Interview With Jonathan Fields, Career Renegade

Jonathan Fields has compiled a laundry list of occupations over the years ranging from lawyer to yoga instructor, and has found a great niche in his most recent profession: Author. Jonathan’s book Career Renegade is a must-read for any freelancer. Freelancers so often get caught up in the battle of trying to survive that we forget what it means to truly do what we love. Jonathan’s book helps bring focus back to our goals, back to what we really want to do with our life, and how to make a decent living doing it too.

We were able to catch up with Jonathan for an interview in which he shares some insights into his book, and how freelancer’s can benefit from being a Career Renegade.

1. Can you define in a few sentences what being a Career Renegade is?

A Career Renegade is someone who makes a conscious effort to build their living around the life they want to live, not the other way around. That usually means some combination of passion-driven work, an overriding mission or vision that is deeply compelling and people you love being around.

Oh, and, one other thing…Career Renegades aren’t too keen on being poor. So, rather than accepting the age-old notion that doing what you love necessarily requires you to sacrifice money for love, you dig in and take that same hyper-creative juice that makes you really good at the core of your work and repurpose it to not only create kick-ass deliverables, products and services, but a serious living, too.

It’s not always easy, in fact, it usually takes a ton of work, at least in the beginning, but, in the end, it’s so worth the effort. Because, you proactively create not only a career that keeps you eternally jonesing, but a bank account that lets you live well in the world and also makes you feel like you’re being paid what you’re really worth.

2. How is that different than being a “freelancer”?

Truth is many freelancers are Career Renegades and vice versa, at least when it comes to the doing what you love aspect of career evolution. In fact, most of the people I interviewed for Career Renegade are either freelancers or small-business owners.

The place where there’s often some divergence is when it comes time not just to work “in,” but work “on” your business. Whether it’s tapping social media to aggressively build a personal brand and translate that into clients and income or brainstorming to find ways to joint venture with clients, share risk and assets and participate in the upside, Career Renegades figure out often cool, different ways to monetize the process of coming alive.

3. Readers of this blog are typically freelancers wanting to either a) make more money or b) enjoy what they’re doing more. How can being a Career Renegade help them?

So, let’s take these one at a time, starting with the desire to make more money. Step one is about a shift in mindset, an acceptance that, yes, even in a crappy economy, you’re still worth serious money.

Clients still need to spend money, but they’re looking for value like never before. And, all to often our own minds betray us when it comes to communicating our value. We say one thing, but our non-verbal communication contradicts and discredits the words the moment they tumble forth.

Truth is, the vast majority of the way we communicate is non-verbal. So, if you don’t believe what you’re saying, if you don’t resonate with it, you’ve gotta know that every person you pitch is going to feel your lack of belief in your value, regardless of what you say.

If that’s a challenge for you, working on mindset is key. In the book, I share how to tap “outcome” and “process” simulation techniques to get you past your fear of failure/rejection, but it’s also super helpful in cultivating the belief in success necessary to take action, allow your non-verbal communications to support what comes out of your mouth and spend more time working on and being the “face” of your business.

Now, what about part two of your question—enjoying what you’re doing more. As someone who’s freelanced and owned a number of businesses, I know there’s nothing more joy-draining than having to spend more time doing the things that empty you out than the ones that fill you up.

Most freelancers I know would rather spend all their time on their craft and leave the “business” side of things to someone else. But, they don’t. Out of a fear of either being ripped off, losing control of their business or just straight up neglect.

We also tell ourselves, “I don’t have the money to pay someone else to do the stuff that sucks.”

But, what I always wondered was…

“What might happen if you took all the time spent doing stuff you hate crappily (is that even a word?), reallocated it toward doing the things you love more often and better and outsourced the rest?”

Would it take a little bit of money to try it out? Sure. And, you’d have to find the right people. But, and I can only speak from experience, when you do and it works, it’s like you can breath again. And, what I’ve found is that you become so much more alive and effective that the quality of your work improves, people become more drawn to you and the money needed to pay people to do things that free you to do what you love ends up coming, and then some.

