Conversion Copywriter & Messaging Strategist Diane Wiredu
About this episode…
CONVERSION COPYWRITER & MESSAGING STRATEGIST DIANE WIREDU
Diane has learned and change a lot in a short space of time of being freelance. Or being the 'business owner’ of ‘Lion Words’.
By my taking time to step back. Adjust. And just do it. She’s doing more of work she enjoys. Building a network of genuine connections via LinkedIn. Saying ‘yes’ to the right opportunities that come her way to build authority on podcasts and webinars.
Read the highlights in the next tab.
JOB TITLES
Diane has tweaked her job title many times. Partly because keywords matter to LinkedIn, but they it also matters to her…
“A number of reasons - really one for myself, it was a journey of exploration of, you know, deciding what do I want to do.
Also kind of testing the market. A job title I think is something that's quite important. I know some people have different opinions on this and they think it doesn't really matter, but I think for freelancers that's everything because that's how we present ourselves to clients. You make your first impression by saying I am X and it has to resonate. It has to, it has to be something that someone is looking for.”
PERSONAL CONNECTIONS ON LINKEDIN
Diane has put a lot of time and energy into LinkedIn. But it’s not about the numbers, it’s about the connections…
“Personalised things don't scale and that's fine by me. I don't really wanna have a network of like 20,000 people who I've never spoken to, I have no idea what they do. I don't even know if they're really interested in my content or not.
I think you do have to curate it. If I'm connected with 400 or 4,000, it doesn't matter - people where we've at least had one quick conversation and we've made some kind of a connection. I think that's more valuable for me. It's the beginning of an actual relationship instead of just a connection.”
IT’S YOUR PATH
You’re the only he in charge of your business and the path it takes. Diane likes to take a step back and make sure she’s choosing the direction she’s taking…
“You are in charge of the path that you take. And so I think you do need to, every now and then, take a step back and have a look at the work you're doing and look at it and think, is this the work that I want to be doing, or have I suddenly gone down a path and followed that because people are getting in touch with one type of project.
And I think doing that exercise every now and then, and just looking and saying, how am I spending my days? Am I spending my days on projects that I love, or is it, I just kind of got stuck in a rut?
I think when you frame it that way, it's a lot easier to say, ‘no’. You have to put yourself first because you are the only one on who's in charge of your own business.”
BUILDING AUTHORITY FOR THE LONG GAME
Creating presentations and presenting webinars/talks may take a lot of ‘unpaid’ time but it’s building authority and that can take time pay off…
“It's probably one of the most important parts of being freelance or running your own business - building your authority. And you don't always get paid for that, or you don't see the impact of that immediately. It’s a long game play.
I spent almost 30 hours on one of the last webinars that I delivered. And if you think about it, that's like a full week's work - I didn't get paid for that. But what I have seen and the feedback that I got, the connections, the conversations that I've had, the opportunities that are coming my way after that are kind of priceless. You can't put a price on that. I think that's more important.
So I've made a kind of concerted effort to make space for the authority building stuff that, yeah, it does take time. You can't always quantify it, but I think it's the kind of thing that you see the payoff in months or years.”
ALWAYS LEARNING
Diane embraces the opportunity to learn and evolve…
“Education is the foundation for everything, when you're working for yourself more so than anything.
Honestly, I feel like in the past year I've done two degrees with the amount that I'm just constantly learning.
It's not just taking courses. It's also just learning on the job. With every single project I'm learning something new and then tweaking that for the next project or I'm learning a new tool and adding that into my process, or adding a slightly different string to my bow with how I support my clients. And it's never ending.
More from Diane Wiredu
Diane’s Lion Words website
Diane on Twitter
Diane on LinkedIn
More from Steve Folland
Transcript of the Being Freelance podcast with Steve Folland and Freelance Conversion Copywriter and Messaging Strategist Diane Wiredu
Steve Folland:
How about we get started hearing how you got started being freelance?
