UPLEVEL Your Freelance Business
Learn foundational strategy, marketing and sales essentials to turn your expertise into a profitable business.
Taught by Courtney Culmer, Founder & CEO of Uplevel Communications
UPCOMING LIVE SESSIONS
- June 2 – 6, 2025 @ 3-5 pm ET
When you buy the course, you get access to the 5-day LIVE training sessions via Zoom PLUS all on-demand recordings (now and in the future), downloadable course materials + templates for 6 months.
Next class in session:
June 2 – 6, 2025 @ 3-5 pm ET
The goal of this course
This course is designed to equip freelancers with the critical knowledge, tools, and confidence to build a profitable, sustainable freelance business. By distilling executive-level business training into five focused sessions, participants will walk away with a strong foundation in entrepreneurship, business strategy, marketing, sales, and operations—empowering them to succeed on their own terms.
Who this course is for
This course is designed for new, early-stage and experienced freelancers who want to confidently build a sustainable stream of income, including communications and marketing professionals who are:
- Committed to freelancing and looking to build their business
- Testing the freelancing waters before committing full-time
-
Exploring project-based work while in-between jobs
What You'll Learn
By the end of this course, you will:
- Have a clear foundation for your freelance business, including your Purpose, Vision, and Mission
- Define your ideal customer and target them strategically
- Develop a 90-day marketing plan to build brand awareness and attract clients
- Craft the right messaging in your sales emails, pitches, and presentations—and navigate a sales call with confidence
- Identify the professional services you need to explore to remain compliant and positioned for success
Course Outline
Freelancing offers independence, flexibility, and unlimited earning potential—but building a sustainable business requires more than talent alone. This course equips new and early-stage freelancers with the foundational knowledge, strategies, and tools needed to launch, grow, and manage their freelance business confidently.
Over five interactive sessions, participants will gain insights into entrepreneurship, business strategy, marketing, sales, and operations—leaving with a clear roadmap for success.
Session 1: Becoming an Effective Entrepreneur
- What You Actually Need to Start: Business essentials vs. distractions
- The CEO Mindset: Thinking beyond the work to build a business
- Scaling Yourself: AI tools for organization, productivity, and efficiency
- Defining Your Business Goals & Purpose: Why you exist, what success looks like for YOU, and the clients you want to attract
Session 2: Business Strategy
- Courtney’s “Communications & Marketing Freelancer’s Arc”: The stages of Entrepreneurship
- Market Research & Analysis: How AI can help you identify opportunities
- Types of Competitive Strategies: What makes clients choose you?
- How to Approach Pricing: Value-based vs. hourly vs. project-based
- Strategic Partnerships & Joint Ventures: Leveraging collaboration for growth
Session 3: Marketing + Building Brand Awareness
- Personal Branding + Thought Leadership: PR, social media and websites to position yourself as an expert
- Content Marketing Strategies: Blogging, newsletters, videos and more
- Digital Advertising: Introduction to paid advertising with Google Ads (includes YouTube), Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and LinkedIN Ads
- Email Marketing: Building an email list to grow your audience and nurture relationships with your audience
- KPIs and Analytics: How to measure effectiveness of your marketing efforts
Session 4: Selling
- Inbound vs. Outbound Leads: Understanding and generating demand
- Ideal Client Persona (ICP): Who they are, where to find them and how to reach them
- Outbound Email Sequences: Crafting compelling cold emails
- Sales Call & Discovery Call Scripts: Structuring conversations to close deals
- Enterprise Pitch Deck Framework: What large clients need to see
- How to Pitch Yourself to Win Business: What clients actually care about
- Freelance Job Platforms & Networking: Finding consistent work and building relationships
Session 5: Keeping Your Business Affairs in Order
- Bookkeeping & Accounting Basics: Managing income, taxes, and expenses
- Hiring & Payroll: When and how to bring in help
- Insurance for Freelancers: How it can protect your business and when you may need it
- Legal & Compliance: Contracts, business structures and risk management
About the Instructor
Courtney brings 25+ years of experience in corporate communications, marketing, TV and entrepreneurship, working for and with companies like ESPN, Google, United Technologies (now Raytheon), BET, and NCR Corporation, to name a few. After more than a decade working in corporate communications & marketing, she started her freelance consulting business, which she bootstrapped to six figures in year 1. She went on to generate more than $1M in gross revenue for that business before pivoting and founding Uplevel, a tech-enabled workforce solution that streamlines the process for companies to find and hire vetted freelance marketing & comms talent.
From supporting F500 executives, to selling, to consulting, to successfully raising almost a half million dollars in capital, she’s done it all. She has a B.S. in Journalism (Florida A&M), an M.S., in Integrated Marketing Communications (Florida State) and an MBA (UCLA) and has participated in numerous accelerators, courses and coaching programs. She’s a storyteller, connector, lover of Houston sports teams and toddler girl mom. More importantly, she’s learned all the hard lessons, so you don’t have to.
