🚢 The Titanic Sinking of Freelance Opportunities (And Most Freelancers Are Rearranging Deck Chairs)

Here's what savvy Freelancers are doing to Stay High and Dry Instead...

---

Deals Over Clients Book On Amazon

🔥 Deals Over Clients is the fastest way to move from client work to lucrative partnership deals. Get exclusive bonuses, including The Deal Maker’s Toolkit with exact tools and templates to land your first partnership deal along with the entire Deals Over Clients community for support.

🔥Get your copy ===> Deals Over Clients

---

The Storm Is Coming

I’ve watched a lot of freelancers pivot lately...

• Copywriters.

• Online marketers.

• Agency owners.

Good one too.

They’ve been freelancing for years.

Used to charge $2k to $5k per project.

Now?

They’re bidding against A.I. for $500 gigs.

And losing.

Here’s the thing nobody’s talking about...

The freelance boom wasn’t a revolution.

It was a life raft during COVID.

And that raft?

It’s got a massive hole in it.

The Perfect Storm Nobody Saw Coming

Look, I’m not here to sugarcoat this.

The data’s brutal.

Freelancers in AI-exposed fields? Down 30% in contracts since 2023. Earnings dropped 21%.

And get this...

The higher-priced, more experienced freelancers got hit THE HARDEST.

Ya know why?

Because companies looked at their $10k copywriter and thought, “ChatGPT can do 80% of that for forty bucks a month...”

They’re wrong, by the way.

But it doesn’t matter.

The perception became the reality.

Three Horsemen of the Freelance Apocalypse

Here’s what’s converging right now to absolutely DEMOLISH the freelance market:

☠️ Horseman #1: The A.I. Steamroller

I’m not talking about AI “helping” freelancers.

I’m talking about A.I. REPLACING them.

Not completely.

Not yet.

But enough to tank rates and dry up contracts.

The client who used to hire three writers?

Now they hire one writer and two A.I. subscriptions.

Do the math.

☠️ Horseman #2: Return-to-Office Mandates

Nearly three in ten companies are forcing everyone back five days a week by year’s end.

That remote-first culture that made freelancing explode?

It’s getting torched🔥

Companies want butts in seats.

Because since Covid?

They’ve seen what NOT having butts in seats has done to their employee productivity, culture, and bottom line.

And when they want butts in seats, they stop thinking about “flexible contractor relationships” and start thinking about “who’s here when I walk by their desk.”

☠️ Horseman #3: The Great Freelancer Glut

COVID created two million new freelancers almost overnight.

Everybody and their cousin became a “consultant.”

Which means even the gigs that ARE available?

You’re competing with 47 other desperate people who’ll undercut you by half just to eat this month.

Market saturation ain’t pretty, folks.

Why the “Build a Better Portfolio” Advice is Killing Freelancers

Here’s what drives me crazy...

All the freelance gurus are still peddling the same tired advice:

“Niche down!”

“Build a better portfolio!”

“Master your cold email!”

Dude.

That’s like telling someone their house is on fire and handing them a better broom.

The STRUCTURE is broken.

You can’t “optimize” your way out of a collapsing market.

You need a different game entirely.

The Model That Made Me A Small Fortune Last Year (With Zero Cold DM’s or Pitching)

Let me be crystal clear about something...

That number reflects what I did.

It’s not a promise.

It’s not a “you’ll make this too” claim.

But here’s what IS true...

I stopped chasing clients three years ago.

I started baking new money pies with partners instead.

And it completely changed everything.

See, here’s the thing about the traditional freelance model...

You’re always fighting for scraps from someone else’s pie.

The client has the pie.

You want a slice.

So does everyone else.

Even when you WIN that slice?

You gotta go fight for another one next month.

It’s exhausting.

And with AI eating the bottom 40% of the market and return-to-office eating the middle 30%?

There aren’t gonna enough scraps left to fight over.

The “Baking New Pies” Framework

Instead of fighting over existing pies, what if you BAKED NEW ONES?

Here’s how it works...

You find someone with flour (an audience, a book, a platform).

You bring brown sugar and apples (your skills, your copy, your ability to create offers).

And you say:

“Hey, I noticed you got all this flour just sitting there.

And there’s that apple tree nobody’s picking from.

What if I borrowed your oven and I baked a whole NEW pie?

One that wouldn’t exist without both of us.

Can I have half?”

