274: Fully Booked but Underpaid: Ingrid’s Path to Doubling Her Rates (Without Losing Clients)

Imagine being slammed with client work… deadlines piling up… and still looking at your income like, “Wait—why doesn’t this match how hard I’m working?” That was Ingrid Lange—fully booked, wildly underpaid, and what she calls a “busy fool.” In this episode, Ingrid breaks down how she shifted from underpriced project work, to hourly for protection, and then back to premium project pricing based on value—plus how she doubled her rate with existing clients and got zero pushback. Quick heads up: we had a few choppy connection moments early on, but the insights are gold. Let’s dive in.

About Ingrid:
Ingrid Lange is a technical fashion designer who helps turn designs into physical, sellable products. She works across the full product development journey—from tech packs and global factory and material sourcing to prototype fittings and sustainable decisions. 

Ingrid has lived and worked in Bangladesh on assignment for major international brands, fully immersed in large-scale factory environments and overseeing product development from the inside out. She  has collaborated with major European brands including Zara, Next, Celio, and more. When she’s not bringing collections to life, Ingrid is exploring the world and has just visited her 65th country.

Connect with Ingrid:
Email her at [e-mail]
Connect on LinkedIn  

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Creators and Guests

Host

Heidi Weinberg {Sew Heidi}

Heidi (aka Sew Heidi) is a self-taught freelance fashion designer who built a six-figure business without a degree, portfolio, or industry connections. After years of burnout in the fashion industry, she went freelance—and never looked back. Now, she helps other designers ditch toxic jobs, land better clients, and build flexible careers they love. Through her podcast, courses, and resources, Heidi has helped thousands of designers take control of their fashion path and finally get paid what they’re worth.

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You'll learn how to build a freelance fashion business, so you can do the work you love on your own terms. Freelancing in fashion is the only way to get freedom in your day (instead of being tied to a desk).

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Heidi [00:00:00]:
Imagine being slammed with client work, deadlines piling up, and still looking at your income like, wait, why does this not match how hard I am working? That was Ingrid Lang, a fully booked freelancer, wildly underpaid, and what she calls a busy fool. In this episode, Ingrid breaks down how she shifted from underpriced project work to hourly work for protection, and then back to premium project pricing based on value, plus how she doubled her rates with existing clients and got zero pushback. Quick heads up, we had a few choppy connections moments early on, but the insights are gold. Let's dive in. Uh, welcome to the podcast, Ingrid. I am super excited to dig in with you today on the high-level topic of how you went from fully booked but massively underpaid to where you're at now in your business, which is a much different place. Uh, would you start, I guess, by sharing what are some of the key changes you made in your business to start earning more for the work that you were doing?

Ingrid Lange [00:01:02]:
Okay, hi. So what are the key changes that I've done? I started realizing that— so my first, first, first I started having a lot of clients and I wasn't really focusing on how much I was charging them or whether that was right or wrong. I was just taking it and work and work and work. And at some point during that, I realized that the way I was pricing things were so wrong that I was really, I had become what I used to call a busy fool. So, I was really busy. I was nearly not making it to deadlines, but at the same time, I wasn't like, the end result, when you see the money amount, wasn't reflecting the fact that I was super mega busy. So at some point I had this moment of saying like, hang on a minute, like this needs to, like this needs to make sense. Like not only having projects, not only having clients, like this needs to make sense as a whole and it's not.

Ingrid Lange [00:02:10]:
So what I did at that time was I stopped charging per project and I actually moved to hourly, which is something that made a a lot of sense in the context of how I used to work or like the clients that I used to have. I work mainly through Upwork. And my clients through Upwork are mostly people that like have a full-time job that has nothing to do with fashion and they want to start a brand. So they have like, they have some savings. This used to be my typical client. So with them, I used to price per project, and because I was doing that so wrong, I was just pricing really, really low. So I decided to, in order to protect my time and my value, change to hourly. So I would just move the project, like, offer hourly milestones and hourly projects instead of fixed price projects.

Ingrid Lange [00:03:14]:
That was the first change that I did that at the time felt like that way I was protecting my time and value. With that, I started to understand how long things actually take me. I make really, really detailed tech packs. I make like, I'm very detail-oriented. I take a lot of care of everything that I put in a tech pack or an email. And that takes a lot of time. If you're not charging per hour, then that, you know, the project price needs to reflect all the time that you're going to take on that. So with the time, with the hourly pricing, I felt like I was in a safer space, and I was.

