
In this lecture you read your own last month as a short report of four lines, you learn what each line is actually telling you about your practice, and you leave with one question to take into next month.
This course is built from six disciplines: impostor syndrome, career coaching, brand management, sales techniques, time management and company finance.
The map of the course
A dictionary for reading lectures recorded for companies and for coaches as work on your own practice
Three questions to ask after every lecture
A short self-diagnostic that shows which sections to watch first
Download the Freelance Month Readout and fill in one line after each lecture.
Tools in this lecture
Files to download (1)
Mike's own account of starting out and getting it wrong
Who an impostor really is: usually the person who knows most precisely what they do not know
Comparing yourself with successful people instead of with actual experts
Roughly seven people in ten experience it, and the "this comes too easily" trap
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (2)
What market value consists of, and whether you can move it
Whether it is possible to undersell yourself, and how it happens
Standing on three sources of income rather than one
The levers that work: a new position, a market move, consulting, speaking
Tools in this lecture
Models and methods explained (1)
What knowledge people actually pay for
Packaging it, and what it is worth
The route from knowledge through audience and product to payment
Why people with impostor syndrome often become the credible experts
Tools in this lecture
Models and methods explained (1)
Why this kind of work is in demand at all
What usually gets in the way of building something deliberately
The model of a working life worth having
A tool for assessing where yours currently stands
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (4)
Services and apps shown in this lecture (1)
Models and methods explained (3)
A tool for identifying what you are actually good at
A questionnaire for working out what you want
Forming a picture rather than a vague preference
Working with calling and values, and linking them together
Tools in this lecture
Files to download (1)
Ready to use on the slides (10)
Services and apps shown in this lecture (2)
Models and methods explained (4)
What impostor syndrome is, from the working side
Why it affects competent people specifically
The career cube model
A tool for assessing it, and a plan to get past it
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (4)
The balance wheel applied to your own capability
Finding out what the work you want actually requires
Drawing up a development plan you will follow
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (4)
Models and methods explained (1)
Why these determine more of an independent career than technical skill
Which ones are currently in demand
The balance wheel for personal qualities
Assessing yourself through competency questions, and a personality questionnaire
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (6)
Models and methods explained (1)
Testing how well you actually search
What the buying side does, and how to work with it
Finding out what the market pays before you quote
The strategies available, and choosing between them
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (2)
Models and methods explained (1)
Producing something a client will actually read
Building a profile that stands up
Preparing for the conversation
Keeping your own motivation intact through a dry month
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (9)
Services and apps shown in this lecture (5)
Why financial pressure quietly sets your rate for you
Auditing the situation you are actually in
Building a plan that removes the worst of the uncertainty
Tools in this lecture
Files to download (1)
Ready to use on the slides (3)
What burnout is, from the recovery side
What it costs an independent worker specifically
Diagnosing it in yourself honestly
Analysing the causes, and building a recovery strategy
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (5)
Models and methods explained (1)
A checklist for assessing where you are
Raising your level deliberately rather than by working longer
Eight situations that come up repeatedly, and what to do in each
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (5)
Who owns which brand decision when the company is one person
The six layers, and why the order matters
The AI stack: a map of tools by task
Brand equity and its economics, applied at your scale
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (7)
Models and methods explained (4)
What an audit covers, internal and external
Running the whole thing in an afternoon with AI
Checking how the language models describe you
Health metrics: awareness, consideration, net promoter, share of search
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (6)
Services and apps shown in this lecture (1)
Models and methods explained (1)
Mission, vision, values and purpose, formulated rather than assumed
The positioning formula: for whom, with what need
Generating fifty options and stress-testing them down to one
One position turned into six messages, plus naming and availability
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (15)
Services and apps shown in this lecture (3)
Models and methods explained (3)
Logo, colour, typography and graphics produced in a week
