This still feels surreal. Especially since I didn't plan for it. But it proofs again that sometimes opportunities come without you even trying.

And yes, ending up on an instagram live isn't a mad thing. But I've received a ton of messages about it after, so maybe it's a bigger thing than I thought. Especially nowadays, when many freelancers and juniors reach out to me for advice, or ask me to hire them as a sub-contractor, it feels weird to boast about this opportunity.

And I'm not sharing this to boast, but to show you that things are possible without you even realising. So how did I end up on an instagram live with THE Chris Do?

Sorry, who?

If you don't know Chris Do: Where have you been? I don't want to put him on a pedestal. But this person has helped so many people with their business and it's something I'd love to be able to do as well. Having almost 1 million followers on instagram alone (and he also has a Youtube channel, Linkedin and whatever else there is) - he's well-known in the freelance and design industry for his advice.

And somehow, little me with just under 800 followers at that time, ended up on an instagram live with him. Thanks to Carlos, a Sales Coach.

As every good story: It starts with a salad at 10am on a Saturday

No, it does not. I didn't have a salad. But it was a Saturday morning. And it was around 10am in Sri Lanka. I was doom-scrolling on instagram - like any good millenial would do - when I got a notification that Chris Do started an instagram live together with Carlos. Carlos is a sales expert who joined The Futur's Pro Group community. It's a platform for freelancers and business owners to connect and a platform I'm planning to join once I finish my current 1:1 coaching.

I initially wanted to swipe the notification off the screen but ended up tapping on it instead. A simple mis-tap that would change my life forever - or at least that Saturday morning.

So I was watching that instagram live. Now, you could end this blog article here. Chris Do hosts several lives on instagram. But I wasn't participating as a viewer, I participated as a guest. But not that Saturday.

Why you need to engage with your community

Chris and Carlos were talking about a book called "Exactly What to Say: The Magic Words for Influence and Impact" by Phil Jones. This same book was also recommended to me by one of my previous coaches. I remember the book. It has phrases in there to help you with sales without the other person being aware of it. Which initially made me skeptical.

I've never been a fan of "manipulating" people into buying things from you. Nobody likes the feeling of being sold to. And I've struggled with sales for my own coaching programme and workshops myself. So I was intrueged to learn from both Carlos and Chris how to improve Sales.

And that's how I ended up listening to the conversation. After introducing and explaining some key phrases of "Exactly what to say", Chris and Carlos decided to invite someone from the audience to join the live for an adhoc sales role play.

And as you can imagine, tons of people (it were about 300-400 people who were watching live) requested to join. And Chris Do got a whole list of people to choose from. And then one person stood out to him. He even said "I know this guy!" and look who joined 🥁 Alejo Porras.

Alejo is going to be one of my podcast guests for season 2 of the Freelance Blueprint podcast. Make sure to subscribe to get notified for his episode.

How to stand out

Alejo is an illustrator who is known for sketch-notes to convey the most important learnings of a key note speech or other adhoc conversations. I've come across his content in the past because Chris has shared it before. And why did he share it? Because Alejo summarised the learnings of Chris Do in previous posts. And he did a really good job with it.

And therefore, Alejo was fresh on Chris' mind and stood out when he scrolled through the tons of requests of people to join. And you can imagine how many people must tag Chris every single day.

There's many ways you can stand out: You can do something remarkable, you could do something out of the norm or like Alejo did: put yourself out there, engage with the people of your community and their posts.

Then the fun started 🍿

The instagram live turned into a great show of entertainment. Who would have thought that a doom scroll could have turned out into something so interesting.

It had everything: The protagonist, Alejo, with the goal to sell his product. The antagonist, Carlos, who wanted to get more services for a lower price. The narrator, Chris, who observed and shared learnings. And most importantly: a massive community of other freelancers and creatives who were cheering Alejo on in the comments.

People were rooting for him, and so was I. The comments kept flooding in while Alejo was managing to keep it cool on an adhoc instagram live with Carlos and Chris Do.

And then the learnings were shared and the live ended. But that's not the end of the story. You got the spoiler alert in the headline. So what happened next?

Check out Alejo's post about the learnings, showcasing his skills.

One single instagram story

I was so entertained by the live that I shared it with my instagram followers. I posted this:

And Carlos, as any good sales person would do, asked in his instagram stories to download his lead magnet. While doing so, I noticed some simple UX improvements. So I asked Carlos if he'd be open-minded for some feedback.

"Are you open-minded to… " It's another phrase of the book they were talking about on the instagram live. Which showcased that I've done my research.

What happened next scared the shit out of me

Of course he was, it's free UX advice from a Senior UX Designer, who would say no? But dear freelancer: don't give advice without the other person's permission. Allow them to agree to it first, otherwise it becomes salesy (my opinion, not Carlos' 😅)

Anyway, I gave him my feedback. He appreciated it. And what happened next scared the shit out of me:

Did he just ask me if I wanted to join the next live? With Chris Do?!? 🤯

I didn't know if it was real. It sounded too good to be true. And that was all just based off one simple suggestion? I genuinely didn't have any ulterior motives when I gave him that recommendation.

