My honest review of the Fast Forward Freelance course by Grace Walker
Every single year, there is a voice inside my head that nudges me to try to become a freelancer. I love the idea of creating my own schedule and working whenever and wherever I want. So earlier this year, when I saw Grace release her freelance course, I was super hyped. I do not remember when I started following Grace but she is a Webflow developer and designer who creates these beautiful marketing websites. I probably also feel a sense of comradery because we’re both living in the same province.
Fast Forward Freelance is a course focused on letting you know what to expect and need to know in your first year of freelancing. Grace shares her knowledge and experience so you can learn and embark on the journey of freelancing with a little less turbulence than she did. You will definitely feel prepared in what you need to do to become a freelancer. The course costs $450 USD with 3+ hours of video lessons, 8 live office hour sessions, access to future livestreams and bonus content, notion dashboard, and lifetime access. I’m super grateful to Spencer who sponsored a scholarship seat to this course. It was definitely unexpected to be picked from all those that entered and now I could see if this year was the year I’d make my leap into freelance.
The video lessons
The main component of the course is the 11 video lessons (10 chapters) available for you to watch whenever you feel like it. It includes topics such as how to win work, contracts, money, management, conflict and much more. Each video topic ranges in length and averages about 15 minutes; the longest lesson is all about money which is a 42 minute lesson. Each video is straight to the point and it honestly left me feeling so inspired because I knew what to expect if I became a freelancer. You can easily binge watch all the lessons within a day or slowly digest it over the course of a month. There are topics that were way more valuable to me than others because Grace spills all her secrets about what she includes in her process, whether it be about what to include in your contracts or how her presentations to clients work. Now that’s information that you likely won’t see elsewhere. I really appreciate the content because it feels like I’m peeking into the freelance “secret”.
Live office hours
There is a total of 8 office hour sessions that happened over the course of 4 weeks. Each session is recorded and can be rewatched if you missed it or want to take notes the second time around. There is no structure to the office hours but Grace takes the time to answer questions from emails on what we’d like to discuss. A couple of topics we went over was about niche, positioning, winning work, contracts, pricing, licensing, portfolios, and hearing from a guest speaker. You could feel free to ask questions as they come up and it was a super welcoming environment to be in. It was a nice close group as well. In some of the office hour sessions, I did feel as though things were being repeated or that wasn’t as valuable. Though that is expected, hence the term “office hour”, I would just multi-task during that time until I heard information that was new. Never the less, I looked forward to each office hour, even the ones at 8 AM MST which is harder to wake up for. Your future experience with the office hours may be different depending on what your cohort group wants to discuss! It looks like the next cohort will feature 4 expert guests which is super exciting! Grace is also prepared to just talk about other things she thinks everyone will find valuable, so even though there is no specific topic to talk about, there is always something to learn. I was skeptical of the office hours but found myself enjoying them as much as the video lessons.
Notion dashboard
The notion dashboard is bonus content that I really looked forward to. Grace states on her website that this dashboard “has everything you need to plan and manage your work in the first year” which is pretty enticing. As someone who loves using Notion, but is not a professional at it, it was nice to see everything laid out properly. There are four components: Pipeline, Calendar, Task Database, and Admin. Of course, I don’t know if this will change in the future but the content within this Notion dashboard is amazing. The pipeline, calendar, and task database can all work together and it basically becomes your manager on what you need to do next. It gives you a good idea about your own deadlines and helps you keep track of your tasks which is pretty important when you become a freelancer. Within the admin page, some of the things Grace includes is sample/template messages and kickoff questions. There is more content but those are the ones I love referencing. Being able to have a set of template messages to start from is a life saver when you are someone who overthinks a simple email. Grace also outlines the different situations when you would use each message. There are also general kickoff questions that Grace typically asks clients which was nice of her to include. As someone who also worked at an agency, I already had a good idea of what questions I would ask clients, but this gives me additional ones to add to my list. If you haven’t worked for an agency, this is super valuable because it’s essentially how you want to show you know what you’re doing but also show that you are very interested in working with the client.
Questions and course support
Throughout the course you might have questions to ask Grace. There is no slack or discord group, so all communication is through the website dashboard or email. It’s super easy to pop questions out and Grace is speedy at replying. The one time that I did reach out to her with a couple questions on a Saturday, she replied within an hour. I did not expect that. But know that, that might not be her golden rule of replying THAT quick. I surprisingly didn’t have many questions to ask since most of the questions I had as I went through the course was answered in the video lessons or office hours. If you decide to take this course, know that you are in good hands with Grace.
Last thoughts
All in all, Fast Forward Freelance is a good value course for learning all you need to know in your first year of freelance. I do find the course to be a little expensive compared to other freelance courses but Grace does offer the behind the scenes that others do not. Without this course, I could see myself struggling and having difficulties in writing a contract, knowing how to price my work, and what it means to manage myself. This course is definitely for people who are interested in freelancing or just starting out in freelance.
Spending the month of February learning all about becoming a freelancer was inspiring. But after taking this course, I realized that I am in no way ready to freelance. I had a pretty narrow idea of what it meant to freelance. I thought it was more simple, do the task you have been requested to do and get paid for it. I didn’t want to complicate the process, but that also doesn’t mean you should choose to do that if you are sure you want to try freelance. I didn’t expect it to basically mean I’m my own boss and I need to manage myself. Taking Fast Forward Freelance allowed to learn the ins and outs and really everything I needed to know about becoming a freelancer. Grace’s course did exactly that, it promised and delivered. Even though you might think, oh than doesn’t that mean you didn’t need Grace’s course? Well, I am much more confident in what I need to do in order to become a freelancer because I took this course. I know exactly what I need to do, so all I have to do is find the day that I will be ready to announce to the world that “I’m officially freelancing!”.
It looks like Grace will be accepting registrations for the next cohort in Spring 2024 — April 22, 2024 until May 1, 2024 so if you’re interested remember to sign up to get notified! I definitely recommend!
All thoughts and opinions are honest and my own.
