When phone cameras got good enough, portrait photographers scolded people who took their own headshots.

And when the Mac got pretty good at typesetting, professional designers pointed out that people who can’t tell a font from a typeface and don’t care about kerning should avoid it.

Professional translators bring humanity and insight to transforming writing from one language to another, but many people continue to use Google Translate…

Here’s the thing: the translators take their own headshots. Web designers often use translation software. And life coaches build their own websites with Squarespace and put their own selfies on Linkedin. We all make our own decisions, and most of the time, we use tech to do it ourselves.

This began with the Model T. Before that, people with enough money to buy a car also had a driver.

It’s not easy to find clients, particularly when technology makes it straightforward for many people to do the mechanical part of what you do for them on their own. It’s more convenient, faster and cheaper. It might not be as good by your standards, but if the client wants faster and cheaper, you’re unlikely to win that argument.

When was the last time you hired a studio photographer instead of using a stock photo of a piece of fruit? Or paid for a stock photo instead of using a cc or ai image? You might not cut your own hair (I’m not an expert) but you probably pump your own gas and cook your own meals.

The opportunity isn’t to race to the bottom, or to try to persuade someone that it’s worth upgrading. Instead, we can celebrate the fact that more people are discovering the power of photos, of type, of coaching and of cooking… and we can upgrade what we offer.

The goal is to be the first choice for people who couldn’t imagine doing it themselves, simply because their work is too important or your work is too good for them to ignore.

The best way to upgrade a freelance career is to get better clients. They challenge you, pay you more and talk about you more. And you don’t get better clients by working hard for lousy clients. You get better clients by becoming the kind of freelancer that better clients want to hire.