3 Fun Things to Prep for Autumn

I will probably write something equivalent in every blog post I write for the next month, but: this is a really challenging time for everyone, especially here on the West Coast. Things have been challenging and difficult for months now, but it feels like things are compacting, right? Getting tighter. More restrictive. In the words of my mother-in-law, “I’m sick of this shit.”

I recently read a tweet, however, that said something like this: it’s possible to feel just as happy drinking your coffee and watering your plants as it is to go on a dream vacation. Joy is joy, and however you’re able to feel it, let yourself take a taste of it and really feel that joy. 

You know what brings me joy?

Wait for it…

Autumn.

I knew you would know, especially if you know me. I love Autumn. I love pumpkins. I love the anticipation of the season, helping Fo pick his costume. I love everything about the season.

That’s probably why this is so hard right now. It’s chillier outside here in Oregon, but only because the smoke is literally blocking the sun and keeping the air colder below it. We can’t go outside—so no apple picking, no pumpkin patch visits, nothing.

But that won’t stop me from finding joy in this season. I can be just as happy buying a pumpkin from the grocery store, decorating my house with what I already have.

So, without further ado, here are 3 fun ways to prep for Autumn. I hope they bring you a little joy!

1. Decorate Your House

I love decorating for Autumn and Halloween. I know it’s not the most popular holiday to decorate for or season to decorate for, but it’s growing in popularity. And, quite frankly, it’s really fun. Nothing makes your house feel cozier.

I have a good stockpile of my favorite decorations and I try not to buy a ton every year. However, I did buy a new, shallow wooden basket for our coffee table and some fake mini pumpkins to fill it. It cost $9 in total—which is a steal, to be honest.

Doing little things to bring you joy is important. Get out the candles, find some little pumpkins, and go wild.

2. Bake Some Cookies

It goes without saying: baking makes your house smell good.

Candles help too. But there is something about the smell of baking cookies.

My favorite recipe right now is the TikTok cookie recipe: 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp of baking soda, and 1 cup of chocolate chips. It’s just so… easy. We make these a lot for Forrest—he’s always in the mood for a cookie and he’s been holding steady at 31 pounds for a year and a half now, so we need him to bulk up—and they make the house smell good.

But whatever cookie you choose, this is a great way to get in the spirit, forget the world for a little while, and have some fun. Plus, you get cookies at the end of it.

3. Have a Movie Night

I’m working on a list of Autumnal-but-not-spooky/scary/Halloween movies to watch with Forrest… because one of our favorite things to do right now is have a movie night. Make hot cocoa, pop some popcorn, put on a movie, and snuggle up under a blanket. It’s so cozy, so fun, and requires $0 and next to no effort.

If you don’t have a go to list of movies to watch for movie night, let me help you out. Here are a few of our favorites:

• The Nightmare Before Christmas

• Home Alone 2 (I know this is a Christmas movie but Forrest loves it)

• Lego Movie 2

• Coraline

• Fantastic Mr. Fox

• Isle of Dogs

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

3 Skills Every Freelancer Needs

Welcome to the Diversifying Your Skills series! Learning new skills in your life and career can be really rewarding—but challenging at the same time. What does it mean to realize you’re missing a skill for your career or, worse, life? How can you best learn new skills? I’ll be answering those questions and more in this weekly series. You can read all posts in this series here.

It’s easy to wax poetic about being a freelancer. There are so many pluses: I can take days off whenever I want*; I can schedule my time however I please*; I can choose what work to take on and what work to pass on*…

What are those asterisks for you ask? Sorry, let me check the footnotes…

* You can take days off, except the days where your clients expect you to be working, especially if they email you, call you, text you, or check in on you.

* You can schedule your time however you want, but you’ll need to factor in when your clients are awake and working as well.

* You can choose what work to take on and what to pass on, but you’ll always have to consider word of mouth and how much money you’re making each month.

So, yes, there are many pluses to working as a freelancer! We don’t often talk about the not-so-fun ones: that it’s easy to say you work for yourself, but you kind of aren’t. It’s more like you’re working for multiple bosses, all with different needs, and schedules, and communication styles.

This isn’t to shit talk freelancing without reason. Some days I love being a freelancer; some days I just wish I had a normal job (like when I wish I had an account manager who could take on all my client meetings!)

One thing that we often don’t talk about with freelancing is that you need more skills than just the ones you’re selling as services. Yes, you’re a good writer, or a good graphic designer, or a good strategist. But are you good at… bookkeeping? Do you have a customer service voice? Let’s chat the 3 skills that every single freelancer needs.

