Going from a 9-5 I hated to a creative business that pays my bills
My employee to self-employed story
Hello you!
It’s been five years since I started my blog and started calling myself a writer. Since then I’ve gone from thinking of my online work as an embarrassing secret to my lifeblood. I still don’t like talking to people about my writing, photography or videos but I think that’s common for a lot of self-employed creatives. I feel so lucky to do what I love for a living and every single day I wake up with an abundance of gratitude that I have nobody to report to but myself.
A theme I keep noticing in conversations again and again is a feeling of being lost, of not knowing whether we’re doing the right thing in life, making the right choices and a lot of us are holding a dream of working for ourselves close to our hearts. As someone who decided to take the leap years ago I wanted to pull back the curtain on my story, share how I did it and what I’ve learned along the way.
When you’re on edge of the diving board wondering if the water is warm or not, it’s easy to focus on the polished instagram friendly version of self-employed creative businesses. This elusive world where making a living out of creativity seems effortless to some and you can envisage yourself doing the same, but something is stopping you. I can assure you this glossy highlight reel we see on the surface isn’t the reality - the reality is messy which brings me to the first and most important secret I want to share with you - we’re all winging it. Some of the most stereotypically successful people I’ve ever spoken to have all shared this feeling and you would never have guessed. Imposter syndrome is rife and we all wonder if everything we’ve built so far will disappear tomorrow, but we carry on anyway.
When I left uni with my degree in business management, I had it all planned out. I’d got my heart set on a career in HR working for the NHS. Despite Entrepreneurship being my favourite module when I was studying this option felt safe and female friendly. Nothing went right. I hated it. I’d worked in part time jobs alongside my studies since I was 13, but being employed full time without any other long term dreams felt like staring into an abyss of sameness and most days I felt so frustrated I wanted to scream.
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