The Freedom Route

A few months ago, one of my clients shared something that really made me emotional 🥹

She'd started working with me while still working a full time job and wasn't pitching at all. She hadn't sent a single cold email in years, if ever. And she told me she almost didn't join, because she wasn't sure she had time for a whole programme on top of everything else.

Not long later, she'd built a proper outreach system from scratch.

A few months after that, she quit her job.

She's not the exception in that story either. I've watched this happen over and over with people I coach - not because they suddenly become different freelancers overnight, but because for the first time, there's structure behind how work actually comes in. No more waiting for the algorithm, or hoping someone remembers you exist, or scrambling the second a project ends!

I think about that message a lot when I'm building each cohort of CPI, because it's such a good reminder that the thing standing between "inconsistent freelancer" and "I quit my job and built something real" is usually smaller than people think. It's not more talent.

It's just a system, and someone keeping you accountable to it.

If you've been meaning to sort your pipeline out for a while now (and if you're still reading this, I'm guessing you have), today's the day to actually do something about it :)

CPI closes for enrolment today. Teaching starts August 17th. Link's in my bio if you want in!

My first year freelancing, I made $17k. Last year, I made just under $150k.

And if you'd asked me in year one what the difference would be, I'd have said working harder: More hours, more hustle, more grinding through the quiet months hoping something would land.
What changed was that I started treating outreach like a system. Something that happened every single week, not just when a project ended and panic set in!
I think a lot of freelancers are stuck in the same place I was - not because they're not good at the work (you clearly are, or you wouldn't still be doing it), but because there's no structure behind how new work actually comes in. So it only happens in bursts. A flurry of pitches when things get scary, then silence, then the same panic a few months later.
I used to think I'd figure that part out on my own eventually. And maybe I would have, given enough time. But "I'll get to it" had already been true for about two years before anything actually changed - and what changed it was having an actual plan and someone checking in on whether I'd followed it.
If that sounds familiar (the meaning-to, the not-quite-doing), that's worth paying attention to.
This is exactly why CPI exists - the structure and the accountability, not just more tips to add to the pile 🙂
CPI is open for enrolment this week, and we start teaching August 17th. Link's in my bio if you want in!

My first year freelancing, I made $17k. Last year, I made just under $150k.

And if you'd asked me in year one what the difference would be, I'd have said working harder: More hours, more hustle, more grinding through the quiet months hoping something would land.

What changed was that I started treating outreach like a system. Something that happened every single week, not just when a project ended and panic set in!

I think a lot of freelancers are stuck in the same place I was - not because they're not good at the work (you clearly are, or you wouldn't still be doing it), but because there's no structure behind how new work actually comes in. So it only happens in bursts. A flurry of pitches when things get scary, then silence, then the same panic a few months later.

I used to think I'd figure that part out on my own eventually. And maybe I would have, given enough time. But "I'll get to it" had already been true for about two years before anything actually changed - and what changed it was having an actual plan and someone checking in on whether I'd followed it.

If that sounds familiar (the meaning-to, the not-quite-doing), that's worth paying attention to.

This is exactly why CPI exists - the structure and the accountability, not just more tips to add to the pile :)

CPI is open for enrolment this week, and we start teaching August 17th. Link's in my bio if you want in!

The fastest client win I know comes from a message to someone who already knows you.

An old client or an editor you worked with once or someone from a conference two years ago you swapped numbers with and never followed up. These people already trust you, which is the hardest part of any pitch to build from scratch - so why are we not messaging them?

I think it's because it feels awkward. Like you're only getting in touch because you want something. So here's the structure I give everyone in CPI for this exact message:

➝ Start with them, not you (something specific, not "hope you're well!")
➝ A quick, genuine update on what you've been up to
➝ One line on what you're looking for now, kept light
➝ No hard ask - just something like "would love to catch up if you're free"

I built a bigggg chunk of my business this way in the early years - reopening conversations with people I'd worked with once, rather than only chasing brand new leads. It's slower to notice the impact than a cold pitch landing, but it adds up into some of the steadiest work I've ever had.

If you've got a list of dormant contacts sitting in your inbox right now (we all do), that's where I'd start before anything else.

This whole channel - reactivating your network properly, with scripts and structure - is Week 2 of CPI.

CPI is open for enrolment this week, and we start teaching August 17th. Link's in my bio if you want in!

Kind of chic to admit that “I’ll figure the client thing out eventually” has been my personal excuse for about two years too long.

I built this carousel because I think there’s a version of freelancing that gets talked about a lot online (the passive income, the four-hour week, the “clients just find me now”) and then there’s the actual version most of us are living, which is a lot more inconsistent than that.

Some months are great. Some months you’re refreshing your inbox wondering if anyone’s ever going to reply to that pitch you sent three weeks ago.

I’ve been freelancing for years now (travel writing, if you’re new here!) and the biggest shift for me wasn’t working harder or getting “discovered.” It was building an actual pipeline - meaning I stopped waiting for work to land on me and started treating client outreach like a proper system, not something I only did in a panic when a project ended.

