This is a YouTube video titled '#055: How to Build Your Business with the Clients You Really Want' featuring Ed Gandia as the host of the High Income Business Writing Podcast. The episode, recorded in 2025, includes Ed introducing the topic of choosing ideal clients and interviewing C.J. Hayden, author of 'Get Clients Now,' about strategies for finding and working with ideal clients in the freelance writing and professional services arena.
Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia.
Well, hello everybody and thank you for joining me for episode number 55 of the High Income Business Writing Podcast. My name is Ed Gandia and this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to take their writing businesses to the six figure level or the part time equivalent. As a reminder, you can find detailed show notes for this episode by going to b2b launcher.com episode 55. You know, the biggest reason I became self employed was to have more control. You know, I wanted to have more control over just about anything I did, over the kind of work that I did, when I did that work, how I went about it. I didn't want anyone micromanaging all of this. And I especially wanted to have more control over the people I worked with. Not over control over the people, but I wanted to have control over the decision, you know, who I took on. I had spent so many years in sales and in sales, basically you have no choice. I mean, you're out, you're paid to find work. Doesn't really matter who it is, what they're like many times doesn't even matter. They can pay their bills. You know, sometimes the pressure is so high that even the most undesirable clients or customers are all fair game. And you know, I dealt with all of them and I realized, man, you know what, when I go out on my own, I'm going to be much more choosy about who I take on. And as a service based professional, you have to be, you know, you really, you really want to be choosy. You want to choose your clients more carefully. I know I certainly wanted to and I always do to this day. Because you know, to me as a freelance writer, I was essentially, and I am essentially selling a relationship. And I know when I was starting out I felt like I didn't want to have a relationship with people who didn't appreciate me, didn't appreciate my work, or who weren't fun to work with. You know, that was important to me as well. And if we were going to work together closely, I wanted to do that only with people I truly enjoyed. And I want to do that with meaningful work and engaging work. And that's what we're going to be talking about in today's episode. And to do that, I've brought in one of the leading authorities on getting clients in the professional services arena, C.J. hayden and, and C.J. some of you are familiar with her. She is the author of the classic book Get Clients Now. And this is a book I read, studied, and applied in my early years as a freelancer, and it has served me very well over the years. So I truly feel honored to finally have her on the show to talk about this important topic, which is finding and working with ideal client. So let's bring her on the show, and I'll come back at the end with a couple of quick announcements.
CJ welcome to the podcast. It's great to have you here.
Thanks, Ed. Great to be here.
Well, it's, you know, we're talking a little bit offline here about the impact that your, that your materials and your knowledge and your insights have had in my freelance business. And in fact, it was Get Clients now was one of the first books that I that I read when I started my business on the side and had a huge impact on my thinking about prospecting for clients. So thank you for that.
Oh, well, thank you for saying that. I'm always thrilled to hear that my little baby has had an impact.
Oh, it was huge. And I specifically remember the whole recipe metaphor really resonated with me because I was thinking about prospecting and.
