#344: How to Navigate Maternity Leave (or an Extended Break) Without Missing a Beat: Satta Sarmah...

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia. Hey there. Welcome to another episode of the High Income Business Writing Podcast, the number one podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to earn more and less time doing work they love for better clients. With over 1.3 million downloads from listeners just like you across 101 countries, for most freelancers, the concept of taking an extended break, be it for maternity leave, personal health, or maybe just a sabbatical, has been shrouded in fear. We love the idea of a long break, especially if we're experiencing a any level of burnout. But we immediately dismiss it as an unrealistic goal because we don't think we can afford to lose the income or we fear losing momentum in our business or falling behind and not being able to seamlessly reenter the business. On the other side of that extended break this week, we're challenging that narrative head on with a deep dive into how you can navigate maternity leave or any extended break like that of, let's say, 30 days or longer, without missing a beat. Not only is this possible, it's an opportunity to strengthen your business and come back stronger, more refreshed, more creative. My guest is a very successful freelance writer and content marketing strategist, Sada Sarma Hightower. SATA is a previous coaching client of mine and while we were working together, we put together a plan for a successful maternity leave for her. Now, of course, not every plan works seamlessly, so I wanted to bring Sada into the show to tell us what she did, how the maternity leave, how her plans went, what she learned from this overall experience, and what advice she has for other freelancers who are thinking about taking an extended break like this, but maybe aren't sure how to make it work. Sara didn't just manage her maternity leave, she mastered it. So spoiler alert. From planning in preparation to execution in the transition back into the business world, her journey is a blueprint for any freelancer, solo professional who's contemplating a similar break. Now, I've been particularly impressed with Sada and how she's managed the work life balance, not just during the time leading to the break because that can be a very stressful time, but how she's able to decompress during her break and how she's been able to balance it all upon her return, especially with now two little ones at home. We also spent quite a bit of time discussing her secrets to success because Sada has built a very impressive high six figure business where she's almost always fully booked. So I asked her to share the biggest factors that have made that possible. And look, even if you're not contemplating a maternity leave, I urge you to give this one a listen because you're going to get a glimpse into how a seasoned professional runs a very successful business that's enabled her to truly exercise the freedom freelancing is supposed to give us. So I hope you enjoy this conversation with Sada Sarma Hightower. Hey Sada, Good to have you here.

How are you doing?

Well, I am so happy to talk with you about this because you and I haven't talked in a few months. It's been a lot going on in your life.

Been busy.

It's an understatement and we're going to get to that. Before we do though, why don't you give us a little bit of background, tell us, you know, what you do, tell us about your business, what kind of work, what kind of clients, and a little bit about how you got here. Cause I know you've had an interesting journey to get here.

Yeah, so I have been a freelancer. This year marks my 10 years of being a full time freelancer. I was a journalist before, worked for newspaper and multimedia outlets and I always say that I became a freelancer by accident. I never intended to have this career, but I think I'm right where I need to be. So I became a freelancer after my second layoff in five years and I just started building my business with former colleagues who would refer me to work or they moved on to another company and they hired me for jobs. And in the beginning, when I first started in 2014, I was focused on doing journalism and some content marketing because I used to manage. Back then it was called native advertising, which is like the precursor to content marketing. So I used to manage a native advertising studio for an AOL brand. So I already had experience on the marketing end of things in that respect. But I was also a journalist before that. So yeah, I just became a freelancer by accident. I started doing journalism and content marketing first and now I've transitioned, I would say in the last six years or so to being like fully a content marketer and content strategist, working primarily for B2B brands in the technology, enterprise tech, financial services, fintech space. I also do a little bit of healthcare and retail tech. So you know, I produce everything from white papers to infographics. I do content strategy plans, work on messaging, documents, anything you can think of in the B2B marketing realm. I probably do.

Interesting. Okay, so one thing that I was very curious about, and I know our listeners are too, you've done really well for yourself and I am curious as to what you feel were the critical success factors to getting to this high six figure level that you have. Cause, I mean, obviously you've been doing it for 10 years, that's one thing, but it's not like it took you 10 years to get there. Number one and two, you've been, you know, some people can hit really strong five figure months, you know, that add up to an annual six figure, but it's very variable. Like one year's bad, one year is amazing, the next year is really bad. You haven't yo yoed like that. So I'm curious, what do you feel has really worked for you and enabled you to get to this level and maintain it?

Yeah. So since becoming a freelancer over the last 10 years, I probably averaged a 20% increase in, in income year over year. And I really credit that to a mindset shift. Like I really started treating my business like a business, not like, oh, I was just a writer doing freelance writing, which sometimes as freelance writers we kind of box ourselves in that way. It was more about, I am a business owner. There's a strategy to this. Like, I sort of treat it the same way a big enterprise company would treat their, you know, strategy and business planning, business continuity planning, risk assessment, all of that stuff. It's like, okay, I can look at some of the spreadsheets that I use to track my client operations and say, oh, too much of my income is coming from that one client. I need to up my marketing and get more clients. And I really focus too on client service. I mean that to me, that's the best marketing there is. Like, if I turn in quality work on time, on, on or before deadline, consistently, and I'm very responsive to my clients for the most part. The rest takes care of itself. I get repeat work from clients and then that helps me build a portfolio which I can use to attract new clients because new clients always need social proof. And so they'll check me out on my website or my LinkedIn page. And because they've seen that I've worked with other marquee brands, big content studios that sort of gives them confidence that I can take on a project and do well for them. So it's sort of like a virtuous cycle.

