📉 Confidence plunge

Author

Jim Hamilton
June 13, 2025

In partnership with

Happy Friday! This is the Freelance Gig, where we share news, tools, tips, and tricks to help grow your freelance business. 

Mentioned in today’s email: Entry-level workers, X, Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI, YouTube, and digital nomads. Plus the 90-day follow up for repeat client business, and an inconvenient truth about productivity.

Read time: 3 minutes and 39 seconds

Together with Authory

All your work, all in one place

Stop losing track of your articles scattered across the internet.

Authory automatically gathers everything you’ve published in one place, making it easy to search, find, and share your work.

Need to show a potential client your articles matching their requirements best? They’re just a click away.

Thousands of writers are streamlining their careers with a portfolio that’s organized, discoverable, and ready to impress. Authory really makes it that simple.

Working With Clients

Do This 90 Days After You Complete a Client Project

Most freelancers go radio silent once the project's done and the invoice is paid.

But the easiest sale you can make is to a past client because they already know, like, and trust you.

So make a point to follow up 90 days later.

Not only does this signal to clients that you value the relationship...

But it can often lead to more work.

Use a simple subject line like "Checking in" and keep your message short.

Ask them how business is going and what they're working on.

Simple gestures like these will help grow your freelance business and set you apart as a service provider.

Making the Rounds

POLL: Are you interested in digital nomadism?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Working For Yourself

An Inconvenient Truth About Productivity

When projects start piling up, it can be tempting to push harder.

But here’s an inconvenient truth about productivity…

Studies show that taking regular breaks actually helps you get MORE work done.

Now these breaks can be as short as 5 minutes or as long as 60 minutes…

And they can be anything from going for a walk…

Reading a book…

Or even just lying down with your eyes closed.

(aka “non-sleep deep rest” or NSDR)

Think of your brain like a rechargeable battery…

When you're plugged in and working hard, you're sucking up lots of juice.

And just like a battery, your brain needs time to recharge in order to function at its best.

When you give it that intentional recharge time, what you’ll find is…

Your subconscious mind is still working… even when you’re focused on other things.

In fact, it’s often unable to fully focus on the problem until you step away from it.

And it’s not until you take a break and then come back to it that the solution finally appears.

So next time you're feeling stuck or burnt out… 

Take a break, step outside, and give your brain the chance to recharge. 

Your projects and deadlines will still be there waiting for you, but you'll come back to them with a fresh perspective and renewed energy.

Just make sure to save the icy cold brew for the end of the day ;)

AI Prompts For Freelancers

Prompt of the Week: The Mechanism Inventor

This AI prompt is designed to help you invent a compelling unique mechanism.

Here is the prompt:

You are a world-class marketing strategist who invents compelling “unique mechanisms.”

A unique mechanism is a branded, step-by-step process that:

• Fixes the #1 pain my market feels

• Sounds fresh (not generic “7-step systems”

☑️  Here’s my info:

• Brand / business name: [BRAND NAME]

• Who I help (be specific): [TARGET AUDIENCE]

• Ultimate result I help them get: [DESIRED OUTCOME]

• Big pains they want to avoid: [PAIN 1], [PAIN 2], [PAIN 3]

• Top objections (“even if…”): [OBJECTION 1], [OBJECTION 2]

🎯  Your task:

1. Generate 10 unique mechanism ideas.  

   ▸ Each must be 2–4 words, use lively verbs or imagery, and be trademark-ready.  

2. For each name, give a one-sentence “hook” that explains what it does and why it’s different.  

3. List the 3–5 high-level steps that make the method work. Label them clearly (STEP 1, STEP 2…).  

4. Keep the language punchy, conversational, and free of jargon.  

5. Do NOT recycle buzzwords like “framework,” “roadmap,” or “blueprint.” Make it feel fresh.

6. Avoid cutesy language and whimsical imagery.

Return everything in a neatly formatted markdown list.

Sponsored by AdQuick

Modernize your marketing with AdQuick

AdQuick unlocks the benefits of Out Of Home (OOH) advertising in a way no one else has. Approaching the problem with eyes to performance, created for marketers with the engineering excellence you’ve come to expect for the internet.

Marketers agree OOH is one of the best ways for building brand awareness, reaching new customers, and reinforcing your brand message. It’s just been difficult to scale. But with AdQuick, you can easily plan, deploy and measure campaigns just as easily as digital ads, making them a no-brainer to add to your team’s toolbox.

Tool of the Week

Unlock The One Chatbot to Rule Them All With Bearly.ai

If you’re eager to be an AI adopter…

The monthly subscription fees can add up fast.

Luckily, there’s a simple way to access all the world’s best AI chatbots with a single subscription:

With it, you can tap into any one of Anthropic’s or OpenAI’s large language models…

Including OpenAI’s brand new o1 model with advanced reasoning…

And Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 3.5 model, which is excellent for writing & content creation…

All in one place.

Best part is, it only costs $20 per month.

Which is what you’d pay just for ChatGPT or Claude by themselves.

So if you want to be able to easily switch from one model to another, depending on which tasks you’re trying to accomplish…

Keep all your chats organized in one place…

And save money every month…

Then check out Bearly below:

Bonus Points

💼 Careers: So you took ayahuasca. The therapist will see you now (link)

💻 Tech: Hands on with macOS Tahoe 26: Liquid Glass, new theme options, and Spotlight (link)

🎧 Work Beats: Old Money Vibes: The Chill Playlist - Old Money Summer (link)