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SUMMARY
- Thinking of making the jump to full-time freelancing? Then this episode is for you. Tune in as Delicia Ivins, Growth Director of The No Pants Project, fills in for founder Mike Shreeve and talks to NPP student Jenny Watz about her freelancing journey. Jenny shares the one thing that helped her land two of her clients quickly, as well as her favorite tips on freelancing and editing.
- Jenny is an up-and-coming freelance editor and proofreader from St. Louis, Missouri. Her freelancer superpower is helping businesses eliminate distracting errors in their written content, connect better with their audiences, and project a positive image.
- After being laid off from traditional jobs twice, Jenny came across The No Pants Project and decided to become a full-time freelancer. One of her goals is to contribute more to their household as a way of thanking her husband, who picked up a lot of the financial slack around the house while she was unemployed.
- This is a theme that Delicia has noticed among female entrepreneurs and business owners; i.e., it’s not uncommon for women to want to help their husbands move to part-time or even retire.
- Because Jenny has plenty of experience in the food and agriculture industries, she initially focused on reaching out to those companies when she first started freelancing. But The No Pants Project helped her realize that just because she knows it, doesn’t mean it’s right for her.
- After having her aha moment, Jenny decided to start focusing on editing and proofreading. Once she narrowed her focus, she landed two clients almost immediately.
- Last year was Jenny’s first full year of freelancing, something that she and her husband had doubts about at first. This year, she exceeded her income in the first quarter by about 45 percent over the same period last year.
- When she started The No Pants Project, Jenny wasn’t very confident about what she had to offer. But after working with the program, she figured out her freelancer superpower and has become much more confident in her abilities.
- NPP has boosted her confidence in client outreach as well. Despite being on the introverted side, she has learned to send cold emails and talk to strangers on the phone.
- Jenny has also learned to focus on one thing at a time in order to avoid shiny object syndrome, and doing so has allowed her to make the progress she wanted in her career.
- One of Jenny’s favorite things about being a student in The No Pants Project is the community. Unlike other programs, NPPers are very supportive of each other. You can post and ask for help with something and you’ll immediately get lots of responses.
- Jenny’s tips on writing error-free content: Use spell check, read it out loud, let someone else look at it, and be conscious of verb tenses.
- Jenny’s tips on freelancing: Focus and commit fully. Don’t quit your job just yet; make a plan and make sure it’s financially viable for you. But once you make that commitment to freelance, you need to commit fully.
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INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES
FULL TRANSCRIPT: Freelancer Interview Series With Jenny
Jenny Watz: You know, I don’t know how he’s done it, but Mike has created this group where everyone is just so supportive of everyone else.
Delicia Ivins: Hey, hey, hey. Delicia Ivins here on behalf of Mike Shreeve and The No Pants Project, and today I have the awesome, awesome opportunity to talk to Miss Jenny Watz. Jenny is a student in The No Pants Project and she’s been rocking it out, and making some awesome progress, so we are super excited to have you on the show, Jenny. Thanks for joining us.
Jenny Watz: I’m happy to be here, thank you.
Delicia Ivins: Now, Jenny, where are you joining us from? What part of the US are you in?
Jenny Watz: I am in lovely St. Louis, Missouri.
Delicia Ivins: Oh, I love St. Louis. Okay, quick story and then we’re going to get into your interview. I drove through there when I was like 20, and I was super gullible, and I remember my friend telling me, he was like, “Did you know you can take an elevator up to the arch?” I was like, “No, you can’t.” He was like, “No, you totally can.” And I was like, “No, no, no, because it’s an arch, so what would the elevator do? Go up like this and then around?” It was like, oh no, that’s not a real thing. But they were pranking me the whole time during this road trip, so this is why I was totally confused as to this arch. But you can really take an elevator. Is that what I understand?
Jenny Watz: Yes, you can. There is an elevator that goes all the way to the top of the arch.
Delicia Ivins: How does that happen?
Jenny Watz: Here’s a fun fact. I’ve lived in St. Louis my entire life and I have never been up in that elevator, and you will never get me up in it.
Delicia Ivins: Are you just afraid it’s just going to lean over, and there you go?
