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How I Landed My First Freelance Project With These Two Mental Shifts

I learned that you get the results that you want by focusing on the most important things.


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Jerine Nicole

3 years ago | 4 min read


Photo: Andrea Piacquadio
Photo: Andrea Piacquadio

I started writing online seriously in January 2021.

In 6 months, I built an online community, I made 1k+ from writing and other monetization strategies and this month mark my first writing project as a new freelancer.

But if we’re being honest, the behind the scenes of these amazing results I just told you are: spending 4K+ in online programs, tons of cycle of burnout, self-sabotage and self-doubts.

So don’t let those online gurus make you believe that the results they want you to have are easily attainable. Because it’s not.

But that’s also why I constantly work on myself. And once in a while, you get to enjoy the fruition of your hard work.

So, how did I do all this with no formal writing experience?

I got ready for a bumpy and looong ride

I bought my first online course back in July 2021 to become an online coach.

Even though the instructor never guaranteed her students to make $5k/month coaching, I was still under the impression that I easily could. If a lot of people are doing it, why can’t I do the same?

Well, it turns out, there’s a lot of reasons why. For one, other people might have different goals, situations and urgency to create that income. I wasn’t one of those.

Other people have different beliefs and values that you and I aren’t just willing to do online — like, being sleazy.

So after a couple of months of misalignment, I decided to restart from zero. I knew that I wanted to start doing stuff online but didn’t know what.

That’s when I stumbled upon writing and fell in love.

Without expectations, I started writing, and after a month of making it a hobby, I decided to hone the skill. So I wrote every day.

I also joined a community of new writers on Twitter that helped me accelerate my online growth. Slowly, people started to know me from my writing.

They didn’t know me from my fancy travel photos on Instagram nor my travel vlogs on YouTube, but people paid attention to my real and raw thoughts.

You already know what you need to do — develop a consistent habit and all, but have you asked yourself why you want that? Have you reflected on what’s in it for you if you stay in the long run? Because once I decided that I’m here for the long haul, I relaxed. I gave myself the first year to purely practice my writing skill.

I asked myself, “I wonder what would happen if I wrote every day for a year?” There were no expectations nor achievements associated with it. I was just curious.

Doing this helped me build the community on Twitter, where I stumbled upon the person who helped me with my writing gig.

I didn’t seek things out, and I trusted the universe to do its thing

There’s one thing that I realized in my whole online journey.

When you force things like “how to get more money, get more clients, and get more of X,” you’re operating from a scarcity mindset. All of this suggests that you don’t have enough right now and that you want more.

And I realized that I had to shift to a different mindset. Rather than forcing myself to “get” things, I learned how to show up with “how can I help someone with what I have?”.

You might laugh, but this simple shift shaped my whole trajectory.

The more I showed up to help people for free, that’s when the money started coming in.

I met a person on Twitter who I talked to because of our similar interests. We decided to hop on a Zoom call, and I told him about my struggles with making the creator journey work.

I also talked about the services I was planning to launch — coaching and freelancing.

After the call, I felt ready to coach someone.

And so I told myself, “I’m ready for this new challenge.”

And the very next day, he offered to become my first coaching client. And I was amazed. I liked it, but I didn’t want to pursue it full-time because I wanted to keep practicing my writing.

So I kept writing, took an online writing course, and decided that I want to go all-in with my writing.

Two months later, I was dabbling into the idea of freelancing. I had misconceptions about it, but I wanted to try it out anyway.

So, once again, I told myself, “I’m ready to try this new challenge.”

And once again, that same person was on my DM, asking me if I’m still looking for a content writing job. I said, “wow, you’re doing it again. And yes.” After doing a test piece for the said company, I landed my 3-month retainer project, doubling my hourly nursing rate.

And who’s to say, I won’t be able to replace that soon enough if I keep going at this rate?

Final Thoughts

It sounds very woo-woo, doesn’t it?

But it turns out, believing in the woo woo can do wonders for you. And things don’t have to feel complicated nor sleazy when showing up online.

Setting up a realistic expectation that nobody owes you anything in the online world can help. Rather than feeling entitled to “get” money or clients, you learn how to show up with humility and ask people what they need help with.

Only then you’ll realize that you have a lot; what you receive is a bonus.

When you decide to jump into the online world, you’ll realize that many of the things you need to do are to shift your mindset or your perspective. And only then, you’ll start to see the results that you want.

Want to learn how to develop a strong mindset as a creator? I share weekly tips here.

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Jerine Nicole

Hi, I'm Jerine and I'm a multipassionate creator. I write content on mindset, entrepreneurship and my journey as a creator. Every week, I share tips on how to develop a strong mindset as a creator on jerinenicole.substack.com. Let's chat on Twitter :)


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