement plan. We have to take our financial future into our very own hands!

Finding the right balance between living in the now and caring for the future version of yourself is crucial. And it means something different for each and every one of us.

In my event The 5-Day Nest Egg Challenge I’ll go in depth about all this — for you. We’ll be live at 2 pm ET each day from Monday through Friday of next week (June 17–21).

I’m looking forward to seeing you on Monday!

Shine your light,
Cristof

Sophia Ojha 5/6/24 Sophia Ojha 5/6/24

Could it be that you don’t want passive income?

It’s rather this you are looking for.

I remember having a conversation with a friend of mine a while back. Both of us were self-employed and could relate to each other’s entrepreneurial journeys.

We wanted to make it happen with our businesses.

But we were struggling.

If you are a solopreneur or have a side hustle, you may be well aware of the struggles. From figuring out what skills the market will pay for, how much to charge for our services, and where to find the next client to how to balance work with rest, not feeling guilty for taking a vacation, how to deal with imposter syndrome and self-doubt, the challenges that we overcome are immense.

That’s why I consider running one’s own business a surefire path to personal and spiritual transformation.

But I digress.

So it was one of those days when my friend and I were lamenting about the up and down cycle of our business (a little bit of venting only, to let off steam). And that’s when she said, “Wouldn’t it be cool to make passive income? To earn income while we sleep or while we are on vacation? I would love passive income so much and not have to worry about all of this right now!!”

On the one hand, she was expressing her true desire for “easy money”. You know, work a little and get paid a lot.

But what she was truly saying was much deeper.

She is a hard worker and does not shy away from taking action. So it’s not like she doesn’t want to do the work. For her the term, “passive income” was a nice symbol of ease and abundance at that moment.

What she was feeling was the frustration of the grind that a self-employed or solopreneur business can be. Creating content, solving problems for clients, finding clients, taking care of the house and family, and on and on.

She wanted ease and flow in her life.

She wanted a break.

She just wanted a breakthrough.

Passive Income is Not Passive

Passive income. It seems so many people are wanting passive income or think that’s what they want. And that is what the marketers cater their marketing towards — the desire people have for money coming in, apparently with little or no work.

First of all, those who have generated “passive income” know that there’s nothing passive about it — unless it’s dividend income coming from your portfolio investments. But even that requires proper planning and careful selection for crafting a winning portfolio; thus requiring an immense understanding of the financial markets and even macroeconomics, which means getting educated and staying informed in that world. Hardly anything about that is passive!

Cristof Ensslin, a financial adviser at Pine Ridge Wealth an investment advisory firm, alerts us: “With investing, it takes, at the least studying the market or if you don’t want to do that, then hiring the right financial adviser and staying in touch with them, to stay on top of things. Done right, investing is highly leveraged but not passive.”

And just read the following quotes that debunk the passive income myth.

The bottom line is that passive income may seem like a free lunch, but there is nothing passive about it. — Melissa Houston, Forbes Dec 17, 2023

Anything capable of producing “passive income” is a full-time job — and the moment you stop caring about it, income stops. — Nicholas Cole, in this article Jan 14, 2021

“The courses, videos and social media content don’t create themselves,” he said. “None of this is passive.” — Luca Alboretti who creates free educational resources for real estate professionals, quoted in a New York Times article written by Lisa Rabasca Roep on Jan 27th, 2023.

Passive Income is a Misnomer

Passive income is a misnomer. It paints an inaccurate picture of what it seems we truly want.

What if what we truly desire is way deeper than that? And solopreneurs, freelancers, content creators, and self-employed folks have in their very fiber everything that demonstrates that depth of desire.

We say we want passive income but we are not afraid of doing hard work.

We say we want passive income but we don’t shy away from showing up, even after countless “failures”.

We say we want passive income but we are full of ideas on how to change things and make things better.

We say we want passive income but we are saying yes to requests from others so we can be of help.

We say we want passive income but we can’t stop thinking about our business even while on vacation if we take one in the first place.

I could go on.

What we want, what we really really want

So, it’s not passive income that we may be looking for, it seems.

Could it be that what we really really want is:

the freedom of doing what we love;

2. doing the work when we want it, with whom we want;

3. the satisfaction of having a meaningful impact on people’s lives;

4. the joy of creative expression, of learning, of following our curiosity;

5. the possibility of having no income ceiling;

6. leaving a wealthy financial legacy for our loved ones;

7. and making a difference for the causes close to our hearts?

Or when we say we want passive income, what we simply want is:

an asynchronous way of working where we don’t have to show up at a certain hour we can work whenever we want whether it’s 2 am or 2 pm, in between baby naps; we can go for a lunch break with a friend to take advantage of a sunny afternoon and then be able to work after 9 pm to get the thing done; a truly remote work so we can work from wherever we want; a work environment where goals and objectives are communicated in written or via recorded video; and where meetings and video calls are no longer a must.

On that last point, Sahil Lavingia, the founder of Gumroad has created a no meeting, no deadline, no full-time employees business model and is thriving.

So what is it for me?

Well, what I truly want is the freedom to do the work I love, remotely and asynchronously (no appointments and take breaks when I need or want), be creative and collaborate with those I want to collab with, be my own boss (rapid decision making is a plus), have income/profit ceiling that breaks through the societal gender inequality, have the revenue growth that I desire for my company and wealth for my family while making a difference for our audience and the causes I care about.

And oh, none of it needs to be passive. However, I would love a leveraged business model.

Perhaps, it would be worthwhile to re-evaluate what we mean when we say Passive Income. Is it code for the true desire for work freedom that we want as solopreneurs and content creators? If so, let each one of us decode it for ourselves so that we can create the life we really really want!

Sources:

Houston, Melissa. “There Is Nothing Passive About Passive Income .” Forbes, 17 December 2023, https://www.forbes.com/sites/melissahouston/2023/12/17/there-is-nothing-passive-about-passive-income/?sh=2054bd391a45 Retrieved March 13th, 2024.

Cole, Nicolas. “There Is Nothing Passive About “Passive Income”.” Medium, 14 January 2021, https://nicolascole77.medium.com/there-is-nothing-passive-about-passive-income-79e25032ce30 Retrieved March 13th, 2024.

Roepe, Lisa Rabasca. “What’s Passive Income? It’s Not What Influencers Say It Is.” New York Times, 27 January 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/27/business/passive-income-job-retirement.html Retrieved March 13th, 2024.

🐬🐬🐬

Sophia Ojha 2/13/24 Sophia Ojha 2/13/24

5 tweaks I made that more than tripled my solopreneur revenue in one year

Running a solopreneur business is challenging. Every challenge you overcome in your business often reflects an inner transformation that has taken place within you.

