267: From $14/hour to $65/hour as a Freelance Sample Maker (Even Though She Was Scared AF to Charge More)

32:31I did sort of a skill swap with a friend who's a photographer. She took pictures of me in my workspace, and I altered a dress for her. And, oh, my gosh, like that morning I was so scared. I wanted to cancel. Like, I felt sick. Like, that was hard for me, but now she was wonderful, and, like, she was really good. She was like, okay, do this with your shoulders, do this with your chin, do this with your neck. Because I was, like, I was all crunched up and unnatural looking, so she helped me. And I was great. She just helped me. be able to go through with taking the pictures. And so those have been helpful for my LinkedIn, just showing me at the sewing machine and at the cutting table.

33:34And so it's sort of almost like a process of integration, of like showing, seeing myself doing what I do and talking about my skills it's like I don't know I guess I feel like when I wasn't doing well I was like I would often describe myself as fragmented like just bits and pieces and and so this feels like integration coming coming together yeah um and so maybe people wouldn't expect to hear that about sort of like this podcast about work, but I think nothing is, I think it's all mixed together, especially with freelance. There's no separation between work and your life and it's all mixed together.

34:33I think in corporate, you kind of almost have like a false sense of like this big separation between the two, or at least that's how I felt. Yeah. it felt very like self-contained at work and then home was this separate self-contained thing but I think it's it's all mixed together and but now it's in a good way because it's sort of coming coming together sort of as myself so so that's might sound weird to talk about with LinkedIn but it's sort of I mean my I'm using my brain to do LinkedIn and my you know it's mental health it's all it's all mixed together is what I'm what I'm noticing yeah and so I guess I can't separate sort of the experience of taking the photos and how scary that was and then and then posting them and then being glad that I did that's sort of like a wild it's it's it's nice to get the opportunity to sit like talk about it and reflect and kind of notice and and I I think posting, when people are engaging with it, it is rewarding.

36:12I feel like, oh my gosh, someone related to what I said, or they think the same thing about their favorite sewing tools, or they also love these rulers. And so that sort of feels like connection with other people in the industry. And even though I'm in Virginia and I haven't been able to meet most of these people, I did get to meet some of them at your event, which was awesome. But it's so cool to sort of feel, I experienced it as sort of feeling connected to the industry. And that is wonderful. Yeah. So if I'm not mistaken, most of your client work has come from some of these organic and then also some intentional conversations that you've initiated via LinkedIn-ish and maybe some other places.

37:11Can you talk a little bit about that? Yes, so I try to, anybody who sends me a connect request, I try to start a conversation with them. Even if it seems like they're not a pattern maker, I just try to talk to them. So that's, I think, partly using the muscle of talking to people that I don't know. and engaging with them in like a friendly way, which feels right to me.

37:50So I'm trying to use LinkedIn to build that skill to talk to people. Because I think what I hear is that the more organic conversations on LinkedIn rather than hard, cold pitching is sort of a good approach. and that feels good to me so that I've been doing that. And then I think the posting is sort of almost like passive outreach maybe

38:22because a couple pattern makers have reached out to me asking if I'm available to help them with sample making. So that makes me feel like I'm doing something right. Yeah. and and then I have also the fast community I think has been great for for clients because I work more freelancer to freelancer and I think

39:04I feel like there's almost... When I'm building a relationship with a potential client, it's sometimes, it's like brick by brick. It's sort of slow, not in a bad way, but I think them coming to trust me, especially if they've had a bad experience with another sample maker who said things were going well when they weren't. Does that happen a lot? there's one client that I really want who I know had a bad, bad experience. Ah, so that trust is a big... Is a big issue. And so I'm trying to be super aware of that and want the communication to feel really good. Like I'm asking a lot of questions and wanting to understand everything and that I'm not going to just make a decision about something in the tech pack without asking.

40:08So I think getting a client from the FAST community, it feels like almost some of those bricks are there to start with, to build upon. Yeah. Instead of starting from the ground, which is wonderful. There's a lot.

