Hey!

A couple days ago I ran across a book that I think has a lot of relevance to the future of freelancing and how it’s going to become a standard for many (if not most) of us.

Career Creativity is a look at various intersections of how we build our work lives and where creativity plays a role. 

This is a big deal for anyone interested in lifestyle-first freelancing—not only because a lot of freelancers are creatives, but also because our work requires creativity in our strategic thinking, and demands that we understand how others respond to creativity in our marketing and sales. 

But I see a lot of us getting tripped up. 

The thing about freelancing is there are no guardrails. That’s beautiful when we get to build our own schedule and work from wherever we want, but it can cause all sorts of issues when shaping our businesses. 

So this month, I want to touch on three areas of guardrails (boundaries) that we can use to build structure and support into our freelance journey. 

• Markets
• Employment 
• Sales

Employment is great for emulation

I got a pretty fast and smooth start to my freelance career, and I think it’s 50% because I basically just “copied” an existing job and niched down from there. 

Could I have gone hardcore into creativity and made up any job or service I wanted? Of course, but I had to be honest about the fact that I was asking people to pay me. 

And that’s why employment can be such a great guide for your creativity. 

Employers have already done the work of figuring out the basics of what skills are valuable in the market and what people are willing to pay for. If you use them as a starting point, you can focus your creativity in the places it can solve deeper problems and create true, unique value. 

Want to get the most out of your employment experience? Grab your free Employment Value Extraction worksheet here.

Megan

P.S. A couple reminders…

• Don’t forget to keep your strategy workbook going! Need any help? Come talk it out.

• If you’re ready to take the next step in your freelance journey and want to “self-coach” your way to a healthier freelance business—come check out the Black Freelance Academy to improve your skills as CEO of your freelance world. 

• It’s our job as Black freelancers to spread the word on the potential out there, so if this message was helpful, pass it on!