 My name is Mauricio. I'm so happy to be here And I only have 10 minutes to motivate you to keep trying and working hard until you find a job That doesn't feel like a job, and I hope this works, too. There you go Particularly I'm going to speak I'm going to describe the 10 steps I took to become a freelance workers developer after Failing in two attempts, or maybe that should say after learning two big lessons on how not to do it today After 17 years more or less of career I could say that my job is not a job, but a passion and It is because of this passion that I wake up every single morning with the biggest mile Full of energy and it motivates me to work harder and harder It will make me really happy to know that at least one of these 10 steps can help you to find to search or to start a new job So without any further delay They started the 10 steps First of all, we need to save money Nobody wants to jump to a swimming pool without knowing if it has water or not And it's exactly the same if you want to make a change in our work career For that reason we're going to save money for at least six months During this period we have enough time to prepare everything we need to find new clients And also we need to save extra money in case of emergency If something goes wrong, we can use this money and this time to recover our old job or to get a new one That was easy. Everybody knows how to save money Now comes the most terrifying step of follow. We need to be on the edge Take courage and jump And begging the swimming pool has water What would you what you need to do? Is to notice in advance? Legally checking your country how many days you need to notice in advance legally Also, if you want to be more cautious, you can take an unpaid leave It's optional, but if you want you can explain the reasons to your boss to your company. Why are you quitting? I did it and after three months the company I was working for they became my client with the very important project So who knows and the last one is the most important point on this slide Do always things right because you can't know if in the future you will have the need to knock at the same door My god, we did it. We quit our steady job Take a deep breath. It's okay. Believe me. We need to follow the rest of the steps And the first thing we need to do is to set a name to our project We need to decide if it's going to be a fictitious name or our personal name in my case It's just my name Mao Helves very clever, right? You can find me in my digital life as Mao Helves everywhere Website Instagram account WordPress account everywhere You have to choose wisely take your time because this name will go with you for a long long time And once you picked that name you will need to create a higher professional designer to help you with the logo the Typography choosing colors email templates and a big etc. And also you will have to create a website using WordPress In that website you will describe all the services or products you are going to offer in the new stage of your life Okay, by now only you your Ex-bots your family and maybe a designer know about your project. So it's time to promote yourself But you have to be careful because you only have one bullet We're going to use this bullet to send one single Please one single email to all our personal contacts personal contacts be careful with the GDPR In this very concise short and we'll prepare email We are going to describe the step we are taking and the new services or products We are offering and we are going to send it Luckily this email will reach 100 people that's the average of people we know But if every one of those 100 people knows another 100 people we are reaching indirectly 10,000 possible customers new clients So take your time write the email and shoot your first email marketing campaign There are many many reasons why you should be creating content not only right in a blog You can be an Instagram or a youtuber whatever you do. It would make us better professionals Sometimes we need to research a small point to finish an article and that new knowledge We can reuse it to bring solutions to our clients. It will increase your self-esteem I can tell you that it's really ratifying wake up in the morning and receiving emails comments from people all around the world Saying Mauricio, thank you so much because your article really helped me to solve a problem But being exposed it will also create haters and you need to be strong to confront that situation And of course it will position our brand in search search engines You know that you are not alone There are a bunch of really nice guys out there with the same interests of yours They gather at least once a month and they are called WordPress meetups. There are hundreds of them 607 to be more specific So I'm pretty sure that you have a WordPress meetup in your city and in case you don't you are in the right place Please get in touch with the community team because maybe you are the next organizer of the WordPress meetup number 608 So this is the perfect place Signed up attend to the meetings learn from the best professional in your local city And it's the best place also to be a speaker to share your knowledge with your local community Believe me. This is a small step, but it can literally change your life Showing work camps Do I really need to explain what are the benefits of going to a work? I'm take a good look around you We have the best speakers sharing their knowledge on stage around you There are friends from all over the world outside the room We have the best companies using WordPress so you should go there and talk with them And also it's the best place to get involved in the community in the contributor day Attending organizing volunteering or why not being a speaker so congratulations to you for being here And I hope to see you in next work comes to Do not working do you know the phrase unity make strength? That's what we need to do make the effort go out go to different work camps and also other events And there you will find friends you will find partners and maybe companies that are looking for the services you are offering And also I know that you can be a little bit shy But make that tiny effort to start the conversation for example the organizers of the work And they had a really great idea to include the ask me about section in your badges So fill it out and in the next coffee break use it Start a new conversation with someone new I don't very fun of the business cars, but if you use them it can be also a very good starting point Keep learning if you want to survive as a freelancer You need to be updated