 Hey y'all, what's up? My name is Sonali. Welcome to my channel if you guys are new. Definitely hit that subscribe button and if you guys are already subscribed, make sure your post notifications are turned on so you never miss a video of mine. We are celebrating one full year of being self-employed. I can't believe I'm saying that. It still honestly just doesn't feel real. I'm so grateful that I took the lead to quit my job in December of 2021. And honestly, I have never looked back once. So I wanted to make this video to kind of reflect on the past year, give some tips that will really help you in your self-employment journey if you guys are going through the same thing. And then we'll end the video talking about things I personally need to get better about this year being self-employed. Before we get started, I wanted to give you guys a quick background on my work history. So I graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2019 and majored in radio television. So I thought I was gonna get into entertainment, hosting and all that kind of stuff. I definitely took the easy way out though, because I did the generalist track. And honestly, I learned so much more outside of school with my internships and just my jobs at the time that I actually did in class. I got the opportunity to intern for UCF's social media team. So I was in charge of creating a lot of the YouTube content that they posted. Around the same time, I started working for ZUP, which was an app that offered college kids discount. So like a college kid would pay $5 and then you would get access to all these different discounts on your favorite foods around town and all that kind of stuff. They would throw events a lot and I was their content creator. So I would do videography, photography. I also did food photography, which was new for me. And I also managed their social media. Throughout college, I was also taking on freelance videography gigs and then also doing photography. I really started getting into graduation photography and I really fell in love with that and started to get really great connections through that. I was also in a sorority in college and right when I went through recruitment, I became the assistant to the vice president of public relations and then I was the vice president of public relations for two years. That's when I started getting into recruitment videos and all of that kind of stuff. I did their social media, took photos at their events and then I also got an award at convention which honestly I'll never forget just because it's so meaningful to get recognized from nationals. So after college, my boyfriend got a job at Oracle in Austin so we both moved here in 2019 and I actually didn't have a job lined up and I was definitely trying to pursue photography and videography, although I didn't really know how to start from square one because I had so many connections back at UCF that took a long time. There were definitely times where I was like, my work's good enough, why isn't anyone hiring me? And I finally came to the realization that no one knows me here. If you guys are in the creative industry and you are starting from square one as well, I have a whole video on how to get your first clients in a new city, so I'll link that down below. I joined a lot of Facebook groups trying to network with people. I also did thumbtack which is where I got a couple of my first clients but I definitely knew I wanted to break into the college scene here at UT since I was so involved in it at UCF. I had saved a good amount of money from college and that kind of got me through a couple of months but then funds were running low and I wasn't getting as many photography gigs as I wanted to. And then in February 2020, an older sorority sister of mine referred me to a job as a content creator for a student housing company. I got the job and I was trying to decide like, okay, do I really want a corporate job or do I want to keep pursuing photography and videography? But it was slow, like I said, so I kind of just wanted that stable paycheck for a while. Not even one month later, COVID shut down non-essential businesses and I was so grateful that I was able to get that job when I did. While I was working my corporate job, I was building my name here in Austin as a grad photographer and just a photographer in general because I honestly photograph everything except for weddings and I was also getting higher paying brand deals on YouTube and TikTok and I just started getting this gut feeling of feeling like if I had more time, I could be making so much more money. So that happened in summer 2021 and I ended up quitting later that year in December. And like I said before, I never looked back. Sometimes I feel like people think that being self-employed is taking the easy way out and it's definitely not like harder than being, you know, a brain surgeon or anything like that but it definitely comes with its own struggles. One of my biggest issues is my schedule because at my corporate job, I was so used to having a manager telling me what to do and when to have it done by and now that I'm on my own, I can do whatever I want during the day. It's just such a pro and con in one because like I have a flexible schedule. I can travel whenever I want and I'm so, so grateful for that flexibility but also it's hard to be disciplined when you don't have someone in your ear saying, okay, you actually need to get this done by this time. It's also hard knowing what to prioritize because now there's so many social media platforms that you always feel like you have to be keeping up with the trends. You kind of have to create different content for all of them and it's, it is a lot. So let's get into the tips that I would give someone that is starting out being self-employed or has been self-employed for a while now. Number one is to wear makeup. And I guess it doesn't really have to be every day but definitely wear makeup majority of the days of your week. It truly makes the biggest difference in my productivity. And not only am I creating TikToks for my personal page but I'm also creating TikToks for my photography page in an effort to create more brand awareness and just try to get my name out there on a different newer social media platform but these trends come and go so quick so it's just nice to be ready in case I just need to film something really quick