About that Freelance Life with Hilary Sutton

Are you interested in freelancing or becoming an entrepreneur? Hilary Sutton has some advice for you. As the CEO of HSL Digital she runs a content marketing consultancy from a loft above her bedroom, with a little one in tow! We talked about how the pandemic has created a resurgence in the freelance world, mindset shifts to make when transitioning to working for yourself and working from home, and the best freelance opportunities to get started with.

In This Episode…

How Hilary became a work-from-home mom 1:25
What the pandemic has taught us about possibilities, our capabilities and resilience 6:43
Mindset shifts to make when transitioning from working in a building to working from home 11:26
Reframing the concept of "work-life balance" 18:01
The best freelance opportunities for someone starting out 23:44
Success is... 29:06
Closing advice 31:08

Key Points

As a freelancer or solopreneur, you are a business owner, and you need to market yourself. You always have to have your pipeline filled. It's important to reach out and make sure people know what it is you do, what you're passionate about and available for. This is part of your personal brand and helps with your networking.

Your time is your own and so make the best use of it. Decide what your peak hours for working are— which may not correlate to a traditional 9 to 5 job. Think about your family obligations and when you have the most energy and free time. Knowing and using those pockets of time to work will help you be successful.

When it comes to scheduling your priorities on your calendar, give yourself the grace to know that it won't be perfect. You're the one that's pushing yourself (or not), so decide how hard to push yourself. You can move tasks around, but just be aware of what that priority of that item or that task, truly is. You want to allow yourself the grace to be able to move something to a different day or a different week, but you don't want to get in the habit of always moving things back (this is procrastination). If the task is too large, break it down into smaller tasks so that they can see more doable, within about 30 minutes or so, but still moving you toward completing your goal.

Getting work-life balance is tough. You have to be aware of what matters to you most. You can But do something called a quarterly "zoom out," which is where you zoom out and look at your life from a wide angle perspective. This is where you can evaluate your goals and whether your priorities align with your values and the direction you want to go. And that is a pursuit to not only have a flourishing career, but also have a flourishing life.

Pay attention to what people say you're naturally gifted in. And when you get to the point of launching your business, niche down, to make it clear who it is you serve best and what it is that you do best. But in the meantime, do some exploring, take some classes online, and explore those different opportunities and different facets of the work that you want to do.

Connect

Hilary Sutton is CEO of HSL Digital, a content marketing consultancy that she runs from a loft above her bedroom. She is a keynote speaker and writer who has contributed to HuffPost, the Washington Post, USA Today, Yahoo! Singapore, and HuffPost United Kingdom. The author of several eBooks and courses, Hilary also hosts the Hustle & Grace Podcast, where she serves as chief explorer in cultivating a flourishing career and life.