Tools Of The Trade

I have a love-hate relationship with technology. At my core, I'm a traditionalist. I still subscribe to the newspaper. Not the digital newspaper I can check on my phone, but the one printed on paper and delivered to my driveway before the crack of dawn. I buy books printed on paper, and more than that, I buy them from a brick and mortar store. CD's are a thing of the past for most people. I, on the other hand, prefer afternoons spent browsing the local music store's shelves and purchasing a tangible product complete with album art to giving iTunes the same amount of money for something I can't hold in my hand.

Should I mention my car is a 90's model and I actually keep a stock of cassettes in my glovebox to play in the tape deck occasionally? Or, my my collection of vinyl albums? What about the typewriters I pull out at times to type up a letter to my dad that I then put in an envelope and mail via the US Post Office?

Knowing all this about me, it could be suspected that I am a rejector of anything new. And, at one time, this may have been true. But when I have days like yesterday, working from the front seat of a pickup truck at a client's job site, I'm eternally thankful of the amazing technology we have at our finger tips.

Yesterday, I had a client who requested my presence in a series of meetings over the course of the day. Meanwhile I also had content deadlines to meet for another client. I got it done. From the truck, from the Cuban sandwich place we stopped at for lunch, and from the lobby of a luxury resort complex. Using my iPhone as a hotspot and my notebook for times in between laptop accessible locations, I made it happen.

I'm still true to my traditional side. While I tote my laptop with me everywhere, and I'm almost always found with my iPhone in front of my face, I have a traditional calendar in which I actually pencil appointments, and I take all project notes by hand. I've tried countless notes and task list organizer apps, and I've found them lacking when compared to my handy dandy Levenger notebook I carry with me always.

I use the tools that work best for me and my style of freelancing (which sometimes involves working on the run). This blend of analog and digital is what it takes to make my workday work for me. Use the tools that make sense for you, not tools you think you should use because your boss tells you to, or it's what your friends use, or you just bought that fancy laptop so you feel you need to keep everything on there. No, use what works for you.

The Coffee House Office

Nowadays, if you visit a coffee shop in Orlando during the day, whether it be Starbucks or a little local hole-in-the-wall, you're likely to encounter the mass of freelancers setting up shop. You'll know them by the open laptops, headphones in their ears, papers and notebooks scattered over the table they'll occupy for hours at a time, and they're those pesky people who take calls while you're trying to read your book over your flavored coffee beverage. 

What can I say? Coffee is apart of our culture. For so many of my cohorts in this business, 2 am is when they tell me they're the most creative. The problem with that being your preferred time to work is that your clients are conducting business at the normal 9 to 5 hours. This has led to a high dependency on caffeine for many who work in the middle of the night but still have to "show up" during the day. 

More than just the coffee, the draw is getting out of our home offices for a while. Working from home doesn't always need to mean being at home. Personally, I need my time being exposed to other people or I'd go crazy. We're not all introverts who choose to work this way because we're too antisocial to handle an office full of people.

In fact, the choice to work for myself from home was a big one for me. I labored over the fear I'd become lonely and end up miserable. The coffee house office was my solution though, and swayed my choice to cut ties with the corporate life. Turns out, I get to be more sociable. Instead of the same faces day in and day out, I meet new people frequently.

For a social butterfly like me working in a social industry, this is quite perfect. 

  

What Do You Do?

It's a simple question. Most people have no trouble answering quickly and succinctly. I'm a doctor. I'm a teacher. I'm a general contractor. However, for me this question poses quite a few complications in answering with ease.

It is possible I take the question too literally. What do I do? Well, every day I wake up to snuggles and kisses with the world's most handsome little man. That is, unless he's sick or he woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning. Then, I wake up to whining and tantrums.

Once I've handled my mommy duties for the morning – breakfast, clothes, teeth, and the dreaded daily battle get him loaded in the car and even worse to drop him off at day care – I move on to the work that pays.

I spend the bulk of my day on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and at times Pinterest. Most of the time is on the clock and some of it is personal time just fiddling around. The rest of my "work day" is juggled between various blogging interfaces, websites, and email accounts.

I ride my bike often, practice yoga, meditate, and have lunch with friends and colleagues whenever I can.

I'm a coffee house expert. I know which have internet problems and at what time of day they're most prone to experience them. I have preferences to which I will use as my office any given day depending on what my work load looks like because I know which will have the most conducive environment.

I play pool on Wednesday nights, where I've become the bar room's official website and social media consultant (something I really should consider charging for but what can you do when it's friends asking right?).

I recently opened my own social media management business, so "Business Owner," or "Entrepreneur" should be added to the list somewhere.

I could also answer with, "I'm a writer," or "I'm a photographer."

A very dear friend of mine who hates cleaning pays me to tidy up her house for her on Fridays, so let's add "housekeeper" (which was actually implied with the mommy role).

So there you go. Now, if we ever meet and you ask me that question you will know why I pause before answering. You'll understand why I sputter out some over complicated answer that has you thinking, man I was just trying to make small talk. 

I know that's not what people are after when they ask me what I do. I know they don't want a literal rundown of what I do on a daily basis. They want to know how I earn my money. (That's really what people should ask. Who pays you?)

But truly, I just find this question a difficult one to answer. Perhaps it's because I have a problem with identifying myself under a job title. Perhaps it's because I don't have your typical 9 to 5 job with an office, name tag, and a phone extension.

I guess what I should choose for my answer is, "I'm a freelancer." Yeah, freelancer, we'll go with that.