Working as a freelancer, having all the time in the world and no responsibilities sounds like a plan. Who wouldn’t love to work for themselves, be free from bosses, contracts, company policies, spend less time working and more time travelling. “Wow, these guys live a dream, I want to start freelancing too” - might be the first thing to pop in your head seeing the word “freelance”. Well, yes, we do live a very interesting life, but there’s always two sides of the story.
My name is Kamile, I freelance as a marketing strategist and I’m here to tell you about them both.
A bit more than six months ago I was sitting behind my office administrator desk in a big company, just typing numbers and functions into Excel sheet, when I decided to go through my Facebook news feed. And then an ad popped saying something about freelancing. I was really happy with the money I was making at that time, it was a safe place to stay, I had a guaranteed social security and a lot of benefits, so it was a bit of a challenge to kind of start it all over again from step one. But originally being a singer, songwriter, a creative person in general, I needed that challenge as much as I needed freedom and a chance to prove to myself I can do stuff on my own.
I must admit, I was no different from any of you out there thinking freelancing is the best choice you can make in your career. I thought I’ll make money in no time with no big effort and I can finally travel around the world. But so it happened that I had to learn this very valuable lesson one very important person once told me -
“The amount of money you make usually depends not on how much physically you work, but on your mental work efficiency and intelligence”.
So I had two choices - do simple things all over again everyday maybe not learning much more or learn how to use my skills as a writer and social media fan/content creator, stretch my brain muscles and become an independent professional allowing myself things I dreamed of such as travelling the world.
During this period I felt this constant growth. As individual I had the best environment to learn and deepen my skills as it all depended on me. I always talked about how interesting social media and writing is for me and it led me to the point where several companies trusted me on being responsible for marketing plans.
Freelancing means you have every opportunity to become a pro in any field of your choice just as long as you’re really ready to dig deep. I had a chance to work with international startups, make a lot of new connections worldwide, and start building my own business.
Being a freelancer is not easy. You have to set your goals very clearly and answer to yourself what do you want to get from it and how much are your really ready to do. It takes a lot of planning and self-discipline to work for yourself. I cannot live without challenges, everything has to be evolving constantly, I want to learn new things everyday until my time is done and love the things I spend my time on. That’s why I barely say no to new opportunities. And that is why I always push myself to the limits.
We all want the same things - make a decent amount of money, travel the world and make our dreams come true. And if you ask what can a singer learn from working as a marketing strategist for startups, well, everything you really need to sell any type of product, and music is no exception.
If you think you are strong enough to be independent, disciplined enough to grow without anyone pushing you or telling you what exactly you have to do everyday, and crazy enough to come up with ideas helping you grow, you might as well try freelancing. It’s not for everybody, but it’s worth experiencing.