So if you are on this one-person business journey, you have my awe and respect. And if you are struggling to hit your revenue goals despite working on all cylinders, I know exactly how you feel.

Blog #141: 5 tweaks I made that more than tripled my solopreneur revenue in one year

Tea Gardens at Munnar, Kerala, India. Photo by Vivek Kumar on Unsplash

How I went from $32K to $100K with these five adjustments

Running a solopreneur business is challenging. Every challenge you overcome in your business often reflects an inner transformation that has taken place within you.

So if you are on this one-person business journey, you have my awe and respect. And if you are struggling to hit your revenue goals despite working on all cylinders, I know exactly how you feel.

I was three years into my freelance web design business and aspired to make my first $100K in annual revenue. However, I was barely making $32K for the year even while working nights and weekends. I wanted to hit my desired revenue goal but was struggling to move the needle in any substantial way.

It was obvious that there were key things that were not really working in my business. I needed to change those if I were ever to get out of my revenue stalemate.

That’s when I decided to take a closer look at how I was running things and make some hard decisions. If you are in a similar boat as a service-based online entrepreneur, solopreneur, or a one-person business wanting to break through your current income ceiling, I wrote this article for you.

In this article, I will share with you five things I adjusted that led to a breakthrough and finally delivered me a $100K annual revenue for my one-to-one web design business. Here’s a summary:

Cut down your offers to two
Stop doing custom quotes
Prime your consultation calls to convert leads into clients
Offer a no-brainer package option
Invest in a tool for easily getting paid and getting contracts e-signed

Let’s dive right in!

1. Cut down your offers to two

Not an easy task but highly profitable!

I had begun my freelance journey with ConvertKit email marketing services. And as my skills developed over the course of time, I began offering all kinds of services. For instance, I did project management, social media planning, email marketing for Mailchimp, Mailerlite, ConvertKit, tweaks, and updates on Squarespace along with my signature web design services. I was diluting my offers with things that I was capable of doing but with each new offer, a new workflow and system had to be developed. Managing all those systems created clutter and crowded out the area where I wanted to focus: Squarespace Web Design. Plus, I was also launching a couple of courses, had online workshops on offer, and was creating blog posts and videos for my YouTube channel.

That’s when I cut out all my offers down to two:

Squarespace Web Design Packages
Hourly Maintenance Packages for clients for whom I have already built a website

I decided to say no to any projects that did not fit into my two main offers, even if the clients were amazing and they were willing to pay my prices. I also put a pause on conducting online workshops and content creation to focus on this one $100K goal.

If you find your freelance business bringing in revenue but you are starting to feel stagnated, think of how you can streamline your offers. You may have to let go of your most popular offers if they are too time-consuming or do not bring in much revenue. Reduce your offers down to one or two main offers and see your revenue begin to skyrocket.

2. Stop doing custom quotes

This is a controversial one since many in the service-based industry rely on custom quotes. In my view, custom quotes are hugely time-consuming. My consult calls were often long and drawn out and then I would spend 3 to 4 hours preparing a customized quote. Half a day went into client acquisition and then often these specific clients would not choose to work with me.

I knew I had to change this. I decided to craft a couple of design packages where I would deliver a set number of deliverables which clients can choose from if these packages fit their needs. I would determine the time it would take to complete these tasks and how much I would feel good to get paid for it all.

This one decision saved me a ton of time and actually led to closing more projects as clients knew exactly what they were signing up for even before they met me on the call. My prices were transparently listed on my website. So regardless of what your net worth is, my packages don’t change based on your wallet size! I liked the democratic feeling of that and that’s how I would love to be treated by people I hire as well.

Consider creating custom quotes in your freelance business. Whether you are a copywriter or a graphic designer or a fitness coach offering 1 to 1 services, create attractive packages instead of doing custom quotes. Price them well and then blow your clients away with awesome value.

Take this approach for a test drive. If you don’t jive with it, you can always go back to custom quotes. But if you do it right, packages will change your business for the better and you will see an increase in time, flow, and revenue in your business.

3. Prime your consultation calls to convert leads into clients

One of the problems I faced was converting interested people into clients for my web design packages. I realized that these potential clients were faced with information overload during the hiring process. First, there are many designers to choose from and then each one has their own, often, complicated system. Then the client speaks to me and hears one more business model that they had to now understand in order to decide if we were a right fit. Often my consult calls would drag on for an hour or an hour and a half and still not help the client to make a decision. So I decided to change how I conducted the consultation calls.

I implemented these changes:

Reduced the consult call to 30 minutes (if they wanted to chat more they could pay a consult fee)
Broke down my call into three main parts:
a. the client’s problem/goal,
b. info about my packages,
c. getting booked, and next steps.
Changed how I presented my offer and added price anchoring to make it easy for clients to choose working with me

Having a structured consultation call has been a game-changer. If your calls are dragging on without clients deciding to hire you on the call, then you need to revise what you say on your consultation call.

To help you do just that, I have written out a minute-by-minute playbook of what you should say during your 30-minute complimentary call. I call it my 100K Consult Call Script and you can get it here — my gift to you.

Change your consult call structure, reduce the call down to half an hour, and present your offers using price anchoring. This will create a thrust in your airplane of a small business and your business will take off!

4. Offer a no-brainer package option

My design package at the time was priced at $3500 for a two-week website build for 5 pages. I was meeting a lot of clients who were just starting a new business for whom that was a high budget. Now my two-week design packages are at $9800 and may even be more by the time you read this. And yes, I enjoyed working on two-week websites. Clients were fun to work with and the website content was interesting to build.

But I didn’t like the feeling of turning away clients who clearly loved the idea of working with me, only if there was a better financial fit. However, I didn’t like the idea of reducing my prices on the two-week package for just those clients who could not afford my packages.

Enter: Website In A Day Package

Instead, I decided to reduce the time and deliverables. I came up with a Website In A Day package which I would deliver in a single day. It would only be a three-page website at US$1500 (later $1800) This pricing is likely more by the time you read this article or the package may no longer be on offer in the future).

Over time, I perfected this day-long design process. I made it super streamlined with me knowing every task that needs to get completed and by when. Clients loved the affordability and the fast turnaround aspect, plus they loved that they could get to work with me at a price point better suited for their new business.

This one offer was exactly what folks were looking for. In 2022, I booked 28 Websites In A Day which made for 42% of my annual revenue goal.

If you are a web designer or freelancer service-based business owner wanting to hit the $100K mark in your business, such a streamlined no-brainer package will help you get there.

5. Invest in a tool for easily getting paid and getting contracts e-signed

This one investment has had an immense ROI (return on investment) in my business because it made it super easy for clients to hire me. Before this app, I would send my clients a digital contract in one email from an app. Then I would send them a payment link or an invoice from another app. Clients would either sign the contract but not pay on time or pay but not have the contract signed on time. This caused unnecessary delays and confusion.

