Solid Communications

How to Become a Successful FreelancerPart II: The Working Life

• Introduction
• Part I:  Getting Started
• Part II: The Working Life
• Part III: Presentation and Marketing 
• Part IV: Communication Skills
• Part V: Money Management
• Part VI: Additional Income Streams

 

To be a successful writer or freelancer you must approach your work day with a high level of professionalism.  You are now your own content creator, receptionist, project director, and marketing department all rolled into one. 

This segment of "How to Become a Successful Freelancer" will give you tips on organizing your working day and taking care of your most important asset:  yourself.

A Year by the Lake - From Healing to Helping: Transparency and Readership

  
 

I'm a writer.  I write about sex, love, chocolate and football.  There's not much capital investment required—I just convert my brain juice into income.  I'm frequently asked what it's like to be a writer and work from home.  So I've decided to add another dimension to this blog—total transparency.

I make mistakes.  Sometimes I'm almost paralyzed by fear.  Sometimes my brain turns to jelly right before a deadline.  But I love what I do and I can't conceive of ever giving it up.  It kind of amazes me that people are interested in my lifestyle, but I also passionately believe that more people should take that leap, have faith in themselves, and start their own businesses.   Entrepreneurs are the creative engine and the backbone of America's future.  I hope my hard-earned lessons and simple joys will give just one person the courage to reach for their dreams.

So I'll be writing about my journey of the last year, since I started my creative copywriting career.  I made abysmal choices, expensive mistakes.  I also had amazing moments of insight and joy.  I learned that problems are not a crisis—every problem has a solution; you just need to find it.  Recently I broke a stamina barrier—working 10 days in a row until 1 or 2 am, including an all-nighter with 1 hour and 15 minutes of sleep.  Author Tim Ferriss says he doesn't think it's possible to have more than four creative hours a day.  Timmy honey, let a woman twice your age teach you something about creativity and stamina.

To be honest, I find it very awkward to be this transparent on my business blog.  After all, this is a blog that I created to impress clients, not showcase my ineptitude.  I feel as though I'm about to be fileted like a fish.  I'd rather be transparent about my love life than journal about my writing choices.  But that's how it all started . . .

As part of my creative writing business, I write several blogs.  Among them is a little known private journal about my love life . . . or to be more accurate, my lack thereof in that department.   In May 2009 I suffered a horrendous breakup and found myself out on my ear.  My crimes were that I was "fat and boring" and couldn't skateboard in high heels like his new playmate.  Whatever.  To help myself get through the pain of being abandoned and tossed aside like a used Kleenex, I journaled about my dating and healing process on my private blog, A Year by the Lake.

Amazingly, that blog attracted clients who were looking for ghost writers.  Sex and relationship coaches are frequently under pressure to produce new material for their websites and blogs, and to stay current with newly released books--in addition to an already full schedule of coaching, speaking and seminars.  I've been told I have the "life experience" and sense of humor required to adopt the voice of a busy sex coach and basically take over their writing schedule.   What fun!  I get to write about flirting, role play, tantric sex, you name it.   By being transparent about my pain and my own stupidity, I have grown from healing myself to helping others, and having a sense of fun and joy about it. 

So I'm making a commitment to you to share the real life of a working creative copywriter.  The joys, the hurdles, the light bulb moments, the odd synchronicities, and  the occasional zaniness that  infects us when we let go of control and just ride the rapids of life.