Have you had a business challenge and can't figure out what to do? Check out Jill['s new e-booklet, available at Amazon.com to read about the most common challenges her entrepreneurial business coaching clients have faced and how to do with said challenges. 

Also, if you have a business that is craft industry related and have ever wanted to write a book,. check out Jill's article for the Craft Industry Alliance Journal. The Craft Industry Alliance is a professional organization for makers worldwide; it's an incredible resource of education, support, and like-minded crafty people. (And joining is a tax-deductible business expense.) 

I've been doing a lot of press the last six month since Creating a Freelance Career was published, and since A Salary Cinderella Story (Or How to Make More Money Without a Fairy Godmother) was published on February 12 and became a best-seller. In addition to being a guest on radio shows, podcasts and the like (see the one on the homepage for an example), I have also been asked to write guest articles (as opposed to being the subject the article or interview) for a variety of websites. The most recent of these was for Little Pink Book and is about the role femininity can play in your business success. Click here if you'd like the read the article. 

This past week, I was also published in The Washington Post after having the honor of interviewing ballerina and nonprofit founder Aesha Ash. And I've been exchanging e-mails with the chief firefighter in Antarctica, who along with his wife, will be featured in an article for Team Rubicon, as they also volunteer with TR in the off-season. 

Other things I've done this week include had a meeting with my marketing coach, put together a proposal for a potential book client, write part of a new e-book (on the challenges I see most often in my entrepreneurial coaching clients' businesses) and finalize all of the swag bags, the food and the logistics for this weekend's Long Beach Women's Wellness Retreat. Oh and I also prepared a short lesson for a FB Live event I'm doing next Tuesday in the Creating the Freelance Career Group. If you fear failure, you may want to tune in.

It's been a week full of variety, but that's the way it is when you're self-employed and running a few disparate businesses. I've provided this slice of my life to help take some of the mystery out of what self-employment looks like. Right now, I need to get back to work. Happy almost the weekend. 

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​Do you need more like-minded people in your life, people who understand your drive and determination to forge your own path? Creating the Freelance Career has created a gathering place for freelancers, solopreneurs and entrepreneurs who want to be in a support community, to find collaborators and colleagues, to learn and grow our businesses together, through the platform of Facebook. 

In a closed Facebook group, we will inspire and motivate each other, find helpful tips, read stories of success and challenges, and interact with Jill L.Ferguson, author of Creating a Freelance Career, and with many of the entrepreneurs and freelancers whose stories serve as the case studies in the book. And most importantly, we will all learn from each other. 

So come join us, if you're just starting out or a seasoned self-employed professional. We'd love to learn about you and your business(es).  

Yesterday, Upjourney.com released its list of best business books to read for 2019 if you're an entrepreneur and Creating a Freelance Career ​made the list, along with some esteemed classics like Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and works by John C. Maxwell. We are both humbled and excited to be included as recommended reading and grateful to the love shown by Upjourney.com and the social media community for our book. 

Also, this afternoon Jill L. Ferguson will be a guest for an hour on Kimberli Lewis' Leadership Beyond Borders radio show (Voice America Radio) discussing "The Emergence of the Freelance Workforce." If you miss the 3 pm PST start time on January 15 and would like to hear the whole broadcast, click here to listen live or after January 15, you can click here to hear the show.

We're so thankful for Javier Perez of Page-Turner Publicity for setting up this radio interview and others. 

On Monday, January 7 at 11 am PST, Jill L. Ferguson will be speaking (live) with Patricia Raskin on her show Positive Living. The show has call-in options for listeners, and will be recorded for future listening (if you miss it the first time) on iTunes. 

Also, on January 15 at 3 p.m. PST, Jill will be on the international business show Leadership Beyond Borders, hosted by Kimberli Jo Lewis. This show can be heard on VoiceAmerica.com and on iTunes. 

Since early October I've been doing publicity for Creating a Freelance Career. What this means is that I've hired a publicist (for the second time in my life; I hired the same publicist back in 2006-2007 for Sometimes Art Can't Save You), and I've been making the rounds of radio shows, podcasts and guest writing on applicable websites. In past instances, I've done a whole mess of television interviews and bookstore and university talks and signings. This is all done to spread word about the book, to get your name out there as an expert and to find people who can be helped through the work we do. Routledge, my publisher, and their in-house publicity/salespeople are targeting colleges and universities, professors and students. 

Sometimes publicity can be fun. I like traveling; talking to people I've never met; being on television. podcasts and radio. For example, one show I did that aired on November 20, School for Start Ups had an engaging host who was a joy to work with. The same can be said about Stephen Warley and Life Skills That Matter that we recorded in late spring and aired in May.

