My Freelance New Year's Resolutions

This year I got a new job which enabled me to work slightly less hours, and therefore get started on my freelance career. I’ll be honest and say that although it was my intention to channel my creativity into doing what I love – writing, it had felt for a while that maybe this was a bit of unrealistic dream. As I said in my Reflections on my First 6 Months of Freelancing post, I didn’t think I would have much work for a while! I feel very blessed to have this time and I’ve loved the opportunities I’ve had this year.

1.       Next year I’d like to expand the kind of work I do. Obviously writing is my ‘first love’ and that’s the work I enjoy doing most, but expanding what I can do will hopefully also expand my list of clients. As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve always wanted to try and have many strings to my bow!

2.       Speaking of expanding my client list, next year I’m going to start doing more self-promotion. It actually makes me feel a bit nauseous thinking about this, and I always felt like it was a bit self-indulgent to share what I was working on or keep talking about what I do, but I’m going to have to get over myself if I want to do more work!

3.       I want to get myself branded up! At the moment I feel like I am plodding on as a lone wolf occasionally saying ‘I’m a part time Freelance Writer’ when people ask what I do. But I want it to be clear what I do and for my business (surreal!) to be recognisable.

4.       I’d like to meet more people. I love and really thrive from meeting people and being around people, so I want to see what I can do for them! I went to my first networking session this week and it was great. I’ve always been passionate about small businesses so I hope I can promote more of them through my work in 2020.

See you in 2020!

Reflections on my first 6 months of freelancing

It’s been six months since I first started freelancing part time. I’m really enjoying it and feel very blessed to be in this position. Here are my reflections on the last six months…

• People’s reactions – Freelancing seems to have this weird perception of being a phantom job.  ‘Have a nice long weekend! ‘You don’t work Fridays do you?’ Actually yes, sometimes I work many hours on a Friday! I’m also my own Accounts department, Marketing team and boss!

• Having said that I love the flexibility I have, particularly at the moment. I can move things around so I don’t have to fit appointments in around my Monday-Thursday job and plans on the weekend. I also love a breakfast or lunch date to remind me to actually take a break.

• I love working exactly how I like to work. Usually this is with the radio blaring or from the garden in the summer!

• Negotiating rates for your work is difficult when you have little self-worth – it can be tempting to be like ‘I’m shit! Don’t worry I’ll do it for free!'

• Quantity and Quality - I’ve actually had more work than I thought I would at this stage and I’m loving it. I love the variety too – I’ve written about everything from garages to self-care!

• Adding another string to my bow - I’m really interested in people that have many strings to their bow, and always wanted to be one of them. So I love being able to say ‘I do this Monday-Thursday and Freelance on Fridays’. Emma Gannon (a real inspiration to me!) writes about this in her book The Multi Hyphen Method – which is on my Christmas list!

• It’s all down to me, which is a pretty scary concept in some respects, but in others, if I don’t get what I need to done, the only person it will effect is me. This weirdly motivates and calms me! Having worked in really toxic environments before, it’s great to have complete control. I’ve also got the security of my Monday-Thursday job so there’s not too much pressure at the moment, although of course I’d love to do more freelance days in the future.

Do you have any advice for me on my freelance journey? Let me know!

Or maybe you even want to work with me! Contact me here.

Look out for my blog post in January to find out my Freelance New Year’s Resolutions!

5 Ways To Support a Friend Struggling With Their Mental Health

It can be easy to feel helpless or out of your depth with a friend who is experiencing a difficult time with their mental health. I’ve put together a few tips on the ways you can be a better friend to someone whatever they’re going through.

DISCLAIMER: I have drawn from my own experience for this blog post, so therefore it will predominately be centred around depression and anxiety. Although I like to think a lot of these tips are quite transferable to other mental health issues.

1. Let them know you’re there, regardless of what state they are in. Don’t forget about them or make them feel forgotten about. When a person doesn’t feel worthy or deserving of anything, feeling isolated doesn’t help either. Just a little text can make all the difference. I also don’t think we should be afraid of asking straight out, ‘How’s your mental health at the moment?’. Fighting a mental health battle can be a really lonely place, and they might feel like they are lowering the tone in a conversation if they bring it up, so give your friend an opportunity to be honest.

2. Make the effort – My friend Jem tags me and sends me inspiring pictures on Instagram, she does this most days and it’s such a great little pick me up. I know she’s thinking of me, and it helps without me having to do anything. When I was in the midst of depression and felt really low, my sister took me out to get my nails done. She would also make sure we booked things in so that I always had things to look forward to and kept busy. Personally this helps my mental health massively. Sometimes it’s the little things that aren’t necessarily to do with mental health at all that help the most. You don’t have to be a mental health professional to have an impact!

3. That being said, let them know they can be honest with you. Mental Health is the ultimate expert at disintegrating any kind of energy and self-worth. Let them know that their feelings are valid, even if you disagree with their thoughts. Be a sounding board for them and try not to talk about yourself too much. Ask them how you can help them, but be prepared that they might not have an answer, sometimes it feels overwhelming when you don’t even know how to help yourself, let alone advising someone else how to do it.

4. Keep checking in on them. Don’t assume they are ‘all better’ because they seem a bit happier or more confident. Whilst these are definitely things to celebrate, even depressed and anxious people can have good days, and sometimes we can appear ‘up’ around others, but things return to normal once we are alone with our thoughts.

5. Make sure you look after yourself too. As Ed Sheeran says (I think lyrics must be one of my love languages!) ‘Before I save someone else, I’ve got to save myself’ – and this is super important! Be mindful of your own mental health, and whilst I’ve stated the importance of making the effort, remember that you can only do so much.

I also recommend checking out Blurt for more info and resources on mental health.