“So, what do you do?”

It’s a question we’re all asked at networking events and family reunions alike. When I respond, no matter how in depth I explain it, I’m usually met with a confused stare. The fact that I’m a freelancer always gets the same response: “How do you get into something like that?”

Their confusion is understandable. If you had told me just a few years ago that I would be one day making a living in my pajamas, writing at the desk in the guest bedroom while my cat dozes through the out-loud editing process behind me, I would have thought you were crazy.

How do you get into something like freelancing? When I started thinking about what I wanted to write as an introductory blog post, I decided that I’d try to answer that question.

When I first started college, I wasn’t considering freelancing as a career. I wasn’t even considering writing as a career. I loved writing, but in my mind, it just wasn’t practical. (I was a teenager, remember, so of course I considered my own opinion to be law.) No one would hire me, people didn’t understand the value of the written word, proper grammar was being replaced by chat speak, the internet was killing journalism and any other paid form of writing … etc, etc.

Once I let my ego deflate a little bit, I realized that the world was telling a very different story. People were hiring writers every day. They did understand the value of the written word, because the written word is powerful. Chat speak was a dialect all its own, and it took a trained eye to see when it was appropriate and when it was not. And the internet wasn’t killing paid writing … it was transforming it.

I’d like to say that after I realized all that, I threw myself enthusiastically into a freelance writing career. That would be a lie. I was very nervous when I started to pursue a degree in Writing. I was skeptical, nervous that it wouldn’t pay off.

Then, I got an internship with a small Public Relations firm. And suddenly I wasn’t just hearing about how great the industry was — I was seeing it! I ran social media accounts, did some back-end work like updating media lists, and was even given the chance to write an article published with my byline.

I thought, Oh. There’s a place for me here.

The thing that fascinated me about this firm, in particular, was that the team was remote. I worked out of my boss’s house, in her office. But the rest of her employees worked from home. I had never heard of any company doing that before!

This would eventually translate into my freelancing career.

When I graduated, my boss got in touch. She wanted to know if I wanted to do some contract work for the firm. I could work remotely like the rest of her team. I accepted.

Today, I’m still with that firm as a Communications Consultant. I still run social media accounts, but I also write and edit blogs, press releases, and do various other things to make sure that our clients are having their stories told effectively.

And since I’m working there on contract, I’ve been completely able to pursue my freelancing career, as well.

So over the past year, I’ve furthered my freelancing career by picking up some clients of my own. The one-on-one relationship I have with them allows me to intimately understand their company’s voice and mission so that I can provide the best service possible to them.

And what is it that I provide them? You can check it out here!