Diane Wiredu:
So my first foray into freelancerdom was as a translator actually, which was a very linear jump from my previous work. I worked at a huge international translation company as a project manager. And I never wanted to be a freelancer actually, or work for myself at all. I really wanted to climb the corporate ladder. It's really funny when I think back to the interview, my first interview for that very junior role. I remember when they asked me, where do you see yourself in a few years? And I said, well, I wanna be manager. It was very, very bold, very confident. And fast forward four years. I got promoted. I became a media department manager. I was managing a team of 40 and overseeing all these things.
Diane Wiredu:
But, but once I got there, I just realised I still wasn't really fulfilled. I felt a little bit undervalued. I felt I was severely underpaid, I think. And it dawned on me that actually, I didn't really want to be a manager for another company. I never wanted to do that. I was still a cog in someone else's machine. And I really wanted to be the manager, like the only one, because no matter which manager you are, there's always someone above you isn't there. And I just kind of wanted to be at the top. And so I started to really think about freedom. I wanted to be the boss. And so I started to kind of think about how I could build my own thing. So from translation, I'd studied languages in the past, I'd done a masters in translation, so it was a very linear jump for me. It was like, well, what can I do? What work, what skill do I have that I can go out there and offer as a service? And it was translation. So I jumped straight into becoming a freelance translator. And then as you will probably guess I made a couple of shifts since then, but that was my first foray.
Steve Folland:
So how long did you work as a freelance translator?
Diane Wiredu:
Sort of a year? Less than a year.
Steve Folland:
So how did you go about getting those first freelance clients as a translator?
Diane Wiredu:
So interestingly enough, the company that I worked for then became my biggest client. In my previous role, I was working with a lot of translators and basically managing all of the projects. And then when I left, I like moved to the other side, and actually started working with some old colleagues and they were sending projects to me. But also throughout my time, I'd been doing a little bit of side work. I've been doing some translation projects on the side for Amazon doing a lot of translations for them. And I think kind of deep down, I'm not sure if I was super aware at the time, but I think I knew that I just wanted to keep dabbling on the side, just in case I needed that as a net. So when I left, I wasn't ever really too worried. I knew I was gonna be able to get work.
Steve Folland:
And thankfully had been nice to everybody you worked with within that company?
Diane Wiredu:
Yes. Never burn bridges, always be kind to everyone. And you never know they might be able to help you in a different kind of way later on.
Steve Folland:
So what happened then? So you spend a year being a freelance translator...
Diane Wiredu:
So, I'm actually a classic pandemic pivot case. I think there are a number of us who made a big pivot during the pandemic, but I'd been considering copywriting for a while. So working as a marketing translator, I was translating doing retail, eCommerce, hospitality - so I was already working on copy and messaging, right? So I was helping companies translate their marketing materials from one language to another. I was also doing a lot of work as an editor, as a proofreader proofreading text. And even for some clients, I started working as a kind of linguistic consultant. So I was advising them on why they should make certain choices for some of their products and some of the markets. So copywriting was really one step away. And I don't really remember how I first sort of came across the idea, but I started listening to copywriting podcasts and I started reading more about the industry. I think it was at the end of 2020.
Diane Wiredu:
And then at the beginning of '21, I started thinking, okay, this is something that I could do. I was taking it seriously. And then I actually called myself a copywriter before I even really started doing the work. And unsurprisingly, I really believe in like the power of words - with telling yourself something. And I, I needed that slow buildup for myself. I decided, Hey, I wanna start doing this. And so I just threw the word, copyrwriter into my title and started calling myself one and then went out and started looking for copywriting work.
Steve Folland:
Interesting. Because I was wondering - if somebody is freelancing in one particular thing and they're known for one thing, but then they realise actually I want to do something else. How do they make that transition? So step one, simply call yourself that? But there must be a lot more to it because people are still coming to you for translation work. You, meanwhile, are going after something else...
