Freelancers! Connect, thrive and beat imposter syndrome

Book review - Survival Skills for Freelancers by Sarah Townsend

I’m really glad I had this book at the start of my freelancing journey, especially as I found myself starting that journey during the first lockdown of Covid-19 in the UK.

This is a practical book, and yet it goes beyond the ‘nuts and bolts’ that you can find on any website about freelancing. The value of this book is not only in Sarah’s personal experience – she’s made the mistakes so we don’t have to – but also that she goes into the emotional and psychological ramifications of freelancing.

Know yourself

Sarah encourages you to identify your personality type, including your strengths and weaknesses, so that you can see whether freelancing suits you in the first place. This also feeds into what kind of working style suits you best and what kind of networking and support it would be most useful for you to look for.

Connect and thrive

Yes, networking. Sarah stresses the importance of connecting with other people, not just for marketing and growing your business, but also for protecting your mental health and combating isolation. We all know how vital that’s become during the pandemic. She illustrates this by including lots of advice and testimonials from other freelancers in a range of different disciplines, not just copywriters.

Beat the imposter

Finally, she tackles the thing that afflicts so many of us – imposter syndrome – head on, using the example of launching her ‘Clever Copy Club’ newsletter to illustrate how ‘good enough’ beats ‘perfect’ every time.

Wherever you are in your freelancing journey, I’d recommend this book.