It’s a weird time…especially now that the big “R” word is floating around. (Recession, that is.)
Lately, I’m feeling the same way I did about two years ago when the world was shut down, and I was debating whether or not I should get a PPP loan.
I find myself wondering:
Will content budgets get slashed, leaving my services unneeded?
Will companies move more writing work in-house, cutting freelance budgets?
Uncertainty abounds, and it doesn’t feel great if I’m being totally candid. For the first half of this year, I’ve been inundated with work. But now: I don’t know. Things are definitely quieter. Friends working as in-house marketers have been let go. Some of my biggest clients are reporting missed earnings and layoffs.
I bring this up for a few reasons.
Number one: To make it clear that if you’re in the same boat right now, you’re definitely not alone.
Number two: To advocate for income diversification.
We can’t know what the future holds, but having a few income streams can help offset some of the current “weirdness” when it comes to freelance work (or even full-time work, for that matter. I know in-house folks are feeling this right now too!)
For me, this means continuing to promote my productized service turning podcasts into blog posts over at Content Remix, trying to do a better job of talking about the premium digital resources and consulting offerings I have, and considering offering more live sessions (like the ‘How to write like a journalist’ one I offered earlier this year), and exploring more long-term partnership opportunities.
But it’s also got me thinking about the good ol’ fashioned pivot.
I’ve already done a bit of pivoting in my eight years of self-employment:
I stopped doing copywriting projects and social media management (and stopped marketing my services through a brand name rather than my own name.)
I stepped away from the two annual retainer clients I had a few years back.
I niched down my content writing work to focus solely on clients in the ecommerce software space.
But friends of mine have made even more dramatic pivots, transitioning across industries and roles (and they’re finding great success!)
Sarah Moret went from working in finance and venture capital to founding Curie, a natural deodorant and body care product line.
Val Geisler went from working in the theater space to working in-house for a software company.
I posed this question on Twitter, and there were TONS of interesting stories of pivots shared in the replies here.
So, I guess what I’m saying today is: Yes. Things feel up-in-the-air (again.)
And that doesn’t feel great. Nobody likes uncertainty.
BUT! Moments like these also present opportunities to sharpen our skill sets, to find new ways to bring in money, to experiment with new service offerings, to lean into that creative project you’ve been putting on the back burner, or to make a brilliant, dramatic transition into something totally new.
The bottom line is: hang in there.
After all, necessity is the mother of invention, right?
New: The Book Corner
Welcome to a new segment where I share a review of a book I've recently read and enjoyed (I'll spare you the ones that sucked.)
A bit on my reading preferences, in case you want to know what to expect here: I'm a big fan of fiction, but I also love a good sci-fi thriller from time to time, an insightful memoir, the occasional modern romance/beach reach, and historical fiction.
First up: Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
Lately, I've been reading books where the reader gets to go inside the minds of female narrators and swim in their thoughts, worries, and obsessions.
This one was no exception. It's the story of three different women (identities altered) who share their personal stories of love, loss, and internal thought processing around those events. Definitely a trigger warning for this one, but if you can compartmentalize, the writing is truly brilliant and the stories are a rare glimpse into the narrators' inner dialogues around personality-defining events. I read this in two days and couldn't put it down.
