How to deliver
www.fullgap.co
like an
institution
Lesson notes for
the ambitious freelancer
eager to do better work
Written by
Victor Fatanmi
Powered by
INTRODUC-
TIONINTRO
10 years ago when I started out as a graphic designer,
the most dominant perception of freelancers is that we
never met deadlines, and sometimes did not even
deliver at all. The popular practice then was to create a
Facebook page with a company-sounding name and
start to use the word “we” in emails, because we knew
clients trusted corporates more. Mine was:
victorgoldcreations@gmail.com (it’s still active and I
check it like once a quarter 😄). We were freelancers
with the deserved label of not being reliable, trying to
‘steal’ the reputation of corporates. But how far can that
go? A client takes a chance on you and immediately
realizes you are just like the previous ones that had
disappointed them.
Today, there is some improvement but surely far from
enough. Clients are still ‘taking risks’ with individual
service providers. The path forward isn’t about us
claiming to be companies when we are not. Individuals
even have a lot of advantages these days, and by that, I
mean ‘true professionals’ who still go by their govern-
ment ID names but deliver like the best institutions.
They hold themselves to the highest standards, and
suddenly that extra documentation is worth it,
INTRODUC-
TIONINTRO
because it makes it easier for them to do great work,
to repeat great work, and for their clients to enjoy the
experience of working with them.
Up until this point, we have discussed a lot about
attracting clients, building strong relationships, and all
of that, but everything falls when the people you
attract eventually have a taste of the pudding and
they don’t want any more of it. The journey to 10x
ends right there. The following recommendations
may help to switch the journey to top gear instead.
1/5. CLARIFY
EVERYTHING
To begin with, it is important to ensure everyone is clear
about all the important details. Curiosity and investigation
is a critical skill as it helps to shed light on grey areas and
provide inspiration for execution. As we go into any project,
we need to dig deeper than the obvious request. It is
better to ask more questions than is required than to do
less.
Some examples of questions to ask your client (this list can
not possibly be exhaustive):
Where are you coming from? What is the journey
of your business or organization up until this point?
What are you trying to achieve that has led to this
service request?
What are your next big goals?
Why are you doing this right now, and not
yesterday or tomorrow?
What does success look like? How would you
determine that this engagement went well?
If a client complains and suggests that you both go straight
to work and ‘stop wasting time’, it’s an indicator that you are
finally doing something different and right. And that right
there provides the opportunity to educate the client that this
would help you to help them. It’s a win-win and as you make
that case rather than run back to default out of fear,
1/5.
you double-stamp your position as the expert. That’s where you
want to be. You simply, calmly, politely insist you get enough
clarity. This is the barest minimum to excellent delivery.
And this brings us to the conversation on your process.
There is the big destination of final results, but what will you do
before what, to ensure quality output? Apart from how this
helps you to maintain a great quality of output, having this on
hand to show prospective clients can be confidence-inspiring.
Clarity is not a one-way street. As you are asking questions to
know more about their work, you are also sharing enough
about yourself and how you work. There is no particular
acronym style you have to follow but the best processes begin
with some form of inquiry and we have just discussed that. Now
you have to look at all the other components you want to follow
on every project, write them down, and discuss them with your
clients early on. If you need ideas, you can do some research
online or with ChatGPT to get examples of suggested
processes for your work.
While having this can help to inspire confidence in your clients,
it is even more important that it is one you will adhere to. You
would have to believe in the process and be obsessed about
using it to deliver great work. It’s not ‘clarity’ if you are simply
presenting answers to impress the client. The first question to
ask yourself is: ‘How can I execute this work to deliver the very
best results at my current capacity?’ Then, ‘What steps will I
have to follow?
It is important to take notes of all these things and update them
from time to time as it gets clearer. At the end of every
conversation, you want to share notes via email and have a
location (Notion maybe) for these things, and so, we will look at
documentation next.
You probably know someone who writes everything down.
They prepare agendas for meetings and write bullet points
ahead of what you might call ‘mundane events’. You
probably wonder why they ‘make life so difficult’ for
themselves. I know one such person — Praise Philemon. He
used to be my mentee but we switched roles and I learned
documentation from him. And I began to realize that it was
the opposite. Documenting everything is the fastest route
to ease and simplicity. It looks like hard work, and it's
difficult to start but the moment you open a document and
begin to answer the questions of what, why, where, how,
what is not, and so on, your mind opens up, and possible
confusions are resolved, and there is a higher assurance of
success.
