How To...Transition to Freelance

Everyone's path is different. Here are some tips and preemptive things to start thinking of as you begin to transition.

0:47 Everyone's Biggest Fear

1:40 What should do in your FREETIME

4:38 Save some $

5:50 Set Up Your Profiles

7:59 Wrapping Up

Links mentioned in this episode:
Alex Fasulo's "Freelance Fairytales"
Fivver
UpWork
Revolancer
Legit
PeoplePerHour

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Chapters

• 0:47 Everyone's Biggest Fear
• 1:40 What should do in your FREETIME
• 4:38 Save some $
• 5:50 Set Up Your Profiles
• 7:59 Wrapping Up

Transcript

00:08
Catherine
Hello there. My name is Catherine and I am 23 years old, working as a full time freelancer in the media and entertainment industry. And welcome to the How I Diaries podcast. I'm here to debunk all your fears and doubts surrounding the topic of freelancing and more importantly, get you on your way to a happy and stress free lifestyle doing the creative passion that you love.

00:20
So if you find yourself stuck at a job you hate, wondering how to get your dream started prior to freelancing before you're skeptical about what it entails. I'm sharing everything I wish I knew earlier and the tips and tricks I gain every day for my own freelance work. I'm hoping today's episode is what gets people, you know, moving and groovin with taking matters into their own hands.

00:30
The biggest fear factor when it comes to this whole lifestyle is how do you do the hard part? What about the choke hold all of our individual financial responsibilities have on all of us? Don't worry. I know I got you. Baby steps are okay. And that's the route that I personally took right off the bat. I'm going to suggest some other episodes to give you the full range of advice you need in order to start freelancing.

01:00
I have an episode on How to design your life, which is it's based on a book that I'm currently reading, and it gives you a couple exercises to really narrow down or figure out what you want to do and freelance. I also have an episode on how to overcome imposter syndrome and even more specific, which I get the question a lot of how to create stability.

01:20
So paired with this one, you've got the holy trio or how I know you know the holy package of tips. But anyway, here we go into this episode. The biggest thing with this transition is I'm not going to sugarcoat it. You know, it does take a decent amount of effort, but the trade off is obviously amazing. And the whole idea is that you will be doing work that actually sparks joy.

01:40
So just always remind yourself about that. The time you spend on your phone before bed, before you leave for work, after you get home, you know, all are all opportunities to spend 15 to 30 minutes getting your transition organized. This can and should include but are not limited to figuring out your income and expenses. You have to be aware of your current financial situation through and through.

01:55
This is huge because as long as you know all the info inside and out, you're going to be able to plan accordingly and not let it stop you from transitioning fully over. You can also start looking into insurance plans for freelancing and begin educating yourself on taxes for freelancers. As a 23 year old, I can tell you this is a scary topic, but honestly, a lot easier than I thought.

02:03
My go to tax information is the YouTube channel called Keeper Tax. I'll link them in the show notes and they also have a service that I pay for, for, you know, all organizing deductions and all of that stuff. I have another episode on, you know, budgeting and stuff like that, so go check that out. As far as insurance currently, I am still able to say under my parents, but I am proactively educating and researching for when the time comes to start paying for my own because it is going to be soon, you know, and it'll creep up on me before I know it.

02:53
I'm sure something else you can do in that 15 to 30 minutes a day is begin browsing freelance opportunities for your respective craft. You know, get ahead of the game and see what kind of market is out there and even start opening your services to more things. Research is so much more important than you may think. Get on Fiverr.

03:08
Upwork Revolt, prevalence or rebalance or and look at what other people are doing. You can make a list of ideas for services you can offer and challenge yourself to think outside of that box, to. For example, if you're a painter, here's a random list of things you can do side hustles and yes, all at the same time. So you can sell original work, commissioned work for small businesses, murals, teach art classes, do caricatures, slides, portrait tours, concept artist, gallery attendant and art.

03:37
Pay for film sets, prop departments for film sets, tutorials, affiliate links for lists of supplies that you use. You know, the list really goes on. If you start thinking about it in a different way and think about the skills that you have and how they can apply to a lot of different things if you're having trouble and need help.

