After our recent trip to London for the IPSE Freelancer Awards in London, we have been thinking about ‘comfort zones’ and how the event was a good time to reflect on our own work. As freelancers it can be all too easy to get comfortable with regular clients and not challenge ourselves to take that step to try something new.
Most of us work at home and work alone. This has so many upsides, but one of the downsides is that we can miss exposure to others who may inspire, encourage, or challenge us. Combine this with trying to ensure you are doing enough to make a living and all of a sudden you’re stuck in a cycle of work that doesn’t match up to what you are capable of or what really gets you out of bed every morning.
We are both experienced freelance writers, having been journalists for over 20 years. But setting up Freelancing for Journalists just over 18 months ago was something completely new to us, and we didn’t imagine we would be at an awards ceremony for creating a podcast. Many parts of it have taken us beyond our regular day jobs and challenged us to develop new skills.
So if you are feeling like you would like to take a step outside your own comfort zone, we have a few tips based on our own experiences.
1. Work out where you are with your career
The first job is to put time aside for thinking. Take stock of where you are and what you would like to add to your work portfolio.
2. Write down your goal
Decide what it is you want to go for. After realising through our lecturing jobs that freelance journalism wasn’t really taught anywhere, and that much of the freelance world remained a mystery to many journalism students, we decided we wanted to change this status quo. Our aim was to ‘life the lid on freelance life’ and provide support and advice for those starting out working for themselves. Defining our goal in a sentence gave us a much-needed focus.
3. Start somewhere
How you get started isn’t that important but taking your first step out of your comfort zone is. The first thing we did was write a book. This wasn’t too far out of our comfort zone, since writing is what we do for a living, but it was a step out and it required a different way of working. It was also the thing that laid the foundations for the growth of the FFJ community. The podcast came next and this was something neither of us had any experience of.
4. Keep calm
Getting out of your comfort zone can definitely be anxiety-inducing at first, but it can also be pretty exhilarating. Try to focus on the things that you want and the positives that you will gain, rather than getting stuck in negative thoughts about things not working out. If something doesn’t go to plan that’s OK!
5. Don’t get bogged down
The acceptance that things will go wrong brings us to our next point. As you start something new, unexpected things will happen. The key is to remain flexible in your thinking.
A few episodes into recording our new podcast, the Covid-19 pandemic struck. Suddenly we were no longer able to access the university podcast studio we were using. We decided to carry on and started recording all our episodes by Zoom. This has brought so many unexpected bonuses and has allowed us to interview guests from four continents. We have gained a wealth of knowledge for our audiences from their diverse life experiences, and we have reached people we would never have reached if we had remained in our studio in Sheffield.
6. Believe in yourself
Our ideas had lots of barriers. If we had only focused on the barriers (and believe me there were a few biggies such as no podcasting experience, no equipment and a global pandemic) we would not have even started. But stepping out of our comfort zone and trying something new allowed us to work out that path as we progressed.
7. Find new solutions
As the FFJ community increased, our workload grew too. We knew we both wanted to keep FFJ going and growing, but we also wanted to keep doing what we love; being freelance journalists. With each step out of your comfort zone, there will be new challenges and things you had not perhaps envisaged. We eased our workload by hiring a research assistant and worked with work experience students who brought specific skills (and who we could offer mentoring). Being flexible allowed us to keep going.
8. Surround yourself with a supportive community
For us creating FFJ has taken us beyond our regular freelance journalism worlds and into exciting new places. We’ve met new colleagues, built great new relationships and collaborations.
Where will stepping out of your comfort zone take you?
What’s coming up
Series 6 of the Freelancing for Journalists podcast will be dropping into all the usual places very soon and we’re very excited to bring you some really great topics and guests. In the meantime you can find all our past episodes below including those fan faves Imposter syndrome, Working outside London and Should you ever work for free? at the link below or just search for us in Apple, Spotify and all the other directories.
Triumph of the week
Interviewing a series of incredibly inspiring people. That enthusiasm and drive is infectious!
That feeling when…
Something is cancelled in an incredibly busy day and you suddenly have the gift of time. Cup of tea and a biscuit time.
We love to hear your feedback on everything we do, so feel free to drop us an email anytime at freelancingforjournalists@gmail.com
Bye for now!