I have read every NYTimes article about how creaties and early or mid-level professionals are going to get screwed and am considering my own pivot. Annoying but necessary. I am hoping people will respond to the humanity beyond Substack but it isn't the money maker it should be for newer newsletter writers. People only have so much room in their lives for prophets, shopping experts, opinionators, other peoples' self-reflections. I've resisted making my own newsletter about just one idea, to financial detriment, but it still works for me because I am having fun.
This is a brilliant article and thank you for sharing so openly. The feast and famine of a creative business is hard. I am used to it after 25 years (only 2 having my sole salaried job - man that automatic payment each month!) but what really got me was you writing about the 'shame'.I think I ought to have done better, have more to show for it. Financially I mean, materially. It's the age old capitalism issue and the work to live / live to work thing. I'm still navigating it. I'm still at the table. Skin in the game et al! I keep moving, maybe that doesn't help. Promoting myself does. A successful 30 yr old friend (not necessarily successful financially yet - see I can spot her real success!) spends at least 20% of her time marketing and promoting herself.
Thank you Anna! I totally agree with your younger friend about promoting ourselves. I lived in the US for years where it’s not embarrassing to promote yourself. In the UK people seem to find it more cringey - but I do it anyway!
I have been having the same conversation with friends recently. You wouldn’t think it from scrolling on instagram but irl conversations definitely tell a different story — Freelance creative opportunities are getting harder and harder to come by. Thanks for sharing ❤️
Absolutely. It’s so hard to admit openly when things are hard so I get why people are cagey. But it’s also important to connect with other creatives during hard times as well as good, right?
As an elder millennial, I feel this in my (aching) bones. AI has shifted so much of the creative world and my copywriting business is certainly a part of that. Like you, I'm pivoting to other streams and reading your experience felt super validating. Thank you for sharing!
Good to read this thoughtful passionate piece Emily, thank you. I related hard - especially as I read the NYT piece only yesterday and felt the same urge to share it around... Wishing you the very best in your future ventures - onwards we go!
I appreciate you sharing this, Emily. I’m also in transition, but into creative work, after a retiring from a long career teaching high school math. I’m also solo parenting two children who are in college/law school who luckily don’t mind taking on student loans! I started a home staging, styling and decluttering business very much on the side a few years ago but now attempt to do it full-time. I know I don’t market my business nearly as much as I should but it’s such a shift for me after being highly sought after for math and never really having to worry about getting work. I haven’t quite shifted into the entrepreneur mindset and I do have to take extra side jobs like tutoring, cleaning houses for a friend’s cleaning company and doing delivery driving. I completely understand the shame of going from a successful career to a time of struggle - every time someone asks me how business is going, I just gloss over it, especially since I know I’m not hustling like some other people. But there’s also a part of me that doesn’t want to hustle after years of an intense and mentally and physically and emotionally exhausting career as a teacher (online and in-person Covid teaching transitions at a moment’s notice 🙄), all while single parenting two struggling Gen Z kids. And that lack of desire to hustle also goes against many well-meaning family and friends’s perception of what I should be doing. There are days when I dream about selling everything and just jetting off to Europe to pet sit for months … but that will have to wait until my dear elderly Chihuahua is no longer with me! Though I wonder if just being able to see and experience others’ creativity while doing something like pet sitting, even in Europe, would be fulfilling enough 🙂.
Thanks so much for your comment Brooke! Shifting into the freelancer mindset of always hustling can be a real challenge. I think I’d feel the same if I had to suddenly do the same job every day. Although the regular paycheck would be nice. It sounds like you’re onto something with your new business though. Best of luck!
Thank you Emily for your straight talking post. I too am midlife trying to develop some kind of ongoing side hustle business that will put me in good stead (psychologically at least) as I get older. Not wanting to return to my qualified urban planning job pre-children. Having retrained at 52 to become a florist, I’m now writing more than flowering and trying to develop a writing ‘career’ although I don’t consider myself a writer. Am I kidding myself into thinking that I can make something of this? We shall see, I gave myself 1 year. I have one paid subscriber on Substack and yet to have any paid writing work. I’m busy writing and praying for a deserved outcome.