40:31And I think that supportiveness within the community is just a special thing. People are there who want to freelance and they want to work and they want to help each other. And that's real. That sounds, I don't know. I hope people don't hear that it sounds too good to be true because people are in there helping each other. every day. Yeah. It's a pretty phenomenal community. It's really happening. Yeah.

41:04That's where I found my first two clients. And through Fast. Yeah. The one that we were talking about before where I wanted to charge$20, that person I met locally. That's right. In Richmond. And then the other two, first two were from Fast. Yeah. That's amazing.

41:27we talked about like this transition from working at Gall's to freelancing and you told us the story of quitting the day of your trip all the great things um but what I really want to dig into here last is like so you sent me a message on LinkedIn announcing that you had quit your job and you sent me this amazing message and it was so exciting and long and somehow it got lost in my LinkedIn inbox and I felt terrible because literally it was like two months later and I think one of your Nerd Alert posts came up on my feed and I was like, I'm going to say hi to Caroline and there's something specific I wanted to say to you or ask you or tell you or something and I go to my DMs and I see this message and I was like, what the what?

42:26And it was like, Heidi, I just quit my job. And I was like, oh my God, this was too. And I remember, so I wrote back to you and I was like, I'm so sorry. I didn't see this message. And I asked you how things were going and you explained some great things, but you also talked about some challenges. And I want to be really frank about like, you don't just quit your job and then tomorrow, boom, it's this perfect smooth sailing full-time freelance business thing no um so talk a little bit candidly if you're willing about this is important this like transition yes so i um i was able to say yes to one of those client projects because i was leaving my job so i had a project lined up okay um for like the first little bit of july and then the rest of july I didn't have any work.

43:24So that was really difficult. The best way I can describe it is I felt like I was lost at sea, being tossed around in the waves, and it was tumultuous. And so I was feeling guilty because I've been looking forward to it so long, and I know that other freelancers would love to be in this opportunity. I was feeling scared. I was feeling so big, heavy, negative emotions. And I felt like, and I felt bad for having the emotions and I was judging. It was not good. And so then in August, I sort of overdressed it. You quit in June. June. So, yeah. So June, um, so June, right. Just trying to get the timeline here.

44:19You quit in June, July, you had a project with a little bit of space. And then I had a project at the beginning of July and not at the end of July. Okay. I had open space. So I, I used that time to like work on my website, um, put my portfolio on there and, and describe my services, which was, um, good to, to like really think about, okay, what are my services? Who is the audience that I'm trying to reach? So that was good. And it was a moment where I was thinking, okay, Heidi says you don't need a website to start freelancing. It's so true. I'm only working on this now. A year later. A year. After you quit your job.

44:57Yeah. My website was a student portfolio up until July of 2025. Yeah. So, yeah. It would have been a comfortable, safe-feeling project to work on last summer, but I waited. But as you just mentioned, you took the time and mental space to really sit down and think about what are your services, who is your customer. And arguably, had you sat down and done that a year ago, you wouldn't have known all those things. Right. You have spent the last year learning the nuances of where your services best fit into the market, who are the customers that you're talking to, what exactly are their pain points and challenges, and how you can speak to that in your marketing materials, which, yes, your website is one of your marketing materials.

45:44Right. So you're able to build it in such a more impactful way. Yes. Okay, so you sat down to do that in July. Yes. So I worked on that. And then, oh, also I should say that I did, I started working like a retail job on Saturdays in March of this year. Okay. So I still do that one or two days a week. So that has been sort of like a buffer thing, a little bit of income coming twice a month that I know is coming. So I, yeah, I do that one or two days a week. um and but I I kind of panicked and I in August I said yes to um all the things I said yes to dog sitting cat sitting I said yes to um

46:45like any income stream. Oh, yeah. So I had someone was out of town at my little retail job, so I picked up a bunch of extra hours. And then I did, there had been a project that I had agreed to do in May that kept changing, changing, changing scope and everything about it changing. And so then that finally sort of got solidified and I needed to do that work. Sample making project. So I had agreed to do the pattern and it was a custom garment. So I did the pattern and made the garment. And so that suddenly sort of solidified in August. and so then I was doing, basically made myself working three jobs again, which is another reason that I, in April of this year, I started to get really exhausted, and so I stuck it out until June, but in April of this year, I sort of had a moment where I was like, I can't do this.

