Podcast: Are you paying the price for a checked-out December?

Bryn Mooth is an independent journalist and copywriter at Writes4Food.com. I’ve been checking-in with Bryn for the past 8 months (since she went freelance) to follow her journey, and last week, we did our first calls of 2012.

How did she do? Overall, 2011 “exceeded” her expectations. Bryn was pleased with the income she earned and the work she did.

But…

January is slow.

Why?

Bryn says she “checked out” in December. She put off doing things like following up on completed projects, “slacked off” on networking and contacting, and now, she’s “paying the price.”

What’s her plan of attack?  She says, “I’m starting from scratch, a little bit.”

Bryn has identified the kind of projects that really appeal to her, and in 2012 is going to actively pursue that kind of work. She spent the last week on LinkedIn building a list of prospects. Then, she’s seeing who in her network can make an introduction.

What she’s learning about the marketing process:

Like most freelancers, I’m not really good at it. Early in this freelance career… some things were landing in my lap… I was doing some networking and yielding some good projects. But I wasn’t doing as much of that as I need to be. I got busy. I kept thinking, I need to allocate some time to think about who my ideal prospects are and get that planning going, and I didn’t.  So, that’s what I’m doing now.

In this 11-minute interview, I suggested for Bryn a three tool combination to turn these prospects into clients:

1. Use LinkedIn to connect.
2. Use email to follow up.
3. Use the phone to make it real.

Bryn is going to do this—and we’re going to talk to her next month to see how she did.

How long does it take to take to turn cold (or warm) prospects that you find on LinkedIn, and turn them into actual clients?

Stay tuned to find out…