Crowns over Crumbs: Premium Freelancing Strategies with Daniel Alfon

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the work at home rock star podcast.

I’m excited for today’s guest. He is the author of build of build a linkedin profile for business success and what he does is he helps people get clients organically through I assume social media and LinkedIn. So super excited to be rocking out today with Daniel F on, Hey, Daniel, you ready to rock? Yes, sir.

Thank you very much for having me. Awesome. Thanks for being here. And so we always start off here on a good note. So tell me a story of success in your business that we can be inspired by. With

Daniel Alfon: pleasure. So, uh, it’s a lady that was, uh, um, in corporate America for over 20 years. And at one point she, uh, wanted to, to go solo and she wasn’t sure about it.

And, and as you know, networking is a big part of, um, getting your first clients. And the success for her was to help her leverage her LinkedIn network in a way that could build a business. She wasn’t sure she could make a [00:01:00] living and pay the rent with, um, with freelancing and she actually doubled her revenues, slept the better and was happier.

Now the revenues is good, but sleeping better and being happier is what made my day.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. And that often comes from being able to pay the rent with no problems. Right. Absolutely. That’s awesome. Yeah. I mean, there’s so many ways you can have success in freelancing nowadays. And I mean, you know, it’s not a small thing anymore, right?

Like you can really do a full time business doing freelancing nowadays and you probably always could, but I think nowadays is just so much more help. Right.

Daniel Alfon: Yeah, the, the market and the macro trends are going for, for more gigs and less long term, you know, my parents may have, uh, expected to work for the same company for two, three decades.

And that was the norm today. We would frown upon someone like that.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. And I remember [00:02:00] when, uh, when I first became self employed, which was, you know, a little over 15 years ago, and I was working for a company and I had that sort of trajectory, right? You know, it was like, go work for that company.

You stick around forever. And some of the people that were there were there for a very long time, but that company was in big trouble and they were, uh, they did end up going bankrupt after I left. And, uh, so I, I knew that that was happening. Meanwhile, my dad got laid off on his 35th anniversary working for a company.

Like it’s just the world is changing. Right. And, and I mean, you know, now you’ve got a person who worked for a company for 35 years and had zero confidence that he was going to be able to find something else that was going to be able to pay him what he would, you know, worked himself to during that time.

You know, and, and it was just the whole world throwing upside down. But if you, like you said, if you have multiple gigs, if you have a few things on the go, what happens if you lose one, right? Well, you got a couple of the things that are still pain. [00:03:00] Okay. It’s going to be, it’s going to be tight, but it’s different than losing everything, right?

Daniel Alfon: Yeah. You could almost, um, try to ask yourself once a year, if this business or this company went bankrupt, what would I do? And you just spend a couple of hours thinking about it and you put it somewhere and hopefully you don’t have to do anything with it. But if you do, then you have something to start with and it helps you, um, whether, you know, Nortel, uh, goes, uh, the wrong way or any other company goes, uh, goes bad.

You have something to, uh, to fall back to.

Tim Melanson: Did you say Nortel? Yes, sir. That’s the company I worked for.

Daniel Alfon: We have to do our research.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, it was, uh, yeah, it was pretty crazy. And like when I started to though, I think that my experience was different. And I, you know, I, I have, I understand where most people are coming from because I think most people didn’t have the [00:04:00] experience I did.

Because I graduated in 2000, that was when the bubble burst for IT. And so I was going through layoff rounds for eight years while I was there. So the question you just said, where, you know, you have to think about what would happen if this company went bankrupt. You know, when belly up next month or whatever it was, I had that every paycheck I got was like, okay, I made it through another two weeks, you know, so, so I was consistently asking that question.

And so I think when it eventually started to happen, I, you know, I, I sort of had an idea of where I was going to go, but I think it really is, you know, it hits people who aren’t thinking about it completely out of the blue. Right.

Daniel Alfon: Yeah, it’s, it’s, um, it reminds me of the never ending story, the movie. Yeah.

You get an extension of another, you have to tell a story for another, uh, another day. Yeah. Um, in other words, you need to become. Employable or you need to become marketable and you can [00:05:00] no longer trust the company to provide that for you. You know, back in the day, then the psychological contract said I would stay here even if the work is sometimes boring or too hard and you would keep me in bedtimes and that broke and that contract has been broken for many, many years.

