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Here are the post that I’m working on, but you get to decide which one comes first!

And now…let’s chat!

I hope your week is starting out well. We’re getting lots of family time this week which I’m loving, and next week the kids head to summer school. That means, I’ll be scrambling to catch up and ahem maybe even get ahead on somethings…or I’ll be comatose on the couch watching TV covered in chips…we’ll see.

📖Reading

I finished The Magic of Manifesting Money, and I have thoughts. I’ve already seen some things happening (not millions of dollars…yet. But things!). I’m so excited to share. I also read a few Substack posts this week that I loved:

• Be the Weirdo on the Group Trip. Playing Small Is Actually the Selfish Move, Trust Me - If you feel like you’re adjusting yourself to fit in, this is for you. And if you normally go your own way, she gives it a name 🧭🤍

• My highest revenue month, and I almost disappeared completely - Solene talks about something that I’ve seen time and time again — the craziest months outside of work end up being the best months for income and progress. Granted, she’s training for a triathlon, and I was on vacation in May, but the result holds true. When things feel like they’re spiraling out of control, systems hold it together, and these moments are where the most growth often happens 🌪🤑

• Pillow talk: The history of hotel beds - I love Erica’s dives into different aspects of hotels…and her feed is full of stunning hotels and features that make me feel a little fancier.

💻Working on

This week is light, but I have quite a few assignments lined up for this month, so things are looking pretty good overall!

• 3 Angi assignments (submitted just a few minutes ago)

• 4 MoneyLion assignments

• Working on my latest for Associated Wire Rope Fabricators

🤍Loving

The transition into summer has been a little tricky. All of our kids love school (our school is honestly so good), so being home and getting into a new routine — even with the extra TV time, sleeping in, and freedom — takes some getting used to, but I’m just super happy we get to do summer together!

🧠 Thinking

There’s a quote from The Magic of Manifesting Money that basically said that in every moment, you have exactly what you need to exist. That’s not the exact quote, but I’ve been turning it over in my mind ever since (Great Gatsby reference). It’s very easy to get sucked into wanting more and needing more, but in any given moment, you exist.

You have enough in that moment. I think that’s what living in the present moment actually means. You can still have hopes and dreams and aspirations for the future, but there’s a calm that comes from knowing that this moment is taken care of.

I’ll be doing a deeper dive into this book in a future post because there was so much that resonated with me. I actually started reading it from the beginning immediately after I finished it!

I want to know all of your over coffee things. You can copy and past the list in the comments and add what you’re:

📖Reading

💻Working on

🤍Loving

🧠 Thinking

Leave a comment

Ways to support The Simple Freelancer

If you want to send some support, here are a few options:

• Share what you enjoy about The Simple Freelancer here. I’ll share testimonials on LinkedIn and on Substack Notes to get the word out for other freelancers who could benefit from simple tips for freelance success.

Share a testimonial

• Restack this post or share it on your social media of choice (and come say hi on LinkedIn. I love the LinkedIn x Substack vibe).

• Ask Me Anything about freelancing, work-life balance, mindset, and whatever else. This will give me ideas for future posts!

• Buy Me a Coffee or download a resource from my Buy Me a Coffee shop.

• Check out the resources I have available on Gumroad (some are free and some have an associated cost).

• Buy this mug of anything from the Freelance Survival Guide. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases..

• Follow me on Pinterest.

• Share this post so others can find it!

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Upcoming paid subscriber events:

• Today!!! May 19 @ 2:00 (CST): Substack Live Q&A with myself and Rebecca Treon of Breaking into Freelance Writing. During our live event, we’re going to be talking about press trips, the many things a freelance writer needs to do to be successful, and pitching. We’ll also be answering your questions!

If you click the link, I think you can RSVP. But maybe not. We’re figuring it out as we go!

Join the LIVE!

We just got back from a whole week in Idaho, and it was incredible. My husband and I lived in a little mountain town about a thousand years ago, and this was my first time back. I also squeezed in a hosted stay in Deadwood, SD, and I’ll be breaking that down in a future post. All-in-all, it was just an amazing week — and I worked the whole time.

The real reason I worked on vacation

The short answer? I love working.

The longer answer? The thought of not working for 10 days is yucky. And I get endless joy out of the fact that I can be 2,000 miles from home and make the same amount of money that I would make if I was sitting in my little office nook.

But working while traveling with three kids over four days of driving and staying in hotels and an Airbnb takes some planning to make it work.

Here’s what I did to keep up with work and have an amazing and relaxing vacation.

I got up early

I mean, you probably knew this was coming. Even though I was technically on vacation, my alarm was still set for 4 am. And even though I was on vacation, the kids still woke up before 6 am, so that didn’t give me a ton of time. I did this each day in Deadwood and worked from the hotel desk, and I did it while at the Airbnb, working from the couch as the sun came up over the mountains.

To get the most out of this time, I woke up with a plan and knew exactly what I needed to be working on. I limited the amount of emails I read and anything extra that I would maybe do during a regular workday.

I found little bits of time throughout the day

I had two calls that I needed to take one day (one with to plan our Live — join us at 3:00 CST today! — and one with an editor that resulted in two accepted pitches!), so I made sure to schedule our daily activities around that time. I got an assignment letter and invoice reminder one day and sat down at the computer to take care of them quickly.

I snuck off to a coffee shop

I even took a picture, but it didn’t save! There was a super cute coffee shop downtown, so I took a couple hours one morning and headed down there alone for some focused work — and a honey lavender latte, of course!

I worked late

If you’ve been here for any length of time, you know that I would much rather get up at 3 am to work than work after 8 pm, but the volume of work made a few late nights necessary. I’m definitely not as focused after sunset, but I made an effort and got enough done that it did make a difference and lightened my morning load a bit.

I worked in the van

After a week of travel, I was bursting with pitch ideas, so I grabbed my little travel notebook and wrote out a bunch of pitches on the drive home. That way, when I start sending them out this week, all I have to do is type them up and get them out there.

I also did other stuff!

Writing this, it sounds like all I did was work, but I assure you that wasn’t the case. In Deadwood, we explored the town, watched a shootout, got coffee, hiked a bit of the Mickelson trail, checked out restaurants, watched glass blowing, and went to the Days of ‘76 Museum.

In Idaho, my husband and I had coffee on the deck, I finished reading Spellstruck and Last Branch Standing. We went on drives and took walks by the river and visited the library and museums. We got ice cream — huckleberry ice cream in a homemade waffle cone to be exact. We bought souvenirs. We visited friends we hadn’t seen in 10 years. I stared at the mountains. We went out to lunch and dinner and checked out coffee shops and bakeries. We visited the thrift store that my husband and I loved when we lived there.

It was perfect.

You don’t have to work on vacation

The point of all this isn’t that you should work on vacation. The point is that you can do whatever you want!

If you close your laptop before a week away and heave a sigh of relief that you won’t have to check emails or work on assignments, then definitely don’t take the work with you. Or if you’re traveling for an event or have a tight schedule, working may not be the best idea either. When my brother got married, I made sure that I didn’t have any deadlines over the time we were gone.

The best thing about freelancing is being able to make your own schedule and work when it’s best for you. Yesterday, for instance, I worked in the morning and afternoon to make room for a mid-day Costco run!

Where do you stand on working while on vacation? Love it or hate it???

FLOWN is a body-doubling and co-working platform that helps increase focus and productivity. You can join drop-in sessions, focus sessions, or community-hosted sessions. It’s a great platform for friendship and focus!

It’s free to join and you get an allotment of sessions that you can join throughout the month (plus free Fridays!). These are the ones I’ll be in this week if you want to see a friendly face (but actually everyone is friendly!):

📅 My FLOWN calendar

I’m getting back into the groove this week, so I don’t have anything planned, but I might pop into a few FLOWNS. Hope to see you there!

📖Reading

I’m currently reading The Lost Bookshop (paid link) by Evie Woods. It’s another magical realism book which has earned a place as one of my favorite genres, along with cozy mysteries and nearly all nonfiction. I got it through my Kindle Unlimited subscription that came free with my Kindle. Some of the themes are a little heavier than what I typically gravitate towards (anything that can be described as charming), and I’m really enjoying it!

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

💻Working on

I’m back at my desk this week and am working on:

• 3 small business lending articles

• Testing an ice maker and writing a Popular Mechanics review

• 5 MoneyLion articles

• Plus, 4 interviews for articles

🤍Loving

As this post showed, I love being able to work on vacation while enjoying the time away from home. But I also love coming home. The time in Idaho, with the mountains, was so needed, and I feel like it was a perfect reset, but coming home to our land and our deck and softball and tball practices and my own bed is always wonderful. We haven’t really traveled in the last few years, so I’m also loving getting back into it, and we have two more trips scheduled soon — one hosted and one to visit family. I’m so excited to do the next hosted trip and share my experience and tips!

