This is the uncomfortable truth a lot of freelancers don’t want to admit:
“Doing great work” isn’t a marketing strategy. It’s the bare minimum.
Referrals are like rain. It’s great when it happens, but you don’t control the weather.
What you can control is planting seeds every day through outreach, through content, through relationship-building, so that when the rain does come, it lands on something that can grow.
I also think this system builds long-term brand equity. Every piece of content, every outreach message... it compounds. It helps you build authority.
Thank you so much for writing this Marilyn. It's the kind of stuff freelancers should be taught from day one.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, you've crystallized how business works especially when starting out or growing.
We all have to do things that don't scale from the beginning. Myself, I actually believed in "do great work and they will come" myth. Was there and got the cold hard truth, not a fun life.
This is the uncomfortable truth a lot of freelancers don’t want to admit:
“Doing great work” isn’t a marketing strategy. It’s the bare minimum.
Referrals are like rain. It’s great when it happens, but you don’t control the weather.
What you can control is planting seeds every day through outreach, through content, through relationship-building, so that when the rain does come, it lands on something that can grow.
I also think this system builds long-term brand equity. Every piece of content, every outreach message... it compounds. It helps you build authority.
Thank you so much for writing this Marilyn. It's the kind of stuff freelancers should be taught from day one.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, you've crystallized how business works especially when starting out or growing.
We all have to do things that don't scale from the beginning. Myself, I actually believed in "do great work and they will come" myth. Was there and got the cold hard truth, not a fun life.
Appreciate you for giving power to this :)