Jenny Watz: Yeah. Well, people who have gone up there say it gets narrow toward the top, and then you can actually feel the arch sort of swaying in the breeze, and I’m, “Yeah, no.”
Delicia Ivins: Oh, no. Oh, that’s crazy. Okay. Let’s get into it. All right, so Jenny, tell me what it is that you do for your clients. What is the superpower that you bring to the freelancing world, and just help really save and empower your clients’ businesses? What is it you do?
On Superpower
Jenny Watz: I help businesses and authors create their best work by providing them with editing, proofreading, and writing services that help them eliminate distracting errors, help them connect better with their audiences, and help them project a positive image.
Delicia Ivins: That is awesome. I totally get exactly how powerful that can be. I was just looking at a blog piece the other day and I was reading through it, and it was a great piece. It was a client article interview piece, and it was a terrific piece, but you could tell the client wasn’t very clear when they were being interviewed. They were kind of jumping all over the place and the author was just trying to do her best to keep up with them. So, that can create confusion.
Delicia Ivins: So, if you are trying to put that piece out there to work with that audience and people are reading and they just stop and they’re like, “I don’t even know, what are they saying here? What is he even talking about?” That can be distracting, and that’s not a bonus to your brand, right? Or in keeping with your brand identity. So, being clear and concise and eliminating those errors, that is definitely a superpower. How are you enjoying freelancing right now?
Jenny Watz: You know what? I love it. It’s great to be able to set my own schedule. Last week, it was the end of the month, all my projects had kind of winded down, winded, wound, wound down, for the month. So, on Thursday I actually had a day date with my mom, and we went to the movies and just hung out and did some shopping. You know, I’m thankful that I’m able to do that while still being able to earn a living.
Delicia Ivins: Right. Most definitely. Because yeah, if you were in a nine-to-five job, you would not be able to just take time off without taking like a sick day or a holiday or something like that, to just go have fun with people that you love.
Jenny Watz: Right.
On Freelancing Goals
Delicia Ivins: It’s definitely cool. So, tell me a little bit about, what are some of the goals that you have with freelancing? As you’re building your business, as you’re growing your skillset, what would you like to do with all that?
Jenny Watz: What I would like to do ultimately with my freelancing is to completely replace my income from when I had a nine-to-five job. I’m not there yet, but that’s okay. I’m working toward it and I’m feeling really good about my progress. So, I think that is half the battle, quite honestly. So, that’s a big goal of mine. I want to be able to not only match that income or exceed it, but also as a freelancer, I don’t have the same benefits as a traditional employee does, so I have to save my own retirement instead of opting into an employer’s 401k. So, I want to be able to do that as well.
Jenny Watz: I want to be able to take some of the burden off of my husband. I was laid off from a traditional job back in 2016 and it took me forever to try and find another traditional job, so he really picked up a lot of the slack around the house financially speaking, so I want to be able to help him recover some of that, not really money but I want to be able to thank him. Like he needs a new lawnmower and stuff like that, so I just want to be able to contribute more to the household than I had been doing in the past couple of years.
Delicia Ivins: You know what’s been crazy, is that I’m a member of all these groups, and one of the common themes that I’ve seen among a lot of women entrepreneurs and women business owners is like, “How quickly can I retire my husband? How quickly can I move him to part-time?” I think that’s a real thing for a lot of women. Even for myself, before I started freelancing, when I was working and my husband was working, I was working part-time and he was working full-time, he was just pulling in all the hours, plus working on the side doing side jobs and stuff like that, and… did that for like eight years.
Delicia Ivins: And I was like, “Golly, he is just busting it.” And I just wanted to be able to give him a little time back. So, he is… we joke, his friends ask him all the time, they’re like, “So, what’s it like to be retired.” He’s like, “Oh, I love it. Yeah, I sleep in till 9:00.” They just all look at me and they’re like, “How do we find more of you?” I was like, “I don’t know, I don’t know.”
Delicia Ivins: But you know, it’s a nice thing. So now he gets to enjoy and spend time with the kids, stuff that he missed out on for a few years. So, I think that you’re doing that, that’s awesome. That’s a really cool goal, Jenny, and more power to you. You’ll definitely get there. As Mike says, you just need five clients at $2,000 a month. That’s all you need, and you are on track.
