Just raise your profile, the personal branding folks say.
You MUST be active on social!
You MUST post every day! (Whether you’re adding value or not.)
You MUST set alerts for the big names, so you can be the first to comment on their posts!
And on and on.
But there’s something I’ve noticed: Some people with strong “personal brands” — as reasonably defined by many followers and strong engagement — are constantly signaling that they need work. A large platform hasn’t solved that problem for them.
Awareness is necessary but not sufficient. So what’s a more reliable growth engine for our independent businesses?
Repeat Business and Referrals Are Where It’s At
There’s an old saying in marketing: “Nothing kills a bad product faster than great advertising.”
That’s because a great ad earns strong trial – but then there’s no repeat business. And it’s nearly impossible to sustain a business without strong repeat. “One and done” doesn’t cut it.
Now consider the alternative: Your clients are so impressed with your work and character that they hire you whenever they can. They tell their colleagues about you. And when they take a job with a new employer, they bring you along.
Over time, you spend an ever-decreasing amount of time on business development. Since good leads steadily come to you, you don’t have to worry about soul-crushing tactics like cold outreach. You spend more time on the work you love, and less time on self-promotion.
How do we achieve this mystical Valhalla?
Work on Your Act
The following is excerpted from Ryan Holiday’s blog:
There is a story about an exchange between Jerry Seinfeld and a young comedian. The comedian approaches Seinfeld in a club one night and asks him for advice about marketing and getting exposure.
Exposure? Marketing? Seinfeld asks. Just work on your act.
Seinfeld, a pure stand-up, a comedian’s comedian, is appalled by the question. It’s offensive to his legendary heads-down work ethic. But to the kid, this was a surprise. Isn’t that the kind of question you’re supposed to ask? Isn’t that how you get ahead?
The young comedian was focused on the wrong end of the stick. He wanted to be the noun without doing the verb.
We’d all do well to work on our acts. To get better at our crafts. To stop claiming mastery and to actually become masters.
I propose that the goal of your solo business is simply this:
Do work that’s remarkable enough to get you rehired and referred.
Why? Because those are the easiest sales you’ll ever close. Your clients return to you pre-sold, and they tell their colleagues about you. (Added bonus: good people tend to travel in packs.) Over time, you have your pick of clients and gigs.
But it takes work to get there, and not everyone does.
We Often Sabotage Our Own Mastery – But We Don’t Have To
No matter how good we are – or we think we are – there is always room to improve.
This can be difficult to accept. We humans are prone to something called “illusory superiority”: We tend to overestimate our own abilities.
For example, in one study of university faculty, 90% evaluated their performance as “above average.” That’s right – 90% placed themselves in the top 50%.
You might say, “Of course they did! These are college professors we’re talking about!” But this finding has been replicated many times – with students and their perceived abilities, with online daters and their perceived attractiveness, and so on.
So it’s prudent to assume that we’re not as good as we think we are. I like to rely on the words of Charlie Munger:
“The iron rule of life is that only 20% of people can be in the top fifth.”
Unassailable, right? And a nice little head-check for those moments when we’re inclined to assume that our work is tip-top, above criticism, perfecto perfecto perfecto.
Now let’s take it a step further. My advice for soloists is to adopt this mindset:
“I will be in the top 5% of my chosen craft.”
This begs a question: How will you know when you’re in the top 5%?
You’ll never know, because it can’t be measured. But that’s not the point.
The point is to continually incline yourself toward that goal. To keep leveling up your game, as a matter of priority. To take steady action to improve your craft.
And if you miss that target but come close, you’re still in a good spot. “Top 15% at what you do” is sufficient to get you rehired and referred.
Think of yourself as a continual improvement machine – proud of today but determined to be a little better tomorrow. Act on that, and you’ll be way ahead of most of your competition.
How Do We Know Where to Improve?
Broadly speaking, we can either gather feedback that tells us where we need to improve, or we can simply make a decision. Both are valuable.
Let’s start with self-assessment. Here are four areas where you can self-assess – all of which will result in happier clients that want to rehire and refer you:
Core Skills
I’m a brand strategist, so one of my top priorities is to know a lot about strategy.
If you’re a social-media manager, how will you stay at the forefront of that ever-changing field? If you’re a writer, how can you continually improve your clarity, or voice, or editing?
Adjunct Skills
I’ve known a few designers who, in addition to being great at their craft, were very skilled at presenting their work. The best I’ve seen linked every design decision to the creative brief, which gives the client confidence. (While also reducing feedback of the “it just doesn’t feel right” ilk.)
How can you level up at presenting your work? At project leadership? At client communications? Because clients pay you for those skills too.
Business-Building Skills
These are the skills that help you land the work. Can you write an effective proposal? Can you comfortably advance a prospect through the selling process? Do you have a weekly networking habit and a daily marketing habit?
Character Traits
I can’t rehire someone who’s talented but can’t hit deadlines. I can’t refer a Grumpy Gus or a Disorganized Debby. Professionalism, positivity, reliability – these things matter. A lot.