So we have, we, we need to think of our business. Even When we’re employees,

Tim Melanson: yeah, yeah, yeah. You consider yourself a self employed, even though you have a, uh, you know, we have one client, right? That’s the, that’s the way I agree. So now along the road of, you know, getting all these successes, sometimes you’re going to hit some bad notes.

You’re going to have some things that aren’t going to go as planned. So can you tell me something that didn’t go as planned on your journey and, and you know, how you recovered from, from it?

Daniel Alfon: Cool. 350 bad examples. I could share or just one,

Tim Melanson: just one is fine. But yeah, we have a few, eh?

Daniel Alfon: So, yes, I think we all have.

[00:06:00] Um, I think early in the process, I started working with a client that I needed to fire, and I didn’t do it. And it was so frustrating that I learned my lesson. And the short term, um, money cannot compensate for the bad, for the downsides if you don’t like working with that person. And that’s one of the greatest benefits, Tim, of selecting the people you work with.

And if you manage to speak with people you enjoy working with, then more business comes your way and you feel more fulfilled. It’s, it’s not a contradiction. It happens

Tim Melanson: simultaneously. Yeah, it does. Yeah. I’ve noticed the same thing too. So What, what, uh, was it that made you like, did you eventually the fire of the client or did they fire you?

What ended up happening? It was a mutual, uh,

Daniel Alfon: um, it was, it was a contract [00:07:00] that ended and I was very happy that we didn’t, uh, continue. And I, and I found someone else that I enjoyed working with and then it become a referral business and it was much, much, much better and much, much easier. Wow.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. That worked out great.

So there, maybe the learning lesson out of that is to make sure you have an end to your contracts just in case.

Daniel Alfon: Absolutely. Yes. The best contract, the contract you, you know, you put it in a drawer, you never look at it.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. I’ve, I’ve found the similar thing and I think I actually spoke about that on my last episode as well, is that.

You know, you, you, you really do have to make sure that you’re picking clients that are a win win for both of you, right? Cause if it’s not a win for you, you know, then it’s going to suck all your energy. There’s just so many bad things that can happen. You’re not going to show up. You know, with all the energy that you [00:08:00] should be showing up for other clients as well, because this one’s taking all your time and all, you know, there’s so many reasons why it makes sense to fire a client, but now the next question I have for you is how, how do you do it?

How do you fire a client?

Daniel Alfon: So first, uh, I suggest that you check out, uh, the episode he had with, uh, with a wheat thing. I hope I don’t, uh, butcher, uh, his name. Cause you two, discuss this, uh, this very point, uh, along that, uh, that episode. Um, the short answer for me is working mainly through referrals. That’s my philosophy.

That’s what, um, made my business grow and it has a lot of advantages. And it means that basically whenever someone recommends that you work with them, if a potential client reaches out to, uh, to creative crew or is being referred by a client of yours, then the client referring you to them. Would help you because they would think about it would [00:09:00] team and that person really hit it together.

Yes or no. And if they’re not sure, then in some cases will simply not make the introduction. So the introductions mean your referrals are less. Price sensitive. They want to work with you and you don’t have to go through a hard sale. They happier working with you and they end up referring business themselves.

So it takes a process. It takes some, some thought, but it’s, I found that’s the best way to, to build your business in a sane way.

Tim Melanson: Yep. You know, and so to take that a step further, here’s another interesting thing is that the clients that a client refers to, to you. tend to be very similar to the client that did the referring in the first place.

That I find interesting as well. And, uh, that can go good or bad. Like, so if you’ve got a really great client and they refer you to another client, chances are pretty good that that’s going to be another really great client. But if your [00:10:00] client is like, kind of like, Oh, this is one of my ones that maybe I want to fire.

Uh, and then they start referring you clients. They refer you clients like them. It’s, it’s fascinating how that works. Isn’t it? Have you noticed

Daniel Alfon: the same thing? Yes, I think it’s, it’s also, um, often they work in the same ecosystem or the same industry. And that means you don’t have to learn everything from scratch.

You become specialized, you know, more about the industry and you can help your, your clients better and faster, faster. So it’s, it’s a win win for both of us, the client and us.

Tim Melanson: So I have another question for you, cause this has come up for me before too. Imagine you, have you ever had a client that has wanted to work with you.

And they told you that they were going to bring you a bunch of other clients. So they said, I’m going to refer a bunch of people to you, you know, and maybe they were trying to get a discount or something like that, or some sort of referral fee. Have you had that experience before?

