March: Putting the spring back in your freelance step

Hello fellow freelancer! Greetings from sunny Hampshire. As I write this, I’m dog sitting for my dad, in his thatched cottage, so I am sat with the sun coming through the window, a spaniel in her bed beside me and a hot cross bun and cup of tea on the go. Add in a pheasant perched on the fence and some rabbits on the morning walk, and it’s altogether an almost Cadbury-esque springtime scene.

The thing is, it’s all very well when the sun comes out and things feel rosy, but it’s not always the case. A year ago, spring 2019, it was very much not the case for me. I was struggling with freelance life, big time, and I didn’t even know if I could or should be freelance any more. I was fed up, depressed, confused and unhappy. And I knew, as spring began to, well, spring again, that I had to try and take action.

All through winter, I’d been struggling to find work and berating myself for not having enough to do, not earning much. It had a knock-on effect. Because it’s easy in hindsight to see that if you spend half your day calling yourself useless and a failure, you’re not going to have the oomph to pitch or look for new work, to update your CV or network in a positive way. But that’s exactly what was happening.

Freelancing can be hard at the best of times, but when it’s also cold, dark and grey outside, that can immediately translate to your work life, too. But a year ago, as now, the skies began to lighten in the evenings, and I decided to try and embrace freelancing again. A year on, I’d like to share some thoughts on how we can all put the spring back in our freelance step.

Time to tend to your freelance garden

Recently I was asked to speak on a panel about freelance wellbeing, for new platform My Staff Room. One of the questions was about how to keep ‘hustling’ – that is, how to keep marketing yourself in the quiet months. The analogy that came to me as a reply was about freelancing being like gardening. And it seems so fitting for this time of year, with spring dawning. I am reminded by my garden-loving partner that Gardener’s World starts again soon – Monty Don will be on screens telling us all about helping our gardens wake up again.

And so with our freelance life, things can seem a bit like a garden or the country landscape in winter. Dormant, and not in need of attention. And, as a result, we often neglect them. We don’t go out and check over the flowerbeds, or have a look at the lawn, or pick up the grasses that might have fallen in the heavy winds. Just like we might not pay attention to our social media profile, or CV, or reaching out to new clients in winter.

But we need to do these things, little and often. And if we haven’t, now’s the time to start again. If we want our freelance garden to bloom all year round, we need to make sure we are tending to it at least a little bit all year round. And spring is the time to step things up again. Here’s my suggestions:

Revisit the seeds of a dormant idea or plan

Perhaps you were thinking of contacting someone or starting a new project back in December or January, but things were a bit quiet and you put it off. Now’s the time! Like getting back out into the garden, it’s time to have another think about that project, or building the one you have been plotting.

As an example, I’m planning Freelance Feels workshops. They’re baby plans right now – maybe like if I decided I wanted to begin a veg patch from scratch. Research and planning are key with that one. But it’s time to give that a go, to get thinking about it. To see if those little roots might take hold and grow into something bigger this year.

Curate your social media feed with positivity and mental health champions

One of the good things about social media is that it can be a place to find community and support when you are feeling really down, unhappy or challenged by freelance life. As well as other freelance accounts, I follow lots of illustrators and mental health advocates who can bring a dose of positivity and realism into your feed. It can really help among all the other social media noise.

Time to spring clean the work stuff

Is there a client it’s time you parted ways with? How about a brand or client you’d like to work with and have put off emailing? Is it time you signed up to that course, workshop, or applied for that part time role that’s been winking at you from Linked In? I suggest – and I shall be doing this – spending half or a full day spring cleaning all your work ‘things’. Going through what’s working for you, seeing what you would like to add to the ‘to do’ list.

How old is that profile picture? Does your twitter bio have the best link to your work or services in it? I like Linktree if you want to spruce up your bio link to have more than one hyperlink in it. We might not use our CVs quite so much as freelancers, but I was asked for mine recently and I realised it’s called JennyStallardCVNovember2019. So even changing the name is spring cleaning!

Consider going ‘back to freelance school’

If we were in staff jobs we’d be getting training opportunities all the time, right?! But we forget to do it for ourselves. And it can seem hard to feel like we can justify spending money on a course when we have other bills to pay. But I do truly believe that investing in some training could be the key to unlocking more of your potential as you head into spring.

I signed up to a pitching course recently, and it’s been so great not only for my work but also my confidence. I am so enjoying going through my pitches and seeing where they’re letting me down, or they could be enhanced. Sure, it’s extra work and there is no instant monetary reward, but I am hoping that investing time in professional feedback for my work is going to recoup me dividends way, way into the future.

It’s also a good idea to join a course because you might meet more freelancers and that in itself could bring more work in. You never know who’s also signing up and who they know!