🧠 Thinking

About all the pitches I’m going to send out about the trip. Everything from how to take your kids on a 24 hour roadtrip (actually 48 hours if you count there and back), lodges with a view, and more! Editors, I’m coming for you 📨!

I want to know all of your over coffee things. You can copy and past the list in the comments and add what you’re:

📖Reading

💻Working on

🤍Loving

🧠 Thinking

Leave a comment

Ways to support The Simple Freelancer

If you want to send some support, here are a few options:

• Share what you enjoy about The Simple Freelancer here. I’ll share testimonials on LinkedIn and on Substack Notes to get the word out for other freelancers who could benefit from simple tips for freelance success.

Share a testimonial

• Restack this post or share it on your social media of choice (and come say hi on LinkedIn. I love the LinkedIn x Substack vibe).

• Ask Me Anything about freelancing, work-life balance, mindset, and whatever else. This will give me ideas for future posts!

• Buy Me a Coffee or download a resource from my Buy Me a Coffee shop.

• Check out the resources I have available on Gumroad (some are free and some have an associated cost).

• Buy this mug of anything from the Freelance Survival Guide. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases..

• Follow me on Pinterest.

• Share this post so others can find it!

Subscribe to The Simple Freelancer to get two posts per week straight to your inbox 💌. You’ll get at least one Behind-the-Pitch post each month from myself or a guest poster as well as lots of simple tips for freelance success. Grab a coffee, and let’s hang out ☕!

Subscribe now

I started this Substack doing one post per week, and then upped it to two. I have loooots of thoughts about freelancing and love writing here, but with summer and some travel coming and a need to focus more on client work, I’ve decided to go back to one post per week. I’ll still be sharing lots of tips for making freelancing simple, and I’ll move the Coffee Chat section to the Thursday posts (because I love it!).

I’ve been thinking a lot about The Simple Freelancer and what I want things to look like moving forward. I did my first Substack Live last week, and it was so much fun (thank you to everyone who came)! Moving forward, there way be a few more opportunities to interact and hang — I’m thinking The Simple Freelancer Club — but it’s still in my head at the moment!

I’m also working on a client acquisition framework to give myself some structure, and if it works, I’ll be sharing and have considered doing a sort of cohort/coworking something to make it easier to stick to.

FLOWN is a body-doubling and co-working platform that helps increase focus and productivity. You can join drop-in sessions, focus sessions, or community-hosted sessions. It’s a great platform for friendship and focus!

It’s free to join and you get an allotment of sessions that you can join throughout the month (plus free Fridays!). These are the ones I’ll be in this week if you want to see a friendly face (but actually everyone is friendly!):

📅 My FLOWN calendar

Come hang out on FLOWN! Here’s where I’ll be this week!

• Tuesday April 14 @ 9:00 CST: 1 Hour Focus Session

• Wednesday April 15 @ 10:00 am CST: Coffee Chat & Work Session with me! Grab a coffee, come hang out, say hi, and get some work done!

• Friday April 17 @ 12:20 CST: All 👀 on Me with Jowanna. I love Jowanna’s sessions. She incorporates meditation, movement, and spoken check ins!

Come join a FLOCK!

📖Reading

Last Branch Standing by Sara Isgur, host of Advisory Opinions, is supposed to be here today, and so is my Kindle. I have a hard time spending money on things sometimes, and I had the Kindle in my Amazon cart for a week (and talked about it for a lot longer), but as soon as I hit purchase, I was so excited!

I’m an Amazon affiliate and may make a commission on qualifying purchases through a link.

💻Working on

This week is full, and so is next week!

• 2 woodworking articles

• 1 New American Funding article

• 2 GOBankingRates articles

• 1 small business client article (maybe a second if I can get to it)

• I’m also testing a new client acquisition method, and if it works, I’ll be sharing!!!

🤍Loving

I get to write for a local magazine. It’s unpaid, but I get to check out local events and spaces, interview the owners, and then write about it. Yesterday, I took a yoga class and interviewed the teacher/owner. It was so lovely, and I can’t wait to write up the story!

🧠 Thinking

And this is why I love the Coffee Chat section — I can go back and see what I’ve been thinking about over the past weeks. I’m not much of a journaler, so this sort of takes the place of that, and I can see how it would be helpful. Anyway, this is what I wrote last week:

I’ve been thinking about The Simple Freelancer and considering going to just one post a week and/or opening up paid subscriptions as a way to financially support the time that I put into the posts each week (which I love doing). I’ll keep thinking!

This might also be because last week was a week. I had a horrible cold and am still feeling a bit behind. (Thank goodness it was a light week, and I had the time to do this and rest on the couch a whole bunch).

I felt off again yesterday, and I think that cemented going to one post per week. From now on, I’ll be seeing you on Thursdays 🤗

I want to know all of your over coffee things. You can copy and past the list in the comments and add what you’re:

📖Reading

💻Working on

🤍Loving

🧠 Thinking

Leave a comment

Ways to support The Simple Freelancer

If you’ve been following my Substack, especially over the last few weeks, you know I’ve debated about whether or not to do paid content. After a lot of thought and some very welcome reader feedback, I decided that paywalling content just didn’t feel right for me or The Simple Freelancer. I’m exploring other ways to monetize (if you want to sponsor a post to share your product or service, message me or check out my Passionfroot page!), but in the meantime, if you want to send some support, here are a few options:

• Share what you enjoy about The Simple Freelancer here. I’ll share testimonials on LinkedIn and on Substack Notes to get the word out for other freelancers who could benefit from simple tips for freelance success.

Share a testimonial

• Restack this post or share it on your social media of choice (and come say hi on LinkedIn. I love the LinkedIn x Substack vibe).

• Ask Me Anything about freelancing, work-life balance, mindset, and whatever else. This will give me ideas for future posts!

• Buy Me a Coffee or download a resource from my Buy Me a Coffee shop.

• Check out the resources I have available on Gumroad (some are free and some have an associated cost).

• Buy this mug of anything from the Freelance Survival Guide. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases..

• Follow me on Pinterest.

• Share this post so others can find it!

  Share

What started as panic over AI taking our jobs and then excitement over its time-wasting capabilities (anyone else turn themselves into a muppet?) and then awe as it optimized daily schedules has transformed into integrating it into daily life and work to make me more efficient.

Subscribe to The Simple Freelancer to get two posts per week straight to your inbox 💌. You’ll get at least one Behind-the-Pitch post each month from myself or a guest poster as well as lots of simple tips for freelance success. Grab a coffee, and let’s hang out ☕!

Subscribe now

Like with any other invention, there’s a period of wariness that ultimately shifts into acceptance and then down the road, we’ll have to explain to our children that we used to have to search Google and then read multiple articles ourselves to get all of the information that AI gives us with the click of the enter key.

I thought it would be fun to share what I’ve been using AI for. I’m always interested in what other people are using it for and get inspired to get more creative, so I hope this gives you some ideas.

• Book publication dates. I was writing an article about summer reads and needed books published in 2024 or later. I keep a list in my Keep notes with all the books I read, but didn’t have the publications dates. I initially planned to look up the ones I knew were more recent, but then I realized I could copy and paste the list into ChatGPT What would have taken me quite awhile, took like 3 seconds!

• Updating figures in a table. For one of my regular assignments, I have to change cost figures in a table. Rather than manually doing the math for each line, I paste the table into ChatGPT and ask it to increase or decrease the figures by a certain percentage. I double check the figures and enter them. It saves so much time.

• Plant care. I have traditionally been a terrible plant parent, but I’m determined to have thriving plants! When I picture “paid off house Steph,” she has lots of plants, so I figured I’d better start now. When I was visiting a friend last week, she asked how my plants were doing (well!) and gave me one of hers! I had no idea what it was or how to care for it, so I took a picture with ChatGPT, and it told me the name of the plant and care instructions. Then I took pictures of my other plants and got care recommendations for those!

• Daily article digest. This is more of a goal than something I’ve put into practice. I don’t read as many articles as I would like from the publications that I want to (and do) write for. When I start looking at different websites, I get overwhelmed with how much there is to read and then don’t end up reading anything, so I set up a “daily digest” in ChatGPT. I haven’t done it as regularly as I would like, but I basically said to round up a list of 3 recent articles from certain publications and then it gives me a list. I don’t have to think, I can just click and read!

• Potential clients. I input the things I’m looking for in potential clients, particularly in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction industry, and it gave me a table of different associations and publications along with some contact info. I’m still refining this, and then I have to be the one doing the actual outreach, but it’s a great place to start.

Basically, I’ve been looking for ways to use AI to take the basic tasks off my plate and use it more as an assistant.

