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Freelance Cake

Freelance Cake

By: Austin L. Church
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This podcast helps ambitious freelancers get better results with less effort. We reveal the specific beliefs, principles, and practices that give you better leverage. Every episode contains no-hype, non-expiring ideas that you can use right away to make the freelance game more profitable and enjoyable.© 2022 Freelance Cake Economics Leadership Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • What Is Staying Costing You? Choosing Alignment Over Momentum with Hannah Soto

    What Is Staying Costing You? Choosing Alignment Over Momentum with Hannah Soto
    May 29 2026
    Hannah Soto didn’t set out to build a production company. She saw problems in her industry. People below a certain title were treated poorly. Productions were inefficient. Systems were messy. So she did what many capable, quietly ambitious freelancers do: She fixed what was broken.That decision eventually became Aridia, a production company that worked with major clients like Apple, Coca-Cola, and the Olympics.Not bad for an accidental business.But this episode is not a shiny “look how big the business got” story. That would be too easy. Also, a little boring. This conversation is about what happens when the business you built starts asking for a version of you that you no longer want to be.Hannah and Austin talk about growth, identity, client approval, excellence versus perfection, and the cost of staying in a business model simply because it still works on paper.Hannah shares how one difficult international production exposed how much of her worth was tied to client approval. She had done everything she could to fix the situation. She spent money, energy, time, and health trying to make the client happy again. And then she realized something brutal and freeing: She didn’t even want to work with that client again.That moment became part of a much bigger shift. Hannah began untangling her value from her work, rethinking what success actually meant, and eventually moving more deeply into coaching.This episode is for the freelancer, consultant, or creative entrepreneur who has built something real but feels the tension of an old model getting too tight around the shoulders. Like a business blazer from 2017. Technically still wearable. Spiritually suspicious.Key PointsAccidental entrepreneurship: Hannah started by solving obvious problems in production, especially around how people were treated and how systems were run.Brand name versus personal name: Hannah explains why choosing a company name gave the business room to grow beyond her, while still allowing her personal brand to build trust.Excellence is not perfection: Growing up with a strong family mantra around excellence shaped Hannah’s drive, but also created pressure she later had to untangle.When client approval becomes a trap: Hannah shares the painful story of a project where she gave everything to win back a client’s approval and still couldn’t get it.Not every client deserves access: Austin and Hannah discuss the difference between generous, honest clients and clients who take advantage of vulnerability.The cost of staying: Hannah’s key question — “What is it costing me to stay?” — becomes a powerful filter for any freelancer considering a pivot.Momentum is not alignment: Just because a business is moving does not mean it is moving in the right direction.Work beside life, not above it: Hannah describes the difference between building life around work and letting work sit beside health, marriage, friendships, and purpose.You may never feel ready: For freelancers who want to pivot, Hannah suggests clarifying the bare minimum needed, knowing the vision, and accepting that readiness may never arrive with a little gift basket.Being before doing: In her coaching work, Hannah helps entrepreneurs explore who they need to become, not just what they need to achieve.Notable Quotes“I don’t know yet is a really powerful answer.”“Fear is going to keep us smaller.”“What is it costing me to stay?”“My work sits beside my life. It is not connected to my value or my worth.”“A company is a reflection of the founder.”"At some point, we just need to decide, I want what is on the other side of this discomfort more than I want comfort. And so what am I willing to embrace for sake of that vision?"“There will always be an excuse if you look for it. So just start.”Resources MentionedHannah Soto on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hellohannahsoto/Arridia: https://www.arridiagroup.com/Email Hannah at hannah[AT]lovingthegap[DOT]com (Be sure to mention that you heard about it here on the Freelance Cake Podcast so she knows where you came from)Freelance Cake Community: freelancecake.com/communityBook 1:1 coaching with Austin: https://www.freelancecake.com/freelance-business-coaching
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    52 mins
  • From Accidental Freelancer to Strategic Business Owner with Satta Sarmah Hightower