and upload. It's also just a nice little confidence boost and I'm definitely less likely to take a nap. The next tip I would give is to meet up with people in your industry throughout the week. This is something I definitely look forward to during the week because at the moment I'm living alone and I love my apartment. I love it so much that I never wanna leave and if I don't have something planned I literally won't leave. I usually set up coffee or lunch dates throughout the week with other photographers or other content creators. And the conversations that we have are just so insanely motivating because we're able to bounce off ideas, brainstorm and even vent to each other because they actually understand what you are talking about because they've probably been through similar experiences. Not only does it leave me feeling really fulfilled and motivated but it also gets me out of the house and out of my sweats. And you're probably wondering how do I even meet these people in the first place? Honestly, just send them an Instagram DM and it's as easy as that. I did meet some people through networking events so that's another option. The third tip I would give is to get inspo from people in your industry but once you start feeling a little envious go ahead and mute them or you can unfollow them. It's totally normal to get jealous of people getting more brand deals or getting more clients for photo shoots but it's up to you to not let it bring you down. If anything, use that as motivation. If they can do it then you can do it too. Number four is to write down everything but be organized. I have about a million lists everywhere full of TikTok ideas, YouTube video ideas, ways I can get more clients. Every thought is written down but they're in so many different places. Like they're probably in my iPhone texts, they're in my Apple notes. They are maybe in Google Docs but last year in the middle of the year I decided to subscribe to Notion which is this note taking app on steroids. It's insane. It definitely has a learning curve just because it is so overwhelming but I have started to write down everything just in Notion because you can look at it on your laptop and your phone. So I have a bunch of different tabs and I can even keep my photography job and my content creator job separate. It's really efficient and it saves me a lot of time not having to dig around in all of the apps that I mentioned. Number five is to give yourself time off for photography. My busy season is February through May since I do UT grads and I love to go on vacation in June whether that's going on an actual tropical vacation or just going back home to Georgia and being babied by my parents. But social media it's really hard to take time off because already on the daily I feel like I'm not doing enough. There's always something more that could be done maybe like more TikToks or putting your TikToks on Pinterest or reposting the TikToks onto Reels. It is a lot to think about but at the end of the day we are all human we need time off and we need a break. The last tip I have for all you guys who are self-employed is to know when to turn it off. This one is so much easier said than done because like I already said I already feel like I'm not doing enough and so when the clock hits five PM and I filmed content the whole day maybe I need to edit them and I feel like TikToks do really well for me around like six to eight so then I have to like post them because TikTok doesn't want to give us like a freaking scheduler and then you know turns into like 10 PM and you're maybe scrolling on TikTok for ideas to film the next day and I just feel like the cycle never ends but you really, really do have to sometimes just you know shut the computer, turn off your phone leave your phone at home spend intentional times with your loved ones because I've definitely struggled with this this past year in my relationship like I never know when to turn it off and I love it so much like you're so passionate about it so why would you want to turn it off? Obviously that means that you're not being very present with your friends and your family and your relationships so that's one thing I'm still working on next we're gonna get into some things that I would tell myself during this past year number one is to stop feeling guilty I know how privileged I am to have this flexible of a schedule and sometimes whenever I go to the grocery store let's say like at 11 or you know 2 PM I kind of feel guilty as if I shouldn't even be at the grocery store just running errands midday I'm really trying to change my mindset to just be more grateful and not to feel as guilty so just to say like you know I'm grateful to be able to take this midday break go to the grocery store and beat those crowds I also find myself not really posting my daily life throughout the day like on my stories or just like TikToks and stuff because I don't want to come off as unrelatable but at the end of the day there's so many people with unconventional schedules and it's not like I'm doing nothing sitting on my ass all day but I also don't want to post every single thing just for the sake of telling people that I'm being productive number two is that it's okay that it didn't work out but at least you tried my biggest goal this past year was to delegate more I ended up hiring an assistant to help me with admin work and then also a video editor for my YouTube channel it is way harder than I thought to hire people for your team because I feel like you just have this vision in your mind that you're gonna be able to like sit back, relax a little bit more take stuff off your plate but in reality for the first week to like two months you have to spend even more time training these people to do exactly what you do or what you want my assistant was a huge help especially because she was with me during my busy season and photography so she focused more on the content creation side of things I just kind of kept it running but unfortunately she did accept a full time job and I definitely probably will hire another assistant like in the future maybe once I get my shit together a little bit when I hired my video editor it was so hard for me to give up creative control because I've been editing my videos for 10 years or even more than that then it actually ended up saving me so much time that I was able to create even more