Mompreneur Inspiration: How Freelance Writing Changed My Life

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Are you looking for some mompreneur inspiration to encourage you in your working from home with kids journey? In this post you’ll see how freelancing changed my life!

And if you’d prefer a more practical, how to start a freelance writing business post, check out this one: How to Start a Freelance Writing Business When You’re Broke.

When I started my freelance writing business back in July of 2015, I had no idea how much it would change my life.

But, as I approach the eighth anniversary of my launch, I did some reflecting. During this time, I could see how far I’ve come.

I am so thankful for the Freelance Writing Course I took. Without this initial investment, I don’t think my business would have grown as quickly or impacted my family so much.

A Bit of Backstory

Before we dive into the mompreneur inspiration of how freelancing changed my life, I want to spend a few moments sharing where I was.

Without at least a bit of backstory, the changes don’t seem as significant…

Back then, we had only seven kids: four girls and two boys. And though there’s a smile on my face in that picture of us all, I was struggling.

Struggling to Find Time Together

As the sole provider, my husband was pouring himself into work. He took advantage of any overtime he could work. On top of this, he drove over an hour each way to his job.

Each morning, he left before the kids were awake.

Often, he got home after they were in bed.

And on the weekends, he was so tired from working so much that he didn’t have the energy to do anything together.

It felt like our kids were growing up without having the time to get to know their Daddy.

And nearly all of the household and child-rearing responsibilities fell on me. I was overwhelmed and frustrated.

Struggling Financially

Eventually, I got to the point where I knew our family’s financial situation would greatly improve if I went back to the classroom.

But, I didn’t want to.

I loved being home and homeschooling our kids.

And with our oldest son dealing with so many medical issues related to Angelman Syndrome, and having multiple seizures each day, one of us had to stay home.

We live in the boonies and finding reliable, quality care for a severely disabled child would have cost more than the income we would have added…

So back then, money was tight. We were also deep in debt, though we were trying our best to pay it off.

At this point, we still owed about $40,000 in student loan debt. And it honestly felt like we were going to be paying on it FOREVER!

Struggling Emotionally

Finances weren’t my only struggle. I was having such a hard time emotionally.

When I left my teaching job back in 2012, I pretty much eliminated most of the time I spent talking to other people. Since money was so tight, we stayed home unless we absolutely had to leave to save on gas.

And in the three years between leaving teaching and starting my business, my anxiety flared up in unexpected ways.

I begin dreading talking to people. Even people I saw in church every week. I avoided everyone as much as possible.

I replayed conversations in my mind and would always come up with several ways I could have improved it. I thought about what I should have said and how that would have changed the direction of the topic.

Calling people on the phone petrified me. Before I finally got brave enough to dial the number, I had the conversation in my mind several different ways. It never went well.

I gave my imagination unlimited access to my mind, and it ran wild and free, bringing me down along with it.

Taking the Plunge into Freelancing

I had so many things working against me. And I was miserable. I loved my husband and my kids, but I sure didn’t love my life.

So, I started praying for wisdom. And soon after, I stumbled upon freelance writing.

Prior to this, I hadn’t ever really stopped to think about how content got on the internet. But after doing some research, I knew it was something I could do.

But the course I wanted to take was too expensive. We had no wiggle room in the budget.

So I decided the time wasn’t right.

Except, I couldn’t get freelance writing out of my mind. Every time I prayed, the Lord kept bringing it back.

And I eventually decided to dip my toe in the water with free resources just to see what happened.

I found a homeschool writing gig on the ProBlogger Job Board. And I sent an email.

You better believe there was some crazy action going on in my brain before and after hitting send. In my mind, the response was something like this:

Who are you, and why would you even bother applying for this writing opportunity? You aren’t a writer! You have no business throwing your name into the hat.

Ever noticed that your mind can be your own worst enemy?

But I ignored that inner voice and I did it. I hit send.

And, I got the gig!

The email I’d dreaded sending started my freelance writing business.

Mompreneur Inspiration: How Freelancing Changed My Life

From there, my business continued to grow. But more importantly, I changed.

The Lord has done much work on me in the last several years. And He used my business to do much of it.

Here’s a peek at some of the ways freelance writing has changed my life:

1. We Are Debt Free!!!

In May 2019 we paid off my remaining student loans and got completely out of debt. It is still such an incredible feeling, and it’s so freeing.

Knowing that we don’t owe anybody any money was (and is) a huge relief. No longer was Sally Mae getting a huge chunk of our monthly income.

Woo hoo!

2. We Spend More Time Together

I launched my freelance writing business in July of 2015. In November of that same year, my husband quit his stressful, crazy hours job and took a position in our local community.

He took a pay cut, but my income was able to supplement it. And we got so much more time together.

But the benefits don’t stop there. In April of 2019, my husband was able to switch to a four-day-a-week, part-time schedule. And in late 2019, he quit his job completely so we could focus on deputation.

Without my income, this wouldn’t have been possible. It’s filled the gaps, allowed us to pay the bills, and put food on the table between meetings.

We are so enjoying our time together. The kids were thrilled to finally spend more time with their Daddy!

3. I Have More Self-Confidence

Since launching my business, I’ve learned to put myself out there more. I’ve gone live on Facebook. I’ve posted selfies on Instagram.

Those things never would have happened before!

My business helped me to see that God gave me talents thatI could use to generate an income. That I was not meant to live a life of misery but one of abundant joy.

There’s definitely such a thing as too much self-confidence. But not having enough is also wrong.

You can do this. So start cheering for yourself and build the life you want to have.

4. I Have Better Control of My Imagination

I’d be lying if I said I never struggle with anxiety or negativity. In fact, I rewrote sections of this post a couple of times because of what I thought someone might say if I left it as it was.