48:02I can't do this forever. I can't work three jobs. It's just not possible. I can't do all the things. Goals, freelancing, and your retail job. And the retail. Okay, it's a lot. Yeah. And so that helped me make the decision too in June to leave. But then I overcorrected is probably too gentle I like freaked out in August and did way too many things and so then um this this project that had suddenly sort of solidified and I needed to get done I um I got sick and I couldn't work on it and then it was late and so that was horrible horrible feeling I had to tell her that it's gonna be late and that I'm the problem because I'm sick and and so

48:58you know we laying there not feeling well I was like okay I kind of did this to myself and and I started to and I didn't manage the project well I didn't ask about the budget until it came. I had finished the custom garment and I added, I had specifically not added up my hours during the project because I was scared about how much time it was taking. Did they know like the hourly rate at all or anything? She, she did know my hourly rate and they had given me a deposit. Okay. Um, but I, This was a complex garment and I had done the pattern, then the measurements for the individual changed. So I redid the pattern and then did a sample in cheap fabric and then made it in the final fabric.

50:04So this was over 50 hours. of work. And so I was avoiding adding it up and letting my own self know how much time it was taking. And I hadn't been keeping the client updated on how much time it was taking. And so then when I got, when I finally finished the project, I like, I was like, oh, okay, it's complete. And then I realized, oh my gosh, I need to add up these hours. And it was a big, big, big number big huge number and so I realized that that was a big mistake that I didn't um keep her updated on the hours and like I I avoided letting myself know how much time it was taking because that was uncomfortable for me which was bad for the client which is bad for the project and and everything um so so this is when um community comes back in because I I talked to other freelancers and I was like hey guys like I messed this up what what should I do because I was like so frazzled and upset and um and sick and then and then uh i had to me it was i'm calling it burnout because i sort of felt like i i didn't feel anything anymore about freelancing like i was so scary like i felt like numb um but i knew that it was scary that I wasn't feeling anything.

51:49So it's not that I fully didn't care. It was like my brain was so overloaded that I couldn't feel anything. Just trying to protect you. Yeah. Yeah. So that's what I'm calling this burnout feeling is that I over overextended and then I kind of had nothing left in the tank. so that's when I got super honest with other freelancers I was like hey guys I messed this up what what should I do and so it was it was wonderful because they asked me so many questions they wanted to understand the whole situation and of course I didn't really feel any information that that I wasn't supposed to and protecting the client but but enough for them to understand exactly what I was dealing with and so that they could give me advice when when I need it and I was I was specifically asking for advice please please help me yeah um please help me with what to do and and even like wording how should I say this and and so they helped me come up with a plan and so I I sent her an email um my contact with the client and I I sent it to her and I said can we please meet to talk about, I don't remember if I said the budget or my invoice or my hours, something along those lines.

53:21And so the next morning I had to meet with her and tell her in person, tell her face to face what happened. And yeah, she was not pleased, but she was super also super nice to me. And

53:38And so I tried to explain, or I did explain what I was thinking and what I used the time on. So I told her my perspective, and then she got to ask me questions. and she sort of was like, oh, yeah, okay, the client, the individual changed their measurements, and then you sort of had to rework that. And this is a complex garment that had a lot going on with it, style and fabric-wise.

54:19So I felt like because I reached out and asked for support, like I was able to move forward with that not good situation, that bad situation, and feel like, okay, I did the best I could there. Yeah. So that was super difficult, and yeah, so it was way outside of their budget, it and so she said that she would reach out to the financial decision maker at the brand and and so figured it out from there and I decided to say they had she had asked me about my availability for other projects and so I told her like I know this is outside of your budget and maybe you can see this as an investment in you guys and that I want to partner with you and work with you going forward and so I would love to to do another project with you guys and I hope that we can work that out so that's how I was looking at it for myself is that I was investing in this client relationship and I'm not going to get paid for that, but that was on me.