with the latest technologies and all the news around workers But I shouldn't be really saying this we all need to be updated in whatever work we do Thanks to workers. We have thousands of blocks around the world in different languages They are out there. We have the miracle of warp stv a platform where it's archived all these talks from work camps and meetups We also have online courses. They are cheap. They have really good content where we can learn What I mean is the knowledge is out there. It all depends on us. We need to be proactive We need to be very professional self taught if we reach this point the number nine I'm pretty sure you already have clients. So now it's time to take care of them You need to understand that your clients aren't actually your clients, but your partners That's why you need to be implied in the project because if your client does well you in turn do well, too Get implied in the project feel it's us yours bring solutions So they can reach their goals Earn their confidence if you are promising deadlines, please make it right Keep it for you the communication and let them know at any time the state of the project And I know that there are projects that are in bed of roses But there we are us always with a smile being productive and always looking to keep the relationship and the projects in a very good state So to sum up You need to save money you need to take the step the most terrifying one you need to brand yourself Promote yourself create content. You need to show me tabs and work press do not working Don't be alone. Keep learning and finally take care of your clients. My name is Monizio Helves and thank you very much for being here Thank you. You line up for questions. I'm gonna ask mine first So give us an example of a nice way to approach someone you don't know and talk about your work And kind of promote yourself and an informal environment like this work camp Like you recommended to people that they should do more networking. Yeah, but you know It's quite scary to just go and start talking to people. How do you approach that? Yes, it is how I'm shy to it's not it's not easy for me to What I do I just go out and grab a coffee if I see someone with a t-shirt or someone I just send a stupid question and that's it. It's like taking someone out to dance It's like even the first step and that's it Then we'll start the conversation and who knows maybe you can start a new business. Whatever. Have you found a lot of clients at work camps? Yes, I've been in a lot of work camps and I met many many many people and I feel so happy to have friends from all over the world I'm feels really really I'm so fortunate about it. I met you. That's it Well, that's personal. All right, any other questions? Anybody at the mic? Yeah, go ahead Hey, thanks for the talk. Thank you You're freelancing now. Did you see it at something inevitable becoming an agency or do you see yourself? Riding running an agency at some point or would you prefer to stay as a freelance? Do you think it's that something inevitable? What's your view? That's a very good question and You can never know you I know the needs. I have right now Freelancer is what I need right now to be happy. Maybe in the future. I don't know. I can start an agency I can I can go back to big bigger companies I'm doing right now what it's good for me Yes, I don't know what will happen if I may just like a quick follow-up What is there any specific thing that would make you go back to a company one specific thing that you means? Can you imagine what would make you go back to working at a company? That's a good question, too. Let me think about that and It has to be something that really motivates me to get involved in a company a project if it's a product I really truly believe in that product It could be you know Sometimes can happen really bad things and you need more fixed salary and in that case I should probably think to go back to a company, but By the moment I will keep this life. Thank you. Thank you Hi, do you recommend using services like Freelancer? Upwork and etc. And if the answer is yes, do you have any recommendations or tips on using them? Yes To use tools like that is very useful But in my case I didn't have the need to use it because creating content a lot of people know me and they know what I What I can do as a professional so they reach me through my website in the contact form And they are asking me for helping them to make new jobs new projects wherever But if I don't get contact I would definitely use those tools But I can give you any advice on those Thank you. All right one more question for me. Oh Laura has a question Yesterday night you were applying your client at night. I saw you so Not say no Okay, in which way you are managing your time My way is not for everybody. Yes. She saw me yesterday sending some messages Where we were at the party and the volunteer and social and I told her yeah I know that this is not the moment to send this kind of message, but it's like an equilibrium in your life I'm sending this and I'm losing time maybe speaking with you because I know that I have so many benefits on the other side For example being here in the grade. I couldn't have done this if I was working for the same company I was working for So I I'm pretty conscious of this equilibrium and I don't care of sending or answering message at any time That's the pay. That's the the that's what I'm paying for being a freelancer a digital nomad and I will still keep doing it But it's my way. I'm not recommended to everyone Last question then from me So you travel a lot You freelance and you also contribute to work to WordPress quite a bit Yes, I contribute to the WordPress TV team you go and speak at work camps How is that Working for you in terms of managing your time and are you do you feel like you're maybe working longer hours than you have to You take enough rest. Yeah, sometimes it's really hard Sometimes I find myself working so many hours for the community Because I'm very involved in the Spanish community and also working for WordPress TV internationally And when that happens, I'm I'm not ashamed to say a I need to quit for a few days like for example I did in the WordPress meetup in Madrid. I told the co-organizer Listen, I just need to go out for sometimes and it's more than okay You just need to express it to say that out loud and they will understand and That's how I manage my time with the community and my job I try to I try not to get to to lose the balance between both of them Okay. All right. Well, thank you so much. Let's give them a round of applause. Thanks, Mauricio