Matt Essam - Be Remarkable: A Freelancer's Guide to Working Less and Earning More

Matt Essam is a freelance consultant to creative individuals and companies that do meaningful work, teaching them how to achieve creative fulfilment and financial security. Having seen Matt speak before at a Glug event and taking an interest in his story, his workshop for freelancers at Duke Studios seemed very much worth attending.

After quitting his job at a big marketing and advertising agency in London in 2013, Matt went freelance full time. He took on every project he could, working all hours possible, earning just enough to get by while living with his parent. While not the lifestyle he had envisioned for himself, Matt continued working over several years, during which time he built up a solid client base and reached his goal of being able to travel the world and run his business with nothing but his laptop. He stresses that while this sounds like a dream, he still wasn't doing work that he loved.

Matt expressed that he was sacrificing his values for a lifestyle he thought would make him happy. His projects lacked purpose, and financially, he wasn't any better off than he was when working his 9-5 job in London. 

After an unexpected loss in the family, Matt decided to make a change, finding the purpose in his work and re-aligning his projects with his values. He studied creatives with meaningful businesses, noting their ability to stand out from competitors by recognising their value. Having applied this to his own business, Matt now teaches others how to do the same as a career.

Matt detailed a 5 step formula to becoming 'remarkable:'

1. Identifying Your Values - Your values are the most important things to you in the world. If you don't clearly identify them, you'll find it difficult to achieve consistent fulfilment from your work. By knowing your values, you are better equipped to identify which projects to take on and which to decline. This helps you attract and work with like-minded people.
2. Your Niche - Most people make the mistake of trying to be everything to everyone. They aren't clear who they want to work with or who their target market is. The cost of this approach far outweighs the benefits. Once you identify your niche, it becomes much easier to find high value clients and win creatively fulfilling work.
3. The Problem - What problem are you trying to solve for your clients? If you aren't completely clear on this it can be very difficult to communicate your value and guarantee a return on investment. Being clear on the problem you are solving, and how, allows you to become much more valuable to potential clients. Don't take what your client thinks the problem is at face value, dig deeper and really identify the true problem your client needs resolving.
4. The Solution - Most freelancers and businesses focus on offering just part of the solution to their clients, making them comparable to others and making pricing competitive. By providing a full solution that solves a significant problem, you can add more value than anyone else, which you can charge accordingly for.
5. Your Clients - The quality of your life is based on the quality of your relationships and therefore if you don't love working with your clients, you and your business will suffer. Identify you ideal clients and work out how to add significant value to them. Once you become clear on the problem and solution, it becomes much easier to find rewarding projects, both creatively and financially. 

Additional Notes

• Use your values as your compass.
• Know which problem you are uniquely positioned to solve.
• The more specific you can be, the better.