Coaching and co-mentoring

Thanks to the suggestion of podcast guest Steve Folland of the Being Freelance Community, I have also begun to dabble in co-mentoring. I’ve had coaching before – and it’s great – but it can be intense and it also might be beyond your budget.

Co-mentoring is quite simple – find a freelance friend who is up for speaking once every week, two weeks or month depending on schedules (I’d say fortnight is enough gap though, so you are accountable) and then have a call or video chat. Talk about the things that are challenging you, the things that you are putting off, the things you need to get done. The other person makes a note and checks in with you – and vice versa. You can catch up in-between sessions with texts or emails – gently checking in with them about how they’ve got on. And knowing that someone is going to check in with you will keep you focused, too.

Re-connect with exercise

I admit that I have been terrible at going to the gym lately. I just completely lost my gym mojo. But as March begins, I know I need to get back on it, as regular exercise is such a cornerstone of my mental wellbeing and it has a huge knock-on effect to my freelance life when I have exercised. So whether you’re a walker, runner, swimmer, climber, horse rider… it’s time to get back into it if you’ve been avoiding the exercise. Hey, gardening counts, right?!

Book a networking day

There are two networking days coming up this year which are for freelancers – I went to both last year so I can confidently say I think both are well worth attending!

The first is Freelance Heroes Day (May 15th) – this is run by the Freelance Heroes community and has talks as well as a lunch (who doesn’t like a lunch?!). This was the first event I went to that really made me realise there were just so many of us out there, all different self-employed people, and that there was space for everyone. In the media, things can be very competitive, tribal even, but Freelance Heroes has really shown me that freelancers have each others’ backs and are collaborative souls.

The second is IPSE National Freelancers Day (June 18th). This is a whole day of talks, panels, workshops and keynote speakers. I think last year you could get a headshot taken or listen to a live podcast recording – it’s an empowering day and a fantastic chance to shout about your business to other like-minded freelancers.

Trust

Another thing that’s easy to say in hindsight but this is a word I rely on so much I’ve considered having it tattooed on my arm! It’s hard to trust things will come right again, but then they do and we think ‘Oh I should have just trusted, kept working and trusted things would be ok and there would be a way forward’.

Remind yourself that you need to trust alongside the hard work. Write it on a post-it and stick it to your screen – or make the picture below your screensaver on your laptop or your phone. I’ll post it on Instagram, too, so you can screen shot it if you’d like to.

Freelance podcast of the month: Freelance Party Broadcast

This one’s from Freelance Corner, a platform for freelancers. Hosts Faye and Jess answer a listener’s question with the help of an industry expert. There’s also a fun episode on what to buy a freelancer for Christmas! They’re up to 13 episodes, so doing well since November 2019 – I’m looking forward to what else they cover in 2020 and beyond!

Insta links to make you think…

This month’s Instagram accounts that will hopefully bring some freelance and gardening inspiration…

@themontydon Well we have to include Monty, the Don of gardening! On my list of dream podcast guests. Great dog photos too.

@marian_keyes I’m such a fan of Marian and she recently replied to a comment I made on her insta – swoon! She’s a self-employed author and I love her feed because there is a mixture of such honesty and humour it’s addictive. Don’t believe me? Have a look at her posts when she went to Sephora on a whim.

@noughticulture AKA Alice Brookes. Freelance gardening writer and author Alice’s feed is a lovely bright dip-of-the-toe into gardening whether you have a window box or a field at your disposal.

@notestostrangers AKA Andy Leek. I’ve followed Notes… for a long time and founder Andy has a very interesting story on burnout and then moving from advertising to his current ‘notes’ project.

@j.l.perrone – AKA On The Ledge, a houseplants podcast and blog. I love houseplants and think they are really beneficial to our mental health – this might inspire you to get some for your home office this Spring if you don’t have a garden.

Freelance Feels: The podcast - Season 2 coming soon!

Season two of the Freelance Feels podcast will be starting on Friday March 6th. Guests include Rebecca Jones who runs Chateau De La Ruche from Channel 4’s Escape to the Chateau DIY, addiction specialist and author of ‘The Last Diet’ Shahroo Izadi, Illustrator Jennifer Hines (who created the Freelance Feels podcast logo), co-founder & joint CEO of the flexible working community Hoxby, Lizzie Penny, and Rachel Bridge, author of How to Work for Yourself – plus others! I hope you enjoy it and it helps put even more of a spring in your freelance step.

Thanks for reading! Here’s where you can find Freelance Feels…

You might already have a spring in your freelance step – if so, hoorah! Keep building on that. If you haven’t, I hope these musings have helped. For more, you can find Freelance Feels on Instagram @freelance_feels where I often explore the feels in person on stories, and the site’s www.freelancefeels.com