A Transparent Look At My Journey Into Freelancing
Debt, depression, failure, and finally, making it work.
A few months ago, I saw a tweet circulating that completely triggered my ego. The tweet implied that most freelancers have an unspoken privilege that they don’t talk about. That they are able to freelance because of a trust fund, or a cushion, or parents who paid for college.
Even though the tweet didn’t apply to me, I was triggered thinking that someone might think that freelancing has been a walk in the park because of some behind the scenes privilege. These emotions felt particularly intense because I had just finished looking at my income breakdowns for the past two years. Reflecting on how little money I made in the beginning, how much debt I was in, and how hard it was for me to put myself out there enough to get new clients, made me feel a sense of pride that I was able to overcome some financially and emotionally stressful times.
It made me realize that there really isn’t much transparency around what it looks like to “make it” as a freelancer. Especially with no cushion to fall back on.
This isn’t one of those articles where I’m going to break down how I make 10k every month using vague and oversimplified advice like “reach out to your network.” I don’t make 10k/month (yet), but I…
