The most important things I’ve learned as a freelancing generalist

I’ve been a freelancer for the past year more or less, and I’ve now come to a point where I’m starting to attract customers just from my existing customers referring me to people. I’ve started to figure out what it is I’m doing and what the business is. Being a generalist, that hasn’t been very easy.

That’s something I’ve picked up on from talking to people that I’ve met both professionally and my closer friends — it’s hard to define what a generalist does. So this is for all of the generalists out there who’ve said “I don’t really know”, or “A little of everything” when asked what they do.

Start with whom you’re working with

Rather than looking at what you do, look at who you’re working with. That’s when the ball dropped for me, I realised that I help small businesses, and I generally help them multiply their time. The important thing here is that I realised whom I’m working with, which in turn helps me define what it is I do all day.

Ask people what their biggest problem is right now

Asking people what they need help with has been a game changer for me. When people are asked what they need help with they usually know the answer. Then I can in turn either say that I could help them with it, or I can refer them to someone else who might be better at solving the problem.

The key here is to know who you should ask. That’s what’s going to get you going.

Bluntly say that you’re a generalist

I’ve struggled with pitching myself for a very long time, since what I do is very diverse. Rather than saying “I do a little of everything”, I’ve now turned the conversation around by saying I’m a generalist. If required i pick up a couple of cases, but most often I turn the conversation around with the previous question.

Realise that there’s immense value in generalists

I didn’t realise this until I read Range by David Epstein. If you need a hint, genrealists connect things and are extremely useful in situations where you don’t really know what you need help with. We have a way of grabbing hold of something in all of the everything, and that’s where work happens.

Cases rather than tasks

I’ve also found it infinitely useful to talk about cases rather than tasks. That is, I’ve described the work I’ve done for one single customer rather than bringing up the tasks that come to mind when asked what I do. It’s a lot more useful, since it shines a light on that I have a range.

Lastly I want to say this: Utilise the generalist range that you have, if you’re truly a generalist. It is valuable to people and it is a viable path of professional life. It might not seem as straight forward as other professional stories, and that’s the strength of it.