From scattered to focused: A Compass for the "What Should I Do Next?”

Earlier this year Vanessa D'Souza lost the client that brought in most of her revenue. She felt shattered and had no idea where to start. What helped her was a compass she had built for herself as a freelancer: four questions she keeps coming back to when everything feels scattered. In this talk she walks through them and lets the room test them live.

What the talk covers

• The four elements of her Freelance Leadership Compass:
  • Clarity: What do I want right now? Not in five years, but the next step. Her daily question is "What's the 1%?"
  • Experience: Which skill, strength and experience do I bring? She keeps a long Notion page of them and goes back to it in low moments.
  • Expression: Can the people you want to reach tell what you do? Her exercise: say "I help people do X", then ask yourself "so what?" until the message is clear.
  • Self-Leadership: Choosing a direction and following through when there is no map and no manager.
• The room's biggest scattered topics: positioning, admin, sales, communication, networking and time. In the live vote, Expression won, followed by Self-Leadership.
• What the audience suggested for Expression: post your thoughts and show your work, ask clients which words come to mind when they think of you, and collect testimonials from the start. For Self-Leadership: an accountability partner with weekly calls, writing everything down, running small experiments, and a short list of principles for your business.

Takeaways

1. Clarity comes from reflection, so make time for it.
2. Your value grows when you say it clearly.
3. You don't need a perfect plan, only a direction clear enough for the next step.

She also made a small website with prompts for each element to continue reflecting at home.

Who it's for

Freelancers who feel pulled in several directions and want a simple way to decide what to do next.