The ONE big shift I made that consistently brings me great freelance clients
TL;DR
- 0:40 – Mat Casner discusses his journey as a freelancer and the mindset shift that helped him succeed. He initially focused on displaying his skills and beautiful work in his portfolio but struggled to attract clients.
- 2:15 – Mat Casner realized that he needed to focus on solving clients’ problems, rather than just showcasing his skills. He became a problem solver rather than just a skilled freelancer.’
- 4:00 – Mat Casner shares an anecdote about a successful mechanic named Brian, who is also a problem solver and genius at his craft. The key takeaway: focus on how you can solve your clients’ problems.
The One Mindset Shift That Changed My Freelance Business Forever
I’m going to tell you about the one big shift I made in my freelance business that not only opened up my eyes, but became my number one selling tool. It helped me go from charging low prices and missing out on a lot of work to raising my rates and closing more jobs than I ever thought possible.
Why Most Freelancers Struggle to Find Clients (And What’s Really Going On)
I wish I could tell you I had these answers back when I started freelancing. Unfortunately, I cannot. There were a lot of things in my mind when I started that really just didn’t work.
They didn’t translate from my nine-to-five into this freelance life that I now have.
What I want to talk about is a mindset shift that took me from being stressed about finding work, finding clients, and closing deals — to opening up my email and seeing new requests from clients I’ve never even met who want to do business with me.
So how did I get there?
The Nine-to-Five Mindset That Was Holding Me Back
When I first started freelancing, my mindset was in a totally different space.
When I was working my nine-to-five, I was the web guy. I was the one who built the websites, designed the logos. When my project manager had a project, they’d lay it on my desk and say, “Here’s what we need — go do it.”
When I left that job, I carried that same mentality: you get work because you’re really good at it, and that’s where your value is.
So I focused on showing people what I could do. A beautiful portfolio. A polished website. I thought that was enough.
And I was frustrated. There would be so much work in my portfolio that I was proud of — but when it came to getting clients, there were just a lot of crickets.
I couldn’t understand why I had all this great experience, all this beautiful work, and people weren’t calling.
The Freelance Game Takes Time to Figure Out
If you’ve known me very long, you know my path as a freelancer has been long and arduous.
I spent years — over 15 years, actually — figuring out this whole freelance game and how to make it work.
And there was one point in that journey that changed everything. Once I understood this one thing I’m about to share with you, everything started to shift. The way I approached clients changed. The way I bid projects changed. My pricing changed. The percentage of jobs I was winning started climbing. All of these positive things happened because I made one big mindset shift.
The Mindset Shift: Stop Selling What You Do. Start Solving Problems.
When you start out as a freelancer, you’re wrapped up in what you can do.
You’re a logo designer. A writer. A web developer. An illustrator. You have skills and talents, and you’ve done great work — so you show that work and expect it to communicate your worth to potential clients.
Here’s the truth: clients care about the quality of your work, yes. But they kind of expect that to be there. What we miss when we’re starting out is that we forget about the problems our customers are facing and why they’d come to us in the first place.
When I started thinking about my work in relation to the problems I could solve, it changed the game completely.
I stopped focusing on whether the work was beautiful. I started asking:
- What are my clients’ pain points?
- What are their business goals?
- What is keeping them up at night?
- What are the big rocks in their way that they can’t remove themselves?
- What problems are they facing that I can actually solve?
I went from being someone who could crank out beautiful pieces of work to being a problem solver.
And when I started doing that — things changed.
The Brian Principle: Why People Drive Out of Their Way to Find the Right Person
I live in a small rural town in Kansas — about 650 people. When my wife and I first moved here, we had to figure out where everything was. The grocery store, the hardware store, the bank, the lumber yard.
Eventually, my car needed some repair work. I asked around: “Who do you recommend?”
Everybody kept telling me about Brian.
So I went out to Brian’s garage. And when I say went out, Brian doesn’t live in town. He doesn’t live anywhere near town. He lives out of the way, and his garage is right next to his house.
At first I’m thinking, how does Brian even get any business?
But when I pulled into Brian’s parking lot — it was packed. Completely full of cars. It would’ve looked like a small used car lot if it wasn’t a mechanic’s place.
I recently took my car back to Brian. I knew something was wrong with my engine — thought it was the serpentine belt. When I went to pick it up, Brian sat me down and said, “Let me tell you what I found.”
He told me I had a couple of idler pulleys with shot bearings. He’d gone and searched for the replacement part — and it was going to be almost a $700 part. So instead, he took the old pulleys off, found that they used standard bearings, and replaced just the bearings.
He saved me about $500.
I looked at him and said, “Thank you. I’m glad you were smart enough to figure that out.”
As I wrote that check — still several hundred dollars, but knowing he’d saved me several hundred more — I understood exactly why Brian is successful. I know why there are always cars in his driveway. I know why everyone in town keeps saying his name.
People don’t care that Brian lives out of the way. Because Brian is really good at solving mechanical problems.
What Freelancers Can Learn From Brian the Mechanic
As freelancers, we need to be really good at solving a specific type of problem.
Because at the end of the day, customers don’t pay for our effort. They pay for results.
They’re paying to have a problem solved — because either they don’t have time to figure it out, or they don’t want to. But they know if the problem doesn’t get solved, they can’t move forward.
So they find someone who can solve it. And here’s the key: when they find that person, they’re happy to pay them. Not only that, but when someone solves their problem and solves it well, they tell their friends.
When I started freelancing, I wasn’t good at solving problems — because I was waiting for clients to come to me with a project, and then I’d just execute it. I didn’t think about it as a business problem.
Now, I attack every client project with one primary question: What is the problem they’re having, and what will it take to get them real results?
How the Problem-Solving Mindset Changes Everything
When you do that, people will pay you what you’re worth.
They’ll bring more business back to you. And they’ll tell their friends who have similar problems exactly where to find you.
Since I shifted to a problem-solving mentality, there is more work coming to me than I can do myself. I have a network of people I love to share that work with — and it lets me focus on the projects I most want to work on.
So remember this:
People don’t pay for effort. They pay for results.
When they find out that you can solve a specific problem, they’ll come back again and again. They’ll pay you what you’re worth. And they will tell their friends.