For your last question I think you’re thinking about it wrong. People care primarily about their problems and whether or not you are the person who can solve them. And their problems sound more like “We need to launch X by end of quarter but we’re not moving fast enough,” or “we have a talented team of engineers but continue to have production issues that are causing us to lose customers.” Their problems do not sound like “We are lacking a part-time Rust developer!”
Bits of consulting advice here, from answering similar questions in the past:
https://www.gkogan.co/blog/consulting-advice/
And here’s a summary of my first year as a consultant, with lessons learned:
https://www.gkogan.co/blog/how-i-learned-to-get-consulting-l...
And why you should call yourself a consultant rather than a freelancer:
https://www.gkogan.co/blog/freelancer-or-consultant/
For your last question I think you’re thinking about it wrong. People care primarily about their problems and whether or not you are the person who can solve them. And their problems sound more like “We need to launch X by end of quarter but we’re not moving fast enough,” or “we have a talented team of engineers but continue to have production issues that are causing us to lose customers.” Their problems do not sound like “We are lacking a part-time Rust developer!”