55:47So did you not get paid for the project at all? So I did, I did get paid for the project, but certainly not all the hours that I, I see, I worked. Okay. But what I think is amazing is like how self-aware you were either partially during parts of it, I think, or maybe as Moyer came afterwards, and how much you just fucking owned that, right? Like, you made some mistakes. We all fuck shit up, right? Yes, yes. and you like recognize that you're very self-aware of all the little nuances and steps along the way even if it was after the fact as you explain it now but then you reached out you got help and you went and you own that with the client you were like i messed up here's what happened i'm sorry and you you gave yourself a chance to explain your side and also hear their side and really protect the relationship, which is the foundation of all of this stuff, right?

56:56All these bricks that you put down. You want to maintain that. Kind of set as my goal to try to reach with the ongoing interaction. So there has not been another project and maybe there won't be, which is their choice. And I totally get it. You just finished it like last month though, right? Yeah. So it could be up from me. It's a little soon to tell. Yeah. Yeah. So. But you owned it and you did the, I mean, because I think a lot of freelancers would do maybe one of two things. They would either just send the invoice for the full thing and kind of just throw it out there or like panic, shrink the invoice to some small amount that they're like, I think maybe this is going to work.

57:48And then just send that. But like the hard thing I think is what you did where you like, okay, we're going to talk through this and you initiated the meeting. And but I think like what a learning experience, right? I imagine. That was a double kick in the butt to to like, okay, I have got to do proposals, like get a proposal together so that they and I know what we're discussing. and then we've got to do the contract and it's written down. And this is protection and help and behooves me and the client to have this so that we are on the same page and working towards the same goal. And so...

58:44Another thing I did in July was sign up for some local small business non-profits. So one of them was, they have a huge drop-down list of business things that you can ask for help with. And I just happened to pick contracts because I sort of felt like, is this legally binding and how do I enforce this? And I wanted to understand it more. And I knew that it was something I should be doing that I wasn't really doing. And so I met, I got this wonderful man. He has had a whole career in business and he talked to me about contracts for an hour. And that was for free. And that was his time that he gave to me.

59:35and it was so sweet. I could tell that he had looked at my website and was trying to understand my business, and he's not from fashion apparel at all. And I think that's another situation of putting myself out there, being vulnerable and saying, here's these things that as a business owner I don't know, and then asking for help from a stranger and meeting with them online. I mean, those are all, I think if those things are scary for anybody listening, you're not alone. It's not easy to put yourself out there and say, I don't know this, help. And so that was in my mind. And then this project that I messed up on, I'm like, okay, contracts and proposals.

1:00:32here we go this is this is um something I want to do need to do sort of understand it in a very real life way in a new new way um and and I think it's also sort of uh maybe like a self-respect thing that I am taking the time to not just say okay yes I can do this thing for you and I will do whatever it takes to make it happen but to to explain what my role is and so that they understand and that I ask all the questions that I need to ask to understand what they need and I just messed this up again actually the other day someone reached out to me on linkedin which was so exciting i was like oh my gosh they're reaching out to me and i said okay i'll put i'll put together a proposal and have it to you tomorrow and that's and then as i worked on it i had 78 questions that i needed to ask you hadn't had a discovery call yet right so i didn't i just said i would send her the proposal by the next day and i didn't get to ask my questions so i so then i sent the proposal with all these questions and I haven't I haven't heard back so I should probably say um you know that even in my proposal it says here are the steps first we have a discovery call then we have the proposal I didn't follow my own steps yeah I must um mix them all up so it's part of the learning curve yeah yeah i'm not magically doing everything in the right order now um even though i just even though you like said that i learned my lesson yeah i've got a big double kick in the butt well i'm still um yeah the the excitement took over and i was like oh my gosh she's rich she found me and yeah um so we're all real people trying to do stuff and And I think that that is another perspective shift is that I can allow myself to see pattern makers and brands and other people as, I think you say you're sort of on the same level as them.

1:03:02And not like me as this little person down here, like trying to do whatever I can to get the work. is I think it's important to honor yourself as the freelancer and say, okay, I have value and I'm going to do these steps for the client and also for me so that we can make sure that we're coming together and that it's a good match. Because at first I didn't really, when I was saying I want this to be a good match for both of us, I didn't really mean it for myself.