How are you using AI these days?

Leave a comment

FLOWN is a body-doubling and co-working platform that helps increase focus and productivity. You can join drop-in sessions, focus sessions, or community-hosted sessions. It’s a great platform for friendship and focus!

It’s free to join and you get an allotment of sessions that you can join throughout the month (plus free Fridays!). These are the ones I’ll be in this week if you want to see a friendly face (but actually everyone is friendly!):

📅 My FLOWN calendar

Come hang out on FLOWN! Here’s where I’ll be this week!

• Tuesday April 7 @ 11:00 CST: 1 Hour Focus Session

• Wednesday April 8 @ 10:00 am CST: Coffee Chat & Work Session Grab a coffee, come hang out, say hi, and get some work done! There were a few people in here last week, and it was great!

  ---

📖Reading

I got an Advanced Reader Copy of The Silent Appeal by Janice Hallett and devoured it in two days! Her books are so good, and this one did not disappoint! I now have a Kindle in my Amazon cart, but I’m still talking myself into clicking buy!

I also preordered Last Branch Standing by Sara Isgur, host of Advisory Opinions, and it’s supposed to ship on April 14!

I’m an Amazon affiliate and may make a commission on qualifying purchases through a link.

💻Working on

This week is a little light, so that means more time for outreach and zeroing in on my ideal client!

• 1 woodworking article

• 1 Business Insider article about how I build my kids’ independence (so excited about this one!)

• 1 Real Simple article (submitted yesterday)

• 1 IMEO review

• I’m also going to re-focus my efforts on content marketing clients and set a few things up there.

🤍Loving

Upcoming travel is booked, and one trip includes a hosted stay! This will be my first one, so I’m now consumed with panic over making sure I get a story or seven picked up to justify it, but it’s a good and exciting panic. I’ll take any tips about hosted stays and pitching travel stories that you want to send my way!

🧠 Thinking

I’ve been thinking about The Simple Freelancer and considering going to just one post a week and/or opening up paid subscriptions as a way to financially support the time that I put into the posts each week (which I love doing). I’ll keep thinking!

This might also be because last week was a week. I had a horrible cold and am still feeling a bit behind. (Thank goodness it was a light week, and I had the time to do this and rest on the couch a whole bunch).

PSA: Doctors and nurses are incredible and wonderful and knowledgeable, but they’re also people who don’t know everything, so if you’re not sure about a diagnosis, get multiple opinions and be your own advocate and trust yourself!

I want to know all of your over coffee things. You can copy and past the list in the comments and add what you’re:

📖Reading

💻Working on

🤍Loving

🧠 Thinking

Leave a comment

Ways to support The Simple Freelancer

If you’ve been following my Substack, especially over the last few weeks, you know I’ve debated about whether or not to do paid content. After a lot of thought and some very welcome reader feedback, I decided that paywalling content just didn’t feel right for me or The Simple Freelancer. I’m exploring other ways to monetize (if you want to sponsor a post to share your product or service, message me or check out my Passionfroot page!), but in the meantime, if you want to send some support, here are a few options:

• Share what you enjoy about The Simple Freelancer here. I’ll share testimonials on LinkedIn and on Substack Notes to get the word out for other freelancers who could benefit from simple tips for freelance success.

Share a testimonial

• Restack this post or share it on your social media of choice (and come say hi on LinkedIn. I love the LinkedIn x Substack vibe).

• Ask Me Anything about freelancing, work-life balance, mindset, and whatever else. This will give me ideas for future posts!

• Buy Me a Coffee or download a resource from my Buy Me a Coffee shop.

• Check out the resources I have available on Gumroad (some are free and some have an associated cost).

• Buy this mug of anything from the Freelance Survival Guide. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases..

• Follow me on Pinterest.

• Share this post so others can find it!

  Share

I’m feeling that more and more as the year continues. So, here’s what’s been going on lately!

Subscribe to The Simple Freelancer to get two posts per week straight to your inbox 💌. You’ll get at least one Behind-the-Pitch post each month from myself or a guest poster as well as lots of simple tips for freelance success. Grab a coffee, and let’s hang out ☕!

Subscribe now

Inbound leads

We’ve all heard about the message that lands in your inbox. Someone has work and they want you to do it! I’ll be honest, for all the time I spend on LinkedIn (not a ton, but some), this inbound lead has been elusive. I’ve done lots of outreach over the years and have had some conversations that ultimately led to work, but very few clients have just said “hey, I have work for you.”

Until this month.

I received a LinkedIn DM that said something to the effect of “I’m looking for another contributor to my magazine, are you interested?”

Um. Yes.

It’s for a very random publication in a very niche industry, but the editor and I had a mutual connection in the space and bingo bango, now I have a new client (that pays well!). I’m starting on the first assignment soon, and I’ll keep you posted!

The lesson? Keep going. Every post you post and every connection you make could be the invisible string that ultimately results in an inbound lead.

Books?!?!

Learning about how PR and media work together has been a learning curve. It seems like there’s always something new to learn about accepting samples or working with PR reps. I’ve been doing this for awhile and thought I was pretty up to speed. But then, I wrote about cozy mysteries, and publicists from publishers started reaching out with the opportunity to get Advanced Reader Copies.

What do you mean I can get books to review before they’re actually published?!?!

I’m working on a story about vacation reads and just got a few books for consideration!

Because I’m reading books for consideration, I’m seriously considering getting a Kindle. I’ve wanted one for awhile, but I also love physical books. Given the work connection, I could justify it as a work expense, but I’m not ready to spend the money yet. Amazon is having a spring sale, and this one is $99.99. But then should I just do it right and get the Kindle Paperwhite? Eventually, I’d like to get my kids one, too (but there are three kids, do they each need their own? Argh. This is why I usually just don’t buy anything!)

Some upcoming travel

Throughout 2020 and 2023, we traveled a lot. Mostly within a few hours, but we also did larger trips to Texas and Wyoming. We bought our house in 2023 and have been focused on paying it off, so travel has taken a backseat. This year, we have a few trips planned, and I’d like to get a few more on the books.

I’m working on moving into some travel writing and have a potential hosted stay in the works as well. I’d like to focus on the Midwest, so if you’re reading this and represent any destinations that fit, I’m all ears!

Pursuing opportunities

I’m constantly stunned by the opportunities that come with freelance writing! I’m a former teacher, and most of my friends are either current or former teachers. As much as I loved it, it’s a pretty insular profession. You’re in a classroom with kids all day and most professional adult interactions are geared towards making the school better for the kids.

The world of marketing, writing, media, small business, and everything that comes with freelance writing still stuns me, in a good way, on a daily basis.

Sometimes I feel like I should focus more on one niche or type of client, but I also know that I would regret not pursuing the opportunities that come with this job.

Subscribe now

Ways to support The Simple Freelancer

If you’ve been following my Substack, especially over the last few weeks, you know I’ve debated about whether or not to do paid content. After a lot of thought and some very welcome reader feedback, I decided that paywalling content just didn’t feel right for me or The Simple Freelancer. I’m exploring other ways to monetize (if you want to sponsor a post to share your product or service, message me or check out my Passionfroot page!), but in the meantime, if you want to send some support, here are a few options:

• Share what you enjoy about The Simple Freelancer here. I’ll share testimonials on LinkedIn and on Substack Notes to get the word out for other freelancers who could benefit from simple tips for freelance success.

Share a testimonial

• Restack this post or share it on your social media of choice (and come say hi on LinkedIn. I love the LinkedIn x Substack vibe).

• Ask Me Anything about freelancing, work-life balance, mindset, and whatever else. This will give me ideas for future posts!

• Buy Me a Coffee or download a resource from my Buy Me a Coffee shop.

• Check out the resources I have available on Gumroad (some are free and some have an associated cost).

• Buy this mug of anything from the Freelance Survival Guide. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases..

• Follow me on Pinterest.

• Share this post so others can find it!

  Subscribe now

I originally posted this last September, but I’m reposting in honor of Sleep Week! This post also features what I think is the best graphic I’ve ever made!

It’s no secret if you’ve been here for a while that I’m an early riser. I typically get up around 4:15 and go to bed between 9:30 and 11:00. I’ve always considered myself very lucky that I don’t have trouble going to sleep, especially because some of the women in my family really struggle with sleep. That said, I still want to set myself up for the best sleep possible.

Over the last year or so, I’ve received a few products that I’ve loved and that have made me really understand the impact that the right products can have on getting a great slumber. From sheets to mouth tape, these are the products I use almost every night to wind down and get a great night’s sleep.

P.S. I’ve been wanting to write this post for a long time, but it takes a long time to round up the links, get the photos, make the graphic, write the descriptions, etc etc. Kudos to all of you out there curating products and sharing your finds!