That’s basically what Client Pipeline Intensive is. It’s a 4-week programme I run for female freelance creatives (so not just writers, this works for designers, strategists, all sorts of creative freelancers) where we build that pipeline together, properly - your existing network, staying visible, actually asking for referrals, strategic outreach, all of it, whichever combination makes sense for your industry.

If any of this carousel felt a bit too accurate (the good kind of uncomfortable, hopefully) enrolment’s open right now and we start teaching August 17th.

Link’s in my bio if you want to know more :)

Can I give you the exact thing that keeps my pipeline full, even in the months I'm slammed with client work?

It's called Weekly CEO Day, and it's embarrassingly simple. One day a week (doesn't need to be a whole day, even an hour works), where you do these five things:
➝ Reconnect with one contact - an old client, an old colleague, anyone you haven't spoken to in a while
➝ Comment on a few things on LinkedIn (or wherever your people actually are)
➝ Research a handful of companies or people you'd love to work with
➝ Send two messages - could be a pitch, could just be a "thinking of you"
➝ Follow up on anything that's gone quiet

The reason it works isn't because any single part of it is impressive. It's because it happens every week, whether you're busy or not.

Most freelancers only do outreach when work has already dried up, so they're patching the ceiling after it's already raining. Weekly CEO Day means the pipeline's always moving in the background, so you're never starting from zero.

If you did just this, one day a week, for the next three months - your pipeline would look completely different by Q4.

This is literally the framework we build into the two months of support after CPI, so it actually becomes a habit and not just something you meant to start.

CPI is open for enrolment this week, and we start teaching August 17th. Link's in my bio if you want in!

For years I thought building a pipeline meant one thing: cold pitching, and lots of it.

And look, cold pitching has been huge for me. My biggest project ever came from one. But there are five ways to fill a pipeline, and most people are only using one:

➝ Your existing network (old clients, colleagues, people you've worked with once and never followed up with)
➝ Visibility (showing up consistently somewhere, so people think of you when work comes up)
➝ Referrals (actually asking for them, properly, not just hoping they happen)
➝ Strategic outbound (cold pitching, but the researched, targeted kind)
➝ A repeatable weekly system that keeps all of the above moving

If you're only doing one of these, it makes total sense that your income feels a bit up and down. One channel goes quiet and there's nothing behind it to catch you.

Here's something you can do today - think of one person from your existing network you haven't spoken to in a while. An old client, an old colleague, someone you met once at an event. That's often the fastest win there is, and it costs nothing :)

This is exactly what we build properly in CPI - working out which combination of these five channels suits your industry, rather than forcing one method and hoping for the best.

CPI is open for enrolment this week, and we start teaching August 17th. Link's in my bio if you want in!

The best client I ever had came from a cold pitch. £9,600. A project that felt terrifying to send and completely changed how I saw my own worth as a freelancer!

But the actual exciting bit came after. That client referred me to someone else, who ended up becoming one of the highest paying clients I've ever had. So one slightly-scary email didn't just become one project, it became two of the best clients of my whole freelance career.

And when I look back, that's basically the pattern for almost every client I've ever worked with. Direct outreach, and then that outreach opens doors you didn't even know were there. A referral, an introduction, someone saying "oh you should talk to my friend who runs..."

That's just what happens when a pipeline is actually working, rather than you sending the odd pitch whenever work goes quiet and then hoping.

If your outreach has felt more like shouting into the void lately (or if it's just... not happening, because life and deadlines got in the way, which - same, I've been there!) this is exactly the bit I want to help you build in CPI.

Not just cold pitching either, we're working across five different ways to fill a pipeline so it's not resting on one wobbly channel :)

CPI is open for enrolment this week, and we start teaching August 17th. Link's in my bio if you want in!

What's actually working for freelance writers in 2026? I've done the research 👀

✨ Four things still working well:

Warm network & referrals: built-in trust means faster replies, quicker yeses and clients who come back and refer others

Visibility: published work and LinkedIn presence are landing clients before a pitch is even sent

Targeted LinkedIn outreach: 18-25% reply rate* when used within its limits

Personalised, researched cold pitching: 20%+ reply rate* when it's tailored and followed up properly

🚨 What's not working so well nowadays?

Generic cold pitching: reply rates have nearly halved since 2024 as inboxes fill with AI-generated spam

Mass outreach at scale: big blast lists badly underperform small, targeted ones on both reply rate and quality

Single-touch outreach: most positive replies now come from follow-ups, not the first message

Spray-and-pray LinkedIn messaging: unsolicited, low-effort DMs get little traction and risk account restrictions

I'm still a big advocate for cold pitching, but I think nowadays we need to be even more strategic with our outreach approaches and how we build our pipelines.

This is something I've experimented with a lot over the last few years and is probably why I've never had a single month with no freelance writing work ever since I started full-time freelancing, almost 7 years ago!

It's also one of the reasons why I put together Client Pipeline Intensive, a 3-month group experience for female freelancers who are looking to experiment and build out a consistent flow of their dream clients.

And the next cohort opened for enrolment today!

Over 12 weeks, we will experiment with what's working best within your industry, and then you utilise my lead generation assistant and my vibe coded AI search tools to consistently put yourself in front of people you'd love to work with.

I just wrapped up the first cohort and a few of the spaces for cohort have already sold 😍 comment CPI if you want some more info!