Thank you for being so honest Emily, I really valued reading this. I wish more people were honest like you. I’m such an advocate of creativity and creative jobs, I see the joy arts and crafts brings to my young children. Like you I see what’s coming with AI, and it does sadden me, but I also have hope that things go round in circles and the value in true human input will outweigh that of computer generated again one day ❤️
I hope so too! In the long term I hope that things come around, but sadly for an entire generation things might be over in terms of making a living from their creativity (which for many is the only way they know how). I'm hoping I can find a way to prevail, but there is no guarantee, but I still wake up every day grateful for my breath and for life and for my kids. It helps :)
I read the NYT piece too, which was shared by another writer in a Facebook group for creatives. I love your response and relate so much. It's tricky in mid life wondering what's next and if we are too old to retrain for another career. I have found my balance as a - former editor and feature writer - by working part time as a Comms manager for a NFP, and taking on side gigs in magazines on Thursdays and Fridays. I am very lucky in that I am busier than I have ever been, the work is fulfilling and I am earning good money. BUT I have hustled hard to get here and I know that things can change at any moment. I think having multiple income streams has always made me feel more secure than having one full-time gig, where the rug can get pulled at any moment. And I have tried cat sitting too in leaner times! Not a bad way to make some extra $$ and while I don't have time right now, I might go back to it at some point. Absolutely no shame in doing what you need to do to pay the bills.
Thank for your comment Nicola. That's so great that you're busy than ever in such trying times. I'm sure that's encouraging for many to read. I'm glad you acknowledge that there is a bit of luck involved as well. I know so many people who are also hustling hard but to no avail. I haven't completely lost hope for us creatives though, as I said, but we are in a time of seismic shifts. And it doesn't feel like it's the typical mid life career re-jig we've heard about in the past. It feels bigger than that.
Like you, I'm lucky to have always had multiple income streams - my interiors books, design consulting, styling, art direction etc and, also like you, I'm pretty good at rolling with the punches and finding new ways. I love cats but I'm hoping I don't have to leave my lovely home to cat sit for someone else (what would my own fat cat say??) and I also don't plan on becoming a bus driver, but as you said, I'm not above doing (almost) anything to support myself. Hey, if Lily Allen is selling pics of her feet on Only Fans then why not us? ;)
I have read every NYTimes article about how creaties and early or mid-level professionals are going to get screwed and am considering my own pivot. Annoying but necessary. I am hoping people will respond to the humanity beyond Substack but it isn't the money maker it should be for newer newsletter writers. People only have so much room in their lives for prophets, shopping experts, opinionators, other peoples' self-reflections. I've resisted making my own newsletter about just one idea, to financial detriment, but it still works for me because I am having fun.
This is a brilliant article and thank you for sharing so openly. The feast and famine of a creative business is hard. I am used to it after 25 years (only 2 having my sole salaried job - man that automatic payment each month!) but what really got me was you writing about the 'shame'.I think I ought to have done better, have more to show for it. Financially I mean, materially. It's the age old capitalism issue and the work to live / live to work thing. I'm still navigating it. I'm still at the table. Skin in the game et al! I keep moving, maybe that doesn't help. Promoting myself does. A successful 30 yr old friend (not necessarily successful financially yet - see I can spot her real success!) spends at least 20% of her time marketing and promoting herself.
Thank you Anna! I totally agree with your younger friend about promoting ourselves. I lived in the US for years where it’s not embarrassing to promote yourself. In the UK people seem to find it more cringey - but I do it anyway!
God yes this is me. Was a blogger/travel writer/journo for 20 years, however I now work as a manager in the NHS! I do love it though x
That’s so great that you made a career transition that you’re happy with!
Thank you!! Bit of an odd one but not much call for a travel journo during lockdown 😂
This really resonated and I didn’t know how much I needed to hear it’s not just me experiencing this change. Thank you Emily!
I’m pleased it might’ve helped! Tough times for many right now but we mustn’t lose hope (somehow!)
I have been having the same conversation with friends recently. You wouldn’t think it from scrolling on instagram but irl conversations definitely tell a different story — Freelance creative opportunities are getting harder and harder to come by. Thanks for sharing ❤️
Absolutely. It’s so hard to admit openly when things are hard so I get why people are cagey. But it’s also important to connect with other creatives during hard times as well as good, right?
As an elder millennial, I feel this in my (aching) bones. AI has shifted so much of the creative world and my copywriting business is certainly a part of that. Like you, I'm pivoting to other streams and reading your experience felt super validating. Thank you for sharing!
And thank you for reading! I think it’s in our nature as creatives to find solutions so I’m banking on us to figure it out 💪🏼
Good to read this thoughtful passionate piece Emily, thank you. I related hard - especially as I read the NYT piece only yesterday and felt the same urge to share it around... Wishing you the very best in your future ventures - onwards we go!