And there is simply the point of reference. There needs to be
a body of documentation that you and your client can always
refer to, to protect one another. Whatever is worth remem-
bering is worth writing down. You can’t afford to overesti-
mate your memory. As the project begins, documents like
the invoice — stating the cost, payment structure, etc and
agreements — stating important terms and conditions, the
project scope, and other elements to establish necessary
boundaries and rights are all critical assets that you want to
take very seriously. And Whatsapp voice notes don’t count,
except you will always summarize them and send them back
to your clients to confirm, after which you can use the agreed
notes to influence your agreement document.
When you hear talks about protecting yourself with these
documents, you need to keep in mind that it is hardly ever
the case that the client has malicious intent and you have to
stay safe from evil. It’s just that first, people assume a lot of
things that you, the other party may not agree to. It’s why you
hear things like “Since you were doing x, I also thought…”
Secondly, we all forget things, and memories fail the best of
us. It is in the best interest of everyone involved that things
are documented. In the most ideal situation, it helps to use
the help of a lawyer for your contract, but also templates
prepared by lawyers can be helpful (you will find one for you
on Fullgap).
As an ‘institution’, all of this is simply due process. And you
will need to take the time and effort to do them at the
beginning. If you don’t, you probably will eventually, just not in
the most favourable ways.
Lastly, on documentation, there are two potentially ‘excep-
tional’ situations that may come to your mind, and here
are my thoughts on them.
1. Friends and family: You have a project with someone
really close to you, maybe a mentor in fact, and you don’t
see the need for all of this ‘due process’. You also don’t
know if they will take it well. On the need, I should remind
you that the closeness is exactly why there would be a lot
of assumptions and confusion. So you probably need it
more then. On how they would take it, pre-empt it by
informing them that you are simply doing this to prepare
yourself for other unfriendly clients out there. ‘It’s not
them, it’s you’. Ask them to simply bear with you because
you want all your projects that way as professional prac-
tice for you too.
2. Small projects: In a case where the value of the project
looks too small to warrant all of this, I would advise that
you stick to it nonetheless. The excuse above becomes
the truth here. It really becomes practice for you ahead of
the bigger projects. Also, executing even tiny projects like
this helps you earn more dignity with whoever you are
doing the work for, and influences how they perceive you
on the project (which helps you execute better and close
the job faster) as well as how they speak of you after-
ward. It’s a tiny deal but you can set it up like you are
FourthCanvas. It’s good for you psychologically as well.
One of the ways to prepare for efficient execution is to build
upon the initial clarity and break things down into bits. There is
the project deadline, but now you also have to think about the
“sub-deadlines”. You will be done in 1 month but what will be
done by tomorrow? The culture of eleventh-hour execution will
reduce the quality of your output. And you are more likely to fail
the deadline than not. Even when you do the last-minute magic
and you meet up, you would have sacrificed a lot of added
quality that you might have delivered if you truly put in the hours.
And the secret to putting in the hours is to break the work into
smaller tasks and allocate specific times for each.
Identify the tasks that require your immediate attention and
work on them first. Some things have to start right early at the
beginning. It may be because they influence many other factors
down the line or they just take time and require a lengthy period
of iteration. You can hold yourself more accountable by
communicating these sub-deadlines with your clients as well.
This means that instead of keeping yourself calm with the 3
weeks or 3 months that seem far away, you know you already
committed to a ‘deliverable’ in 72 hours. This keeps you on your
toes, forces you to get to work already, and improves the quality
of your work. Grab a paper or board now and imagine the work
ahead of you, break it down, and then enter everything on your
laptop as tasks on your Fullgap setup for the project, with dates
on each.
4/5. DEVELOP
A ROUTINE
AROUND DEEP
WORK
Some depth of work simply requires an unbroken
chain of focus. You need to design your daily routine
to carve out 3-4 hours of ‘deep work’ — no socials, no
notifications, no multitasking, as you thoroughly
focus on your core task of the day and reach the
depths of your genius. The term ‘deep work’ was
introduced by Cal Newport in his book with the same
title, and that’s a gem I recommend that you go
through. As active as I get tweeting @victorfatanmi
like I am always on Twitter, the only way I am able to
function at a top level with my work (from advising
clients at FourthCanvas to creating new resources
like this one or developing campaigns at Fullgap) is
that I maintain my blocks of no notifications, ‘no
anything’—just work.
4/5. These days, that is from when I wake up (around 6 am) to 11
am when I join our daily marketing standups at Fullgap (we are
trying to do more Slack channel chats these days in the 30
mins block of time as opposed to actual calls). I get 1 hour at
the gym somewhere within that block but for the most part, I
am focused on getting ‘real work’ done. I used to have 9 am
and 10 am meetings but I now push everything to early after-
noon. And Twitter gets some attention from 2 pm and beyond.
If you see a tweet from me earlier than then, I most probably
sent it via my assistant. This type of work, which Cal calls
‘deep work’ transcends replying to emails or attending
meetings. It is sitting down to execute tasks you know require
a lot of your mental strength. It’s the one you likely want to
push away and typically the one that pushes your work
forward the most — the most challenging and the most
impactful at the same time.