03:58
Idea some ideas for work you can do in your respective interests. Feel free to do me on Instagram. I'm like weirdly good at thinking about like all the things that are in certain scopes of creativity and like art and stuff like that. So please, we can workshop it together. I'd be very, very, very happy to help. You can find me at how I diaries on Instagram, but yeah, don't discredit that 15 to 30 minutes a day.

04:21
It really can add up over the course of a week and a month, you know, etc. And hopefully, since this is ideally something that you enjoy, you should enjoy putting effort into something like this. Another route, which is sort of what I went for, was saving up money, the job that I hated, and then leaving with all that money saved and a steady and flexible part time job that I still do currently, it's my gig as a piano teacher on the weekends.

04:50
The money I saved was a blanket in case things didn't take off as fast as I was needing, which I didn't actually end up needing. And now I just have extra savings. So when. When I know you hate the job you're currently out, or just your current life situation, but a part time job doing something more related to your interests could really help.

05:03
Again, if you're having difficulties thinking of places Demi and we can think about things together and listen. I love teaching piano, but it definitely isn't something I see myself doing full time, etc. But it gives me stability and technically my contract is still 1099. Same with dog walking and the pet care stuff I do, but even a part time job at the grocery store you shop, it can sometimes be better than where you are now.

05:24
You know, it gives you flexibility to really nosedive into what you want to be doing. So maintaining an income, usually not as many strings attached, and it gives you a discount on one of your monthly expenses. But I recommend the part time job route after you've spent time thinking about what you want to do and freelance and you know, it's like a next step in your transition.

05;50
Another thing that only takes a few minutes is actually set up your freelancing profiles. I will link all of the ones I'm familiar with in the show notes, but there's Fiverr, Upwork, Riva Lancer, Robert Lancer. I don't really know how to pronounce it. Sorry, legit people per hour. I know I'm missing a lot, but you can also do a simple internet search for freelancing job board and be on your way.

06:13
I currently still am working on building my own fiber and other freelancing profiles just because fortunately I have been kept busy by my other paying things. But I am actively building my next wave of income. I go more into depth about that in my stability episode. But yeah, like I mentioned in one of my other episodes too, about how I find jobs, go join those Facebook groups, go make an account on staff up and look for gigs you can work on on your off days, you know, listen to podcasts, you know, organize your portfolio, work on your portfolio.

06:40
So many things can be done while you are still working at the job that you hate. It just all depends how badly you want to start living your happy life and the effort you are willing to put in. The more effort you put in, the faster you'll be putting in your two week. And again, there is no time limit.

07:02
Do what is most comfortable for you, but also remember to push yourself outside your comfort zone. My personal timeline was January 2021 to March 2022, and not that if you ask me, I went from settling into my new apartment and life in New York City, January to July, July through October. I was working seven days a week at a recording studio.

07:26
I was unemployed from October to December, then at the corporate production company I hated from January to March more about the specific sort of my timeline in my episode about how I became a freelancer. But all during that time I was figuring out what I wanted to do with my life. And it wasn't until October 2021 that I realized I wanted to take the freelancing thing seriously as a career that could sustain me.

07:56
And I'm happy of the path that I took. And now all I want to do is help other people who were in the same boat as I was. Take it for me, you can do it. The options and routes you can take are limitless. The options and routes you can take are limitless. So just step outside of your comfort zone.

08:04
So that is it for this episode. And if this reaches you and you have any burning questions or stories, I'd be happy to use this as an outlet to connect and build a community. What is your relationship with this topic? Are you up an Instagram DME on on where you're at in your transition at how I diaries and we can chat in the meantime go binge all my other episodes for various other topics relating on how to get started doing what you love and please any episode recommendations I'd love to hear.

08:39
So let me know what your particular struggles are. I can guarantee you you're probably not alone. Please subscribe to this podcast so you stay up to date when I post the next batch, give it a rating, share with a friend who also needs to listen. I post five new episodes at the end of each month, so stay tuned and thank you for listening.