When I invested in Honeybook, this changed overnight. Honeybook have a brochure feature which I have not seen anywhere else: it allows you to send one email that has both the payment button as well as the e-contract for e-signature.

One. Single. Email.

I created a template for this which I would then customize for each new client project — so creating the contract and payment email would take about 20–30 minutes vs several hours before Honeybook.

Honeybook* (affiliate link) is just one example. There are other tools and if you find one you like, go for it. My point is: find a system/app that makes the hiring process easy for your clients so you can get to work and focus on the creative part of the design business.

On a side note, I do want to mention that I have always gotten paid in advance by my clients, either online or in person. Having the money question out of the way has opened up my creativity and focus so that during the project I am not worried about whether or not I will get paid. I highly recommend getting paid well before the project starts so you too can unleash your creativity and serve your clients in the best possible way. Clients have had no issues paying upfront, it’s only a mental hurdle in the mind of the freelancer that folks won’t want to do it. This is a topic for a whole other article but I wanted to mention it here briefly.

So there you are. Five changes that helped me hit my coveted goal and actually more than tripled my revenue from $32,171.30 in 2021 to $106,375.28 in 2022. I invite you to consider these changes in your business and see what happens:

Cut down your offers to two
Stop doing custom quotes
Prime your consultation calls to convert leads into clients
Offer a no-brainer package option
Invest in a tool for easily getting paid and getting contracts e-signed

Let me know in the comments how you would apply these 5 points and whether you have them implemented.

PS: For more tips and invites to trainings on how to grow your freelance online business, join the Abundant Creative Newsletter here.

Sophia Ojha 2/6/24 Sophia Ojha 2/6/24

Content Creation & Overcoming the Pressure For Excellence

Being an expert on a topic is great. And hopefully, you are on the journey to becoming good at whatever it is that you want to do.

But right now, if you don’t consider yourself an expert, let that not stop you from starting. How?

You do that using three specific ways of thinking that I will share in this article.

Blog #140: Overcoming the Pressure For Excellence

Being an expert on a topic is great. And hopefully, you are on the journey to becoming good at whatever it is that you want to do.

But right now, if you don’t consider yourself an expert, let that not stop you from starting. How?

You do that using three specific ways of thinking that I will share in this article.

The Excellence Pressure & The Heavy Mental Cost
There is a real drive for excellence in our culture. Whether it is getting straight A’s, being multi-disciplinary or well-rounded in all subjects, and earning a high income, the emphasis on being really really good is tremendous. It comes from our parents, our friends, from pop culture and media at large. Some of it is also self-created, of course.

Although creating excellence in any field is a worthy aspiration, the pressure when not handled right starts killing our spirits and our creativity and unfortunately, also literally killing us. It can show up in being prone to illness, becoming unhealthy in our food intake, and postponing movement. It shows up in emotional distress and the inability to deal with setbacks we face in life such as heartbreak, job loss, or other types of hardships, and sadly, shows up as countless people of all ages succumb to the pressure that leads to suicide.*

The need to be good, nay, excellent at something even before one has begun is something I have felt every time I write a blog or Medium article. I feel it before I post on Linkedin or begin to create content for YouTube.

These are some thoughts that fly through my mind:

I am not an expert. This exact topic has been written about by people before. And they have written better pieces of work. Plus, they are Stanford or Harvard professors who have written books and taught the subject for decades.

So the conclusion I make is:

Whatever I say or write will be irrelevant, will not be excellent, and cannot be of value as a result. Thus, no one will watch it or read it. I should just give up, curl up in a ball, and go hide under a rock.

Yes, I know. It’s intense!

This is something I have often felt; far too often. I felt it before writing this article.

And I share this because there is a false sense of perfection that we feel the need to present to the outside world. How many times have you put your “game face” on right before a client call on Zoom, having just cried your face off a few minutes before? I have. Plenty of times.

While researching for this article, I came across this article in the New York Times* about the “practice of acting happy and self-assured even when sad or stressed”. The article presents this description of students on college campuses who feel the pressure to put up a positive front even when they are facing hardships:

”In 2003, Duke jolted academe with a report describing how its female students felt pressure to be “effortlessly perfect”: smart, accomplished, fit, beautiful and popular, all without visible effort. At Stanford, it’s called the Duck Syndrome. A duck appears to glide calmly across the water, while beneath the surface it frantically, relentlessly paddles.”

The Duck image says it all.

Translate the above to the pressure of perfection in writing and creating content and you get the point.

To break this chain of thought, I then, have to actively remind myself of a few very healthy, wholesome pieces of advice:

1. “What a terrible conclusion!”

First, “What a terrible conclusion!” This makes me laugh because it’s a line from one of my favorite SNL skits ( see 1.48 seconds into this clip or watch the whole 5 min! The Nuni’s (Natalie Portman) new boyfriend Geoff (Jason Sudeikis) asks whether Gorillas were killed to make the “hair chair” he is sitting on. Then the mom, Nuni (Maya Rudolph) responds, “What a terrible conclusion!” in the most funny way, at least to me. And it makes me laugh each time. My husband and I say this line to each other whenever we have a misunderstanding of some sort and we break into laughter.

This is a scene at our home: One of us says,” The cats look hungry. It seems that no one fed them.” To which one of us replies, ”What a terrible conclusion!” We both break out in laughter.

Okay, I digress.

So I remind myself that because I am not an expert or don’t have degrees or decades committed to the subject, doesn’t make my writing any less valuable. “That’s a terrible conclusion”, I say to myself. By that logic, no one would ever say a word or write a thing until they had already reached excellence. This of course doesn’t mean I don’t work towards excellence. But on the path to it, I can still be making a difference.

2. Make a Contribution to the Conversation

Denise Duffield Thomas of the Lucky Bitch books has a piece of advice that I want to share with you. She says to think about anything you are doing as “making a contribution” to the conversation. She is a money mindset author and coach. When she was starting out, she understood that there were other money experts out there like Suze Orman. But instead of letting that discourage her, she decided to contribute to the conversation of improving our money mindset - sharing her angle, her thoughts, her experiences.

I love that. Because now, with that kind of approach, the pressure is off. You are contributing to the conversation not necessarily having to be the last word on any topic.

3. Be an Enthusiast
Another way to think about it is how Gary Vee puts it: Be an enthusiast.

Create content and in doing so, show your enthusiasm about a topic, you get to learn about yourself and what you are curious about. Share your enthusiasm on the topic and you don’t have to be an expert.

Don’t claim to be an expert. Simply share your enthusiasm!

So whether you remind yourself of “what a terrible conclusion!” you are making when you count yourself out or to contribute to the conversation or be an enthusiast on a topic, remove the pressure on yourself that is stopping you from creating and bringing your gifts to our world.