Distractions can significantly reduce your productivity and
make it difficult to focus on your work. Identify the things that
distract you the most and eliminate them when you need to
get ‘real deep work’ done. Turn off your phone notifications
(and fling them away if you have to be that dramatic), turn off
data from those apps, put on ‘Do Not Disturb’, and find a quiet
workspace where you can work without interruption. And
don’t multitask. Keep a note on the side to write down any
‘urgent’ things that drop on your mind. How long should this
take? Cal recommends not more than 4 hours, as you would
then have reached your limit for full concentration per day.
This means you can also break it down into two blocks of 2
hours each. 1-hour blocks are okay for a start as well but you
should try to push that a little further up once you get better at
the practice of focus. This helps you produce high-quality
work that meets or exceeds your client's expectations. You get
to pay attention to details, do thorough research, and take the
time to edit and revise your work.
Eliminate distractions
and give the clients the
hours they have paid
for. that’s how you
think as an institution.
5/5.
COMMUNICATE
EXTENSIVELY
As your project moves along, communication
continues, and this means the initial clarity and
documentation setup evolves. As you hold meetings,
you want to send notes right after. If they gave
reviews, you want to summarize them and confirm
that you both are clear and share updates if anything
is to change (for example, maybe you need some
extra time). Keep the client informed about your
progress on the project, and communicate any
issues or concerns in a timely manner.
Once in a while, you may have a situation where you
really can no longer meet a deadline. While others
will realize it at the last minute or past time, you will
be responsible and intentional enough to see it
ahead. Because you have broken things into bits and
you know specifically how much is still to be done for
the time left, you are able to forecast a potential
delay.
5/5.
In this scenario, you inform the client as soon as you realize
this ahead of time. From my experience, clients are more
frustrated by poor or no communication than they are
about a missed deadline. It would have been perfect if you
could communicate and still meet time but if you must fail
on time, you want to mention its inevitability ahead and
share why as well. Always remember to tie the additional
time to added value to their work, but you want to ensure to
deliver on that as well. No lies here. If we have to say
something in a way that sounds and feels better for the
other person, then we are bound by our word to fulfill it too.
Finally, communication does not happen until the recipient
has not only received it but fully understood it. This means
we need to put in a lot of attention and care, especially
when we write. With the words, it helps to stay simple,
explain big terms, and provide context (why this, why that,
what happened…). There is also one more thing to keep in
mind on this — how we format our message. Many people
believe graphic design is limited to Photoshop, Illustrator,
Canva, and co, but there is a lot of graphic design that we
can all practice when we write emails or even WhatsApp
messages. It’s everything we do with text size, **bold** or
not, spacing between sections or points, italics where fitting,
and co. If your messages read like one long dump of letters,
it probably stresses your reader and you are losing
communication value. All it takes is care and attention. You
have written it, now look again and make it easier for the
other person’s eyes.
A LOT OF
WORK, TBH
Delivering like an institution is a lot of work, but it pays
off greatly. On switching to this ‘side of life’, you will
need consistent gradual effort. Three key words:
consistent, gradual, and effort. Maybe just like me, you
are too dynamic in your mind to calm down and
structure things. Then it’s understandable that you
won’t magically become like this but I can confirm that
it gets better with effort (and with the help of tools like
Fullgap.co and Notion).
The truth is I personally still don’t embody everything I
have written here. They are mostly notes from my
efforts — based on learnings from formal institutions
like FourthCanvas (our agency, thanks to my partners)
and ‘individual institutions’ like Praise Philemon. They
are not yet my every-single-day reality but every time I
have acted in line with these (on projects that may
differ from the nature of your client projects but share
similar strictures), I have done better work, confused
people less with my endless voice notes, earned a
better reputation with collaborators, achieved better
results and felt better with myself.
A LOT OF
WORK, TBH
If we can focus on what we all want — great quality and
efficient service delivery, fast-tracking our path to fulfill
our dreams, then the effort will be worth it. These
recommendations will not only help you deliver better
work for your clients, they will also send a message that
you know what you are doing and earn you dignity,
thereby increasing your overall value and their
readiness to refer you, respectfully.
TIPS FOR
THE NEXT
5 DAYS The following are random specific ideas to get you in the
mood of acting out some of the things you have learned
right away. Some of them are things that can take you
months to finish (or even endless), but for those, I will
recommend a timer to set a block of focus time for you to
make some progress on them. I will be practicing them
alongside you.
Day 1
Arrange the folders on your laptop and/or your
Drive and name every file appropriately.