Daniel Alfon: I think I’ve had something similar.

And the rule is generally [00:11:00] that there’s something fishy about this because the time I could refer business to you team is probably for most of us. After we work together enough, so I know what’s a good referral for you. And if I knock and say, Hey, I have no idea what you do, what, how your agency helps people, but I’d like a discount and I can bring you 24, uh, Fortune 500 companies, then I would take it with a grain of salt and I would thank the, uh, the lady, the gentleman, I would start, I would.

Really try to vet and see whether I could help them or not. And chances are, I would refer them to another, uh, another service provider, and I will be happy

with

Tim Melanson: that. I wish I had talked to you before that happened to me. That’s exactly what happened. Your instinct is perfect on that. No, it, and I, it didn’t, it didn’t hit me at the time.

At the time I was just like, Oh, wow, this is great. Wow. [00:12:00] This person’s really well connected. Sure. You know, and I, I think I gave her a better rate or whatever it was. All the clients that she gave me, if she gave me any, I think, I think there was only maybe one or two. Uh, but the ones that she did send my way, I had to refund one completely.

Like it just didn’t work at all. And, and not only that, but like, yeah, there is something fishy about it. But now that you say it that way, it makes perfect sense. Cause you’re right. How would this person have known that I was good if they hadn’t even worked with me yet? So why would they offer to send me clients?

It doesn’t make any sense. In hindsight, I get it, but I didn’t get it at the time.

Daniel Alfon: Sometimes social has made, um, changes, or people think that social or the internet has changed the way our mind is wired. And the truth is, it hasn’t. Maybe it will for, you know, our grandkids, but you can’t go from step [00:13:00] one to step ten in ten minutes, other than in Disney movies, so you have to earn the trust.

And see whether that works for you and simply answering the question. Like when you meet someone, who would be a good referral for that person? Like who would be a good referral for you and the creative crew? Could you share with me that? So

Tim Melanson: I know, yeah, a person that would be a good referral would be somebody who already has a Successful business, someone who is already making some some income and they’re ready to up level.

So, uh, you know, maybe they had created the website for the first time themselves. They’ve got a logo that they maybe hired somebody over Fiverr, you know, to get it done. And now they’re at the point where, you know, things are moving. And, and, you know, I, I recommend that people even do that when they’re first getting started.

Don’t spend a whole bunch of money on your branding. Don’t spend a bunch of money on your website at first. Because you have to prove that your business is going to be successful first. To figure out, you know, and [00:14:00] that’s going to come through who you are, not through how good your branding is. So, but once you figure out who you are and once you figure out what you’re doing, then you’re ready for an upgrade.

And that’s the best clients for me are the ones that are like, you know, things are starting to roll now. I want my brand to represent who I am now, uh, you know, and not be basically something that I got done for free.

Daniel Alfon: That’s so powerful that it’s, it’s you and not the branding when you start and, and we should remember that, uh, along

Tim Melanson: our journey.

Absolutely. So now let’s talk a little bit about practicing. So how do you get good, I guess, and stay good at what you do?

Daniel Alfon: Um, the more you know about a topic, the more naturally you, you, you realize that there’s a lot more you can discover. And, and that means you need to be cut to stay humble. And one of the ways LinkedIn helps me stay humble is simply to [00:15:00] change the, uh, the, the, the way the website works.

Every time I have a workshop, I used to think that someone just leaks the dates and just the morning I have a workshop, LinkedIn turned things around and you need to stay on top of what’s happening. And you need to ask questions, and at one point you build your own method, and part of your time should be spent on learning.

It’s difficult when you’re busy, it’s difficult when your calendar is full, but if you lose touch with reality and only work with clients without eating your own dog food, at one point you’ll pay a higher price. Very well

Tim Melanson: said. Absolutely. So how do you, like you mentioned that you’re busy. So how do you carve out that time?

Daniel Alfon: What works for me and anyone can find it the best way that would work for them is to try and allocate, [00:16:00] uh, a specific day, every quarter to do some long term thinking about the way my business has behaved in the last quarter. And the way I want my business to be in 12 months time. And one of the questions I ask myself is should I still continue doing what I’m doing?

Like specifically for me, is that, is the moment, has the moment arrived when I need to drop LinkedIn and do something else? And at one point, my answer will be yes, because something will happen, either some, some, uh, tech or regulatory change or something that will happen. And then I will need to reinvent, reinvent myself and I will try to look for the envelope that I did back then.