Ingrid Lange [00:04:03]:
But then the next step was, once I was comfortable with that, I started raising my rates and I started changing a bit the nature of the clients that I was having, mainly because as you raise your rates, you just get a different profile, right, of people. People that can afford me now are a bit different than the people that could afford me before. So with changing the hourly rate and raising it, I've come to a point where thanks to Fast, maybe coaching through Fast, I understood that I needed to change back to project because I need to price what I bring to the table by the value. That's something I got from you. So not by the hour. So at some point your hour sounds very expensive, right? So you just need to approach it a whole different way. So I've now transitioned to going back to project pricing, except for some specific clients where I just do a lot of really varied things and project pricing wouldn't work.

Heidi [00:05:19]:
Yeah, yeah. Um, I mean, it sounds so simple on paper. I was doing project, not making enough. Went hourly, raised my hourly, now back to project-based. But it obviously took time and maybe some confidence and some strategy to get there. Can you talk us through— I know that with some existing clients you were able to double your rates without getting any pushback. Can you talk a little bit about how you approach— I want to know twofold. One, how you approach that in your own head, like, how did you get the confidence to do that and what were you thinking about in that moment? And second, like, how did you—

Ingrid Lange [00:06:05]:
what—

Heidi [00:06:06]:
how did the conversation go? What did you say? How did you present that price increase to get the client to say yes without any kickback?

Ingrid Lange [00:06:15]:
Okay, uh, so yeah, it's definitely like a— it's one path that before the next one, right? The first one was— well, there's a number of steps. Like, the first one was identifying that I was not charging enough at whatever stage of that process, right? Like, when I was really undercharging, and then when I raised it. And for that, there's a number of, like, alarms that sound in my head when I'm doing something, and I either start resenting the work I don't know, feeling like, you know, if you're not getting paid enough, you're like, I need to finish this fast, bro. Yeah, I don't know. Then you like get annoyed with the client and it's just bad.

Heidi [00:07:03]:
Sorry, you, you wind up getting really annoyed with the client and it's just bad for everybody when they're— when you feel like you're not getting paid enough.

Ingrid Lange [00:07:10]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Like, I I just wanted to get things done rather than being there fully, like fully present into what I was doing. So that was one of them. I remember at some point I attended a monthly workshop. It was about signs that you need to raise your rate. And I was a textbook example of everything that was a sign that I needed to raise my rate. So I was like, okay, This is really, really clear. At the very first moment when I was massively undercharging, it was very evident, right? Like after a few things where I started understanding how much things take in time, it was very clear that I was undercharging.

Ingrid Lange [00:07:58]:
But later on throughout this process, so first I needed to like see those signs myself and say like, Linda, you need to raise your price. Before Ingrid, you need to raise your prices came, like, Ingrid, you're ready to raise your prices. Like, I built the confidence within myself of, like, what I am bringing to the table is important. It's a lot. Like, I have experience. And I kind of, like, first all these conversations happen in my head and happen through the process of being in FAST and interacting with the other, the other students in FAST and with my coach and kind of like building that confidence of like, actually, I know what I'm doing. I really know what I'm doing. So I needed to get all of that.

Ingrid Lange [00:08:47]:
Once I had the confidence of like, you are worth it, then I was like, okay, you need to take this to the client. So how I did it, the example that is most vivid in my head is the last one, where I actually doubled my rate. Like again and again, right? This was— so the way I approached the conversation was first I approached it from a yearly perspective of like, okay, the year is closing, we're starting a new year. That in my case with this client is completely irrelevant, but I needed some anchor from something like, hey, I'm coming up with this now, so okay, it's December. So I said that. I said also that I haven't raised my prices with them in, in all the time that we have worked hourly together, even though like the scope of my work with them has changed entirely. Because for this particular client of mine, I I've become more and more and more involved. And I really deliver crucial, critical work for the actual materialization of everything they have.

