Freelance Life Magazine is proud to present Ana Pataki, a freelance creative content writer from Serbia. This is her story.
Novi Sad is a city I grew up in and am in love with, I am raising my children today. The things around my two boys are helping me teach them to appreciate what is around them.
Have you heard about the Exit festival?
As the administrative center of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Novi Sad was built in the North of Serbia. This is a small Eastern European country that has gone through different forms and shapes throughout its history, from Kingdom to Federation, Union of Serbia and Montenegro, to becoming an independent country that attracts tourists.
How did I end up studying Sociology?
When I was in high school, I was drawn to the energy of my Sociology professor, who worked with pupils with special energy, so we enjoyed learning from her. As I recall, she was the first person to treat us like grown-ups, thinking personas, treated equally in discussions and exchanges of ideas – and that was the main reason why I chose Sociology!
As a result, I enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad, and during my studies, I worked on myself, and my experience, and built my “sociological imagination,” as C. Wright Mills would call it, through which I observe the world and social phenomena. Although I have never worked in the profession, the vast majority of things I write on my blog, I shape through a sociological prism and give value.
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Writing has always been a passion of mine, and I used to daydream about magical lands or medieval knight battles while reading books from the library. I have improved my writing skills as a result of schooling and extracurricular activities during my academic years, which allowed me to learn more and improve my skills.
Having the opportunity to travel abroad and master a foreign language strengthened my self-confidence and adaptability. You cannot avoid meetings or communication, so it is better to take advantage of every opportunity and improve yourself in these areas. As a result of my travels and study visits, I was able to put the knowledge from my studies into practice. Also, that experience helped me to work on myself even harder.
Throughout schooling, blogging evolved naturally. It was important for me to express myself, and convey my opinions, but not to remain in a closed circle of like-minded people, not to remain as an academic paper, but to gain the weight of scientific papers and reader responses, which will confirm or refute my views.
Let me remind you, this was in early 2000. and Internet has served as a space for spreading thoughts and communicating with others. As my interests expanded, so did the number of categories in which I wrote. I began by writing about my experiences, and the dilemmas I faced as I grew up and matured.
You know the saying: “Persistence is the most important thing!”? So, I persistently and consistently wrote for myself and shared regardless of who my “audience” was. In those days, I didn’t know anything about SEO, niche, target group, or mechanisms that would increase readership or “sell” the product I was writing about.
Once upon a story
If a certain topic catches my attention or there is room to improve my knowledge and/or skills, I do my best to know as much as possible about it. Both in business and in life. All the time, I have a full-time job, which is in the field of marketing, which leaves me room to improve my knowledge and apply it to my work.
But others delegate the work, and I cannot suggest everything that interests me, nor do it as I imagined. To a good extent – not everything depends on me. That’s why in my spare time I decided to develop a side – a hustle that will be only mine and depend only on me. I have control over the style, vocabulary, and speed of typing words on the keyboard.
Let’s not be modest, freelancing is a space to dispose of your time and charge for the services you provide. It influenced me the most, a space to use my free time to write about topics that are important to me. Another goal was to communicate with clients who need my help.
I have been building a portfolio for a long time, which was first made up of articles and blog posts that I wrote as a volunteer. I did not receive any payment, but the enormous value was writing an article that others will publish. Do you know what it means for a beginner if the editor supports your writing with the signature of your name?!
The best advice – believe in yourself!
Everyone more successful than me at that moment told me to only work on myself. That said, I started to work on the presentation of my services, and on persistence in contacting potential clients. I have completely changed my approach to work, and the price of my services. Because, the more experience you have, you can raise the prices without a doubt.
Doing favors for friends is long gone, time is money and how much you invest – you have to pay. Because, to reach this level, you need to spend a lot of time and energy perfecting yourself. The benefit is to offer the quality of service that others are willing to pay for.
The worst thing you can do is prepare your portfolio and sit and wait for work to come to you. Don’t make this mistake! Instead of fighting, use every opportunity to introduce yourself and expand the circle of associates. After some time, they can recommend you and your services.
Every time I heard and read something like that, I would move on. That’s the worst advice you can get, to be told that people are ready to shower you with money without you doing anything. Even the most successful ones still promote their services, if only by appearing at conferences and public gatherings, ready to introduce themselves to new potential clients.
No one is giving you anything for free, you have to work to earn it!
How did the Freelancing platforms help me?
I have been on Fiverr since the beginning, I worked on creating my profile, describing the services I offer, and fulfilling all the conditions that brought me the status of “Rising star”.
But I was not ready, as I thought. Inquiries came, and I fulfilled them, but my rate was too cheap, and already on the first step of working on freelance platforms, I burned out from work.
Every experience was valuable to me because I learned what I can do, what kind of clients there are, what their expectations are, as well as how quickly I can switch my mindset from one area to another.
