Be freelance and be fearless in 2025
It is tough out there. But you can do this. You can be the hero we need.
Every year, I walk into December’s trap of high-octane workload and sunny weather, with that promise of rest and reset dangled in front of me with an idea that, even if the current year has been trouble, the next will right things eventually.
My love-hate relationship with December isn’t any easier today.
I’m wiser, as are you.
With continued changes via generative Ai, big box social media turning into something akin to a bad reality TV show, Google’s midlife crisis, an ongoing inflation crisis, and a change of USA (and potentially Australian) government, uncertainty is 2025’s mantra.
We’ll need to be adaptable. Even though we’re all so freaking tired.
2019 to 2024 feels like a five-year test of intestinal fortitude.
It’s enough to take your business and personal adulting cards and put them through an industrial grade woodchipper.
But, and there is a but… if life is uncertain for business, economy, politics, industry, and generally, there’s comfort in knowing nobody really as a handle on things.
And that is oddly freeing.
Creativity and adaptability are prized possessions in this new world economy.
Originality will be our best asset and, I believe, our saving grace.
The ability to show up, fail, dust yourself off, and keep on learning is incredibly helpful.
So, welcome to (what I hope anyway) is a clip show that is more life affirming than irritating. I have done this so, come January, you can put on your best pair of boots, pack a bag full of support, and keep climbing even as the world slips gently into chaos.
Well, that’s the intention, at least. Scroll to the places that matter the most, and drink deeply my freelance friends.
Image: stepping into the glowing sunset Lake Illawarra from the wooden fishing bridge at Windang.
Have the courage to embrace change
Stop being the worst boss you’ve ever had.
Be a happier creative in 7 ways.
Reframe your marketing attitude.
Ditch perfection and find change.
Remind yourself progress matters.
Break up with bad habits via this workbook.
Identify your freelance strengths.
Evaluate risk versus obedience.
Figure out what advice is worth listening to.
Question who you are trying to impress (and if it matters)
Manufacture your own deadlines.
Find out if you’re truly content with freelancing with this worksheet.
Uncover 75 ways to embrace your creativity.
Let me help you remember why you love your business.
Find courage in the warm embrace of a new idea.
Understand you are not alone
When you are tired after a launch.
Or if you’re feeling a little stressed.
Embrace creativity as a protective mechanism.
Solve your creative equations.
Reflect on even the shitty projects.
Think about your creative safety.
See your creativity through my eyes.
Decide what you don’t want out of freelancing.
Who are you writing for, anyway?
Who are you without your creativity?
Face your creative fizzle with this video session.
Get some perspective with this arty walk through the Arctic.
When all else fails, there’s always community.
Make 2025 suit you
Plan for a f*cking great year with this planner.
By questioning what you want 2025 to look like.
Take your idea and make it happen.
Get a handle on your damn freelance finances.
Use 44 questions to uncover your best business self.
Make your future freelance course inclusive.
Learn more about inclusive course design with this video.
Stop doing stuff for stuff’s sake.
Learn how to take risks with anything.
Change up your productivity with a customised journal.
Forget the money for a minute and focus on what you really want out of freelancing.
Start creating your own ideas.
Live the creative life you want.
Ditch assumption and live for discovery.
Find some freedom outside what you should do.
Boost your marketing during inflation.
Sell stuff without feeling gross
Get better at freelance sales.
What’s on your freelance specials menu?
Watch these videos on business development your way.
Forget job boards. Get into business development.
Uncover your competitive advantage.
Don’t feel forced to find a freelance niche.
Sell something better than sales bullshit.
Make pitching yourself easy with this.
Forget other people’s money angst.
Use these 109 questions to transform your social media.
Manage your creative and commercial conflict.
Zoom out on your marketing and advertising.
Write a better freelance profile with this video.
Get a better handle on client management
Check your client management processes.
Put the project (not client ego) first.
Help clients get over price sensitivity.
What to do if that client project was bloody awful.
Break the pattern of attracting bad clients with this special letter.
Grab this bad client recovery plan.
Ditch shame and fear once and for all
Check you’re not on a six-point plan to misery.
Stop being so serious about freelancing.
Understand the value in self-doubt.
Ask for some poetic dedication to your hopes and dreams.
Reframe your doubt with these questions.
Uncover why you don’t trust yourself.
Don’t take freelancing too seriously (freelance satire)
Retire on a Shine gift card windfall.
Understand the pain of late government projects.
Watch out for office cats on strike.
Don’t get angry when you’re mistaken for your brand.
Get free cocaine and red cordial as a LinkedIn influencer.
Hear the cosmic force of missed deadlines whizz by.
Be alert for seagull manager attacks.
Don’t let your AI ChatBot replace your AI Chat based business.
Thank goodness for last minute relatives and their website advice.
Will your office dog sue for breach of contract?
Don’t admire someone else’s work to the point of plagiarism.
Find some empathy for the distracted boyfriend in that infernal stock photo.
Take precautions against workplace injury during client management.
Enough with the bloody LinkedIn epiphanies, please!
Add value to your freelance experience in 2025
Join me for some coaching by the hour.
Walk and talk through things on Windang beach.
Discover life after UOW redundancy.
Dig deep and make a creative change.
Create a strategic spark to keep the business fires burning in 2025.
Say buh-bye to the Freelance Jungle directory.
Grab a Patreon member perk and receive a 20% discount on Rounded accounting.
Join me for an amazing (and affordable) seaside summit on creativity.
Know you make a difference
You have no idea you, your comments, group conversations, support, and general loveliness mean. If you stopped by my Inbox to thank me for the Freelance Jungle directory after I announced it’s demise, I am so sorry I haven’t gotten back to you yet. I was overwhelmed with the success stories, how much work you got, and how much the Jungle still means for you who have moved onto to other things. I’ve been crying and celebrating in equal measure.
Please also remember – you too can change things.
I am just like you. I get scared, in my own head, adventurous, brave, and ready to leave freelancing then wildly determined to keep going so regularly, I am fairly sure that emotional rollercoaster is called Thursday.
What anchors me is I believe in freelancers and our power. I respect that we have such tough jobs. And I love that we remain optimistic, thoughtful, mostly kind, and connected to each other. And I own my creativity and my difference. I refuse to let other people’s misconceptions and fear of change take that away from me.
As optimistic as it sounds, I believe our ability to invent art in our jobs and our jobs out of nothing makes us a force to be reckoned with. And this is a force we need as we battle along in a world that’s focussed so much on negativity. We’re underrated changemakers, and a last line of defense against capitalist gentrification and normalisation.
We should bloody well embrace that fact with relish!
Come find me and the Freelance Jungle community in 2025 and let’s be brave together.
Love and a whole hell of a lot of gratitude,
Rebekah