Deliberate Freelancer

Today’s guest is Katherine Reynolds Lewis, an independent journalist based in the DC area. After Katherine was laid off in 2008, she started freelancing in the middle of the Great Recession. What does Katherine love about freelancing? Being self-sufficient, being able to write on a variety of topics and having control over her schedule. Katherine shares her 3 P’s model that she uses when assessing whether to take on a project: pay, portfolio and passion. Any project or assignment we say yes to should fulfill at least one of those P’s and ideally all three. As you work on the project, always keep in mind why you are doing the work, which P it falls under. At the end of the work, this model will also help you decide whether it was worth taking on the project or client—and help you assess future projects. A few years ago, Katherine was setting new goals for what she wanted to do in her career. One of those was to write a long-form journalism narrative article for a big magazine. So, she started looking for oppor