Tone of voice, brand vocabulary, and the do and do-not list
Training AI to write in your voice rather than its own
The brand book, and the legal side of generated assets
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (12)
Services and apps shown in this lecture (3)
Models and methods explained (3)
Campaign anatomy: big idea, creative, channels, activation
Generating thirty concepts in an hour
The production stack, and copywriting with AI as co-author
Channel mix across organic, paid, media and partnerships
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (7)
Services and apps shown in this lecture (1)
Models and methods explained (4)
The metrics framework: awareness, consideration, preference, loyalty
Building a health dashboard, and social listening on autopilot
Monitoring how AI systems mention you
The crisis playbook for the first 24 hours, and a 90-day plan
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (14)
Services and apps shown in this lecture (5)
Models and methods explained (4)
The stages of a sale, and AIDA as the structure underneath
SPIN: situation, problem, implication, need-payoff
FAB and the expectations list for reading what a client needs
The value proposition canvas, mirroring, and using references
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (11)
Models and methods explained (3)
The acquisition channels, online and offline, analysed with SWOT
Building a profile of the clients you actually want
Cold outreach, BANT qualification and the five-touch method
Social selling, and the elevator pitch
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (9)
Models and methods explained (10)
The ladder of persuasion, active listening and open questions
Presenting a service through story rather than a feature list
Handling objections with LAER and Feel, Felt, Found
Closing: the alternative choice and the direct close
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (11)
Models and methods explained (7)
Planning a week that contains actual selling
Goals in SMART form, and tracking them
The Eisenhower matrix and time blocking
Automating the process, and not burning out on the swing
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (9)
Services and apps shown in this lecture (13)
Models and methods explained (2)
Modern sales technology, and AI in client interaction
What a customer system is for when you are one person
The options compared
Automation, reporting and analysis inside it
Acquisition cost, lifetime value, conversion, average deal
Analysing your own funnel honestly
Building an improvement plan with the plan-do-check-act cycle
Collecting client feedback, and using it
Tools in this lecture
Ready to use on the slides (5)
Models and methods explained (11)
This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.
Freelance income is arithmetic: rate multiplied by hours. You have a finite number of hours, and most of them are already sold. Here are 317 tools to change the formula: 178 ready-to-use procedures, question lists, templates and AI prompts, 95 models and methods, 41 services shown on screen and 3 working files.
Open a lecture, take the template, and rework your offer this week.
Why freelancers work more and earn the same
The rate is set by fear, clients come from luck and referrals, and every hour goes to delivery or admin. There is no brand, no pipeline and no plan for the slow months, so the only way to grow is to work longer.
What changes after this course
You price on value, position yourself with a clear brand, run a client pipeline every week, protect your time and move beyond hourly billing to a business that can grow.
What is inside: 317 tools, counted lecture by lecture
You do not have to take this number on trust. Open any lecture and read its description: every tool inside is listed there by name.
Where the tools are
Pricing and career strategy (5 sections, 76 tools). Beliefs, strategy, skills, profile, client conversations and burnout.
Personal brand (2 sections, 89 tools). Positioning, identity and campaigns.
Clients and pipeline (2 sections, 88 tools). Qualification, acquisition, weekly habits and the pipeline.
Time (2 sections, 65 tools). Audit, priorities, unpaid work and procrastination.
Beyond hourly billing (4 sections, 35 tools). Business model, processes, budgeting and lean scaling.
Who is teaching
I am Mike, the #1 HR instructor on Udemy, with 1,800,000+ course enrollments from 170,000 students, and the author of about 200 books on Amazon. I built the people system at Preply as it became a unicorn and worked at Wargaming, iDeals and Alfa-Bank across 20 years in HR. I hold PHRi, SHRM-CP and HCI sHRBP certifications and represent HRCI in Eastern Europe. I am also a founder and lead the strategy of my own academy.
In 2012 I proposed a joint course to my coach, then met the team at Laba, a venue for offline master classes. They were good at marketing, and I persuaded them to run online training. In 2016 I launched my first online course with them and earned my first income from it, then started writing new ones. That side project grew into my own academy.
How to use the course
Start with pricing and career strategy, then build your brand, pipeline and time system. Section and lecture titles show how many tools are inside, and each lecture description lists them by name.
What is included
Where to start
Write down how many hours you sold last month and at what rate, then open the pricing lecture. Enrol now and start your first lesson today.