Self-assessment is better than nothing. But if in doubt, an ounce of feedback is worth a pound of guesswork. And if your client engagements don’t include feedback mechanisms, you have blind spots.
Here are two good moments and methods to ask your clients for feedback:
At Project Close-Out
Send your clients a simple, four-question survey at the end of each project.
- Overall, how satisfied were with you on this project? (scale of 1-10)
- How likely would you be to recommend me to a friend or colleague who needs my services? (scale of 1-10)
- What, if anything, went particularly well? (open-ended)
- What, if anything, could be improved? (open-ended)
Sure, there are more elaborate ways to go. But the above four questions will take a client less than 10 minutes to answer, and will give you plenty of actionable feedback.
At Regular Intervals
If you’re doing a project of any length, establish check-ins with your key client contact to ensure their expectations are being met. Try not to let more than 30 days pass without touching base.
If you’re on an annual contract, get on the client’s calendar at least every 90 days. This will help you to better serve them, and will decrease the odds of you getting a nasty surprise.
In both cases, ask your own versions of the four questions in the previous section.
These aren’t mutually exclusive – by all means, gather feedback both during and after a large project.
Finally, don’t be shy about asking for feedback. I was client-side for seven years, and can tell you that most clients are asked so rarely that they’ll be delighted to have a conversation about how to make a good relationship even better.
How Do We Improve?
Having identified where we can get better, the next obvious question is how. The good news: In the history of the human race, it’s never been easier to improve.
Here are five ways to get better at your craft:
Newsletters
As a strategist, I’m glad Roger Martin exists. He’s the co-author of one of the foundational books on strategy, Playing to Win. And once a week, he posts thoughtful pieces on Medium in his field of expertise.
Which is to say: Once a week, Roger Martin makes me a little smarter. For free!
Who’s the Roger Martin in your field?
Books
The ROI on a great book simply cannot be calculated. Some of the world’s greatest thinkers have said, “Here, I’ll give you a piece of my brain for about ten bucks.”
One caveat: The barriers to entry for book publishing have never been lower. So the trick, as with newsletters, is to select them well.
Set yourself a goal: Read one book per month in your field of expertise. Summarize it. Reflect on it. Where you disagree with the author, identify why. When the author can add a new wrinkle to your brain, let her. That’s what books are for.
Courses
Courses are another benefit of the modern age. No matter what skill you’re looking to improve, someone has probably covered that topic in course format.
As with the two sources above, chose wisely – especially as the price points increase. There’s a lot of “all hat, no cattle” out there. Do your homework, and if in doubt, don’t click that purchase button.
“Apprenticeships”
During my first decade as a soloist, I was a hired gun at Doug Hall’s Eureka! Ranch, where I helped to lead hundreds of inventing sessions for big-name brands. It paid less than my client work, but I learned a ton about facilitating, concept development and client dynamics. And I got to observe the inner workings of a very successful think-tank.
These kinds of opportunities are rare but extremely valuable. If life offers you the chance to learn something useful and make a buck in the process, grab that up with both hands.
Test Runs
As you develop new skills, you’ll naturally begin at a low level of confidence. Instead of trying to sprint on those wobbly baby-giraffe legs, find your balance in a less risky setting.
Volunteer to try out your new skill with a business association or Chamber of Commerce. Book a small gig with a local company to give you the confidence to play bigger. (Note: As with any gig, it’s vital that you repay their trust by delivering the goods.)
Your specific choices will depend on the areas you’ve targeted for improvement. But whichever way you go, make it part of your strategic plan. If you’re not allocating time and money to getting better, you’re not that serious about it – which means others are passing you in the mastery lane
Summing Up
As a guy with 28 years of independence under my belt, I can say that I don’t care much about my social-media footprint. But I care a lot about earning a reputation as a reliable, trustworthy guy who knows his space.
And the statistic I’m most proud of: 96% of my lifetime revenue has been repeat business or referral.
It’s easy to get so busy with doing client work – and the work that brings in client work – that we forget about skills work. I’ll say it again:
The goal is to do work that’s remarkable enough to get you rehired and referred.
Our expertise is what earns us repeat business and referrals. It gets us paid more. And it allows us to have our pick of the best clients.
But we won’t achieve mastery by assuming we have it all figured out. It helps to be open to feedback, to have a thirst for our chosen craft, and to be humble about what we’ve already achieved.
There is no finish line. We can always improve some aspect of our knowledge base, our client leadership and our character.
Make it a goal to be much better a year from now. If you look back at some of your early gigs and cringe at how little you knew, that’s a sign of progress.
Start today. Get a little better every week. Stick with it. It’s a long game – but a game with life-changing benefits.
Your time is valuable, and I hope I’ve rewarded it. If so, your shares are greatly appreciated, as I try to spread the gospel to as many freelancers as possible.
This post was inspired by my appearance on the Deliberate Freelancer podcast with Melanie Padgett Powers. Many thanks to Melanie for her thought-provoking questions!
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Copyright 2025 – Matthew Fenton. All Rights Reserved