EPISODE 199 SHOW NOTES: Assessing Your Skills and Experience
Are you feeling overwhelmed with starting your freelancing business? Are you feeling stuck in the beginning stages? I want to talk with you today about the 5 stages of feeling stuck in those beginning stages. Today we are focusing on the first stage of feeling stuck which is the “what can I even offer?” stage and how you can reframe the way you think about your current experiences.
For this episode you are going to want to grab a copy of my Skills Assessment. The skills assessment breaks down the freelance services into a few common options that I see in the freelancing space (there are even more but these are most common). Check out the corresponding blog post and podcast episode for each common freelancing area (linked below).
Feeling stuck is normal and will happen but we don’t have to stay there. This is not a sign to give up or that freelancing isn’t for you. Don’t let this hold you back from hitting your goals and building the business that you want.
So, when you are thinking about “What can I even offer? What skills do I have?”, reframe how you look at your experience. You have a skill set that can be used in the freelancing space, no matter what it is that you are currently doing.
When thinking about the skills that you have and how it translates to freelancing, remember that there are two different skillsets that you have. The hard skillset is knowledge that you have learned through education, experience, trainings. A soft skillset is your natural abilities or personality.
Following along with the Skills Assessment:
- Brain dump all the different experiences you have had – work experience, volunteer experience, business experience – any experiences that you have had whether paid or unpaid. Pick 3-5 jobs or experiences from there.
- Brainstorm the hard skills that you have gained from this experience. Do that for each of those jobs.
- Look at the hard skills that you wrote for each job and think about the soft skills or natural traits that you have that allowed you to excel at this skill.
- Evaluate your brain dump. What are things you loved or hated? What was easy for you or what stood out to you?
- Time to make a decision – look back at each of the freelance jobs and listen to the episodes for them (linked below). Which one excites you most? Which one does your current skillset align with most naturally? Start there. If you go through and can’t make a decision, I would recommend starting asa VA.
If you feel like you don’t have experience, reframe the way you are thinking. What do you have experience in that would translate to the freelancing space? If you are feeling stuck about how you can translate those skills, reach out to me by email or DM me on Instagram and we can chat about how you can translate those skills.
The next episode of this series releases on April 11 so be sure to tune in. This episode will walk you through just how realistic your goals are and how realistic it really is to replace your income!
Thanks for spending time with me today! Let me what you thought about this episode over on Instagram @Micala.Quinn! Chat with you there!
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In this episode, we cover:
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Feeling stuck in the beginning stages of your freelance business
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Hard skillset vs. soft skillset
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Skills Assessment steps and how to work through them
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Reframing the way you think about your past experiences
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How you can translate the skills you have into freelancing
Resources and links mentioned in this episode:
- Skills Assessment
- More information about each common area of freelancing:
- Virtual Assistant – (Episode 171)
- Social Media Manager – (Episode 175)
- Pinterest Manager – (Episode 177)
- Copywriting – (Episode 183)
- Design – (Episode 153)
- Online Business Manager – (Episode 180)
- Podcast Manager – (Episode 181)
- New to the idea of freelancing? Learn more HERE.
- Loving the show? It would be so helpful if you could write a review HERE! Thank you!
More about the Live Free Podcast with Micala Quinn:
How do I get started? What if I fail? Who will hire me? Is it really possible to create a consistent, full-time income from home?
Welcome to the Live Free Podcast with Micala Quinn where we will be answering these questions PLUS many more! Whether you’re just starting your freelance business (heck even if you don’t know what freelancing is yet) or you’re looking to scale, this podcast will give you tangible business advice along with inspiring interviews to help you create a life and career that works for YOU and YOUR family.
Your host, Micala Quinn, started out teaching high-school English, but when her first child was born, she immediately began searching for something more. She wanted a way to stay-at-home with her daughter (and future babies), but still needed to bring in a full-time income to help support her family. Micala started freelancing, quickly replaced her full-time income, and now helps other moms (like you) get started and grow their freelance business from scratch to 5K and beyond! She believes that being a working mom or a stay-at-home mom no longer needs to be a black and white decision. You CAN have both. On your terms!
Our motto is Mom Strong, Work Smart, and Live Free. Are you in? We’d love for you to join us each Monday, as well as in our Live Free Podcast Facebook community!
**This post about a reframing the way you think about your current experiences may contain affiliate links, which means if you click one of our affiliate links and decide to make a purchase, we receive a tiny commission from the seller at no additional cost to you. We only share products and services we have used, tested, and love ourselves!**