Ingrid Lange [00:10:08]:
I'm almost like their department of everything. So that was— and that took a while for me to understand that. I didn't even realize that at the beginning, how crucial I am to the execution of the things that my client wants, right? And that's something that took me learnings mostly from fast feeding where I started to understand this thing. So I said that, I said like, it's another year, I haven't raised my prices with you. What I'm doing now is a lot more than when we just started and I did a few tech packs for you. And also I explained to them that I am fully booked and my current rate is actually like double what I have, what I've been charging you or what I am charging you. And so I had a video call with them, right? So this was an actual live conversation and I explained like that maybe I should have been more clear about that. Maybe I should have been more clear in the past that it was kind of like a bargain.

Ingrid Lange [00:11:18]:
I don't know, I phrased this better, right? But I kind of like wanted to give them the context. And also with, yeah, what else did I do? I said that, and then with Upwork, what helped me is that you can put your rate in Upwork. And so I was like, look, this is what I charge now in Upwork. You can see it. It's not like I'm just charging this to you, right? So it's kind of easier to like, Show them, like, show where I was at with them so they could, like, publicly see, like, look, this is what I charge people. So with all of that, oh, and I said, look, I'm fully booked, so it's hard to sustain the rate that I have with you when I'm fully booked and I have a waiting list of clients. But at the same time, I really love working with you, so I want this to be a conversation Well, we find a way that works for us, for all of us, but this is where I am. And so I've given them like different options so that they can, like they have the feeling that they can choose.

Ingrid Lange [00:12:31]:
And I'm not just saying, look, I'm doubling, this is it or nothing, goodbye, right? So I kind of like gave them a platform to say like, look, what would you like from this? And I think the conversation went really well. Like they ended up kind of So they didn't say much and I didn't get an answer from them right away, but I, the only thing they said is kind of like, thank you, basically thank you for charging us little until now. So they were like thankful. So this is good. I was like, okay, this is, I think I also for myself, because I'm raising the rate that much, you know, imagine if for whatever service, all of a sudden they turn around and go like, hey, it's double. No, how would you react to that? So I had to give a lot of context, and I think it was important for me to, to like make them understand that, look, it's not that I'm doubling now, it's that I've given you a great deal in the past. You just didn't know that. I didn't communicate that, and I should have.

Heidi [00:13:33]:
Yeah.

Ingrid Lange [00:13:35]:
Yeah. What were—

Heidi [00:13:36]:
so what were the options you gave them instead of just the rates doubling? And it sounds like— I, I, I know a little context of this client, but this is a client where you do such a big breadth of work for them, and it's— the workload is a little bit variable. And so you do still charge the hourly rate, is that correct? Yeah, not project.

Ingrid Lange [00:13:59]:
Yeah, with them I do hourly because I have a lot of different things.

Heidi [00:14:03]:
Yeah, the scope is not really tight every month or every week for each project. So what were the options that you gave them for raising the rate? One was, I imagine, just double the hourly rate. What else did you give them?

Ingrid Lange [00:14:17]:
So I gave them, I gave them the option of like a little bit over doubling the hourly rate. Okay. Um, and just pay for the hour, or then doubling the hourly rate on a retainer basis. And then I also gave them the option. So for these option 1 and 2, I kind of played with the fact that like there's a currency exchange thing and there's a platform like Upwork, in Upwork, outside Upwork. So I kind of like played with those things so that I was being transparent and honest, but the options were like If you do it, you know, inside Upwork, then this is this much, but they will pay more. We have to pay Upwork probably more or doubling my rate, effectively doubling it, but on a retainer basis. Or the other option that I gave them was something that we may do in the future, which is a hybrid model where I'm going to reduce my hourly rate a little bit from where I am now, but I'm going to get a percentage of the profit from the collections that we develop together.

Ingrid Lange [00:15:38]:
This is a model that we're going to have to fine-tune together. So it's not, you know, I just wanted to put on the table and see if this was an option for them. You know, how, what their faces would look like when we do it. But like, when I say this, yeah, And they were, they were like, happy with that. They were like, oh yeah, I like the incentive idea. Yeah, we can talk about that. Yeah. So yeah, we're, we're on a retainer now.

Ingrid Lange [00:16:05]:
And then we'll probably move to this, but this will require a lot more investigation as to how to do this, right? How to like, you know, how to make this work.

Heidi [00:16:15]:
Yeah, that's amazing. So an hourly retainer. So you're doing like X hours per month. At X dollars per hour for those hours.