Other times, being on a show can be like walking into the middle of a dysfunctional family, like on the NYC radio show I did a decade ago, where the host hadn't read my bio, the Q&A provided by my publicist or anything else so he knew nothing about me or why I was on his show. All he talked about on-air for more than 30 minutes was what he thought of my looks and how it was too bad the radio audience couldn't see me. His producer repeatedly cut to commercial to silence him, and every time he did, they got into a big cussing match about the host's behavior.

That same year, i also ended up with a stalker who saw me on television. came to meet me later that day at a bookstore and tried to follow me everywhere i went for the duration of my tour in his city. These two things are some of the downsides of publicity that few people talk about. The other downside is that for all of the "out and about" time you put in, the effects may be minimal in terms of in-person turn outs at reading and signings and book sales. One international group of women and non-binary writers t which I belong discusses this regularly. Some book signings and readings may fetch two to three people in the audience while others bring in hundreds--all for the same speaker and book. In a way it's like voter turn-out: it can be affected by weather, interest, other obligations or even if it is a city or town where going to events is something people do or not. 

To create a successful publicity strategy, one needs a consistent message and multiple ways to deliver it over a sustained length of time. This means that message needs to be conveyed on all media channels (including social) regularly. But of course, one-of lists, such as those for holiday gift buying never hurt, if you're included on those. :) 
 

Marketing has been defined as the "process of teaching consumers why they should choose your product over competitors." But marketing is the study and management of relationships, in its purest form. It involves not only the creation of the product or service concept, identifying who would purchase it, the promotion of it, and then the moving of it through the selling channels, or what is referred to in marketing textbooks as the 4Ps: product, price, promotion and place. 

The purpose of marketing, whether it is on social media, on your website, in paid advertising, on promotional giveaway items like pens and coffee mugs, or anywhere, is to capture the attention of the target market and encourage those people's purchasing decision while providing them with an easy, low-risk way of taking action. 

To master the basics of digital marketing, you need brand identification and consistency (across all channels, including website, mobile apps, social networks, and e-mail), social media outreach that creates and encourages a conversation between you and your customers/clients, connect optimization (meaning you have to have original, value-adding content on your website and blog), sales leads and conversions (meaning your website needs to be geared towards capturing customer information) and you must be found and optimized for search engines. That's the high level summary. :) 

Marketing is not something to be switched on and off or done sporadically. To be successful with your business, you need to devote consistent time and energy to it and make it an integral part of what you do. Some business owners I know set aside 30 minutes or an hour per day to promote their business on social media, write their blog posts, interact with their customers. Others do something on a weekly basis. The frequency should be up to you and the kind of business you have. (We all know of businesses that we tire of quickly when they "market" way too often to us.) 

Marketing genus Seth Godin says, " Our job is to connect to people, to interact with them in a way that leaves them better than we found them, more able to get where they'd like to go." Think about that as you plan the message for your business. What do you want others to take away from what you have to offer? How can you help people be better and get them where they'd like to go? 
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Creating a Freelance Career has been ranked the number one business book on the Fupping.com list of "The 22 Books Every Business Student Should Read." We are excited for this honor, and I thank everyone who voted us from the number 4 spot when the list was published to the number 1 spot. 

Also, I've been doing live radio interviews this week promoting the book. On Monday, I talked with Larry and Robin on AM Ocala and today I was on "Open Line" on KIKO-AM in Claypool, Arizona. On November 20, the taped segment I did for .School for Start-Ups will air. (I'll post the link when it is ready.) And my publicist has me booked on many more shows in the coming weeks. 

Stay tuned for more information. And again, thank you for making Creating a Freelance Career​ the number one book for business students. #gratitude #entrepreneurship #freelance

Over the weekend after I hosted a women's retreat in Seattle one of the participants, and a dear friend, talked to me about a business conference she attended a few weeks ago. One of the speakers is a business coach who gets paid in the six figures to work with each of his clients. He boasted that he will only take on clients who have bodacious dreams and how only he can get them to where they want to go. 

I found this information--both how it was said and the implications behind it--troubling. Like Jen Sincero , of Bad Ass fame, I don't believe in framing things from a place of lack. When consultants and coaches market themselves as "you need me to get you to where you want to go" that implies that you yourself are lacking. And we don't get to where we need to go by focusing on our "lack". 

We get to where we need to go and where we want to go in life and in business by tapping into our inner strength, our skills, our talents and our inner wisdom. We all have those in abundance, but sometimes we need a cheerleader to encourage us. Or we need someone to show us the way or to hold our hand and support us. .Or maybe even a person to challenge us in our thought processes and our self-imposed limitations. These are the roles of an excellent and empathetic coach or consultant.  

So next time you are thinking of hiring  a coach or consultant, think about what you want. Do you want someone who tells you aren't good enough and do not have what it takes without them? Or do you want someone who helps you tap into and grow into your best self? 
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