This is a surefire way to remove the fear of not being perfect in what you are creating. Let there be typos. I have seen typos in best-selling New York Times books that had a team of editors and years of production time. Allow yourself to be human! This advice is for me as much as for anyone reading this article.

All of this will help you to create, innovate, and move forward. It will remove the hurdle of waiting until you are great at something.

Start now.

Do this now.

And the fruit of this process might just be you demonstrating excellence.

Share your experience with this in the comments. I would love to know what goes on your mind when it comes to creating.

PS: For more tips and invites to trainings on how to grow your freelance online business, join the Abundant Creative Newsletter here.

Sources:

Robinson Ph.D., Bryan. “Grappling With The Rise Of Work-Related Suicide During The Pandemic: How To Support Yourself And Fellow Coworkers.” Forbes, 5 Sept. 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2020/09/05/grappling-with-the-rise-of-work-related-suicide-during-the-pandemic-how-to-support-yourself-and-fellow-coworkers/?sh=6aa65bf548d2 Retrieved on Feb 6th, 2024

Scelfo, Julie. “Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection.” The New York Times, 2 Aug. 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/education/edlife/stress-social-media-and-suicide-on-campus.html Retrieved Feb 6th, 2024

SNL. “The Art Dealers: Their Daughter’s New Boyfriend” YouTube, 1 Feb 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVqagvk7dLw

GaryVee. “A Rant That Will Destroy Your Imposter Syndrome On Social Media” YouTube, 9 Aug 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpVX4jJNu4k

Sophia Ojha 2/4/24 Sophia Ojha 2/4/24

24 Tools I Use To Run My Freelance Web Design Business

As a freelance web designer, I use the following 24 tools to run my design business and deliver my design packages. I’m breaking them into six categories so it’s easier to follow.

Blog #139: 24 Tools I Use To Run My Freelance Web Design Business

Recently, I reviewed all the tools that I use in my freelance web design business. I like to take an inventory from time to time to see where I can invest in tools that will help me simplify and streamline my business, and remove those that don’t serve me anymore.

In 2024, it turns out I currently use 24 tools to run my business and deliver my design packages. In today's article, I am breaking them into six categories so it’s easier to follow: client acquisition and communication, payments, design, organization and project management, legal, finances, taxes, admin, content production, and social media.

I. Client Acquisition and Communication

1. Zoom: Zoom for consult calls, and client communication during projects as well as webinars and paid workshops.

2. 9Designs/Squarespace Marketplace: This is my main source of client projects. Many new designers hesitate to go on a freelancer platform because of the fees they charge. But if you are not booked out or making the revenue goal you want, getting a profile set up on a platform like Upwork or others and diligently applying to jobs will make a huge difference. Remember it won’t be forever, just to get your foot into the door.

3. Squarespace (Hosting, Domain, Client intake, online presence): This is where I host my website, purchased my domain, and have an online presence. As a Squarespace web designer, this makes sense.

4. ConvertKit: This is my email marketing platform. Mailerlite is my second favorite as it is cheaper and delivers the key features that Convertkit delivers. But the user interface and ease of use of ConvertKit keep me there for now.

5. Google Workspace (for email): This is where I get my business email from.

6. Google Drive (for client content): I use Google Drive to receive all client content including text, images, logos, and links. They also fill out two questionnaires which are hosted on my website.

7. Keynote: I love using Keynote, mostly for presentation slides for my webinars or YouTube videos. I have also used Google Slides, which I may switch to in the future.

8. Pages: I love Pages for creating PDFs - such as my welcome package, finished website PDF, and my Bio/Testimonials PDF that I send to any new client inquiring about a project.

9. WeTransfer: If I am not sending a recording link of my website launch training on Zoom, I may send the entire video recording via WeTransfer.

10. Acuity Scheduling: This is the app that I got legacy pricing on as I was using it when Squarespace first acquired it. So I have all my consult calls on there. Calendly, and Whereby are my other alternatives.

11. Loom (for client communication): During my two-week design project workflow, I will often use Loom for presenting my design draft or asking a question to a client. This allows for more asynchronous communication and avoids lengthy meetings on Zoom.

12. Honeybook: This tool can be it’s own productivity app. But I primarily use it for sending a single email that has both the payment link and the contract in one. This has saved countless hours of back and forth and got me booked faster.

II. Payments

13. Stripe: Stripe is the tool I use for receiving payments for clients who book me directly via my website or if I have digital products or live paid workshops.

14. Paypal: Paypal is the payment processor that I use to get paid for my projects via 99Design. Squarespace integrates with both Stripe and Paypal, so if you create a product or service there, you can offer both options to your clients.

III. Design

15. Canva: Mostly for creating video clips, documents, and some graphics.

16. Picmonkey: I use Picmonkey for image alterations, enhancement and YouTube thumbnails

IV. Organization and Project Management

17. Notion: This is now my entire business operations. I have my goals, workflows, content creation, everything in Notion.

18. Milanote: Milanote is where my headquarters used to be. I have moved most of my things from Mila to Notion but still have some archives there which I would like to eventually move to Notion and have a single online headquarters.

(See also point 6). Google Drive: (Google Docs and folders for client content) Google Drive is mostly for clients to send me their content inside Google Docs and folders.

V. Legal, Finances, Taxes, Admin

19. Turbo Tax: I use Turbo Tax to pay my taxes.

(See also point 6) Google Drive (Finance Spreadsheet): This is where I track my income and expenses. I find it very encouraging to track income and potential income in here.

VI. Content Production and Social Media

20. QuickTime: Quicktime is what I use for recording my screen and also my face for YouTube tutorials.

21. iMovie: This is my editing software. I am keeping things simple with video editing. I may explore other options like Final Cut Pro or hire a video editor when things progress in my content creation branch of my business or for course creation.

22. YouTube: All my long-form videos are published on YouTube. This is part of my leveraged business model.

23. LinkedIn: Also part of my leveraged business model, LinkedIn is where I post short-form content and link it to my website.

24. Medium: Also part of my leveraged business model, Medium is where I post my long-form content and link it to my website.

These are all the paid and free tools I use in my one-to-one web design business. I have also used Upwork in the past for client acquisition and Teachable/Crowdcast for course hosting and webinars but I don’t use these anymore. I may have a section for courses and digital products here later when I grow that part of my business.

There you have it: six categories and 24 tools to grow and build my solopreneur online web design business. Post below in the comments any apps that are critical to your business or alternatives you think I should consider to those I am currently using.

PS: For more tips and invites to trainings on how to grow your freelance online business, join the Abundant Creative Newsletter here.

Sophia Ojha 1/26/24 Sophia Ojha 1/26/24

Cop-out or Commitment to 10X

What feels like a commitment to you, may look like a cop-out to others.