Diane Wiredu:
Yeah. It's a tricky one really, but I like to put it into context. Cause I think people who are looking for jobs in, you know, the corporate world or get hired for a new role, you can start something new and you've never done it before - you might apply for, I don't know, marketing coordinator and that's never been your job title before. And then you start the job on day one and then you learn about it. And I just think, why do freelancers have to approach this differently? Often we feel like we have to have years under our belt before we can call ourself something. And I think I realised that a lot of the skills that I had - you know, I'm working on messaging and I'm thinking about how to approach copy in one language, in one context in writing and editing things. And so I really did have a lot of the skills there and to kind of not give myself the opportunity to, you know, change my title just seemed silly. I honestly have changed my title just so many times. I think I changed my title five times last year, Steve, it was crazy.
Steve Folland:
Why that tweaking of the title?
Diane Wiredu:
A number of reasons - really one for myself, it was a journey of exploration of, you know, deciding what do I want to do. Also kind of testing the market. A job title I think is something that's quite important. I know some people have different opinions on this and they think it doesn't really matter, but I think for freelancers that's everything because that's how we present ourselves to clients. You make your first impression by saying I am X and it has to resonate. It has to, it has to be something that someone is looking for. So I started off, I was just, yeah, freelance translator, translator. And then I think I niched that down and realised I'm actually marketing. And that was kind of a key word, particularly on places like LinkedIn, where keywords are really important to have in your title when people are looking for you.
Diane Wiredu:
So I said, okay, marketing translator and editor and proofreader or something. And then I realised, no, you don't enjoy the editing bit so much. Then I dropped that and I added marketing translator and copywriter. You can see where we're going here with this. And then eventually, once I started slowly taking on projects and realizing that, okay, I can't do both of these things. I can't stay within the translation industry and the copywriting industry. I can't, I need to just jump in and own it. And I think I was straddling the two of those industries for quite a while, cuz I was just scared to jump in. But it was confusing to me. It was confusing to my clients and I didn't have the energy to really build two different businesses. And then I just decided to get rid of one and move into copywriting. And then since then, as you probably can guess, because I'm a messaging strategist now as well. I have pivoted again since then.
Steve Folland:
So actually you're calling it pivoting, but really it sounds like it's kind of nicheing?
Diane Wiredu:
Yeah 100%. Nicheing is really important, you know, I think you could call it specialising. Basically just narrowing down what you do, who for, and just kind of following the path that makes sense for you. So I've done a lot of that and I think I've done it a lot faster than perhaps I would've, if I wasn't working for myself.
Steve Folland:
Is being multi lingual still part of your offerring?
Diane Wiredu:
No, it isn't anymore. It was at some point at the beginning of my copywriting journey, I did think about trying to serve clients based in Spain or Italy or Spanish speaking countries. So I speak Italian, Spanish, Catalan, those languages I would be confident translating in and I also speak a bit of French, but that's less confidently, but it just didn't really work. It was quite confusing. It was a little bit harder. What I've done over my career is try to choose the path of kind of least resistance. One of the reasons I left the translation industry and I'm so much happier and more confident and I feel like I can have more impact with my work now is that I was fighting - I had to do a lot of education. There's a lot of commoditization and devaluing of my work. And so when I moved into copywriting, I wanted to work with the clients who already knew that they needed it, that understood the value of that work. And I didn't wanna have to do that education piece around that. So that was also one of the big reasons for kind of nicheing and specializing over the past couple of years.
Steve Folland:
So how did you get that next set of clients?
Diane Wiredu:
Thinking back? One of the first things that I did was I signed up to a directory. So there's an industry association in the UK called Pro Copywriters. One of the first things I did was I signed up and created a listing. Put my name up there, put my credentials, put the kind of work that I did and work that I could do. And one of my first ever copywriting clients came from there. I also did a bit of a mishmash of scrappy marketing. I posted in Facebook groups. I messaged old colleagues and friends and kind of told people, Hey, I'm looking for this kind of work. Do you know anyone? I actually didn't get great responses from that but I would still suggest doing that to anyone else who is considering - I think reaching out to your network is a great place to start. It's just unfortunate that for me it didn't actually turn into any work. But signing up to that directory worked for me and that was one of my first big copywriting projects.
Steve Folland:
Where would you say you find clients today?