1:03:39interesting insight i just wanted it if it was a good match for them then i was gonna push myself into whatever shape i needed to be to do the project for them

1:03:53wow it's interesting it goes back to something you said earlier where you were like well now i say oh i can print the patterns for you if you need or you can mail them to me and you're like maybe I shouldn't be so flexible and I think that I think that as a freelancer it's very um easy to slip into the like let me fit into any shape that the brand wants because I want the project yes right yes and yes I'm gonna do my best to deliver and do an exceptional job all the all those good things but you wind up like compromising so much for both parties I think and um I think it can be really hard to like hold those boundaries and yes see it goes going back to mental health boundaries it is oh it's They are freaking huge.

1:04:47Oh. I mean. Totally. Yeah. These skills are. Yeah. Yeah. It's a serious muscle that I think you work on for your entire life. Yes. It's never ending. Yes. Because each week has a different combination of craziness happening. Yeah. In the world and family and pets. And I mean, we don't get to separate it. Yeah. I think corporate life, we can pretend that they're all separate in their own little boxes, but it's not real. It's not. It all melds together. Yeah. I am so grateful that we had this opportunity to sit down in person for almost two hours and get so deep on all of this and hear about the amazing work you've done and the amazing transformation you've made for yourself.

1:05:44I'm so thankful. I think that's a really special thing about Turbo is that you challenged me during the process to reflect on things. You would ask me, how are you doing? What is challenging for you about this? Why have you been avoiding this? And then you were silent. And I had, you know, you gave me that space, that sort of uncomfortable space to, okay, now I'm going to try to put this into words. And how can I describe this? And I feel like that's part of this integration thing where it's like saying out loud to someone you trust who is, you have asked for help. So, I mean, that is gold. Gold.

1:06:40I'm so glad. I'm so grateful. I'm so glad you looked for that help on your portfolio years ago, and here we are. Yeah. What a journey. Yeah, so thankful. Two things at the end. One is where can everybody connect with you online? Your website is up. I'm dying to go check it out. I haven't even seen it. It's crazy. I asked for feedback from another freelancer on my website and she was ruthless and it was so awesome because she was like, your website is like really educational, but it's not talking to pattern makers very well. And I was like, you're right. Oh, cool. Yes. If you want to look at an educational sample making, that's what I have right now.

1:07:24It's okay. So it's just, it's wonderful to be in a community where if you ask for a feedback and they're going to tell you what they think. Yeah. That is special. Not like, it looks great. Right. Yeah. Because people said that too. Or just said like, oh, maybe change the font. But this was like, she was like thinking like a freelancer. how could this talk to your target audience better?

1:07:54What's the URL? www.carolinecoolman.com Okay, cool. We'll link that. Yes. And you're on LinkedIn as well, obviously. Yes. And I made an Instagram the other day. Okay. With those pictures from that photo shoot. That was scary. Oh, good. It's up there. Oh, I'm excited about all these things. I love that. and I'll end with a question I ask everybody at the end which is what is one thing people never ask you about being a fashion freelancer that you wish they would hmm

1:08:44I think if someone asked me like kind of generally how do you do it I would say I don't do it by myself I have lots of help

1:08:59and it's interesting to notice now that I can say like I'm a small business owner I set up my LLC earlier this year yeah um which feels amazing and sometimes I notice people react to me differently like when I say that I'm a business owner and kind of um like wow how did you do that and and I just want to say I didn't do it by myself so much help and support family friends other freelancers turbo was really life-changing for me I don't say that lightly so I think if you're out there and it looks like somebody's doing it on their own if they are they're really lonely and um most likely they have people in their corner helping them like in the whatsapp chat saying hey sos i just did this dumb thing why did i just say this please help me yeah that's that's real that's what's happening in my website thank you for being so like real and raw and humble and vulnerable and sharing like the good the bad the messy the uncomfortable it's so important to like be really transparent about these things and I think personally sharing them is also therapeutic for our own selves Yeah, it's, it's, it's, I'm so thankful for the opportunity to get to reflect and, and I think it's, it's, it's so valuable.

1:10:51Thank you, Carolyn. I appreciate it. Thank you.