34. Think Like a Freelancer

You remember when you got your first paycheck, what that felt like? Depending on where you were at in life, it might have felt a few different ways. If you were a kid and all your expenses were already taken care of, it might have been like found money. Now, if you were working because you had to work, it might have been just something else that was going to help you take care of the bills or do what you had to do. One of the things I found is that when people can think like a freelancer, they can really tap into the best way to understand how you think like a four day work week person. So if you are an entrepreneur, this might simplify the way you think. If you're a business owner, it might simplify the way you think. If you're an employee, it might raise the bar a little bit on how you think. And really what it comes down to is just a couple of basic premises is one, freelancers work for fun, for purpose and freedom. I remember my first paycheck, I was nine or 10 years old, and I used to mow lawns.

So the money for me was found money. My needs were taken care of. I had a bed, I had the food taken care of. It was extra money. So I worked. I didn't necessarily love cutting lawns, but I worked so that I could buy things that were fun, so that I could do things that would allow me the freedom to purchase things that I couldn't have gotten elsewise. Second thing, freelancers keep their expenses low. Now, again, when you're a kid, in my case, my overhead was very low. My parents took care of that. I was very blessed by that. But freelancers really understand that they're working for their freedom. They're working for purpose and fun. Large expenses really don't serve them. Going to a bar and dropping $20 on one drink, not so fun. Doesn't mean they might not drink and not looking to put a stigma on drinking or not. Bottom line, some of these flashy or more expensive ways of spending money just really aren't what they do. Then third, they're looking to create a great life inside work and outside work. Whether the person is a teenager and they're working to just make some extra money, or they have a normal job, the overall focus is still the fun.

It's not as much how much money they make, how many things they accumulate, or any of that stuff. Think about for a second, what a mindset you have, and even more importantly, how does that impact how you're able to enjoy life and what you're doing? So employees are primarily paid for their time. Some of my friends when I'll ask them if they can play at the beach on Friday, they'll say, Wait, I can't play on the beach. I need to get more hours. What do you mean you need to get more hours? Wait, I get paid by the hour, and so I need to get more hours so I can make more money. Now, they really don't need more hours. They need or they want more money. But since they're paid for their time, that's how they understand it. Now, a freelancer might say, I need to get more results if I want to make more money. A freelancer really is looking at being paid that way. Second thing, an employee is looking for job stability, and a freelancer is usually looking for a challenge. And again, this is a mindset. So you might be an employee, you might still be hired by a company, but you might have a freelancer mindset, and you might be doing really well in an organization.

I had a freelancer mindset, and for a while in the corporate world, that served me. And then after a while, I found it I wanted a little more freedom, and so I really just decided to go on my own. But you can have this mindset wherever you are. Employees look to avoid change, whereas a freelancer, they're not really avoiding anything, they're actually pursuing, they want to grow, they want challenge, they want new things happening. Employees usually hate accountability because that means they're being kept score on. They don't like that. A freelancer loves accountability for a couple of reasons. Usually it means they're going to get paid more, but also an environment of accountability means to a freelancer that they're not going to have to work with people who are of lower competence levels. That's one of the things that frustrates competent people and people with a freelancer's mindset the most is having to work with other people who drag their feet. So if you're in an environment of accountability, that usually doesn't happen. So that's something to consider whether you are the freelancer or whether you're an employer looking to hire people who have a freelancer's mindset.

Employees do not like being rated because that might lead them to feel how they're being measured. An employee will say, Gosh, they printed out this chart of the sales results for the office. Now it's at the bottom and they're so mean and this and that. Well, they're at the top of the chart, they might not mind so much. A freelancer loves being rated, but more than that, they're not afraid of the process. So if they're not doing as well, they'll say, Okay, great. I just need to step up my game. And they'll actually go to the person or people that are doing better than them and say what they can learn from them. For an employee, a job review is a painful process because it highlights the fact that they're really not that committed. They're really not giving their all. They're really not doing what they can, or they're just not good at what they do. And again, this is a mindset. It doesn't mean if you're an employee, that means if you have an employee's mindset. And then a freelancer, they love work reviews because usually that means, Hey, I'm doing well. When's my next performance review?

I've been doing really well. I've been kicking butt. I'm going to get a raise, right? Whether that's a raise in my hourly income if I'm an employee or as a freelancer, a raise in my hourly income. So it can be all specific ways as far as whether or not you're actually a freelancer working for somebody else, excuse me, working for yourself and being hired out to other people, or if you work for somebody else as an employee. But overall, again, it's a mindset. The employee, they just want to survive. They just want to get by. I just want to get by. They don't want to ruffle feathers. I don't want to make too many things happen, I just want to be able to continue to pay my bills. That's all they're really aiming for. Freelancer wants to thrive. They not only want to survive, they not only want to succeed, they also want to have a great life. So they're not just looking at the money. They're looking at creating a great life. Work is part of that. They acknowledge that. But again, they're keeping their expenses low so they can have what they mainly search, and that is they want freedom.

The employee works for money. And anybody who's ever done this and worked only for money, it's certainly not a sin, but it's not as fun. It's not as engaging when you're working for your own freedom and you can see the connection between what you're doing and how it's helping your freedom. And this is even whether or not you really love what you do or not. So one of the things that I do, I have a software business I've had almost 20 years now, and I help business owners compensate their team members. And one of the most important things we try to help the team members do so that they'll develop this freelancers or this entrepreneurial type mindset is we make sure that the team members understand, okay, what are your personal goals and how can you Excel in this business so that you can meet your personal goals? So if you want to buy a car, if you want to go on a trip, if you want to buy a house, whatever it is, you want to take a long vacation, what's that going to cost you financially and how much time are you going to need to do that?

And how can we make that happen here? Because we want to align with their dreams. We want to align with their freedom and what's important to them so that they're really still working for themselves. Look, nobody really wants to work for somebody else. Everybody would rather work for themselves if they could. Now, indirectly, whether you're an entrepreneur, a business owner, we don't work for somebody because we all have clients. But this idea that people want to work for somebody because they want to be leveraged or that they can become somebody else's cog in a machine so the other person can make a lot of money, nobody really wants that. Sometimes people will settle for that, or sometimes people will find their niche within a business and say, I like doing this and I certainly like being able to get done at 501 and go home and do my stuff. But at the end of the day, we all work for ourselves. We work for our families, we work for our dreams, and we really do work for our freedom. But in this mindset, it's really more about just saying, Man, I'm just surviving. I can't think past this.

In this one, we're looking for something bigger. You're usually going to at least have a prayer of finding what you look for if you look for it. But if you're not even looking for it, it's probably not going to happen. So if you need to create your plan to start thinking like a four day work week entrepreneur, a four day work week freelancer, a four day work week business owner, or even a four day work week worker working in somebody else's business, go to 4day gameplan. Com and you can start creating your four day work week game plan. It took me 22 years to create my own, but I didn't have a roadmap. I'm giving you a roadmap with training videos, with templates. Not that it's going to necessarily guarantee it happens, but a template to plan out how do you do this? How do you match your expenses? How do you figure out what projects you focus on? How do you map that out so you have a starting point, a game plan? Totally free. Just go there, opt in, and you can get that and start working on your game plan. If you have any questions on any of this, just let me know.

As always, I look forward to helping you make more money in less time. Do what you do best so you can create the life you most want for you, your friends, your family, and your loved ones. Thank you.