Mastering Self-Awareness, Revenue, and Networking for Freelancers with Jit Puru

there is this concept called perceived value all right there's actual value and there's perceived value all right so let me give you an example say for example

you write a book okay in today's age it's honestly very easy to write and publish a book because we no longer need the traditional approach of having a

publisher to do it for us we can self-publish a book even in physical copies like my books uh which I have were all self-publish in 2016 right uh

at the same time it's very easy for you to create an ebook and even put it out on Amazon okay so let me ask you this

question if someone tells you that they are an author all right but their book is only available as a eBook on Amazon

without a physical copy what is the perceived value of that book all right chances are not as high as someone with

a physical book all right so that's the difference okay the perceived value actual value of the book is the same that means because the content doesn't change ebook physical book content

doesn't change all right so the actual value for someone who have picks it up and reads it will be same but the perceiv value is going to be very different between physical books and

ebooks all right uh there's this age old saying that goes never judge a book by the cover right unfortunately the real

world doesn't work that way all right people are very judgmental we are very judgmental and to me that's the reason why even though I've always considered

myself as a freelancer from the very first day I set up a proper business right a company so it doesn't need to be a private limited you know but as long

as it's a proper business all right it changes the relationship that you're going to have between you and your potential clients from the very first

day because the perceive value increases right in their mind oh you are serious about what you're doing you're not a fly

by night you know person who may be around today next week you may change your mind you know it shows commitment towards your cause all right so that

helps of course and then when you start working with bigger organizations you know like business uh organizations like those in the government sector or especially if you're going to work

anything to do with the financial sector then they don't want to work with Freelancers themselves they want to work with organizations where you know it's it's a proper

business that's why a lot of Freelancers end up working for other businesses you know so to me increase your perceived value from the get-go your actual value

is going to be the same you know which is you but make it easier for people to hire you by increasing your perceived value so that's that's why I did it from the very first no thank you I think it's a very important advice for some of us

who are considering whether we should set up a company this is the reason why we should it's a perceived value is a commitment to our uh the work that we are doing right so thank you very much

for that welcome uh now you've been a freelance for some time a few years and I'm sure you've gone through your ups and downs and pains along the way um and I want to go back to a book not your

book yet a book by James Clea called Atomic habits I'm not too sure whether anyone yeah you have read it excellent you love it excellent yes okay so I'm going to give you a quote from that book

here it says here you do not rise to the level of your goals you fall to the level of your systems what are the systems that you have in place and for

freelances I believe having systems are important for us to keep our energy our focus our pass going so I'd like to ask this being the central theme of our systems I want to start asking you

questions around systems and the first one I'm going to ask around is Sales Systems because as Freelancers we need to sell the reality is that we all have

to sell in one form or other all right so J what's the sales system that you adopt for yourself okay that's actually a very

good question okay that's a very good question and like you said I think it comes back to understanding this fact that right you could be a freelancer all right you

could be a business owner you could be doing it doesn't really matter what your product or service is but deep down at

the core of it all you are doing sales you have to understand that you are doing sales all right meaning the point

of a business is to generate Revenue all right and to generate profits how do you generate profits it's when your revenue

is higher than your cost that means your expenses has got to be lower than profits uh Revenue you generate profit and over time you want to increase this

profit that's how you you stay sustainable so in order to generate Revenue you have to do sales all right so you have to understand this very

simple concept around sales which is right when you are doing sales there's going to be two forms of sales that's going to be

happening there's inbound sales and there's outbound sales all right so what do I mean by inbound and outbound inbound sales

means people look for you right they come towards you meaning they call you they send you an email they approach you

and they say hey you are having this product and service I would like to hire you all right that's inbound sales

outbound sales is when you go out and you put yourself out there and you talk to people and you say hey this is what I

do this is what you may need I would like you to hire me all right so which do you think is harder to do inbound or

outbound outbound outbound right why is it harder to do outbound show value right because you a you got to show value right B you got to really be

prepared and see most importantly right uh you've got to face rejections okay uh sales at its core

it's very simple sales at its core it's very simple no matter the product or the service that you're selling sales only comes down to four steps and four steps

alone right this is the same across the board whether you're selling a 50 cents product or a $5 million product all right sales is only four steps first you