Ingrid Lange [00:16:26]:
Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm doing. And because there is a— there is— there's just a lot of work. So the hours— the reason I'm, I'm not— I wasn't doing more hours with them is because one, I'm fully booked, like I'm constantly fully booked, and two, I was starting to— sorry, I was already earning a lot more money with other clients. So it didn't make sense to work more hours for this particular client, right?

Heidi [00:16:53]:
Totally.

Ingrid Lange [00:16:54]:
So, and this is something that I told them as well, like when I was raising my rates, I was like, what does this mean to you? This means I'm going to allocate this time to you. This means you're going to get faster responses, more strategy, more of like, they really need that. But I wasn't giving them that because I was just You know, if you're charging 50% more to another client, then it makes more sense to allocate, you know, to put your effort in the other client, right?

Heidi [00:17:19]:
Yeah.

Ingrid Lange [00:17:19]:
So I know I can make them understand this. And the way we're doing it now is because they really need more than the hours. Like, we're on 20-hour retainer, but they need more than that. And now I'm happy to give them more than that. So what we say is, look, this is the retainer, and then I need to work more hours, and I just work more hours and I bill you. And they're happy with that. Like, they They want me to be more and more involved and they need it really.

Heidi [00:17:46]:
Yeah, that's amazing. Sounds like it's such a great win-win for both of you guys.

Ingrid Lange [00:17:52]:
Yeah, yeah, totally, totally. And I really enjoy working with them. They enjoy working with me. Like, we've been together to like India, we've been together to Paris, they came to Barcelona. So like, I know them by now. Like, we've gone through stuff. Yeah.

Heidi [00:18:06]:
Well, talk about that because I know you shared with me that you charged for your trip Um, you went to them, went to Paris and India with them, and you charged for that travel, uh, which I think was a big business move for you, no?

Ingrid Lange [00:18:22]:
Yeah, that was huge. So, uh, so in terms of charging, like, what, what sounds really, really cool is that I charge for 5 days more, more, more than what used to be my monthly salary back when I was working for a brand in the UK. I was the garment technologist, so technical designer for, for Next UK, which is like a really, really big brand in the UK, like one of the biggest. And one that— and now for this like 5-day trip, I charge more than what I used to earn for a month at Next. This is because it's I needed to understand what my worth was. And once I was comfortable with this, and I had a lot of conversations with, mostly with Alice, my coach, about what I was bringing to the table and how this is worth, that I was comfortable bringing this offer and going like, look guys, this is it.

Heidi [00:19:32]:
Yeah. Wow, that's amazing. That's amazing. Where, uh, where are your other— so it feels like you magically more than doubled your rates and kept— you keep getting new clients at these new rates. Is everybody coming through Upwork?

Ingrid Lange [00:19:56]:
Hmm. Most of them are. But not anymore, not all of them. So I used to get all my clients through Upwork, absolutely all of them. And I really fine-tuned, like at an early stage, I really fine-tuned how to do proposals on Upwork, how to like screen what clients were a good chance of getting the job and what weren't, which ones weren't, blah, blah. But then what started to work really well was consultations. People hire me for like a consultation on Upwork because they wanna know what the steps are to setting up a brand and launching. And then when we do this consultation, I kind of like walk them through what they need to do and how the whole process looks like.

Ingrid Lange [00:20:43]:
And then that becomes me working with them to make all of this happen. So most of the initial contact does come through Upwork, but then Once we do the consultation, sometimes the rest of it doesn't happen through Upwork anymore. I also got some jobs by like recommendation of someone else. Yeah. Um, but to be honest, I don't have a website. I don't have a LinkedIn. It's, it's being updated right now as we speak. Yeah.

Ingrid Lange [00:21:19]:
So it's great to have a deadline. It's great to have a podcast because thanks to that, now I have a working LinkedIn that doesn't say that I work at a place I don't work for the last 4 years.

Heidi [00:21:28]:
Oh, was that updated? Like it said you still worked at Next UK?

Ingrid Lange [00:21:35]:
No, no, like the, the place that I worked after that.

Heidi [00:21:38]:
Okay, okay.

Ingrid Lange [00:21:40]:
But it was super— it was like 4 years outdated. It didn't say freelance anywhere. I— yeah.

