Inspired Freelancer

Harnessing the Power of Public Relations

Hello blog readers. My apologies for this mini-hiatus the past month or so. Just when I thought I had a ton of free time, I found myself busy as ever! In the meantime, I had a great opportunity to byline an article for Corporate Logo Magazine, about PR practices for distributors in the Ad Specialties industry.

The article has come out online, and will come out in print over the next few months. If you'd like to check it out, it's available here: Harnessing the Power of Public Relations.

I hope you enjoy the article, and look for more posts coming soon!

The "Free" in Freelancer

Instead of posting a factoid this Friday, I'd like to make some observations on my current situation. I was so worried a few weeks ago when I lost a large part of my regular magazine work. I had no idea what would happen - how would I keep my business afloat? Would I have to go full time? What would I do with all the extra time this month?

Here's the good news: I still have work! In the past few weeks I've worked on a bevy of interesting things including an e-marketing program for a coffee house, a multi-cultural travel guide, a logo design, a recital poster and a few ghostwritten articles for a CEO. While none of these are recurring or regular pieces of work, I'm still very excited to see that my business lumbers on without the big contracts I was relying on.

(If you happen to know someone who is looking for an experienced copywriter, here I am, with time to spare!)

Shameless self-promotion aside, one of the best parts about the last two weeks has been realizing what the "free" in freelancer really stands for. Even though I've kept busy, I've also utilized some of the extra time I've had to do fun things that I find personally enriching and rewarding. Here 10 of the unexpected and wonderful things I've been able to do because I'm a freelancer:

Factoid Friday: Travels

Time for another factoid Friday - on Sunday. I guess that just goes to show you that I'm really living the life of a freelancer. I have hardly any time to keep up with my fun weekly blog post... that I started last week. So here's this week's interesting fact about me:

I've visited Stonehenge: 

Almost, Maine

This past Saturday night Izzy and I met up with a few good friends (@kateeidam, @mikeschwabe, @shoesalwaysfit), and went out for dinner and a show. The show was Almost, Maine at Chagrin Valley Little Theatre's River Street Playhouse. I must say we all enjoyed the show and the evening. If you didn't make it out to see Almost, Maine, I hope you will have a chance to see something by this director or featuring these actors in the future.

Closing night is always a very special night for any production. The actors have had a few runs to get the rhythm of the show under their belt, the lighting and set changes are fluid and easy. Any of the jitters that made opening night especially exciting have mellowed to an intense hum of energy that connects each solidly delivered scene. It’s both a last chance to breathe life into a character and a moment to say goodbye.

This poignant, closing night experience poured into the audience at the last performance of Chagrin Valley Little Theatre (CVLT)’s Almost, Maine. 

A romantic comedy by John Cariani, Almost, Maine asked its audience to suspend reality, well, only a little bit. Once our eyes adjusted to this quiet, remote little town, we could really begin to see the gorgeous Northern Lights that breathe magic into each scene. 

Friday Factoid: Performing Arts

After a wonderful lunch meeting today with John Ettorre, a fantastic freelancer, I realized that there is a lot that my clients and other readers don't know about me. Thus, I am introducing the "Friday Factoid," a post where I reveal some (hopefully) interesting and lesser-known factoids about little ol' me. We'll see how many Fridays I can come up with relatively interesting factoids for. When I start resorting to talking about my favorite color, I suppose it will have run its course.

So this Friday's factoid is:

I have performed in 5 countries.

Engagement Session: Heather & Keith

My first official engagement session was a major learning process. Full sunlight is certainly a challenge. I'm very happy with some of the results - so here are a few photos I'm proud to share.

The Harsh Realities of Freelancing

This week I got my first real introduction to the harsh realities of freelancing in a down economy (or any economy for that matter). For the past six months freelancing has been tough, but busy. I've had four regular monthly columns in four different magazines in a family of publications, plus a pretty regular speckling of corporate and agency public relations and writing work. This week, however, my freelancing life suffered a major blow.

