Fractional Vol. 11: A Q1 Twist
Welcome back to Fractional, the increasingly sporadic newsletter charting my foray into freelance work. I’m happy you’re here. Over the last month or so, I’ve gotten a few questions from friends, former colleagues, even a stranger about how and when I knew it was the right time to make this shift, so I figured maybe that’s where we’d start this newsletter. And then we’ll round this newsletter out with the usual what’s going well and what isn’t, some personal news that’s going to throw a twist into this fractional journey (cliffhanger much?), and some recommendations at the end. Sound good? Let’s go.
How It Started
For most of my career, I’ve always taken on projects here and there on the side. I remember my very first freelance gig, I wrote someone’s bio and charged them $30/hour. It took me a year before I had the confidence to double that rate. And not one person balked at the new one (a good signal I was setting my rate way too low). Now, as previously discussed in past newsletters, my rate starts at $175/hr for new clients, so we’ve come a long way.
The degree to which I freelanced while still working fluctuated wildly based on my workload. I’ve never been someone who is good at saying “no” (I’ve gotten a little better over the years), so if friends and former colleagues came to me with work, I took it on. That changed when I started working at startups, and the demands on my time were just so much greater than anything I’d experienced before. My freelancing came to a standstill in 2017 until early 2020 when I was let go during the first wave of the pandemic. At that point, I picked up a few freelance retainer contracts and really got the freelance career going. That first year of freelance, I made just shy of $55,000 from six clients. The second year, I made just shy of $69,000 from nine clients. The third year, I made just shy of $143,000 from five clients. It was in that third year (2023) that I decided that the leap to full-time freelance was possible. During those years, I was also working a full-time job. The first year, I made about $120,000 in wages. The second year was $135,000. The third was $140,000. I generally shorthand all of this in conversation to say that I made the leap to full-time freelance when I made an income that matched my full-time. That was the clear indicator that I could sustain this, especially if I dedicated all of my time and attention to it.
This is an incredibly risk-averse approach, but I’m a risk-averse person by nature. I probably could have made the jump when I reached $69,000 and then just scaled my life back a bit to provide for that. But I also wanted to be real about my wants and desires for my lifestyle at this stage, and to be maybe a little bourgeois about it, I didn’t want to sacrifice pilates classes, takeout, and occasional guilt-free purchases. So I waited.
I’m never going to advise someone to go freelance or not. It totally depends on your circumstances. I’ve been incredibly fortunate and also incredibly hard-working to make this happen for myself, but I’d be remiss to say that this is not without the major contributions of friends and former colleagues. A huge majority of my work has come in via referral. I have not had to go the outbound route, and if I had, I might have different feelings. In any case, that’s the origin story, for whatever it’s worth.
How It’s Going
January and February were very busy months and packed with quite a bit of personal travel as well. I brought in just shy of $48,000. March has slowed down considerably with my most stable client experiencing some instability that has me, frankly, concerned for my own future there. I’ve been able to offset that by increasing hours with another retainer client so I’m stable, but I am officially taking on new clients and projects to ensure that I can keep the momentum going with work. This was also the first quarter where I turned down multiple projects because of said busyness. I’m proud of myself for acknowledging my limits and not just being the yes-person I’ve been in the past. Those were fun-sounding projects, but at the end of the day, time is finite and I’m finally, belatedly acknowledging that in my work practice.
Anyway, the TL;DR is great January, great February, slow March, taking on new work if you or anyone you know have strategic or writing needs. Right now, my client mix is looking like:
- Two retainer clients in the SaaS space. Very different offerings, very different customers.
- One retainer client in the entertainment space.
- One per-project client in the foodtech space.
- One per-project client that’s a creative studio that I’m wrapping up work with.
- One per-project client that’s a non-profit that I’m charging a very reduced rate to.
I’ve had quite a few productive conversations around future opportunities for more brand strategy work, diving deep into defining the brand, its core offering, its messaging, and I’m excited about those.
More and more, I’ve been reflecting on what I actually do. I’ve never had a job that I could easily explain to my parents—not that this is a marker that really matters, but it can be a helpful gauge. I’ve come to the realization that what it is is really articulation. It’s finding the right strategic sense for a brand to exist and then figuring out the ways to communicate that to the audiences who need to know. It’s more than communications because it’s truly foundational. But it’s also more than just writing, because it’s analytical. If I were a rebrand fiend, I would change my name and brand to Articulate (which admittedly I like more than Supporting Cast), but we’ve gone this far with SC and I don’t think the benefits outweigh the costs of going through that exercise. Particularly with some time divestments that need to be made because of…
Some Personal/Professional News
Dear readers, not to get all Bridgerton on you, but there is information I’ve been withholding over the past six months or so. Besides working with clients and advancing some personal screenwriting projects on the side, I made the decision to apply to grad school. I’ve kept quiet about it because I only applied to one program that is among the hardest to get into in the country, and I figured there wasn’t a ton of likelihood that I would get in. And even then, I felt uncertain if I would go through with enrolling, because it is frankly not a very smart decision on my part given how well business is going.
But lo and behold, I got in. And what’s more, I’m going to go. So as of Fall 2025, I plan to be an MFA student at UCLA, studying screenwriting for TV. To be abundantly clear, I think this is a bad financial decision. I’ll be paying tuition while reducing my earnings potential, to come out with a degree in which it’s nearly impossible to land a job.
And yet, I’m going to do it anyway, simply because I want to. I think it will be fun. I think I will learn a lot, be really challenged and engaged, meet interesting people, and ultimately feel more fulfilled. I truly believe that success is not linear, and this detour is about building a richer, more satisfying life for myself. So there it is.
What will this mean for my business? I’m planning on halving it to support a full-time workload. UCLA wants students to be on campus twice a week and writing a lot of the other times. I think this will allow me to keep two of my retainer clients, including my new favorite (not to pick favorites, but let’s be real) which is a retainer around 20 hours a week. This will mean I’ll likely make in the high five figures to low six figures a year, which is still very much enough.
Also on the personal end, I’m off Instagram. I have stayed on social to try to keep myself relevant in the content world, but as I’ve shifted more into brand, I’ve realized I can really divest from that effort. My alternative? A monthlyish newsletter (sound familiar?) with updates and pictures, sent to people who care to receive it. If that’s you, you can subscribe here.
And Lastly…
A few recommendations of things I’m enjoying this month:
- If you’re not watching Severance and White Lotus, what are we even doing here?
- I’ve had some really exceptional meals in January and February, including Mari Gold in Mexico City, Turkey and the Wolf in New Orleans, N7 in New Orleans, and Bombera in Oakland.
- I’ve been decorating my office a bit more and nabbed some really great risograph prints from Can Can Press in Mexico City. Their work is very fun and might be interesting for you to check out, too?
- Maybe we should also talk about the miso cinnamon roll at Modu in Highland Park. Not to mention the cream puff!
If you found this newsletter to be valuable, forward it to a friend. I’m doing this as a labor of love and a touch of lunacy, but if this is something you’d pay for via a Substack or otherwise, consider donating to La Más.