Heidi [00:21:48]:
Oh my.

Ingrid Lange [00:21:50]:
Yeah, but I'm changing that today. I've changed it today.

Heidi [00:21:54]:
So it's amazing. Great to have a deadline.

Ingrid Lange [00:21:57]:
Yeah.

Heidi [00:21:57]:
Amazing.

Ingrid Lange [00:21:58]:
Yeah. So if people click on my name, they want to find me now, they can find me on the Find page, see what I actually do right now, but that wasn't the case. So yeah, most of my clients, the vast majority of them were through Upwork or somehow started with me through Upwork.

Heidi [00:22:12]:
Yeah. But you were able to just double the rate on Upwork and you're still getting leads. It didn't break. The, it didn't break your lead flow?

Ingrid Lange [00:22:25]:
No, it didn't actually. So the thing is, the way Upwork works is that when somebody posts a job on Upwork, Upwork shows that person suitable candidates. So the person that is posting a job can click and invite people and say like, hey, I think you're going to be a good match for my job. And for whatever reason, the algorithm liked me or likes me. Now I don't get as much. I'm not so busy on Upwork right now. So, but I could see that the algorithm was proposing me for a number of people that were posting jobs because At some point I stopped pitching on Upwork and I would respond to invitations of interviews. There was also the rare case where people just directly hired me without calls, without these cover calls, without nothing.

Ingrid Lange [00:23:30]:
But that happens most of the time with people that don't know how to use Upwork. So they understand that they are hiring me, they get that, but I don't think they fully get what's just happened, right? So I still start with a discovery call even though I could like click and start earning, but I'm like, I think we need to talk. But mostly, mostly what happened is that after a number of jobs in Upwork, then the algorithm was offering, like proposing me. So I started just replying to interviews, which is a very comfortable place to be because I'd be like, well, you contacted me. And so I would have discovery calls with them And in most of the cases, when there is a discovery call, then it was like, it was a yes, and we'll work together. I think a lot of, like, a lot of the change in my rates was like, the rates reflect an internal change that had to happen with me and that needed time, really. And that's like, there's a number of things like I needed to understand what I can offer because I used to be only an employee where I would not think in terms of how long something takes me or what I, what I, yeah, I just, I don't have an entrepreneurial mind, right? So I was just, I'm very, very good at my job and I know exactly what I need to what to do for the job, but then I didn't know anything about what comes around this that needs to happen for you to do the job, right? So like how to price, how to explain what you do, how to like understand how this works apart from once you already have the job. Yes, I know how to do a tech pack really well.

Ingrid Lange [00:25:24]:
I know how to do fittings really well. I know how to work in a factory and understand what's right and what's wrong. But the rest of the process that is then reflected on the final result of having higher and higher rates is really my transformational process of confidence in my knowledge and confidence in what I'm solving for the brand. Confidence in like where I'm sitting and like, I can do this. Like I am doing it. Like, yes.

Heidi [00:25:56]:
Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. And I know you've worked really hard to build that confidence and to build that mindset to really see and understand the value that you deliver and the worth that's attached to that, uh, for the compensation that you get. So that's— it's amazing to see your growth and your progress over the last less than year you've been working on shifting. All less than a year, it's been about 10 months that you've been working on shifting all of this in your business.

Ingrid Lange [00:26:25]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's been, it's been 10 months. But like when I started, I was still like overbooked but undercharging at the worst of the configuration of these two things together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's been a real change, but that also came with like a lot of personal transformation. I, in, in the time that I spent just before joining Fastly in this month. I started freelancing when I had a baby that was less than a year old, and then I had another one in the first, like, kind of 2 years of freelancing before joining Fastly. So that also came with, like, a lot of personal transformation.

Ingrid Lange [00:27:08]:
Like, used to work full-time, then I decided to take a huge break of, like, nearly 2 years and dedicate myself only to to like raising my children, to then needing to be more than a mother, needing to like expand myself again and into like having to be more than that. And that comes with like building up a confidence in myself that I think at some point I had it, but then I lost it throughout motherhood or I was just focused on other things. So now I was like, okay, I need to rebuild that. And yeah. That, that then resulted into like very nice and very good like outcomes out of all of it. Yeah.

