264: How Jade Strategically Prepared Her Freelance Business During Pregnancy (Part 1)

0:00Most people think pregnancy means slowing down, but for Jade Wei, it was the perfect time to get strategic. Instead of waiting to come back after becoming a mom, she used that season to realign her niche, invest in mentorship. Full disclaimer, she is one of our Fast Track grads and credits the program for many of her results. And she also spent her pregnancy time preparing her freelance business for what she now calls version 3.0. In part one of this two-part episode, you'll hear from Jade on how she laid the foundation for a more intentional, energy-aligned business before her baby even arrived, and why that made all the difference when she returned to client work just weeks postpartum.

0:38Plus, I'll leave you with a juicy cliffhanger about the custom proposals that Jade puts together to help her land high-paying clients. So make sure to come back for part two. All right, well, Jade, welcome back to the podcast. I'm so excited to have you here again. And it's been two years since we last had you on the show. You and I have chatted since then, but since everyone else heard from you, it's been a hot minute. And we have a very different part of your journey to talk about and share on the show today, which is all about you having an amazing, beautiful child, Obi, and welcoming him into this world.

1:14And also talking about what does it look like to, as a woman, have a baby? and then build your way back into your freelance business because that is not, you know, we lose things like maternity coverage and paid time off. And there's some benefits and stuff that I think can become really challenging when you work for yourself and you have a child. And so we have a ton of other things to talk about too, like how you've built up your client base again without a portfolio, so many great things. yeah um so so that being said i where do you want to start with this story um what feels like the right right place in the journey to kind of pick up here i think i want to kind of like set the

2:01Jade Wei:foundation first like basically i made a strategic decision like while i'm maybe getting pregnant that's the time i'm gonna like start rebuilding my freelance business so it's before i even got pregnant i already kind of like you know preparing um for example like i prefer to join your fast track program and yeah just certain other thing i know i need to learn more when it comes to freelancing because even i've been freelancing for many years but there's so many other aspects when it comes to business side of things i feel i'm still very immature in essence so i will and you know me i'm like a lifetime learner right and i just want to learn more to kind of like first even like for my own business like i always build a brand have a brand but then i at the time i'm kind of like thinking when i want to go back to freelancing at first i thought they're very contradictory but then at the time i go i feel like actually they're really like there's a synergy between the two so then i didn't kind of like find a let's say a superpower stream kind of like get what i learned from my brand like building everything like basically all the solutions that i found that i can help other brands like you know yeah so then i i just think like for this period of time I can actually do a different type of freelancing business for myself yeah so I think that's the foundation before I made the decision so then I think like once I was like in my early stage of pregnancy when I joined fast track I think and at that time yeah i think it was less than three months when i made the call at that point i feel like you were in the process of trying very very early age okay okay yeah so then so then i'm yeah so it's like all the morning sickness you know all that that's right yeah but i still want to make that commitment to the program to show up whenever i can because i feel this is where accountability buddies are so important for me because i feel we all have days we don't feel great but sometimes i you just need someone else like you know give you extra nudge to show up yeah and i feel like everything you can't do everything perfect from start but you gotta start somewhere so by showing up is how you kind of like learn and then your words build your muscles so so i thought that was the perfect time for me to do that and then through that i just learned so many different you know stages and process about like working with the client on board like discovery call and then like sales call that's the call but then there's a proposal call really right and how to do a proposal and how to navigate conversations you know in a you know life situation not just email back and forth, that type of thing.