got to have something to sell a product or service next you got to keep a look out for the people who may need what you're selling not everyone all right

don't fall into that trap that what I do is meant for everyone all right don't be very specific who needs what you're doing doing right the step two is keep a

lookout for the people who may need what you're selling step number three tell them about what you're selling don't sell all right there is a difference

between telling and selling all right people love to buy remember this principle we okay love to buy but we

don't like being sold to isn't it true all right so don't sell my my take has always been that I never sell to my clients I inform my clients of what I

have I show value right but I never sell so step number three look uh tell the people what you have step number four ask them if they want to buy and it's

just a question would you like this at the end of these four steps only one of two things can happen either the customer says yes or they say no yes there is a third option they may say

maybe but maybe will still lead to a yes or no so once you get a yes or no what do you do next you go back to step one

and you repeat the process over and over and over again until the day you no longer want to do it and ladies and gentlemen that's sales that's all sales

is so what's the tough part about sales when you go back from a yes you are riding a high you're feeling good right you're feeling that people know your worth when you go back from a know

you're feeling rejected you're feeling dejected you're feeling worthless all right you get one no it's okay you get

two NOS H it's starting to pile up three NOS a little bit heavier four five 6 7 8 9 10 you feel you're not cut out to do

this and then guess what you no longer want to do outbound sales all right there is a paradox in sales right and I call it the sales rejection Paradox and the Paradox is this if you want to be in

if you want to be successful in sales you've got to go out and meet a lot of people because the more people you meet the higher the probability of closing a sale all right and I want you to listen

to this the higher your probability of closing a sale right sales is never 100% I've met a lot of sales people in my life I've done sales for a long time

I've worked with a lot of top sales people I've yet to come across someone with a 100% closing ratio meaning everyone they meet they close never

happens all right so the more people you meet the higher the probability of closing a sale the Paradox is the more people you meet the higher the number of

rejections you're going to get it's a given so you just got to work with your closing ratio all right so people don't do outbound sales because they fear

rejection and they fear perceived failure right they fear rejections and they fear perceived failure what what do I mean by perceive failure failure is

part and parcel of life if you look at the definition of the word success success means the accomplishment of a goal or purpose if you look at the definition of the word failure failure

means a lack of success failure means unsuccessful attempt in my opinion all right an unsuccessful attempt simply means you are now presented the

opportunity to try again with a better strategy to enhance your probability of success so there's no such thing as failure right there is just multiple

opportunities to succeed okay so that's why I say it's perceived failure so people fear rejections people fear perceived failure so they stop doing

outbound sales and they focus on inbound sales inbound sales meaning I sit at the comfort of my home I focus on things

like SEO I focus on things like creating amazing social media content I do stuff where you know I send emails you know

not even call calls I send emails because all this that is that wall to Shield you from

rejections so you do all of that work and hope that somebody will pick up the call somebody will write you that email

somebody will reach out and say Hey I want to hire you but believe me all right when you are new

right inbound sales inbound sales is rare there will always be the exception of the rule right ex exceptions of the rules to me is always inspiring motivating but it

should never be treated as The Benchmark right be very clear that if you are new focus on outbound sales put in the work

it's okay to get rejected it's part and parcel all right so my focus has always been on outbound it's still is on outbound sales all right so I hope that

no thank you for uh that one question but you give us a lot to take away right uh the focus is on the system is about inbound and outbound a lot of focus is on outbound and as you do outbound the

the fact is you're going to have rejections that's part of the Paradox part so I I've got a two two spin-off questions for you one is about I'm going to get rejected all the time it is

affecting me my motivation how do I now maintain my motivation what kind of system do you have or yeah what what do you do to maintain the motivation because you know 10 rejections you right I really want to

hide under the covers yeah and I really start believing that this is not for me but what do I do to keep at the momentum well I think first and foremost is

you've got to be very strong about the principles that you have like for example if what I said today about the sales rejection Paradox if this is something that resonates with you all right if it's something that okay if you

hear this you realize that yeah okay rejections is part and parcel of sale you know why am I fearing it I'm just going to go on so if this is a principle that resonates with you write it down

somewhere and keep it close to you at all points of time at all points of time you see rejection is an emotion all right

the feeling of failure is also an emotion that is the act of rejection and then there's the emotion of rejection the E of rejection is when someone says no the feeling of rejection is what you