What happens if the company. Goes belly up. So dedicating time for, for that, that you don’t touch and you don’t work, but you need to do it some sometimes physically, like not, not in your office, but elsewhere, or discussing it [00:17:00] with people you trust and people who have a good understanding of trends would help you stay on, stay focused on the long term objective that you want.

Tim Melanson: Daniel, that’s really good. Uh, two things. One is that your method is, I think, better than mine for learning because, uh, you know, I tend to try to find otherwise, uh, you know, I find that I listen to like a podcast or like a, an ebook in like my car or when I’m doing groceries or when I’m doing something else.

But I like your way better because, uh, if, if I were to spend, you know, a day every quarter. And, and like dedicate that day, I think I would be able to get a lot more really good thinking in. And then the other part of it is that if I can’t spend one day per quarter or meet myself in my business, then is my business really working that well?[00:18:00]

Daniel Alfon: That’s a good, that’s a good way to put it. Yes. It’s, um, it needs to be earmarked and, and, you know, there are, there are times when there’s a feast and the times when there’s famine, when you’re a freelancer, when you, when you build your business and it, and it helps you, um, go through the waves and, and, and we may be able to, uh, to sleep well.

And I think that’s, uh, that’s important, but it’s not contradictory. Like learning, uh, on the go can, can be very helpful for, for many, many people. You don’t have to choose.

Anik Malenfant: Hi, my name is Annick Malafon from Mastering Ascension, and I’ve been working with Tim Melanson and the Creative Crew Agency for a number of years now.

Tim is my go to guy for all things technology, and his team have helped me to really create the platform that I need that represents my brand, my message, and connects me directly to my ideal clients. [00:19:00] What I particularly love about Tim is before he starts to dive into the technology, he always makes sure that he understands what your global view is, what your ultimate goals are.

So then that way you’re not wasting a lot of time back and forth switching around technology or platforms. He creates something from the get go that is scalable, which is highly, highly beneficial for any business. What I’ve experienced from Tim and his team is they’re highly responsive. They are a wealth of information.

And they’re going to offer you the tools that you need to really make the mark that you want to make in the world. So, that’s my recommendation for Tim. He’s awesome. You’re going to love every minute. You won’t regret it.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and, uh, and you’re right. It is very feast or famine. And I think that that’s, that’s the hardest part is because When, when you’re self employed and when, when you’re really, you know, directing everything yourself, sometimes things are just rolling, you know, you’ve just got lots of stuff coming in.[00:20:00]

And if you start to say, no, I can’t, you know, no, I need to do something else within, you know, the universe is going to respond to that and they’re going to stop. You know, the the hose is going to shut off, so you really have to take it when it’s coming. Uh, but then there are times when it’s not coming, and maybe that’s a good time to take some time to do some reflecting.

And another thing that you said that was incredibly good and incredibly deep, really, is that I think a lot of people are very slow to see that something’s not working anymore. Right. And, and where, you know, like you said, I mean, there’ll be a time when LinkedIn will not be your thing. And that’s true.

There will be a time when everybody on this listening to this right now, the thing that they’re doing right now will no longer be working in some way. Right. It’s just, that’s the way things work. Every business that from the past, from, you know, whatever, 200 years ago, very few of them still exist. And none of them exist exactly the same way.

So at some point, it’s not going to work. But I think a lot [00:21:00] of people are just kind of like, you, you sink a lot of money. You lose a lot of money waiting for it to just turn around and just come back. Right. But how, I guess that’s the question really is how do you know whether it’s going to come back or not?

Right.

Daniel Alfon: Well, that’s a very powerful question. And because of the changes are sometimes incremental. We don’t say it, we’re just like the, uh, uh, the frog that’s being boiled in, in the, uh, in, in the soup. Um, first of all, you have to, um, assemble or identify a few people that you speak with. And those people, the, one of the, um, criteria is that they should be able to tell you the truth.

In other words, they, they’re not here to sugarcoat things. They’re here to listen and say, hey, you’re doing it wrong. Or you’ve done it. Well, but that may no longer work. For example, because ChatGPT now enables you to do A, B, and [00:22:00] C, then it doesn’t mean that you have to go out of business, but it means that you have to think about the way you could leverage that technology or that change in order to offer better services, better services that are, that can no, not be easily commoditized.

