This post is based on a one-hour presentation I have given a couple of times this year.
I won’t try to include the full hour of information, or the 29 slides.
But… I hope to communicate the value and power of adjacent possibilities for freelancers.
To start with… what does that even mean?
I get into conversations with a lot of freelancers, many of them just starting out.
And one thing I notice again and again is that freshly-minted freelancers often struggle to articulate exactly what their specialty should be.
It’s important to have answers to these questions. Without answers, you’ll often feel you have no real foundation. It becomes hard to articulate your position and your value to prospective clients.
In other words, if you aren’t completely clear about where you stand, and what you stand for as a freelancer, you going to have a lot more trouble marketing yourself and finding good work.
The only upside to living a full hour away from my dentist is that I have plenty of time to listen to podcasts in the car.
Two pieces of good news from today’s trip.
First, no cavities.
Second, I listened to an episode of Jacob Morgan’s podcast in which he interviews Steve King.
Jacob Morgan is a best-selling author, speaker and futurist, focusing on the future of work.
Steve King is co-founder of Emergent Research, which tracks the future of small business and independent work.
During the podcast they have a wide-ranging discussion about the state of the gig economy and its future.
People write to me with gentle challenges like, “Hey Nick, I love your enthusiasm for stories. But honestly, I don’t see how simply changing the story I tell can improve my future as a freelancer.”
OK… so you doubt the power of stories to influence your life?
You don’t think stories have the power to create change?
Let’s try a short experiment…
We are all exposed to a wide range of narratives that are often accepted as truths.
But for the most part they are not truths. They are opinions. Stories.
And we’d do well to question them.
Let me share a couple of examples I have bumped up against recently.
One from my work life and one from my personal life.
Narrative #1: To get stuff done, you need to focus, distraction-free.
Sounds reasonable, right? I’ve told this story myself.
And then…
Some of the most powerful stories we hear are the ones that support the narratives that define the countries we live in.
As I’m Canadian, I’ll use one of the dominant Canadian narratives to illustrate my point.
One of the stories that defines “being Canadian” is that we’re really, really nice.
We’re polite and friendly. We love animals and the environment. We welcome refugees with open arms. We make sure all our citizens have access to health care. We say please and thank you.
Really… we’re just super-nice people.
So goes the story.