I was even scared to tell my followers about this to have some support on the live. Carlos also said they're planning to bring in 2-3 people. So what if they'd run out of time and I couldn't participate? What if I misunderstood it? What if it was a mistake? What if I talk about it but then it won't happen?

I was nervous for days

Imagine this: You get an opportunity like this but then it doesn't soak in. You don't know if it will happen. You think there's something wrong. There must be a catch. And days pass, so you somewhat forget about it. And you re-read those DMs to make sure you didn't misunderstand anything.

The thing is, my goal with this platform (the Freelance Blueprint) is to motivate people to finally start their freelance career and help them become successful. My mission is to take away the fear and uncertainty that people have, get them to finally believe in themselves that it's possible. And create a work life that works for them.

And that's exactly what Chris has done with his content in the past. So having an opportunity to learn from experts like him and Carlos was a big deal. At least for me.

So what did I do? I read "Exactly what to say" for the second time, this time taking notes. I also read Carlo's Sales playbook (you can download it for free in his bio). But then…

The night before

I wanted to make sure I'm fully rested and ready for the instagram live. I was still in Sri Lanka, so the time difference with the US would be quite much, and it happened at 10pm my local time. And the night before, life happened.

You know, when you're a digital nomad, you don't always plan for things. And it turned out that at the accommodation I stayed at the time, they had a band and DJ and there was just no way I could catch any sleep anyway. So I decided to join the party.

And my friends were there too and you can imagine… Those days where you don't make plans to go to a party but still end up at there are the best ones. We danced until the music stopped and then continued dancing by the beach. Some people were skinny dipping, some people just enjoyed life. And so did I. And the night turned into daylight.

I caught maybe 1-2 hours of sleep. Which is not the norm for me. And once I woke up - I wasn't even hungover, I only had 1 drink but I was just dancing so much - I was incredibly tired. And that's when it hit me: Today is the day of the live.

Instead of blaming myself for enjoying life, I did what I always do: Get coffee to fix the problem ☕️

And instead of being angry with myself that I put life before work - which is something I keep telling people and finally listened to my own advice - I just thought: Play hard, work hard. And prepared for the call in the evening. And finally had the guts to tell my instagram followers that I might end up on a live with Carlos and Chris Do.

Support and community goes a long way

And then the live happened. And some of my followers and fellow freelancers who I had the luxury to connect with joined and supported me in the comments. Nikoleta @angelova.nikoleta.design was there, cheering me on. She'll also be on the Freelance Blueprint Podcast soon. Racheal @ui.jaymez was there too! And it was so difficult not to get too distracted by the comment section while trying to do a good job.

And even Anneli Hansson joined 🤯

This was so much pressure. But I've "met" Anneli on a group call through Rob's coaching programme in the past. And she was such a massive guidance with my own journey. What Anneli said in that group call was exactly what I needed to hear to give myself permission to pause on client work for a while and fully focus on the Freelance Blueprint.

It was so nice to see the comments come in while I was doing the sales roleplay. But gosh, it was distracting! Trying not to sound like an idiot while implementing everything you learned about sales only a few minutes before, trying to listen to Carlos' questions, not getting too distracted from Chris' reactions. It was mad. My brain was running wild.

I got my 15 minutes of fame

Once the call finished, I got around 60 followers. Crazy how much of an impact Chris has in the community. That's usually what I gain in 2 months 🤣 And the support in the comments, the messages I received after. It was such a nice cozy fuzzy feeling. I was worried of sounding like an idiot but people were so supportive. That's what I love about social media.

So, what do we learn from this?

Well, I'm pretty sure Carlos and Chris will forget about me soon. But I won't forget how much people supported me before and after that call. And it wasn't competitive at all. Other content creators I connected with were so happy for me and not jealous at all.

Which is why it's important to build a community and have a positive mindset. Not everyone is competition, many people are supporters.

What I learned about Sales

The biggest thing I learned, and you probably will too if you watch the live and don't just read this blog post: It's okay to say your price.

My coach at the time told me not to mention the price until the person is 100% convinced that they want to work with you. Because the price is the friction, the sales call is there to take away as much of the hesitation as possible.

He later told me that he feels bad that that piece of advice was what stuck with me. But hey, I still learned my lesson.

What you can learn from this story

1. You never know where a simple message can get you.

2. Your number of followers doesn't matter if you want to get in front of big accounts (I mean, I even interviewed Rob and Kai on the podcast who both have 100k+ followers)

3. Never underestimate the support you can get from a community

4. It's good to put yourself out there, even when it's hard

Links

Thanks for making it this far.

Watch the full instagram live here.

Subscribe to the Freelance Blueprint Podcast to get notified for the episodes with Alejo and Nikoleta.