feel when someone says no failure is the same thing the experience of failing is when something doesn't work out the emotion of failure is what we feel when

something doesn't work out so emotions whether positive or negative right good emotions bad emotions right always know this emotions require triggers all

emotions require triggers that's the reason why we are never perpetually happy neither are we perpetually sad right we are never perpetually motivated

neither are we perpetually demotivated every time there is a trigger that brings about certain emotions in us so if you are feeling rejected that means

something happened that triggered your your negative emotions now how can you trigger positive emotions all right

because time can um time can lower the intensity of emotions all right but sometimes you you need to be quick right you're feeling rejected right now but you've got to go for your next meeting

you don't want this to just Linger on right so what can you do to trigger positive emotions right so this is the question so what works for you may be very different than what works for me

what works for me will be very different than what works for you so there are over the like you know it's like um blanket interventions also like that just you know in general works for a lot

of people but you have to try it out so what works for for me right music always works for me right I have my playlist called immediate happiness so whenever I'm feeling a little bit down I listen

to my playlist it Hypes me up right I review back my principles that I've written down for example sales is you know uh rejections is part and parcel of

sales all right then I remind myself of the Paradox okay on top of that I listen to a lot of uh motivational podcast I watch a lot of uh inspirational videos

on YouTube use that to Advantage AG all right quick bites right then there are uh self coaching interventions that you

can apply all right self coing coaching interventions simple things like this okay there is one that I really love doing that's one that I've always shared everywhere I go with people because I

feel anybody and everybody can do this whenever you're feeling down doesn't mean just rejected any form of negative emotion whenever you're feeling down

all right there's four questions you can ask yourself all right and it goes in a logical flow and if you are going to write these questions down write it exactly the way that I'm going to

present it to you because that's the power of self- coaching it's questions but you got to ask the questions the right way so question number one is this what am I

feeling right and you write down whatever that you're feeling don't judge yourself all right don't overanalyze don't think just write whatever that

comes to mind what am I feeling question number two what led me to feel this way all right again write down whatever that

comes to mind question number three one of the most important questions you can ask yourself in times when you're feeling down and question number three

is how much longer do I want to feel this way right ask yourself how much longer do I want to feel this way so if you are feeling negative if you are feeling

pessimistic if you are feeling demotivated ask yourself how much longer do you want to feel this way and if your answer is I want to feel this way for one year then so be it it's a choice you

have decided you want to feel negative for a year then live with it and you accept it so what I'm trying to tell you is you have to own how you feel because

it is up to you how you want to feel all right so if you say I want to feel like this for a month I I want a week you know a day then it's okay be with it

live with it and then you move on from there but chances are right the moment you ask yourself how much longer do I want to feel this way especially when you're feeling negative that self-awareness will kick in that I don't

want to feel this way anymore I want to feel better why do I want to feel angry why do I want to feel sad why do I want to feel motivated demotivated you see all learning begins with self-awareness the moment that self-awareness hits

right question number four is going to be very easy to answer because question number four is what must I do next to feel better and trust me you do this

four questions you don't need me to tell you what to do you will know what to do to feel better right so that's a very simple self- coaching exercise so these are some of the systems that I have in

place right on top of that I've got great friends okay I don't have a lot of friends but the people who I have within my circle are people that I know that when I'm feeling down when I'm feeling

feeling demotivated I call them I will get that boost of energy that boost of motivation you don't want to surround yourself with people who are also

negative simply because when you are feeling negative the last thing you need is for it to become a competition of who is having a worse off day right it

doesn't help you want that people who is going to give you that kick right to pick you up because you are going to be be that same person for them when they

need you all right no one no one no one can go about life without help all right so so just know that all right so yeah thank you for that so uh is your group of friends in your phone book right are

they also happiness list cuz since he has a happiness playlist right I don't think I've got a happiness list of friends but I know I know who they are I know that's important no and so uh steing up from

there right what he said is he know knows who they are who he knows himself so one of the most important uh idea that you have given me is about self-awareness we need to have self-

awareness even as the work that we do right we need to understand what our triggers what gets us down what gets us up and be able to look at the triggers and then recalibrate that with those

beautiful four questions that he has asked anyone has a question for him uh a book is going to be given away to you before I go on to the next question about Revenue I'm very curious but

