Scottson with the Daily Google News and I'm here with my buddy Jan Slonik. Yes. How did I do? Good. Yeah. Long time YouTube subscriber, asks brilliant questions. One of the sharpest guys that shows up to our live regularly. How long have you been watching us on the tubes? I think I've subscribed before you had 1k subscribers. Nice. I was going to say back when we didn't know what we were doing. The truth is we still don't know what we're doing. Yeah. But in the infancy of the YouTube days, super appreciate you, man. You've always been just like so engaged. and you bring hard questions and those are my favorite people. Cause it means you're thinking, so if you're watching this, Jan moved from the agency world to the freelance world. And I love those stories because I feel like so many people. Need to do that in art, maybe, or want to do it and don't know how, we're going to hopefully get there a little bit young. Tell us if you don't mind just a little bit of your background, a little of the story. Yeah, maybe I just want to touch on, because you said a lot of people don't know how I think a lot of people are scared to do it. Yeah, because. Like it's a hard, like move to make, whenever something is hard, I feel like you grow. I think it's really important to ask yourself those questions. If you are a right person to do something like this, and if you can do it, or at least try to do it, it's going to make you grow no matter if you go back to work for someone else, or if you're going to stay a freelancer, I think I grew like personally and on a business level the most since I've moved. So it's been good three years now. started in an agency, because my brother is an agency owner, but I quickly figured out it wasn't for me, like the nine to five. I'm not a morning person. It was really hard for me to get up. like to stay up late at night. I figured and also he figured out like after a year and a half ish that it just wasn't working right. This isn't where you're most effective. I want to meditate on that for just a minute. we, for some weird reason globally, like to shame people that don't fit in the box. I agree. there's something about it. It was like, Oh, you don't conform. And so you need to feel bad about yourself. You're doing it wrong. it's such a flawed model because often not to pander, but those are the sharpest people. Those are people that really should maybe be given the flexibility that they need to go do the thing that they're doing. And my business partner, John Moran is he's like that. John's a night owl stays up two o'clock in the morning. John is horrible at. Following processes, John doesn't do a bunch of things that if we were a night, not brick and mortar, but ivory tower, white glove agency, like he wouldn't have lasted 30 days. And yet he's the best Google ads guy in the whole wide world. what I'd love to do, and this is more for our listeners and our viewers, Yohan, than it is for you, but I love what you said. Oh, I figured out this didn't work for me. Yeah. That's okay. Stop trying to smash yourself into a box. Like you're Play Doh you're not, if people really like the nine to five and they feel really comfortable with the security and they're like, gosh, I have a ton of fun being here. Awesome. If not, there's nothing wrong with you and do what Jan did and take the leap, which is scary. So talk to us about that. Like year and a half in the agency, you figured out like, all right, this isn't really my jam. Were you scared? Were you ready? How did that feel? I definitely wasn't ready. I wouldn't say I was scared 'cause I'm, not such a person to be like, intimidated by something I feel. I just go with the flow. What happens. I'll figure it out in a way. but can just step back a bit cause I think it's important I think it starts in school, right? Because you just, learn. A wide variety of topics and you can be only good at one, but the school system tells you are you're bad, right? But if you're good at that one thing, just do that one thing, right? And just do it great. And things are going to work out for you, I feel. don't think I was scared but yeah, now that I have eight clients I manage eight clients with my girlfriend as well. Business is going great. how did you get your very first client? Cause that's every freelancer's biggest problem is where does my first client come from? basically my girlfriend was working with a guy that was working as a freelancer for another company. And he said that they needed a Google ads. Advertiser. It was easy to get the first one. so that's the story that I hear from a lot of people is they started their freelance career after a client fell into their lap. And so really for those watching that want to start freelance, maybe that's the key is run a flag up the pole, on LinkedIn, put the word out, start talking to your network and just let people know, Hey, I'm interested. And you don't have to quit your job, by the way. You can work your job, work freelance on the side, and then figure it out. How did you decide what to charge them? How did you know what to bill? basically the agreement it was about a minimum wage for Slovenia. So let's say you get about a thousand euro net in Slovenia. It's a bit lower or it was a bit lower at the time. when I went as a freelancer, you have to open a sole proprietorship and you have to pay taxes. So it was like a thousand plus the taxes, let's say. So I knew I was covered like, on the lowest level I could be. And then I was like, okay, I'll get through the day with this kind of money. and the initial agreement was that I will be working, eight hours a day for that company. and I also did, and I still do some Facebook advertising for them. but nowadays don't do closely to eight hours a day for that company. But I don't think that matters At the end is what you bring to the table, right? how well you can do your job, right? so you just said something that I think is really brilliant. The 1st piece of the freelancing model for me is you have to cover your nut, make sure that you can cover your core expenses. And then once you've done that. Now, you can start to be branch out, be more sophisticated, have higher end clients, but covering your core expenses is critical. Number 1 number 2, the thing that I really liked is avoid anything that's hourly. It's not about the time in. It's about the output. What is it that you're doing? What is it that you're pushing out? that's the freelance model. If you're going to be paid hourly, go be an employee somewhere. That's my opinion, I don't want to project that onto you. Do you agree or do you work on an hourly I totally agree. I really rarely work on an hourly basis. If I know it's going to be a really short project, for example, I might go with hourly rate, but I really try to avoid it as much as I can. Yeah. And so if you've got eight clients, how did you get the other seven? I think for about a year, I only had that one client and I didn't feel like even I was capable enough to take on more clients because I was still figuring it out. So I was mostly working for on Google ads Sometimes I felt like had no clue what I was doing. And that's where your channel came in. It doesn't go away, by the way, Jan, I still have this doing something, I still have this. but at least now I know, okay, I can do it at the decent level, To put it mildly. I was still figuring out a lot of stuff. I was watching your channel, like I still do basically daily and that's how I leveled up my knowledge everything I do. And then, I got the 2nd client after, I think it was just about a year, maybe a year and 2 months. After the first one, and they reached out to me on LinkedIn. It was, an agency that, was looking for a digital agency that was looking for a Google ads advertiser because, they didn't have a proper one in house, let's say. and I, still work with them to this day. And, I work on two projects with them. is awesome. I love that they came from LinkedIn, by the way, I feel like LinkedIn is, Underappreciated. And it's a really good opportunity to do some networking. not that cold outreach jump in your DMS BS, but like some honest to goodness, real networking and outreach. if a meteor hit my business tomorrow and I had to just pound the pavement and get new work, would be on LinkedIn for me. it's just so many people are so accessible and if you'll take the time to really get to know them and their needs, I get that question a lot. What do you find clients? I think LinkedIn is a good place, but it's not just Oh, can I do your Google ads via direct messenger? it's being, intelligent and sophisticated and having good conversations. I don't even do that much on LinkedIn on its own. So it's surprising to me how many. outreaches I get, like how many people write to me that they need help with something or even job offers. And I basically always decline them because they want someone, on the site. And I'm like, no, I'm really grateful. I can do this freelancing work from my home, especially I'm a big introvert, even though it might not show. I learned how to be an extrovert, let's say, but, In my core, I'm still a huge introvert and I really don't like big groups of people. And that's why this didn't work for me. most of my clients came from LinkedIn or referrals. Someone knew someone that needed help that's the easiest way. and I feel like the longer you are in business, More people will just reach out to you. Work flows to the competent. That's exactly right.