1. Bookkeeping

Here’s an embarrassing story: mid-way through July, I all of a sudden realized I should be paying my estimated taxes into the state and federal government. I sort of abstractly knew this was a “thing”, but for whatever reason thought that my first year of freelancing, I didn’t need to do this. (This is still a bit of a hazy point; lots of accountants say that is the case, but other accountants say it’s not. The government doesn’t really list that… but all I know is, I don’t want to be penalized or investigated for tax fraud. And you probably don’t either, right?)

It goes without saying: you need either to learn bookkeeping now so you have a good record of your invoices (or use a simple invoicing software like Square) or hire a bookkeeper or seek out a bookkeeping software. I recently looked into Bench and while I really like them, I wasn’t quite at the point financially where I needed their help. If I had more clients and more invoices, it would definitely be top of my list.

Right now, I primarily use a combination of spreadsheets, my Square invoices, and Quickbooks. I don’t have a ton of expenses yet, so that’s not a huge concern to me. On top of bookkeeping, having a great accountant who you can call and ask questions is huge.

2. Customer Service

Do you know someone who says stuff like, “I won’t ever have a job where I have to work customer service again”?

I used to say that all the time when I worked retail and food service. I actually really loved working both in retail and food, but the customer service aspect was always challenging for me. I’m not super assertive and especially when I was younger, I struggled to establish boundaries.

That being said, it turns out when you’re a freelancer, you’re every part of the job: client management, customer service, service provider, CEO… everything. It’s all you, baby!

So if you like me said you would “never work customer service again”, I have really bad news for you.

Providing good customer service when selling your services can be really challenging. It’s hard to take feedback, especially if you’re an expert in your field—a client hired you for that reason, so it’s hard to make changes based on their desires. But balancing client requests and your expertise is important and learning to communicate effectively is huge! It’s all about good customer services, uses the right language and tone, and providing a great experience on top of great services.

3. Organization

How organized are you?

On a scale of 1 to 10, how organized is your desk?

More bad news, if you answered “oh shit, I’m not organized at all”, you’ll need to learn some organization techniques soon! You can read my series about getting organized here.

Being organized will make your life so much easier at the start of your freelancing career. Rather than realizing mid-way through the first year that you’ve lost a contract or don’t remember where you put the notes you took at a meeting that you need. Here are a few of my tips:

• Buy a filing cabinet or filing box. Create folders for every client. Any printed contracts or notes go in here. (Create this same system in Google Drive; call it FILING CABINET and create the same folders.)

• Create an tagging system for your email inbox.

• Clean off your desk and keep it clean.

• Keep a notebook for each client. (I buy notebook packs I find on sale at TJ Maxx or Marshalls.) All notes for meetings I keep in this one notebook!

It’s pretty easy to set up a system to start organized now. It doesn’t have to be boring or a huge chore—just something you do to keep yourself organized and sane. I usually set aside a few hours each week to get organized, update my invoices and hours, and make sure all my tasks are organized in Asana.

3 Tips for Anyone Starting a Business

When I started freelancing over a year ago, I made the decision not based necessarily on desire (although I’d been thinking of going full time freelance for a while), but because it was the only option available to me. I’ve written about falling into freelancing before, so I’ll save you all the details. But one big thing I didn’t realize when I started freelancing was that I was essentially starting a new business, with myself as the CEO.

I didn’t really consider it a business—it was just me! I just needed to work to keep paying my mortgage. I also wasn’t selling anything—just providing services based on my years of agency experience.

The truth is being a freelancer is starting a business. Whether our work resembles a business owner that sells a product isn’t necessarily the point… What is the point is that freelancing, selling products, blogging and making money are all businesses. And if you started one, you’re a business owner.

Here are 3 tips if you want to start a business, are a freelancer floundering with what you need to know about running a business, or are just curious about what running an independent business is like.

1. Speak to Accountant Now (and Create Your Team)

The sooner you talk to an accountant, the better. Why? Because paying taxes as an individual proprietor is confusing at best. If you are starting a business, there is a lot of info you’ll need about collecting and paying taxes, registering your business, and more. An accountant won’t have all the answers, but they will be able to help you find those answers.

This leads me to sort of a second part of this point: create your team for your business.

Even if you don’t have employees quite yet, your team will still consist of people who help you run your business. This might include:

• Your mentors: a group of people you can ask your dumbest questions (like, am I stuck up shit creek without a paddle if I forgot to mail my individual tax estimates??) and get good advice back

• Your accountant

• Your bookkeeper (or your bookkeeping software)

• Your lawyer (if you need one—and you never know if you will need one)

Once you have a few go to people that you can always shoot an email with random questions, you’ll be good to go.