I'm opening up to the floor do you have any questions around motivation so one of the major problem in fact the only major problem I have that L is that um

procastination right because you work for yourself there's no full toic schedule right and things keep on coming

and interrupting your reg how how do you overcome that right thank you thank you for that question it's a it's a very real struggle procrastination I feel it

too every now and again because like you said we manage our own time right if we don't feel like working we don't work but then just know this right we people human beings we are all

creatures of habit the more we do something the better we get at it all right so if you want to overcome procrastination you've got to First

identify which is the space right where you are the most unproductive where you procrastinate the most all right I know

my space and that space is my home my home is the space where I procrastinate the most because my home is

comfortable you know I wake up I make my breakfast I sit down I have my music I turn on TV I sit on my couch it's so nice I pick up my phone I I go through

Tik Tok I do all this answer comments next thing I know it's already 11: it's already 12 half my day is gone and then it's lunch so I go out I have lunch I

come back it's comfortable food coma hits in it's time to take a nap wake up from that nap all right time to go out to the park exercise the day

just goes by so I know which is the area where I procrastinate the most so my first job every day on the days where I

know I have things to do or things things I wanted it my first thing I do is I get out of the house quick I wake up I take my shower I have a quick

breakfast I make my cup of coffee I'm out of the house in under 30 45 minutes I'm out I jump on a bus and I don't go far enough I just take the bus I live in

pis I go to White sense I sit down at the Starbucks and everything changes all right so my advice would be know one of the places which you procrastinate the most

find so the the opposite of that the spaces where you are most productive get yourself there right so I would say that that that's the easiest fix thank you

very much I will pass you your book also later uh again it's all about self awareness I've just been told you only got 15 minutes we were having fun I just forgot the time right just like that so

I want to ask you about Revenue right which is important for all of us isn't it we talked about sales but what about Revenue what are your thoughts in relation to generating Revenue you and do you have a system around that yep

okay 15 minutes left so I'm going to go a little bit faster I'm going to try okay cool okay so Revenue system understand that there are three pillars

to how you can generate Revenue okay there is active work but no Revenue all right this is marketing where you put in

a lot of work but you don't see money coming in directly because money comes in in different forms right sometimes in most times you actually have to spend

money for marketing all right so active work but you don't see a revenue then there's pillar number two active work

for active income all right so when I was speaking for a living all right every time I take stage I speak I get paid for it if I

want to get paid again I've got to take stage and deliver that speech again if you have a product or you have a service every time you sell your product or your service you get paid you want to get

paid again you now have to sell that product and service again so that's active work for active income and then there is the third vertical active work

for passive income meaning you put in the work once now this work has the potential to earn you a lifetime of

Revenue okay so if I were to give examples for all three of this based on me all right when I used to speak for a living active work for active income I

needed to do marketing how do I do marketing I write fre articles okay I create videos I put it up on YouTube I

come at speak at events like this right I Network these are all things that I do for marketing of course then I also do Google ads I spend some money you know so that's all

marketing when there's enough marketing I now get engagements to speak someone with me and say that you know what can you come and speak and all that so

active work for active income today all right I no longer do vertical 2 actively meaning I don't put myself out there to

sell myself as a speaker because I co co made me realize this okay how long can I

go about right active work for active income what comes the day that I cannot do it what comes the day when I'm not

allowed to do it like the pandemic how do I protect my rice bow and that's when I realized that this is not the way to move forward so vertical 3 is active

work for passive income my YouTube channel right I put in the work create videos cut it all up do interviews put it up this YouTube channel this YouTube

videos are monetized I earn a revenue from YouTube I put in the work once the revenue that I can earn is for a lifetime it's much smaller than how much

