From overworked to dream biz

This is Kyle. He runs BioFitness. I’ve been mentoring him since 2020.

In the time we’ve worked together, he’s gone from being overworked and underpaid to working four days a week and hitting multiple 5k income months. He even fulfilled a lifelong dream of opening his own gym.

I usually mentor the designery, artsy freelancers so, being a PT, Kyle’s a bit of an outlier.

He shows that it doesn’t matter what your freelance biz does, the ways I work can help you.

Let me tell you his story…

Mentoring with Orwell has helped me grow my business into areas that I didn't even know about. I’m working fewer days, making more money and scaling at a quick rate. Could not recommend Orwell enough!

Master Yoda with better banter!

Kyle Watson BioFitness

Where did he start?

When Kyle and I first started out, his life looked like this…

He was only paid for the hours he spent with clients so to keep himself afloat he had to work every hour he had. He was making just enough money to get by but not enough to create the life he wanted for himself.

Working 60-70 hours a week
Spending evenings and weekends at work
Little time with his partner
No time for the fun stuff in life
No holidays without losing money

The way he was approaching freelancing meant he only had time for working with clients. No time for the people in his life and no time to grow or change his business.

He was stuck.

Constantly churning but going nowhere. Working with clients who didn’t inspire or challenge him. He didn’t enjoy work, he had no time for fun and no time to change his situation.

That’s when he called me.

An unexpected first step

Can taking lunch breaks change your life?

Overworked and underpaid, his mind was in survival mode.

Now I help people improve their businesses, but my experience in life has shown me you have to look after yourself and your mental health before you can look after your biz.

So if Kyle wanted more money and more free time, first he needed headspace.

My first job was to make him take lunch breaks.

I know that sounds overly simple but he was working 12-16 hour days, eating between clients and taking no time for himself. He needed someone to kick his ass, keep him accountable and make him take a break.

After a week he was taking regular breaks and after only two weeks of taking lunch breaks he was never looking back.

Taking back control of his time, seeing his down time as precious rather than hours to be sold, improved his energy levels and had him feeling infinitely better about himself.

He had time to chill and to get perspective on his life and business. Without that headspace nothing he and I did together would have worked. Now the real work could start.

Feeling stuck like Kyle was?

Book a free call

I help freelancers get unstuck, get their time back and make more money. If you’re ready to make a change, book a call and let’s chat about what you want to achieve in your biz.

The Holy Grail of freelacing

Making more money by spending less time working

Kyle wanted more time to himself without losing money. His biggest problem was that by selling his time he was limited in how much he could earn. Already working 70 client hours per week he was stuck.

He could up his prices or change his business.
We did both.

I had him survey his clients to find what they most valued in his work. The survey identified clients whose progress would continue without in-person training – these would be the audience we’d focus on.

Together we created a process to deliver an online training programme, one that gave the clients what they valued while reducing face time with Kyle – a key goal he was aiming for.

We laid out a step by step for the programme and implemented systems that reduced the admin time he spent per month per client.

A new approach to pricing

Kyle’s clients were used to his in-person rate, but with the reduced time input we were able to offer them a lower per-month cost while increasing Kyle’s hourly rate. And because they weren’t just paying per hour of training, he could remove the connection between time and money.

He was able to be paid for all the time he spent on a client’s progress – planning, creating programmes, check-ins – not just the hours counting reps. He was getting more money for the same work.

He reduced the time spent per client per month and increased his hourly rate, the client’s got the value they wanted and they paid less per month – a win-win.

After a successful trial Kyle launched a full online programme only three months after our first call. With less time per client he was able to take on more clients and grow his business.

The new programme gave him more money every month and in the first months reduced his working time by 30%.

What progress did he make?

Creating the life he wants

The first months of the new programme were a huge success. Kyle reduced his working hours and increased his income, he had more time for his family and took his first holiday in years.

After 12 months of mentoring his life looked like this:

80% of his business was online
Client contact time reduced from 6 days to only 2-3 days per week
Upped his prices twice without losing income
He had new systems and process that reduced time spent on admin
His marketing lets him sign-up new clients with minimal time input from him
He has a list of clients waiting to work with him

We identified what Kyle needed from his business and created a way of working that gave it to him. By focusing on what his clients value he was able to reduce his working hours and deliver a high value product people were willing to pay for.

I helped him identify what he needed from life, then helped him reshape his business to give it to him. Now he’s using his skills and knowledge to give his clients what they want in a way only he can and his business keeps getting stronger.

This is what I help people achieve

Now his life looks like this

By following my mentoring programme Kyle is shaping his business to work for his life. We used my knowledge and experience as a freelancer to create a way of working that suited him and his clients. The results are excellent:

He’s earning more per month than in 2020, the majority in recurring income
Sees loads more of his partner – they even got a dog
Rekindled his love for videogames – apparently Metroid on Switch is class
He works less than 40 hours per week
Hitting 5,000€ per month multiple months in a row
Has time to work on his business and improve how he works
Only works evenings and weekends when he chooses to
They even went on a holiday!

These results show it doesn’t matter what your freelance biz does, the I can help you earn more, get more time and start enjoying your work again.