Tag: motivation

Battling back to my passion

~ Mike McKibbin ~ 3 Comments

Detours. Roadblocks. Hurdles. Challenges. Life.

Whatever term you use, everyone has to deal with things that come up. A lot of times when they do, you have to slog through and continue to move in what you hope is a forward direction. But it can be hard.

I experienced — and am still experiencing — this over the last few months. My brother passed away in another state and I was appointed the personal representative to his estate. It’s one of the most difficult things I’ve had to undertake, Continue reading “Battling back to my passion” →

Time to determine my worth?

~ Mike McKibbin

“Time is money” is a saying most people have probably heard. It’s something I’ve found to be true over and over again. And now that I’m freelancing, I’ve kept it in mind nearly every day.

Most of my clients pay per word or per project, only one pays an hourly rate. (They pay well, too, but it’s pretty sporadic.) To track how much time I spend on a project, article or story, I use Toggl. I’m using it now to track how much time I spend writing this blog post, too. It’s all career-connected, right?

One of the most recent stories I finished probably set a personal record. It was about the 50th anniversary of a Colorado municipality. Since the records Continue reading “Time to determine my worth?” →

Ready for the next step

~ Mike McKibbin

Optimism and growing motivation with a little touch of apprehension.

That may sum up my outlook towards my freelance writing career as a new year approaches. This year has been a pretty good one. I’ve stayed busy with writing projects and assignments, although I know it might have been better if I’d done more marketing and networking, getting my name out there some more.

I’m optimistic I have a good idea about where I want to go with my writing in the coming year. I’ve mentioned before on this site that my goal is to get a full-time work-at-home writing job so I can continue to enjoy the freedom and efficiencies of not commuting. I think this will continue to be the direction many professions move in the coming years. It just makes sense for employers and employees.

So I plan to seek out these opportunities next year, Continue reading “Ready for the next step” →

Pitching my pitch gets closer

~ Mike McKibbin

For freelance writers like me, with a strong journalism background, one of the areas I’ve wanted to learn more about and give a good try is story pitching.

Instead of having an editor assign stories, the writer tries to convince an editor they should publish or post a story. As a reporter, I would often actually pitch story ideas to my editor. But one main difference was those stories often resulted from some event or news release I read that morning. And since stories, or content, is what newspapers, TV stations and any other news outlet need to survive, it wasn’t too hard to get my editor to say “go do it, Mike.” 👍

As a freelancer, I don’t have that relationship with an editor. I get asked by clients to do this story or that story, Continue reading “Pitching my pitch gets closer” →

Finding my mojo again

~ Mike McKibbin

I turned down my first new client the other day. It was mostly a disappointing act, although I have to say part of the reason was I wasn’t overly excited about what I would have been writing.

It was for an air freight publication in England, so there was also a big time difference when it came to communication. The subject matter was not overly exciting, but it would probably be interesting.

It would not have made me rich, of course, but the pay was acceptable. A big factor in my decision Continue reading “Finding my mojo again” →