I hate the word ‘branding’ as a claim of expertise. An expert is someone who has a deeper knowledge of the subject than others trading in the area. I wonder if there’s even such thing as a branding expert. There are just too many people in it and very, very few that have meaningful knowledge that others do not. A designer claiming expertise in branding is like a fish claiming expertise in swimming. It’s not expertise; it’s the price of entry.
— Blair Enns, Win Without Pitching

If your experience with client work has been anything like mine, you’ve done a lot more pitching without winning than winning without pitching. And even when you get jobs, they’re often poor fits with bad clients—which is still a loss. I’m only recently discovering what Enns has to say about client work and business in general, but it’s good stuff. You might start by perusing his website or subscribing to his monthly-ish email newsletter.

Start listening to people who are smarter than you. Your bottomline will thank you later.