2. Don’t Be Afraid to Try Something New

When I first started freelancing, I had a lot of ideas about what I specifically wanted to do. I wanted to get back into strictly copywriting; I was tired of working in social media.

It should not surprise you that I haven’t landed a single copywriting-only client.

I do a lot of strategy. I do a lot of social media writing and strategizing. I also added a relatively new service for me: VA services. (VA is a virtual assistant.)

A lot of my clients already have either a marketing person or an agency. However, their agency charges too much for them to implement the materials—like scheduling emails or blog posts to go live. So, I take on a lot of the busy work, like scheduling, tracking analytics, and more. This helps small businesses offset the costs of marketing while still getting high level work.

If you’re starting a business, you might find yourself falling into work that you never expected. Maybe you make a product for fun that ends up taking off. (I actually always tell clients about American Eagle’s American Beagle April Fools joke from several years ago—that was so popular that they ended up making a dog line of clothes a real thing!) Don’t be afraid to switch up your services or products based on what ends up selling.

3. Protect Your Time (and Keep Your Boundaries Firm)

I’m big on setting boundaries. And especially when you run your own business, you can very quickly erode your own boundaries. Trust me, I know from experience.

The first 6 months I worked freelance, I didn’t establish boundaries. I answered emails when I got them; I answered texts when I got them. Sometimes, I didn’t raise my head from work for hours. Thankfully, Forrest was in school for that time. But once the pandemic hit, I knew I needed to get my shit together.

I couldn’t be both a mother and a freelancer and not have boundaries.

If you’re a business owner, I recommend my guide to setting boundaries. However, as a short summary, here are 3 boundaries that you need to make sure you have:

• Set your work hours and work days. On this note: Communicate with your team that you understand their boundaries and want to respect them. Make sure you note your team’s working hours and days.

• Create a space that is just for your business. An office, a corner, whatever works.

• Write an FAQ in advance to provide to potential clients and customers so you don’t end up answering the same questions over and over.

Monthly Journaling: 30 Journal Prompts for September 2020

Ready for a short and sweet post? Good!

Today, I wanted to share 30 journaling prompts I’m using in my bullet journal this month. These are great, general prompts to get yourself in the habit of writing every single day. You don’t have to choose just one to write every day—you can pick one or two. Or you can just follow the numbers and take your time. Whatever works for you!

I hope you find these prompts helpful. Make sure to follow me on Instagram for more journal prompts!

Do You Need to Learn New Skills?

Welcome to the Diversifying Your Skills series! Learning new skills in your life and career can be really rewarding—but challenging at the same time. What does it mean to realize you’re missing a skill for your career or, worse, life? How can you best learn new skills? I’ll be answering those questions and more in this weekly series.

When I first started freelancing, I knew there were a few skills I had that set me apart from other freelancers or would simply make me an appealing person to work with. They were the fact that I was organized, knew how to set up and run a project, and was an expert in my field (even if I don’t always feel like an expert in my field). However, there were a few skills that I knew I didn’t have.

That meant I had to learn them.

These skills are important to freelancing, and really to any job, but I just didn’t have them; they included things like networking, bookkeeping, and client management. Learning these huge, new skills took time, effort, and dedication. But I knew I needed them.

As time has passed, I’ve realized that constantly learning new skills, or adjusting what I already know, is a major part of my life and my career. There will always be things we don’t know. But not knowing isn’t an excuse not to learn, not to try, or to give up.

If you’re reading this post, then you’ve probably asked yourself “Do I need to learn new skills right now?” at least once. Let’s break down why learning new skills for our lives or career isn’t a failure, what learning new skills is super valuable, and what else I’ll be covering in this weekly series for September!

What It Means to be a Lifelong Learner

Learning doesn’t stop the moment we turn 18. Or the moment we graduate college. Or when we’re 10+ years into our jobs.

We’re all constantly learning. (And if someone isn’t learning new things every single day, or just refusing to learn new things, well, then, I have some feelings about that and I’m sure you do too.)

On the internet, it feels like everyone is an expert. No one feels like a beginner or someone who is just learning. Influencers position themselves as experts on things (parenting, skincare, home decor), but are they really? You should always question someone who says they are, unequivocally, an expert. Why? Because even experts (and at this point in my career, I’d say I’m expert-level in my knowledge of 2 things: blogging and social media) admit freely that they are learning new things every single day.

Being a lifelong learner means staying curious about things, even unrelated to your career, or hobbies, or life. It means asking questions when people talk to you (because you want to know more and learn!); it means reading articles, seeking out new information, talking to people about solving issues.

Being a lifelong learner doesn’t mean you’re in school all the time; it just means that you’re always trying to improve your knowledge, your outlook, and your life.

