Six-Month Review: Freelance Life

In June, I was forcibly thrusted into the freelance lifestyle. While I was 100% against it at the time, I'm only 50% against it now. Here's what I've learned so far.

Yes, this is a list. But it's a fun/educational list. Kinda like a TED talk in list form. 

1. You've got to hustle. There's not a day when I'm not checking LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and even Craigslist to see what's out there. That doesn't necessarily mean that I'm actively looking for my next job, but I better know what the landscape is like out there when I am ready to take my next gig. 
    
2. Get a recruiter. They're amazingly helpful. They make getting to the interview way easier. It's not all moonbeams and rainbows though. They can cut down on your take home a bit, but they also get you in front of the right people. Good with the bad. Right?
    
3. Never say no to an interview. This is just good general advice. Conversations are free and you never know what they might lead to. Example, I was approached by my recruiters for an opportunity at T-Mobile. At first, I wanted to say no. I didn't want to drive to Bellevue, but then I remembered to never say no. It turned out being an incredible interview and led to my next opportunity to work on their new digital creative team.
    
4. Act like you belong. Yes, you're a freelancer. You're charging crazy hourly rates that your friends don't understand and you can work from anywhere with an internet connection and a power outlet. So fancy. But still. Act like you belong to whatever company you're working with. No one likes it when a freelancer treats their temporary opportunity as temporary. No one cares how good you are you won't be invited back if you act like a temporary employee.
    

5. Your name means something. To piggyback off my last point, when people think of Jason Cahill, I want them to think I am a good writer AND an awesome coworker. Someone they would love to have on their team. So when any copywriting opportunity comes up, they'll think, "Oh man, Jason was both good AND a joy to be around. Let's give him a call and give him this here bucket of money to work with us." At least that's what I assume those conversations are like. 

6. Health insurance. One of the shittier parts of freelancing is buying your own health insurance. Our current administration isn't helping either. But I don't want to get political, just get used to paying upwards of $250 a month for comparable health insurance. 

7. Know your worth. A question I get from a lot of my friends and coworkers is, "How do you decide your hourly rates?" Well, I did a shit ton of research. Based on my experience, my market, the going rate for freelancers with roughly the same qualifications. When you figure all that out, ask for more. Money is a negotiation, you can always ask for more. The worst they can say is no.  

8. Taxes. This depends a lot on the type of freelance position you accept. Some take out the taxes for you, some don't. It just depends. However, if the company doesn't pay taxes for you a good rule is to set aside 20%. I know the tax situation right now is a bit of a mess, but 20% should keep you fed and out of trouble with the IRS. 

9. Save for that rainy day. Since we are talking about money, you should save for that rainy day (or month). In my experience, freelance life is feast or famine. So while you're setting aside 20% for taxes, also put some away for that month that you don't quite break even. It could save you from having to ask your parents for money. And none of us want to do that. 

10.  Ride a motorcycle. I'm out of things to say, but this is just a good way to get around town and gets rid of the headache of finding parking.

 So that's my six-month review. It's been fun and annoying all at the same time. My advice to anyone looking to make the jump into freelance is, if you can do it, do it.

It's been a fun six months. I'm looking forward to the next six. 

Give a shit.

Whenever you meet someone new, one of the first things they'll ask is always, "So what do you do?" 

I actually kinda hate this question. Because all my conversations go like this: 

Person: So, what do you do? 

Me: Oh, I'm a copywriter. 

Person: (blank stare) So... what does that mean. 

Me: Oh, um to sum it up quickly I work in advertising and branding. So, I work with the design teams to create ad/brand concepts and then I write all the words that appear in that brands advertising or marketing messages.

Person: Oh, you work in marketing! So... like, why? 

Excellent question random stranger! 

If you want to know why I love it, we'll have to go all the way back to 2007. I was a junior in High School taking AP English with the hardest teacher in school, Ms. Loretta Funk. She was renown for giving a lot of really fucking difficult assignments and being a hard ass about it. 

I did not excel in AP English. I kinda just stuck around in the middle of the pack. My grades were fine. I understood the assignments, but I really didn't care. And she could tell. 

So, one day after talking about The Scarlet Letter all period she asked me to stick around after class for a moment.

I'll let my good friend Eminem explain what I was going through in that moment, "Palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy, there's vom..."

No Eminem! I did not vomit. I was just nervous.  

Anyways, I walked up to Ms. Funk and just looked at her. I couldn't even start to speak. 

She asked me if she knew why I was asked me to stick around for a second. I was so nervous I could barely shake my head. But I managed a slight shake. 

She sat down on the edge of her teacher desk in that cool way that supposed to disarm the student. She looked me directly in the eyes. And for the longest moment in the history of the world, I was just staring into the eyes of the most fear teacher in school. I think I died. 

Then she leaned in a little and just said, "I need you to start giving a shit Jason." 

I tried nodding. I wanted to leave so my heart could start beating again. 

Then she did me the single biggest favor anyone has ever done for me. Sort of.