Diane Wiredu:
It's a bit of a mix actually. I'm not the best tracking this and I should get better. Some clients are coming through LinkedIn. LinkedIn is definitely increasing for me in terms of lead generation. I'm noticing a bit of a payoff cause I've been using LinkedIn for quite a while. Also referrals from other people in my network, other kind of copywriters. And also the other thing that I'm focusing on a lot more this year and I'm slowly starting to see is, speaking engagements, podcasts like this, but also more client focused podcasts and webinars. And I'm getting a lot of project leads coming that way.
Steve Folland:
Let's talk about each of those in turn then. So the first was LinkedIn. Which you said you've been using for a while. In what way?
Diane Wiredu:
I post a lot. I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, probably way too much. I really love hanging out on LinkedIn and I've kind of gone all in. I tried to be everywhere and posting on Facebook and feeling like I needed to be on Twitter and I'm occasionally there, but really I've just focused on that one channel because I realized as soon as I kind of niche down a little bit further into kind of B2B and digital service companies, I realized, you know, you, you've got to be where people are and that's where they are. My type of clients are tech founders. They hang out on LinkedIn and they consume content in that way. So I just post short form to medium form posts that cover anything and everything around tips and advice around messaging and copywriting, I talk a little bit about some of the projects that I do, I also share some opinions, pick a fight sometimes with different industry opinions. And I also share a bit about my journey and being a business owner/entrepreneur, that kind of thing.
Steve Folland:
And so you're posting every day?
Diane Wiredu:
Right now I've fallen off the wagon a little bit, but I did in the beginning, I was very consistent. I think I posted every weekday initially for six months.
Steve Folland:
Did you write stuff in advance or were you writing it in the moment?
Diane Wiredu:
I've never really stuck to a specific kind of strict schedule. I'd like to give myself a bit of flexibility. Sometimes I would post on the day. Sometimes I would write a few the week before. I'm never more than a week planned out a week in advance. What I used to do was kind of just block off time every morning and that would be kind of the first thing that I do - sit down and just force myself to write a post. Now I'm a little bit better. So when the inspiration comes to me, then I just pause, go and write a draft so that when I need to post next time, I've already got something to kind of start with. And I think that's really key. I think in the beginning, it was a challenge.
Diane Wiredu:
It was just like, okay, post every day - I had no strategy, no structure. And so I just sat down and said, okay, what am I gonna post today? Which was fine for a little while, but it becomes really tiring. And as my business grew, I realized, okay, I don't have time for that. And now I have a bit of a better approach. It's still not the most structured, but it works for me. So if a thought comes, I just jump into Evernote, which is the tool that I use to kind of keep all of my thoughts in one place. And I just put together a little post and then later on I'll come in, kind of edit them and they're there ready for me when I wanna post.
Steve Folland:
So that's the posting side of it. What about getting seen by the people you want to get seen by?
Diane Wiredu:
Yeah. So curating your network, I think is also really important and yeah, you're right. We don't talk about that enough posting is really just one part of it. It's important because you want to slowly create this kind of brand recognition and name recognition. And so over time people start to realize, oh, I keep seeing Diane in my feed all the time. And she is talking about the same things. Then after a while, they start to think, yeah, Diane, you know, they associate Diane with copywriting or Diane with messaging. And I also think it's a great way to build authority and get your name out there without having to talk about your work all the time. You know, if you are constantly talking about a topic, you instantly become an authority, even without having to show a portfolio and show a website and show the outcome of my work.
Diane Wiredu:
People automatically think, God, if she is talking about this thing all the time, she must know her stuff. That's just what people do in their mind. So posting is one of the things. I've really built out my network and trying to connect with CMOs and founders and people like that. And then I also connect, I've made some really great relationships and friendships with people I've met on LinkedIn actually. And it's brought me a lot of opportunities. There's a number of podcasts and I've been on and webinars I've spoken at simply because in the DMS, I'm just kind of having conversations with everyone. I try to send a personalized message to everyone that I connect with. I try, I'm a bit backed up at the moment, but I do my best.