Life Before The No Pants Project
Delicia Ivins: So, tell me a little bit about what you were doing before freelancing. So, before you started, you found your superpower, before you started freelancing, what was life like for you, for your husband, for your family?
Jenny Watz: Well, fortunately, in my previous nine-to-five job, I worked from home, so I’ve been used to not wearing pants for a while. But I worked in PR and after eight years with my last company, almost eight years, some clients left and then I was laid off, along with a couple of other people. I’ve got a lot of experience in communications and writing and editing, and I just had the hardest time finding a job. Then when I did, it wasn’t what I wanted, and I got laid off from there three months later.
Delicia Ivins: Oh my gosh.
Jenny Watz: So, I kind of read the tea leaves and then I stumbled upon The No Pants Program and I thought, “You know what, I’m going to give this a whirl because what have I got to lose?”
Delicia Ivins: Yeah.
Jenny Watz: So, that’s how I got into The No Pants Program.
Delicia Ivins: That’s crazy. I mean, you were only there three months. That’s nuts. So, did you already know what your superpower was going to be going into The No Pants Project?
Jenny Watz: No. Well, yes and no. When I started, I thought, “You know, I’m going to do writing.” Because I had a lot of experience writing collateral materials for clients, brochures, and I managed website content and things like that. So I thought, “Well, that’s what I’m going to do.” A lot of my experience was in the food and agriculture industries. So, I focused on outreach to those companies because it’s what I know. But then it dawned on me that just because I know it doesn’t mean it’s right for me. That was really a revelation that came out of this program. Then, last August, I saw a video with Katrina…
Delicia Ivins: Yeah. Katrina’s interview, I remember that. I remember that post. That was super fun.
Jenny Watz: Yeah, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I thought, “That is what I want to do. I want to be an editor, a proofreader.” If I could sit at home all day with a stack of papers and a red pen, I’d be a happy camper.
Delicia Ivins: You know, I bet there are teachers who would hire you out right now to just sit there and circle all their kids’ essays. I mean, they’re up till 2:00 in the morning. That’s a whole nother thing you could do.
Jenny Watz: Yeah, yeah. So, then I really started focusing more on editing and proofreading, and almost immediately I got two clients.
Delicia Ivins: Oh my gosh.
Jenny Watz: You know, they’re not at the $2,000 a month retainer level, but they provide me with consistent work. You know, I kind of consider them bread and butter clients, you know?
Delicia Ivins: Yeah, sure.
Jenny Watz: I’m perfectly fine with that. Plus it’s giving me more experience and more leverage to reach out to other people.
Delicia Ivins: Yeah, and you can totally, as you’re building your portfolio and stuff, and building that, you can just use those referrals and get them to write some recommendations for you to build up to that $2,000 a month level, whether it’s for them or whether you use that to get other clients at that rate. Totally doable. So you’re already just kind of positioning yourself in that area and you’ve got at least basic expenses and stuff covered, which is awesome.
Jenny Watz: Yes.
Delicia Ivins: So, how does your husband feel about all that? Is he excited?
Jenny Watz: You know what, he is excited. Last year was my first full year of freelancing with my business that I set up. And you know, I did okay. He was impressed that in the first year I was able to make as much as I did. So yeah, that’s a good thing and I’m happy with my progress, and so far this year I’m exceeding my income over the same period last year by about 45%, so I’m hoping that trend continues throughout the rest of the year.
Delicia Ivins: Oh, it will. It will. Just make it to like second, third quarter, it’s just going to start doubling even over that. You’re good to go. I’ve been seeing you put in the work, you’ve been doing amazing stuff. So, speaking of doing the work, and what your confidence is now, you’re already 45% over what you were making last year. What was your confidence like going into The No Pants Program? Like when you bought the program, you watched the webinar, you signed up, what was going through your head at that time?
Jenny Watz: I wasn’t very confident. And quite honestly, I’ve struggled with that my whole life. I just never have felt that great about what I had to offer. For example, people, and even my husband’s like, “Well, you know, you could spell.” I’m like, “A lot of people can spell. Who cares? What’s spelling? Come on.”