That’s what happened recently when I called off a new project even before it began.

10x is easier than 2x.

Blog #138: Cop-out or Commitment to 10X

What feels like a commitment to you, may look like a cop-out to others.

That’s what happened recently when I called off a new project even before it began.

The project was a new YouTube interview series where I would chat with web designers, freelancers, and content creators. The aim: to help freelancers build and grow their solopreneur business online.

It was exciting. Four people booked to be guests. But as it got closer to getting things organized, I felt this increasing unease. After a day of feeling a knot in my stomach, I called it off.

From the outside, this looks like a cop-out. I seem unreliable and flip-floppy in my decisions. But on the inside, this took courage. Courage not only to write that message to my guests but courage to stay committed to my Unique Ability.

I was committing to my Unique Ability.

What is “Unique Ability”?

At the start of this year, I learned deeply about this idea in the book, 10X is Easier than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy. They write that your Unique Ability is “where you have superior skills, where you’re intrinsically motivated and are energized and engaged, and it’s where you see a never-ending possibility for improvement.” It’s about becoming familiar and really clear about what you like and dislike and that your judgments about your experience are completely valid. It’s becoming open to your preferences and not letting other people’s opinions about what you do affect you.

”Unique Ability is qualitative and individual, it’s extremely unique value that only you can create…It’s a combination of a degree of skill as well as an extreme degree of uniqueness.” - Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

It’s akin to what I have heard Oprah Winfrey in her talks and speeches mention repeatedly when she said, “I want to fulfill the highest, truest expression of myself as a human being.”

But as the authors write in the book, committing to one’s Unique Ability is the “hardest and most intense thing you will ever do.” It’s about taking inventory of where you are investing your time and what activities are taking up your mental bandwidth.

That takes courage. Saying no to invitations is hard. Choosing to work a 4-day week is not easy. Filling up your calendar with the most important items will lead to very little time remaining for anything else. And canceling projects you asked your guests to join, not just once, but twice, does feel awkward.

“I want to fulfill the highest, truest expression of myself as a human being.”

— Oprah

Facing One’s Ego

Sometimes you’ve got to face your past decisions. The first time I canceled the YouTube interview series was because I had already a very full schedule and I was trying to squeeze-in one more thing into my calendar. I could see that I was moving toward burnout very fast this way. So I dropped the project.

The second time I canceled the project was out of a renewed sense of self-awareness.

"As you develop your Unique Ability...You'll stop forcing yourself to do anything you don't want to do. You'll accept and live by what psychologists call pull motivation, rather than push motivation. When you're pulled by what you want and what excites you, that's freedom and intrinsic motivation. You'll no longer operate based on need, but want." - Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

After taking time to reflect on my goals, I realized that starting the interview series was based on a need, not a true desire or want. I was giving in to this idea that creating a YouTube interview series is something I "should" do because I heard or read somewhere that this is a great way to build an audience and grow my business. Although I was excited about meeting the guests and asking them questions, the whole logistics of conducting the series, editing, and putting it all together was something that had begun to drain me. Sure, I can outsource all of that but the project as a whole was making me feel out of my element. I started to get this feeling that I should dye my hair, buy new makeup, and change who I essentially am so I can be “good enough” to host the show!

Changing myself to be “good enough”! Phew! These are all signs that I was embarking on this project because of some idea that was not inherently mine. It was not an authentic desire driving me forward. It came from a feeling that I “should do” this. And that is not healthy or wholesome.

Questions You Can Ask Yourself When Making Decisions

If you are faced with a decision and don’t quite know which path to take, ask yourself these questions. Then assess if a project or a decision is something you want to embark on and if it’s helping you towards your 10x goals.

Is this in alignment with my Unique Ability?
Is this something that is fun, enjoyable, or inspiring?
Will this project help me explore the edge of my 20%?

Letting Go is Part of Embracing The 20%

One of the ideas in the book is about letting go of the 80% to focus on the 20%. This 20% is the edge where you take what you are really good at and get even better. It’s connected to going 10x which is an ongoing process of increasing the quality and decreasing the quantity of what you do. The 20% of everything you do is where the magic lies, allowing you to focus on the 10x goals, and that requires you to focus on fewer things than many.

Letting go more and more of the 80% that takes up your time is essential if you want to go 10x. This doesn’t necessarily mean eliminating it altogether, of course; it can mean delegating to a new hire or automating the tasks. But it is also about letting go of that which is not serving your 10x goals.

Committing to Your Unique Ability

As I read the chapter on Unique Ability in the book, I realized that if I am not enjoying the things I am doing in my business, then I shouldn’t be doing them. Either eliminate or delegate. As soon as I made the decision to call off the interview series, a knot in my stomach seemingly released. I felt at ease. I felt free.

Diving deeper into what inspires me, I realize that what I truly want to do is write and share ideas, insights, and strategies that can help online entrepreneurs and freelancers succeed. It’s not making YouTube interview videos unless I can tap into it from a true desire that brings joy and excitement and I am open to that happening at a later time.

Letting go of something you’ve started is okay. Even if it seems to others as wishy-washy behavior. You are allowed to re-commit to your most important priorities, to your 10x goals, to your Unique Ability. What others think of how you commit your time is none of your business!

I am committing to my Unique Ability.

…

PS: If you are on LinkedIn, I invite you to connect with me there for more conversations and connections. If you want more tips and invites to trainings on how to grow your freelance online business, join the Abundant Creative Newsletter here.

Sophia Ojha 1/19/24 Sophia Ojha 1/19/24

I don’t Own A Toaster

I don't own a toaster.

I don't own it because I like my kitchen counter free of appliances. In fact, I like my kitchen counter with nothing on it - wide, empty, and clear like watching the ocean from the shore!

Blog #137: I don’t own a toaster.

I don't own a toaster.

I don't own it because I like my kitchen counter free of appliances. In fact, I like my kitchen counter with nothing on it - wide, empty, and clear like watching the ocean from the shore!

I make my toast in the oven.

When people come to my home and I make them breakfast, I use my oven to make them toast. They comment, "Wow, you don't own even $10 toaster?"

And I smile with peace. I have the $10 to buy a toaster but I choose not to.

These are the kinds of choices my hubby and I make on the regular. They don't fit the norm but they fit our sense of a "rich life" to borrow Ramit Sethi's phrase.

From time to time, I find myself making decisions based on other people's expectations or the unspoken rules of society and I have to remind myself to find my authentic preference. It's not easy. But I practice with small things like the toaster!

What choices could you make in your life that are truly motivated by your personal preference, point of view, and values out of inner alignment? What ideas, practices, and values can you let go of that don't bring forth your truest, most authentic self?

