Many full-time freelancers approach the day with a glass full optimism, that by mid-afternoon depending on the day of the week, drops to a glass half-full. Very normal to feel like this, because when your profession requires you to tell complete strangers how good you are at doing certain stuff, most of the time you do start believe in it. Other times it may feel like your head is bobbling off from the high of your own delusion.

And even though you come with an impressive portfolio, website and references to prove your past success, why does it still feel fake? Why does being a freelancer feel like the constant outsider looking in, just because I don’t have an assigned desk, office supplies I don’t have to budget for and coffee breaks to talk about weekend plans. There have been zoom calls I’ve sat in and during the intros at first team meetings, I am left out on the inside work jokes to feel like a singled out con artist.

Well it took a global pandemic, lay-off’s and a shutdown for me to finally take genuine pride that I was a full-time freelancer. Suddenly overnight an entire independent workforce opened up into the mainstream. The whole world was freelancing in 2020, and I raised my fist up into the air to proclaim that I was here first. A bunch of us were, who were freelancers way before everyone was using Wave for invoicing. It was then during the lockdown that friends who had been laid off from their corporate jobs and had no choice but to come up w/side jobs aka freelancing, but they themselves weren’t confident enough to label it as that and I get it, asked me to hold their worrisome hands through this open space standing over a cliff, that was freelancing. My friend Tara who took on dog walking full-time from 2020 to 2022 and was very successful at it, was by trade an accountant. When it was time to set up shop, she didn’t have the first clue on how to approach for clients or come up with a Squarespace website and logo. Teaching a corporate girl the ways of Squarespace was truly an adorable time for me. Even with her bookkeeping expertise, I tutored her on the best way to send an invoice and more importantly - get paid on time.

etsy art print - work from home — **IVA Art - Work From Home**

It felt good and built up my confidence when people needed my advice and guidance into the business of freelance. The freelance life isn’t for everyone, same as how not every person is cut out to work at a desk in an office from morning until evening. Then I started getting, what’s the word I want to carefully use … perturbed.

No longer feeling like a professional imposter, a con artist that says she’s good at this for this price. But it was getting to be a little too much with the surge in freelancers. Everyone was freelancing thus increasing competitiveness amongst the freelance community. It was much easier when there were only a few freelancers a client had to choose from. Back in May, I felt so dejected after spending a good week polishing up a stunning (imo) proposal for a brand, who of course seemed so excited for an opportunity to work together (they always do don’t they), and then a week later to be told that they were going with someone else. And I thought who, why. Grrlll.

Before and during the pandemic were probably my peak freelance years. The landscape was clean with just the right amount of ambitious, creative, thoughtful, hungry and at times collaborative freelancers. I’ve had to be more resilient and innovative in how I present myself, because it took time for me to realize that there is a younger generation freelancing out there. I don’t want to be the boomer freelancer, so I go on TikTok and see what the new kids are doing, learn new slangs, abbrevs, pretty much making sure I haven’t fallen behind any newfangled buzzwords or culture vultures. And of course I still hold true to some of the few ways I count as freelance survival tips:

belong to a community

It’s not that deep. Find something of interest and commit to being a part of it whether it’s an arts club, bookclub, a community garden or environmental cleanup group. Always make time to be offline with a group of people, not only does it enhance your general knowledge of different things, but you can possibly meet a future client somewhere in that community either directly or as a referral.