I get paid for a speech but I don't have to keep delivering the speech all right it's just accumulation it's based on volume right I've got affiliate programs

so every time I let's just say I feature someone on my channel someone has an e-learning program which they're already selling right they make me an affiliate I put the link in the description

anytime time someone buys that product right I earn a small commission all right and that goes on for a lifetime right I've got e-learning programs

myself right now I've taken them down because I'm doing some work on it because I want to re-release it but I've got my own e-learning programs I've got my ebooks I've also got my physical books these are all stuff that allows me

to earn a revenue even while I'm asleep even while I'm overseas all right so while I no longer focus on vertical tool doesn't mean I don't get vertical 2

anymore I still get invitations to speak I still get paid to speak but now it's a spill over from vertical three so my advice to you is this understand that

there is a third vertical right while you are a freelancer obviously a big part of what you do for most of you is going to be vertical too active work for active income it's okay but start

thinking about vertical three and start generating or or start creating digital products that can help you with passive income and it doesn't really need to be

digital product because if your product is physical it could be e-commerce Force right something that can allow you to earn while you sleep all right so focus

on on that as well don't just stop at active work for active income because it can get very tiring I'm at the stage in my life where I I don't want to work honestly I don't want to work I love coming like this and I love speaking

right and I speak like this I don't get paid to do this I don't want to get paid to speak speak like this because for me this is vertical one but where am I leading traffic to not to sell books all

right I'm not here today to sell books I'm here today for all of you all to know that I have a YouTube channel called ideas and inspiration it's got 670,000 subscribers I would like that

the end of today I've got 6,7 uh 67,2 or 30 more subscribers because after that each time you watch the

videos right it's revenue for me best part you don't pay me and I don't want your money YouTube pays me and I'll gladly take their money no thank you very much for that

and one of your videos have also gone up about 10 million views or something like that uh coming close to 15 million views okay all right stand corrected so you know ideas is an inspiration click on it

yep uh so steaming ideas and inspiration yes so uh spinning off from there jit uh you talked about sales we talk about Revenue very important the three pillars

right and we could talk about networking here because I think all of us it is co-related what do we get wrong about networking and what should we do

differently uh simple answer to that question when we Network we sell to the people we're networking with to me that's like the worst thing you can do oh all right and I'll tell you why all

right yeah they can probably buy from you but it ends there the relationship ends there where I'm the seller you're

the buyer I Network I go for events I sell to you to me right the value is not making you my buyer the value is in

making you my extended Salesforce I want you to go out and sell for me all right so how do we do that it's by building trust building

relationship so to me what I feel a lot of times Freelancers get wrong is we want to sell to everyone you know it's the same reason why when and I was 17

years old or yeah I was 17 I attended an insurance seminar back in Malaysia it was a recruiting seminar right it was nice they were selling the dream dream is great right anyone in the insurance

industry honestly the dream is there realate the dream is there there's enough success stories but there was one thing that was said in that seminar that stopped me from joining and till today

you know it's still and I realize it now because it went against what I believe in and what was said in that seminar was this if you join this industry Once you walk out right you no longer have

friends and family everyone is a potential client and you must sell to everyone that you meet if you want to be successful in this industry it did not

sit well with me at all even back then and I didn't join because I feel that's the wrong way to sell I want extended Salesforce I want to build relationship

with people I want people to go and sell for me if even till today whenever I send out like I just released a video on my channel day before yesterday right

when I send this link to people right I never send them hey do me a favor unless it's a really good friend but if not I never send to people I say hey new video release please watch like and comment

you know it really help me I don't you know why because I'm like okay that's going to be one view right and and you know what I do is I say hey I just released this video it's an interview

with this fitness trainer Who special speci izes in uh postpartum uh Fitness that means mothers after pregnancy all right she specializes in that I think

it's a very important topic I really am proud of this interview could you do me a favor and maybe share it with the people who in your network who may

benefit from it I never asked them to watch but will they watch they still will because you know they also want to watch remember people like to buy people don't like to be sold

to remember them right so I send it to them ask them for their help to send it out to their Network in the process they will watch and when they realize what

the video is about they will be more than happy to also share it if they find it's good and and to me that's the value right so networking uh worst thing you can do is sell to the People You Meet

the best thing you can do build a relationship build that trust and get them to help sell for you be your extended Salesforce oh thank you very much for that

uh yes you have a question you okay let's let's appla let's applaud then all right keep Applause all right so we got five more minutes but i' like to have you giving away your books you said

right or I've got three books to give away I've got one more for one question but you your books are going at $20 but today you are giving off your books at 12 $12 there's only there's only limited

copies I mean hey if you guys one it's here all right it is outside uh there is still a cheaper option for the books it's on K all right uh PDFs you know all that is

there so it's but if you do it today you got his sign you know autograph and take selfie you know then put up on your own Instagram yes you had a