content it ended up just not really being very cost effective since I don't really make too much on YouTube number three is to take the nap take the fucking nap not everyone works efficiently in the nine five schedule and I'm so lucky that I do have the flexibility to work those odd hours since a lot of what I do is filming content it is honestly very draining and you kind of have to be on and if you're low energy then you can definitely tell in the videos and I find that if I'm trying to beat the nap I actually waste a lot more time because I'm just like maybe scrolling and telling myself that I'm looking at ideas when I should be filming so I'll try to make my nap like under an hour and I actually wake up feeling way more energized and the last thing I would tell myself I know I said this before and I want to reiterate this because I feel like I just need to remind myself of this all the time and that is being self-employed is not taking the easy way out it's definitely been glorified over TikTok and just social media in general like I was saying before every job comes with different struggles and for self-employment taxes are the bane of my existence I'm just like how do we not learn this in college or like even high school for the last part of the video I wanted to talk about things that I need to get better at being self-employed number one is to create a consistent schedule I feel like I do a little bit of everything every single day and I want to have like days where I set aside for filming and then days where I set aside for just editing and kind of just batch content in that way number one that'll just make me even more organized but number two I feel like that'll just be a lot less draining if I don't have to do every single thing every single day number two is answering emails as soon as possible I actually opened my mail app on my phone just like it's Instagram like I'm checking it very often and I'll even open emails like if it's a collaboration that I want to like really quickly look at I will open it and get really excited and tell myself okay I'm going to answer on my computer when I get to it but then that just like stacks up and then it's like three days since I didn't reply to this really exciting email and I just don't know why I do that and honestly that goes for everything answering DMs, answering emails I also really want to get better about making health a priority and I feel like I've been doing a really good job of it this year but I need to make sure that I stay consistent I'm the type of person that if I don't work out in the morning it's not happening because usually I'll put on makeup I'll film content throughout the day like I said I'll probably be editing and posting it and by that time it's probably eight or nine PM and I just like want to chill and not work out and also in my apartment there's a lot of late night gym goers and I just get really intimidated when there's so many people in the gym so I'm really trying to tell myself that I need to be at the gym by like eight I try to wake up at like 730 and at least that's something to get me out of bed because before this I would just like scroll on my phone and I would say I'm a morning person so I wouldn't like sleep until like 11 but still just having that something to get out of bed for just is so helpful this year I need to get better about working on my desk more I have like an awesome setup I even have like a walking pad and like some risers so I can like work on my computer at it while I'm being active and I just love my couch a little too much but then when I'm working on my couch I get really lazy and then I want to take a nap and there's other times where my desk turns into a catchall with all my PR I was just like messy so I'm like I'll just work for my couch I also need to get better about my finances I literally hate anything that has to do with taxes or anything like that because I just don't understand it and it's so hard for me to understand but I do have the self-employed QuickBooks and there's an app that keeps track of all of your expenses so you can write it off pretty easily you can kind of put it in a description, upload the receipt it also keeps track of your mileage so literally it has a tracker where whenever you leave your apartment and go somewhere you can mark it and I believe they multiply the mileage times some percentage and then that's also right off honestly guys just don't take any financial advice from me but it is a great app so if you guys are self-employed definitely check that out this one's definitely easier said than done because I feel like I'm always thinking about work or just ideas or what I could be doing but I want to have a hard stop at a decent hour I really think organizing my days where it's like Mondays, filming, Tuesdays, editing, Wednesdays, blank I think that's really gonna help having this hard stop because since I do everything every day I feel like it just like keeps going, it keeps going so if I have a task of like this video needs to get edited today then I finish editing that video and then I'm done for the day the last thing I need to get better about is to stop talking down on my career sometimes I'll find myself joking that I don't have a real job even though I have two jobs because I'm a photographer and a content creator but I really need to stop doing that because if I want other people to take me seriously I need to start doing it first so that wraps up this video I hope you guys enjoyed it and if you guys are self-employed comment on this video what your industry is I'm very curious and if you're a photographer or content creator I have so many helpful videos for both careers for content creation I have in-depth videos about affiliate marketing for Amazon storefronts and like to know it and then for photography I have a whole bunch of videos on just cameras and lenses and how to get your first clients and all that kind of stuff so I will leave some links to those playlists down in the description box don't forget to subscribe to this YouTube channel and then also if you guys wanna support me in my photography career you can find me on Instagram and TikTok at Sinali Productions if you wanna check out my content creation and my personal pages those are going to be so underscored gnarly without the G on Instagram and TikTok so I will see you guys in my next video bye