And that’s one of the questions that as a freelance, you need to ask yourself every time. It’s not a race to the bottom and only providing lower fees. It has to be something else.

Tim Melanson: Great. Agree. And, and like you say, that, that is just a tool. I mean, at one point there was no wheelbarrow. So you were carrying all of your equipment from one place to another.

Once the wheelbarrow came into place, you could do things much quicker. That doesn’t mean you necessarily charge less, right? It just means that you can do more work, right? Absolutely.

Daniel Alfon: And asking yourself, like you mentioned the, the tops and downs, two questions that come to mind is what will, what will you do team if you got too many [00:23:00] clients asking for to work with you?

Like who would, who would represent your ideal client, a person or the, or the customer that you will always find time for? And maybe as a backup, who are their service providers that you can refer business to that you trust and you think will, will provide a good service. And the flip side of that is what happens if your major client disappears or can no longer work with you and trying to answer both questions at one point.

You’ll have to deal with both, both with a success or a combination where a number of client and you cannot straight stretch or change your bandwidth that much. What will you do then? And if the worst happens and the best clients you have changes, you know, the CEO changes something, if something happens, then what would you do?

No one likes to ask those questions. I mean, the first question is nice or nicer, but really you have to [00:24:00] ask yourself both questions. Just thinking about it will help you if.

Tim Melanson: They agree. So now let’s talk a little bit about gathering fans. So, I mean, nowadays with social media, the audience is everywhere.

But just because they’re in the audience doesn’t mean they’re a fan. How do we, how do we get them to actually like, like you? Right?

Um,

sweet.

Daniel Alfon: I think one way to put it is that. Our listeners have a real life personality. Anyone listening to, um, to the podcast has a real life personality and what we do on social should not contradict that. And if you’re an extrovert, you cannot. Use social media, like an introvert. And if you’re an introvert, you don’t have to become someone else to use social media, because at one point [00:25:00] when there’s friction, when there’s a gap, then your real personality will show.

And that will mean that the client will no longer want to work with you. And there’s an, there are people who like, would like to work with you exactly like you are, maybe they’re 5 percent of the market. Maybe they’re only in Nova Scotia, it doesn’t matter, but these are the golden, uh, people you need to reach out to first, because that’s the best long term strategy that you can have.

And I think doing that and keeping that in mind can help you build your business and grow your business.

Tim Melanson: I agree a hundred percent. That is so good. And I think that we all have this sort of, um, we’re always comparing ourselves to somebody else. Who we think is successful and you know, a lot of times we’ll say, well, you know, I’m going to act like that person because [00:26:00] that person’s successful, right?

And then it doesn’t necessarily work. Number one, it’s not authentic. So I think that there’s like a, like a, like a feeling that people get, like a, like something, you know, you, you, you said earlier, you know, you get this weird feeling that someone’s going to send you referrals before they meet. Work with you.

Some fishy. So I think people can sense that fishiness, but even if they don’t sense the fishiness, they’re going to get it eventually, right? Cause they’re going to be working with you and realizing that you’re not the person that they want. However, on the flip side, that also exists too, because there’s people that really want to work with someone like you.

It just, it has to exist, right? And if you are, you’re doing yourself a disservice by trying to be somebody else, when you could just be you, and attract the person that wants to work with you, right? Yeah, I

Daniel Alfon: think there’s a quote by Oscar Wilde that, uh, says that, uh, it’s easier to become yourself.

Everything else has been taken or something along those, uh, those lines. So let’s, let’s think about it this [00:27:00] way. You mentioned that the ideal client for the creative crew may be someone with substantial revenues and their business is growing or, or starts to grow. So one of the questions you could ask is what trigger events would lead that client to need someone like.

Me or like my company in real life, what would happen? And sometimes it’s much easier to team, to monitor that. In other words, if they’re looking for an in house is a first time in house designer is, does that mean that it’s a better prospect for you or not? So you’ll find something that means it helps you understand that when something.

When X happens, that means that maybe in two or six months time, this would be the good opportunity for us to work together. And that means you can get referrals and work with those people because you identified the, the, the trigger event is, is a term I found through Jill [00:28:00] Conrath, the sales experts. And she mentions it in a number of ways, in many, many cases, it’s easier to monitor the trigger event.

Tim Melanson: But that is, that is one of the best things for me anyway, on my podcast, because man, that’s great. And I think for me, the trigger event would be, uh, the, their current person or themselves, they can’t handle the workload anymore. Workload gets too much. And they’re now, they’re now asking for things from a person that can’t deliver.

