Blog
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The 5 Whys for Service Sales
Toyota's 5 Whys mapped to discovery calls. Every 'why' deepens the buyer's awareness of their own problem and raises urgency. The exact phrasing per layer…
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The 5x5 Account Research Method
Hours of research kill volume. Skipping research kills relevance. The 5x5 method, funding, leadership, recent post, tech stack, competitor angle, gets you…
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Video Prospecting: The 60-Second Loom Script
Show their website. Point at one thing. Say one specific insight. Ask one calendar question. Sixty seconds, no edits. Watch a real example and steal the…
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The 7-Day Client Onboarding Sequence That Sets the Tone for Everything
What you do in the first 7 days shapes the entire engagement. Here's the exact daily schedule with templates, and what breaks when steps are skipped.
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The 7 Principles of Persuasion Applied to a Service Proposal
Reciprocity, commitment, social proof, authority, liking, scarcity, unity, each principle has a specific home inside a service proposal. Where to deploy…
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The 7-Section Proposal Architecture That Converts at 60%+
Most proposals fail because they're organized around the seller's logic, not the buyer's decision process. The 7-section architecture, problem, insight,…
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The 7-Touch LinkedIn, Email and Phone Cadence
A day-by-day, channel-by-channel breakdown of the cadence that books CMO meetings at 9% reply rate. See exactly which day to view their profile, which day…
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The 8-Minute Mini-Discovery for Inbound Leads
Inbound leads sometimes book without filling out the form. The 8-minute mini-discovery, three questions, each layered, that decides whether to continue or…
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The 9-Word Cold Email That Restarts Stalled Conversations
"Are you still looking for help with {{specific outcome}}?" Nine words, zero pitch, replies between 30% and 50%. Why the brevity works, three variants,…
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The Long-Game LinkedIn Strategy: 90 Days of Comments Before the First DM
Comment on a target's posts twice a week for 90 days. By Day 91, your DM is a familiar voice, not a stranger. The comment-quality rules, the post-frequency…
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The 90-Minute Golden Hour Block That Doubled My Agency's Pipeline in 30 Days
Most freelancers prospect in scattered 10-minute bursts and wonder why nothing converts. Discover the 90-minute "Golden Hour" block, when to schedule it,…
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The "About Us" Page That Doesn't Suck: A Founder Story That Builds Trust
Generic credentials bore buyers. A specific founding story, the moment you decided to specialize, the client problem that changed your approach, builds…
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Account-Based Prospecting: Landing 25 Dream Logos
Spray-and-pray hits no one. Pick 25 dream accounts, build a 6-month plan with 18 touches per account across 4 stakeholders, and treat each as a long…
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The Account Expansion Map: A One-Page Tool That Makes Growth Obvious
A three-column map of current, adjacent, and future services, built once per client, updated quarterly, turns expansion from a pitch into a plan.
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The Quarterly Expansion Postmortem
Most freelancers attempt expansion randomly and learn nothing from the results. A quarterly postmortem turns outcomes into patterns, and patterns into a…
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The 30-Minute Monthly Account Review That Prevents Churn
One standing call a month with each retainer client reduces churn by 30%+. Here's the exact agenda and facilitation script.
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The "Accusations Audit": Naming the Buyer's Worst Concerns Out Loud
"You probably think we're too expensive." "You probably worry we'll disappear after the deposit." Naming the worst concerns first robs them of power.…
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Adapting Messaging in Real Time
A 'thanks but no' needs a different next step than silence. Decode four reply sentiments and map each to a specific next-touch playbook, including the…
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The Adjacency Map: A 20-Minute Exercise That Finds Hidden Expansion Revenue
A 4-quadrant map of Value vs. Ease reveals which services you should offer a client next. Twenty minutes per client, and you'll know exactly where the…
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The Admit You Were Wrong First Move
When you misquote, miss a deadline, or oversell, admit it before they raise it. Owning the mistake first kills the buyer's grievance. The exact apology…
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AI Invoice Generator vs. Manual Invoicing: What's Actually Worth Your Time
Manual invoicing costs more in time than most freelancers realize. But AI invoice generators aren't magic either. Here's what each does well, and when to switch.
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How to Use an AI Proposal Generator Without Sounding Like a Robot
The wrong way: paste a prompt, copy the output, send. The right way: use AI for structure, then rewrite the 3 sections that determine whether you close the…
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Anchor Activities: 4 Ways to Keep a Pipeline Full
Most prospecting plans collapse the first busy week. Anchor activities are four tasks so small (one referral ask, two re-engagements, three follow-ups, four…
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The "Anchor-Plus-Range" Quote: Why Showing One Number Loses Deals
Single-number quotes feel rigid and trigger negotiation. Anchor-plus-range quotes, "Investment range: $8K–$14K depending on scope", convert at higher…
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The "Anchored Counter": Responding to a Lowball Without Looking Greedy
When the buyer lowballs, the counter must include a reason, not just a number. The "anchor + reason + question" structure preserves dignity for both…
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Anchoring in Pricing: Why High Number First Works
The first number anchors the conversation. Showing $25K, $15K, $7K options skews selection upward vs $7K, $15K, $25K. The order, the spacing between tiers,…
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AND.CO Alternatives for Freelancers
When Fiverr acquired AND.CO and rebranded it as Fiverr Workspace, the pricing changed and some users left. Here are the five tools former AND.CO users are…
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The Anniversary Email: Two Paragraphs That Save Retainers
A two-paragraph anniversary email, specific wins in the first paragraph, genuine gratitude and forward momentum in the second, that generates more goodwill…
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The Annual Client Audit: Which Relationships to Invest In, Defend, or Release
Once a year, score every active client on five dimensions: profitability, fit, satisfaction, expansion potential, and risk. The scores tell you exactly…
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The Annual Client Dinner: A Retention Strategy Worth $10,000 Per Seat
One dinner per year with each top client does more for retention than a year of check-in emails. Here's who qualifies, what to say, and exactly how to run it.