I'll leave you with this quote which has inspired me today:

“Wealth has little to do with how much you earn and a lot to do with how you live. One of the simplest ways to grow wealthier is pushing to detach yourself from peer pressure and care less about what people think of how you live.”

— MORGAN HOUSEL

…

Sophia Ojha 1/16/24 Sophia Ojha 1/16/24

Where do I find my very first client? This is my answer

Don’t move the goal post. … in order for you to be content.

Being content is an art. We weren’t all born with it.

But we can all cultivate this art of contentment.

Blog #136: Where do I find my very first client? This is my answer

Once you’ve decided to start your side hustle or freelance business whether it is web design or anything else, you are likely to have one important question.

”Where do I find my first client?”

Ways to find clients are countless. My advice: Pick one method that feels right. Then follow-through.

My first client came via my network. But I had no network. I had to start from scratch. This is what I did to get started. (In a recent article, I shared the one thing I wish I had done early in my web design career. Read that here.)

Back in 2018, I decided that web design was going to be my path to being financially independent. I was looking for my very first client. I had read that one needs to begin with their network.

The problem: I had none. I had just moved to a new town. I knew my neighbors. I knew the grocery store clerk. That’s it.

So I joined a local writer’s club.

Writing a book one day had been on my bucket list for a long time. This group met every week to discuss writing, publishing, and marketing. So I attended the weekly meets. Each time I introduced myself as a “Squarespace Web Designer”. Anytime someone asked me what I did, that was my go-to answer.

Eventually, I became known as the Squarespace Web Designer.

Then one day, the Ex-President of the club and I were chatting about the recent guest speaker when she said, “You know, we need to update our old WordPress site. It’s stuck in the 1990’s. Can you help? Ah, but we don’t have any funds for a web designer.”

I gulped and with googly eyes said, “Yes, I can build it for you but on one condition: You’ll need to write me an awesome testimonial and give me permission to use this site as my portfolio piece.”

“It’s a deal,” she said and that’s how I got my first client.

Okay, I know, I know. You are saying: hey, that’s not a paid client. Hold your horses, my friend, you’ll see!

Yes, you are right. This was not a paying client but she was a client nonetheless. And I had only made websites for my family and friends so far. This was more valuable as an experience for me than money at the time. Plus, I wanted to add a real project to my portfolio. Besides I was a member of the club which was run by volunteers. This was going to be my pro-bono contribution to the group.

Over the next few weeks whenever she had time in her schedule, we met at a local cafe and we got a beautiful Squarespace site for the non-profit writer’s club completed.

But that’s not where the story ends. (That’s why I asked you to hold your horses!).

At the next meeting, the Ex-President looked at me and announced that the new website was completed. Many members of the club approached me and congratulated me on a job well done. This is what was so powerful. All 500 or so members of the writer’s club (some via email) now knew there was a web designer in the group.

That’s when the Program Coordinator approached me and asked me to do a presentation for the Marketing slot on web design. I made a 45-minute presentation on how authors can use websites to get visible and build an email list that’s their own. I showed websites of leading authors, highlighting what worked well and what didn’t.

At the end of the presentation, several people came up to me and asked for more info on my design services. Out of them, one was super interested. A few weeks later, she hired me to build her website.

This took several months.

But I finally had my very first paying client.

Moral of the story:

Get your first client from your network.
If you don’t have one, join a group with shared interests.
Introduce yourself as the thing you want to get hired for (ex. Copywriter, Graphic Designer, etc).
Show up and contribute to the group weekly.
Say yes to pro bono work at first, especially, work for the group itself.
Because that's how your work can quickly be shown to hundreds of people in that group.
Take the opportunity to present or teach your area of expertise as relevant to this particular interest group. Become known as the go-to person on that topic in this specific group.

Again, there are countless ways to get your first client for your side hustle. Eventually, I also added other client acquisition avenues. But this is how I got my first web design client.

Find a way that you resonate with. Then, follow through.

Sophia Ojha 1/9/24 Sophia Ojha 1/9/24

Don’t move the goal post. The art of being content.

Don’t move the goal post. … in order for you to be content.

Being content is an art. We weren’t all born with it.

But we can all cultivate this art of contentment.

*Photo by* *Mariana Medvedeva* on *Unsplash*

Blog #135: Don’t move the goal post. The art of being content.

Don’t move the goalpost. … for you to be content.

Being content is an art. We weren’t all born with it.

But we can all cultivate this art of contentment.

Recently, I was watching a YouTube video in which Gary Vee is being asked questions by the event participants. One by one they ask their questions until a boy steps up to the mic and asks, “What do I do if I don’t know what I want to do in life?” Gary asked him how old he is and he replied “I am 14 years old”.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Who has not been asked this as a child! Every time this question is asked, a child is zapped out of the present moment and transported into a future that doesn’t exist.

It makes them realize there is something else than being a child at this moment, something to work towards, something other than “now”.

Do you remember that moment for you?

I remember. I was maybe 10 or 11 and visiting my grandmother’s place. A neighbor was passing by and started to have small talk with me. And then she asked me the question, “So, Sophia, what do you want to do when you grow up?” I had not thought about this question before but I felt the pressure to give a “smart” answer. I blurted out, “Hmm, I want to be an environmental engineer.”

This story took place in the 1980s in Mumbai where, like elsewhere in the world, there’s a huge pressure for kids to do good in school and “make their parents proud”. So I said the smartest sounding thing I could think of, not even knowing what an environmental engineer does. She said, “Good, good. I knew you would want to become an engineer or a doctor.”

I never wanted to be an engineer or a doctor. And I had no intentions of becoming either even though I didn’t know what I wanted to major in college. Even when I had a major selected, I was not sure if that was the thing I wanted to do. All the way right into my early 40s I have from time to time asked myself, “Is this what I am meant to do with my life?” And each time I was not satisfied with my current output or contribution to the world.

There were days when people just did the job that their fathers did. A shopkeeper’s son would become a shopkeeper. A school teacher’s daughter would become a school teacher or a professor. And so on.

But in today’s times, changing your career path once or even multiple times is not that unusual. In fact, according to a statistic by the US Department of Labor, the average American changes careers 5-7 times during their working life. (Source: https://novoresume.com/career-blog/career-change-statistics).

I can attest to that statistic in my own path. My first job when I was a high schooler was restocking bookshelves at the local public library and then several small jobs to help during college. After I graduated from college, I worked at the ticket counter at the Natural History Museum in NYC. My first full-time job was as a tour guide at the United Nations headquarters in NY where I worked for 4 and a half years. Then again did some smaller jobs during graduate school. After I graduated, not having found a job in either of my degrees, I started a small business designing photo books. Then, I taught visualization and meditation. After that, I did freelance email marketing consulting for solopreneurs. Then I became a self-taught web designer and started my web design business. And now I am again discovering what my next phase will be all about.