Yet, all this is at the expense of my free time, because I did these things after I return from work. First, I need to drop off the children from kindergarten and school, fulfilled their obligations, and prepare them for the new day.
Only when I finished everything else, I’ve started to write. And that was the hardest decision I have ever made – to deny myself free time for rest.
After I realized how much time I was wasting on negotiations for very little money, I examined the option of starting long-term cooperation through UpWork. This freelancing platform seemed to be a somewhat more serious collaboration with higher criteria for the protection of freelancers. Also, they have a strong community that helps and organizes education to improve skills for freelancers.
Through several collaborations on this platform, I managed to get new confirmations of the quality of my services. After that, I continued writing with love that lasted for over 20 years.
Freelancing gives you freedom, but it also takes it away
To succeed in every field of life or work, you have to own certain skills, such as communication, organization, and the ability to learn and grow. If you are combining parenthood with a career, you need (!) to be great at time management, or else…
Writing helped me develop sales communication skills, which I had no experience with before. Like time management, no matter how hard you try and how good you are at remembering everything and organizing your time, there are things you can’t control and they can disrupt your routine.
Different people understand response dynamics, especially if you work in the opposite time zone, the client expects an immediate response, and it’s time for you to go to bed.
Sometimes you deliver a job, take on other responsibilities and wait for a response for days. Then you have two clients with two types of work and opposite topics intertwined. Patience was a skill that, if I had, I had now perfected.
Another important thing I learned through work was that how much you know is not enough. You have to learn about the field you work in and want to succeed, you have to work on yourself, and your mental health. One of the biggest challenges is time management so that your family and friends don’t suffer because of your workload and obligations.
Besides improving my writing skills (and I mean that in the broadest sense: reading fiction for a larger vocabulary, researching in the field I work in, working on skills and the balance between private and professional), it was also important to me to master some leadership skills.
No matter how banal it sounds, YOU are the “shop window” of your business, how you present yourself is how you will represent yourself: if you approach your business with seriousness and share tips on how to be successful, you will attract people to your energy and then – want to work with you.
If you shy away from sharing posts and don’t believe in the quality you deliver, you won’t convince anyone else. That is why working on oneself is mandatory throughout the entire path to success.
Something completely different – about gender equality
In my articles on the blog, I wrote about topics through the prism of Sociology, as they came. Although, I thought that I am the only reader, and every new reader is a great benefit.
In business and in life, the roles are different. The cultures from which we come also contribute to all of this, so girls are educated more often in the field of care and education, and boys in the spheres of construction and electrical engineering.
Women are more often employed in administration, care, and social protection services, and men in physical jobs, and commercial jobs that also include fieldwork.
Even though they are more educated and there are more of them enrolled in doctoral studies, women more often do not complete their academic education or continue working in the profession, because – of family.
Also, the balance between private and business life is made more often by women and not by men. This is exactly one of the reasons why the myth persists that they are more successful in multitasking?
However, we all had to move to the “new normal” when the pandemic caused by the coronavirus was declared, when countries closed their borders, and we closed the doors of our homes. Isolation and quarantine have left consequences for all of us, for our jobs, interpersonal relations, family harmony, conditioned by working with children due to the closing of kindergartens and schools, the temporary suspension of social and health care services, directing each other in a confined space. Guess who made the biggest sacrifice? Women.
They became burdened with taking care of the house, children, lunch, laundry, and taking care of the weaker ones, besides their work. Time was running out, and in some situations, it was impossible to do the work from home.
That’s where content creation got the attention it deserved and attracted the vast majority of people who started working from home. In addition to creating profiles on freelance platforms, many e-commerce stores, opportunities, and opportunities to earn from the comfort of your home and from your home computer have exploded.
And that’s where you are against the world, that’s where your abilities come to the fore, your skills, your communication skills, and the knowledge you’ve used to present yourself, your business, and the products you offer.
No matter if it’s real products like jewelry, food, or services writing, translating, creating content, promoting products, moderating events, and much more.
With family support, anything is possible! With a good division of work around household duties and children, women have realized that they can achieve success in business while spending time with their loved ones. A good organization is the best way to organize multiple jobs and private life, and women’s know-how!
A piece of advice to a younger self
Leaving the comfort zone is not pleasant for anyone, but it is a sure way to success. As long as we do what we’ve never done before, we’ll learn something we didn’t know before.
And that would be my greatest advice to my younger self – to use every opportunity to learn, grow and gain new experiences. I would have started working on freelance platforms earlier! Because it opened up a new Universe of opportunities for work and cooperation. Secondly, it helped me to cherish friendships with like-minded people who encountered the same problems.
The most useful thing I would recommend to anyone at the beginning of their freelance career is to not doubt themselves. You need to be persistent and consistent in working, writing, and publishing things that are important to them. Thus, you will soon receive confirmation of the quality of your work and present yourself in the best light. We are all the ” shop window” of our store and now is the best time to shine!
