Over on my personal web log, I revisited some of the issues that stop me – and a lot of us – from getting stuck into the things that, if I gave myself a chance, could lead to my earning a living wage out of the things I’m honestly interested in and enjoy doing.
But from that post alone, you’d think I’ve not been making any progress. I’d like to apologise for that impression.
Because in the last couple of weeks, I managed to score myself a freelance gig.
For six episodes of the Paid to Play Podcast I’ve been talking with people across town, across the country and across the globe about how they took what they loved to do and turned it into something that other people paid them to do. I’ve interviewed a writer, an actor, a painter, three musicians and three shop owners.
But I’ve not talked about myself that much – at least, not myself as someone who wants to get paid to play too.
See, until now, I’ve not thought that I really had anything to offer. I’m a writer, but my first actual fiction “product” is still a ways off and freelancing seems like diluting my passion instead of picking it.
And while I’ve toyed with the idea of monetising this blog, that requires a narrowness of focus that I really didn’t want to give it – not to mention that I didn’t feel as though there was a particular subject I wanted to focus on at the expense of just blogging about where my curiosity takes me.
Now, though, I reckon I have that product that I love to make – the interviews I’ve done and have yet to do. It seems high time, then, that I started developing a plan to turn the play of talking with people into pay.
But where do I start?