Delicia Ivins: Right. You would be surprised.
Jenny Watz: Well, I know a lot of people can’t spell, but you know, I have a friend who tries to type something on the computer and Word doesn’t even have suggestions for [inaudible 00:13:11] for him. So, anyway, but I thought, “You know, what kind of a superpower is that?” You know? But then, working with the program and working in the program, I finally figured out, oh, I have this to offer. It’s like you stack all of the things together, it’s like all the little things. You know? And all the little things combine to make one great superpower. You know? And so, that’s what I did finally. I am more confident in being able to say, “Yes, I can spell.”
Delicia Ivins: And I can edit, and I can do all this other stuff-
Jenny Watz: [crosstalk 00:13:52] right.
Delicia Ivins: … and this is my package for doing all of that.
Jenny Watz: Yeah. So, I’ve really become more confident in my abilities. Another thing that NPP has given me confidence to do is outreach. Because as I mentioned earlier, I’m used to not wearing pants, right?
Delicia Ivins: Right.
Jenny Watz: So, I don’t get out much. You know, I’m more introverted. So, I really prefer to kind of just stay in my little hole, hang out here during the day with my dogs and just chill, you know? But I’ve learned to send those cold emails and talk to people on the phone who I’ve never spoken with before, and it gets easier each time you do it.
Delicia Ivins: I think for a lot of people, I tend toward, you wouldn’t know it from these videos, but I tend to be more introverted myself. I like to hide in my office when I’m at home and work. But yeah, so for me, even doing the cold emails and things like that, that was like a little… I was scared at first, but you’re right, honestly it’s just mechanics. The more you do it, the more repetition, it just becomes a flow and it allows you to kind of grow as a person and step out of your comfort zone a little bit, and most importantly, to actually get results from doing that kind of stuff. So, I’m assuming you did the cold emailing, that was through the Mike’s Fast Client-Getting Workshop, right?
Jenny Watz: Yes.
Delicia Ivins: Yeah. So, just to clarify for those of you watching, Mike’s Fast Client-Getting Workshop is actually a separate program, it’s a bonus program, but when you join The No Pants Project core program, you get access to that as well. That program is kind of a mini program and it’s all about getting you started with clients fast. Hence the name, Mike’s Fast Client-Getting Workshop.
On Results
Delicia Ivins: All right, so let’s talk about results. So, you started freelancing, you started the Fast Client-Getting, so you’re working with two clients right now? How quickly did you get those two clients once you kind of settled in on your superpower?
Jenny Watz: Well, I’m working with other clients as well.
Delicia Ivins: Awesome.
Jenny Watz: Just the two specific editing and proofreading clients is what I got pretty quickly after realizing in August that I wanted to focus on editing and proofreading. I already had one freelance client before I started No Pants, and that was kind of by accident. It was a former colleague of mine who had moved onto a different company, and she had just started in this new role and part of her role was to manage a quarterly print magazine. She reached out to me and she was like, “I don’t have time for this, and I’m new so I don’t know what’s going on. Can you do this for me?” I’m like, “Okay.” So, that was about a year and a half ago and I’ve been doing it ever since every quarter.
Jenny Watz: So, that was a client that I had already worked with. But I do writing for them, I also do editing and proofing for that magazine. So, that’s kind of involved with my superpower already. So, in August when I finally decided this is what I want to do, I think it was maybe two weeks later that I landed two clients, and I had just… it wasn’t… how do I want to say this? It wasn’t the traditional No Pants process. I had joined a couple of organizations that are specific to editors and writers and things like that, and they have job listings. So I applied to a couple of those job listings, and that’s how I got those jobs.
Jenny Watz: I will say, however, that my outreach to them in response to their job posting was based on what I’ve been taught in No Pants. You know, how to craft an email to someone, basically.
Delicia Ivins: Right.
Jenny Watz: So, even though it was replying to a job posting as opposed to a cold outreach, No Pants absolutely helped in securing those clients.
