How To Build A Six-Figure Freelance or Consulting Business - With Kate Bagoy

Tom Bailey, Founder of Succeed Through Speaking, Interviews Kate Bagoy

Kate Bagoy is a Forbes Council’s business coach and the founder of SixFigureFreelancers.com, where she helps freedom-focused tech & corporate creatives escape the 9-to-5. A self-professed nerd with an MBA and a UX design strategist, she's worked with more than 50 startups and has coached 1000’s of consultants through starting online businesses. An adventurer at heart, Kate travels as a digital nomad and has been running her business entirely online - from 25 countries so far - since 2017.

Why you've got to check out Kate's episode:

- Discover if you fall into the category of a 'creative corporate burnout' whereby you are in a mid-level career, dying to get out of the 9-5 and fed up of the corporate B.S.

- Understand the biggest challenge that people in this situation might have including fear, mindset and overcoming some critical limiting beliefs.

- Find out what you need to do to break free from constantly 'going through the motions' and how to stop overthinking and start doing.

- Learn the one valuable piece of advice from Kate which is all about keeping it simple and going all in on one core strategy.

- Get FREE access to Kate's portal so that you can access her free resources and training materials.

Resources / Links

https://go.katebagoy.com/ebook

https://www.sixfigurefreelancers.com/

Transcript

Tom Bailey: Hello and welcome to the flow and grow expert interviews. The place for experts and entrepreneurs who want high value ideas to boost business results.

Hello, I'm Tom Bailey, helping you get your message to market. And in this episode, I'm joined by Kate Bagoy , who is a Forbes counsel business coach, and the founder of six bigger freelancers.com. So Kate, hello, and a very warm welcome to today's episode.

Kate Bagoy: Hey Tom, thanks so much for having me today. Thanks for coming in.

Tom Bailey: And whereabouts are you in the world right now?

Kate Bagoy: I am currently located in Tucson, Arizona.

Tom Bailey: Perfect. And if I've done my research correctly, am I right in thinking that you've spent the past three or four years traveling all over the world, running this online business? And was it 25 countries you've spent time in?

Kate Bagoy: You are pretty correct. I think it was 25. Might've been more or less. But yeah, iI spent about three and a half years traveling fully nomadic, just me in a suitcase. And then I've been kind of half-time nomad for the last two years.

Tom Bailey: Perfect. And so that is that because of your adventurer background, you like getting out there and seeing the world.

Kate Bagoy: I do. One of my favorite hobbies is travel. I'm really inspired by travel and my sub hobby is photography. And so, the opportunity came to travel. I initially started traveling with a company called remote year on one of their itineraries, and then I just kept going on my own.

Tom Bailey: Perfect. So probably lots of incredible stories to share. But first of all, let's take a quick look at what you do. So, I've got here that Kate helps freedom focused tech and corporate creatives to escape the nine to five. And Kate, you've got a background in both your business background with your MBA and also in UX design, which is pretty cool. And you've also helped more than 50 startups and coached over a thousand consultants through starting an online business.

Kate Bagoy: Correct.

Tom Bailey: The title for today's episode is how to build a six figure freelance or consulting business. And Kate's going to show us how to do that in just under seven minutes. So, Kate, the first question for you is who are your ideal clients?

Kate Bagoy: So, my ideal clients are what I call creative corporate burnouts whether or not they're actually designers or copywriters they're idea people usually mid-level career. And they're just dying to get out of the nine to five they're sick of all the corporate BS and they want to do their own thing, but they're overwhelmed at the thought of giving up that salary and starting a business.

Tom Bailey: Got it. And so that made me feel a little bit stuck and what's the biggest challenge that they face when they're stuck in this situation.

Kate Bagoy: The biggest challenge is really fear, although they might not think that that's what's going on. What happens is our fear manifests in different ways like over-complicating and overthinking things and failing to act or avoiding the actions that we need to do. So, the biggest, biggest challenge really is their, their fear and their mindset.

Tom Bailey: And, and I guess with this this fear or limiting beliefs or this little mindset, that's holding them back. And what impact does that typically have on their lives or in fact, their business or their success?