The Value in New Skills

When I had my son, I didn’t know how to breastfeed. Even 4 weeks later, visiting a lactation consultant, I realized that part of the reason I never successfully latched my son was because no nurse during our 7-day hospital stay explained to me what I was supposed to be doing. They always just said, “Ok, let’s try to latch him” then just watched my struggle and not know what to do for 20 minutes before sighing and holding out a bottle. (This did wonders for my self esteem!)

There is always something new for us to learn. Something that other people can teach us. When you see someone struggling, there is always a question if you should say something. If you see a new mom struggling to successfully latch her new baby, should you say something? (I’m on the side of YES you absolutely should!) If a new coworker doesn’t know how to use the coffee machine in the break room, should you show them? Yes. If you would want to be taught these things, you should be willing to help others.

Sometimes, learning something new can feel frightening, difficult, or overwhelming. Or sometimes, we end up learning a new skill that invalidates lots of our old ones. (For example, I know Hootsuite like the back of my hand—but because it no longer offers a full suite of scheduling tools to free subscribers, I don’t recommend it or even use it. Working with small businesses has taught me that scheduling tools are far too expensive and it invalidates a lot of my agency-level knowledge.)

Always think of yourself as a lifelong learner, someone seeking value in learning new things; there will probably never be a point in your life where you know everything.

What Comes Next?

So what now?

You know you need to learn new skills—either for your job, or your hobby, or something you want to achieve.

So where do you start?

I’m glad you asked! This month, I’ll be sharing a post every weekend about learning new skills: what skills you need for freelancing, the best places to learn new skills, and much more. I hope you find it valuable! Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter going out at the end of the month for exclusive content.

3 Tools You Need for Freelancing

Some people choose a freelance career. It becomes the best choice for them. They have time to prepare, to create a workflow, to research and get ready for the path they’ve chosen.

However, some of us don’t quite have that going for us.

Have you ever seen those memes on TikTok about puppy dog eyes girls (I can’t add that emoji to my blog post, but you know what I’m talking about!) versus bruh girls? I feel like those memes could be easily applied to lots of things, but especially to “those who choose freelancing” versus “those who fall into freelancing.”

Those who choose freelancing have a great Instagram aesthetic, great topics for their Reels, and a workflow ready for invoicing, keeping time, charging clients, and more.

Then, there are those who fall into freelancing: crash landing into tax season, knocking over everything in a coffee shop trying to figure out invoicing, late night panics about chasing invoices or getting new clients.

You get the drift.

This blog post is for the people who fell into freelancing—people like me. I haven’t shied away from the fact that freelancing wasn’t really something I chose, but really the only option forward at a certain point. After I got laid off, it felt like I was starting my career all over again. I was exhausted and burnt out and I just plain didn’t know what to do. Freelancing opened up as an option and I went after it—pretty much only because searching for jobs, and the variety of biased rejections I experienced, were soul crushing.

When I started freelancing in earnest, I didn’t have a process. I didn’t know what I needed. And unfortunately, I didn’t have time to do the research I needed to do—I just kind of had to figure it out on the fly.

So, for those currently in the process of freelancing, let me make it easy for you. Here are 3 tools you need no matter what kind of freelance services you offer.

1. Bookkeeping Software

Surprise! You’re now your own bookkeeper and HR person! You’re going to need some kind of bookkeeping system. So far in 2020, I have kept myself afloat using a combination of Square for invoicing and a spreadsheet. I don’t have a ton of expenses—and because 2020 is the way it is, I don’t need to have tracked my mileage at all (because I haven’t driven… anywhere?). However, I already have a bettering bookkeeping system lined up for 2021.

One note here: you should definitely start a separate freelance banking account now. Get all your payments sent and/or deposited into this account; make all your purchases out of this account; and pay yourself out of this account. This will really simplify your life. (Unfortunately for me, right when my freelancing kicked into high gear, banks closed and I couldn’t open a separate bank account until JULY! My books are a mess, send help.)

2. Time Tracking Tool

Clients will often want a breakdown of how you spent your time on a project—even if you’re being paid by the service, not the hour. (Although you will frequently be paid by the hour!) My favorite tool for this is Clockify, which I’ve mentioned before. I like it because it has a Chrome extension where you can start your timer from anywhere. Plus, you can set up multiple projects underneath a client, which is great if you need to invoice differently for certain projects. They recently introduced a Dark Mode and while that’s not my thing, I know for many people, it makes a huge difference for them!

3. Email Marketing

You’ll probably need to send emails to clients in some form, especially as you get more clients. If you have a website and start marketing, it’s good to have your email marketing plan set up now, rather than later.

