What freelancing taught me in 2022
/I don’t want this to be one of those “22 things I learned from freelancing in 2022.” Don’t get me wrong, some of them are well done. But it’s not really my thing and I don’t want to create something that’s been done well before the third week of January 2023. And it’s hard to think of 22 things.
I’m mostly writing this for myself. I don’t reflect much on work. Sometimes I think, “that turned out pretty well,” or, “that was really hard and I probably should have charged more.” I’m trying to force myself to write about my freelance experience, and I figured maybe one other person could also benefit from it.
There are no hacks, tips, or tricks. You can read most of this stuff on blogs that are much more popular than mine. But a few of them, I think, fly in the face of things I’ve told myself I should be doing. Or how freelancing should be.
I really didn’t market myself and it turned out okay
I spent most of the year saying, “I should really use [insert platform] to gain more clients.”
I never did.
LinkedIn is where I thought I needed to be more active. I tried getting back on Twitter and it was bad for my mental health within the first five minutes of me scrolling through the feed.
Part of the reason I didn’t “market” myself is I had plenty of work without really needing to put energy into LinkedIn. But I also didn’t make time to do it.
And honestly, most of that is because LinkedIn feels exhausting to me. So do taxes. And folding laundry. But they all serve a purpose, right? This year I will [try] to make more time for LinkedIn because I’ve seen the benefits of it for writers.
Referrals and existing clients drove my business. And I learned to be okay with that. I have a plan (sort of) to do more marketing this year because those referrals can’t last forever.
But I found that doing good work on time and being an effective communicator helped me retain clients and receive work from them every month. I’m in a very fortunate position to partner with people who need a writer regularly.
Most people don’t understand freelancing
I spent a lot of time trying out different ways to say what I do. Here are some examples:
“Um, I’m a freelance copywriter”
“I run a, uh, freelance writing business”
“I”m, uh, a freelancer”
Note the subtle shift in the “uhs and ums.” None are terrible, but most people don’t know what copywriting is and even fewer understand the term “freelance copywriter” when those words are strung together in a sentence.
It’s not their fault and I’m not blaming them. Most people work for traditional employers and never collaborate with freelancers.
I finally settled on “freelancer writer.” It’s simple enough. When I say that, there are typically follow-up questions about what that means, or the person draws their own conclusions and says, “that’s interesting,” without any questions.
The “that’s interesting” crowd typically thinks freelancers don’t have “real” jobs (or don’t think it’s actually interesting).
I think this will probably change if freelancing/independent contracting continues to gain momentum, but I’ve learned not to worry about it. It bothered me when people didn’t ask more about my work. I would get nervous when the obligatory “what do you do?” questions came up in first-time conversations.
Now, I relish the moments when someone shows genuine interest. And I don’t get nervous talking about it anymore. They either get it or they don’t. They want to learn more, or they’re not interested. And there are far more people I actually care about who support me and are invested in my work.
Freelancers are experts
I had to be told this over and over (and over) again by other people. It’s not a conclusion I came to on my own.
For some reason, the fact that clients paid me more than once for my work and asked for my input, didn’t qualify as “expertise” in my mind.
But that’s probably something better left to a therapist to sort out.
If you’re good enough at something to get paid for it repeatedly and do it for a while, you know more about it than most of the public. And whether or not you want to call yourself an expert is up to you.
But you are knowledgeable enough to offer insights based on your experience. And they’re likely better than most of the thought leadership stuff you’ll read on LinkedIn or Medium. You’re qualified to speak on what it is you do.
Again, someone had to tell me that, and I literally wrote it down in my notes and still look back on it when I don’t believe it.
Relationships are the difference between a and good month and a great month
Last spring, someone I interned for about ten years ago reached out asking if I could take on a project for his organization.
I did it and it turned an average month into a really solid month (and produced some nice stats for my portfolio).
In the final few months of the year, one of my original freelance clients asked if I’d like to write a series of blogs for them.
While neither of these relationships produce massive monthly retainers, they hit at the right time.
That blog series took 2022 from, “wow, this was a great year financially,” to “oh wow, I never expected this.” And for that, I’m thankful. I’m also happy January is kind of slow because the last two months of the year were tiring.
Both connections, which I’d had for years, paid off. And that seems to happen more often than not in this business.
The moral of this story is don’t give up on connections. Check-in occasionally just to be nice, not because you’re looking for work. People remember that stuff. And when they need help, don’t be surprised to see a message in your inbox.
No action needed from you
If you’ve made it this far, I hope you got something out of this. If it was just a laugh, that’s okay with me.
Even if you didn’t, I had a lot of fun writing this for myself. There’s no newsletter for you to subscribe to (maybe one day). There are plenty of good ones out there (I’m not going to list them here).
I think the takeaway from all of this is to not put so much pressure on yourself. There are tons of different opinions on freelancing and how to grow a business. Lots of them are really valuable. But if you start to focus on doing everything, you’ll start feeling overwhelmed quickly.
So, don’t sweat it if you’re not posting on LinkedIn six days a week. Or that you’re not 10xing your business (whatever that means). Freelancing is hard. If you take a moment (I’m talking to myself here) to sit back and think about what you get to do, you’ll realize how much fun it is.