Talk about career changes!

So to think that a 14-year-old should now know what he will be doing for the rest of his life is, to me, pretty insane.

Okay, of course, some were born knowing that they wanted to be a cellist already while in their mother’s womb. Or they know they want to be an athlete. Or they know singing is the only thing they want to do. If you are one of those, fine, this article may not reflect you but it will inform you about the rest of us mortals and our career struggles!

Being a child as a child

Gary Vee in his answer reminded the 14-year-old that with the progress in technology, he might live to about 150 years. And that almost everyone in this room would have wanted in their childhood to have played more, hung out some more, did more of the “childhood” things.

We look back and can see that our time as a child was precious. He then asks the kid to follow his curiosity. See what sparks his interest. What makes him jump up with joy? And he reminds him to try different things before making up his mind. To make a point, he asked his audience, “Who in the audience doesn’t like oysters?” Some hands go up. He then asks, “Of those who raised their hands, how many have not tried oysters?” Some of the hands stayed up. Gary reminded the kid to try things out before making a decision or ruling it out.

As I watched this exchange between Gary and the kid, I felt like this message was for me and a lot of us out there who are wondering about our life path.

Ambition, aspiration, goals - these are wonderful things that keep us moving forward.

And then there are times when those same ambitions, aspirations, and goals keep us stuck, suck the life force out of us, and leave us questioning and doubting ourselves; asking what we are meant to do with our lives.

So that’s the dilemma. We have aspirations and ambitions. Then we have curiosity and finding meaning or leaving a legacy. And then we have contentment. How do we navigate all of that?

I have a couple of suggestions on how to make sense of this. And I want to share two key aspects that tie all of it together.

#1. We need to let our curiosity and delight guide us.

What if you allowed yourself to try new ideas that you were curious about? Things that don’t make sense for your career progression or professional growth but simply interest you. Perhaps, something that sparks joy for the inner child within you. What if you were to take some time and go do that? To see what happens.

#2. We need to learn to be more content with our lives.
Being content doesn’t necessarily mean not having aspirations or goals or being complacent. It means being satisfied and humble about our progress so far. It means looking back and seeing how far we have come.

For instance, if my aim is to lose 15 pounds, and I check to see that I have lost 2 pounds since I started the path of becoming healthy, then I am celebrating and being happy about the progress made so far, instead of bemoaning how far I am from my ideal of losing 15 lbs.

This way of thinking is a new thinking habit. We have to wean ourselves out of the constant future-goal seeking. Yes, the future goal can be motivating and can inspire us to make changes and to take action. But it should not demolish our well-being because we realize we are so far away from achieving the ideal. Every small step is a win. Drop by drop the whole ocean is filled up.

So combining these two ingredients of curiosity and contentment, we can chart our path. Being present to the good that is already here. Being curious about where our next evolution is emerging. Allowing and receiving, observing and growing, creating and sharing.

So, how does one cultivate the art of contentment?

What I have found is that I would set a goal in my life or business. Then, work diligently to achieve it. Once I got there, I was happy for a moment. And then I set up the next goal. This cycle is exhausting, never ending and only brings a fleeting sense of joy or pleasure. Winning feels good. But it’s tiring to always be chasing that goal. And then once the goal is arrived at, I would move the goal further. Phew, I am out of breath just thinking about this.

Don’t move the goalpost and think that’s where your next source of contentment lies. That would be a lie.

This is certainly the case with earning more income. Princeton University researchers have put data behind this statement, “Money can keep buying happiness for already happy people, but among the most unhappy, the money helps stave off unhappiness only to a point.” (Source: https://behavioralpolicy.princeton.edu/news/DK_wellbeing0323) In other words, moving the income goal post higher will only solve some of the unhappiness, and then after reaching a point, its happiness-benefit declines.

I am not saying you shouldn’t aspire to earn more. No, please go ahead, and earn millions. We need more of you to become high net worth individuals and create wealth; generational wealth for our families.

Move your goalpost to get to the next level. But not to feed your contentment.

And if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. That’s okay. Follow your curiosity. Be patient. And try different things. Maybe the trying of different things is where your source of contentment resides.

How do we get out of this cycle that gets us out of breath, out of soul, and out of alignment with who we are?

Decouple contentment from aspiration.

We need to decouple our contentment from our goals and aspirations. We need to recognize what the purpose of goals is and we need to identify what the source of our contentment is. Again, that doesn’t mean letting go of the goals and aspirations. Not at all. Let me explain what I mean.

The goals and aspirations that you have about your life, business or relationships are for one purpose - helping you to determine your actions and your habits. It helps you define what you want to do to experience the fruition of your goals. So if my goal is to lose 15 lbs., this goal determines the key actions and habits that I need to develop: eating healthy and moderately, doing some walking, strength training, or cardio every day. The goals help me craft my plan of action.

However, the goals or the reaching of the goals is not where I get my contentment. Your goals are not there to feed your sense of contentment.

Your source of contentment can come from a combination of things: Gratitude is a great starting point. But if gratitude is cursory, superficial, or forced, then it will not lead you to your contentment. Add these other elements to your contentment recipe, while deepening gratitude:

Self-appreciation: appreciating yourself for every action step you take towards your goals.
So taking the same example of weight loss, I appreciate myself when I do eat moderately or do go and get my 20 minutes of strength training done.
Humility: acknowledging that the goal is important and aspirational but you’ve already taken baby steps and are doing the best you can. This includes being patient with yourself as you make progress. Being aware that you are doing your best and have already made efforts and progress despite challenges and setbacks.
Enjoying the process: actually enjoying the path towards the goals.
In my case, enjoying the movement and the experience of the machines when I do strength training. Actually enjoying what I am doing right now, right here.
Contextualizing Setbacks: We often look at setbacks on our path as a way of determining that we are not good enough in the thing we want to achieve. But by looking at setbacks as a status report, we can relieve the pressure and the gnawing mental pain and suffering that losing or having a setback can cause us.

So if the goal is not being achieved or you’ve experienced a setback of any sort, assess it, and study it to find the meaning or the lesson within it. The setback is not to be used to define you as a “loser”. But it’s here to guide you to the changes you need to make. This is how you can turn a setback into a winning ingredient and a deepening of your self-recognition as someone who keeps going and perseveres.
Assessing from the past, how far you’ve come: Deriving your joy and contentment by looking back and seeing the progress made so far. I can celebrate my efforts and the progress that I have made since I began this journey. It helps me to stop comparing my present results with a future ideal. But look at the past and see how much change I have made. And this looking back is not connected with the results. I may have gained 2 pounds since I started, but I notice the changes I have made, the challenges I have overcome, and the lessons/insights I have gained. This is not about tracking results. It’s about looking at inner transformation and change within.