Status Not started
Assign Your name
To be done by Emoty
45 mins
The idea is to organize your folders and files such that if you gave your laptop or Drive access to
anyone, they wouldn’t have to ask any questions to find anything. Choose either your computer
folders or Drive storage and see how much you can clean up in the allocated minimum time.
...
Add a comment....
Day 2
Walk up to a local business owner around you and
ask to interview them (promise to post it online to
gain them some awareness, it doesn’t matter if
your audience is not big). See how far you can keep
going digging into them to understand their moti-
vations and aspirations. Journal your conversation
and publish a story about it on your Medium or
LinkedIn.
Status Not started
Assign Your name
To be done by Emoty
N/A
Doesn’t matter if you are good at this or if you have ever done anything like it before. Just
practice. Simply note everything you can remember about the conversation, including the
settings, what their mood seemed like, etc. Focus on the detail, not the quality of your writing.
...
If the first owner turns you down, go to the next.
... Add a comment....
Day 3
Pick a project that has an overall timeline of up to a
month and break it down till you have a specific
small milestone per day. If you don’t have any ongo-
ing project, create a fictional one and break it down
fully.
Status Not started
Assign Your name
To be done by Emoty
60 mins
Enough said.
... Add a comment....
Day 4
Think about an important but not urgent task you
have procrastinated for a long time. Something
impactful for your growth in the long term, switch
off your phone or go DND, set a time for 45 mins,
and focus on them completely.
Status Not started
Assign Your name
To be done by Emoty
45 mins
Examples of this may include work on your portfolio, a case study, or documenting your
process. It may be preparing a plan or proposal. Or writing a detailed post about your
work to post online. Now is the time to ignore your urgent tasks for a moment and focus
...
on this important one. Early morning or late at night are some of the best times for this. If
you have a pair of headphones, you can also block everything else out with some non-dis-
tracting sounds.
... Add a comment....
Day 5
Pick a project from your present or past, and write
a detailed email to the client about the status, or
your experience. If you have a project you have not
done well on so far and you know it, pick that. For
older projects, the mail should be a reflection (what
you learned, things you could have done better,
and so on). For current projects (what has gone
well so far, what you will do better moving further,
why there is a delay if there is, how you will avoid it
moving forward..)
Status Not started
Assign Your name
To be done by Emoty
45 mins
Enough said.
... Add a comment....
You can share updates of your
execution of these tips —
whatever works, from
screenshots to links or notes
from your observations,
learnings, or surprises
— on Twitter and Instagram with
the hashtag
#IAmAnInstitution.
Doing these tweets is a part of
‘documenting’, just in the open
(and openly documenting can be
huge for you to attract opportu-
nities, as you have probably
heard us say repeatedly by now).
WHERE
FULLGAP.CO
COMES IN
As you already have an idea of, we are building Fullgap as
that operating system that will help you keep everything
running smoothly and grow the business side of your
work. It’s what we mean by ‘power to the creative ones’ —
providing the platform to organize everything on one hand,
and on the other; the resources (like this book) to share
insights you may find valuable from our own experience
and continuous learning.
In case you have only signed up but not yet moved
around, the beta version of the fullgap.co platform already
aids you to:
Set up new projects and add tasks with sub-deadlines
(with a resulting dashboard showing you key
information from across multiple projects when
you open it every morning)
Generate agreements based on the input of your
project details (with contract templates prepared
by our lawyers — with the option to edit, add or
remove sections).
Generate invoices based on the input of your
project details.
Get paid through automatically-generated payment
links that come with the invoice (these links provide
your clients with multiple convenient options
to pay you).
View a dashboard summary of your income,
pending payments, and withdrawals (basically be on
top of your numbers).
Create client profiles for easy management of your
client data (resourceful for relationship management).
At this point, I am tempted
to rework the first 2 days
in your 5-day plan above
to look like that:
Day 1
Set up your first project on
your fullgap.co dashboard.
Status Not started
Assign Your name
To be done by Emoty
30 mins
You will be asked to fill in all the basic information like the project name, client name, agreed
payment, as well as the services and your sub-tasks under each. Then you will watch as things are
generated and you review. A final link will be provided that you can share with your client.
...
Add a comment....
Day 2
Tell a friend about Fullgap. Also, show them this re-
source (preferably in person or with one or two
screenshots) as an example of exclusive resources
only Gapsters get access to.
Status Not started
Assign Your name
To be done by Emoty
30 mins
You can copy and paste or screenshot what Fullgap can already do for them (with the bullet
points above).
...
... Add a comment....
In closing, I am wishing you the very best in delivering like an
institution and earning all the rewards that come with it.
POWER TO
THE CREATIVE
ONES i.e. anyone creating
solutions for other
people.
POWER
TO YOU
www.fullgap.co