5:23Jade Wei:So I feel like through that course, I really learned a lot. And also like workshopping with other freelancers, it really kind of helped speed up my learning kind of like pace. Yeah, so that's the beginning of like, yeah, kind of like trying to come back into this space. And I think like that was beginning of last year, right? And then I had OB in summer. Beginning of 2024. yes yeah yeah and i think it's just about a year yeah all became summer so less than a year really i just feel i have to kind of like speed learning all this because i want to be ready when i'm ready yeah so i just have so it's a lot of like um back and work and i also did kind of plan to take a year off invest in learning all this investing myself kind of take a pivot and obviously you know me i've been learning 3d and all the other things behind scene as well because i really made a decision i want to do freelancing again but this is like my let's say 2.0 or 3.0 freelancing business because i want to integrate all the new technology that blending with my traditional background like you know the design development process yeah yeah everything or even design and product development everything sampling all that so it's a big like change or should we say transformation like because a lot of people using our world when you adopt 3d and i really believe that too so so it's all this it's just like i have a kind of goal i want how i want to set this up so i kind of have those i write down quite clearly so i'm just kind of like then breaking them back and into steps okay what steps i can take even in a difficult time but actually i felt like my um pregnancy period was quite peaceful and quite nice so that's why i get to learn a lot and then i and that bring me so much joy so i really had a great like time during pregnancy making this transition as well so yeah so that's that and then i just do that up until he was born and it was a bit of shock because I went into a natural birth but then ended up in an emergency c-section that wasn't planned and then so but again I think life really sometimes throw you unexpected events just to see how you I like to say show up for that challenge because I guess prior to Obi came and yeah, people around me know I also lost my dad in March, same year.

8:17Jade Wei:So I had to go back home to attend his funeral in Taiwan, which if I'm working, that's not possible. But because I decided freelancing also I was taking time of building business. I can do that. I don't have anyone to ask permission to do that. So I guess going through all that, it really, yeah, it made me grow differently. Like just mindset or even just how I think about my purpose, everything changed. Yeah, I was talking about this. Like I feel everything changed for me, but nothing changed in some way, you know because i'm still in fashion i'm still helping brands to deliver the same result or better result you know and i'm still yeah passion for creation but then it's just how i how i deal with it are different like very different yeah so i think like yeah that that really helped me to go into yeah