Diane Wiredu:
And I know you're probably like, that sounds like a lot of work and it does. Personalized things don't scale and that's fine by me. I don't really wanna have a network of like 20,000 people who I've never spoken to, I have no idea what they do. I don't even know if they're really interested in my content or not. I think you do have to curate it. If I'm connected with 400 or 4,000, it doesn't matter - people where we've at least had one quick conversation and we've made some kind of a connection. I think that's more valuable for me. So I always say to everyone, you know, if you wanna connect with me, please send me a request message, because those are the ones that I'll respond to quicker. And it just feels nice just to know - why do you actually wanna connect? And you never know, there are some really interesting conversations I've had because I just opened that conversation. I've also chatted with guests that you've had on your show actually. And I've reached out to them after listening and sent a message. And then it's the beginning of an actual relationship instead of just a connection.
Diane Wiredu:
I mean, it's a slow burner. I wouldn't say to everyone jump on LinkedIn post every day, you'll be flooded in clients. Absolutely not. I think you've got to be kind of smart about what you're posting as well. You know, if you're always quite negative, if you're talking about the downside, the challenges, oh, you know, I had this client and I hated it and...no, that's not what you should do. You do need to really think about the type of content that you're putting out there and think about it from the perspective of a prospect, what would they want to read? What would show you in the best light? And so I've always been quite strategic about that. I touch a little bit on entrepreneurship and running a business, but not much because that's not the stuff that really matters to my clients. So posting the right things, making sure that you are connecting, engaging, responding to people, and then kind of curating a little bit who you are connected with - if you want to have a conversation with someone through LinkedIn, it's just so easy. It's the click of a button. So go for it.
Steve Folland:
So next in your list was referrals. Is that purely accidental or are you able to make those happen?
Diane Wiredu:
I think you can, you can definitely build referrals into your system. For me it hasn't been. I've joined communities - that was a really big turning point in my freelance career. Going from just being alone, working myself behind a computer, not being part of any kind of network and then actually realizing, oh my God, there's just a whole bunch of other people out there that are doing the same stuff as me that are learning... And so I've made some great friends and great connections and then we've realized, Hey, we overlap and I've partnered with other freelancers on projects. And then because of those partnerships, they've actually sent clients my way. And I refer a lot of work out as well. Things that aren't a fire t, which is quite a lot at the moment because I'm constantly kind of changing the work that I do. So something that was a fit last year, isn't a fit this year. And so now I've got a network of people that I can send those clients to as well.
Steve Folland:
Yeah. That's cool. As you decided to specialize or niche, how did you feel about turning down that work that was coming your way?
Diane Wiredu:
I think it's a mindset thing really. For me, that's one of the hardest things about freelancing - the discipline of realizing that you need to manage your time. You need to manage the work that you do and you are in charge of the path that you take. And so I think you do need to, every now and then, take a step back and have a look at the work you're doing and look at it and think, is this the work that I want to be doing, or have I suddenly gone down a path and followed that because people are getting in touch with one type of project. And I think doing that exercise every now and then, and just looking and saying, how am I spending my days? Am I spending my days on projects that I love, or is it, I just kind of got stuck in a rut?
Diane Wiredu:
And I think when you frame it that way, it's a lot easier to say, no. You know, I could take on that project. That's gonna take up the next three weeks, but then I don't get those three weeks back. And are those three weeks on that project gonna push me forward towards the goal? Either the life that I want or the work that I want to do, or is it actually kind of steering me away? Every now and then, I do still find it hard to say 'no' - not for the fact of saying no, just because I really like helping clients - I think it's nice to have that feeling when someone comes to you and says, Hey, we wanna work with you. Can you help us with this? It's often hard to say no to someone, but you have to kind of put yourself first because you are the only one on who's in charge of your own business.
Steve Folland:
So LinkedIn, referrals and then appearing on podcasts and webinars. And I think you made a good distinction in the fact that... So, you know, I contacted you and invited you on here and you are not trying to reach everyone who's listening to this, whereas it sounds like you are trying to appear on podcasts or doing webinars to put yourself in front of people who might hire you.