I appreciate you sharing this, Emily. I’m also in transition, but into creative work, after a retiring from a long career teaching high school math. I’m also solo parenting two children who are in college/law school who luckily don’t mind taking on student loans! I started a home staging, styling and decluttering business very much on the side a few years ago but now attempt to do it full-time. I know I don’t market my business nearly as much as I should but it’s such a shift for me after being highly sought after for math and never really having to worry about getting work. I haven’t quite shifted into the entrepreneur mindset and I do have to take extra side jobs like tutoring, cleaning houses for a friend’s cleaning company and doing delivery driving. I completely understand the shame of going from a successful career to a time of struggle - every time someone asks me how business is going, I just gloss over it, especially since I know I’m not hustling like some other people. But there’s also a part of me that doesn’t want to hustle after years of an intense and mentally and physically and emotionally exhausting career as a teacher (online and in-person Covid teaching transitions at a moment’s notice 🙄), all while single parenting two struggling Gen Z kids. And that lack of desire to hustle also goes against many well-meaning family and friends’s perception of what I should be doing. There are days when I dream about selling everything and just jetting off to Europe to pet sit for months … but that will have to wait until my dear elderly Chihuahua is no longer with me! Though I wonder if just being able to see and experience others’ creativity while doing something like pet sitting, even in Europe, would be fulfilling enough 🙂.
Thanks so much for your comment Brooke! Shifting into the freelancer mindset of always hustling can be a real challenge. I think I’d feel the same if I had to suddenly do the same job every day. Although the regular paycheck would be nice. It sounds like you’re onto something with your new business though. Best of luck!
Thank you Emily for your straight talking post. I too am midlife trying to develop some kind of ongoing side hustle business that will put me in good stead (psychologically at least) as I get older. Not wanting to return to my qualified urban planning job pre-children. Having retrained at 52 to become a florist, I’m now writing more than flowering and trying to develop a writing ‘career’ although I don’t consider myself a writer. Am I kidding myself into thinking that I can make something of this? We shall see, I gave myself 1 year. I have one paid subscriber on Substack and yet to have any paid writing work. I’m busy writing and praying for a deserved outcome.
Thank you for being so honest Emily, I really valued reading this. I wish more people were honest like you. I’m such an advocate of creativity and creative jobs, I see the joy arts and crafts brings to my young children. Like you I see what’s coming with AI, and it does sadden me, but I also have hope that things go round in circles and the value in true human input will outweigh that of computer generated again one day ❤️
I have to agree with you Kirsten. Figuring things out is what we do as creative people isn’t it? I’m definitely trying to stay positive
I hope so too! In the long term I hope that things come around, but sadly for an entire generation things might be over in terms of making a living from their creativity (which for many is the only way they know how). I'm hoping I can find a way to prevail, but there is no guarantee, but I still wake up every day grateful for my breath and for life and for my kids. It helps :)
I read the NYT piece too, which was shared by another writer in a Facebook group for creatives. I love your response and relate so much. It's tricky in mid life wondering what's next and if we are too old to retrain for another career. I have found my balance as a - former editor and feature writer - by working part time as a Comms manager for a NFP, and taking on side gigs in magazines on Thursdays and Fridays. I am very lucky in that I am busier than I have ever been, the work is fulfilling and I am earning good money. BUT I have hustled hard to get here and I know that things can change at any moment. I think having multiple income streams has always made me feel more secure than having one full-time gig, where the rug can get pulled at any moment. And I have tried cat sitting too in leaner times! Not a bad way to make some extra $$ and while I don't have time right now, I might go back to it at some point. Absolutely no shame in doing what you need to do to pay the bills.
Thank for your comment Nicola. That's so great that you're busy than ever in such trying times. I'm sure that's encouraging for many to read. I'm glad you acknowledge that there is a bit of luck involved as well. I know so many people who are also hustling hard but to no avail. I haven't completely lost hope for us creatives though, as I said, but we are in a time of seismic shifts. And it doesn't feel like it's the typical mid life career re-jig we've heard about in the past. It feels bigger than that.
Like you, I'm lucky to have always had multiple income streams - my interiors books, design consulting, styling, art direction etc and, also like you, I'm pretty good at rolling with the punches and finding new ways. I love cats but I'm hoping I don't have to leave my lovely home to cat sit for someone else (what would my own fat cat say??) and I also don't plan on becoming a bus driver, but as you said, I'm not above doing (almost) anything to support myself. Hey, if Lily Allen is selling pics of her feet on Only Fans then why not us? ;)
All the best.