question I yes I hope this question is not throwing a CO water you know people would give an AR in the lake to be a Flight pilot Right Flight attend it up

yeah what was the motivate driving force that for you to give up a full-time great career switch into a uncertain freance

business excellent question I spent many years contemplating on this especially in that first two years after I left I was like man why did I leave okay truth be told all right it

got a bit too monotonous for me all right and again I still stand by this all right I feel that being a flight or being a flight attendant right was one

of the best jobs ever simply because it's one of those jobs where your work ends where where your work ends I step out of the aircraft that's it I don't have I don't have work there's no overtime you know of course if there's a

flight delay that's overtime all right but uh work ends when work ends I step into the aircraft work starts all right I stay in all the best hotels in the

world all right I eat the best food in the world and I'm always somewhere new but after8 years all right it does get a

bit monotonous for those who are like me who I think I've always belonged in the creative space all right uh but never quite got into the creative space

because of traditional educational system there streaming Arts Engineering science you know I was in the science and so the path was quite set right so

monoto doesn't quite work for me all right and I think that's what creeped in unfortunately at that age I don't I

don't I didn't know what I know now so at that age I was like huh I'm not quite happy I don't know why but you know what let's just leave right I think

I'm meant for something more so I left in pursuit of something more so here's a little advice for you all right um it's never wrong to leave or find for

something more but try to figure out what that more means first because life will take you on a journey whether you like it or not but it's always nicer when it's your journey right if you know

where you're going it's a lot nicer so for me I didn't know and that's why I struggled for that first two years or so I I really struggled there was a lot of downs at that point of time all right I

I was no longer earning well finances became quite bad about a year plus year year and a half into uh trying to find my calling I still had no clue what I

wanted to do in life I was qualified right I have a diploma in mechanical engineering I have a degree in Engineering Management problem was I spent eight years in hospitality and I couldn't get back into engineering

because I was outdated right I could easily get back into Hospitality but I wasn't getting the kind of salary that I wanted and neither did I want to go back to hospitality because I know what's it's like right living people so it was

tough and on top of all that right uh the relationship that I was in you know came crumbling down went through a divorce and it was just a bad bad two

years but the good that came out of all of that is it put me on that path to focus on bettering myself and now I'm on

this path to help other people you know be that Medium of knowledge uh people have asked me before am I do I consider myself a guru do I consider myself someone who can Teach the World to be

better and my answer has always been absolutely not what I am is a vessel I'm a medium of knowledge right I feel one of my greatest strengths is I refuse to

stay down that's all right I get hit down just as much as every other person right I think there are people who even got hit down more than me but the only

difference is I just refuse to stay down I want to learn how to pick myself up and the moment I learn something that works now my next order of business is

to share it with the world you know with the hopes that someone else that's going through what I'm going to at least don't have to go it for that long and they can learn something as well if what I share

doesn't work for you all right it's okay that just means you got to keep looking all right because the answers are out there all right so be that solution

finder to your own challenges all right um end off right this I think this is important one of the things that we often ask ourself is why me when we are going through a hard time in life we

always ask this why me why is this happening to me why do bad things happen to good people I'm a good person you know I work hard blah blah blah blah blah it goes on here's the secret here's the answer why me never answers any

questions why me only takes you back to the negative experience and the more time you spend in that negative experience the more intense the negative emotions become all right it's a

self-destruct cycle all right so instead of why me ask yourself remember question number four just now what must I do next that's all because that shifts you from

being a victim to a solution finder why me shift it to what must I do next any problem any challenge in your

life ask yourself what must I do next and it will activate the solution finder in yourself if you don't have the answers then what must I do next is going find the answers read a book watch

a video talk to people attend seminars you know it's it's there right thank you very much jit and we have uh come to the end of it so very quick summary right

they very excited quick summary what I'm hearing from you is for all of us to be very self-aware about who we are right set up your company focus on your sales from not only from inbound but also

outbound understand that it comes with rejections and also focus on your Revenue the three different pillars and network with the idea of having an extended Salesforce and follow your

passion yes it's going to be a rough right but Follow Your Passion because there is going to be a lot of happiness throughout that all right so with that thank you very much AJ all right I'd

like to give you a token of appreciation cool thank you thank you