The foundation

These are the things that set the scene for a great night’s sleep.

Baloo Stonewashed Linen Sheets: These sheets are expensive, but now that I’ve slept on them, I don’t know what I would do without them. I had always wanted to try linen sheets because I think they look equally chic and cozy (I feel like I need to know that I’m not chic, but I like to try). They always look a little wrinkled which I think is charming. They get a little hot when it’s hot in our room, but they’re extra wonderful when it’s chilly.

Motette PJs: I’ve always slept in sweatpants and t-shirt, and I’ve always felt frumpy when I go to bed at night. When the founder of Motette reached out about testing these bamboo pajamas, I jumped at the chance. They are soft and flowy and, what surprised me the most, is that they’re the right weight which I didn’t know I needed. I love the feeling of slipping these on at night—I feel very put together.

Ostrichpillow Eye Mask: Back when I was pregnant, I remember being irrationally angry when my husband had his light on when I wanted to go to sleep. Did I ask him to turn it off? No. Did I get an eye mask? Also no. As soon as I put this Ostrichpillow Eye Mask on, I realized just how silly I had been, this would have solved all my problems! The thing I love most about this eye mask is the blink-friendly cups on the inside. That way my eyes aren’t smushed down, and if I need to blink with it on, I can.

Mouth tape

I can’t explain why I love mouth tape so much, but I really love it. I’ve been mouth taping for about a year and half. I’ve heard a lot about the benefits, and while I can’t report a more snatched jawline, I can say that there was only one night I couldn’t wear it because of a cough. But other than that, I’ve never been too stuffed up, so that’s something!

Dream Recovery: This mouth tape brand offers quite a few options including mouth tape, mouth strips, different colors, and collagen infused mouth tape. I prefer full coverage, so the strips don’t work well for me, but if you’re just starting out, these would work really well. I love the full-coverage ones!

oi tape: This might be my favorite of the mouth tapes I’ve tried. They offer vented and non-vented styles, and again, I prefer non-vented. The vented is great for a beginner who needs to take a small sip of air every now and then. This is weird, but the thing I really like is that the mouth tape is on one piece of backing instead of two—less trash to clean up.

The Skinny Confidential Mouth Tape: I love pretty much everything that Lauryn from The Skinny Confidential does, and her mouth tape is no different. This type is also vented, so it’s good for beginners. If you want mouth tape that makes a statement, this is the way to go. They offer navy blue now, which I love!

Skincare

Musely The Acne Cream: I wrote a review of this cream for In My Expert Opinion because it cleared up my acne. At 40, I still had terrible breakouts around my jawline, and this cream cleared it up!

Nakery Beauty Lift-Tox Night Repair Cream: I love this cream so much! I always hesitate to really recommend skincare because I feel like I won’t really know how well it works until I’m 80 and either glowing or impersonating an old shoe. But this cream feels so luxurious and creamy, and it’s the perfect compliment to the Seald face tape.

Seald Face Tape: Face taping is supposed to lift wrinkles gently as you sleep. I haven’t been consistent enough to see dramatic results, but I do like wearing this at night. I have the forehead tape and the face tape. This doesn’t leave any residue which I love, and I do think it helps to smooth the railroad track of a wrinkle that spans my forehead.

Sleep enhancers

Myo & D-Chiro Inositol: This supplement is good for hormonal support, but I’ve always heard it’s good for sleep as well. When I got to try it, I was surprised that it felt like I was getting better sleep. Again, I don’t have trouble sleeping, but this made me feel like I was getting more restful sleep. I ran out a while back, and now I think I need to get a refill!

Nakery Beauty SkinRecovery Relax + Repair Body Balm with Magnesium + Melatonin: Infused with melatonin, magnesium, and retinol, this body balm also enhances relaxation and tightens everything up while you sleep. To conserve it a bit, I just apply it to my feet, neck, and chest, but you can apply it all over. It smells amazing!

Head Scratcher: I do this every now and them to stimulate my scalp before I go to sleep. I’ve heard that helps with hair growth, and I’m terrified that my hair’s going to start thinning!

What about you? Do you use any products or have any routines that get you a great night’s sleep?

Leave a comment

❔Ask Me Anything!

I just checked my Ask Me Anything form and realized there are a few questions that I haven’t answered yet, so we’ll start with this one:

What strategies did you use to land one of your dream clients? I’d love to create content about animals, but the companies I’d love to collaborate with don’t offer pitch opportunities or guest posting.

This is a great question! More companies use freelancers than you would think, so they might actually use freelance writers to create their content. It’s also possible that they contract with a marketing company to create content. I have three clients right now that work with marketing companies to plan and create content, and I actually contract with the marketing company and not the business itself.

That said, the way that I’ve gotten dream clients is by being a little delusional and persistent. I’m a big believer that mindset really matters, so I kept telling myself that I would get to work with them eventually and then kept reaching out. This didn’t look like the perfect email with follow ups every two weeks. Sometimes this looked like sending an email and not getting a response and then sending an email a few months later and also not getting a response. And then reaching out to a former editor who now worked at that publication. And then following up with her. And then finally getting an email back from the editor I wanted to work with.

Despite what anyone says or how many formulas there are out there, you have to find out what works for you. Maybe that’s a curated list of companies and periodic follow ups. Maybe that means tagging the company in a LinkedIn post about the companies you want to work with.

P.S. Would anyone be interested in a Live Substack Q&A??? It seems like it would be really fun!

📅 My FLOWN calendar

If you missed last week’s post on body-doubling, you need to check it out! FLOWN is a virtual co-working and body-doubling platform that’s great for focus and productivity, and you might even make a friend or two! This is the session I’m planning on joining today:

• Tuesday, March 10 @ 11:00 am (CST): 1 hour focus session with Karla

I’m going to set up my own session soon, so if you want to check it out, be on the lookout for that!

📖Reading

Because this is a repost, I got to look back at my Coffee Chat, and it was right when I started reading Harry Potter to the kids at night. That was last September — it’s hard to believe that we’ve read the first three and are now halfway through The Goblet of Fire. The kids are thoroughly obsessed, mostly my son, so we’ve gotten the movies and coloring books to go along with the readings.

I’m still reading The Nine about the Supreme Court. It’s actually wild to read the history of a lot of the cases that shape the way our country works today. It’s also discouraging to see that we’re largely having the same fights about right and wrong and constitutional and unconsititutional that they were having 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago. At some point, I would think there would be agreement on more than there actually is.

💻Working on

The kids had spring break last week, so I got a bit behind. This week brings:

• 1 woodworking article (submitted)

• 1 small business client article

• 4 Angi articles

• 3 GOBankingRates articles

• A Popular Mechanics article that I’m really excited about

• An article for a local magazine

I’m also working on my sitting posture. My shoulders have been very painful lately, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is, I’m sure, how I sit at my desk. I just realized how low my monitors are. I think that contributes a lot to the hunching, so this afternoon, I made a little shelf for them to sit on, and I can already tell a difference!

🤍Loving

This is what I wrote in the original post last September: I’m loving our home right now (and always, but especially now). I’m still on the hunt for the best sectional (I’d love to review one for In My Expert Opinion!). We need one upstairs and a smaller one downstairs (right now we just lay on cushions in the basement!). As it gets closer to cozy season, I find myself on the hunt again. My dream is a calm and cozy living room. There’s one on my vision board that I use for inspiration.

The next month, we got the sectional I’ve been dreaming about for years! It’s actually gigantic, and we got a great deal. I’m still not sure how, but the price just kept coming down. Now, I love our living room even more!!!

🧠 Thinking

There are so many moments in parenting and in life in general that pass us by, and we don’t realize how wonderful they are or that it may be the last time it happens. That’s one of the reasons I’m thankful that we’re reading the Harry Potter series together. I know, as it’s happening, that I’ll look back on this time with a lot of love. The kids look forward to reading together every night just like I do, and I just know that it’s a really special time.

I want to know all of your over coffee things. You can copy and past the list in the comments and add what you’re:

📖Reading

🎧Listening

🤍Loving

🧠 Thinking

Leave a comment

And don’t forget to Ask Me Anything about freelancing, morning routines, work/life balance, struggles, getting started, etc etc etc, and I’ll answer it in Thursday’s newsletter!

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Hot beverage: Mine’s almost always in my YETI mug. I’ve also been rotating in The Fullest Saffron Lattes and RYZE mushroom coffee.

Fully charged laptop: For writing on the go. I always keep mine super simple and just have an Acer Chromebook.

The good pens: My go-to is Pilot G2 0.38. I will accept no substitutes.

Some outside time: Getting some sun on your face can recharge you for the rest of the day.

Idea notebook close at hand: You never know when inspiration will strike! I use a Five Star 5-Subject College Ruled notebook for my weekly schedule and a Rifle Paper Co notebook for tracking pitches and pitch ideas.