Because of the economy, the four magazines, which make up my core business, had to cut their freelancing budgets - severely. I went from about a column a month to perhaps one or two more articles this year. Talk about a shock. I would say that I lost at least 50% of my business, maybe more, in one fell swoop. So now what?

Well, at first I was in a dead panic. The magazine work was so wonderful because it was monthly, I didn't have to go out and look for it, it was fairly well paid and I enjoyed it. On the other hand, it was also tough because it took up a lot of my time and required me to depend on multiple sources who were frequently hard to reach. I spent a lot of time playing phone tag and had a lot of late-night (or all-night) writing sessions to get them completed.

Now I'm preparing to storm back with some business development efforts. I'm going to look for some partnerships, work my network, offer more to my current clients and take some time to build my skills further.

I'm also looking forward to at least one week of "me" time. The past few months I've been working night and day. It would be great to spend a week working on spring (summer?) cleaning, getting my financials together for the first quarter and maybe even reading a book. 

I've learned a valuable lesson: diversify. I write about diversification all the time, but it has really been driven home by this experience. It can be hard to do when one client offers you enough work to fill your days and nights. That means stable work and one contact to communicate with. Still, you should still consider rejecting a little bit of their work to make room for other clients. If you can get no more than 20% of your business from each client, you'll be good to go if one of your clients has to slash their freelancing budget. 

A Dramatic Soprano

(though technically, I'm more of a lyric soprano...)

This Friday was "Opera a la Carte," a performance by the Cleveland State University Department of Music's Opera Theatre Workshop class. I sang La Scia Ch'io Pianga, an aria from Handel's opera Rinaldo. As Almirena, I had been torn from my lover and cast into a hellish place alone. The aria is sad, lonely and angry at at once, and I was happy with my performance. It was also wonderful to see my family and friends come out for the performance. Thanks Kate, Paige, Donna and Michelle, it was wonderful to have you there. Thanks also to Barry and Sue, and of course my Mom.

My favorite thing about these dramatic pre-performance photos, is the overhead projector in the background, reminiscent of eighth grade science class.

Susan Boyle - What's wrong with her cover?

Usually I avoid adding to the commentary about "YouTube" sensations. If someone does something exceptionally well, good for them. If they are terrible or disgusting, I'm glad someone finds it amusing. A very few of them have impacted me enough to inspire me to write something. I am, however, inspired by Susan Boyle. Not by her singing, which is very good. I'm sure she could star on Broadway in any number of shows and be quite successful. 

I'm inspired to write by our reaction to her. If I hear one more person say "It just goes to show you can't judge a book by its cover," I am going to scream and throw a book at them.

What is wrong with Susan Boyle's cover? Does everyone really believe that she's that unattractive? Sure, she's not Heidi Klum in the scheme of things, but I don't find her unpleasant to look at. In fact, quite the opposite. She looks like someone who is approachable and pretty in her own way. If I saw her on the street, I would not in any way look at her and say - oh look, an unattractive person.

I think it's absolutely ridiculous that we're calling her unattractive and even "ugly." This woman is not ugly. This just goes to show that we expect people on television to be the cream of the physical appearance crop and when someone who is just an average person (which means nearly all of us viewers probably look a lot like her in our own average way) appears on the screen, she becomes "ugly." 

Opera Theatre Workshop

Cleveland State University presents "Opera a la Carte," an evening of scenes from popular operas including La Traviata, Carmen, La Serva Padrona, Hansel and Gretel, Rinaldo and Giulio Cesare. The performance features graduate and undergraduate students from Cleveland State University's Department of Music. 

Friday, April 24th at 7:30 p.m., in CSU's Drinko Recital Hall. The hall is located in the Communication and Music Building on the corner of East 21st and Euclid Avenue. The concert is free and open to the public. Parking is available for $6 in the garage on E 21st and Chester.