You’re Not a Freelancer—You’re a Strategic Growth Partner™.

I worked for years as a freelancer. Or a contractor. Or a fractional. Whatever title you want to use, the setup was always the same: hourly rate, weekly commitment, clock in, clock out.

It sounded flexible on paper.

But in reality, it never worked that way.

I come from the church of corporate work ethic—raised as an elder millennial with the mindset that hard work earns respect. So if I committed to 20 hours a week, I worked all 20 of them, even if the actual workload didn’t require it. And more often than not, I overdelivered.

I worked 25 hours on a 20-hour contract. I put in 45 when the agreement said 40. I didn’t charge for thinking time, or whiteboarding sessions, or the strategic planning that made the work ten times better. I felt guilty for taking a long lunch. I second-guessed whether it was okay to fold a load of laundry between deck reviews. Even when I was producing executive-level, flow-state work that delivered real results, I still felt like I was “on the clock.”

And what did I get in return?

No benefits. No paid time off. No bonus. No security. Just a polite paycheck—if that. One client from a major holding company once sent me a cold email when I turned down an extra project at the end of our contract. I had maxed out my hours, worked through weekends, and gone far above what was asked.

Their response? “You committed to us. You have a contract through the end date.”

That moment hurt, pissed me off, and made me oh, so resentful.

I knew I had given everything. But because it wasn’t clearly scoped, they felt entitled to more.

That’s when I said: never again.

That’s why I built the Strategic Growth Partner™ model—and specifically, the Growth Activation Sprint™.

It’s a four-to-six-week, fixed-scope engagement. We agree on deliverables from the start. Everyone knows what’s included—and what’s not. When it’s done, it’s done.

No hourly rate. No open-ended commitments. No endless rounds of “can you just.”

It’s clear. It’s strategic. It’s respectful. And when I’m in flow state, I bring decades of brand strategy, C-suite-level insight, and execution power into one focused sprint.

That is not something to discount to an hourly rate.

And neither should yours.

If you’re ready to shift out of the freelancer trap and lead your work like a true growth operator, this is your moment.

If you want more, come to my next live event and you can ask me Q/A about your Blueprint. Check out the Next Live Event Here.

Talk soon,

—Rhiannon