A plan for the day that will inevitably change: I love a good schedule, but I also know that my days change more often than not. I’ll come up with a good pitch idea mid-writing sprint, a kid will get sick, I’ll decide to run an errand, a friend will call for coffee. But that’s the beauty of freelancing - you can make your schedule fit your life!

Subscribe to The Simple Freelancer to get two posts per week straight to your inbox 💌. You’ll get at least one Behind-the-Pitch post each month from myself or a guest poster as well as lots of simple tips for freelance success. Grab a coffee, and let’s hang out ☺☕!

Subscribe now

Last year, I launched Freelance Foundations, a course for freelancers who want to start or grow their business.

This year, I want to make it a little more accessible for those who aren’t ready to invest in the entire course.

To do this, I broke two of the modules into their own mini courses, and each one is just $20! Plus, if you decide that you do want to buy the whole course, you’ll get 25% off to make sure you’re not paying for the same module twice.

How to Set Up Your Freelance Business walks you through how to set up your business systems, what to look for in a contract, and sending invoices. You’ll also get the Income and Assignment Track

How to Find Freelance Clients helps you zero in on your ideal clients and learn where to look for them. I also included real messages I’ve sent that have turned into new clients.

Welcome to our weekly chat! There’s a Coffee Chat template below that you can copy and paste into a Note or a comment. Tell me what you’re reading, working on, loving, and thinking!

📖Reading

For those anxiously waiting to hear what part of the home I’m reading about in At Home by Bill Bryson (probably everyone), we’ve made it to the fuse box!

💻 Working On

This week is a little light but as far as February goes it was a really good month!

• 1 small business client post (already submitted)

• 4 GOBankingRates article (2 are written already!)

🤍Loving

I got to go to dinner with friends last week, and man, sometimes you just need to sit at a restaurant for two hours and just laugh. We realized that we’ve been friends for a decade now, and that feels so wild! The conversation drifted from inside jokes we’ve been laughing at for years to more serious topics and back into giggles. The best.

🧠 Thinking

I haven’t kept up with my winter curriculum focus on learning more about the Supreme Court, but I did listen to this 1440 Explores episode about the beginnings of the court and some of the cases that have shaped the way we live today. I was excited that I know enough that some of the cases were familiar to me!

I was also excited that the tariff decision came out this week because this was one of the cases that I followed from before the arguments (with help from Advisory Opinions) to actually listening to the arguments and following along on SCOTUSBlog’s live blog and listening to the AO post argument breakdown. It was really interesting to watch it from the earlier stages through the actual decision. Next, I want to start reading some of the actual opinions rather than just listening to the summaries.

I want to know all of your over coffee things. You can copy and past the list in the comments and add what you’re:

📖Reading

💻Working on

🤍Loving

🧠 Thinking

Leave a comment

Ways to support The Simple Freelancer

If you’ve been following my Substack, especially over the last few weeks, you know I’ve debated about whether or not to do paid content. After a lot of thought and some very welcome reader feedback, I decided that paywalling content just didn’t feel right for me or The Simple Freelancer. I’m exploring other ways to monetize (if you want to sponsor a post to share your product or service, message me or check out my Passionfroot page!), but in the meantime, if you want to send some support, here are a few options:

• Share what you enjoy about The Simple Freelancer here. I’ll share testimonials on LinkedIn and on Substack Notes to get the word out for other freelancers who could benefit from simple tips for freelance success.

Share a testimonial

• Restack this post or share it on your social media of choice (and come say hi on LinkedIn. I love the LinkedIn x Substack vibe).

• Ask Me Anything about freelancing, work-life balance, mindset, and whatever else. This will give me ideas for future posts!

• Buy Me a Coffee or download a resource from my Buy Me a Coffee shop.

• Check out the resources I have available on Gumroad (some are free and some have an associated cost).

• Buy this mug using the link. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. I literally just signed up, so we’ll see how it goes. Ideally, I’ll link to a list of stuff that makes freelance life better (blankets, coffee mugs, notebooks, you get the idea).

• Follow me on Pinterest.

• Share this post so others can find it!

Share

Last year, I launched Freelance Foundations, a course for freelancers who want to start or grow their business.

This year, I want to make it a little more accessible for those who aren’t ready to invest in the entire course.

To do this, I broke two of the modules into their own mini courses, and each one is just $20! Plus, if you decide that you do want to buy the whole course, you’ll get 25% off to make sure you’re not paying for the same module twice.

How to Set Up Your Freelance Business walks you through how to set up your business systems, what to look for in a contract, and sending invoices. You’ll also get the Income and Assignment Track

How to Find Freelance Clients helps you zero in on your ideal clients and learn where to look for them. I also included real messages I’ve sent that have turned into new clients.

Subscribe now

Day in the Life

Most of my at-home writing days look pretty much like this. We all have our own rhythms, routines, and habits, but I always like a glimpse into other people’s days, so here’s your glimpse into mine!

4:15 am Wake up, warm lemon water, stretch, get coffee

4:30-4:55 Get to desk and start this post :) Read through emails (specifically the 1440 newsletter and ’s commentary on Paige diFiore’s LinkedIn post from last week with editor insights).

Pitch Fail Club

The Craft: The Business Insider Editor Who Reveals Her Secrets

Paige de Fiore is a Business Insider editor who receives “dozens of emails a day and oftentimes 100+ pitches a week across form submissions and emails…

Read more

4 months ago · 1 like · James Banyard

Paige also just posted another call for Business Insider pitches!

I’m trying to adjust how I sit at my desk, so I don’t put so much downward pull on my shoulders which hurt all the time. I think it’s from not supporting my arms properly when I type 🙄.

I checked LinkedIn and responded to a message. No great post ideas today, so I’ll comment on some other posts and share an article later.

4:55-5:03 Open up everything related to the In My Expert Opinion article that I need to finish today and start working! Just kidding. I actually scrolled Substack notes…

5:03 NOW start on IMEO article.

5:45-7:00 Get the kids ready for school and on the bus

7:00-7:30 Tidy the house and throw in a load of laundry. Porch coffee with my husband because it’s 35 degrees ☀️.

7:30-9:00 Workout and get ready for the day. One kid is home sick today, so I made sure to check in with him a few times, too.

9:00-9:30 Back at my desk to check emails and respond about a potential partnership opportunity (!!!)

9:30 Started working on a GOBankingRates article that I’ve been picking at for two weeks. Other things keep coming up, so I’m zeroing in on this one today.

10:30 Still working on the GBR article. It needs a lot of data, so I’m looking up a bunch of stats and making sure that it’s right to the best of my ability. Average home values change like every day, so I went back and changed stats from when I started the article to make sure they’re accurate as of today. Back to it!

11:00 Almost done with GBR, taking a break to see my son’s Minecraft house and observe fika (a Swedish tradition of taking a coffee break mid-morning and/or mid-afternoon). Usually there’s coffee and a sweet treat, but I’m not that prepared, so we went on a little walk instead!

11:30-12:20 Finished up GBR article and finally sent in a National Geographic pitch that I’ve been working on/thinking about since last fall. When I day dreamed about pitching National Geographic, I did not picture a story about trash and rats, but here we are.

12:20 Break to see my son’s hot wheel’s track.

12:30-1:10 Made lunch and watched Love Is Blind for a few minutes. Edited my IMEO video while I waited for water to boil.

1:10-1:30 Went down a LIB rabbit hole to find out the deal with who got to go to Mexico. I also updated by income spreadsheet.

Income & Assignment Tracker

1:30-2:00 Opened up an assignment for my woodworking client and checked emails.

2:00-2:30 Took a walk with my son because it’s beautiful outside! When we got back, I was going to walk on my desk treadmill, but when I lifted my desk, it got caught on the windowsill and a bar in the back bent. It looks like it might be ok 🫠

2:30-3:00 Set a timer and worked on the woodworking post with no interruptions…look a squirrel!…just kidding. NO INTERRUPTIONS!

3:00 I did it! No interruptions, and I’m about halfway through the article. Perfect!

Well, that was a day-in-the-life for a pretty normal day. Monday’s are always a little slow to get started because my husband goes into work later than normal. Today was also different because my son was home, but he’s able to entertain himself pretty well, so other than a few additional breaks, it didn’t change much.

I’d love to hear what a typical day in your freelance life looks like. Are you an early bird, a night owl, or a mid-day swan? Do you do a lot of focused work or do you bop around throughout the day?

Subscribe now

Welcome to our weekly chat! There’s a Coffee Chat template below that you can copy and paste into a Note or a comment. Tell me what you’re reading, working on, loving, and thinking!

