A love letter to freelance friendships

Dear Freelance Friends

I truly don’t know where I’d be without you all. Freelance life is hard, it can be lonely, and it can be so challenging that you want to scream, to stamp your feet, to throw in the towel and get a ‘proper job’. Sure, it can also be fabulous, full of joys and success and ‘yay’ moments.

But all of it is done in a bubble of one. Or is it? It can feel that way… but, we make it through because we have our freelance friends – and I know for sure that I would be utterly lost without my tribe of freelance mates. So, I’m writing you a love letter, to say thank you for being my freelance friends.

Freelance friends often know more, and see more, of us than our ‘real’ friends. They see the worries, the fears, the hopes, the dreams, the self-doubt.

They are our biggest cheerleaders, often our guiding light and sometimes our reality check.

A freelance friendship is a very unique thing indeed. There is nobody who quite understands the freelance life like another freelancer. Someone else who never has a set payday, who is often at the mercy of a difficult client, who has been, yet again, professionally ghosted.

There are the old freelance friends, the ones who knew you back ‘then’, who have grown with you, who can share the ‘ugh’ and eye rolls only you know about your industry as freelancers. There are the new ones, many carved on social media, not face to face. Even pre-pandemic, freelance friendships were often online, mysterious connections across a digital divide with someone you hadn’t ever touched or heard speak.

I’ve shared intimate secrets with freelance friends that I might not have done with other friends. There’s an air of collusion, of ‘being in it together’. I’ve never been in the armed forces, but I wonder if it’s the same in some way; Comrades who know what battles you go into, who’ve done the same training. Instead of SAS who dares wins, SFS – Special Freelance Services…

I know I could not manage as a freelancer without my freelance friendships.

So, thank you, Freelance Friends…

To you, the reader of this newsletter, thank you for subscribing (which makes me feel so happy, and needed, and worthy of the words I write). To those who share it, giving me the glow of reward.

To the freelance friends on what’s app, who I speak to every day to discuss admin duties for a Facebook group. We’ve only met as a team once, and one of you I’ve never met, yet I consider you all one of my inner circles, confidantes to whom I can say anything, do daft voice notes and share a unique experience of being a Facebook group admin.

Thank you to the freelance friend I’ve known for years – from our jobs sat side by side on magazines, learning our ‘trade’ to now, the ones who know how it feels to be growing a business all by yourself.

To the friend considering a freelance life, who might look to me for reassurance or counsel. I have such excitement for you, for your hopes and dreams!

The freelance friends who are on a journey with me – my co-trainees in the coaching world. Freelancers who want to make a new career move, and understand the fear and excitement that goes with it. Bonds formed on Zoom, through online chats and more what’s app.

Freelance friends I only know in Facebook groups, but who cheer me on when I ask for support, for guidance or a kick up the behind with something I was procrastinating over.

To the freelancers who’ve come on the podcast, giving their time and sharing their stories – I’ve loved chatting to you all! Making a podcast about freelancing has opened my eyes to the realities of it even more.

There are the freelance friends I’ve met in offices – bonding over shared workload and perhaps a challenging ‘boss’… (we’re not used to having bosses really, are we?). The fleeting freelance friendships that come and go – a hello during a week in-house somewhere, or a connection on a shared project.

To the Instagram friend who has become a collaborator, the virtual champions of Freelance Feels, to the freelancers who have given me time on their platform to talk about what I do and how I feel about freelancing.

To the freelancer who comes to me for coaching help and says at the end of it ‘Thank you, I feel better’. You make my little heart soar!

Freelance friends who live near my new home, who offered me coffees and chats and a ‘welcome’ to the new area when we could, who promise of meet ups and friendship when we’re allowed again.

Last of all, to the freelance friend I’m yet to meet. I can’t wait to get to know you…     

Some freelance friendships grow, and last a long time, others are temporary, but all are part of the patchwork that makes up being self-employed, that spider’s web of connections that mean we’re strong as a tribe than on our own.

Happy Valentine’s Day, freelance friends x