I consider myself lucky — I’ve met Jake Poinier and have shared caffeine with him.
We were in Arizona for family reasons, and I remembered Jake was in the area. I sent an email.
Before too long, we were sitting outside a Starbucks on a gorgeous day in April, talking as though we’d known each other forever. That’s Jake. He’s a friendly, gracious, ridiculously smart and savvy writer and business owner. Friendly because he was eager to meet someone he’d known only virtually. Gracious because he didn’t hold it against me that my husband was a product of Harvard (Jake is a Yale man). Savvy because damn, this guy has built a solid freelance writing career from an editing and media relations background.
When you’re sitting across from him, you feel you’ve just met someone you’ll be friends with for a very long time. I liked him so much I was thrilled when he asked me to collaborate on a webinar. And if he has an ounce of fear in him, it sure doesn’t show.
Yet, Jake says fear still creeps in around the edges. Here’s how the good Doctor Freelance deals with it.
Facing Freelance Fears
by Jake Poinier
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastering of fear, not absence of fear.”—Mark Twain
I like to consider myself a reasonably fearless guy; and in fact, I believe the occasional scare is good for the soul and can make for a great story. (I’m looking at you, Mr. Rattlesnake in the middle of the hiking trail.) But the reality is that freelancing and running your own entrepreneurial business come with fears that must be faced.
So I’ll come clean. I’m not as fearless as I imagine myself or pretend to be. In no particular order, here are some of the items that at least give me pause (even if they don’t keep me up at night):
- Fear of errors. Work with text, images, and other human beings, you’re going to make mistakes or fail to catch ones you should. I vividly remember all of my worst goofs, dating back to my first magazine staff job in 1989.
- Fear of not getting the job. Even almost 19 years into running my own business, my mouse still hovers uncomfortably long over the “send” button when I’m sending an estimate.
- Fear of getting the job and hating it, getting stiffed or otherwise screwed over. This, to me, is actually worse than the previous item.
- Fear based on impostor syndrome. I’ve concluded this is something endemic (if not an epidemic) to freelance creatives, a topic I wrote about on my Dr. Freelance blog this time last year.
- Fear of trying a new industry or skill. In a recent Facebook group discussion, a group of editors were detailing the things they’re not good at. Well, it would take another entire blog post to list all of the things I stink at, even if you limit them to writing and editing. I’ll just acknowledge they’re there. Trust me.
- Fear of networking. Let’s be real: The number of people who actually enjoy this exercise in comfort-zone breaching is a pretty tiny percentage of the population.
- Fear of failure. This, particularly the idea that I’d have to retreat, tail-between-legs, to a corporate job, haunted me most in the early years of my business. Mercifully, I can’t remember the last time I thought about it; I’m kinda regretting I even brought it up!
Overcoming Your Freelance Fears
What do all of these have in common? They’re pretty much fears between my ears. Some are totally under my control, others I can’t do anything about, nor can I totally avoid them if I want to succeed in business. Moreover, it’s not worth spending mental energy on worrying about them, because some won’t happen, and I’m going to need to work through the ones that do.
Several years ago, I was watching The Dog Whisperer, and Cesar Milan offered a suggestion that has stuck with me. Someone’s dog was misbehaving on a walk, and he instructed the owner to carry themselves (if I recall correctly) as if they were Oprah or George Clooney proud and powerful. If you feel like fear is getting unruly, it’s not a bad play to imagine yourself as your favorite business titan, and tighten up the leash.
Don’t forget that a little fear, well managed, can be hugely motivating. It’s part of the game. Not my favorite part, but something we all need to come to terms with.
In the comments: What do you fear most, or what’s the biggest fear you’ve overcome–and how did you do it?
21 responses to “Jake Poinier on Facing Freelance Fears”
Oh, Jake, so good to hear you’re human like the rest of us. 🙂 I’ve shared this many times, but your comment about it not being worth the mental energy has been my response to stress. I call it my Miller energy meter. I ask myself, Is it worth the energy? Funny, I hadn’t thought to apply it to fear. And Lord knows fear is stressful. Thanks for resetting my meter. So to speak. 😉
Probably one of my biggest fear, which is totally apparent by my specialty, is going outside my niche comfort zone. Sure, it made sense for me to capitalize on a 30+ years specialty in health care and employee benefits, but it also is safe.