This ain’t about improving what they’re already doing.

(That’s how you get stabbed in the eye, by the way.)

This is about creating something COMPLETELY NEW.

Something they’re not currently monetizing.

Something that’s pure found money for them.

Real Example:

Partner has a bestselling book on real estate investing.

Great.

Don’t touch that.

But what if we created a specialized spin-off for real estate investors over 50?

• New community.

• New email segment.

• New revenue stream.

They keep doing exactly what they’re doing.

We split the NEW money 50/50.

Nobody’s fighting over scraps.

We just baked a brand new pie.

Why This Works When Freelancing is Collapsing

Three reasons:

1. You’re not competing with AI

AI can write copy. It can’t BUILD RELATIONSHIPS and structure partnership deals.

It can’t look at someone’s business and spot the underutilized assets.

It can’t do coffee dates and read a room.

You can.

2. You’re not competing with other freelancers

When you’re baking new pies, there’s no competition.

The opportunity literally didn’t exist until you created it.

You’re not bidding against 47 other people for the same gig.

You’re the ONLY person who saw this particular pie and proposed baking it.

3. You build ASSETS, not just income

Freelancing is trading time for money.

Partnership deals create revenue-generating assets.

I’ve got deals that pay me every month that I set up years ago.

I’m not “working” on them anymore.

They just... pay.

That’s the difference between renting your time and owning equity in something real.

The October 22nd Live Walkthrough

Here’s why I’m writing this now...

The storm is upon us…

And folks are MORE than welcome to ride this storm out in their canoe.

But we’ve got a big ol’ heavily built ARK over here.

Aka partnership deals.

It’s the Equivalent to:

• Sturdy timber.

• Warm blankets.

• Lots of food.

Even hot chocolate for those rough nights.

Partnership Deals is the ARK.

October through December is when companies finalize budgets, launch new initiatives, and make big moves.

If you’re gonna transition out of the freelance spiral frenzy and into partnership deals...

NOW might be a great time.

Which is why I’m hosting a live workshop on October 22nd where we’re gonna eliminate all the noise and get people their FIRST partnership deal.

Not theory.

Not “mindset.”

Actual live partner outreach.

• Real-time message crafting.

• Breakdowns of what works (and what totally flopped).

• The investor stance you MUST hold when approaching partners.

• How to spot underutilized assets in someone’s business.

• And for folks starting from absolute zero? We’re covering that too.

My goal is simple:

Get you your first partnership deal locked in asap.

Regardless of your “confidence level.”

Don’t have any?

I’ll show you how you can borrow mine.

Here’s How This Works

This workshop is a bonus for everyone who bought the Deals Over Clients book and joined our bonus DOC Skool community.

If you haven’t grabbed the book yet, now’s the time.

Not just for the workshop (though that’s worth the price alone).

But because the book walks through my ENTIRE framework for nabbing your first partnership deal:

• How to identify the right partners (hint: it’s not who you think)

• The “baking new pies” approach in detail

• How to structure deals so you maintain control

• Real examples of deals that paid me six and even multi six figures

• The coffee date approach that eliminates sales resistance

Here’s what to do to register for October 22nd:

There’s still time to be on the Oct 22nd workshop:

• Buy the book on Amazon

• Your bonuses including access to the DOC Skool Community are in the book

• The resources link is just before the introduction page.

• Opt-in

• Access to everything will be emailed to you

• You’ll get access to the private DOC Skool community where all the book buyers hang out.

• Inside the community, pinned at the very top you’ll find the Zoom registration link for the October 22nd workshop.

The Bottom Line

The freelance Titanic is sinking.

You can rearrange deck chairs...

Or you can get in a different boat entirely.

Partnership deals aren’t just “another way” to make money.

They’re the ONLY sustainable model when AI is commoditizing skills and companies are slashing contractor budgets.

This isn’t about being negative.

This is about being REALISTIC.

The market changed.

Might be a good idea to change strategies along with it.

The question is whether folks are gonna change NOW while there’s still time to get on the ark...

Or wait until the water’s up to their neck.

Buying season starts now.

The workshop’s on October 22nd.

===> The book’s Deals Over Clients is waiting for you

Let’s get you off the bench and into the game.

In your corner,

~ Tony

P.S. I’m capping the workshop at a certain number because we’re doing LIVE outreach and message crafting. If it gets too big, it becomes useless.