Hi Reader,

Happy Friday!

A lot of freelancers I speak to lately are in the same phase: they’ve been doing their core service for years, but they’re starting to feel the itch to evolve it.

The market shifts, client needs change, and suddenly the thing you built your business around starts to feel like just one piece of a bigger puzzle.

This is exactly what I'm going to be talking about today.

P.S. This week on Instagram, I shared how I find 140 new freelance leads on LinkedIn every month. Check it out here. And don't forget to give me a follow for regular tips and tricks!

Here's what I've been up to this week work-wise:

👉 I wrote 2 pieces for clients (An influencer marketing tool and Klaviyo)

👉 I refreshed 2 pieces for Shopify

👉 I did more outreach and LinkedIn posts for a client

👉 I'm in the early planning stages of an exciting new project

👉 I booked 8 more mentees in over March and April

⏱ Approx hours spent on client work this week: ~18

⏱ Approx hours spent on non-client work: ~4

💰 Total revenue this week: £2,775

Want to advertise your business, course, product, program, or software to 7,000+ freelancers and creative business owners? Check out the affordable sponsorship options here.

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Check out my three practical courses that have helped 500+ people get more clients, earn more money, and create better content.

Friday Freelance Tip​​ ✨ ​

I did something I haven't done in a long time in January.

I started offering a brand new service.

If you’re early in your freelance career, that might not sound like a big deal because EVERYTHING is new when you’re starting out.

But when you’ve been doing something for a decade and have built a reputation around a specific skill set, launching something new suddenly feels… like A Big Deal.

There’s more on the line, and I found myself thinking:

Who the heck am I to offer this?

What if I’m not as good at it as I think?

But this is exactly how freelancing evolves. Your services shift as the market shifts, as your interests change, and as your clients’ needs grow.

This new service actually came from a completely normal client relationship.

Someone who'd been following my newsletter reached out in need of blogging help. In December, I wrote a single blog post for them (the kind I'm good at and known for!).

But after I'd submitted that piece, the client realised that, yes, blogging was helping with visibility, but what she REALLY needed was new clients (she'd unfortunately lost a few contracts at the end of 2025).

So we started talking about LinkedIn. She already had a LinkedIn presence (about 6,000 followers, I think), but she didn't have the time to really focus on turning into a lead engine.

So, instead of blogging, we pivoted to three things:

1. LinkedIn positioning
2. Strategic connection identification
3. Consistent thought leadership content

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And before I knew it, I had the bones of a brand new service.

How the service works

Once I realised this was becoming a repeatable process, I started structuring it properly.

Right now, the service has three core components.

Positioning and client buckets

Before we write a single post or connect with anyone, we get really clear on positioning.

Specifically:

• Who the client wants to work with
• What problems those people are trying to solve
• What language they use to describe those problems

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Then we define two to three client buckets.

These buckets represent the types of people we want to attract.

For example:

• Early-stage founders
• Creative agency owners
• Marketing leaders at scaling companies

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Each bucket has different challenges, motivations, and buying triggers. Once you define them clearly, everything else becomes easier.

Finding 140 strategic connections each month

The second piece is connection identification.

Each month, I find around 140 relevant people for the client to connect with on LinkedIn (I use the method I share here).

That works out at roughly 25 per week or 7 each weekday.

Note that these are NOT random connections.

Every person is filtered through those client buckets.

I look at things like:

• job titles
• company stage or industry
• activity levels on LinkedIn
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The first month took longer than expected while I refined the process. But once the system was clear and once I applied the same relationship-building principles I teach in my courses, the process sped up significantly.

Like most things in freelancing, the first month is the messy learning phase.

Writing 12 LinkedIn thought leadership posts

The third part of the service is content.

Each month I write 12 thought leadership posts for the client (roughly three per week).

And interestingly, I realised pretty quickly that this work isn’t that different from blogging.

The structure is the same:

• a strong hook
• a clear idea or perspective
• storytelling or examples
• a takeaway that positions the author as someone thoughtful and experienced

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The main difference is length and tone.

LinkedIn posts are essentially mini blog posts. They’re shorter, slightly more conversational, and more immediate, but the strategic thinking behind them is almost identical.

That realisation helped a LOT with the imposter syndrome.

Where the ideas come from...

A lot of people assume thought leadership means constantly inventing new ideas out of thin air.

It doesn’t.

The process is actually very collaborative.

I ask the client to:

• send interesting pieces they’ve read
• share competitors or people they admire on LinkedIn
• record voice notes about ideas or opinions they’ve had
• talk through topics during calls

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Then I transcribe everything and mine it for insights.

The imposter syndrome moment

Even though this service builds directly on skills I’ve used for years (y'know, writing, positioning, strategy) I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel imposter syndrome.

It’s the first time in a long time that I’ve offered something that didn’t already have a long list of case studies attached to it.

But then I reminded myself of something important. This is NOT random. It’s adjacent. And even more importantly, it was born from a real need that a real client had.

The same skills I use for blog content, like research, narrative, perspective, positioning, transfer directly into thought leadership.

And I also have my own LinkedIn content as a working example.

The biggest reminder here was that you don’t need to start from zero every time you try something new.

How I priced a service with no benchmarks

Pricing was the trickiest part.

Because this wasn’t a service I’d offered before, there weren’t obvious benchmarks to follow.

So I did what I always do: I reverse engineered it.

First, I looked at the LinkedIn posts.

If three posts roughly equal 900 words, that’s about the same as one blog post.

So I priced them using the same logic I’d apply to blog content.

Then I estimated the time required for connection research and positioning work.

Finally, I explained openly to the client that this was a new service for me and that we could treat the first month as a trial period and revisit the structure afterward.

For the first month, the full package was £1,500.

I deliberately priced conservatively because I knew the first month would involve refining the process.

If you want to experiment with a new service, try this

If you’ve been freelancing for a while and feel the urge to evolve your services, here are a few things that helped me.

Test new services with existing clients

You don’t have to launch something completely cold.

Existing clients already trust you, which makes them the perfect place to test adjacent services.

Often, new offers are simply solutions to problems your current clients already have.

Build a clear structure before selling it

Even if it’s a trial, create a defined process.

For example:

• positioning work
• number of connections per month
• number of posts per month

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It's much easier to sell something when you have a clear structure behind it. And this part might take some time. Me and this particular client did a bit of back and forth about the service, and I know that I'll refine it later down the line.

Anchor pricing to something you already know

If you don’t have benchmarks, break the work into components and price each piece based on something familiar (like hourly work or word count equivalents).

Call the first month a trial

This removes pressure on both sides. It gives you space to refine the process and adjust pricing based on real experience.

Remember that adjacent skills count

You don’t have to reinvent yourself from scratch. Most new services are just extensions of skills you already have.

This week, we have a writer and strategist from Puerto Rico.

Where are you based? Puerto Rico.

How long have you been freelancing? 15+ years.

What do you do? B2B and B2C writing and strategy for a mix of clients.

What's your revenue? $150,000.

This freelancer freelances full time and this was their highest earning year.

How much did you take as a salary?

$60,000.

How much did you pay in taxes?

I haven't done my taxes yet this year.

What are your business expenses?

Less than $200.
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Do you contribute to a pension or invest?

No pension but, yes, retirement.

Do you have any hot money-management tips?

Read the Simple Path to Wealth.

We need more Freelance Money Diaries entries! I'm forever grateful to anyone who shares their finances with us (you can do it totally anonymously!).

Click the button below to do yours!

As always, happy freelancing :)

Lizzie ✨

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