Today I celebrate my exit from being a freelancer
Okay, the headline might be a little misleading, but not completely wrong. I've been a freelance copywriter for the better part of 4 years (almost 5 now), writing copy for;
- FMCG companies
- The porn industry
- Tech companies
- Financial sector
- Real Estate
- Startups
- Digital agencies
Now officially done with this crap.
Why?
There is usually a big debate over what the meaning of the word "Indie Hacker" means. Some may say it's creating your own business online and working for yourself full-time, others say it means making money from the internet, either full-time or part-time. I agree with the latter definition of the term, as my own Indie Hacking endeavors have always been part-time.
I originally became a freelancer because I didn't want to work permanently for the same company, and I liked the idea of being a remote contractor, working on my own terms, and setting my own price for the work that I did. This gave me a sense of control over my professional career.
Then...
I started to enjoy it less and less. It became a chore for me. Copywriting, the art form that I spent so much time trying to perfect became insufferable for me to handle after I realized that the whole marketing industry is just toxic and incredibly predatory.
Picture this. We meticulously engineer landing pages based on psychological triggers, like vanity and urgency to get people to convert. For me, that got old very fast, and the whole growth hacking mentality kinda made me a bit sick to the stomach after a while.
Sure, I understand that as a "for-profit business", you need need to make revenue. That's the very basis of capitalism.
I joked around with a friend a while ago, that if I wasn't in marketing I would have deleted things like Facebook and Instagram years ago. Now I can fully appreciate that sentiment.
Now what?
A complete 360 career change actually excited me, and for the longest time, IT has always been an interest of mine, so I thought, why not networking and cybersecurity. So after dropping all of my 5 long-term clients last week, I'll be going back to school for a few months.
My Indie Hacking journey began almost a year ago with me starting my own newsletter, and it's definitely something that I'm still going to carry on with, but as for that freelance/nomad lifestyle. I'm done, and I take pleasure in turning back on it.