🤖 AI pow-wow

Together with Wise

Spotted: International Freelancer After Converting USD

It looks like inflation has (finally) peaked.

But the U.S. dollar is still holding strong.

Which means international freelancers should be pocketing a little more than usual on every invoice…

Only problem is:

Most of them rely on PayPal (or god forbid, their local bank) to convert their currency.

Instead, they should be using Wise.

With Wise, you can:

• Get better rates on currency conversions than PayPal or a local bank

• Send money cheaper and easier than old-school banks

• Get paid like a local in 10 different currencies

• And convert & hold up to 53 different currencies.

In fact, Wise is 6X cheaper than other international accounts on average.

That’s why over 13 million people (including us) trust them to handle their international payment needs.

So if you’re an international freelancer…

Set up a free Wise account today to start saving big every time you get paid.

Making the Rounds

Tech Titans Meet On Capitol Hill To Shape AI Regulation

• TL;DR: The CEOs of Meta, Google, Tesla, OpenAI and more met with lawmakers this week to discuss the future of AI.
  
  

• Why it matters: The government typically lags far behind when it comes to embracing and regulating new technologies. But both the public and private sectors appear to be mobilizing to make sure it doesn’t happen with AI.

YouTube is redesigning the streaming experience for viewers and advertisers

• TL;DR: YouTube is testing fewer but longer ad breaks.
  
  

• Why it matters: You mean to say people don’t like it when a video gets carved up into a million tiny pieces with ads in between each one? We’re shocked.

TikTok says its impressions are undervalued by 73%. Will advertisers adjust their measurements?

• TL;DR: In a recent blog post, TikTok claims marketers are only crediting it with 21% of the purchases it informs because of last click attribution.
  
  

• Why it matters: With the rise of short-form video content, view-through conversions (where a purchase is tracked back to the person viewing a specific piece of content) are becoming a more important metric when analyzing the performance of a marketing campaign or sales funnel.

Working With Clients

The DNA of a Perfect Freelance Client

The temptation to take on anyone with a pulse and a credit card as a client is hard to resist sometimes.

Whether it’s because you’re brand new…

Or simply because you need the scratch…

Learning to trust your gut is tough.

So let’s break down what a perfect client looks like.

#1 - Past experience hiring freelancers

Working with freelancers is different than having an in-house team member.

Clients can’t lay claim to 100% of your bandwidth.

You want someone who respects boundaries.

#2 - Validated offer

No matter what service you provide…

The best clients always have validated offers.

“Validated” means they’ve successfully sold their offer to other people.

This proves there’s a hunger for it in the marketplace.

It (usually) translates to a healthy business too.

#3 - Solid social proof

A common byproduct of validated offers is social proof.

Having lots of:

- testimonials

- screenshots

- and case studies

… to work with always makes your life easier.

#4 - Reasonable marketing budget

When it comes to paid traffic, everyone likes to say…

“Well if it’s converting, I’m happy to spend as much as possible!”

… No duh.

That’s obvious.

The more important question is:

“How much are you willing to spend if it’s NOT converting?”

Not everything converts right out of the gate.

So it’s important to have a reasonable testing budget based on the offer, price point, campaign goals, etc.

Which ties in with our last point.

#5 - Understands asymmetrical bets

This applies more to cold traffic.

But a perfect client understands the asymmetrical tradeoff of testing new funnels, offers, or marketing channels.

In other words, one winner pays for a lot of losers.

It’s just like angel investing.

Most of your tests will fail, but that’s often what it takes to find a winner that will scale.

Working For Yourself

How to Find the Energy Vampires Lurking On Your Calendar

Ever heard of a time audit?

This is an exercise where you track how you spend your time for a 7-day period.

The point is to cultivate awareness about how much time you’re really putting into different tasks, and then reflect on whether that aligns with your stated priorities.

Well, the time audit’s got a younger sibling that’s not quite as popular…

But can have an even greater impact on your happiness and productivity day-to-day.

It’s called an energy audit.

Here’s how it works:

Instead of looking at how much time you spend on each task to see if it aligns with your priorities…

Look at everything on your calendar and ask:

✅ Did this fill me up with energy? Did I feel more energized after?
❌ Or did this drain me of energy? Did I feel more fatigued after?

It’s a simple assessment.

But the results can be pretty eye-opening.

Because if you’re spending the bulk of your days and weeks on tasks that drain you of energy…

Then you’ll probably feel fatigued, frustrated, or even burned out.

Meanwhile, if you’re spending the lion’s share of your time on tasks that gas you up…

Then you’ll probably feel excited, motivated, and inspired.

So the next step is to rearrange your calendar (as much as you can) to have less energy vampire work and more of the stuff that fills up your tank.

Give this a try and let us know how it goes.

Together with Chartr

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Tool of the Week

Create legally-binding freelance contracts in seconds with HelloSign

Managing contracts is a key part of running a freelance business.

Since you don’t have a company legal or HR department looking out for you…

Your legal protection is entirely up to you.

But asking a prospective client to print out a contract so they can sign it and send it back to you is so 2004.

Enter HelloSign.

HelloSign lets you send out contracts and request legally binding signatures in seconds.

With it, you can set up templates, streamline the signature process, and easily access every signed contract you’ve ever received from anywhere.

Start your free 30-day trial of HelloSign today.

Bonus Points

🤓 Learning: 16 business insights from an influential technologist (Twitter / X)

📊 Growth: Lessons learned from joining a $68,000 mastermind (Instagram)

✍️ Copywriting: How to write a post-webinar email sequence (LinkedIn)

🤑 Business: Best business models to make $10,000/mo in 2023 (YouTube) 

🤝 Clients: 4 ways to extract stories from your clients (TikTok)