A lot of people see going “freelance” as scary, or perhaps unattainable. The idea of relying on your own business practice to power your life can seem overwhelming. I get it.
Being a freelancer means patching together a life.
It’s ultimate freedom, and it is also ultimate responsibility for your own meal ticket. Being a freelancer or entrepreneur means you are constantly hustling, it’s true. Running your own business means doing work that you can’t just “leave at the office” at the end of the day. Your work is interwoven into your life and that’s not the right lifestyle for everyone!
Today I’ll share a little bit about my journey to freelance, and some of the key traits I think you need to have to make it work
I’ve never been one for the 9-5 lifestyle.
After all, I grew up with parents who housed our family on a converted school bus and ran their own business enterprises. I was taught from Day One to design a lifestyle that you want to live, and then figure out how to make personal economics support it.
When I went to school I studied theatre, art, social justice, community organizing, and a bunch of other stuff that led me to constantly have a varied schedule and to work a myriad of small, part-time gigs with a lot of different people. I also balanced college and grad school with my myriad of part-time gigs and often worked 60+ hour weeks to fit it all in. Remember that time I wrote about self care? Well, I had to learn that lesson pretty heard.
When I moved to Seattle in August of 2014 I gave up my part-time gigs to take a full-time office job with a small, international nonprofit that kept extremely regular hours (I had to sit at the desk from 9am-5pm, Monday-Friday). I have never been more miserable in my life. You know when you do something and you can immediately tell it’s NOT for you? That was my experience. I would much rather work retail, where I get to walk around all day and interact with people, then have to be chained to a chair.
Although I’m not the type of person to start a job and quit soon thereafter, I put in my notice at this place after 6 months (with no job prospects and no savings account) because I hated what I was doing.
I put in my notice on Friday. On Saturday I went on a hike to Teneriffe Falls in the mountains and got a phone call asking me to interview at Intiman Theatre as their Development Manager.
I took a full-time position with Intiman in February 2015 and thus began the last 3 years of my life! During my time at Intiman I learned an incredible amount about producing professional theatre, social justice and racial equity, and raising money to support all of it.
I learned how to balance budgets and market the arts. After the first few months our Development Director left, and although I was inexperienced, I inherited the entire development department for a 1 million dollar company in partnership with our Artistic Director. It was an incredible chance to roll up my sleeves and learn anything and everything I could. I thrive in challenging environments and it has been an incredible journey.
Over the last 3 years, I also started writing grants on the side to pick up some extra cash from small nonprofits and individual artists. And, I started an artist collective, forming The New Alchemists, LLC with 3 friends (a composer, a videographer and scenic designer, and a playwright).
However, last year was a turning point for me as I had some amazing opportunities: I went to Hawai’i with The New Alchemists for 3 weeks and I spent 2 weeks in July at 2 professional development intensives in art making and civic practice.
I learned a lot from these projects and experiences, and started to feel more and more like I was ready to branch back out on my own in sustainable ways. I put out some feelers, and went down to part-time at Intiman in September 2017. Meanwhile I picked up 3 more grant writing contracts, and a contract directing The Wizard of Oz with 4-5 graders. I kept my feelers out in the world.
Around the same time, one of my contacts from Intiman noticed that I had gone down to part-time and asked why. He had just started Scandiuzzi Krebs, a consulting strategy firm for the arts and wanted to know if I’d like to get involved. I said YES, because I’ve always wanted to be a consultant and that really kicked things off.
In January 2018 I went down to contract with Intiman for a final spring campaign, and picked up a few more small grant contracts. At this point, my roster is booked through September, and many of the clients I am finding are long-term. One of the things I love about what I do is that I get to choose who I work with and what kind of work I support.
In some ways, I think that development and marketing are a bit like superpowers, applied properly they are very effective. To me, it’s important to work with clients that are doing really remarkable work, spending their money well, and setting ambitious goals that will actually transform the community. Some of my clients include: Sawhorse Revolution, The Common Acre, Mini Mart City Park, Ezra Dickinson, and Alice Gosti.
As of April 22, 2018 I will officially be making the break from Intiman Theatre and be 100% contract and freelance. As it turns out, it’s not scary, it’s just a lot of work.
Don’t get me wrong, IT IS AWESOME, that I get to work with AMAZING people every day doing hella inspiring work on issues that I get to pick and choose (my having the freedom to select my clients!).
However, it is also a lot of work. I manage a large work load for each client, and because they pay me a contractor’s fee they expect exceptional quality every single time. I am currently managing deadlines and events for over 10 clients. Keeping track of it is, at times, a nightmare.
There are weeks where I spend so much time meeting with people about my work that I don’t have the time to do the work itself. There are weeks where I spend so much time on contracts that I don’t have the time and space to focus on my creative work with The New Alchemists as Artistic Director.
It’s a constant balance and I’m still figuring things out. Thing like: getting my own health insurance, deciding whether to incorporate a personal LLC/business license, deciding whether I can afford to hire an administrative assistant and if so how to file taxes to pay them legally. Stepping out on my own has given me a whole new array of things to think about and learn.
So let me go back to my first statement: I think that a lot of people see going “freelance” as scary or unattainable. It’s not. But, there are certain things you have to be ready to do every damn day to make it work (at least in my opinion):
(1) You must be okay with your work being woven into your life. There is no way around it, you will not be working a 9-5 schedule. I find that many of my friends are also my collaborators, our conversations effortlessly flowing between work and personal topics. I find that I answer emails and write posts at all hours of the day. I work as much, or as little, as I need to. There is no set rhythm, every week is different. I love it like this, but it’s also the way it goes.
(2) You must genuinely like people quite a lot. If you are going into business for yourself you’ll need to be pretty good at connecting with clients and people who can potentially pay for/buy your service. If your income is reliant on other people wanting what only you can provide, then it’s best to be good at talking to them.
(3) You must be ready to work really, really hard. There is no way around this. I don’t know freelancers who are also slackers. When you run your own business there is literally always something else you could be doing. You have to set boundaries and maintain balance, but you’re not getting anywhere if you aren’t down to work.
(4) You must maintain a flexible mindset. One great thing about a freelance life is that your income is now diversified through many contracts. If you lose one, you still have others to fall back on. However, you will also be managing multiple clients and contracts all at once--you must remain flexible in order to do that and maintain an even keel. People can be flaky, busy, or hard to track down. A great freelancer is positive, professional, and maintains aplomb at all times.
(5) You must be a pleasure to work with. This is key and it goes along with liking people. You are your own business and you need good reviews. I get ALL of my clients via personal recommendations from people I’m already working for. It started with an Intiman colleague recommending me to The Common Acre and it has spread from there. People talk and if you are good at what you do and a pleasure to work with, you’ll get more business. You might even get more than you know what to do with. ;)
I realize that the road to freelance looks radically different for everyone--that’s part of the game.
Still, I hope hearing a little bit about what my process has looked like, and what I believe you have to do to make it work out will spark some thinking of your own. I’d love to talk more with anyone who is interested in making the leap and wants to bounce ideas around! Feel free to reach out and say “hi!”.
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