9:37Jade Wei:yeah after OB came there was I think I actually had the rest but after six weeks I started working again yeah just building things learning things because I just I think I need more than just being a mom always even he's my everything but at the same time i am his everything but i can't be his everything if i i'm i'm not fulfilled myself and i as i didn't know how i would feel when i everybody would tell you right but until that moment you have your own child you don't know how you feel i thought i want to be maybe full-time mom but yeah interestingly i didn't feel that but we still want to do other child care ourselves but i want to be able to show him i can look after him at the same time manage my own thing because i i do believe that and also i think that's kind like something because my dad's past that even made me even more like because how he was it made me want to carry that through so he lived through me because he never let anything stop him he's such a like person to there to inspire be there for you know other people and he wouldn't let anything that happened in his life become an excuse he always turning around become a positive thing and then it's just like how your perspective can change your past and that I think I learned through and through like since my mom passed away in my 20s and then my dad like my early 40s because I think like that's quite early for someone to lose both parents yeah and so I would say like that in it's not easy but at the same time it really kind of like helped me to build different type of strengths and also like mindset change like fast track should we put it that way yeah so then yeah so i think like yeah that and then like so as soon as he came i realized right i want to be a mom there for him but at the same time i'm never going to be a full-time mom just my priority or my everything is looking after him yeah so very quickly i figured out and and we luckily our family are very supportive and my husband is very good with the baby surprisingly but not but yeah so i really have really supporting husband and family for me to continue to do this so i want to address this because i feel this is something like people maybe don't talk enough like we only see the result but there's so many things behind the door like what are other factors like for this person to achieve certain things right and i feel sometimes that this type of thing maybe it's better to be more transparent so then people don't compare themselves to something that is not even in the same context you know so i guess that's what I do want to share yeah but yeah in terms of like yeah client everything interestingly while I was close the time to give birth I start getting a lot of like um messages from LinkedIn or I have people book calls and they all book calls like for September October that type of time as well and I just feel like this is really interesting I know I had OB in August as if it's planned there waiting for me to be ready to be go on this journey again you know and then everything I feel like the timing just like so perfectly like plan out because after I OB I say to you like after six weeks I start working and and then I think you launch another like a monthly subscription type of like support program and i thought okay i want to join that because i want to kind of see people again and chat to other freelancers again and then i also know okay i i think i have a lot more new client coming how do i do this differently this time around so i really want to learn and i want to learn it fast like in the months or two basically so i just kind of try to be a sponge because I literally I feel unless I go in with a mindset I don't know anything I feel sometimes like we block ourselves like I've already done it for so long I don't need to learn another thing but then I feel that's that's the real blocker that's what I learned over you know especially like yeah yeah anyway so that's that's it I have open mindset just kind of like teach me you know like what what other way works for other people because i also get not one way work for everybody we need to kind of go out and learn but then at the same time you got a filter for yourself like what works for you and what doesn't and about this i feel like um for example i joined a fast program right and the core foundation is called pitch i try maybe one time but very quickly i realize that's not for me but then I then figure out okay if that's not a solution for me what alternative I'm gonna look into so then I guess I start looking for other ways and I learned actually if you don't want to do that you gotta put yourself out there hence I start I start and also you gave a little notch hence I start LinkedIn and not even posting to start with just try to be there like engage with people's content that i'm generally interesting and passionate about and also i maybe have a little something i can share to just another perspective so literally just from there and i really enjoy that platform to be communicated that way and then yeah so then i guess that kind of cultivating other thing coming in i guess new column that way because some of them i don't even know why they booked the call really only one i asked only a few weeks ago she told me because she saw one of my comments in another person's um post and she thought i'm very yeah just by that comment she thought i'm very knowledgeable but also very approachable that's why she booked the call so i thought that's nice to kind of like understand right how they feel by my presence online that way yeah because for me like to be on social platform because i i don't really share my work on social really like until now i'm slowly on LinkedIn but because in the past my mindset is like i don't want to be i don't want to show off what i do on there but this is just you know i don't know why i end up having that mindset in my mind but then once i reframe it actually i should share what i know with people or just share what i do this would be because i i guess i when i think about someone younger than me or me as a younger version of myself i would love to see something like this then that's that literally yeah shift how i feel about posting on social about work so instead of like i'm gonna post all the great stuff i'm doing you flipped it of like boy i think i have some things to teach and educate and if i was before i knew all this information i was my younger self i would be interested in learning these things too i i think i would even say not like i i don't think like about me teaching someone i think it's more about share my way because i feel be i guess i never see myself as a teacher right but and a lot of people coming to me to ask my advice or how do i do things certain way so i like to share my approach or my method because i also understand teaching and learning is such a it's such a dance because someone's teaching teaching even is good but certain people maybe they don't understand that teaching style they're still not gonna get it right so i feel like when you when i try to share i'm all kind of go home from yeah share not teach perspective because i i just feel like yeah teaching is such a big word for me i feel like you know you gotta be like a master to teach that type of thing um okay I appreciate that perspective quite a bit um I have a bunch of questions about stuff you've already said can we pause for a minute I want to ask a couple nuanced yeah sure yeah so first you said you plan to take a year off was that after OB was born you were going to take the first year off no it's like when I during my pregnancy yeah so I'm literally already start working six weeks after he was born right i realized that let's say uh i start taking discovery call in september october he was he was born in august yeah yeah so i i didn't know but then everything seems kind of turned out that way for me as well i plan okay after he born i will see where it is and then like if i go work i maybe just start picking up some work right yeah but then it's yeah so it's very interesting and but then i will put it into some people might say this is like a thing but for me i really believe energy like if i i kind of like put my energy or my mind i align myself with certain frequency i always believe i'm gonna attract you know people they probably around the center energy or we align with certain things that's why they will attract it to me so that's the thing for me so i feel maybe yeah in life i think in the last i would say maybe 10 years that worked quite well for me kind of like you know doing this kind of self learning and then all the things more than what we can see or what we can tangible understand it kind of helped me to guide me through tangible things as well yeah yeah yeah so okay so your year off was planned to be during the pregnancy but you during that time you were hyper focused on learning I it sounds like a lot of it I know you took fast track with with us and um learning more about building your freelance business also up leveling some of your skills within the industry leaning more heavily into 3d is that kind of how it panned out yeah and then also starting to post on linkedin which that kind of come organically a bit later towards the end of 2024 because at the beginning i didn't even know if i would like it or i would enjoy it i i just like to be on there like talking with people communicating with people about okay the topic around 3d about the topic around pattern making because those are the things i'm really like interested in and also finding out okay this 3d thing how am i gonna be able to use it as a tool to help the process and you know like why am i gonna like adopting this right and why am i using it i i kind of want to find out more because i feel if i kind of i understand more i can explain better too because i don't want to try to sell this service to any client come to me and which kind of like you know a lot because later on all the new clients come to me they come to me because they want me to work in 3d first of all to start with i didn't need to sell them that 3d so at the same time they maybe don't know as much as i do so i then get to share with them more of the value of 3d they don't even know or the scope beyond what they know as well.