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The "Annual Invoice Review" Conversation With Long-Term Clients
Once a year, review billing patterns with the client. The 30-minute conversation that uncovers expansion opportunities, surfaces friction before it becomes…
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The Annual Pricing Strategy Day: A Yearly Ritual Most Solos Skip
One day per year, review every price, package, and retainer. Here's the 6-hour Annual Pricing Strategy Day agenda that compounds into a 20–30% revenue lift…
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The 90-Minute Annual Strategic Review That Surfaces Expansion Opportunities
A structured year-in-review meeting with a pre-work document and a five-part agenda consistently opens next-year expansion conversations. Here's the full…
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The 'Anti-Brief' Discovery Question: Surfacing What's NOT in the Stated Brief
"What's the brief missing?" or "What would you add if budget didn't matter?" Pulls hidden scope and ambition. Five briefs expanded into 2–3x engagements…
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The "Anti-Hero Section": Acknowledging What Could Go Wrong
Mentioning potential risks, in your own proposal, builds more trust than hiding them. The anti-hero section: name the challenge, show your mitigation, and…
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The "Ask for the Wrong Thing" Tactic: Why Asking to Be Refused Earns Yeses
"Probably not the right time, but…" is a Trojan horse. The buyer's brain registers the disclaimer as humility and is more likely to say yes. The full…
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The 12-Item Asset Intake Checklist: 7-Day Deadline
Missing assets are the leading cause of delayed projects. This checklist, sent on Day 1 with a hard deadline and escalation steps, ends that problem.
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The "Assumed Yes" Close: Skipping the Ask Entirely
Instead of "Do you want to move forward?" say "Here's what happens next." The assumed yes close moves directly to logistics, bypassing the yes/no…
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The "Authority Close": Letting Your Methodology Make the Final Case
When the close is stuck on price, reintroduce methodology: "This is exactly the situation our process is designed for." The methodology close reframes the…
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The Authority Stack: 5 Credentials for Proposals
Years of experience. Named clients. Published expertise. Speaking history. Specialized methodology. Each one builds different authority signals. The visual…
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The "Avoid the Direct Argument" Rule: How to Disagre
Telling a buyer they're wrong shuts the conversation. The "yes-and" reframe lets you redirect without confrontation. Five real disagreement moments and…
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Bad Fit or Bad Situation? A Five-Question Diagnostic Before You Fire a Client
Five diagnostic questions separate bad-fit clients (exit) from good clients in bad situations (rescue). Score three or more yes answers and the rescue…
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Eliminating Bad-Fit Leads: A Pre-Call Scorecard
A 10-criterion scorecard you run before booking any discovery call, covering timeline, decision-process, prior vendor history, and budget signals. Anything…
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The "Bargaining Persona" Diagnostic: Assertive, Analyst, or Accommodator?
Three negotiating styles, each requiring a different counter-style. Diagnostic markers for each, and the playbook for matching/mismatching their style…
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The Ben Franklin Close: Walk Buyers Through Pros and Cons (+ 3 Scripts)
The Ben Franklin Close flips a T-chart into a sales tool. Buyers generate the pros themselves using 4 guided questions — making those reasons far more convincing than anything you say. Includes 3 profession-specific scripts.
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Best AI Tools for Freelance Writers in 2025
AI tools for the writing side (research, drafting, editing) and the business side (proposals, invoicing, contracts). How to combine them without adding…
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Best AI Tools for Freelancers in 2025 (By Category)
20+ AI tools organized by category: writing, proposals, invoicing, scheduling, and accounting. What each does, what it costs, and who should actually use it.
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Best Invoice Software for Freelancers 2026
30+ invoice tools exist. Here's how to pick the right one, compared on the 6 questions freelancers actually ask, not the feature checklist that doesn't matter.
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The "Bigger Pie" Move: Expanding the Deal Instead of Splitting It
When both sides are stuck on price, changing the variables (timeline, scope, exclusivity, add-ons) can make the total deal larger, and more satisfying for both. Four "bigger pie" moves for common stuck-deal scenarios.
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The "Bilingual Invoice" Template for Cross-Border Service Work
When the client's accounting team isn't fluent in your invoice language, payments stall. The bilingual format and sample template.