A New Approach To Creative Freelance Work

A few months ago, I knew I was going to take a big step in my professional journey. I just didn’t know how big. Not until I met up with Michelle Keller, a friend and long-time collaborator of mine, at Sip Coffee in West Toledo. Michelle had recently started her own full-time freelance career, and she had agreed to meet up with me to talk shop.

“I Can And I Will…Watch Me!”

As I sipped my Earl Grey Latte with oat milk, I waited for Michelle to arrive. It was frigid cold outside and snowing, I remember shivering in my layers, huddled around my tea cup. I had not even taken off my winter coat or scarf before she greeted me with her enthusiastic and bubbly demeanor. Michelle had brought me a gift: a glittery orange notebook that read “I can and I will…watch me!”

I hugged her, and we proceeded to talk for hours about work, our professional journeys, and our future ambitions.

If you’ve never had one of these talks with Michelle, I highly recommend it. She will make you feel like you can achieve anything. And from experience, with her on your side, you truly can.

Freelancing With Compassion

After several hours of discussion, we knew this was leading to something special, possibly life-changing. I asked Michelle a lot of questions about the freelancing life. We talked about the pros, the cons, the successes, and the opportunities. We spoke about our professional backgrounds, where we shined, and where we felt we had let ourselves down in the past. We listened to each other share our strengths and insecurities about being marketing professionals in a medium-sized city.

I had concerns that if I tried to freelance full-time again, the way I had been doing on-and-off for a decade with Social B. Media, I would inevitably go back to working in an office environment with a marketing team. Offices, and teams, and structure are keys to my success. I can do the one-woman show, but it gets lonely and can lead to burnout. I didn’t want that to keep being a pattern with me.

Michelle, in her compassionate and reassuring way, showed me it was possible to have all the tools I needed to join the freelance world on a more consistent basis. I just needed a little help from my friends. She and I kept talking about the possibilities, and how we could be a freelance marketing powerhouse if we joined forces, rather than working in separate silos. We decided to build upon my existing brand together, and we renamed it Social B. Creative.

Building the SBC Network

Social B. Creative, or SBC for short, isn’t just two women fulfilling everyone’s visual and written communications needs in the NW Ohio area. What’s interesting about the skillsets that Michelle and I both possess is that we have different areas of expertise (her’s in visual communications and graphic design, and mine in journalism and public relations), and some major overlap with marketing and networking.

Michelle and I have an extensive, never-ending list of people who know our work, enjoy collaborating with us, and are also currently looking for ways to make the freelance way of life work for them. What we’ve been able to grow in a short amount of time since our initial coffee shop meeting, is an impressive network of freelance professionals, ranging from Los Angeles, California to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. We’re a group of creatives with various backgrounds including content creators and marketing strategists; visual communicators like videographers, photographers, illustrators, and graphic designers; and interactive media professionals well-versed in web development, social media, and virtual marketing experiences. Every freelancer in our network has been personally vetted and comes recommended by me or Michelle. These are creatives that believe in our mission of providing quality creative work that comes from the heart.

And the best part about this entire initiative? We all want each other to succeed. SBC isn’t about egos or competition. It’s about doing what’s in the best interest of our clients, while also respecting and appreciating each other’s individual and collective work.

Social B. Creative is about to change the way businesses and individuals view freelancers. And we welcome you to join us in our creative movement. Please follow our journey online by visiting our Facebook and Instagram accounts. If you’re a prospective client or freelancer, fill out our contact form and we will look forward to connecting with you to grow our network.