Kate Bagoy: Oh, goodness. Well, it's a, it's a complicated issue, but first thing is they're usually really burnt out in their corporate jobs.

So, they're just kind of going through the motions and then that leads to this kind of apathy after work and the inability to prioritize the things that actually make them feel good or that will get them closer to the business that they want. And oftentimes what I find is that the people that I work with are, they're very intelligent. And the unfortunate thing about being very intelligent is you tend to really over-complicate things. And so, they spend a lot of time thinking rather than doing.

Tom Bailey: Got it. Yeah. Perfect. And, and I guess they spend this time thinking they're stuck there and overthinking, like you said, now what's one valuable piece of advice that you might give somebody who's stuck in this position that might help them solve that problem.

Kate Bagoy: Yeah. Keep it simple you know, get hyper-focused on the client that you want to serve in your business. What you can do for them better than anybody else does. And then choose one marketing method to focus on for the first three to six months and go all in on that. One of the greatest ways that, that people over-complicate their businesses in the beginning, is they try to be all things to all people and build an amazing million-dollar brand, and you really don't need that to get started as a freelancer or consultant.

Tom Bailey: And that focus and prioritization is so key because we all, we sometimes get stuck with the shiny objects. Don't we, the, the new best thing to go after. And ultimately it distracts us from actually getting results and taking good action.

Kate Bagoy: Yeah, absolutely.

Tom Bailey: Okay. Perfect. So I guess with all this experience, knowledge information that you've got, and is there some way we can direct people to get access to your free resources or value that you can share with them?

Kate Bagoy: Yeah, you can just go to six figure freelancers.com and you can opt in and you'll get access to our freebie portal with a number of resources and free trainings.

Tom Bailey: Awesome. Perfect. So I'll put that link below this audio or video and that's six figure freelances.com and obviously you can access the content from there. So, I'm going to start the off topic now. What would you say is your greatest failure that you've made either in life or business and what did you learn from that failure?

Kate Bagoy: You know, I like to tell people that one of my super powers is doing things the hard way. I've always learned the hard way. And so, I've had a lot of failures, but they're all learning opportunities. I would say the biggest mistake that I made in business was when I started this coaching business, this is my second business.

I was previously or six figure freelancer. But when I started coaching business, I did exactly what I taught. But earlier I tried to build this million dollar brand. I just tried to emulate all these coaches that were really successful. And then I made a really bad investment and hired somebody for like five grand to run Facebook ads.

And I ate through most of the budget that I had to build that business with zero results. So, I think the biggest failure is investing in the wrong things at the wrong time. And then sticking to it because it was like, well, somebody told me I should do Facebook ads. So, we're going to let these run for three months, even though nothing was happening.

Tom Bailey: Yeah. Got it. And, and I guess you know, this decision you made, is that something that you made on your own? Did you have a business coach at the time or a mentor

Kate Bagoy: At the time I didn’t. I had gone through a business coaching program with a mentor who was probably not the best person to take business advice from in hindsight, but I didn't know that at the time, you know, we're, we're naive when we're starting, and I've since corrected those mistakes. And now I do things a little more authentic to me instead of listening to the gurus.

Tom Bailey: Yep. Perfect. Excellent. Great. And finally from me is, and interestingly, what, what's one question that I should have asked you that would also give great value to our audience today?

Kate Bagoy: I think probably the one question that I would love to answer would be what's the best investment you can make when you're starting a business. And to me, I think that's anything that increases or improves your mindset and your resilience. So, whether that's coaching or an event where you can get fired up and inspired about your business, investing in yourself is always the best investment you make.

Tom Bailey: Perfect. And, and that sort of ultimately the foundation that we built our business from it is our own mindset.

Kate Bagoy: And yeah, in my humble opinion, your mindset is really the number one key to your success. As the business owner, it will either make you or break you.

Tom Bailey: Great. And Kate, thank you so much again for your time today. I've really enjoyed speaking with you and hopefully we can catch up again soon.

Kate Bagoy: Thanks so much, Tom. I appreciate you having me here. .