Join the best private community for advanced freelancers
In October 2024 several of my coaching clients asked me to create a group especially for them. I agreed (reluctantly, at first) and asked myself this question:
“What type of community do I want to be a part of?”
The answer came quickly. All I had to do was list out what irritates me about most online communities for freelancers and do the exact opposite with the Freelance Cake Community.
Judging by how many Freelance Cake members renew their membership, we’re onto something.
What the Freelance Cake Community Is Like
- Big, impersonal feel → Small and tight-knit by design
- Mixed bag of freelancers → More advanced freelancers only
- Open to anyone, no barrier to entry → Private membership, application and investment required
- Resource dump full of garbage → Resource Library with only hand-picked, high-quality stuff
- Spam → Strict no self-promotion policy
- Immature, rude people ready to attack anyone who disagrees → Mature people with good manners following clear community guidelines
- Negative Eeyores complaining about clients from hell → Positive, uplifting culture
- Content that is mostly fluff → Genuinely valuable ideas and insights
Progress Over Content
Everyone in the Freelance Cake Community has the same mission: getting paid well to do what we like with people we like.
So inside the community I’m less interested in giving members more content to consume, and I’m more interested in helping them (and maybe you?) build an anti-fragile, well-fitting business that supports that mission.
But it’s not just about the money. It’s about the independence, flexibility in your schedule, and control over your calendar. It’s about options and a sense of spaciousness in your days.
What You Get Inside the Community
“Community” is a fuzzy word, so I want to explain what exactly you’re paying for:
- Private forum hosted on Circle. Facebook is distracting. Slack doesn’t have the right features. I chose Circle as the digital place where members ask questions and get feedback. Circle is where my team makes announcements and where members RSVP for events.
- Resource Library. No exaggeration, this library took thousands of hours to create. It’s worth $10,000s to people who actually use the playbooks, cheat sheets, templates, checklists, SOPs, and other tools.
- Private podcast. My team makes group coaching, member-led, and guest expert sessions available as audios so that members can listen to them later if they so choose.
- Better insights, support, and camaraderie. The community is small, and members are more established in their careers. The conversations and feedback are better as a result.
- Weekly coworking sessions. Freelancing can be lonely and isolating, so we set up a Google Meet that people across many timezones use when they want to see a friendly face while they work. Every Thursday at 11:00am, all the members who can gather for 10 minutes of chit-chat before we put ourselves on mute and focus on some 50-minute piece of work.
- Group coaching sessions. Every second and fourth Tuesday, we get together for Hot Seat Sessions and/or an Office Hour. Hot Seat Sessions are where we spend 25 minutes troubleshooting a specific challenge a member has. Office Hours are where I answer members’ questions rapid-fire or we have an open-ended discussion on a specific topic (e.g., bringing in subcontractors or hiring a VA).
- Live workshops. Every first and third Tuesday, we get together for a member-led or a guest expert session. Past sessions have focused on everything from winning proposals to guesting on podcasts to breaking up with social media.
- Monthly challenges. Each month, I select a theme or a sprint. It’s voluntary. Anyone who wants to can join and make real progress, whether that’s finally writing that long-overdue case study, pitching yourself to 5 podcast hosts, or getting rejected by 30 dream clients.
- In-person retreats. Our first one is coming up in Spring 2026. Stay tuned for details.
- Clear community guidelines. These set clear expectations around our treatment of one another and confidentiality so that members feel safe opening up about struggles, being vulnerable, and asking tougher questions.
How to Apply & What You’ll Pay
Membership is by application only. I review and respond to every single application myself, and you’ll hear from me with 48 hours.
Click this link to apply or the big button at the top of the page.
Once you’ve received an invitation to join, you can choose between the regular annual plan and the plan that includes two 1-on-1 coaching sessions with me.
| Annual | Annual + Coaching |
|---|---|
| $1,188 / year | $1,782 / year |
| $99 / month | $149 / month |
How does the community work?
I think of building an anti-fragile creative / consulting business as happening in these four stages:
Clarity → Execution → Accountability → Improvement
1. Clarity — Figure out what matters most
When new members join, I tell them to start by creating a 1-page growth roadmap.
Once they’re crystal clear on their priorities and next steps, they’ll be able to stay focused and make faster progress.
How this happens:
- Read the short Quickstart guide.
- Watch the "How to Keep Growing As a Freelancer Without Burning Out" masterclass replay.
- Make a copy of the 1-page growth roadmap template to create your own.
- Hand-pick resources in the Resource Library that match your priorities.
- Schedule a Hot Seat or attend an Office Hour if needed.
2. Execution — Do the work that moves the needle
After you create a short, actionable roadmap, you’ve shed all your excuses. You don’t need more information or more research. You need to put your head down and do the work.
How this happens:
- Join weekly coworking sessions.
- Join monthly sprint challenges.
- Post in the forum when you get stuck.
