When Kaleigh Moore started freelancing, she was offering a lot of different services to anyone who would hire her. She did content marketing strategy. She managed social media accounts. She wrote blog content and website copy. If it was marketing related, she’d do it. Anything to help her fully transition out of her PR job and into the world of freelancing.
She was eventually able to earn enough to leave her day job–but no one was coming to her excited about her skills and offerings. Finding new clients was like pulling teeth. She scraped job boards and scrolled through Twitter and LinkedIn every day looking for relevant job postings.
It didn’t take long for her to realize that this strategy wasn’t helping her grow her freelance business. Sustainability was not part of the equation. It was a random money grab. If someone would hire her, the answer was always YES.
In 2014, a year into freelancing, Kaleigh’s business partner encouraged her to check out the Creative Class as a way to add more clarity and direction to her efforts. She needed to find a niche and get better processes in place so she could start saying NO more often and only working with ideal clients–not just anyone.
“Up to this point, freelancing was burning me out,” Kaleigh said. “I was always stressed, I was resentful of the work I was doing, and it was taking a toll on me mentally and physically.”
After purchasing the course, Kaleigh sat down on weeknight evenings and started doing the work. She conducted research, reaching out to successful freelance writers and people she wanted to hire her. She made notes and looked for themes and patterns in the data. She formed a value proposition and picked a niche. “Each day, I felt like I was adding a bit more clarity to my business,” she said.
Once she finished the course and started implementing the lessons she’d learned, she noticed an immediate shift in her business. Clients and peers started seeing her as a subject matter expert, and by specializing only in blog content, she started getting more referrals for the work she actually wanted to do.
By the end of the year, Kaleigh had doubled her income from the previous year. The following year, she was up 284%. What’s even better? She was working fewer hours.
Increased efficiency and higher rates allowed her to finally enjoy the freedom and flexibility of freelancing. No more working 50+ hours a week.
Kaleigh was already a talented writer with strong work ethic–she just needed some direction and clarity around her own marketing and positioning efforts. Today, she’s booked months in advance, only works with her ideal clients, and finally gets to take days off to enjoy her favorite seasons. She also now helps teach Creative Class.
To summarize, Kaleigh has seen:
Creative Class reopens for new students in Spring 2023: