Do it yourself
When I started Writing Roads, and I started hawking my services, almost across the board, people asked me for the same thing: my portfolio. They wanted to see my work. I know, it’s shocking.
I knew I could write. I knew I could write for them. But I didn’t have anything that I could show them in the way of a portfolio per se. And that seemed impossible to me. I’d been writing my whole life – how could I not have any writing samples?
There was a moment where I thought, ‘Shit! I’m stuck in the classic Catch-22. I need a job to get writing samples, but I need writing samples to get a job.’ I felt dependent and a bit hopeless. I’d thought this was all going to be so easy – people would need good writing and I would write for them, goodly. All I needed was my computer and my brain. But now, with the writing sample roadblock, I was convinced that I needed other people to make my life as a copywriter begin.
I hate when that happens. It can be paralyzing. But really, it’s just an excuse not to move forward – born of the fear of taking a risk and the possibility of being great. Which is why I was thrilled when I saw that there was another way.
I cobbled the pieces together in my brain like this:
- I’m a writer.
- I’m trying to prove that I’m creative.
- I’m trying to prove that, as a freelancer, I can be responsible and self-manage.
- I have absolutely nothing to lose.
- I have a computer – and I know how to use it. (just like I’d said before, I was just going to use it for me first and then for my clients)
So in a stunning show of non-procrastination and verve, I gave myself twenty writing assignments. And then – and here’s the kicker – I completed them! I made the whole thing up. I wrote ads, I wrote sales letters, I wrote press releases, I wrote web copy, I wrote marketing letters. And I put them in a lovely black binder.
I also told potential clients what I’d done. I wasn’t about to start out under false pretenses. This was me - love me or I’ll leave you. I figured one of two things could happen:
- They’d respect it and jive with the gumption. And this would be good.
- They’d think I wasn’t for real and judge the fact that I didn’t have ‘real’ samples. And I wouldn’t want to work with those kinds of people anyway.
Most of them hired me. And I slowly replaced my made-up pieces with actual client work. Though I kept a few in there…for posterity.
I’m thinking about how often we don’t do things because we think we need something outside of ourselves to complete the task. I’m thinking about how often we wait for someone to come through and do their part before we can take our next step. I’m thinking about dependency. I’m thinking about self-sufficiency.
Is there anything – right now – that you’re not doing or finishing or starting because you think you need someone or something else to help you? Why in the world are you doing that? I bet there’s another way.
Image credit: newwavegurly (those are not my feet, but I do have and love those shoes)
Controlled Burning
The other morning when I was rollerblading through the woods, the most horrid smell entered my nose. Like burnt hair or, I don’t even know what, it was just bad. Which was when I realized that a good portion of the woods and brush beside the path had been incinerated. About a mile long, there was a charred patch about 20 feet deep. And then it stopped.
When I turned the corner, so that I had a side view of the burnt patch, I looked for some sort of clue as to how the fire had been contained. I assumed that I’d see a wall of sand…or steel or something.
But there was just the thinnest sandy dirt path. In most places, it was only a few inches wide – grass and brush seconds away on the other side.
And I thought, is that all it took to stop that fire’s burning and raging and all consuming flames?
Huh. Wimpy fire.
Your fire’s bolder and brighter than that, right?
Image credit: Sister72
The more
One of my clearest childhood memories is walking home from school one day when I was in the fourth grade. We were lucky to live one house away from the school grounds, so my walk consisted of about a half block – past the playground and its huge black-top, then past the little preschool building, then past our neighbor’s house with the huge lions guarding their front door that I loved to ride. And then I was home.
But on this day I remember so well, the walk took forever. It was torrentially pouring and lightening and thundering (my mom reads this blog, so feel free to berate her for not helping me get home safely). It also happened to be Passover. And I was convinced that this rain storm I could hardly see through was one of the plagues.
I knew then how tough it was to be a chosen people.
Twenty-six years and Seders later, I sat down last night with my family and friends on another rainy night to celebrate rebirth and spring (did you know that while Rosh Hashanah is the celebration of the new year, Passover is actually the anniversary of creation? I just found that out and it makes perfect sense, though I’ve still got my money on evolution) and to remember the hardships of slavery my ancestors endured in Egypt.
The leader of our Seder asked the children (ages 3 – 16) if they thought slavery was a thing of the past or if they thought it still existed. Of course they thought it was ancient history and made cracks about being enslaved by their parents, they live privileged lives on a picture perfect island. The adults all acknowledged that slavery still existed, but we were stunned by what she told us next.
According to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (and many other sources I confirmed with online):
Slavery still exists today. Whether it is called human trafficking, bonded labor, forced labor, or sex trafficking, it is present worldwide, including within the United States and, increasingly, in your local community.
An estimated 12 – 27 million people are caught in one or another form of slavery. Between 600,000 and 800,000 are trafficked internationally, with as many as 17,500 people trafficked into the United States. Nearly three out of every four victims are women. Half of modern-day slaves are children.
Passover has always been my favorite holiday – and not just for the wine and the macaroons and the leg of lamb. It’s a holiday based on telling stories and asking questions; in effect, reviewing the past and wondering in the present how we can make the future better. And every year, every single year, I learn something new and walk away more aware, more ready…
Everything is relative, you know. Even slavery. Many of us here are slaves to our work, to our creative minds, to our relationships, to our writing, to our paychecks, to our government, to our HMOs. But is a young girl held against her will and made to do vile things and not fed more than a crust of bread worse off than me as I chain myself to contracts and my distracted mind that just can’t focus some days. Hell yes.
And maybe that realization can help me free myself…to do more, be more, give more, produce more, act more, live more. Just more.
Image credit: goto10
Filed under How To, Myth or Reality | Tags: copywriter, copywriting, family, freelancer, freelancing, learning, rosh hashanah, Writing | Comments (4)What’s security anyway?
I got a phone call yesterday afternoon. Well, first I got a message via LinkedIn requesting the call, then I got the call.
It was from a recruiter. Offering a very (very) high paid job at a company in Boston. For those of you who read this blog regularly and saw yesterday’s post, you can join me in a good laugh here: the position was to create and manage the social media department – wait for it – for a PR firm.
I know. As an old friend used to say, you just can’t make this stuff up.
It turned out that the job wasn’t right for me, the company’s looking for someone with strong social media experience and hands-on programming experience (HTML, Javascript, AJAX, XML, etc.) Which would be like asking me if I could write and do chemistry…which I couldn’t, can’t and, quite frankly, won’t. (If this is YOU, let me know and I’ll guide you right to this recruiter!!! And don’t let the Boston thing scare you, they’re even willing to pay for relo.)
Even though that particular job wasn’t for me, we got to talking – and said recruiter was very excited about what it is that I do, how I do it and why I do it. To be honest, I was excited about my answers too. And this confirmed that it would be sorta hard to woo me away from my present situation – owning my own company, being my own boss, freelancing and the randomness that comes with it.
Let’s be honest.
An actual job has some things going for it: a steady paycheck, health insurance, VACATION TIME, SICK TIME sorry – I’m back, I think I just fainted for a minute there.
But, and it’s a big BUT – how secure would this job really be? As it stands, my success is entirely dependent on me. It’s a lot of pressure, but at least it’s mine. I do well when I work hard, seize opportunity, smear my gumption all over people…and things like that. I do poorly when I don’t do those things. And I have no one to blame but myself. Really. Even if I get screwed over or let down by a client, it’s up to me whether I cry about it and sling responsibility (and we all deserve at least 5 minutes of this) or whether I just get up and go find another one, a better one. Companies fold all the time or it’s just not a good fit or…there are so many things that could make this opportunity crumble.*
So, what I told her was, “Of course, I’ll send my resume, but:
- I’d be more interest in working as a contractor,
- Or as a consultant,
- Or on a special project for a few weeks to several months,
- And I’d need to telecommute,
- But I’d be happy to travel in on a regular basis.”
I’m not closing any doors. If a job-job came along that was just perfect (and had a sizable signing bonus), I would heavily consider it. As always, there is no definitive path…but there’s a helluva lot of excitement and possibility.
What about you? If you had your choice, would you go it alone or pull your chair up to a cubicle?
*I’m really not a pessimist. The other night, a loud truck with flashing lights woke me up in the middle of the night – my first and only thought was, why are they cleaning the streets at this hour? When, in fact and of course, it was a snowplow and we were in the middle of a snowstorm on March 1st. I think this is a sign of my deeply embedded optimism. (Which is why, for now, I’m putting my chips on Writing Roads.)
Image credit: Lokner
Filed under Social Media, The Business | Tags: copywriter, copywriting, freelance writer, freelancer, freelancing, marketing writer, social media, social media consultant, social media strategist | Comments (23)Twitter? Big Brother? No One Cares?
Ah, Twitter. It’s an amazing marketing tool. It’s a bastion of information. It’s so much fun.
I advise my clients, colleagues and friends to use it. I teach workshops on its extraordinary benefits. It seems to be taking over the popular world (I mean Ellen’s on Twitter now.). ‘Everyone’s’ on it. Which is great….I think.
Twitter – and having everyone you know use it and follow you can also cause some interesting issues.
When your clients are following you – and you’re hanging out for 15 minutes or so in the middle of the day waxing poetic with your tweeps about bonobos, chocolate, WordPress, American Idol, hotdog sandwiches or any other fascinating subject – and your clients are watching, what happens? I can see it going a variety of ways:
- They join in on your conversation.
- They watch closely and learn from you how to have fun and engage on Twitter.
- They’re pissed that you aren’t working on their project.
- They thought you were too busy to get something done asap and are wondering how you have time to tweet at all.
- They are paying absolutely no attention to you, whatsoever.
What an interesting little predicament we’ve gotten ourselves into, eh?
Of course, we’re each entitled to spend our days how we choose as long as we get our work done – but suddenly people can look over our shoulders. (Interestingly, this is exactly what I sought to escape when I left the world of having a boss. You too?) And, it’s weird. Maybe you don’t think anything of this – maybe, wait for it, I’m paranoid and packed full of Jewish guilt!
‘Cause we’re allowed to spend some of our day marketing, right? And we can stop working while we eat lunch, right? And, Twitter has become paramount to our business visibility. And some days are super productive and some aren’t. And we can’t work 24/7/52/365 – or can we? Should we be expected to? After all, the internet never turns off, you know. And my Blackberry gets email all day and all night and doesn’t care for the concept of Saturday.
FYI, turns out my new boss is a relentless slave driver. I’m about to report her to the authorities – but if I sent myself to Mean Boss Jail, who would get all of this work done?
Your thoughts? How do we balance the transparency?
Image by Gerlos
Filed under How To, Social Media, The Business | Tags: business owner, client relations, client relationships, freelancer, Julie Roads, privacy, social media, Twitter, Writing Roads | Comments (12)great, you’ll learn it again tomorrow.
As a writer, I spend, well – let’s see -I’m going to guess 99% of my time in my head. That would be as opposed to the 65% I used to spend in my body before I had children, when I was young and free, and a diehard yoga practitioner and teacher at Kripalu Center.
And, I’ve got to say, I don’t think it’s particularly healthy to spend this amount of time in one’s head. Which was part of my reason for my barter arrangement with Mr. Pilates.
So, we’re on one of the machines, practicing a skill (that involves my lower abdomen burning in time to my rhythmic breath), and suddenly I feel myself click down into my body. The skill and movement I’m doing suddenly feel natural. I’m there. I get it. And I say so.
Mr. Pilates replies, “Great. You’ll learn it again tomorrow.”
I love this. Whether it’s body or mind, work or life, I find this to be true. How many times have I learned the same lesson, over and over and over again. Every day is different, every client is different, every situation is different, every day my body is different. And so, those aha moments keep coming.
There is no end to the learning…thank goodness.
Filed under Myth or Reality | Tags: , blog, Blogging, copywriting, freelancer, Julie Roads, marketing writer, pilates, Writing Roads | Comment (0)email & web 2.0 obsession
I’m going to do my damnedest to write this entire post without being wooed away by the buzzes and beeps of my email, Skype, Twitter (and on and on) accounts. If I can do it (oh no, there’s an email now!), you all owe me $5.
Does anyone else have this problem? (oh! another one! This is painful.) I’m trying to write a post, an article, a website – and my email is beeping at me, my phone is buzzing at me, Twitter is tweeting at me, Facebook is dinging at me. The desire to go running to each of these calls is immense. It’s my curiousity…and just a wee bit of ADD. But, all in all, it’s pretty classifiable as an addiction – I jones for the information behind the techno alert, literally. I get high off the fast pace set by my fingers, eyes and brain as I cruise from page to page on my browser and from app to app on my computer.
I’m completely convinced that if I could do what many experts, like Tim Ferriss and Stephen Covey, suggest, I would be much more productive. I’m already pretty gosh darn effective, so just imagine what I could get done in a single hour, let alone a day, if I just stayed put?!
They recommend, in their own ways, that you only check these connective activities 2-3 times PER DAY. And that you schedule these times and stick to the schedule. Whoa….the willpower that would take.
I’m making a pros and cons list:
Pros of only checking email, Twitter, phone, etc. 2-3 times per day
- Increase in productivity
- Greater concentration
- Calmer atmosphere
- Calmer mind (unless I’ve gone mad wondering what I’m missing)
- Less distraction
Cons of only checking email, Twitter, phone, etc. 2-3 times per day
- What if Oprah emails me and says I only have one hour to get back to her, but I’m not due to check my email for another 3 hours?
- I’m already shaking, and I’ve only been practicing this for 15 minutes
- Back to #1, what if I miss something really important?
- I’ll miss the frenetic pace of moving here, here, here and here – in moments.
- By the time I get to check my email, there will be a billion stacked up.
Hmmmmm….this is very interesting. Although every fiber in my being doesn’t want to go to the 2-3 times per day schedule, my only real reasons for staying with my current practices are my addiction and this completely 8th grade fear that I’m going to miss out on something.
If you read the two lists, you can see that the pros list reads slower, more peacefully, it’s almost elegant. The cons list reads like Chicken Little on crack and with an exaggeration problem. I didn’t do that on purpose – I just reread what I wrote and it became painfully clear.
Maybe I’ll try it for a week…but I’ll have to warn all of my clients because they’re used to immediate feedback. Can the world really wait 3 hours for me? This is insanity. You are all witness to a madwoman. And what about meetings? Will I have to schedule my meetings around my email checking times?
Listen, for all of you snickering out there, I don’t eat white sugar or flour, I don’t drink, smoke or do drugs, I’m terrified of internet porn (just look what happened to Duchovny), my 2 year-olds make knitting impossible….this online, internet, emailing mass of activity is my vice (and, funny enough, my profession).
FYI, there have been 20 Twitter updates, 8 emails, 2 phonecalls and 8 Facebook updates in the 30 minutes I’ve been working on this post…and I never veered off the page. And, will you look at that, I feel pretty calm, pretty good. I can check this task off my list.
Eureka! Maybe my own personal answer is this: it doesn’t have to be 2-3 times per day, but I have to abstain per each project. I like that. I’ll get each project done with total concentration, no distractions. My reward is a check into my online social/work world. Nothing will get too backed up (which would only cause further stress.)
I’m psyched and I’m officially starting now…oh, and you all owe my $5.
Anyone else dealing with this? Any good or proven bad solutions?
Filed under Critical Copywriting, How To, Networking | Tags: copywriting, email, freelancer, Julie Roads, marketing writer, online social networks, time management, Writing Roads | Comments (8)