Delicia Ivins: Hey, you know what? Whatever you can do to make it work for you, that’s having the freedom as a business owner and as a freelancer to make it work for you. I mean, that’s what it’s all about. I know Mike teaches a lot of specific strategies, but they can work in tandem with other stuff that you’re already doing. So that’s really cool. So, you got two clients within the first couple of weeks. Did you find that while you were going through the program, was there anywhere during the course of defining your superpower and going through the program where you felt like you struggled a little bit? And if so, how did you overcome that?
Jenny Watz: Well, when I first started, I struggled with finding clients. I was doing the Fast Client-Getting Workshop approach and I wasn’t having a lot of luck in the food and agriculture industries that I was targeting. I had talked to a few people, but ultimately they… you know, we just couldn’t make it work for whatever reason. So, I was a little frustrated because I kept getting shiny object syndrome. You know, there are a lot of different options and a lot of approaches, as you mentioned, that you can take, everything kind of works in tandem. But I found that I just had to finally say, “Okay, I need to just focus on one thing.”
Jenny Watz: Because I was doing the No Pants project, trying to get through all of the work that’s involved with that. And there is a lot of work involved with it. Then there’s the Fast Client-Getting Workshop, and there’s the Happy Writer Program, and there’s all of these other things that kind of like, ooh, shiny, ooh, shiny. I just had to say, “Okay, stop. Focus.” So yeah, I think I struggled just kind of trying to define myself, really. I think that’s what shiny object syndrome is all about, anyway. You’re still trying to find yourself, so you’re like, “Well, maybe this is the answer. Maybe this is the answer.” Then when I saw Katrina’s video, I was like, “Oh, that’s the answer.” So, yeah.
Delicia Ivins: I laugh because I did the same thing. It was so funny, because last year or the year before last, Mike was rolling out programs it seemed like once a month, we would roll out a brand new program, and I was like, “That looks awesome, I’m going to buy that. I’m going to buy…” And I wouldn’t have time to go through them all. So, it took me… what I ended up doing at the end of the year last year, which was super fun, is I made a list of all the courses that I had purchased and it was so long, like over the course of a year. And I was like, “Oh, my word.” I was like, “I need to stop.”
Delicia Ivins: I obviously have an addiction to buying courses. I recognize this about myself, and now I’m going to time block. So, I had to pick, like, “I’m going to complete this course and give myself this much time to do it before, I can’t even open this other course until I do.” But that helped a lot. So, I understand that struggle completely, because you know, you’re like, “Oh, well in order for me to do this well, I really need to add this other skill onto it. And I need to add this other skill onto it. I need to be able to stack these and make them work together.” But you got to master one. You know? What is that… it’s a focus acronym, it’s like Focus on One Course Until Success. Yeah.
Jenny Watz: Yeah.
Favorite Moment Working Through The No Pants Project
Delicia Ivins: I had to learn that one. So, what were some of your favorite moments working through the program, working through The No Pants Project?
Jenny Watz: I have to say that one of the best things about The No Pants Project is the community. You know, I don’t know how he’s done it, but Mike has created this group where everyone is just so supportive of everyone else. No one’s catty, no one’s trying to steal your clients away from you, none of that happens. You can just post something and say, “Hey, I’m struggling with this. Can somebody help me work through it?” And boom, immediately you get tons of responses. I just last week talked to someone else in the program who does a lot of ghostwriting, and I had recently been approached by someone to do some ghostwriting, and that’s not a superpower of mine yet, but it’s going to be.
Delicia Ivins: There you go.
Jenny Watz: So, I sent this person a proposal and I’ve heard crickets. So, I jumped on the phone, well, I reached out to this other student and I said, “Hey, do you have a minute to maybe walk me through this and see if I need to do something different or anything?” And he’s like, “Sure.” So we just hopped on the phone, we just had a quick call and it was great. People are just so helpful. I had bought a different program after I bought The No Pants Project Program, and it was for a different approach using a different social network for connecting with people, and that was… When did I purchase that? Probably about six, eight months ago, and I have yet to get through the first video.