And they disappear, right? Because if I think about it, that’s exactly how most of my clients come to me, is they’re screwed. Something happens and they’re like, oh no, I have no web guy right now. Right? But uh, but the trigger event, that’s brilliant because there’s always going to be a, you’re right, there’s always going to be something that’s going to happen.

And I think that the way you just said it is even better because you’re probably better off to find somebody [00:29:00] whose trigger event isn’t when they’re screwed. Right? It’s something that happens. Right. That in six months time or whatever, in three months time, then they’re going to be screwed. But if you can find that trigger event in the past before that happens, then and focus on that, well, then you get someone who’s not stressed out when they’re trying to hire you.

Right.

Daniel Alfon: Absolutely. You could try and, and like sometimes companies invest, invest in insurance or cyber after they’ve been hacked or after they’ve been, they were asked to pay a ransom, but this is a bit too late. This is crisis management. The thing to do, at least in terms of content, is to try to ask yourself, okay, When you can work, say with three major clients and the fourth clients ask you for a major referral or a major project, what would you do?

So the only people who would be interested, but by that sort of content, maybe the clients that in two months time will be ready to [00:30:00] work with you. So thinking about the questions they ask themselves at the right time would help you will help them discover you if they haven’t seen your content, if they know nothing about you, and maybe six weeks later, they will say.

Tim is the person I need to speak with now because I told the client yes and now I started regretting it. But before the, before the crisis happens,

Tim Melanson: Love it. Love it. So let’s talk about your jam room. I mean, working from home can be challenging in finding a space. So what, what’s, what’s your jam room look like?

What does your home office look like? Um,

Daniel Alfon: so I just, um, uh, because of Covid, I, I found myself working, uh, 10, 12 hours, uh, a day only using my, my laptop. And what I, uh, invested, uh, now is, is simply a, a smart table that can, um, wake, I can change the height and, and, and sit for three hours and then, and then stand for for an hour or [00:31:00] two.

And paradoxically, it makes I’m less tired and I’m more energetic. Because I stand for an hour a day or 90 minutes a day, so that’s something that’s, um, that was worth investing from, from my perspective, um, we can discuss, you know, the physical location of your home office or trying to, to see how you, um, limit or how, how you enable yourself to get into the zone when you need to concentrate and do some, something that needs concentration.

And on the other hand, there’s maybe email or something that requires less, less, um. attention span. You can do it differently. Um, but I think if I have to go back, having a discussion with my wife before I became a freelancer is something that I didn’t do. And it’s, you know, I don’t have to mention it doesn’t, it’s not related to the room or the office, [00:32:00] but that’s something that looking back, I think I didn’t do properly.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, and I think that that falls in the same category. It’s this whole work life balance thing, right? That’s very difficult when you’re, when you’re working

Daniel Alfon: from home, right? Yeah, because the uncertainty is, is difficult for us as human beings. And, um, The questions your, your, your, uh, significant other asks are really, um, important, like they want to know that you could provide.

They want to know that the marriage or the house household or your kids education are not going to, um. To be heard because of that, and the easiest way to do it would be simply to say, in our cases, we don’t hold inventory. Okay, we don’t buy a warehouse, we don’t have 50, 000 people working for us, so we are risking our time.

But other than that, we can agree that if… We don’t have [00:33:00] X revenues by that time, then we’ll go the corporate way or we’ll do something else. And just putting that on a table reassures us and reassures our partners in a way that help us build our business without having to look back over our shoulder every time.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. And it also puts a little bit of a fire under your own butt because now you have a deadline, right?

Daniel Alfon: Yes. And the deadlines you committed to publicly are deadlines you try your best to honor.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. And, and, and the questions that your significant other asks you, I mean, we’re different people, you’re different sex oftentimes as well.

And, and so there are things that you might not even think about and that to them is going to feel like you’re dismissing. So, you know, you’re better to ask these questions to get them to ask these questions because you might actually not know the answer because you’d never even thought to ask the question.

But it’s important to [00:34:00] them, right? And so you’re better off to kind of go, okay, I didn’t think about that question. Uh, let me figure this out. And then you can work together on an answer because, uh, the other big part that I’ve noticed is that some of my best ideas and some of my Like strategies have come from answering the questions that my significant other had, which is just a blind spot, I think for us, right?