But I can now recognize when I’m letting my anxiety take over. And I have enough confidence in myself to listen to the wisdom (at least usually).

I will say the more you practice this skill, the easier it is. Taking control of your negative thoughts and learning to stop letting your imagination run away with you isn’t easy.

But when you’re not constantly bombarding your brain with all of that, it’s so much nicer!

5. I’ve Made Some Amazing Friends

I’ve made some great friends since launching my business and connecting with other freelancers on Facebook.

We cheer for each other. We encourage each other. And we share jobs if we know something would be a good fit.

Many people I know in real life don’t understand my business. They don’t get the struggles I’m dealing with.

But these ladies do! They are also going through similar situations, and it’s so nice to have some friendly people to chat with from time to time.

No, these people aren’t people I’ve ever met in real life (I hope to someday!) But nonetheless, they’ve been so encouraging.

6. I’ve Met Some Incredible People

My readers. My followers. The students in my course…

So many busy moms out there just want to improve their family’s situation. I get so much mompreneur inspiration from them.

And I’ve truly enjoyed meeting them. Without my business, I would never have been able to do so.

The connections you can make with a writing business can truly be wonderful.

7. I Did Some Public Speaking!!!!

Public speaking is not something I ever imagined I’d be doing. It pretty much terrified me.

But in July of 2018, my husband and I went to Candidate Seminar with Baptist Mid-Missions.

(The Lord called us to serve at Missionary Acres and now we are on deputation…)

Do you know what I had to do as part of that experience?

Get up and give my testimony. Not just in the small conference center with the other missionary candidates but also in two churches. One on Sunday morning and one on Sunday night.

The first one wasn’t too bad…it was small.

But the other one? That church was so big!

And I did it. I stood there and spoke. Aloud.

Wow! You have no idea what an accomplishment that was for me.

In three years, I went from barely leaving the house, reluctant to talk to people I knew, to speaking in a packed church with several hundred people.

And I even had a real smile on my face after it was over…and I wouldn’t mind doing more of this speaking thing…

God is good!

8. We Travel More

Traveling with a family of thirteen isn’t cheap. But, we are doing just that!

As we proceed with deputation to share our burden for Missionary Acres, we must drive to different churches. My freelance writing income has allowed us to cash flow these trips, instead of having to put them on a credit card.

We’ve had so much fun on the road! The kids have seen nearly half of the states – way more than we thought was possible back when we were broke and overwhelmed with life.

And as we’ve been traveling, we’ve been able to stop at some amazing places across the country. The whole family loved visiting The Ark Encounter in Tenessee. We also enjoyed touring the Hershey Chocolate Factory in Pennsylvania.

There’s so much to see in this country of ours!

9. I’ve Written a Curriculum

I found a way to tie my passion for education into my love of freelance writing! I went way outside my comfort zone and created a Teaching Reading Through Play curriculum.

If you want to take your little ones from knowing their letters to understanding basic reading concepts, and you want to do it gently, check it out. You can download the first several weeks for free:

Teaching Reading Through Play

I’m still in shock when I realize how much you can accomplish when you stop letting your imagination tell you why you can’t do something…

10. We Moved!

In July of 2021, we packed up our house in Washington State and moved to Missionary Acres in Silva, MO. It was a huge move.

Though we’re still officially on deputation, our mission board is allowing us to count my income as over half of our monthly support. It’s drastically cut down the amount of money we need to raise and got us to the point where we could move.

Moving away from the family farm was really hard. But, we know that this is where God wants us to be. And we’ve seen His mighty power at work so much in our lives, we had to go where He wants.

Without my business, who knows how long we would have been on deputation. The sad thing is that we might have given up before we made it.

So we’re thankful for the consistent income my business brings in.

11. I’m Starting to Dream Big

Before I launched my business, my dreams were so small. They seriously were depressing.

I thought we were ALWAYS going to:

• be in debt
• be broke
• live in the same old house
• have no time to do anything fun (or have the money to pay for it even if we did scrounge up some time)

My mind couldn’t dream big. I was too discouraged.

Not anymore! Praise God, I can see the incredible future before us.

No, I don’t have the details. But I do know that God has a plan that’s far greater than anything I can even imagine.

And I can trust Him to make it happen. I just have to be willing to go along and not fight it.

My dreams are so much bigger. I’m talking about:

• Helping many more moms change their lives through a business
• Speaking in events for women (I can’t even believe these words are coming out of my brain! This would have totally been a no-go not that long ago!)
• Being able to support missionaries with income from this business and spread the gospel to those who have never heard…

And so much more.

I’m dreaming good things now. And I love my life!

It’s not perfect. But, it’s mine.

And it’s all because I took that first step back in 2015.

Progress wasn’t fast. There were days when I couldn’t see what was happening. The path at times got fuzzy.

But, looking back, I can tell you that little baby steps every day pay off hugely.

How Can Your Life Change?

Starting a freelance writing business is truly a life-changing process. Give yourself permission to dream a bit. If you were to start a business of your own, how different could your life be in four years?

I am so thankful that I said yes. That I saved the money and bought the Freelance Writing Course I did.

Though I earned enough money to pay for the course through writing, I was writing for about a penny a word. My rates increased so much as I implemented what I learned.

In this course, you’ll discover:

• How to pick a niche
• How to pitch
• Where to look for clients
• What to charge
• What tools you need to succeed
• How to leverage testimonials
• And much, much more!

It really is everything you need to get your freelance writing business up and running. And I highly recommend it!

Freelance writing changed my life. Can you imagine what it could do for yours?

Dare to dream…a wonderful life is waiting for you!