So we use goals to chart our course forward.
We unlink our contentment from the results.
Not postponing our joy to the future point when we think we will arrive at our goal.
We get clear about our true source of contentment.
Recognizing the joys of the process right now, enjoying the thrill of doing the work now, and experiencing the benefits of your progress now not later.

It’s a practice.
Make the click in your mind of where your true source of contentment comes from.
And then you can still pursue your goals but you experience contentment already now long before the goal materializes as your experience.

PS: If you are on LinkedIn, I invite you to connect with me there for more conversations and connections. If you want more tips and invites to trainings on how to grow your freelance online business, join the Abundant Creative Newsletter here.

Sophia Ojha 1/2/24 Sophia Ojha 1/2/24

One Thing I Wish I Had Done Sooner for Building My Freelance Web Design Business

Wouldn’t be nice if there was a manual on how to start your freelance business or side-hustle that was customized to you specifically? Like so many newbies, when I began my web design business in 2018, that’s exactly what I was in need of.

Blog #134: One Thing I Wish I Had Done Sooner for Building My Freelance Web Design Business

Fix this early on in your freelance business journey.

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a manual on how to start your freelance business or side-hustle that was customized to you specifically? Like so many newbies, when I began my web design business in the Fall of 2018, that’s exactly what I was in need of.

I wished for a custom blueprint that fit my personality, my specific goals and aspiration and the exact challenges that I was facing in my business.

There was none.

I did read a few blogs of other freelancer journeys but had not fully found the answer for myself.

So trial and error was to be the path.

I made many mistakes or what I now lovingly call “learning lessons”. This is just one of them:

Learning Lesson: Build a Portfolio of Showcasing Your Skills Early

Had I resolved this sooner, I would have made faster progress in building my $100K freelance design business, a milestone that I reached at the end of 2022, four years after my very first paid web design project.

The biggest challenge in getting a new freelance business or one-person business off the ground is getting hired by clients, getting revenue into your business. As a newbie, having built some websites for friends and for my personal projects, I would be looking for a new project but had no real portfolio of work that really showed off my design skills.

There’s one thing that I had to understand about getting hired for a job vs getting hired for freelance projects:

Clients hire based not on your resume or how many degrees or where you worked previously, but a clear demonstration of your skills.

There are two ways in which you can show that you’ve got the skills:

You can do this through content you have online
You can have blog articles, video tutorials or podcasts showcasing your skills, depending on your niche. For web designers, having a youtube channel with design tutorials or a series of blogs presenting your past works as case studies can be a great showcase of your skills.
Or you can show this through a portfolio of work.
Having a portfolio page that has visuals or examples of your past work where potential clients can see your work is very helpful. For some niches, the actual work may not be “showcase-able” but perhaps you can do a case study of before and after of problem/solution/results.

I did both. I started a YouTube channel with tutorials and talking head videos. And I created a little showcase of my design projects.

But what got me faster results was building a portfolio.

This meant doing pro-bono design work. I built a new site for a writer’s group so that I could showcase their website as my first example.

I got my first couple of clients by showcasing just that one site. But it was only months later that I built 5 more pro-bono websites to add to my portfolio.

Doing this, did 5 things for me:

First, I got 5 really awesome testimonials
Second, I had 5 awesome examples to add to my portfolio of work.
Third, I now had experience working with 5 very different people with very different businesses which boosted my confidence in working with clients.
Four, I now was able to create a template for my project workflow that was derived directly from these five projects.
And five, I had a better understanding of some of the common needs of clients despite different businesses and goals. It gave me the fodder I needed to eventually create my first package.

If you don’t have a body of work for which you want to get hired, go out and create a portfolio to showcase. This can apply to most side-hustles and one-person businesses offering services you want to get hired for.

As a web designer, I’d recommend building between 3 to 5 websites for your portfolio.

What about the Catch-22: “I don’t have a portfolio because I have no clients”

That is a valid argument that people have faced before. How did they solve it? In the past, newbies would become an apprentice of a master and learn under them first. In today’s world, you can still do that but you have more options.

One way to do build your portfolio if you are just starting out is to do pro-bono work for real people right from your friends and family circle. The other way is to create demo websites for made up businesses.

If you are already a designer getting hired for projects but are not yet attracting the kind of projects you really excite and inspire you or the type of clients you want to work with, you can also use the above method. In your portfolio, showcase only the type of projects you want to do in the future and leave out the rest.

In either case, add a caption below your portfolio letting your future clients know that these are example sites that showcase your skills and that they are not real client projects. No matter what you do, being integral and honest will bring you better results and let you sleep well at night.

So, get started on this as soon as you can. Building a good portfolio of a handful of sites will increase your opportunities to get hired when you finally speak to a potential client or apply of a possible project.

Once you have your portfolio done of 5 sites, add a link in the comments and let us all know!

Action Task: Build a portfolio of work showcasing the skills you want to get hired for.

You got this!

PS: If you are on LinkedIn, I invite you to connect with me there for more conversations and connections. If you want more tips and invites to trainings on how to grow your freelance online business, join the Abundant Creative Newsletter here.

Simplify Your Life & Align with Your True North

Choose Your Path

1) The index that the ETF tracks should represent the asset class that you want to invest in (e.g. the S&P 500, the price of gold, or US treasury bonds)

2) The ETF must “replicate” the index, meaning it buys the actual components of the index, not placeholders like futures or other derivatives

3) The ETF’s expense ratio should be as low as possible, ideally in the single or very low double-digits (so you get to keep as much of your money as possible)

4) How much money the ETF manages (called assets under management): generally, the more the better, with a minimum of $10M (otherwise the risk of it closing is too high)

5) How many of the ETF’s shares are traded daily on average: the more the better, so you can buy and sell it easily and cheaply

XJR vs ESML

What’s going on here?

XJR

ESML

What does that mean?

Why should you care?

Does making good karma with your investments pay off?

What’s going on here?

What does that mean?

Why should you care?

ETF Nerd Summary

Sow now what you want to harvest down the road

It’s rather this you are looking for.

Passive Income is Not Passive

Passive Income is a Misnomer

What we want, what we really really want

So what is it for me?

How I went from $32K to $100K with these five adjustments

1. Cut down your offers to two

2. Stop doing custom quotes

3. Prime your consultation calls to convert leads into clients

4. Offer a no-brainer package option

5. Invest in a tool for easily getting paid and getting contracts e-signed

What is “Unique Ability”?

Facing One’s Ego

Questions You Can Ask Yourself When Making Decisions

Letting Go is Part of Embracing The 20%

Committing to Your Unique Ability

…

…

Learning Lesson: Build a Portfolio of Showcasing Your Skills Early

Simple and Aligned

Simplify Your Life &
Align with Your True North