Don't call me a freelancer
View this email in your browser (|ARCHIVE|) It’s become popular to describe creative minded, self-employed people as freelancers.
For some, it’s shorthand for someone who’s available to do a job right now, no strings attached. That’s not a bad thing in an economy that thrives on being able to execute ideas quickly.
Yes, some manage to make a good living for themselves while using that title. But after studying businesses—and running one myself—for over 15 years, there’s a better way to get the results you’re looking for out of your career.
Let’s be honest, |NAME|.
There’s a stigma associated with the word freelancer. And frankly in many ways it’s well-earned.
Creative people are notorious for undervaluing what they do.
They let their talent get punked (http://thinkitcreative.com/blog/what-you-give-away-like-the-elvis-of-punk/ ) .
They engage in a race-to-the-bottom on pricing.
They play along in the commoditization of their work, to the point that it gets seen as content (http://thinkitcreative.com/blog/the-indifference-of-content/) due to the sheer indifference it stirs in audiences.
A badly mangled word
It’s fueled by a mistaken belief that the product alone defines its value. If that were true, then most creative, self-employed people would be thriving in this economy.
Even the meaning behind the word freelance is distorted. It’s a borrowed idea from the 18th century: originally meant to describe a mercenary whose lance was not sworn to any lord’s services.
What a terrible way to think about your work.
You’re not engaged in armed conflict.
You make things or at least help others make things. And while you’re not in service to a lord, you are in service to something.
Serve something greater than yourself
One of the big lies about self employment is that you’re somehow your own boss. In fact, you have many bosses. To each client, you have a responsibility to provide the very best advice to serve their businesses so they can thrive.
It shouldn’t stop there. When you also choose to own a business and treat yourself as an employee of that business—as opposed to having a freelancer mindset—your work serves the values of that business.
Yes, that business could easily have your name on it and be a company of one. And if so, you might ask, how is that any different from being a freelancer?
Product plus process equals value
The difference is that when you own a business, your work supports a process: a systematic series of steps in which you define the problem you’ve been hired to solve and identify the tools you’re going to use to solve that problem.
This shapes your outcomes. It also gives your clients insight into your thinking process, why you give the advice you give, why you choose “that” option from among several in front of you.
That insight has incredible value: too many freelancers either don’t spend the time to think through and define that process for themselves or they’ve not yet reached the point on the hierarchy of competency (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_stages_of_competence) in which they can name the skills and methods that inform their outcomes.
Titles are choices
Language informs how you see yourself and how the world sees you. When it comes to the words you use to describe what you do and what you offer: that’s a choice. Choose something better for yourself than freelancer.
When you’re in the business of being creative, you are closer to being an artisan than a mercenary.
You are responsible for what you create and what it does in this world. Own your work, your choices and your craft. Very best, Patrick http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=|URL:MC_SUBJECT|: |URL:ARCHIVE_LINK_SHORT| Tweet (http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=|URL:MC_SUBJECT|: |URL:ARCHIVE_LINK_SHORT|) http://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=|URL:ARCHIVE_LINK_SHORT| Share (http://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=|URL:ARCHIVE_LINK_SHORT|)
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