We were supposed to write a report about The Scarlet Letter and have it turned in the following week. As is tradition with book reports, no one was looking forward to that. 

She asked me if I had started working on that yet. 

I lied and nodded. 

She said, excellent. In addition to that book report, I was to turn in a one-page paper. I could write about anything I wanted to write about. It didn't matter, she just wanted me to give a shit about what I was working on. 

So, in addition to a book report about the Scarlet Letter, I turned in a poem. 

I wish I kept it, but I know it wasn't very good.

But in my heart, it's what I wanted to write. I got a B on the book report, and while my poem wasn't technically graded she told me she would have given me a B+ on it, but she was just happy that I gave a shit and gave it my best effort. 

So, why am I a copywriter? Because I give a shit about writing. Beacuse I like solving problems with creativity and cleverness. Because I love words. Because if I did anything else, I'd be a big ball of grumpy. 

The Ultimate Guide to Unemployment

I've been laid off twice in my career so that basically makes me an expert at unemployment. Here are a few things I've found to be helpful when you find yourself unemployed. 

Be Sad, but be Civil

You've just found out that your job is "letting you go." Your mind is racing. You're thinking about your severance. You want to know how much you're going to get and when you're gonna get it. You're wondering why you have been forsaken. And you're just really fucking sad. All of that is perfectly reasonable and expected, but you have to realize that there is a human person sitting right in front of you. Often times they didn't make this decision, they're just the bearer of bad news. So be nice to that person and every person you talk to on the way out the door. Thank them for the opportunity and shake their hand. Don't burn any bridges. These people are usually the ones who help you get your next job. 

Take your time

Day one of unemployment is THE WORST. You're used to your routine and now you have all this extra free time. While you might want to jump right back into work and start leaning on your contacts and applying for jobs just wait a little while. Clean up your house. Go for a hike. Do something you normally wouldn't. As Americans, I know we rarely take the time to enjoy the world we live in. Take this time to enjoy life. Sleep in a bit longer than you usually would. Go meet new people. Relax. Everything will be okay, I promise. 

Update Your Book

I work in the creative side of advertising (that's why you're reading this on my fancy website). As a creative type, I can tell you we all need a portfolio to showcase our work. If the job you have doesn't require you to have a portfolio feel free to ignore this advice.

Okay, now that it's just us creatives, isn't our job awesome?! We really have the best job in the world. I often find myself giggling while writing because I can't believe I'm being paid for this. Anywhoo, update your book. You're going to be applying for jobs and you want to make sure you have everything in there that you've worked on. 

Budget. Budget. Budget

Oh yeah, that weird money thing. You really have to figure out how you're going to financially survive for the next few months. If you're lucky enough your company gave you some sort of severance package, which usually can help out with your expenses. My advice is to go on unemployment. The stigma kinda sucks, but they'll literally pay you to find a job. And (at least in Texas) you can collect unemployment while collecting your severance because they don't count severance as income. So there, you just got a raise. You're welcome. 

Finding a job is your new job

Yup. You don't have to spend 8+ hours a day looking for work, but this is a good way to frame it mentally. If you make finding a job your job you'll spend more time doing it, you'll research new opportunities, you'll reach out to your contacts and connections, you'll scour LinkedIn and other job boards and you'll just all around be better at it. 

Netflix can be your friend, but not your best friend

It's usually around day 5 or 6 that you are just sick of not having anything to do, so you decide to hop on Netflix and see if you can distract yourself for a few hours. That's fine, but don't fall into the Netflix trap. It will ruin your productivity and probably make you even sadder. There are only so many times you can binge watch Parks and Rec before it becomes a cry for help. 

Keep your mind & body active

This is some muy importante advice. It's so easy to just fall into a rut of feeling sorry for yourself and rewatching David Spade movies.

Keep your mind active by writing, drawing, learning a new language (see what I did there), reading books and challenging yourself to think differently. If you don't want to do any of those things you can easily keep your mind active by keeping your body active. Run, bike, hike, climb, do yoga, swim, kayak, etc etc etc. Keeping your mind and body active will help you stay positive. Having a positive attitude is probably the best thing you can do when looking for a new job. 

Keep Your Chin Up

I know the sentence before this one literally says, "have a positive attitude," but it's so friggin importante (hey I did it again) I thought I should reframe and repeat. You're going to hear no way more times than you hear yes. Don't be discouraged by the amount of times you've heard no. Keep your chin up and keep moving forward. 

Say Thank You

Whether you're asking a friend to help you out or you're replying to an email where someone told you that the job was taken, say thank you. It's a nice thing to say, people like hearing it, and most of all, it makes you look nice. So thank people for their time and consideration. Nothing bad has ever happened by saying thank you.*

*I didn't fact check this, but surely it's right. Right?

Put on Pants

Even if it's the only thing you do that day, put on a pair of pants. Mentally speaking, it prepares you for the day ahead. It means you're going to get something done. Pants are a powerful tool in your arsenal, use them wisely. 

I sincerely hope none of you reading this ever have to deal with being laid off, but if you do, I hope you find this helpful. 

