Cognition #24: What does it feel to have ZERO clients after one year of freelancing?

Feb 17, 2023

I have been a full-time freelancer for a year now, and for the first time in 12 months, my clientele is zero.

My one-time gigs were done.
I decided not to work with one of my clients anymore.
Two clients decided to seize their content operations.

All this happened from ~January 25th, and considering the little work I did for clients during this period and the plans I have this month, we can say I’m all ready to face a solid 30-day-dry spell.

I plan to resume client projects from March 1st.

Cognition #24 is about my actions, feelings, and experiences during these 20-25 days.

Before we hop in, I’d love to share the BIG news that my first digital product is LIVEEE!!
I made a Contract Template for Freelancers that includes 20 terms with all possible situations to protect your freelance business.
Why should you adopt it in your freelance business?
It’s time-saving, reusable, editable, and fool-proof.
Check it out on my Gumroad: shop.dopecontent.in.
And that’s not it!! Cognition readers get a special 10% Discount on the product.
Use the code COGNITION10 at the checkout and secure your business with a few simple steps.

So, yes, back to the dry spell.

I’m sharing snippets of what I did and felt for the last three weeks. These are random and are in no particular order.

To be honest, it was peaceful

For a year, I was writing, thinking, pitching, taking meetings, networking, and always had my client’s work on my mind.

All of a sudden, to have nothing to worry about for the first 10-12 days was indeed peaceful.

I had all the time in the world to spend time with my close friends, binge-watch series, rest, or take extra naps—without guilt. Or just sit and do absolutely nothing.

Coming to think of it, maybe that’s why I was reluctant to pitch to prospects initially—Maybe I needed a small break or a few days of doing nothing.

The phase also made me realize the importance of resting from time to time, even when you think you’re going great and don’t need rest.

It’s not always possible (or healthy) to heal this way.
Breaks also need to be planned and prioritized.

After the first two weeks, I made a projection of how much I needed to make by the end of March to keep my quarterly revenue graph uphill.

The graph never slid downward in my freelancing career, and I’ll try to keep it that way.

Also frankly, it’s okay even if it goes down (unless it’s not because of laziness).

Content Creation Accelerated

Many ideas were on my mind for a long long time, and I finally got time to act on them.

As a result,

I’m engaging more on Twitter (Earned 30+ followers)
Created my first digital product
Began working on my second product (this will be big—value is 3x of what you get on Cognition)
Learned more about newsletter sponsorships
Will start my second newsletter next week (Sharing details pretty soon—you’ll be the first one to know)

We often put our brand’s content in the backseat to prioritise and give our best to clients.

It’s high time to treat content as a monetizable business (not only as lead generating channel) and take it seriously—learning about sponsorships, building products, and speaking to readers regularly are a few steps of mine under process.

The urge to get back to work

I know I said I loved the peace, but I love my work, after all.

I enjoyed every bit of my free time, but I was itching to get back to work after a couple of weeks.

My battery is all charged.
I’m pumped up to do what I love.
And shit, then I realized I don’t have clients.

So the first step obviously was to get clients.

In the past five days, I pitched 30+ brands.

Most didn’t reply yet.
Some said they don’t need my services right now.
I closed one deal.
And hopefully, by the time this issue is published, I might close another one if the pricing fits right.

Although finding the right leads is a pain in the ass, Cold Pitching is super fun!

Fun Fact

I followed up six times for a brand I loved, but bad luck, they already have a writer-strategist.

I tried all I could with negotiations, but they didn’t need a new team member.

I insisted on joining their team once they grow and will pitch them later. The prospect found my persistence funny and promising, so he said he’d keep me in mind and shared his personal contact to pitch later.

The reason I share this story is to tell you:

Life is too short to work with brands you don’t like

If you love to be associated with a particular brand, take your shot and give it your best try. This line reminds me of Into the wild, what a film!

I couldn’t succeed this time. But maybe you can.

Everything was good, but that night!

All these days that I’ve talked about, I never felt less confident for a second.

I knew I had a good portfolio.
I knew I had decent skills.
I knew it was a matter of time before I closed new clients.

But this one night, I went through ‘Waste of potential fear’ (Don’t google it. I just gave it some random name, lol.)

I was overthinking about things I couldn’t control and constantly feared, ‘What if I don’t live up to my potential?’

Then the Snowball Effect kicked in.

Dry spells worry us a little, and in hindsight, I guess it’s for good.

You worry about things that are important to you. Being good at what I do is important to me, and it’s okay to be a little worried. (Not as much as I was overthinking that night!!)

Time to Reflect

Since I had nothing to do, I began reflecting on my journey—both personal and professional.

I introspected on things that went right and wrong.

Honestly, it’s not like this introspection helped me crack anything new, but it’s a good practice to look into oneself time and again and see what can be improved.

You might find breakthroughs. You never know.

PS: Try to write down your thoughts while introspecting. It gives a better shape to what’s on your mind.

That’s how the past ~20 days have been.

I’m kind of occupied for the next two weeks—Working on a content product, attending some sports events, meeting a few friends, and visiting Bangalore.

[DM me on Twitter if you’re in Bangalore. I’ll be there from 24th Feb-1st March in Indiranagar. Let’s catch up!]

So the only work related to freelancing will be

Pitching
Closing
Research and understand the brands I closed

That’s my story of dry spells and zero clientele.

I wasn’t sure to publish this one, but I went ahead anyway. I hope this is of value.

Non-Technical aka Fun Segment

Movies/Shows I loved recently

I finished watching Naruto (thanks to the dry spell), and I’m currently watching Farzi.

I still need to watch the last two episodes, but it’s worth recommending. I began watching it because of Vijay Sethupati, Raj and Dk, and now I love this show.

Originally made in Hindi. Available on Amazon Prime.