Think you can’t create job security as a freelancer? I beg to differ.

Beep. Every morning, Monday through Friday, I’d walk through the glass door of the building I worked in.

The walls were a pale neutral tan, designed to keep the occupants of that space as calm and compliant as possible. The carpet was a depressing, drab conglomerate of gray and brown, highlighted by the fluorescent lights above that ran in rows down the hallways. 

I could physically feel my spirit drop the moment I put my hand on the metal bar of that front door, walk out of the sunshine and into that space, and increasingly so with each step down the hallway.

And then I’d get to the time clock at the bottom of the stairs

We had a relationship, that time clock and I. Every morning it would be there, faithfully waiting on the wall, ready to mark another portion of my life off for the day. 

Each swipe of my time card was yet another, steady, predictable… beep.

So much meaning in such a simple, meaningless thing. 

Despite feeling like I was giving my life away one swipe at a time, I took an odd comfort in the security of that morning ritual. 

In fact, when I’d sit through irrelevant meetings, be sat down like I was one of the clients and informed by our HR manager that my hair color was inappropriate, or gaze out the window of my little office in which I could touch both walls with my hands if I stretched my arms out and ask myself why I was still there…

I’d answer myself: because I’m secure here, and I need that. 

Until the day came when I wasn’t. 

For the first time in my life, I was let go from a job. It came suddenly and without warning, and for a few sleepless nights, it rocked me to my core.

A few years ago, I heard the term “F#&k This Event,” or FTE. This turned out to be one of the most important ones that had ever happened to me.

The idea is that events take place in our lives that cause us to say something along the lines of “F#&k this” with the result that we’re powerfully driven to make some kind of radical change.

And I was. 

Fourteen years put into one industry, leadership roles, a professional license, a pile of exceptional performance reviews… None of it mattered in the end.

That was 13 years ago. Not only is my story not special or unique, but the number of others who can tell a similar one has grown exponentially since then.

In July of this year, 1.8 million people were laid off in the US alone, and our unemployment rate is higher than it was this time last year. As of June, companies have cut around 386,000 jobs.

(Bureau of Labor Statistics, MarketWatch)

Sadly, the story of job security we all sat down and had fed to us turns out not to be true.

Thirteen years ago I vowed never to place my sense of security in someone else’s hands again. I became unemployable, and it’s one of the best things that ever happened to me.

I began learning, and more importantly, doing.

I followed what those who were successful were doing and just held faith that if I stayed in motion, consistently, it would work. 

And it did. 

Later, when I needed to create security in my life more than ever, coming out of crisis and as the sole parent of my infant daughter, I had the belief, motivation, and foundation I needed to create a life for us.

I took my existing skillset, writing, straight to business owners as a freelancer. Within a year I had established a full-time income working fewer hours than I previously had and doing so when and where I wanted to.

I learned how to create security and stability in my freelance income…

Because I had to. 

I’m the sole source of income in my household. There is no room for financial insecurity or instability.

Now I know that if something shifts with my clients and work… I can go out and create more of that.

I don’t have to enter an endless sea of applicants, put on my business casual outfit, and hope I’ll make the cut for a job I don’t really want.

These last seven years of freelancing have solidified for me that:

• I can be of service to other business owners and they like working with me

• people are happy to pay me for what I do – and I’m good at it because I’ve nurtured my skills over time

• there are countless opportunities to take my skills, experience, and myself directly to other business owners in an equal exchange of value

It’s not only worth it to me, but so deeply gratifying, to make intentional efforts to create security in my business and income.

It means things like:

• nurturing relationships with my professional network

• taking a multi-pronged approach to my income and client work (which we also teach and encourage inside our program)

• maintaining consistent efforts for the long-term vision of my business with a view to continuing to grow and scale it

So, if you’re clinging to the security of your current circumstances, I completely understand… 

And, we hold no judgment of that.

We all do what we have to do, when we need to do it.

I do want to encourage you, though, to pay attention to those FTEs in your own life. 

Know that there is another way to spend the majority of your time doing what we all need and were designed to do – work and support our lives. 

You can create your own job security as a freelancer, boldly and unapologetically.

Don’t be afraid to find out, and don’t compromise the quality of this one life we get.

I believe in you, and I know you can do this.