“Don’t you ever wake up grumpy Max?”
Naw buddy. I let Grumpy sleep in.
And these days Grumpy’s getting plenty of beauty rest.
Yet I remember a time as a freelancer when that wasn’t the case.
I bumbled around looking for clients by offering FREE work because I was too afraid to learn how to sell and didn’t know how to price my work.
Really, I just didn’t know that I was worthy of being paid for what I knew.
I signed up for Chamber’s memberships and put requests for work on sites like elance, Upwork, and Craigslist because I figured if they saw me they would come to buy.
Really, I didn’t even know how to talk about my work to attract the best attention and where to position myself.
When I did get clients I let them pay me on their schedule, or solely earn off commissions, or worst of all, I let them book my time, even if they couldn’t afford to pay the whole tab.
Really, I was afraid if I stood up for myself, I’d lose their business.
I don’t think about that stuff at all anymore, so I quickly forget how grumpy I was every day.
How frustrated it was feeling helpless and not moving further along like all my peers who were getting promotions at their 9 – 5s.
Why I was aggravated when I saw people I admired making 4-and-5-figure deals that they would then blow on traveling the world and living it up with shopping sprees.
I just didn’t get what I was doing wrong, but I do now.
So when people ask me why I’m “never” grumpy, I say I let Grumpy sleep in.
Meanwhile, I share what I learned the hard way here:
It’s only for people who want to wake up happy and restful.
Be well,
Max!