22:07Jade Wei:So that was a very interesting journey for me. Basically, just going on my set, I don't know anything. I'm going to be a new sponge to learn in this 3D space, in this new freelance business space. And then I guess very quickly, the freelancing for me, because I always have a brand and I always have so many creative solutions for business, I figure myself more of an entrepreneur than freelancer. So I see my position. I'm not really just a freelancer taking project, which is like a productized thing. I'm more like a strategic partner. I will help them to think of design solutions, but creatively, technically give them the support to create, let's say the collection or for the launch.

23:03Jade Wei:But then, yeah, so it's just more than that, I guess. Those are the things I'd really like to note out about because I'm personally very interested in all that aspect as well. Yeah. Yeah, so I guess that helped even during my proposal and somehow maybe that contributes to I have a really high success rate for closing the proposal. I think maybe because straight away I understand what they need by asking a lot of questions and then to understand if we align. And then I think like after, you can say they check this. Sometimes I feel like because what I say about that, I try to send off a certain, I want to send out all my energy.

23:54Jade Wei:So I attract things already aligned with me. so when those clients come I feel it's so much easier I don't need to explain myself or even try to convey my value to them try to sell myself to them I feel we all like a a star that we already have a mutual you know trust or even I yeah because respect I feel you kind of got it all but then trust is something yeah it's very interesting I don't even know like how do I build that trust just align with someone I don't know as well but so far that's happening yeah so I mean I I now see your posts on LinkedIn um and I I see your comments sometimes on other people's posts sometimes on my posts and I know the the thought and intention and the quality with which you approach these engagements is very high.

24:55You're not, I don't see you just like pumping out content or pumping out comments to like check off the checklist, right? Or like meet a certain quota. And I think you approach everything with so much thought and intention that I, you know, that client who said they found you because the comment, I'm like, I'm not surprised by that at all. And the reason I asked, like, you know, when the timing of all this stuff happened, because you were like, okay, Obie was born in August. You started getting client calls booked for September, October. And they're kind of coming in. You don't even know where they're coming from.

25:31And at this point, you weren't even really posting on LinkedIn. You were just commenting. No, I weren't. And are you on any other platforms or anything?

25:38Jade Wei:No. Okay. So we can presumably say these people are coming from LinkedIn. you just don't know exactly how but this is pre even some of them coming in before you even posting yeah yes okay yeah wow but I this is interesting though because I talked to a lot of people who are building out LinkedIn strategies and we teach this inside our programs but like your engagement on LinkedIn I actually believe should be like 80 percent engaging with other people's content and 20 percent of your own um and when you lead with really thoughtful right really good quality engaging content um comments and or your own content that can have a good reach and like you said it's your the clients come to you there's already a level of trust established and then you have a really high close rate because of that and i believe it's because all this foundational work that you've done to lead with so much intention i don't know am i grasping at for us here?

