The Sticky Situation that is Self Promotion

For ages I've toyed with the idea of being completely freelance. But time and again, I find myself working for other businesses part time because frankly, that shit is scary! The thought of being 100% responsible for all the work I get... well, that's the stuff horror films are made from. 

I spend a lot of time creating my six month/ 1 year/ 5 year I'm-going-to-freelance-only plan. I read about it incessantly, mentally taking notes on tricky clients, freelance finance but the thing that scares me most seems to be the least approached topic... how the eff am I suppose to talk about myself to potential clients?

Here's the deal, that whole 'if you build it' thing is fooey. They don't always show up! Many people before and many after me will build what no one will come to see. So, if you build it and don't talk about it to anyone, no one will come. Not even your mum. 

The answer and the thing I tell anyone starting out, is to talk about yourself at every opportunity. Which is hard and not that fun and pretty confusing when trying to decide what's an opportunity and what is you being a pain in the ass. It's hard to to decide what will lead to clients and what will lead to your friends blocking you on facebook. When does self promotion become shameless? 

Look, I don't know. I'm sorry because I bet it seemed like I started out this post with the intention of answering questions but I tricked you. But check out this wicked post on Jezebel because they put together some amazing tips that will lead you, and subsequently, me, in the right direction. I'm all over the books they recommend in it, because I'm still working on the six month/ one year/ five year freelance plan.

xoxo