Jenny Watz: Because the quality of the video was really poor, and I reached out to their Facebook group to talk to them, and say, “Hey, I’m kind of struggling to get started with this. Does anybody have any insight or help to get me started?” And I got attacked, basically. People were like, “Well, if you can’t even do that, then you’re probably not in the right group.” Maybe they’re right, but I just thought, “Well, maybe you could be a little more supportive.”
Delicia Ivins: Yeah. No. Don’t take any of that stuff, Jenny, because you’re rocking it in NPP. But I’ve seen other groups like that. I’ve done the same thing, like I joined another group just to look at the possibility of getting some leads, like 72-hour post style, and yeah, I can remember I went in there and the video intro from the lead whatever, group guru, it was horrible. He was like, “If you see people posting about this topic, you go in and report it to the moderators because this is not allowed. I want you to tag team and make sure everybody knows about it.” I was like, “Oh, my gosh. They’re vicious.” I jumped out so quick. I was like, “No, no. Take me back. Take me back. I don’t want to be in there. It’s scary.” But Facebook groups are crazy. So yeah, I love our community and I love that it’s a safe place.
Jenny Watz: Yeah. So, I think that’s really the greatest, I mean aside from all of the knowledge, which is the main reason you’re going to purchase this program and try and better yourself and kickstart your career, that’s really the thing that impresses me the most, is just the support and just a sense of camaraderie. The only thing I wish is that… I’m in St. Louis, and so far, I can’t find any other NPPers in St. Louis. That kind of is a bummer because I know there’s a few people that are located in the same area and they have face-to-face get togethers once in a while. I would love that. So, if anybody out there in St. Louis is watching, hit me up.
On Her Future
Delicia Ivins: There will be. It’s coming. So, how would you say you feel about your future now? Now that you’ve kind of gotten some clients in, and you’re starting to build and things are starting to come together for you, how’s your outlook now?
Jenny Watz: My outlook is pretty good. Like I said, my income is, in the first quarter already exceeding what I did last year in the first quarter, and I hope to continue that trend. I am looking into more ghostwriting services, so I think adding that is really going to help as well. I have one person who reached out to me for that, and he’s the one that I can’t get to respond to my proposal.
Delicia Ivins: It’ll come.
Jenny Watz: Well, I’m giving him one more shot and I’m not going to bug him to death, but I’m giving him one more shot and then I’m moving on. But I just found someone today who’s looking for a ghostwriter, so I’m going to talk to her later this week. And I talked to someone else last week who’s looking for help as well, so I’m already working on these things, I just need to solidify them. I think it’ll come.
Delicia Ivins: It’s just a numbers game. That’s all it is, is just, if you schedule X amount of calls or X amount of meetings, and you know your close rate is this percent, you’re going to close one or two of those a week. That’s all it is.
Jenny Watz: Yeah, yeah.
Delicia Ivins: Totally got it.
Jenny Watz: Yeah, so I’m feeling pretty good.
Delicia Ivins: That’s awesome.
Jenny Watz: Yeah.
Tips To Better Freelance
Delicia Ivins: Okay, since you do proofreading and editing and that’s one of your superpowers, let’s give maybe like your top favorite two or three tips for those people out there who maybe write content or they have somebody else write content for them but they’re not really sure if they’re proofing correctly, or editing. What would be your tip on maybe an app or a system or a process or a flow that you use in order to get better edits?
Jenny Watz: Well, I think that first of all, it’s not perfect but if you’re writing something, double check it with spell check. I mean, it’s not that difficult to do and it’ll catch some things. Because if you write something and then you’re proofing it yourself, it’s just the natural tendency that you’re going to skip things over because your brain already knows what it’s supposed to be saying. So, it’s going to skip over some of those words. Spell check will help you kind of find some of those errors.
Jenny Watz: I would also say, read it aloud and that will help you find additional errors. Let someone else look at it. You know, a fresh set of eyes is always a good thing. Grammarly is a good source, but it’s not the end all and be all, and I get a little frustrated in some of these Facebook groups where people are like, “I need an editor.” And people will respond, “Oh, just use Grammarly.” Or, “Just use spell check.” Well, they’re not really the same thing, but okay.
