Fake It Till You Make It. No.

The loudest voice in the freelancing space right now is telling you to charge fast and figure it out later.

“Charge five figures on your first contract. If you are cheap, they will not take you seriously. Fake it till you make it.”

Every new freelancer I have coached has heard some version of this. And I have watched a lot of them try it.

The quiet voice in your head, the one that actually knows you, is not saying that. The quiet voice is saying, I do not know yet if I can deliver what they are paying me for. That voice is not imposter syndrome. That voice is a warning. Listen to her.

If you are standing at the edge of your first proposal and the loud voice and the quiet voice are fighting, I have been there. Early in my journey I almost priced myself where I was not ready to be. I am glad I pulled back. I want to tell you why.

Here is what I see happen when a freelancer fakes it.

She quotes a rate she cannot back up. The client trusts her. She takes the contract. Then she spends the engagement scrambling, googling, staying up until 2 AM trying to learn on the client’s budget. The work comes out uneven. The client’s business suffers. The freelancer’s reputation suffers. The relationship ends on a bad note, and now there are two people in the world who associate her name with disappointment. One of them is her.

The opportunity, the one that could have built her, was wasted. And the rate she was trying to earn was the consolation prize.

That is not what I want for you.

God wants us to be excellent in everything we do. Not because excellence is vanity, but because excellent work is how we love the person who hired us. When you charge a client, you have to be deserving of that rate. You have to have prepared for it. You have to have a fear of God to deliver quality work for a person whose business is real.

A lot of courses right now are just about the money. They will sell you a certification that looks nice and a script that sounds confident. But you do not need a certification. What you need is actual skill that you have developed. Skill you can show. A process you understand. A principle you can explain. A psychology you have lived inside.

That is real training. And it takes longer than fake it till you make it, because it is not fake.

The day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit.

So before you charge, before you quote, before you put a number on your work, be deserving of it.

Here is what I want you to do instead.

1. Pick one skill. Just one. Go deep on it for thirty days.
2. Do three free portfolio pieces. For your own small business, or your cousin’s, or a friend’s church ministry page. Free is not the same as fake. Free is practice with real stakes.
3. Pass the certification you actually studied for. Not the one that came with the course you bought.
4. Practice your numbers out loud. Say the rate into a mirror until your voice does not shake.
5. Then say the number to the client.

And if you are already in a contract where you overshot, do not panic. Deliver. Over-deliver. Study every night. Keep your word. And next time, quote the rate your hands have actually earned.

Less talking, more action.

For the glory of God.

— Lala