📖Reading

Now, I’m back to reading At Home by Bill Bryson. His writing is endlessly fascinating. So far, we’ve walked through the hallway and the kitchen and have moved into the scullery and larder.

💻 Working On

This is another good week for work!

• 4 woodworking articles

• 1 Angi article

• 1 GOBankingRates article

• 1 In My Expert Opinion article

• 1 Real Simple article that needs some additional work

🤍Loving

The weather! After a long deep freeze this winter, it was in the 40s over the weekend and the sun was shining. It’s amazing what a little sunshine and fresh air can do.

🧠 Thinking

The Year of the Fire Horse starts today. I’m not exactly sure what that means or what the year will bring, but I hope it brings Domhnall’s desire to be in a Taylor Swift video and then it actually happening level of delusional goals coming to fruition. My biggest goals this year is to make enough to pay off our house. That means making six figures. Let’s go!!! What’s your biggest delusional goal???

I want to know all of your over coffee things. You can copy and past the list in the comments and add what you’re:

📖Reading

💻Working on

🤍Loving

🧠 Thinking

Leave a comment

Ways to support The Simple Freelancer

If you’ve been following my Substack, especially over the last few weeks, you know I’ve debated about whether or not to do paid content. After a lot of thought and some very welcome reader feedback, I decided that paywalling content just didn’t feel right for me or The Simple Freelancer. I’m exploring other ways to monetize (if you want to sponsor a post to share your product or service, message me or check out my Passionfroot page!), but in the meantime, if you want to send some support, here are a few options:

• Share what you enjoy about The Simple Freelancer here. I’ll share testimonials on LinkedIn and on Substack Notes to get the word out for other freelancers who could benefit from simple tips for freelance success.

Share a testimonial

• Restack this post or share it on your social media of choice (and come say hi on LinkedIn. I love the LinkedIn x Substack vibe).

• Ask Me Anything about freelancing, work-life balance, mindset, and whatever else. This will give me ideas for future posts!

• Buy Me a Coffee or download a resource from my Buy Me a Coffee shop.

• Check out the resources I have available on Gumroad (some are free and some have an associated cost).

• Buy this mug using the link. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. I literally just signed up, so we’ll see how it goes. Ideally, I’ll link to a list of stuff that makes freelance life better (blankets, coffee mugs, notebooks, you get the idea).

• Follow me on Pinterest.

• Share this post so others can find it!

Share

I think what unsettles me the most is that we can look back on history and see pivotal moments. We can see moments that tipped things towards good or bad and with distance we can actually see which was the right direction or the wrong direction. But in those moments, I’m sure it was less clear (with exceptions, of course).

I’m struggling with the dissonance between reports and accounts. How people can watch the same video and come away with different thoughts. How good people might end up on the wrong side of history, even with no ill intentions. How it feels like we’re at a moment where there’s going to be a right side and a wrong side, not just differing opinions and stances.

This all just came out, and I’m going to leave it here (whether you agree or not, please be kind. It’s what we need right now. Freelance tips and tricks will resume on Thursday — I have a collab planned!). What I meant to say was that last week, I only had two full workdays and today I have 5 articles due. I spent yesterday getting caught up, and I’m making this post short because I have to finish and submit and then run to town to get my son some pants.

I would love to spill all of my thoughts and worries here, but I don’t think that this is the place, and frankly, they would probably be too rambling to make much sense. So with that, let’s take a moment to have some coffee and chat.

How are you?

Leave a comment

Welcome to our weekly chat! There’s a Coffee Chat template below that you can copy and paste into a Note or a comment. Tell me what you’re reading, working on, loving, and thinking!

📖Reading

I picked The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin up from the library a while ago and didn’t end up reading it, and then they ended up putting it in their book sale, so I grabbed it! So far, I love it. I feel like it’s one of those books where the ideas won’t fully seep in on the first read, so I’ll likely go back to it after I’ve finished or reread chapters that need more time to marinate. I also usually read it before bed, so I’m sleepy and can’t remember everything.

*As an Amazon Associate, I earn on qualifying purchases.

Subscribe now

💻 Working On

After a short work week last week — I volunteered Wednesday and the kids were off Thursday and Friday — I’m playing a bit of catch up this week. Here’s what I’m working on:

• 2 articles for my small business lending client

• 2 articles for my woodworking client

• 1 article for Late Checkout (my first!)

• 3 articles for GOBankingRates

🤍Loving

I just started a Magic Puzzle. Apparently these were the #1 puzzle according to Tiktok. I found an unopened Puzzled Patron at a yard sale for $5 last year and finally opened it up tonight. I’m excited to see what the surprise is when it’s all finished. I got this puzzle table for Christmas, and I love it so much!

🧠 Thinking

Things are heavy right now, and my thoughts are with the people whose lives have been lost, altered, or forever changed by why what’s been happening.

I want to know all of your over coffee things. You can copy and past the list in the comments and add what you’re:

📖Reading

💻Working on

🤍Loving

🧠 Thinking

Leave a comment

Ways to support The Simple Freelancer

If you’ve been following my Substack, especially over the last few weeks, you know I’ve debated about whether or not to do paid content. After a lot of thought and some very welcome reader feedback, I decided that paywalling content just didn’t feel right for me or The Simple Freelancer. I’m exploring other ways to monetize (if you want to sponsor a post to share your product or service, message me or check out my Passionfroot page!), but in the meantime, if you want to send some support, here are a few options:

• Share what you enjoy about The Simple Freelancer here. I’ll share testimonials on LinkedIn and on Substack Notes to get the word out for other freelancers who could benefit from simple tips for freelance success.

Share a testimonial

• Restack this post or share it on your social media of choice (and come say hi on LinkedIn. I love the LinkedIn x Substack vibe).

• Ask Me Anything about freelancing, work-life balance, mindset, and whatever else. This will give me ideas for future posts!

• Buy Me a Coffee or download a resource from my Buy Me a Coffee shop.

• Check out the resources I have available on Gumroad (some are free and some have an associated cost).

• Buy this mug using the link. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. I literally just signed up, so we’ll see how it goes. Ideally, I’ll link to a list of stuff that makes freelance life better (blankets, coffee mugs, notebooks, you get the idea).

• Follow me on Pinterest.

• Share this post so others can find it!

Share

To help you get the most out of your days as a freelancer, I put together this list of ways to romanticize your freelance life.

Start the day slowly. I get up early, usually at 4:15, so I can start my day early before the rest of the house wakes up. Before I get to my desk, I sip warm lemon water and stretch. Then I pour my coffee and settle in at my desk. It doesn’t matter what time you get started, but taking a few minutes to set yourself up for the day, make a to-do list, and take a few sips of coffee can get you started on the right foot.

Keep a pot of coffee hot. A full cup of coffee makes the day so much better, so keep a pot of coffee hot and ready to go all day. If you’re a tea drinker, keep the kettle on!

Use a lap blanket. Curling up at your desk with a lap blanket makes things a little cozier and more enjoyable.

Turn on a space heater. Cozy vibes x 1 million.

Take a hobby break. Staring at a computer all day can be surprisingly exhausting, so stop every now and then for a short (or long) break to do something you enjoy. I prefer puzzles, but it could be anything!

Go on a walk. Remember that coffee we were keeping hot? Pour yourself a cup and head outside for a walk. I love listening to a podcast, but silence is good, too.

Put on background music. If you’re looking for coffee shop vibes, putting on background music adds to the ambiance.

Light a candle. Speaking of ambiance, lighting a candle is a nice ritual that can signal that it’s time to work or time to relax depending on when you light it.

Tidy up with love. Before I start my work day, I take a little time to tidy the house and lovingly put things back in their place.

Make a nice lunch. I love lunch (it’s half the way to dinner), so I usually make a nice lunch and eat while watching a show and/or doing a puzzle.

Work at a coffee shop. I don’t do this nearly enough, but there’s just something about settling in at a coffee shop to work.

Schedule a coffee chat. Freelancing can be lonely, so setting up a coffee chat and making a freelance friend can help you feel more connected to other freelancers and break up your day.

Subscribe to The Simple Freelancer to get two posts per week straight to your inbox 💌. You’ll get lots of simple tips for freelance success, peeks into the pitching process, ways to make your days easier, and tons of support. Grab a coffee, and let’s hang out☺☕!

Subscribe now

Welcome to our weekly chat! There’s a Coffee Chat template below that you can copy and paste into a Note or a comment. Tell me what you’re reading, working on, loving, and thinking!

📖Reading

I love Janice Hallett’s books, and The Killer Question is no exception. It centers around quiz nights at local taverns. Last summer, my friends and I did a few trivia nights, and had a blast. We also get very intense about our activities which have included a ropes course, ax throwing, escape rooms, and pottery. We joked many times about how we needed to stack our team, so I found the cut throat tactics that the characters used pretty funny.

