#346: How Wendy Helfenbaum Takes 4 Months Off Every Year While Maintaining a Healthy 6-Figure Income
May 22, 2024
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Guest Wendy Helfenbaum shares how she takes 4 months off yearly with a 6-figure income. Discusses balancing work and rest as a freelancer, transitioning from journalism to content marketing, marketing strategies for income goals, building referral networks, managing work commitments on breaks, and embracing leisure for a balanced life.
Maintaining a healthy work-life balance by taking extended breaks improves productivity and overall well-being.
Strategic client management and planning are crucial for sustaining a lucrative freelance career while prioritizing personal fulfillment and family time.
Deep dives
Prioritizing Time Off for a Balanced Freelance Life
Freelancing can become overwhelming, resembling a demanding job where breaks seem scarce. Wendy Helphabom shares her unique approach to freelancing, taking 16 weeks off each year with a clear break from work responsibilities. She emphasizes the importance of planning and balance, maintaining a six-figure income, and cherishing time with family.
Balancing Dual Specialties and Client Diversity
Wendy, a freelance writer with a background in journalism and content marketing, strategically manages a mix of American and Canadian clients. Her approach involves avoiding overlapping niches and embracing diverse industries like real estate, travel, parenting, health, and more. Wendy's stance as a generalist allows for creative freedom and visual storytelling in her versatile client work.
Strategic Frontloading and Client Communication
With retainer clients, Wendy proactively frontloads recurring work before her time off, ensuring seamless project continuity. Communication and organized planning are essential, informing clients ahead of time about availability and setting clear expectations for work delivery. Wendy's approach highlights the value of client relationships and proactive workflow management to maintain professional standards even during extended breaks.
Embracing Flexibility and Self-Improvement in Freelancing
Wendy's freelance journey showcases the power of balancing work and personal commitments. By strategically spacing time off throughout the year, focusing on self-care and client management, Wendy paves the way for a sustainable freelance career. Her insights inspire a mindset shift towards self-empowerment, fostering joy in work, and prioritizing intentional planning for a fulfilling career and life.
Freelancing is amazing. Until it isn’t. You wake up one morning and you realize that you’ve created a very demanding job for yourself. And chances are, you take LESS time off than you ever did in any previous job you held. Sometimes it even feels like you’re working for a tyrannical boss who makes you feel terrible any time you ask for a small break. That boss, by the way, is YOU. Sound familiar? Not to Wendy Helfenbaum, my guest in this week’s episode. Wendy is an established freelance writer out of Montreal. And for the past 18+ years, she has taken 4 months off every year. And when I say “time off,” I mean real, non-working time off. No client work. No working on the business. No marketing. No nothing. Just time to be with her family. To decompress. To enjoy life. And to savor the freedom freelancing is supposed to afford us. Just as impressive, Wendy has consistently maintained a 6-figure income for years—even while taking a full third of the year off. I was super-excited to bring Wendy on the show to tell us how she does this. It was a very lively and insightful conversation. I learned so much, and I can’t wait for you to hear it. This is a great follow-up to the where she discussed how she was able to take a 4-month maternity leave recently. If you haven’t listened to that episode, I urge you to give it a listen, because it complements this week’s episode really well.
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