    From Accidental Freelancer to Strategic Business Owner with Satta Sarmah Hightower
    Apr 24 2026
    Satta Sarmah Hightower opens up about the evolution from being a skilled freelancer who took good opportunities as they came… to becoming a more intentional business owner who chooses work based on where she wants to go.At first, she did what many freelancers do: she followed the money. After layoffs and instability, survival mode made that feel sensible. But over time, she realized that good income and a solid client base were not the same thing as strategic growth.One of the most useful parts of this conversation is Satta’s “monkey bar strategy.”Instead of trying to leap blindly into a brand-new niche, she explains how freelancers can use adjacent experience to move from one bar to the next — from healthcare to healthcare tech, from financial services to fintech, and from familiar work into more valuable, better-aligned opportunities.We also get into the identity shift that often separates advanced freelancers from plateaued ones.Satta talks about what changed when she stopped primarily seeing herself as a writer and started thinking like a solopreneur and business owner. That shift made her more intentional about what work to accept, how to position herself, and how each project could support the business she wanted six months down the road — not just the invoice she wanted this month.There’s also a strong thread in this episode around sustainable growth.Growth, for Satta, does not mean going wider and building a giant machine she does not want. It means going narrower, deeper, and getting clearer on what “enough” looks like. We talk about mindset, gratitude, recovery time, and the planning practices that help experienced freelancers grow without burning down fast.And if you’ve been thinking beyond client work, you’ll appreciate the final part of the conversation about IP.Satta shares why she wrote The Forever Freelancer, how she thinks about intellectual property as a durable asset, and how building assets like books, newsletters, and other owned work can expand what a solo business becomes over time.This one is for freelancers who are no longer asking, “How do I get work?” and are now asking better questions:What kind of business am I actually building?What direction am I choosing?And how do I grow on purpose?Key PointsFrom survival mode to strategy: Satta admits she was not especially strategic in the early years. She was following the money, building from available opportunities, and doing what many freelancers do after instability: taking solid work when it appeared.The monkey bar strategy: Rather than reinventing yourself from scratch, use adjacent experience to move into stronger niches and better-paid categories of work. Think bar to bar, not cliff dive to cliff dive.The identity shift matters: Advanced freelancers often hit a ceiling when they keep identifying only with their craft. Satta’s growth accelerated when she began to think of herself as a business owner and solopreneur, not merely a freelance writer.Intentionality changes decisions: Once she embraced that business-owner identity, she became more deliberate about what work to accept and how each engagement served her longer-term trajectory.Gradual change is underrated: Satta makes a strong case for evolving slowly and intelligently rather than blowing up your whole business in the name of “transformation.”Growth is not always bigger: For her, growth means going narrower and deeper, not building an agency or chasing “more, more, more.”Mindset and recovery are business tools: Gratitude, space to reflect, and her “For Me Fridays” practice all support sustainability and clearheaded decisions.Notable Quotes“It’s about evolving from reactive freelancing into strategic business ownership.”“I own my trajectory and my business growth and my professional growth.”“Growth, at least for me at this stage, it doesn’t necessarily mean going wider. It means going narrower and going deeper.”“You have to know what your enough is and you have to know what growth looks like for you.”“You need to treat your business like a business.”Resources MentionedSatta’s book listing for preorder: https://tinyurl.com/sm9z59my Satta's Book landing page to subscribe for updates: https://www.sattasarmah.com/bookSatta's Instagram: @sattasarmahhightowerSatta's TikTok: @sattasarmahhightowerSubstack: https://substack.com/@sattasarmahhightower‍Freelance Cake Community: freelancecake.com/community
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    54 mins
  • Life Plan First, Business Plan Second: How Matthew Fenton Built a 30-Year Freelance Career

    Life Plan First, Business Plan Second: How Matthew Fenton Built a 30-Year Freelance Career
    Mar 27 2026

    At a certain point in your freelance career, the question stops being “How do I get more clients?” and starts being “How do I build a business I actually want to keep running?”

    In this episode, Austin sits down with Matthew Fenton, a positioning and strategy consultant with nearly three decades of freelance experience. Matthew has worked with brands you’ve heard of, launched White Mystery Airheads, hired agencies and independents from both sides of the desk, and built a long freelance career around a simple but weighty principle: Life plan first. Business plan second.

    That idea shapes everything.

    Austin and Matthew talk about what it means to design your freelance business around the life you want, not the other way around. They get into the challenges that don’t get enough airtime, like isolation, self-management, and the discipline required when nobody else is building structure for you.

    Matthew also shares one of the most useful concepts in the episode: your "gig floor." That’s the minimum threshold a project has to clear before it earns a yes. Right money. Right people. Right kind of work.

    They also dig into what actually makes a freelancer rehirable. Spoiler: it’s not just talent. Matthew makes a strong case for reliability, sound judgment, clear communication, and the ability to be a real partner instead of a prima donna with a nice portfolio.

    And yes, they also open a delightful can of worms on why freelancing is not for everybody and why Matthew opted out of the whole personal branding conversation years ago.

    This is a grounded, honest conversation about sustainability, selectivity, and building a freelance business with enough structure and sanity to last.

    Key Points

    • A freelance career can be built for longevity. Matthew has been freelancing since 1997 and has sustained his business by staying focused on strategy, positioning, and meaningful client work.
    • Life plan first, business plan second. The business should support your life, not consume it. That principle gets more important, not less, as your opportunities increase.
    • Isolation is one of freelancing’s hidden costs. Leaving a full-time role means losing built-in social structure and accountability. You have to rebuild those on purpose.
    • Warm reconnection beats cold networking. Matthew doesn’t think in terms of “keeping his network warm.” He reconnects with people he genuinely enjoys, and sometimes work falls out of that.
    • Your gig floor matters. Experienced freelancers need a minimum threshold for what counts as a worthwhile opportunity, especially when demand is high.
    • Reliability beats raw talent. The freelancers who get rehired are the ones who hit deadlines, communicate well, receive feedback, bring perspective, and don’t make the client regret saying yes.
    • Freelancing isn’t for everyone. Some people are better off with a paycheck job, and there’s no shame in that.
    • Personal branding is optional. Matthew argues that people are not brands and that many of the ideas lumped under personal branding are better explained elsewhere.

    Notable Quotes

    • “Life plan first, business plan second.”
    • “The primary reason for your business to exist is to meet your needs.”
    • “A deadline is a promise and failure to hit that deadline is a broken promise.”
    • “Some people are truly better off with a paycheck job, and there’s absolutely no shame in that.”
    • “I think pretty much the entire field of personal branding is nonsense.”

    Resources Mentioned

    • Follow Matthew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewfenton/ (Let him know you found him through this episode!)
    • Check out his website: https://matthew-fenton.com/
    • Check out Winning Solo: https://winningsolo.com/
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    55 mins
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