Diane Wiredu:
Yeah, exactly. And this is something that is a newer strategy. It's something that I'm really focusing on this year. So 2022. And I came to this realization probably about six months ago or late last year, I kind of sat down and looked at the work that I was doing, the kind of marketing that I was doing. I took a course that was all about finding your differentiation and looking at where you sit in the market and how you can really better serve your client. And one of the exercises that we did was start looking at our thinking about our unique abilities. Like what makes you unique? What is that kind of intersection of the stuff that really energizes you and the stuff that you, you just don't have to think about? You know, and I realize that even though I work with messaging and, you know, I write and strategize for my clients, you might think that producing a long form blog post would be really fun for me.
Diane Wiredu:
Whereas actually it isn't. It''s a bit of a drag and it takes me a lot of time. The thought of that doesn't energize me, whereas having conversations now, that's the part that I love about the work that I do. And that's also why I've kind of moved into messaging strategy more so than copywriting, because I realized it's the conversations, sitting down with clients, talking about their messaging, talking about their business. That's the part that I love. And I'm really quite extroverted. Sitting in a room behind a computer, just working without interacting with people - I find really draining. I really need that contact. And so I came to the conclusion that having conversations would be the best way for me to get out there. And it's the easiest way for me to actually kind of produce content and talk about the work that I do and show more importantly, clients that I know what I do, and it's a real authority builder.
Diane Wiredu:
So it's been just eye opening. When I made that realization, I was like, this seems too easy. It seems too easy, you know, just having a conversation. And that's what it should be like when you find a marketing channel or something that you love doing - it should feel exciting and energizing. And I think it's a great exercise for everyone to do and think are you kind of fitting yourself in the box that you think you should be, and is there another way for you to kind of talk about the work you do in a more exciting way?
Steve Folland:
So how did you go about getting yourself on podcasts and doing webinar talks?
Diane Wiredu:
So, I never actually pitched any podcast. I think I was quite lucky. There's a little bit of serendipity working here. I first was invited on a podcast almost by accident. If we go back to the LinkedIn thing, so I connected with someone on LinkedIn really completely random, just a tech founder. And he said, Hey, shall we have a 15 minute conversation and get to know each other? And I said, yeah, that sounds really good. Why not? Let's connect. And we had a chat and he said, I've got a podcast - this conversation with you was so interesting, I think it'd be really interesting for my audience. Do you fancy it? And I thought, I'd never done a podcast before. This is so strange, but why not? Let's go for it.
Diane Wiredu:
So that's the first podcast I ever did and from then on, I think that people saw that I spoke on a podcast and then someone else got in touch with me and said, Hey, do you want to speak on mine? And from there, it's just kind of slowly escalated. And this year, I'm focusing more now on reaching out. And I put a post out a couple of months ago saying, Hey, I'm really considering speaking on more podcasts now is anyone looking for a guest on X, Y, Z topic. And then a few people got in touch, but in the beginning, it was really casual and coincidental. Opportunities came my way and some of them were scary, but I just said yes anyway. And I think that's something I've done a lot of is just say yes. Yes. To everything. Yes. To all opportunities. I should really put a disclaimer there, not 'yes' to every kind of crappy project that comes my way. But if there's an opportunity where, there's a benefit to you, I've just said yes and thought I'll work this out later.
Steve Folland:
The thing about doing webinars... So there's a difference, isn't there? Like you can do a Q&A, have a conversation, that kind of thing. Or you can actually imagine that you're getting up on a stage and giving a presentation, you're giving a talk, but those things take a lot of time to put together.
Diane Wiredu:
Oh my gosh. They take a lot of time. They really do. I'm a perfectionist. I don't work fast at all. Steve, I am slow, like I've been slow my entire life. I'm a slow runner. I'm the longest to get ready in my house. I just take my time and I'm okay with it. It's fine. And I put a lot of effort into the work that I do and it's the same for presentations, for talks - it does take up a lot of my time. But again, it's one of those things that I think is a long game play. And I think it's probably one of the most important parts of being freelance or running your own business is building your authority and you don't always get paid for that, or you don't see the impact of that immediately.
