When I was a corporate whore, I still called on my natural talents in my job. I would handle project documentation, training manuals or letters of complaint (my personal favorite). Without fail I would be applauded for these endeavors that were not immediately applicable to my work.

So when I lost my corporate job in early 2008, it was a natural transition to freelancing. Not an easy one, but a natural one. Unfortunately, 2008 and 2009 were the most horrible, chaotic years of my life. It was only for a few months on a friend’s Kansas farm that I was able to really form any sort of business.

Sadly, I tried and failed a few times. I was taking the wrong jobs, or messing up the right ones – I was green. Not to writing, but to the business of writing. And then when my world fell out from under me and I was living in a shelter for abused women, I knew it was do or die.

I have now been living on my own again for the past three weeks. In that time I have buckled down hard. I’m hustling daily, churning out work at a breakneck pace, and reaping the rewards. I’m going to be ok.

I was told by my husband for a year that I was a failure. That I was lazy. That I was malingering. That i wasn’t good enough.

Fuck you.

This is who I am. This is who I’ve always been. The only thing holding me back, apparently, was you. And me.

No more.

Where did this rant/post come from? This post at Freelance Folder. Fifteen reasons not to give up. So here’s another couple:

16. No one can make my decisions for me

17. This is who I am, and I love me

Have you ever thought about writing an e-book? No, not fiction. They don’t sell well in ebook format. But an information product?

Whatever your skill is, thereare probably people out there who need to learn it. From actuaries to zoologists, and all points between, you have a skill worth sharing with others.

About 30 years ago, when the computerized age was really taking off, someone said that information would be the new currency. They weren’t entirely wrong. Information is now something we spend our currency on. We are more educated now, in this generation, than we have ever been at any point in history. People in their 30’s and 40’s are still in school, getting graduate and post graduate degrees.

The rest of us attend workshops and seminars, take classes and e-courses. We read so voraciously that books are no longer a luxury – we now have big-box bookstores.

People want to learn.

If you can impart some kind of skill, wisdom or hack to them in simple terms they can understand, you can sell that information.

The Well-Fed Self Publisher will guide you through the steps of creating your informational product and marketing it to the world at large.

I wrote more about Peter Bowerman and his brilliant books here. Check out his free report to get started and earn that extra holiday cash right away!

I had applied for a website content gig, through Craigslist if I remember correctly. I heard back from the client later the same day, and she seemed really excited to get things going. We chatted back and forth before I sent her some samples to give her an idea of what I could do for her.

Her response to these samples? “They do nothing for me.”

Ouch. Nothing? Not even make you itchy or something?

At first I felt like I’d been slapped, but I figured I had a chance to save this business relationship if only I dug deeper to find out what the client was really looking for (her instructions had been somewhat vague at the outset). So I asked her some questions about exactly who she would be marketing to, and more importantly I asked how hard a sell she wanted. My samples had all be very soft sells – suggestions more than anything.

I never heard back from her again. I really did “nothing for her” I guess.

Instead of being upset, I found the whole thing rather funny. What a way to address someone in a business transaction – a dismissive comment with absolutely no critique as to why you didn’t like it. Clearly I wasn’t meant to work with her. She wasn’t – as Havi Brooks always talks about – one of my right people.

So I didn’t let the rejection get to me. I got right back on the horse (I love that analogy, because I once was actually thrown from a horse and got back on it. A proud moment indeed) and kept plugging away to find my right people.

The very next day after this absurd rejection, I got a call from a guy who not only liked my work, but liked my mouthiness. My style. He was one of my right people, and I had applied to him on the same day as I had applied to Little Miss Not That Into You. I’ve been working with him ever since, and we’re getting along swimmingly.

Look, I hate rejection as much as the next person. I’d make a shitty telemarketer, because I’d probably cry all day. But I believe in myself, my talent and my product. I know someone else out there will, too. It just might take a little hunting is all.

I strongly suggest that anyone who wants to break into freelance writing or blogging for a living tries Ali Hale’s Staff Blogging Course. Do a read-through of the 6 modules, then go back and put the lessons into practice. I did, and have since scored TWO THREE blogging jobs in the last three weeks. Cost of the course: $19. Income of jobs I’ve scored: $125/wk. $180/wk.

So after taping a TV show, shooting a tax protest, lunching over policy and beer, I headed home. Only I wouldn’t be getting inside anytime soon. Damn. Solution? Starbucks. I picked up a cheap notebook from the Bargain Books section of my local Indigo bookstore and went upstairs to settle into ‘bucks for quiet contemplation and coffee.

Instead, I was accosted by an effusive blond woman with incredible turquoise eyes. “Have you heard about what we’re doing here today?” Being the miserable misanthrope that I am, I nearly shoo’d her away. That would have been a terrible mistake.

Crystal Campbell is a personal coach. Her business is helping you focus your life on what matters. Stuck in a dead-end job? She helps you find hope. Laid off due to the recession? Maybe now’s the time to start doing what you’ve always wanted to do, instead of listening to others’ expectations of you.

As for what Crystal was doing accosting me at Starbucks, that’s the best part. The International Coach Federation and GTA Coaches partnered with Starbucks to raise money for charity. The coaches, Crystal and her ICF/GTA Coaches colleagues, were offering a 25-minute recession-busting session called “Coaching Conversations for Power+Possibility”. Coaches are life consultants, and they charge consultant rates. But the 25-minute session could be yours for a $5 donation to the United Way. Sweet deal!