- Attend member-led and guest expert sessions when they match your priorities.
3. Accountability — Stay on track (without shame or pressure)
The best thing about freelancing is the independence. The worst thing about freelancing is the independence.
One of the best ways to stack on track is to raise your level of accountability.
How this happens:
- Make public commitments and post check-ins.
- Track your progress in the forum.
- Get peer-to-peer support and feedback loops.
4. Improvement — Review, refine, and repeat
We measure what’s working, fix what isn’t, and continuously improve. That’s really the only way to build an anti-fragile business that you love.
How this happens:
- Write and share monthly retrospectives.
- Get coaching and apply what you learn.
- Test new offers, pricing, and systems.
The Freelance Cake Community is not another content library. It’s a business laboratory.
The four stages I mentioned give you a repeatable system for building a more stable, profitable, and resilient business, and you’ll be doing it with community members who care about you.
Who the heck is Austin L. Church?
Austin is Freelance Cake’s founder. He has been freelancing over 15 years and has made six figures more years than not. That said, the revenue is less important than some of the other things he has experience with:
- Scaling up into a lead agency
- Developing and selling a portfolio of 30 iOS and Android apps
- Doing the tech startup thing (2013-2017)
- Co-founding a branding and marketing studio
- Serving as a fractional CMO (2018 - present)
- Publishing several books, including Free Money, a pricing and money mindset guide for freelancers
In 2018 Austin started coaching other freelancers and consultants and helping them get better results with less effort.
The SOPs, templates, and other tools you get inside the Freelance Cake community took him 1000s of hours to create and refine.
Helping advanced freelancers build their $300K Flywheel is something he’s very passionate about. In fact, his wife Megan would love to hear him talk about something else.
Austin and Megan live with their three children in Knoxville, Tennessee, near the Great Smoky Mountains.
More from community members
P. Mihaylov
B. Watkins, Copywriter
G. Brewer
A. Martinez
A. Stone, Sustainability Report Writer
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the focus of the community on advanced freelancers?
The first reason is that there are plenty of communities for beginners and fewer for the established, growth-oriented pros.
Also, it's difficult to have a wide spectrum of experience in a single community because conversations and advice revert to the lowest end of the spectrum.
This community isn’t for folks asking “Can I do this freelance thing? Do I have what it takes” It’s for folks asking, “How do I keep growing without burning out? How do I make my business truly sustainable?”
Here’s how you know you’ll be a good fit:
- You’re passionate about what you do.
- You’re committed to putting in the work.
- You’ve been freelancing for 2 years or more.
- You’re a seasoned pro with a strong point of view.
- You’re goal oriented and have a bias toward action.
- You’re a professional who works on the business, not just in it.
How much time should I expect to spend in this community?
One hour a week? Two? You’ll get out what you put in, and you’ll show up more often when interesting conversations are happening or when you need more help.
At the very least I recommend that you join the coworking sessions, timezone permitting.
What can I expect in terms of content?
This community focuses more on connection and relationships than content and programming.
I don’t want to flood members with tons of content because is more content what any of us need? People showing up to listen to Austin deliver a sermon about [insert freelance issue here]?
The more content and events a community has, the less valuable each thing becomes by association, and the easier it becomes for members to deprioritize any one event or piece of content because there's always another one.
That’s why this community prioritizes relationships and focused business development. Let’s identify and do the things that will transform our businesses, finances, and lives. And let’s do that in good company.
What are good reasons to join?
You’re making decent money but you want to optimize more for joy, impact, and free time.
You need momentum and a place to validate ideas and processes.
You want to grow/scale an already successful business by getting more support (e.g., VA or subcontractors), scaling up into a micro agency, or diversifying revenue streams.
You’ve realized you need to look outside of your current community where everyone shares the same specialization and get some fresh ideas and perspectives.
You want to learn from other people who've done the work of building a "successful" business, and you want to share your expertise in turn.
What are bad reasons to join?
You have products you want to sell to freelancers, consultants, and agency owners, and this community seems like a room you could pitch to. Please don’t.
You hope to get some clients from successful freelancers who have more work than they can handle. Will you start new relationships in the community? Yes. Might some of those relationships organically lead to collaborations or referrals? Yes. Is this a smaller Upwork? No.
You want other people to answer all your questions and do your thinking for you. We’re here to answer questions for which Google doesn’t have a quick answer. Think “What CRM are you all using right now?” not “What is a CRM?”
You enjoy being controversial, combative, or contrarian, and think it’s all in good fun. Please take your fun elsewhere.
When do office hours and other live group sessions happen?
Coworking sessions, Hot Seats, and Office Hours usually happen at 11:00 am ET (GMT-5). That being said, if enough members want or need a different time, we occasionally mix it up.
It’s decision time.
If you’re ready to connect with other more advanced freelancers, get the resources and advice, and make progress on your most important goals, then go ahead and apply to join.
Any questions? Email hello@freelancecake.com.