What's your freelance story?

November 2022: Looking back to look forwards

I recently received a book as a gift, called The Business of Stories by Susan Payton. Working through the book, and Susan’s story, made me realise how important our freelance story is – and not just the freelance part of our work, but all the things that have led us to this moment in our working lives. All the decisions we’ve made, to be freelance (or not - I’ve often gone back to ‘real jobs’ over the years), the clients we’ve worked with and the highs and lows we’ve been through.

It hadn’t fully occurred to me that I tell stories for a living, and have done for over twenty years. As a writer, journalist, reporter, features writer and content creator, I tell stories.

And, on reflection, every story I’ve told has led me to the story I’m living now.

The storytelling arguably began back at school, and I still have a book with my stories in. Through school, I loved writing, and I decided to study French at university because back in 1995 you ‘did your best subject’ and went off and had fun. (These days I’d combine French with something businessy, and study like crazy).

After Uni, I trained as a journalist, and moved into news reporting, telling real stories, reporting on what was happening, everything from local people’s tales of allotment theft or charity work to reporting on council meetings and inquests.

Perhaps it’s the word ‘storyteller’ that is a curve ball, one that stopped me from realising I was a storyteller all those years. I used the word reporter, writer, journalist…But as I moved from the local newspaper to real life women’s magazines, where the stories were other women’s, told with embellishment and detail I’d never dabbled in before, it did start to feel a bit like I was telling stories. Not my own, though, not yet.

When I first went freelance, in 2005, storytelling became about myself, too. I wanted to write opinion pieces, those confessional-style reads. I dreamed of being a columnist.

I managed it to some degree, writing in Bella about being a Facebook addict, and in Red magazine about never having been told ‘I love you’.

Working on a parenting magazine, I told women’s birth stories (that was the name of the section!) and, a non-mum fish out of water, began to wonder if this kind of storytelling - journalism, features - was really for me.

I added to my own personal story by quitting the job to go travelling around South America, tried to write a blog (failed, didn’t understand Wordpress then!) and, as digital became a part of our lives, stories became, well, actual stories.

I have dabbled in stand up comedy, telling stories in the form of jokes. And I’ve told a story in a fiction book, Boyfriend by Christmas.

So many stories, so little time. The twist in the tale is that I haven’t always enjoyed freelancing. Jumping between staff jobs and freelancing, juggling freelancing on the side and seeing the grass as greener each time, I didn’t realise at the time that I was creating a story that I could tell to help other freelancers. I often felt miserable and directionless, juggling the joy of not being involved in office politics with the challenge of feeling like an outsider.

I only realise now that by falling in and out of freelancing, I was building a person who could say ‘I get it’. That I had - have - been there too, challenged by the grind of being self-employed.

I think it’s so important to own our freelance story - it’s made us the freelancer we are today. If we didn’t go through all the things we have in our small business lives, we wouldn’t be the small business owner we are today. That might mean there are mistakes that have made us nervous. It might mean there are successes which give us confidence. It might mean there have been clients who have made us want to give up. Days where we can’t think straight because we’re so overdrawn, or lonely or over-comparing until our brains ache.

But with each chapter that we work through, we are bringing together a narrative that is unique to us.

The concept that I needed to be all those versions of my storytelling self to become this one writing this, now, is exciting. It means that every part of my career - many of which I would have said I regret or wished hadn’t happened - HAD to happen for me to be the Jenny who is writing this story right now.

Freelance things this month….

If you don’t already, then I urge you to follow Anniki Sommerville. her stories are HILARIOUS. I am also reading her latest book ‘The Big Quit’. And.. she’s coming on the podcast soon for a special episode woo hoo!

Congrats to all the finalists in the IPSE Freelancer Awards. Freelance Feels has been shortlisted in the Wellbeing category and I can’t wait to adhere to the ‘Cocktail’ dress code at the event this month.

Brock Johnson is an Instagrammer I’m getting a lot of inspo from! Worth a follow for trends and reels tips.

At the time of writing, though, Instagram was DOWN. That’s in caps because…. PANIC, right?! For many of us, yes. It was a stark reminder that only ever being on one platform, and seeing all your followers and community as being on that platform is risky.

Do you use social? Do you prefer one site to the other? I use Twitter and am dabbling in TikTok. I love insta the most but I urge you all to also build mailing lists, and write blogs - bring content to your potential clients in different ways so that if one thing isn’t working, the others still will be.

To chat about content for your small business or freelance business, send me an email to hello@freelancefeels.com and tell me what’s niggling you, what holds you back from posting on social or your site, and what you’d like to see content-wise for your business in the future.

Newsletter news

I am going back to the original purpose of this newsletter - to be a mindful missive every month for anyone who is self-employed, freelance or thinking about it.

With that in mind I’m starting a MailChimp list - this list will be more the ‘traditional’ mail out. All about content, social media, business offerings, courses, that kind of thing. You know, the ones that land in your inbox quite often and say things like ‘ONE DAY LEFT TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE WITH THIS AMAZING OFFER’. Maybe not quite that hardcore but more of that ‘sales’ stuff. I’ll send out one more from here linking to that then it’ll be monthly for Freelance Feels on Substack.