An Honest Review on Alexandra Fasulo’s “Freelance Your Way to Freedom”
I first heard about Alexandra Fasulo on the Traveling with Kristin podcast. In her interview, Fasulo talked about how she earned $378K per year as a Fiverr freelancer. I enjoyed the podcast and learned that Fasulo’s book Freelance Your Way to Freedom was coming out soon.
Once the book came out, I bought it and figured I’d give it an honest review.
What did I think?
Honestly, I would not recommend purchasing the book. First off, the publisher, Wiley, is charging way too much for it. I purchased the ebook and there is no reason why it should cost $15. And $21.99 for the hardback? There just isn’t enough good content in the book that would incentivize a reader to spend that much.
Yet, I don’t wish to be harsh in my review. Instead, let me give a breakdown of what I did like and what I didn’t.
Positive Parts of the Book
I found the automation tools section of the book to be the best part of it. Fasulo has essentially set up an agency for herself. She worked a few years as a freelance writer, and then realized that in order to earn more income, she needed to find a way to gain back more of her time. To do that, she hired an agency manager, two virtual assistants, 6 freelance authors, a video editor, website editor, and someone to help her with social media.
By outsourcing her work to others, she’s found a way to pay the people she hires, and then use her time for tasks that only she can do: creating TikTok videos and other social posts so that she can market her personal brand.
What she’s decided to do is to build a freelance empire and then shared what software she uses to automate her business. Although I found this part of the book interesting, it definitely wasn’t worth $15. I could have easily done a Google search and found out what automation tools other freelancers use.
Still, I did enjoy this section of the book as it’s nice to see that I use similar tools in my author business.
The Not So Good Parts
The first half of the book is filled with extremely generic “how to” tenets. Did I really need her to tell me that I need to be polite to my clients? Or that I needed to complete my work on time?
Some of the most basic aspects of freelancing (or frankly, be a decent human being) act as filler for more than half the book.
Often, her book comes off as a first draft. There are many sections that are far flung and don’t really have anything to do with freelancing. Did I need a primer on why my “personal brand” is important? No, not really.
In the business world, who we are and how we handle ourselves are critical to our success.
Many of the later chapters of the book would have fit better in a content creator/social media influencer than a book about freelancing. I see the connection, but again, I often felt like those chapters were filler.
I know that I could have easily found more in-depth blog posts for free online, so having spent $15 for the ebook version really didn’t sit well with me.
The Red Flags
There are two sections in the book that I saw as troubling:
In an early chapter, Fasulo gives a breakdown of her typical day and mentions: “right now I am binging Joel Osteen—it’s incredibly positive and gets me feeling good for the day.” Osteen is the lay preacher/televangelist whose mega-church obtained $4.4 million in federal PPP loans during the height of the pandemic. Let’s just say that I don’t hold him in high esteem as I question the validity of televangelists who are multi-millionaires.
And in two other sections, she writes about the pseudo-scientific/spiritual “Law of Attraction.” Believers flock to this New Thought tenet: If you think positive thoughts, then positive things will happen to you. Conversely, if you think negative thoughts, then negative things will happen to you.
Over the years, I’ve come across several self-named “gurus” who swear by the Law of Attraction and I stay far away from such nonsense. Yes, I believe that it’s important to be positive, but do I believe that if I keep all the “positive energy” around me, then good things will happen? No, I don’t. I’ve done fine in my life without such things.
I call these two points out because there’s a certain naivete sprinkled throughout the book. For the most part, I gave Fasulo the benefit of the doubt, but when it comes to name dropping Osteen and the “Law of Attraction,” that crossed the line for me.
Summing It All Up
Should you buy the book?
No, I wouldn’t recommend you doing so.
Fasulo doesn’t have any magical secrets to finding your financial freedom. It’s pretty simple (but extremely hard): Start doing freelance work, get small jobs at only $5 or $10, work your way up to earning more per gig, and then outsource the work to a team you hire.
Yes, it’s going to take you years to get there, but it is one path to financial freedom.
I understand the appeal of not wanting to work a 9 to 5 job and do agree with her that there are other ways to earn money—my main frustration with this book is that it’s too expensive and doesn’t have a lot of unique content in it. It’s sprinkled with pretty generic advice.
If you’re into that, then go for it. I’m just trying to help you save a few bucks.
Plus, there’s better advice out there.
Please note that there are affiliate hyperlinks used on this page and that I receive a small percentage of sales if you choose to purchase. I only recommend items that I have found helpful and useful, and am passing them on to you to help. Thank you.