Diane Wiredu:
I think I spent almost 30 hours on one of the last webinars that I delivered. And if you think about it, that's like a full week's work - I didn't get paid for that. But what I have seen and the feedback that I got, the connections, the conversations that I've had, the opportunities that are coming my way after that are kind of priceless. You can't put a price on that. And I think that's more important. So I've made a kind of concerted effort to make space for the authority building stuff that, yeah, it does take time. You can't always quantify it, but I think it's the kind of thing that you see the payoff in months or years.
Steve Folland:
You've mentioned learning and taking a course and I even noticed on your website, it says "never done learning". So it's obviously an important thing for you.
Diane Wiredu:
Yeah. Education is the foundation for everything, when you're working for yourself more so than anything. Honestly, I feel like in the past year I've done two degrees with the amount that I'm just constantly learning. Because it's not just taking courses. So I've done a few courses. But it's also just learning on the job. With every single project I'm learning something new and then tweaking that for the next project or I'm learning a new tool and adding that into my process, or adding a slightly different string to my bow with how I support my clients. And it's never ending. And I think that's what I love about the work as well. It's what's exciting really, that I'm just constantly learning new things. It doesn't have to be specifically courses or books, but sometimes it's also about the actual work that you do in the process.
Steve Folland:
You used the word "entrepreneur" a few times. So how have you found the business side of things? It sounds by just using that term that you kind of embrace it.
Diane Wiredu:
Yeah. I don't really identify myself as a 'freelancer' and I don't say it. I know it's a bit tricky cuz I'm on the 'Being Freelance' podcast, but I know you love to talk about this. There was a shift when I first started working for myself, I called myself a freelancer, but I think I always knew deep down, I wanted to build something a bit bigger. It's also one of the reasons why I built a website under a name and I kind of trade under a business name, even though it is just me. My company name is Lion Words and I started that from day one. So even when I was doing translation before moving into messaging, that was the name that I used, the website that I put up. And I think it's, cuz I knew I didn't want to just be Diane.
Diane Wiredu:
I don't want people to work with Diane. I want them to work with an entity and it's not just for client facing, but it's for me as well. I think it allows me to dream bigger and to remove myself a little bit from my work. Sometimes I think it can be quite hard when you are doing business just as yourself to know where you stop and the work begins or vice versa, you know? So that's the way that I kind of approach it. And I've been using the word 'entrepreneur'. I'm not sure if I really see myself as an entrepreneur, maybe a 'solopreneur', but definitely a 'business owner'. There's a lot of nuance in all that language, but I definitely see my business as something that's bigger than me and I hope to grow it. That's my goal.
Steve Folland:
When you say you hope to grow it, what does growth look like to you?
Diane Wiredu:
Yeah. Growth to me has changed over the years. I'm not quite sure at this stage if I really want to go down the agency route, I think that growth is something that I'm still exploring. I know that I want to, not hire full-time staff, but work with more contractors in areas. But when I say grow, I think I mean just of everything, from revenue to authority to potentially the size. I'm not sure. I think it changes.
Steve Folland:
If you could tell your younger self, one thing about being freelance, what would that be?
Diane Wiredu:
So many things.. But I think the big thing that I would say is to work on value based pricing. Really understand the value that you provide your clients and charge accordingly from the get go. I think that too many freelancers and myself struggle for a while and it could be months, but it could be years trying to climb the freelance status ladder and just forgetting that you can actually just start at the top or just actually throw the ladder away. You don't need validation. I think you choose where to position yourself in the market and whether you earn 1,000 or 5,000 for that one contract is often down to mindset. So thinking about the value that we deliver is the biggest thing that I would change and tell myself at the beginning.
Steve Folland:
How would you say that you got around that mindset?
Diane Wiredu:
One of the big things that I did was surround myself with other people that were doing the same thing as me. I joined a mastermind, a copywriting mastermind. A lot of other freelancers that were kind of going through the the same thing. And it was a bit of a business mindset thing. And after starting that and seeing the work that other people were doing, I just came to the realization pretty quickly, that I just needed to charge my worth and increase my prices. And I've done that, many times over a short period of time. I've kind of doubled my rates in the space of months after realizing that I was under charging.
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