Blossom, Lizzie and friends meet for drinks

Lizzie is the lizard brain - the voice of my imposter inside my head. Blossom is the part of my brain that wants to do better.

Lizzie and Blossom have had a busy week working on a project and pitching for new ones. Earlier this week, Blossom received an enquiry to take up a quick short-term project. She quickly drew up a cost proposal and sent it along. After a day, she received a response informing her that if she brought down her cost, the project would be hers. Lizzie advised her to take it up at a lower cost because they needed the money and it would add to their portfolio of work. Blossom thought about it and rejected the project much to the dismay of Lizzie.

Although furious, Lizzie decided to bring this up at their drinks on Friday when they met with their friends: Merit, Fear, Skill and Talent.

Merit was the first one to join and spotted Blossom and Lizzie giving each other uncomfortable looks. After the customary helloes, Merit caught up with what had happened in the week. She thought that this required an in-depth conversation and could help. She asked, “What do you believe your work deserves?”

Lizzie: “You know, at the onset, I must say that I was not in favour of us taking up freelancing. We should have continued a full-time job because it guaranteed us a regular income every month. But, now that “we” decided to take this leap without my approval, we should do anything and everything it takes to allow us to maintain our lifestyle. Oh, to answer your question - Our work deserves us to make enough money to be comfortable. We should be working on multiple projects to keep us busy. Not all of them should be taxing. Some maybe, but not all. We should be able to do the bare minimum and get paid for it.”

Blossom: “The way I look at it is that we did what was required for the last 15 years. And, it had its ups and downs. I feel that we have gathered enough experience to be able to be our boss. Do work that excites us and with the kind of people that give us the freedom to bring our uniqueness to the table. Since we just started in the freelancing space, we should define the kind of work we want to do. Our work deserves to be looked at and touted as one with a distinctive style and calibre. We are going to do our best on each project, so why should we not get paid as much as we deserve?”

Intrigued by this discussion, Merit probed further – “What do you believe your work is worth?”

Lizzie: “Work is work. I don’t think we should judge whether a project is good or bad. As long as it receives praise from clients and pays us sufficiently, we should treat it as something we have to do to be able to give us a decent lifestyle.”

Blossom: “Well, that’s what we have been doing so far, isn’t it? Killing ourselves being a cog in the wheel – turning up each day from 10 am to whatever hours and doing what was expected of us. I am not saying that we didn’t like our work all the time. Remember the campaign that we conceptualised in response to a fundraising business problem? It was our brainchild and got us so excited! We wanted to do so much more with that campaign but we had such limited time as we had so many other tasks to complete. That got me thinking then, on wishing we could have devoted more of our time to interesting projects! This is that chance - I want us to take up projects that excite us and force us to be better. Our work will then be equally rewarding to us as well as the client – we would have both helped each other succeed. Good clients will get us good projects and pay us well.”

As the three friends ordered their second drink, Fear entered the discussion. Merit asked Blossom and Lizzie to fill Fear in.

Lizzie: “I fear that we will not get good clients. We will be picky and dry up our savings waiting to land these “good” clients. We will realise that we have made the wrong decision to get into freelancing. We cannot get a steady pipeline of projects with good clients. We will fail at this and will have to go back to working full-time for an organisation. So, why do this anyway? We do not have what it takes to succeed on our own.”

Blossom: “Yes, I think Lizzie is right! These are very real possibilities. But, should we allow our fears to paralyse us and not explore what else is possible? Should we not at least try? Let’s give it six more months. Let’s show up every day to better ourselves, get better at networking and produce great work with our current projects. We should give it our best shot, work through our insecurities and see where we land at the end of the six months.”

Caught up in the discussion, no one realised that Skill had arrived and was quietly listening all along. “How can I help?”, she piped in.

Lizzie: “We are good at a range of skills that include Brand communications, Marketing and partnerships, Project management, Public relations, Content creation, Digital marketing, etc…We should do any work around this skill set.”

Blossom: “We could. But we love writing and curating content. We enjoy creating communications that can help organisations achieve their marketing objectives. We are good at it and can work towards mastering it. We should develop our marketing skills in finding clients that are looking for effective marketing communications for their business.” “You know, if someone wanted to hire a freelancer in the top 5%, we would not be on that list. How do you know, you ask? Well, we do not get enquiries or our pitches have not been accepted by the clients we want to work with, yet.”

As the night winded down, Blossom assured Lizzie that they should take the next six months to brush up their skills in the space of marketing communications. They could consider

taking up projects at a lower cost if they felt that it would allow them to do some remarkable work to showcase. But, they should treat those projects as exceptions and not the norm.

With the aspiration to become a freelancer who takes on work that interests her; with people she is excited to work with and be seen at a unique level working her way up to being remarkable, Blossom invites Lizzie to tag along for the adventurous journey. They clang their glasses, saying "Cheers" and wished themselves all the luck they could get.

Talent just came in and apologised for having joined in so late. The group was tired after having such a heartfelt discussion, so they promised Talent that they would update her later.

It's been over two years since I penned these emotions but I remember them like it was yesterday. The Freelancing journey so far has been a rollercoaster ride that I still don't want to get off just yet. I continue to work on enjoyable and challenging projects with people I am excited to work with and be seen at a unique level on my way to remarkable. Don't just take my word for it. Here's what people I have worked with have to say :)

Image courtesy: Freepik Article was written first as a prompt response at The Freelancer's workshop by Akimbo