I have used all of the email marketing tools out there but my favorite is Flodesk. The only downside to Flodesk is that there is no free level—it’s only paid. However, most people have sign up codes to use to get it for 50% off for life. (That’s a pretty good deal.) The templates are gorgeous. Plus, it’s the same price for however many email addresses you end up having—whether is 100 or 100,000. In comparison, MailerLite and Mailchimp charge over a certain number of subscribers and emails sent per month. You can sign up here and get 50% off.

Free Printable: What's On your Autumn Bucket List?

It’s HERE!!! August is finally over. August is always a slog for me. I’d say alongside February, August is up there in my Least Favorite Months list. It’s always the hottest month; it’s the run up to school starting; and it is the month right before my favorite 4 months of the year (September, October, November, and December, obviously.)

Sometimes, I feel a little bad that I rush August so much. It’s not kind of August, is it? There have been many good moments in August! Danny and I took Forrest on some fun socially distant day trips. We had many picnics. We enjoyed the weather until we didn’t (100+ degree days are just not my thing). All that being said, I decorated for Autumn on the 22nd because I just couldn’t wait anymore.

We all have things we like and love. Autumn is one of those things for me. It feels like coming home! Summer is my least favorite time of the year, generally, and Autumn is my most favorite—so yes, I’m always going to try to rush through summer a little bit. I’m never going to love summer. I will merely tolerate it. And that’s fine! I hope you had a fun summer if you love it!

Now, for me… I’m just ready for Autumn. Which is why I created an Autumn bucket list printable just for you!

I printed and filled mine out to keep on the fridge. We will check off items as we get to them. I don’t plan to do all these things, but I hope to get to at least 50% of them.

To download your free printable bucket list, subscribe to my mailing list below!

I hope you love it and have a great Autumn!

3 More Cozy Summer Outfits Featuring Femme Luxe*

I love a cozy summer look. Since I work from home, I spend a majority of my time in loungewear—I want to look presentable, but wearing a dress or full outfit can be super uncomfortable throughout the day. So here I am, back with another set of cozy summer outfits. You can read my previous post about cozy loungewear here.

I originally meant to post this a week or so ago, but ended up putting it off due to picture issues. You’ll probably recognize most of these images from my Instagram, if you follow me there, as I’ve been posting them. I’ve been playing around with my Instagram theme and trying to pick a filter that I like, so no, none of these photos are edited the same! No shame. :) (Full shame, actually. I wish I was better at taking and editing photos.)

I’m excited to share these 3 cozy summer looks, courtesy of Femme Luxe.

1. Tie Dye Top with Bike Shorts

This tie dye top is from Femme Luxe and it is so cute and comfortable. I’ve worn it so much in the last few weeks that Danny was surprised I only owned one of it!

My bike shorts, however, are from Aerie’s new brand OFFLINE. They are SO comfortable. They have pockets on the side which are perfect for carrying my phone around from room to room when I’m home. And they go with just about everything. Tank top? Sure. T-shirt? Definitely. Big sweater? For sure!

This is the perfect cozy outfit for a hot day. But once it starts getting chillier, I will be wearing a zip up hoodie over this, just to keep wearing my bike shorts.

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2. Forest Green Loungewear Set

This is honestly my favorite loungewear set. It’s hard not to love it! It’s comfy, cozy, and fits really well. I ordered a size Large in this one and it fits pretty well. (For reference again, I’m usually a 14 in pants.)

It is a forest green color that will be perfect for Autumn and Winter when we get there. It’s cozy enough for wearing around the house; the pants have pockets (my favorite!); and it looks professional enough for those Zoom calls.

In this photo, I’m also holding my Passion Planner. I recently became a Passion Planner ambassador, so you can use my code MICHELLEL10 on the Passion Planner website for 10% off!

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3. Burnt Orange Cropped Loungewear Set

I know this isn’t the best photo, but as I was editing my photos for this post, all the others were blurry. What can I say? It is what it is!

I’m holding my new Coop Home Good pillow here—I’ll have a review on this pillow coming soon. However, you can check out Coop Home Good pillows now! They’re super soft, heavy duty microfiber filled pillows. I am a terrible sleeper, but my Coop Home Goods pillow has been helping so much.

This loungewear set is a cropped top with a set of high waisted stretchy pants. I really love it. But mostly I love the color. It will be perfect to wear the pants with a sweatshirt come Autumn.

Disclaimer: These outfits were provided by Femme Luxe, as signified by the asterisk (*) in the title of this post. Posts like this help me keep the lights on at Writing Between Pauses. To learn more about my advertising and disclosure policy, click here.