A name for your freelancing in 3 minutes or less
“Hmmmmmmm….” is what Chris Orzechowski said when I shared my brilliant new name for the Get More Clients Masterclass.
“See I was thinking, More Clients Masterclass, that’s MCMC, or MC². And Clients = energy, so we could do a whole E=mc² formula theme for the copy!”
I love a clever name. But, more often than not, clever can turn into hokey and unclear.
Not to mention all the time spent on this concept and logo ideas floating in my head taking up space better spent on… well… better marketing.
It’s like trying to fit the big giant foot of the concept into a glass slipper (in this metaphor, the slipper is a clear name and subhead). See? Even that metaphor was fun, but clunky and confusing.
Yesterday, I got together with a bunch of freelancers to talk about All-Weather Clients — the type of clients that need what you have in any economic climate.
One stumbling block we all faced was coming up with the *perfect name* for our freelancing.
Here’s an example of an email I received before the session:
There’s a lot to unpack here.
A. “Started with Copy Cave” << this name has gone through multiple iterations already. And it’s not an inherently bad name. (I love me some alliteration). But what happens when Gemma wants to offer more marketing strategy or shifts her career into something outside of copy? We have to start all over!
B. “my colour palettes” << this is someone starting out and looking for clients. And so far, we know that she has spent quite a bit of time on a name and some time on color palettes. These are the things that feel productive, but do not move you any closer to getting clients.
C. “my speciality” << I love that she has started to find her place in the copy world. And “personality-driven copy” is a great, inclusive area to think about. With that said, this is her speciality *for now.* I know very few freelancers that start in one niche and stay there forever. So if your name, logo, website, and design are niche-focused, you have to go through all of this again when you decide to take your career in another direction.
D. “website audits and email” << she has already started exploring different sub-niches which is awesome! These are opportunities for “productized services” (this is where she should be focusing attention!
E. “mega brainstorm” << what I’m hearing is “tons of time and mental energy.” Again, this mental bandwidth could be directed toward finding clients. Your color and clever domain are NOT going to make clients magically find you.
F. “hope something better comes up” << what does “better” look and sound like? This is a difficulty, especially for marketers. We don’t know what a “good” name is and so nothing meets our invisible impossible standard. Meaning that we constantly use our best brain power on something that just doesn’t matter and can never be perfect.
So what’s the alternative?
If you’re a freelancer you likely already have the perfect name at your disposal.
At the 42-minute mark of yesterday’s All-Weather Clients discussion, I cover my 3-step process for coming up with the perfect name. You can check it out here. It will be available until Sunday.
Watch the Replay of How to Find All-Weather Clients.
I’ve also opened up enrollment to the Get More Clients Masterclass (momentarily called MC²), a 90-Day Intensive collaboration with Chris Orzechowski of Orzy Media that will definitively answer the question of “how do I find clients?”
It is designed to take you from where you are now to getting your first or next client within the next 90 days. You can get all the details here.
I’m offering a one-on-one Client Acquisition Plan review for the first 9 people to join. There’s still a few available, but I expect them to be filled today. If you’re interested in working with me one-on-one on your plan, you’ll want to register soon. :-)