Heidi [00:27:52]:
So now you're still fully booked and you're charging twice as much, in some cases more than twice as much, right? So like how has that shifted things in your business?

Ingrid Lange [00:28:09]:
So one of the— so how does this shift the things in my business is that now I sometimes hire people to do things. That was part of me understanding and learning what my service offerings are, like what I can offer to people, and then understanding that I can also offer more than art, more than only what I can do myself, because a lot of clients need more than that. For example, they need patterns. Making. I don't make patterns. They need like 3D renders, they need like 3D fittings and stuff. So there's a lot of things that I don't know how to do that could be part of my offering so that I have just a fuller, like a broader service where I solve clients' needs. And I understood that I could like scale by offering these things and just hiring other people to do those things.

Ingrid Lange [00:29:11]:
So that's how I now work with some clients. Like, I don't shy off of something that's bigger than what I can do. I'm like, okay, that's fine, let's do it, let's do it. And then for this, you know, I can, I can like reach out to people in my team and go like, yeah, you want to You know, so I, I've just— that's one of the ways that I, that I like to take on more now than what I used to.

Heidi [00:29:41]:
How do you handle those projects? Do you just connect the client with the pattern maker, for example, and then they work directly, or do you manage the whole project and manage the pattern maker and the client only works directly through you and all or the payment goes directly through you and you pay the pattern maker separately?

Ingrid Lange [00:30:01]:
So everything is managed through me, and I am like, this is, this is a work in progress, and I'm learning how to do this better and better. But what I understood from the beginning is that if I just refer somebody else, what happens is that the work is very fragmented, and what I do is intimately linked to what the patternmaker needs to do. So, you know, if I make a, you know, say the client has a design idea, has a pretty more or less clear idea or a sketch or something, and then I turn that into a tech pack, I make the decisions on trends, on fabric, blah blah, I translate all of this into a tech pack that a factory could understand. But first, We're going to have a pattern and we're going to make a sample, for example. So when the client changes his mind or has questions or has whatever, like what I do is so intimately linked to what the pattern maker needs to do that it didn't make sense to just refer someone because we would just have to liaise constantly anyway. And there would be like a triangular communication that doesn't always work, or that triangular communication would not be reflected in either what I charge or what the patternmaker charges. So I was like, I think I need to be involved in this and be like, I don't— I— so, and be the connection with the client. In many cases, when I hire somebody, like subcontract somebody to do a part of what I'm a bigger project that I'm doing with a client, they also have contact.

Ingrid Lange [00:31:47]:
So we have live fitting sessions, for example. You don't keep them behind? No, no, like it's completely like open and everybody needs to be okay with it. If not, then this just isn't the way to go. So there is no— there's full transparency as to how we doing this. And so they also have contact with the client. Like, I'm not hiding them or pretending that I'm doing something that I'm not doing myself. But it does go through me because what I learned from doing this several times now is that it takes a lot of time as well. This like subcontracting is something that I need to understand when I do this.

Ingrid Lange [00:32:43]:
I need to understand that it takes a lot of my time. It's not like, okay, so somebody else makes the pattern, so they just make the pattern. No, this is going to take hours of my time to like have clarity on what the client needs. Maybe there's like, they make changes or they're just like changing their mind or whatever, how this is also translated to the pattern maker or Yeah, yeah. This takes a lot of time. So I started very accurately tracking how long things take me because that helps me understand all the times that I charge so little. It's something that you think is just going to take you a few hours. Yeah.

Ingrid Lange [00:33:25]:
When you really track it, you're like, oh my God, this took me double what I thought it was going to take me. Yeah, and what was taking me double was not the actual making of the tech pack, was like the communication, the relaying information, the what. I, I'm also like very, very detailed when I send an email, when I'm like, you know, I— there's content there. So yeah, yeah, it takes time.

Heidi [00:33:52]:
How does your business feel now versus before? You said before you felt like a busy and you're in a much different position now. How would you describe it?

Ingrid Lange [00:34:07]:
I am like, I'm very proud of where I am, but I completely understand that this isn't the end of it or nowhere near the end. And I'm just continually learning how to get better and Pricing and rates is just one of the aspects of it. I have to learn from so many other aspects that I am learning. And so I think where I am right now is a place of like proud of what I've achieved so far and at the same time go like, okay, I can do it. There's a lot of work, but I can handle it. It's going to be fine. It'll be fine. Yeah.