26:40I think

26:42Jade Wei:there's probably that level one, right? And I believe the level two would be because my proposal. I do very, I do very, yes, yeah, I love to share this and to help other freelancers out there, you know? Because I see my proposal to clients is, first of all, if during discovery call, I feel we're not a good fit, I wouldn't even want to kind of just you know get another project because i feel another thing i really kind of like practice is feel more comfortable to say no and i think i've done myself yeah i have to put myself on the job but i've done really well this year like i really say no to a lot of um yeah even opportunities because i really feel that's just will kind of realign where my energy should be focus and all that and so yeah saying no so then that made me that kind of gave me the space and also i feel i can focus on really who i want to work with and the project that i'm going to be the journey i'm with whichever client that i want to have that journey together with so it's almost like yeah i chatted other people like in a funny way like it's almost like i'm not gonna marry to a client until we go on a couple of dates you know i want to know like if we actually a good fit before i even feel because it's not just they they they feel like because i will feel tied down to a project because a lot of project if it's from design to develop it could be a year and i just know like from my experience if i don't feel we align like for example the purpose or even aesthetically i just don't want to be tied down to that anymore so i that i i kind of like again very intentional to kind of like being selective about who i want to work with yeah and saying no to the one that just not in this you know the category that i put myself in yeah but i feel oh i have to yeah really yeah i feel grateful because you really pushed me to work on my niche and i feel all this i figure out during a time when i'm kind of figuring out what my niche should be because i feel it's not just about i pick a category for me it's about beyond okay beyond category because category is just something for people to very easily to relate you into what you actually do but i feel i deal more deep into that like category wise who i actually want to work with what type of client yeah all that i feel that's really important because i feel that impact that then kind of like will relate to how i want to price you know project or yeah what kind of service i'm actually interested in doing for what kind of brand it's just so many other aspects like when you're working on the niche what niche you want to work yeah so i feel that that really helped me.

29:51Where are you at with your niche right now?

29:53Jade Wei:Oh, I think for me, it is from design to design, basically before production. So I can do from concept and to even like the sample. Okay. Actually produce physical sample and then they have tape pack and pattern. So basically, the Holy Trinity to go into manufacturing basically. Is that for a specific type of brand like that's really broad design through i oh i think uh for startup to kind of like small medium size kind of brand because i in any category oh um well i kind of like put myself in a sartorial streetwear okay kind of like category because i it's not really streetwear but then because i have very strong tailoring background and i think sartorial streetwear is more in it's more tied with a specific like look or aesthetic as a style so i'm kind of like going for that rather than my category is streetwear because it's not yeah so yeah so it's quite like yeah i spent a lot of time just figuring out what works for me because i feel this could be confusing for other people right but then again i only want to attract the one that's the maybe understand this term or they know what I'm saying so they click with me straight away I don't even need to explain more so so I guess niche that really kind of like yeah helped me in that sense like it really kind of like yeah clarify in terms of like all that aspect okay so design through sampling for small to medium sartorial streetwear brands but quite a lot of them basically is like streetwear one the most high-end streetwear okay okay yeah all right so it's something like that okay and they might have a best bulk or made to measure service within okay yes okay so it's quite yeah i'm quite like specific on the brand that i want to work with so these are the very niche that i'm looking to do and at the moment my clients are all this type of client yeah so if a brand just is looking to produce regular streetwear per se you might not take the project no okay because maybe the price point doesn't meet because they are looking for different type of scale and maybe just the volume or the way they want to produce design i don't agree with okay oh it's just not what i align because i feel this yeah yeah no because i really feel there's so many different markets in fashion and as a freelancer we should look into that to consider also which market you want to be in as well yeah you know right because i feel like same as for shopping there will be people always buying luxury brand but there are people they want to buy luxury brand so that's how i try to understand all this like you know yeah from that perspective to understand like you know from a consumer um mindset how do i understand if i am as a business how do i put all this together for me to understand yeah yeah yeah okay so stage one is linkedin and then you said stage two is proposal but i'd argue there's a stage in the middle there which is the discovery phase yes yeah actually yes and i don't feel like we actually really talked about the proposal so let's get to the proposal in a second but first there's some type of a connection on linkedin they find you in some way or who knows what they schedule a call talk to us about the call how are you leading these calls What does that look like?

