freelancer life

Currently I’m in the midst of a month long ban from my most-used social media outlet, Facebook. I began this abstinence as an experiment in minimalism. The minimalist queries that often run through my head as I’m considering a purchase or deciding if I need to re-home something:

Do I really need this? Does this add value to my life? Does it align with my core values or where I want to be in life?

If the answers are no, for the most part I pass on whatever it is and go on with my life. With Facebook, it was more an unconscious obsession that slipped through. Before I knew it, hours of my life were spent mindlessly scrolling through my newsfeed in the name of keeping up with trends for work and the lives of “friends”. Thankfully my girlfriend called me out on it.

This break has provided the pause I needed to realize this mindless scrolling is the antithesis of some of my primary life goals: being conscious/fully present in the moment and making authentic connections with people.

Fast forward to the last couple days, I’m listening to a podcast with Brené Brown, whose talks and research I adore and the show’s host, Jonathan Fields. In their conversation they discuss how each act of courage begins by putting yourself in a vulnerable position. Taking risks are an essential piece to living this wholehearted life Brené speaks of.

Many of us, myself included, are guilty of living life or making decisions that seem safe to us. The early projects of my freelancing career were filled with safe decisions like gingerly asking for meager pay, catering to the client’s abundant and aesthetically awful change requests, and shamelessly working for whoever would have me within reason (no thanks, McDonalds and Walmart). Yet working in this way does not lead to anything of worth. The client, while seemingly happy with their project bedazzled with glittery unicorn gifs, is left with something that does not serve their business well. I, as the designer, am left with barely enough funds for dinner and the feeling that I’m nothing more than a character from one of Matthew Inman’s comics.

Nowadays, each proposal I write, I put myself in a place of vulnerability. I sit with a proposal for a day prior to sending it out to allow the self-doubt to run it’s full course. Questions plague my consciousness during that time: Did I quote too high or too low? How will the client react to my contract? Am I a good fit for this client? Is this client a good fit for me? Do I have the technical ability to complete this project? and so they proceed ad infinitum.

Yet with each proposal I send whether it’s accepted or not, each difficult e-mail I carefully craft, and each technical problem I Google my way out of, my confidence grows.

After all, if a client doesn’t want to pay me what I’m worth, would a relationship where I constantly have to defend the value of my services be worthwhile?

If a client recognizes the value of my services, but has a product or service that is against my core values, will I be able to in good conscience promote it? The resounding answer is no.

This is where daring greatly comes in. In order to get to a place where all my identities (work me, home me, spiritual me) align, every decision I make has to come from a conscious place of authenticity and integrity, including my choice to limit my use of social media. To factually do that, I have to dare greatly. I must fearlessly craft those proposals and hard to write e-mails, go against societal norms/life goals, advocate for what is ethically, environmentally, aesthetically and functionally right, be conscious of how I’m spending my time and who I’m choosing to invest it in, and have faith that the universe will provide me with what I need when I need it.

That said, I invite you all to give it a go. Dare greatly in all you do and see for yourself the amazing results.

 

• paid sick days
• paid time off
• paid downtime (at least when you’re charging hourly) – paid office chatter, bathroom breaks, snacks, etc. – NO MORE!
• co-workers
• one boss – now all clients own various percentages of you. One upside is:  you make the decision to hire or fire said client.
• a steady paycheck – knowing when the next payment will come in & how much that’ll be is a thing of the past. That said, site maintenance contracts come in handy for providing reliable residual income.

