📂 Resumes vs reality

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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: Cyber hiring, Antropic, Claude, TikTok, Google Discover and Big Tech. Plus 4 competitive advantages that cost $0 and the difference between information and knowledge.

Read time: 3 minutes and 55 seconds

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Working With Clients

4 Competitive Advantages That Cost $0

Want to make your freelance business stand out?

Here are 4 ways that have nothing to do with your experience or track record:

1) Work fast

Most clients are looking to launch ASAP.

But most freelancers work way too slowly.

Speed up your production time by:

+ Using templates
+ Systematizing your workflow
+ Specializing in a specific task (logos, emails, etc)

If you can turn around quality work faster than Speedy Gonzales, you’ll attract a lot of clients.

2) Don’t miss deadlines

This goes hand-in-hand with number one.

It sounds cliche, but most freelancers fail to get deliverables in on-time.

So here’s a tip to help you avoid this ugly fate:

Build in a few extra days of buffer when you’re setting deadlines with clients.

It’s always better to underproject and overdeliver than vice versa.

Nothing will scare off clients more than missing deadlines.

3) Be responsive

One of the most common fears clients have is that you’ll ghost them.

Always respond to messages in a timely manner.

(assuming they’re within work hours or whatever boundaries you’ve set with the client)

You don’t necessarily have to have the answer immediately, either.

You can simply acknowledge their message and tell them you’ll get back with the answer as soon as you can.

4) Be enthusiastic

This is probably the most underrated of the list.

But enthusiasm is magnetic.

If you’re legitimately excited about your work, clients will naturally be more attracted to you.

Everyone wants to do business with people they like.

Making the Rounds

POLL: What's your #1 way to find clients?

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Working For Yourself

The Difference Between Information and Knowledge

Information is everywhere these days.

And it’s available to consume in a ton of different mediums


- Books
- YouTube videos
- Podcasts
- Digital courses
- Documentaries
- Etc etc

But here’s a question for you


Do you have a system for translating the information you consume into personal knowledge?

Here’s one way to think about it


Information is a solitary data point without context.

For example, take this quote from productivity expert David Allen


“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.”

Great quote, right?

Now it’s one thing to come across it and think to yourself “dang! I should write more things down.”

But if you want to take the next step and convert that “input” (the quote) into personal knowledge
 

You have to add your own context to it.

Here’s how we might do it for the quote above:

- This is why you should write down your to-dos
- This is why you should create your to-do list the night before
- This is why Morning Pages is such an effective exercise for creativity
- Creativity doesn’t work on demand, you need to create space for it
- This is why you should always keep a notepad handy
- Your mind is like a computer, and you need to free up RAM

See how that works?

By connecting these six other thoughts to this one quote, we’re able to contextualize what it means to us.

Ultimately, that’s what adding context means
 

Asking yourself: what does this piece of information mean to YOU?

How does it connect with other things you know or thoughts you’ve had?

Now, if you’re interested in building your own PKM system


There’s a handful of tools out there (both free and paid) designed to help with this, like Obsidian, Notion, and Roam.

All you have to do is pick one and get started.

AI Prompts For Freelancers

Prompt of the Week: The 7-Day Content Calendar

This AI prompt is designed to help you map out 7 days worth of social media content to attract followers, leads, and clients.

Here is the prompt:

I'm a freelance [SERVICE]. Please create a 7-day [PLATFORM] content calendar for me. For each day, please include:

- content topic (copywriting, email marketing, etc)
- content format (text, carousel, text + image, etc)
- suggestion for the creative asset (if applicable)
- high-curiosity hook optimized to get attention fast

Be as specific, creative, and emotional as possible.

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Tool of the Week

Meet the New Search Engine Making Google Obsolete

AI is upending the world of search.

Google recently started rolling out AI-generated summaries at the top of its search results to decidedly mixed reactions.

But when it comes to using AI to get answers fast, we’ve got a new secret weapon:

Perplexity.

It’s an AI research assistant that integrates the three of the biggest large language models (Claude-3, GPT-4o and LLaMa 3) into a single search engine.

And we’ve found it better than using ChatGPT or good old fashioned Googling.

So if you’re looking to embrace the new world of search


Tap below to try Perplexity out for free:

Bonus Points

đŸ’Œ Careers: It’s Time to Rethink the One-Page RĂ©sumĂ© (link)

đŸ’Ș Success: 41 Harsh Truths Nobody Wants To Admit - Alex Hormozi (link)

🎧 Work Beats: 100 Minutes of Blissful Chillwave - Odysseus (link)