Fractional Vol. 8: A Productive Summer
Only last week did I realize I didn’t send out a newsletter last month. Oops! The good news is, June was a great month with not a ton of insights to report, so I’ll wrap both up into this one month, and you can plan to hear back from me in October as this may move to an every-other-month cadence. Or not. We’ll play it by ear. That’s sort of been the theme of the year thus far. Let’s jump in!
What Went Well
Client work has been busy over the last two months. Projects/clients on at the moment:
My client of 3+ years, steady work that bridges copy, content, and strategy.
A client I’ve been working with for a few years, but officially in more of a retainer capacity through this year. Steady work that covers mostly strategy at this point.
A smaller retainer for a startup focused on their marketing and messaging endeavors.
A new naming client in the CPG space in July became a branding client in August. The more I work on naming projects, the more I love them. I’ve named a dozen or so companies at this point, even more internal endeavors or sub-brands, and the process is always highly fun, and collaborative, and yields great results. I’m asking myself, how do I get more of this work?
A new enterprise client, helping them evolve their brand and set them up for sustainable success with materials they can use after our initial engagement.
An ad hoc startup client I’m helping out with some content marketing efforts.
Beyond that, I’ve got a few new business irons in the fire including:
An old boss who reached out to me for help at their current place of business with content strategy.
A client from over 10 years ago who reached out for help with brand voice for a non-profit.
This is to say, I’m busy. And my books show it. In June and July (together), I made $47,250. That blows my mind a little bit when I think about how at my first job, my salary was $28,000. My second job, I thought I was living in luxury to be paid $45,000 per year. Sure, that was twelve years ago at this point, but we’ve come a long way.
It is also nearly double my recalibrated goal of $12,000 per month. So that extra money will be blissfully saved for a rainy day fund, or sooner.
I don’t anticipate all months will be as good as these two have been, and part of the reason for that is that I’ve been working extra hard. I’m taking the first two weeks of September off because John and I are traveling to Japan. Shockingly to myself even, I’m not planning on bringing my computer so that I can be truly off. I’ve been running at building my business for this whole year, and I think I need a little break. At an onsen. Submerged in water.
To that end, the best thing I’ve done for myself and my work isn’t at all work-related. Three weeks ago, I started taking two-hour long walks every day. I live right next to the LA River, so I take a stroll down a couple of miles, grab an iced tea, and stroll back. Sometimes I listen to audiobooks, sometimes I listen to podcasts, and sometimes I catch up with friends or family members on the phone. It’s allowed me to clear my mind, take time away from Slack and notifications generally, and enjoy being outdoors. I’m not a birder by any means, but there are some incredible birds along the LA River, and I can tell you for a fact that I never would have had the chance to enjoy them when I was working nonstop for startups that kept me glued to my screen. And when I saunter back home from my walks, I feel more refreshed and ready to work again.
What Didn’t Go Well
The truth is, things are going really well and new business is coming in organically. One of my clients is looking to up my retainer hours significantly, which will only bring me more stability. So things are seriously on the up-and-up.
That said, I have been doing a bit of reflecting on my last nine months with my own consultancy, and I’ve made some mistakes (naturally). So I figured this would be a good space to share mistakes I made, and maybe you won’t fall into the same traps:
I branded too early. I needed to set up an S-Corp and so I named my company (Supporting Cast) and went through a brand identity process with a very talented designer friend. That said, I didn’t need to do this. My business is coming in by referral, I could have set up the S-Corp in my name and done a DBA later when I felt more solidified in what my business is, where I want it to go directionally, and what I thought it should say. I’m not embarrassed by my brand, website, or positioning, I just wish I’d given myself a beat to figure out what it was in a more organic way, because there was simply no need to do this early. If I could go back in time, I’d kick into this brand work now. Yes, business is still coming in by referral, but I feel more clear in what I want to be doing (more brand voice, less content strategy).
I said yes too many times. I think as a freelancer and enthusiastic collaborator, I want to say yes a whole lot more than I say no, but I wish I’d said no a little bit more than I had. I took on clients that didn’t align with what I wanted to do, and didn’t meaningfully move my business forward. At this point, when I can be more selective with my clients, I want to really take on projects that I can bring my full passion to. The clients on the other side feel that energy too, and it just creates a great work environment.
I didn’t financially plan well enough. Yes, the finances are going well, but to be candid if not a little ashamed, I spend too much money. For the last four years, I’ve operated on a full-time salary with a nice freelance buffer, giving me essentially two incomes. Now I’m back at one income, which means I’ll make less this year than in previous years, and I should have dialed back my spending in anticipation of this shift. That said, I still spend under what I make, but as a person prone to money anxiety, I could have set myself up for more success here.
I didn’t plan my time well enough. Part of this might be recency bias from working a lot more in July, but I’ve had less time for creative projects than I’ve wanted, and that was a big part of the reason I wanted to be fractional to begin with. Good news, I can rectify this (along with much of the above) going forward.
What’s Keeping Me Up At Night
Because things are going kind of steady and there aren’t a ton of new learnings, I’m plagued with the question: do we need this newsletter anymore? Is it still valuable to those who are reading it? When it’s not or it just feels like it’s repeating the same things over and over again, I think it’s time to sunset it.
The state of the entertainment business is incredibly troubling to me at the moment. As someone who has built a sustainable business on the brand side, but is still seeking to break in on the more creative entertainment side, it’s quite demotivating! Despite that, I’m doing what I can, which means I’m writing. This summer, I co-wrote a feature (it needs a lot of rewrites, but we’re on our way) and I finished a pilot (here’s the logline, but it still needs some work: Two best friends stumble into the seemingly perfect use case for their fledgling AI startup: to recreate the voices of dead loved ones). And I’m working steadily on outlining a new project which I think might be my most commercially viable to date. My goal for the year is still to find a manager, and I’m no closer than I was in January, but my samples are getting better and better, so there’s that.
And Lastly…
A few recommendations of things I’ve enjoyed this last month…
I went back to Mexico City in June (12th time?) for Pride and was blown away by the turnout. It was incredible. I highly recommend going if that’s your thing! Also hit up a few of the favorites, including Contramar and Rosetta for food, Casa Gilardi and Frida’s House for art, and Xinú Perfumes and Vera Mexico for shopping.
Presumed Innocent is really, really good. We’re only five episodes in, so don’t spoil anything for me, please.
You probably already knew because of everything about me that I would read Miranda July’s All Fours. It’s everything I wanted it to be and more. Other books I enjoyed over the past two months: The Botany of Desire, I’m Glad My Mom Died, Exhibit, Station Eleven, Everybody Knows, and And Then There Were None. This isn’t a comprehensive list, because as mentioned, those two hour walks allow me ample time for audiobook listening!
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.