Delicia Ivins: They can’t offer developmental suggestions or anything like that. They can’t go back and be like, “Oh, this phrase is weak, you need to restructure it and-“
Jenny Watz: No, exactly. Those are just a couple of things. And I think also just be conscious of verb tenses.
Delicia Ivins: Yes.
Jenny Watz: So, if you’re writing a sentence, make sure it doesn’t start in the present tense and end in the past tense, or you know, just things like that. I think just those few things should help really get a lot of the errors, at least if you’re posting a blog post or something, at least it won’t be riddled with typos and things like that, if you do those [inaudible 00:30:11].
Delicia Ivins: I agree. Yep. Yeah, I definitely think having an editor is a good thing to have, especially if you do what I do, and I try to edit my own stuff, I’m like, “Oh, no. One of these days I’m going to get away from this. One of these days.” It’s coming, it’s coming. Two-
Jenny Watz: [crosstalk 00:30:29].
Delicia Ivins: I know.
Jenny Watz: Yeah, read it aloud and that will help. It also, reading it aloud kind of helps you realize what the flow is, whether you need to change something because it just doesn’t flow well.
Jenny’s Corner
Delicia Ivins: Right. I agree. So, this is a fun one, but this what I like to call your corner. So, in Jenny’s Corner, Jenny, you went through the program last year and you know your ups and downs, and you can speak to shiny object syndrome, as I’m sure a lot of us can. But what would be some tips that you could give, some words of encouragement to somebody who is trying to get started freelancing, or they’re trying to make that move to make freelancing their full-time gig, what would you like to say to them to help encourage them?
Jenny Watz: Well, I think that they need to just focus. I think focus is the number one thing. I’m not suggesting everyone go out and just quit their job and say, “Hey, okay, I’m freelancing now.” You need to make a plan, and you need to make sure it’s financially viable for you to just, you know… But I think once you make that commitment to freelance, you need to commit fully. At first, I joined The No Pants Program, but I was still looking for a full-time job.
Delicia Ivins: Oh, yeah.
Jenny Watz: I’m like, “Okay, why am I doing this? This is like two totally different things. So, which am I doing?” You know? So, I think that once I finally committed, then I was able to see a lot of progress and movement in the right direction toward full-time freelancing.
Delicia Ivins: I agree. Yeah, I definitely think focusing is a huge thing. I think it’s something that’s hard for a lot of people to do. So that’s definitely a skillset that has to be developed. And thankfully, I learned how to develop it.
Jenny Watz: Well, there you go.
Delicia Ivins: Yeah. So, what about to anybody who is considering purchasing The No Pants Project, or joining the NPP family? What would you say to those guys who are kind of sitting, or kind of watching the case studies, they’re checking out the Facebook page and Twitter and all that stuff, and they’re like, “I don’t know about these people. They seem too good to be true.”
Jenny Watz: Well, they’re not too good to be true. They’re just good. I think I posted something in the group the other day that there’s a lot more talent than discipline in the world, and that’s why discipline pays better. If you focus and you’re disciplined, and you make a plan, then it can happen. So I say for people who are sitting on the fence, sign up for one of the webinars, just watch that and take it to heart and really determine if it’s something you think you’ll be able to commit to. If you can, then I think that you’d be losing out if you didn’t join, because I really enjoyed the growth that I’ve seen both personally and professionally as a result of The No Pants Project. I think it’s great. I think people should sign up for it if they haven’t already.
Delicia Ivins: I agree. But I am a little biased.
Jenny Watz: Yeah, me too, I guess.
Delicia Ivins: I love it. I do love it so much. Well, Jenny, I want to say thank you so much from St. Louis. I really appreciate you taking time out of your schedule to hang out with us and tell us a little bit about your freelancing journey. Please, please, please keep posting your questions and you wins and your comments, and all that stuff in the Facebook group, because we love seeing those, and we love supporting you in any way we can, and if there’s any way that I can help you, just feel free to tag me. I’m in there five days a week. Sometimes six. Sometimes [crosstalk 00:34:47].
Jenny Watz: Sounds great. Thank you so much.
Delicia Ivins: All right, thanks and you have a great rest of your day.
Jenny Watz: You too.