For me, I am obsessed with the process of creation. Could be writing books, building businesses or brands, blogging, making music, painting, even crafting marketing copy. I love conceiving, visualizing and bringing things to life. But, man, do I hate operations. I’m not a detail guy and when I’m forced to be one, it kills me.

So, over the years, I’ve made sure that once I have enough cash coming in, I surround myself with other people who like to do the things that empty me out and I pay them fairly for what they do. Even if it means reaching into my pocket to cover their services until my renewed energy on the creative side generates enough money to cover them.

Is this the only solution? Not a chance. It’s just the solution that I’ve found works best for me. So, if it resonates with you, try it on for size and see if it makes a difference.

4. Does the state of the faltering global economy help or hurt the chances of someone wanting to find ways to do what they love while earning a decent living?

I live in the same real world as everyone else. I know there’s nasty stuff going on, but as a lifelong entrepreneur who launched his last business in New York City a few weeks after 9-11, I’ve pretty much trained myself to focus on windows and opportunities, rather than doors and limitations. Nothing foofy about, it’s just plain survival.

So, yes, I still see a lot of opportunity. But, I think it needs to be pursued and tapped differently. Whether you’re a freelancer or the head of a multinational business, the day you lose the ability to swiftly adapt to changes in circumstance is the day your business begins to lose ground.

Fact is, clients and prospects still need to spend money, but they are looking for value like never before. They want to know that if they hire a copywriter, the copy will generate X dollars for every dollar spent. Or, if they hire someone to write code, that code will be rock solid out of the gate.

So, the question is—how do you leverage this hyper-inflated quest for value to your advantage as a freelancer?

Joint-venturing/revenue-sharing is one strategy you may be able to tap as a freelancer to not only grow your client base and revenue, but set yourself up to be a much bigger player, once we all emerge from the current economic dreck.

This generally works best when what you create is a revenue generating asset, like direct-response copy. Just be sure to really vet your clients well set it up as a genuine JV deal, not a a spec-deal. Both sides need to be bringing something to the party and the upside has to be real.

If revenue-generating element of your deliverable isn’t so apparent, turn a substantial amount of energy toward building your personal brand and creating a public showcase for your abilities.

The better you can position yourself as a go-to person in your field, the higher your perceived value, the more likely you are to land clients and the higher your pay structure becomes. In fact, I spend a lot of time on exactly how to do this in the book.

Simply put, 2009 is the year where creativity, adaptability, innovation and the ability to demonstrate maximum value will win the game.

5. What’s the best part about being a full-time Career Renegade?

I get paid well to do what I love with people I can’t get enough of. And, I get to play with my wife and daughter pretty much whenever and wherever I want. Doesn’t get better than that.

6. Give us a prediction. Is 2009 going to be the year of the Career Renegade, the year that people start figuring out ways to make money from their talents and hobbies?

For those who are willing to look past the doom and gloom that’s pervading the media and ferret out the silver lining, 2009 will most definitely be the year of the Career Renegade.

I actually spoke to Ann Rea, an artist I interviewed in the book, a few weeks ago. She’s a true Career Renegade, having left a cubicle job and brainstormed a seriously cool way to joint venture with wineries to make a great living as an artist in her first year in business. Ann told me she was so bothered by everyone telling her how hard things were getting, she set a goal of landing 10 new clients in 30 days. She was on number 9 when we spoke.

There is still opportunity for those who are willing to push the innovation, creativity and value envelope. For those willing to invest in building a strong personal brand, leveraging that brand to become a go-to person in their field and translating that reputation into real money.

What really excites me, too, is how easy it’s becoming to combine creativity with technology to turn a wide range of passions into serious streams of income.

The question really no longer is “if,” but “how.”

And, that’s what my book is really all about—finding ways to monetize your passion, build a strong personal brand, cultivate a worldwide tribe, do what you love and earn enough to live well in the world.

Thanks so much for this wonderful opportunity to reconnect with your great community!

Career Renegade: How To Make A Great Living Doing What You Love is available now at amazon.com and booksellers everywhere.