33:51And what are you uncovering in those calls? I guess first to decide, is this a good match for both of us? And then second, to learn enough to put together your proposal, which will, I'm going to push you a little more on the proposal. Okay. Yeah. So talk about discovery.

34:09Jade Wei:Yep. The discovery call, generally they are the ones booked with me through my calendar link, um just linkedin basically you can instead like a contact me or website i literally just put my basic link yeah yeah so it's easy for them just book a call and then so during a call um i think i just like to get to know them a little bit first right like oh like thank you for booking the call that type of thing and then like what basically like what do they need help with i ask questions only during the discovery call and if any i will ask them so you found me i i presume you found me on here like so maybe you already know a little bit about me is there something more you would like to know or question you want to ask or you want me to do another you know introduce myself you know you know like just kind of ask i guess like from the kiraj i learned this ask permission like if i want to talk about myself but generally i let them tell me like about why they even put the call with me what do they need help with and then i will ask why as well why they booking this call and why they want to do that just kind of like really having a genuine discussion with them and if i will ask do they have a budget or i generally don't first because I feel when you ask generally you just get I don't know because that's the point like you kind of like try to understand each other you don't even know if you want to work together yet why are we talking about price so I guess this is my approach I decided I want to go down to in some way and and so far yeah the ones they book call with me like I said they they somehow already really align with me so after i ask more questions i get to understand maybe what they need help with and i will kind of like understand if i can help them with and if not i would just i will give them free resources just say maybe you try this first because maybe they have a tight budget or anything like that but i wouldn't just like say okay i'm sorry bye-bye you know but it's like you you actually take the time to somehow maybe read my content something and then like you make the time to book a call i feel i would love to give you some care and tension you know so that that's just how i am and then all like the client they would just be very interested in working with me and i would just say okay let me kind of like give me some time and i will kind of maybe figure out a few ways maybe we can work together right again i learned all this kind of how to address navigating calls through the training with you and just learning from other you know more specialists in these areas that you know i'm not so yeah and then i normally don't rush back with my proposal i wouldn't sell i wouldn't say to them i'll give it to you like this way because i really want to take time to think about it how do I put this together so I guess that's the discovery call yeah okay sounds like you lead with a lot of curiosity about them and their project and what they're working on and why they're working on it and what they're trying to build and how they need help and how you can potentially help and all that stuff yeah yeah because I feel I can help in many ways because I'm only one person so sometimes certain thing maybe I can guide them they don't need my help but they can get help somewhere like even more beneficial to them so that's where i feel i need to kind of be more honest and then at the same time that's tied with my saying no right because in a part it could be like i got blinded by this is an extra project that will give me extra income but i see beyond that now because there's many other things like when you say that yes to afterwards you know yeah so i guess like people maybe have more experience in freelancing they know what i'm saying so yeah yeah that's another very much you're saying you're taking on a lot more than just that paycheck so i i learned yeah the hard way myself too and i feel it's and it's like i always try to look at a win-win situation so this is like Maybe it's a no for you right now.

38:52Jade Wei:I'm not working with you, but I'm actually going to help you to guide. By me saying no, you might find a better solution for you. So it's this kind of thing. Yeah. So. Then talk to us about the proposal. Thanks so much for listening. And I know I just left you with a huge cliffhanger about high paying proposals. We are going to be covering that in part two of Jade's episode, which will air on October 13th, 2025. so depending on when you're listening to this this may or may not be ready part two watch for that again thank you for listening and we'll see you in the next episode