A team of more than 70 life and career coaches descended on four Toronto Starbucks locations to help those effected by the recession find light at the end of the tunnel. But… What is a coach?

A coach, according to Crystal, can help you find your “passion, potential and purpose.”

In the current economic environment, she says “It’s too easy for people to have spiraling conversations and slip into discouragement and despair. Mass layoffs, scary as they are, “give people an opportunity to pause. To get off the treadmill.” A coach can help them discover what truly matters most to them. Their strengths, their passions, what success means to them as an individual, and what steps they can take to reconcile it all together.

Ok. Why Starbucks?

“Starbucks already promotes a sense of community.” Many people come to Starbucks with conversation in mind (apparently even misanthropes like me, though we may not know it). It was the perfect fit. Offering coaching to the wider community, plus helping United Way “seemed like the right thing to do in a recession.”

Crystal originally studied journalism, getting an undergrad degree in it. She quickly learned that hard news would never be her area of interest. “I loved doing the feature pieces, connecting with people, teasing their story from them.”

The next phase of her life took her into corporate marketing and communications. She loved getting a company’s message out, playing with words, writing copy, but “I felt I was becoming too distanced from the end user.” So she switched tacks again. This time to counseling.

She enrolled in a master’s program to get her counseling degree. I asked her the difference between a coach and a shrink, and why she chose the former over the latter. “Counselors are extremely important, but it wasn’t something that fit with my personality. They deal with a lot of the past, and a lot of pain. Then I come bounding into the room with a big ‘HI!’”

Fair point, and one I can certainly relate to. I have excellent client-facing skills, but I was terrible as a real estate agent for the recently departed (I worked in a cemetery). The first time a couple came in needing to bury their child, I quit.

Crystal: “I’m still working through my master’s, but I enrolled in Adler International Learning to become a coach.”

She’s been at it for four years now. “My specialty is career coaching and corporate leadership.”

I asked her if she had a coach of her own, knowing that every therapist has a therapist. “Absolutely!” And what area do you and your own coach work on? “Whatever I bring to the table.” Career, family, time management and more.

When I think about what I wrote the other day, about how early in every freelancer’s career they face the ’scared to death’ phase, I see where coaching could be an important asset to any entrepreneur.

Crystal Campbell runs c2coaching + consulting from her home just outside Toronto. Her career and life articles can be found and Canadian Living Online and in the Financial Post. Crystal can be reached at crystal@c2coaching.ca.

Have I bought it? No, not yet. Trying to scrape up the dosh.

Do I want it? Hells yeah! Who wouldn’t? She practically sitting there doing the work for you, all you have to do is tune in to watch it happen.

The idea is Naomi takes her experience in web writing, marketing and consulting, and walks you step by step through it. Like learning the Colonel’s 11 secret ingredients. And the guarantee she’s offering is supreme: If you aren’t making money, she’ll either refund you or personally coach you. I would take the coaching, no question.

Off to go count the pennies in my piggy bank…

What if today were a Thursday, my busiest day? What if I didn’t have the option of pushing my projects to the backburner for a day or two while I get better? Tough shit, because freelancers don’t get sick days. If you are a stand-alone operation, like I am, you don’t have someone who can swoop in and rescue you for a few hours or a few days. I can’t afford to miss deadlines with my clients when I am just building this business of mine.

Which is why when I read this earlier today, I couldn’t help but get all weepy. I mean, yeah, I have personal reasons for getting weepy about it, too, but I also have professional ones. I have the flu – everyone gets it. This woman suffered far worse than that!

Can I, as a freelancer, allow myself to get into a situation no different than one I would have with a regular employer, i.e. risking my job and my income when real life hands me a curve ball? No. I’m already couch surfing with wonderful friends because I gambled with the gawdawful job market and I lost. I hope one day to have enough money to once more have a ZERO balance in my bank account, instead of the -$700 overdraft situation I am in right now.

Given the fact that I am a big believer in learning from others’ mistakes as well as my own, I think it’s time to start diversifying. Thank you Naomi, for suffering so that I, and others like me, may not have to.

Well, what if your magical guardian came along and handed you a business?

Men with Pens is hosting the Sticky Business Contest, one of the best blogosphere contests of the year for people who are ready to seize their dreams.

We’re giving away everything a person needs to start and market a brand-new small business, with nearly $20,000 worth of *relevant, useful and valuable* prizes .

Imagine that nothing holds you back anymore. You have the great idea, the plan, all the tools, all the resources right at your fingertips. Money isn’t an issue.

You could leave your crappy job, finally get a break, make a change for your family, turn your life around or just get back on your feet after hard times. You could get unstuck. And start sticking to where you really want to be.

All you need is an idea. We’ll provide the rest.

Get ready, all you freelancers and work-at-homers. This might just be your big break.

In Jennifer Mattern’s Web Writer’s Guide, she details how to draft a business plan for yourself as a freelance writer.

Included in the list of things your plan should cover:

• Your goal
• Your mission
• Your target market
• Budget
• Income projections

I will admit that before reading all this I hadn’t thought much about a plan for my business. I just kind of went with the flow. But by doing that, I wasn’t paying attention to how much I had to be making at a minimum to survive, and I sure as heck wasn’t charging what I should have been based on that information. Not only that, but I didn’t plan for downtime like Christmas and other non-working days.

Her guide provides a basic business plan outline to work towards, along with many other templates to help you set up your freelance writing business. For $37 it was one of the best purchases I made. Maybe even better than the business cards!