Learn Something New

This is a story about how I learned to love something I never in a bajillion years thought I would learn. And like every great story, it's about a girl. 

I've always been told, in order to get a job interview or a job, you have to have an interesting hobby outside of advertising. The jury is split on whether or not it should be related to your craft or not. Some people told me to write more (hey, look what I'm doing now), and some people told me to do weird shit that has nothing to do with advertising, but could still be considered an art form. 

So, after asking several different creative professionals in advertising no one had given me a clear answer on what my hobby should be. I was getting really sick and tired of people telling me different stuff, so I stopped asking peoples opinions and I asked myself, "what do you want to do?" 

The problem was, I had no idea. The only thing I knew was that I was in graduate school to learn how to be a copywriter. 

I didn't go on some great vision quest to find my inner self. I went swimming. 

You know what they say, you always find something when you're not looking for it? Well, that happened to me at the pool. I was swimming with a couple of friends, drinking wine, enjoying the summer in Austin, and out to the pool walked this girl (yes, the aforementioned girl). She had a couple of tattoos (I'm a sucker for tattoos) and introduced herself to us. I'll be honest, I was too busy looking at her tattoos to hear her name. She was apparently the roommate of one of people at the pool with us. Which I took as a good thing because that meant I would hopefully see her again. 

A week or so later, I ran into this girl again, this time she had just gotten back from a run and I was heading out for one(we lived across the street from one another, so we ran into each other often). She said we should go running together sometime, and I agreed. 

Turns out, this chick likes to do everything, run, hike, bike, rock climb, kayak, wakeboard, snowboard, and most importantly ride horses. 

I had varying degrees of experience with everything she liked to do except ride horses. My only experience with a horse is when I was 11 and I tried to feed one and it bit my fingers and wouldn't let go. Let me be clear, I did not like, respect, appreciate or even see the transportational benefits of horses. 

So this girl and I would do everything we could together, and then she would go off and ride horses while I played a video game or did homework or read or something. 

Then one day it hit me like a ton of bricks, LEARNING HOW TO RIDE HORSES COULD BE ME THING. IT COULD BE MY CONVERSATIONAL TOPIC IN INTERVIEWS. IT COULD BE WHAT SETS ME APART. "What do you mean, this copywriter knows how to ride a horse? This isn't the old west, this information is mind blowing! HIRE HIM IMMEDIATELY." (This is what I think creative directors sound like when reviewing resumes). 

So, the next time we ran into each other and I asked if I could come out to the farm with her one day, and maybe get on a horse. 

She said no. 

I would like to say I was crushed, but I was a little bit more relieved. I was a city boy, I had no business on a farm. 

But (there's always a but) a few weeks had passed and someone had borrowed her car and she needed to get to the farm. So, who did she ask for a ride down there? None other than her good activity buddy who happened to live across the street. I happily obliged and we went down to the farm. Being clever, I wore my boots. My $200 Cole Haan boots, but they were the only pair I own (Cole Haan makes and excellent boot. I still own these boots, and they're fucking awesome). She mocked me for my footwear choice. 

I was excited, I thought this was my moment to finally learn how to ride a horse. I was incorrect. I wore my boots for no reason! You see, you don't just get on a horses back and start getting a lesson. You have to learn how to act around horses before they will trust you enough to even really get close enough to them to get on their back. 

So, for the next 6 months I would go down to the farm with her 2-3 times a week (how I did this on top of grad school and working 30-40 hours a week is beyond me) and learned horse stuff. What the different gear was called, the difference between western and english, the different breeds of horses, and the 7 different colors of brown (seriously, there are at least 7 different colors that are just some shade of brown, but white horses don't exist because they are actually grey. I don't get it). 

After those 6 months I was allowed on a horse. It was a terribly foreign experience to me. Imagine getting in a car, but instead of getting in you sit on top, and instead of a steering wheel there is a rope, and the car will get tired and throw you off if you don't ask it to do something properly. I was in over my head, but at least when I died I would know all the gear that I was using upon my death. 

It took a long time. A lot of beer bribes, and a lot of patience, and even more offers to drive her to the farm but low and behold. I learned how to ride a horse. 

I did more than that though, I learned a lot about myself in the process. I learned how to control my emotions when I failed over and over and over and over again. I learned how to push myself to limits I didn't know existed (yeah, some of those months were cold and I still drove out to the farm and got on the horse). I learned how to control my body language for effectively. I learned that goats will fuck your shit up no matter how secure your fence is (don't believe me? buy a goat). But most of all, I learned something new. 

I'm still not done learning how to ride horses, and that fact actively excites me. I get to learn new stuff. And it's awesome. 

So, if you've gotten anything out of this long, and ridiculous story, it's that I think everyone should have a hobby outside of their jobs. However, I think it should be something new. Something you've never thought you would learn how to do. Something where you can learn something about yourself in the process, because only then do you grow as a person. 

Now, I'm off to my yodeling lesson. 

Cheers,

Jason