*As an Amazon Associate, I earn on qualifying purchases.

💻 Working On

This week is a little slow. I had an article due yesterday and one today for the woodworking client. The rest of the week, I’m going to focus on writing a few reviews for In My Expert Opinion. I also have a few webinars and meetings that I’m really excited about!

🤍Loving

I’m currently rewatching Parks & Recreation, and I forgot how good it is. I just wrote an article for GOBankingRates about what retirement might look like for each of the characters and figured that it was a good time to rewatch the whole series. Have a wasted a few afternoons watching Parks & Rec and puzzling with my new puzzle board? Yes. Do I love it? Yes.

🧠 Thinking

I love the Pinterest x Substack connection and have been making pins to promote The Simple Freelancer. It’s opened up a new area of creativity (see graphic above!), and I’m excited to have another avenue to connect with readers. Check it out here!

I want to know all of your over coffee things. You can copy and past the list in the comments and add what you’re:

📖Reading

💻Working on

🤍Loving

🧠 Thinking

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Ways to support The Simple Freelancer

If you’ve been following my Substack, especially over the last few weeks, you know I’ve debated about whether or not to do paid content. After a lot of thought and some very welcome reader feedback, I decided that paywalling content just didn’t feel right for me or The Simple Freelancer. I’m exploring other ways to monetize (if you want to sponsor a post to share your product or service, message me or check out my Passionfroot page!), but in the meantime, if you want to send some support, here are a few options:

• Share what you enjoy about The Simple Freelancer here. I’ll share testimonials on LinkedIn and on Substack Notes to get the word out for other freelancers who could benefit from simple tips for freelance success.

• Restack this post or share it on your social media of choice (and come say hi on LinkedIn. I love the LinkedIn x Substack vibe).

• Ask Me Anything about freelancing, work-life balance, mindset, and whatever else. This will give me ideas for future posts!

• Buy Me a Coffee or download a resource from my Buy Me a Coffee shop.

• Check out the resources I have available on Gumroad (some are free and some have an associated cost).

• Buy this mug (or anything else) using the link. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. I literally just signed up, so we’ll see how it goes. Ideally, I’ll link to a list of stuff that makes freelance life better (blankets, coffee mugs, notebooks, you get the idea).

• Follow me on Pinterest.

• Share this post so others can find it!

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Freelancing is whatever you make it. That’s my favorite part about it. Freelancing allowed me to stay home with my kids when they were little(r) and contribute financially so we could buy a house. I can make money while we travel and in the early morning hours with a cup of coffee.

But it’s not all comfy pants and part-time hours. Freelancing comes with its own unique challenges, and being a freelancer requires tenacity and a drive to keep going even when it feels like nothing’s going your way.

The freelance life section is where I share the good, the bad, and the ugly of freelancing. Don’t worry, it’s mostly good!

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Here are a few posts to get you started!

Have questions?

Freelancing can be a lonely endeavor, especially if you have questions. There’s a ton of information out there, but sometimes it’s nice to ask a real person. If you have any questions about freelancing, work-life balance, morning routines, or anything else, drop them in the form linked below. I’ll either answer them in a post, or if there’s a lot of info, it might end up being an entire post!

Ask a question

Today, I really want to get some things done, and there are other things going on this week that will mean less time at my desk, so I tried to keep today as “normal” as possible.

But what is “normal” to a freelancer anyway?

Let’s get started!

4:15 - Woke up and did my Miracle Morning routine (I need to update this post…coming soon). I haven’t been sticking to this very well. I was sick most of last week, and I’ve just been really sleepy. I also blame the cold weather. Today, I was determined to get back on track.

5:00 - Grabbed coffee and sat down to write a client blog post

5:40 - Smallest child woke up, so I sat on the couch and chatted with her for a bit

6:00 - Started breakfast and packed lunches. Got the kids up and out the door

7:00 - Bus pickup, my husband and I went on a short walk, tidied the house, did the dishes, started laundry, all of the things!

8:00 - Worked out and got ready for the day, ate a few eggs, and poured fresh coffee

9:00 - Made it back to my desk and sent a few LinkedIn messages that I prepped yesterday. Scheduled a LinkedIn post to share Kara’s newsletter takeover from last week and my post over on Wishful Working. Started this post, and now it’s 9:24, and I’m going to finish the client post and update as I go 🤗

9:45 - Tackled a lot of my inbox, but that thing is gnarly. I’ll give it another half hour later today

10:15 - Back to client work. I focused on the assignments for Angi that I have this week. There’s quite a few, but they’re relatively quick, and I’m going for quick wins this morning!

11:40 - Finished up two Angi assignments (that was today’s goal!), so I moved over into some work for two In My Expert Opinion Reviews that I want to submit today…please note how close it is to lunchtime and yet I power on.

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12:00 - LUNCHTIME! Watch this video to see the song that I sing when it’s lunchtime. When I worked with my Navy Seal friend doing kitchen remodeling, he was treated to my rendition nearly everyday. Sometimes I still text him “I love lunch” and he laughs. I also had a random phone call with a friend which was lovely.

1:00 - Back at my desk to finish up the IMEO review(s) and check emails.

1:30 - Had to pause IMEO to wait for photos from my phone to make it to Google Photos for downloading and then uploading (technology 🙄 am I right?). Took care of a few more emails to wrap up the day.

2:00 - Stopped work to prep crockpot meatballs and fold laundry before heading out to help with the kids’ after school activity.

6:00 - Back home to eat supper and have some family time before bed.

8:00 - Kids are in bed, and I’m curled up with my laptop putting the finishing touches on this post before reading and bedtime.

What does your day typically look like? Are you at your desk all day or do you bee bop around like I tend to do?

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Whether you’re just starting out or you’re ready to grow your business, Freelance Foundations can help. When you buy the Freelance Foundations course, you’ll get:

✅ 6 modules that each focus on a different aspect of starting and growing a freelance writing business

📝Activities along the way to help you focus or refine your mindset, niche, tools, and more

💭A Notion Course Companion where you can do the course activities

🎯An income tracking spreadsheet that totals monthly and yearly income

❔3 opportunities to join a Q&A session where I’ll answer any questions you have about the course or freelance writing in general

Freelancing has allowed me to stay home with my kids while helping us buy our house and go on adventures. You can read the full story about what freelancing really gave me here. You can also get Module 1: The Foundation for FREE!

Get Freelance Foundations

📖Reading

I just finished The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman and loved it. This is the fifth book in the Thursday Murder Club series. I love these characters. It feels like they’re living out in the world and each book is an opportunity to hang out with them again. I’m almost done with The Soul of Money, and I’m reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban to the kids (mostly my middle daughter) at night.

🎧Listening

I’ve been deep in Advisory Opinions this week. They did a breakdown of the tariff case last week. I listened to the Learning Resources, Inc v. Trump oral arguments that focused on the tariffs and followed along with the AO live blog. Then I listened to the live podcast right after the arguments.

🤍Loving

Our living room. I’ve been waiting for a very very long time to have a sectional, and we finally bought one last month. There’s an ottoman with it, and we were worried that the wheels would wreck the floor, so I finally bought an area rug. It’s perfect, but it’s put a real wrench in my productivity!

🧠 Thinking

There are six weeks of the year left, which feels crazy! I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished as much as I wanted to this year, so I’m going to push to end the year on a good note. That means getting a few more clients lined up and continuing to build Simple Freelancer readers.

I want to know all of your over coffee things. You can copy and past the list in the comments and add what you’re:

📖Reading

🎧Listening

🤍Loving

🧠 Thinking

Leave a comment

I cried almost every single day from when I went back to my job in September 2016 until I quit in March 2019. Two and a half years of deep and unrelenting sadness.

When I quit my job, I cried in the principal’s office, and she said that it was ok that I was quitting. They’d find someone else.

I told her that I was crying because I was so happy and later danced down the halls, the weight I’d been carrying finally gone.

I’ve told bits and pieces of this story over the years but never, truly, what it was like.

And I’ve shared that freelancing allowed me to stay home with my kids, but I’ve never fully shared what freelancing really gave me.

It gave me happiness. The ability to smile from deep within my soul again. It gave my husband his wife back. And it gave my kids a mom who was so thankful she could do the thing she most wanted, to stay home with them while they were young.

Now seemed like a fitting time to share. The Freelance Foundations course officially launches on Thursday (get the first module for FREE). It’s a culmination of (almost) everything I learned about starting a freelance business from scratch, including discovering your “why”, finding your niche, setting up your systems, reaching out to editors, and more.

Get Freelance Foundations

Our plan was perfect. I was a teacher, and I loved my job. We had always known that we didn’t want to rely on (or pay for) daycare, but when the time actually came to have kids, I realized that I wasn’t ready to stop teaching.

