The Friendly Freelancer is a bimonthly, supportive newsletter for creative freelancers by Selma Franssen and Linda A. Thompson.
I heard someone say on a podcast recently that most freelancers start out as generalists but end up becoming specialists as they progress in their careers.
They didn’t make it sound like a good and healthy development, more like something unpleasant that comes with ageing, like wrinkles, lower back pains and hair in weird places.
For a long time, I was firmly in the generalist camp when it came to the generalist vs. specialist debate.
For the first six years of my career, I wrote news stories, event summaries and corporate newsletters, subtitled, edited, did communications consulting, produced branded content from scratch and coached students on their academic writing skills.
One of the great joys of freelancing has been that I have been able to follow my interests in this way. At the same time, I’ve come to realise that a lot of energy is spent when you move into so many different directions. With every new assignment, I have to do a ton of research and preparation before getting to the actual work.
It’s become something I’ve become more and more aware of as I’ve begun to develop a sharper focus the last two years. For me, choosing has felt liberating, as if everything has finally clicked into place. It feels good to have a sort of a playpen I have to stay in, to have parameters imposed on my wide-ranging interests.
At the same time, I have dragged my feet on telling the world what I do, i.e. updating my socials so that they reflect my new focus – something Selma has also struggled with.
I’ve thought about this a lot and I think that my reticence stems from the fact that choosing feels like losing in this case. For instance, if I brand myself as a journalist, translator and content writer will fewer clients contact me for jobs that don’t quite fit this description? It’s hard to shake off the feeling that I will lose some assignments if I brand myself a certain way.
At the same time, it also makes sense to proactively communicate to clients the things I’d love to do for them and the things I’m not that interested in. As opposed to having to explain this anew to every client in individual conversations. I also think that having a clearer focus will help me attract more of the work I want.
Last year I for instance turned down an assignment that wasn’t really up my alley – someone contacted me to do voice-over work. It seems laughable now that I entertained the thought of doing that for more than a second, but I really did!
I do worry sometimes that I will become reluctant to try out new things that fall outside my specialisations. So, the trick will be to develop a balance where I keep developing my key strengths while also remaining open to left-field opportunities.
Because I want to stick to the promise I made to myself early on not to turn down assignments that scare me. But I shouldn’t say yes to things just because they take me out of comfort zone either, right?
Where do you lean on the specialist vs. generalist debate? Do you think it’s better to offer a broad range of services, or do you feel more comfortable having one well-developed specialisation? Let us know by emailing us at freelancerthefriendly@gmail.com
Speak soon,
Linda
What I’m reading, watching, listening to this week:
Nathanëlla Monsaert’s downloadable and printable illustrations about the ups and downs of freelancing are my favourite part of the Freelance Forward Facts newsletter. She’s done illustrations on self-care, dealing with imposter syndrome and how to stop worrying. 💙
I was quoted in this story about which EU country does best by its citizens of colour.