• working WHENever you want – my most productive work is late at night with no phone calls or e-mails to distract.
• working WHEREver you want – if it’s got an internet connection or at very least cell signal (mobile hotspot inventor – praise you!)…it can be your office for a day, a week, a month, etc. I’ve worked everywhere from a scenic overlook along Rt.1 on the California coast to a ranger station in the Redwoods to a Walmart parking lot in Tennessee to an ashram in Lithuania.
• working with WHOever you want – meaning the ability to select which clients/projects you take on.
• too much or too little work – my experience has been that work comes in waves, whether too much or too little- it gets to the point where you’re like “OMG…how am I going to make it?” This is where you become incredibly grateful for regular clients, routine work & the patience of clients allowing you to schedule their no-rush projects a little further out.
• spontaneous paychecks – sometimes big, sometimes small, sometimes weekly, sometimes monthly, etc. Finishing up projects & sending out invoices is like Christmas morning.
• being the jack(or jill) of all trades  – office manager, secretary, accountant, client liaison, CEO, etc. – you name it, you’re it.
• paying for office supplies – at least you get to write it off.
• handling delicate e-mails – it’s your duty to deliver the most unpalatable news in the most enticing way possible (i.e. “While I appreciate your enthusiasm for animated gifs of glittery space cats, using them as a background for your website may not be the best idea because…”)
• talking to people a lot – tech support, clients, etc. – whoever it may be, you’ll be talking to them on the phone, online chat or through Skype a lot.

 

• Boundaries – even if you don’t work regulated business hours it’s good to have a general window say 9a-6p M-F of when clients can expect you to be available via phone & respond promptly to e-mails. That said since you’re your own boss, you can break & bend the rules but, having some parameters set as “norms” is incredibly helpful to your sanity & setting your client’s expectations.
• Balance – it’s easy to get sucked into either working way too much or way too little. It’s important to have a balance between electric (behind the computer) & acoustic (outside in fresh air) time.
• Discipline – commit to working at least X hours per day allowing flexibility to make up time on a weekend or another day if something awesome comes up.
• Deadlines –  deadlines prevent too many projects hanging out in the “asap” or “flexible” bins. These bins are like blackholes – anything that enters them may never be seen again. If you’re like me, procrastination is your super power & deadlines are the necessary kryptonite to keep you gainfully employed.
• Parameters – develop criteria for accepting or rejecting new work or clients. If you loathe logo design, love working for small businesses  & can’t stand cats – don’t take on an identity design project for Friskies, it’s a waste of your time & theirs even if it’d look great for your résumé.
• Passion – you can’t always do only projects you love as someone’s got to bring home the tempeh “Bacon” (yes, I’ve been an herbivore for 13 years). But you can avoid doing projects you hate. Find the balance between the two & stick to it. For example, I may not like PCs but, I may like illustration. So if someone asks me to do an illustration of a PC – the fact that I get paid to draw all day would prolly excite me enough to take on the project.

Anyway, this is just a few noteworthy things I’ve learned from Feb 2014- May 2015 which serves as my first year of being a full time freelancer. Every day, every project & every new client – I learn something more, so there will surely be more to come.

It seems I’ve unintentionally taken a six month hiatus from writing. During this time, change has been the only constant. Half of the time I’ve spent running around different holy villages in India, visiting a spiritual publishing firm in the Swedish countryside, staying in an ashram in a small Lithuanian city & spending hours upon hours in various airports attempting to find wifi & do a bit of design work to fuel my wanderlust.

The other half of that time was spent adjusting to our cross-country relocation from center-city – Austin, TX to an intentional farm-community in the West Virginian panhandle. To top it all off, just this month, I said good-bye to my 20s & have crossed over to the land of the 30-somethings. All in all it’s been quite the experience.

In rural West Virginia, everything is a challenge. Our new address is not recognized by Google maps, USPS or really any business or utility company. Moving from a technology hub to a place where hi-speed internet comes with a data cap & smartphones are about as useful as a paperweight (due to no signal), has tested our determination to shift to a more in tune with nature, self-sufficient lifestyle. Despite the apparent disconnection, I feel more alive & connected than ever.

That said, making the change from an employee to a full time freelancer has been full of challenges. Right now, I’m working on developing boundaries — something I’ve found is absolutely essential to being happy. (more on that in a later post) I’ve realized being a freelancer can easily turn into being on call or on the clock 24/7 — if you let it. Similarly, full time freelancing comes with a whole list of other job descriptions that I would not have necessarily applied for (i.e. accountant, office manager, secretary, etc). At the same time it allows for a lot of flexibility which is wonderful, but has to be carefully manipulated to yield productivity.

So right now, I’m doing a bit of a dance in attempts to juggle being a freelance graphic designer, a cowherd, an organic gardener & a person. While it’s no doubt difficult, it’s quite liberating to feel like I’m making progress towards my goal of being the change, I’d like to see in the world.