A few years ago I had a client leave her healthcare organization and go to a logistics management company. What I knew about logistics and supply chain management was a big fat zero. I loved working with this client. I knew I could write, so what was I so afraid of? As it turns out, one of the pluses was it delivered what to this day is one of my all-time favorite case studies. All because I stepped outside my comfort zone.
All too human, Cathy! Your point is an excellent one: Breaking into a new topic/media type is one of the most valuable aspects of maintaining relationships with good and great clients. They’re willing to count on you to make the leap…seamlessly and, yes, fearlessly!
Ah, those magazine days, Jake. I once missed a typo in the CEO’s name – blame it on too many long days chasing deadlines, but whatever the reason, he was NOT happy – yikes! The great thing is that once the worst has happened, things can only improve, and that knowledge is another antidote to fear. 🙂
Like you, I still face those issues, but I’ve learned to roll with them, and let them motivate me to do better.
The dreaded C-suite mistake is the worst! The magazine days were definitely good training for when things heat up in the deadline department—it’s like knowing you have a 6th gear. 🙂
Agreed, Jake. I’ve always been grateful for that experience.
That first one, Jake — I still cower in the shadow of that one. Mistakes happen, even to the most prolific, successful writers. I remember reading a famous (as in REALLY famous) author’s book and tossing it aside somewhere around page 4. The grammatical errors and lack of proofreading were blatant. How she ever sold billions of books is beyond me.
I keep that in my mind whenever I screw up something small. It may be a mistake, but it’s nothing like that disaster of a novel. That and Time magazine years ago, which I stopped subscribing to because the errors were far too many. I spent my time circling mistakes and not reading.
Yeah, you eventually have to come to peace with mistakes. I also recognize that I’m not nearly as good at proofreading as some of my peers, so when it’s absolutely critical (like publishing a book for myself or one of my clients), it’s worth investing some bucks in another set of eyes.
With that: In the final bullet, do you mind throwing commas or em-dashes after “This” and “job” so it sounds like I know what I’m doing? LOL.
Also! Thank you so much for your kind words in the intro–it was a blast to meet you way back when, and I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have you as a friend 🙂
LOL Not a problem. 😉
I might know which author you’re talking about. There was an author I’d loved to the point of asking for her new books for Christmas every time one was out. At some point I guess she decided she didn’t need an editor or something and the result was so distracting I could barely start, let alone finish, reading the last two books I got. Then I stopped reading her work entirely.
I guess that means Fear of Hubris is a fear writers should welcome.
I can’t remember, but for some reason I think it was Barbara Cartland. But that doesn’t even sound right — I don’t like romance novels. Maybe Barbara Taylor Bradford? I’ll figure it out and let you know. LOL
So, pretty much don’t read any Barbaras until further notice. (I can vouch for Tuchman, though.)
LOL Yes, that’s a good plan. 😉
She was one of those household-name authors, and I remember thinking I’d give her a try. I’m just glad I stopped before I lost ten hours of my life (and shortened it even further with agita over the lack of editing).
The one I was thinking of is a woman who writes mostly in the horror genre.
Wait. Even Dr. Freelance, author of a book about the science art & voodoo of freelance pricing has a blip of fear when sending an estimate? Phew. Now I don’t feel so bad!
And somehow I think the list of things you think you stink at isn’t any larger than what’s on the rest of our lists.
Ha! I’ll consider not-feeling-so-bad a mission accomplished, Paula. 🙂
My biggest fear was not being good enough to work on Broadway, but I did it, and it was every bit as wonderful as I expected. I kept working hard.
Further to the above, the work gives me joy. Theatre and writing has always given me a joy and a purpose. It is far beyond any fears I encounter along the way. So I dig deeper and do it.
But I still get queasy every time I send in final galleys of a book. I’m always afraid my copy editor and I missed something major. The times I’ve found errors after publication, I’ve been mortified.
I get that way with my poetry. I love it as I write it, but can’t seem to get over maybe it’s not as good as I think. The folks in my writers’ group really didn’t understand the one, but it published, so I knew I’d hit the mark. But the rest? Still struggling with the doubts.
First, I’ll say for the record that I wish I had the creativity you both are talking about. I tried NaNoWriMo for something like 1500 words before waving the white flag.
And Devon, I hear you on the galley anxiety–that could definitely be another bullet!