Ingrid Lange [00:34:58]:
In grade 5. Yeah.

Heidi [00:34:59]:
Yeah.

Ingrid Lange [00:34:59]:
I love that.

Heidi [00:34:59]:
It is just like one stepping stone in your growth trajectory, and I know you have so much more to go. Um, so you're leaning maybe a little bit into LinkedIn and building your own website. I'm curious to know, are you— you're looking to grow outside of Upwork and maybe take some control in your lead flow, or what are your plans for that?

Ingrid Lange [00:35:19]:
Definitely, definitely. I mean, I understand that it's like, it's a weak position to be to rely solely on one platform for all your income, even if that's not the case anymore. Still, I need to build like the ground on me that doesn't only depend on one thing. Like imagine if they ban me from one day to the other, you know? Whatever. So yeah, definitely thinking about LinkedIn now. So I've updated my profile right now. And, and the next thing for me really is start to look at how to pitch, I don't know how to get clients, because I'm very fortunate in the sense that I didn't have to look for clients in a really long time. But that also made me just completely out of practice, really, for that.

Ingrid Lange [00:36:20]:
Yeah, well, I've never had practice on that. Yeah, I need to learn that.

Heidi [00:36:23]:
Yeah, yeah. So it sounds like this first, uh, big move in your freelance business was creating a more sustainable base for you— better rates, fewer clients— and now you're going to look to optimize getting more leads.

Ingrid Lange [00:36:41]:
Yeah, like the, I think what really changed on me is the rates reflect the fact that I fine-tune what my offer was, like what I can offer, what I have. So there's a lot more systems and procedures that are in place now. Like I have contracts now for inside Upwork, outside Upwork, in Spanish, in English. Like I have templates of things that I use. And I have like things that need to be built so that you can then use them, right? So it's not, it's been a journey of like getting my rates, like increasing my rates and making them better and reasonable and more. But also it's been a journey of like the content and like how robust my offering is and how, what I can offer, right? 'Cause I feel like I can do a lot more, had the experience from my background to do a lot more than just tech packs, but I didn't understand how I could offer that to, in the freelance world. So yeah, I have a lot more clarity on that now and I have a solid base to now offer those things outside of Upwork, for example.

Heidi [00:37:58]:
That's amazing. I am so excited, uh, about your growth and to watch you continue to do great things out there in the world with your freelance business. It's really phenomenal, Ingrid. I'd love to ask you the question I ask everybody at the end, which is, what is one thing people never ask you about being a fashion freelancer that you wish they would?

Ingrid Lange [00:38:19]:
So generally, I think It's a really healthy question for everyone to ask ourselves and to get from other people is whether you're happy doing what you're doing. And if you're not, then something needs to change, whether that's your rates, because we've been talking about rates, or whether that's like, you know, what you're doing in general or whatever that is. It's like the healthiest checkup with yourself.

Heidi [00:38:48]:
Yeah.

Ingrid Lange [00:38:50]:
To, to just like, how do I feel with it? This, you know, am I happy with this? It doesn't mean you have to be happy at every given moment. Like maybe filling numbers is not my favorite thing to do in a day, but generally I feel good about this. Does this feel aligned with who I want to be, where I want to be? Like, is this like, does this make me look at the glass half full or half empty?

Heidi [00:39:19]:
Yeah, that's such an important—

Ingrid Lange [00:39:20]:
Yeah, I don't know how often we really think about that.

Heidi [00:39:24]:
Yeah. You feel happy doing what you're— where you're at right now in your business?

Ingrid Lange [00:39:29]:
Totally. Yes. Yes. I see there's a lot ahead, but like, I love it.

Heidi [00:39:34]:
Yeah. That's amazing. Well, where can everybody connect with you online? It sounds like obviously Upwork, and it sounds like now your LinkedIn is updated. Is that the best place to find you?

Ingrid Lange [00:39:45]:
Absolutely. LinkedIn now. Yeah.

Heidi [00:39:47]:
Okay, cool. We'll link to that in the show notes. Thank you so much for chatting with me, Ingrid. It was lovely to hear about all the work you've done and the success you've seen.

Ingrid Lange [00:39:55]:
Thank you.