3 Things SOME Freelance Gurus and Coaches Tell You That Are Outright Misleading
Feeling the surge of clout about freelancing as you may have heard from gurus? You might need to think again…
Hey there! Ace here, writing my first article in YEARS! Yep, you’ve read that right. I began writing in Medium last 2022, and then some stuff happened resulting in my forced Medium writing hiatus.
Nonetheless, I’m here again (hopefully more consistent than before) to share the newfound knowledge and experience I absorbed in the years I’ve been inactive. Let’s start, shall we?
If you’re in a third-world country, it makes sense to always think about different ways to earn money so you can put food on the table without actually pushing yourself to the brink of physical and mental exhaustion.
After all, we all have families to feed and put clothes on. Some also look for ways to earn money without sacrificing their time for their loved ones, while some look for ways to earn money online because they can’t work physically.
Those are some of the many reasons why people turn to freelancing — a supposedly better alternative to the corporate setting where you can be your own boss, work your own hours, and earn a hefty amount of money.
For the most part, the freelancing perks I’ve talked about are legit.
You can certainly be your own boss (since you’ll be working with clients, as you would in a business), work your own hours (since you usually set the terms and conditions), and earn a ton of money (since the freelancing industry pays people for solutions that will make a certain business earn more money).
As a freelancer myself, I experienced some of these perks already, except for the part where you earn a dump truck-like sum of money. Lol!
But there’s a problem…
The problem is that SOME freelancing gurus and coaches mislead people who want to be properly introduced to freelancing — giving them false hope and hurting their expectations.
Notice how I emphasized the word “Some”? That’s because not all gurus and coaches are bad and misleading, and I don’t like generalizing, so let’s get that ball right out of the park.
Now, what things do SOME freelance gurus and coaches say that isn’t even remotely accurate and gives newbies false hope?
Honestly, there are many, but for the sake of importance, I will only cover the three most misleading myths.
Myth #1: You Can Call Yourself an Expert by Just Finishing a Course
No, getting a certificate of completion from a course doesn’t automatically make you an expert. Experts spend time honing their craft, and I’m talking about hundreds and even thousands of hours spent improving their skills.
You certainly won’t be able to diagnose a problem in someone’s business and get paid handsomely for it by just finishing a 20-hour course — unless you’re a prodigy or you’re some sort of an undercover boss looking to assess your team members secretly.
That’s the thing misleading coaches don’t want to talk about, setting up unrealistic expectations that lead to disappointments.
Expert freelancers have three things in their arsenal: experience, education, and hard work.
These words aren’t just cheesy words meant to intimidate someone, these words are the foundation of genuine expertise.
Finishing a course falls under education, so where can newbies source the experience and hard work needed to be called an expert?
It’s simple: newbies can become experts when they have all three — experience, education, and hard work. Not one, not two, but three.
Myth #2: Everybody is Fit for Freelancing
Freelancing is not for everyone, and that’s a cold hard fact even though certain coaches say otherwise.
You may love freelancing today because of its perks, and renounce it months, weeks, or even days when things get tough.
Some people don’t have the necessary traits to be a successful freelancer but have the necessary traits to be a manager at a corporate setting. Some have some traits of a successful freelancer but want to work under a structure led by a boss or a leader.
Misleading gurus and coaches fail to acknowledge that freelancing requires a unique set of traits, most of which are a byproduct of extreme self-discipline.
In order to thrive in freelancing, you’ll need to teach yourself self-discipline because you don’t have a boss to report to or an HR org to assess you. You need to lead yourself strictly as you can to survive.
And to be honest, some people don’t have strong self-leadership skills — and that’s really okay because not everybody is fit for freelancing anyway.
“Don’t be afraid to take an unfamiliar path. Sometimes they’re the ones that take you to the best places.”
– Unknown
Myth #3: You Can Earn a Lot of Money By Doing a Simple Task
If a certain guru or coach sells a course and tells you that you can earn a ton of money by doing one simple task the course will teach you about, proceed with caution.
I had my fair share of experiences buying courses from coaches, and though I never had any major issues, I’m starting to see a trend misleading gurus follow: oversimplifying freelancing.
For example, a coach sells a copywriting course for beginners. To grab the attention of newbies and beginners, the coach would say that copywriting is an instant “premium skill” clients would pay big dollars for.
At first glance, it seems like nothing’s wrong with that because it’s probably just a copywriting method like the BBB (Benefit-Benefit-Benefit) where the writer persuades the reader by listing down all the benefits of the product or program.
But the problem lies with how it's marketed.
The coach who sells the program might just be showing the glittery, gold-dusted one side of the coin, with the newbies totally unaware that to be able to earn that X amount of money, they need to learn more and do more than what’s marketed.
Though these things may not be the case for any freelance guru selling a course, it pays to proceed with caution and research the program they’re selling so you can avoid headaches.
For people who want to start their freelancing journeys, avoid coaches who oversimplify freelancing as this creates an unhealthy expectation that freelancing is easy and is a good medium to get rich quickly — leading to burnout and disappointments.
Final Thoughts
To summarize, misleading gurus and coaches tend to tell newbies the three myths we’ve just talked about:
(1) That you can become an expert with just a course.
(2) That everybody can be a freelancer.
(3) And that you can earn big bucks by just doing a simple task without elaborating on what you need to do behind the scenes.
Not only are those myths outright misleading, but they’re damaging to the morale of a freelancing newbie who just wants to earn a decent living.
So if you’re a newbie, I implore you to exercise your critical thinking and judge whether the coach or guru you’re listening to is even worth listening to or they’re just trying to milk out your wallet.