I had the benefits and made more than my husband, so we decided that he would stay home with our son.

We had our son in May 2016, and when the time came for me to return to work, I had a really hard time as I imagine most working parents do.

I thought it would pass. Or at least get easier.

It didn’t.

One of my most vivid memories from that time was watching tears fall on my mat when I did yoga in the quiet moments before anyone else was awake.

I felt silly and ungrateful. We had set ourselves up perfectly. No debt meant that we could live on my teaching salary. I got to work with my best friend. My son and eventually my daughter was home with my husband while I got to do a job I loved. My husband would stop by with donuts or we’d go out to lunch with the kids.

And while I loved all of those moments, I was still so deeply sad. All I wanted to do was stay home with the kids. Every morning that I left, I was so jealous of my husband.

So why didn’t I just quit?

My husband didn’t have a job that he could walk back into that would bring in what I was making We live in a rural area, so there weren’t a lot of options either. I genuinely loved my job. Plus, I held the insurance. It just wasn’t that easy. We were grown ups with a family. We wanted to buy a house someday.

I felt trapped and powerless.

When I finally went to see the doctor about it and sat sobbing in the exam room, she said it was postpartum depression, gave me a prescription for anti-depressants, and told me to see a therapist.

I asked her if postpartum depression went away on Friday night and returned Sunday afternoon. Or if it stopped in June and started back up in mid-July.

She told me to think about the reasons I really wanted to stay home. Was it because I felt like a bad mom?

Yes.

I felt like I wasn’t living up to who I wanted to be as a mom. I wanted to be there. And not being there was draining me of everything.

But, every time we really discussed me quitting my job, I backed out. I felt like we had made a decision and sticking to it was the right thing to do. By that time, I was working at the school where the kids would go, so all I had to do was hang on until they were all in school. Then I could drive them in every day, and they could come to my classroom after school. But I would miss so much in the meantime.

In the meantime, my husband had gotten a part-time job. We needed the extra money, and he needed to interact with grownups.

In January of 2019, I knew I had to do something different. If I was making some money, then I wouldn’t feel so terrible giving up a good job.

I opened up my school issued laptop and sent countless emails to people who might need help editing their blog. Then, at the urging of my husband, I signed up for Upwork and started applying for jobs as a freelance writer.

I got one writing for a beekeeping blog and then another writing for a property finder.

When the spring of 2019 rolled around, I said that I had to quit. We genuinely weren’t sure what we were going to do or how we were going to make ends meet, but I just couldn’t do it anymore. My husband was completely on board.

Everything from that point, as they say, is history. My husband worked odd jobs that summer and was able to go full-time at the job he had been doing part-time. That got us a steady paycheck and insurance.

I was home with the kids and the relief that I felt makes me sob to this day.

I was home, but I also wanted to contribute financially, so I kept writing.

Low paying assignments gave way to higher paying assignments. Affiliate blogs in Lithuania gave way to Apartment Therapy and HomeLight.

My goal was always to replace the income I made as a teacher.

I wanted it all.

I wanted to stay home, and I wanted to make a full-time income.

My fourth year as a freelancer, I did just that.

Here’s what it looked like:

2019 = $8,000

2020 = $20,000

2021 = $20,000

2022 = $46,000 (what I made as a teacher!)

Throughout this time, there was a global pandemic and we had our third baby. I woke up at 4 am most days. I worked during naps and while in labor with said third baby (I made $500 during contractions!)

Now, six years later, I’m still endlessly thankful for this job. We bought our house in 2023, mostly thanks to the income I made as a freelancer (and with careful budgeting and saving). The kids are all in school now, and I’m able to be home with them when they’re sick and go on their field trips.

So what did freelancing really give me?

Freelancing truly gave me me back.

Those years I was working? I don’t know who that person was. She was sad all the time. She was angry. She snapped at her husband and sobbed when she put her kids to bed.

It took me awhile after I quit my job to even remember who I really was. That I could smile and laugh without feeling like a fraud.

One day, that first summer, my husband and I dropped the kids off with their grandma (ironic, I know), and we went fishing. One the way to the river, I remember having the feeling of letting it all go. I released all of the anger and sadness and resentment, and it floated away.

Things aren’t always perfect, obviously. I get frustrated when the kids aren’t listening or are fighting with each other. I get tired on the 18th snack of the day. But beneath it all, I remember how it felt when things weren’t this way, and I’m so thankful.

Whether you want to stay home with your kids, want to spend more time with your dog, want to take a long lunch, or feel like you have more control and freedom over your life and income, freelancing might just be the way.

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I cried gallons writing this, so now it’s time to suck it up and get to the coffee.

📖Reading

I finally finished The Miracle Morning and plan to update that post soon. That’s actually what I was going to do today, but then all the other stuff just poured out. The kids and I just finished Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I want to write for Real Simple, so I’ve also been reading more of their articles to get a feel for what they’re looking for.

🎧Listening

I listened to the Mariska Hargitay episode of Good Hang with Amy Poehler. She’s fantastic and so funny! My new life goal is to have her call me a loser.

🤍Loving

My husband and my 12th anniversary was last weekend, so we did one of the things we love most — drove around with our coffee. We actually talked about what freelancing has done for me and for our family which was the catalyst for this post.

🧠 Thinking

When this shows up in your email, I’ll be on a bus with 4th graders headed on a field trip. I’ve been waiting for this one, so I’ll share all about it in next week’s over coffee. Any guesses where we’re going???

I want to know all of your over coffee things. You can copy and past the list in the comments and add what you’re:

📖Reading

🎧Listening

🤍Loving

🧠 Thinking

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When I started freelance writing in 2019, I had zero idea of what I was doing or getting myself into. My mission was simply "make money from home." With a combination of hard work, relentlessness, and luck, I built a business that I love. If you're thinking of freelancing or aren't quite sure what you think of it yet or just want to feel great about what you're doing, here are my favorite things about freelancing.

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It's FREE: Well, sort of. I'm pretty frugal (cheap), so being able to start a business using a free-of-charge school laptop was definitely my cup of tea. When I quit and had to give the computer back and ended up going to Best Buy during a really good sale to look for a new one. I hemmed and hawed about paying $175, and my friend asked how long it would take me to make up the cost. At that time, I said about half a month's worth of work and realized that it was a good investment. I have since bought a desktop with a double monitor!

Five years in, there still aren't many expenses. Some freelancers pay for accounting programs or apps. But so far, I haven't seen the need for a lot of things that cost money. Yearly costs include:

• Website

• Internet and cell phone (we write off a portion on our taxes)

• Groove Coworking (I paid for a year's subscription)

It goes where I go: My greatest freelancing accomplishment so far was when we took a family vacation to Wyoming, and I brought my computer along. I ended up having my highest earning month to date and made as much on vacation as I did from home. It was the best feeling!

I can work whenever: The only real criteria when I was figuring out what to do after teaching was that I had to be able to be with my kids during the day. Freelancing allows me to work before they wake up and after they go to bed. Now that they're older, I can work during the day a little bit, but for the most part, I'm doing mom/household stuff.

There's no income limit: One of the things that really bummed me out about teaching is that there was no real way to control my income. When you get a job, they put you on a salary schedule, and that's pretty much it. I got incremental raises each year that equated to about 2%, and I realized that it didn't matter how good I got at my job, there wasn't a financial incentive, I would top out at around $75,000 and that would be it.

With freelancing, there is literally no limit. Add in any passive income, and there is so much room for growth.

I choose who I work with: For those just starting out, the idea of saying no to a client is terrifying, and it really doesn't get less terrifying the more you do it. But if I don't get a good feeling or if the rates are low, I can say no!

I get to learn about fun stuff: While I'm not an expert in everything I write about, I am and expert in research and the actual writing. That means I'm constantly learning new things, which I love.

People pitch ME: I was so confused when I got a message from a PR rep who wanted to pitch me. Pitch me what? A source! PR reps will reach out with sources, story ideas, and samples.

Samples are a thing: Next week, I'll write about what I learned from my Twitter thread asking PR people about their expectations when they send samples to writers. But I didn't even know this was a thing! PR people will send samples to writers hoping to get the product out there and potentially get coverage. This is music to my cheap ears, and it gives me material for stories which equals more work and income!

What are your favorite things about freelancing???

I love the collage! Did you use Canva or something else to create it?

This is referring to the graphic that I created for last week’s Over Coffee section.

First of all, THANK YOU! Graphics aren’t something that I’m naturally good at, so anything that looks relatively good, I’m very proud of.

Yes, I just used Canva! I actually asked and how they made their graphics, and it turns out, it’s just doing a good ol’ copy/paste of the image you want. I use Canva Pro, so I can remove the background and just have the image, but some product pictures are on a white background to begin with!

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