I mean, especially as entrepreneurs, we are probably pretty optimistic, really, when you think about it, right? We, we, we, we overestimate what we can do. Uh, and they want something that’s more realistic. They’re like, no, no, no, no, no. You know, Selling me sunshine and rainbows. Yeah, that’s great. But we got kids to feed here, right?

Daniel Alfon: That’s, that’s very true. And, um, you have to, to be honest with yourself and your significant other in, in, in some cases, that [00:35:00] means that we’ll throw the towel and decide that we’re no longer doing that. Maybe we’ll pivot, maybe we’ll do something else. It doesn’t mean that we have to become employees again, but.

If you, um, generally see that the, the, there is no need you can feel and, and you can get significant revenues from the first idea we had. That means you need to change course and do something else. That doesn’t mean you failed. It just means that this is not the right time. This is not the right offer.

You need to go back to drawing room and maybe come up with something else.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. And there’s nothing wrong with going to a, an office for a few months to, to build up some stuff and still working, you know, on the side on your, on your dream, because it just may not have been the right time. You just might not have had the right base to move forward.

And I mean, I think most people will realize that the more desperate you are, the [00:36:00] less likely you are to attract clients. So, you know, as soon as you end up with a, you know, some sort of base income from that job, you’re actually going to be better at attracting new clients.

Daniel Alfon: That’s so important, what you said, because sometimes we, um, the thing when you can behave in a way that means I don’t have to accept that business, then in a cosmic way, more, you get more, more, you become more attractive to more people.

And some people will only like, when you say, I’m sorry, I can know I can’t work with you, there’s a percentage team of people that will now do everything they can to start working with you. You would have chased them for months and they would do nothing. But the minute you say, sorry, I can’t now you become their top priority.

Tim Melanson: It’s, it’s, it’s mad. That’s how it works in the dating world, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t know. Oh, yeah. So it’s time for your guest solo. So [00:37:00] tell me what’s exciting in your business right now.

Daniel Alfon: Um, I, I enjoy especially working with corporate refugees and first time entrepreneurs that are over 40 because they tend to have used LinkedIn, but not to build their business.

And, uh, when 20 year old, uh, people, uh, may come my way, then I’ll probably refer them to someone else because they, they don’t think about networking the way maybe both of us, and they will at one point, but their, their system is, is a bit different. And net, what I found is that networking is way, way more important than LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is the tool. It’s important. But it’s not what drives your business. Networking is what drives your business. Networking can end up in referrals and trying to ask yourself, how can I, who would be a good referral to that person? What sort of content would they be [00:38:00] interested in? Just thinking about that question will help you.

You don’t have to scout content for them. Don’t have to look and find people for them, but you’ll remember that when they said something about Dave Matthews band, then maybe you should ask him about it.

Tim Melanson: Exactly. Dave Matthews fan is awesome. So are the Beatles, by the way. So, so then, uh, so then tell me, how do we, how do we find you?

Like, uh, you know, is there anything, uh, obviously on LinkedIn, but, uh, but how else can

Daniel Alfon: we find you? Thank you very much, Tim. Just, uh, go to danielalfon. com. That’s Daniel and A L F O N. Thank you very much.

Tim Melanson: And I like the way that you’ve got on the video. If you’re watching on video, you can see that it’s right on his, uh, background.

That’s awesome. Well done. You’ve got it on there. Uh, but now, uh,

Daniel Alfon: sorry, I tried to be a work at home rockstar.

Tim Melanson: You sure are. [00:39:00] So now when they go to your LinkedIn, what do they do? Do they follow you? Just, do they send you a message? How are they going to get in touch with you? Um, yeah,

Daniel Alfon: I, I enabled, uh, messages for anyone that not only my connections, but the website also has a lot of content and a monthly newsletter and articles that are free and, and, uh, podcast almost as interesting as this one.

Tim Melanson: You’re too kind. Thank you so much for rocking out with me today, Daniel. That was a lot of fun and a lot of really great, uh, tips in there. Thank you so much.

Daniel Alfon: Thank you very much, Jim. And thank you for the, for the work you’re doing.

Tim Melanson: Thanks. And to the listeners, make sure you subscribe, rate, and comment, and we’ll see you next time on the work at home rockstar podcast.

Thanks for

Daniel Alfon: listening to learn how you can become a work at home rockstar or become a better one. Head on over to work at home rockstar. com today.