Vox Fortis Communications

First, a hearty thank you to all of you who asked where I have been. The last few months have been a blur, and something had to give with my time, which unfortunately wound up being my beloved blog.

The good news is, the dust has settled, and I have managed to budget my time in such a way that I can get back to this here thang.

Freelancing has been hard for me the past few months. I had one great month, followed by a scary-skimpy month in April. I cried. I felt like a failure. I actually started applying to full-time jobs, momentarily seduced by words like “steady paycheck” and “benefits.”

Here’s the reality, and to keep with the theme of my writings here, I’ll put it into internet marketing context.

If Google was indexing my life and my thoughts, and I punched in certain search phrases, none of them would return with “full-time job.” None. Well, except for “reliable pay” but that’s the only one. My keywwords would be things like:

Freedom to choose my work
Freedom to choose my clients
Ability to work from anywhere
Never working set hours

And many other things of the like. And you know what? Not one returned search term would refer to a full-time job. Even despite my frenzy for a few weeks, I couldn’t escape the thoughts that crept in…the ones that reminded me of all the reasons why I ditched my corporate job to begin with. Those keywords look something like this:
Cubicles
Micromangement
Petty, corporate sharks
Busywork
Glass ceiling

Which keywords do I want applied to my career? That answer is easy, even if sometimes the path isn’t. I had to let go of a client that just wasn’t working. It was a conglomeration of things, but suffice it to say that it was income that was hard to let go of. It made my April pretty paltry, which is what launched me into a “why am I putting myself through this” phase.

But I remembered why. I landed a gig last week that I’m rather excited about, should bring some steady income, with really fun people. It smacked me upside the head as I did some work this past weekend and took an hour off this afternoon to watch some TV. All those little things that I know I’d absolutely ache for if I was back to sitting in a car and commuting every day, sitting in a windowless cubicle and being beat over the head by upper management. I just don’t miss any of that, even if I miss the steady paycheck at times.

So, I’m back and re-rooting myself in the decision that being an independent contractor is best for me. Here I am, I’m digging my heels back into my blog and hitting “go.” The good news is, having a few months like this has refreshed the wealth of things for me to write about here, so I’m optimistically saying there will be no shortage of information, and no shortage of me hanging onto those keywords that got me here in the first place.