So it sounds like to this last point, because you treat your clients really well and you always perform, you always do what you say you're going to do. That enables you to keep and grow those clients and then that enables you to have the social proof necessary to then attract similar clients at that level. And then you just build from there.

Yeah, and you'd be surprised. Some of my current clients have referred me for work even though I still work for them. You would think they're territorial, but they've referred me to other clients, you know, Cause the media industry and marketing industry is pretty small to a certain respect. Sure, they will refer me to other companies for work, which I found interesting at first, but then it keeps on happening. So I'm like, oh, maybe this is a thing.

Well, obviously when that happens, you sometimes see the emails, right? They broker an email intro. What have you noticed? What are the things they say about you? Hey Bill, you need to meet Sada. Here's what I love about her. Like what are some of the things clients say about you?

I think they say that I'm a great writer, that I'm a good strategist. I come up with good ideas, a good partner, good operator in that kind of way. They don't necessarily use those words, but I think overall good collaborator. Like with me you're not only getting writing and to me writing is very important. I'm a former journalist, I have two journalism degrees. Like you have to be able to communicate and convey the client's messaging, but you also need to be a project manager in a way and a good partner. So I think those things are important. Those are the things that clients really tell me and that I hear them when they talk about me. That's what they say.

I find that collaboration is such a key item. I think it becomes a throwaway word sometimes, but it really isn't. It's so, so important because then that leads and it's related to partnering with clients. And it sounds like you've done a really good job of both, you know, partnering with your clients, collaborating really well. And of course, which is crazy that we're even talking about this, but doing, doing what you say you're going to do every time. That seems like it used to be 40, 50 years ago that was a no brainer you had to do that. Now it seems like it's kind of optional. A lot of freelancers feel that way. So when somebody like you comes along and actually does it consistently, you really stand out.

Yeah, and I'll say it's also important to know when to let clients go because as freelancers we're Responsible for our own growth. And you can sort of. What's the word I'm looking for? You can impede that growth if you stick with clients, whether they're low payers or they don't offer projects that give you the opportunity to stretch your muscle and to grow in other ways and build other lines of business. So I think that's also key too.

Let me ask you more about that. One of the things that a lot of writers have trouble with is letting go of clients who no longer are a fit for them. And it's not a money thing. My experience has been, I mean, that can be part of it, but it's an emotional thing. It's like, I hate saying no. I hate letting go of somebody.

Fear.

It's fear. Yeah. How do you get around that? How do you. When you know, okay, this is no longer a fit. But it's not like something blew up. Cause if something blew up, it's a lot easier. Right? It's just no longer a fit. How do you get over that emotional element?

Admittedly, it's still something that I have to work on, but having a safety net makes it a lot easier. And having multiple clients makes it a lot easier. You know, okay, if I let this one go, I have other work to back me up. And sometimes I have to look at it from a purely mathematical point of view. There was a client I stopped working with a couple years ago and I looked at first, I was like, oh, I don't want to do it because it's a new line of business. You know, I know I can get steady work from them all the time, but it just wasn't a fit. Even though I liked them personally, the work just was not a fit for me. So I had to look at, there's a spreadsheet where I track my monthly revenue from my business. And I went back and looked at it and I was like, oh, they're only like less than 10% of my income. You know, if I let them go, I can easily find someone to replace them or another client to replace them, or go to current clients and be like, oh, I have more availability for work. And that's what happened.

Tell me more about what you track. You are someone who I was always impressed with. You know, the Google sheets and documents that you would share with me. You keep going back to this idea of treated as a business. Yeah, you do a really good job of tracking different metrics and really thinking through your business operations. So what are some of the other things you track?

So I Have this Google spreadsheet that I call the Freelance Payment Tracker. And it's by year, but then it breaks down by month. And it has cells with formulas that I use to track not only how much I'm making per project, but my internal hourly rate for each project on each row. Okay, so I know for a given project, if I'm working on a white paper for a given client, I know, okay, it took me 20 hours to do that. I ended up making $250 an hour on that project, let's say. So I can easily see at a glance how much I'm making per client, what clients are accounting for the largest share of my income in a given month or even in a given quarter or a given year, and what clients I'm netting a lower internally hourly rate for. And do I need to either place them or do I need to keep on working with them because there's some other value I'm getting from them? Karen. I think her name is Karen Reynolds. She's a freelancer, and she appeared on another freelance podcast. And she's like, you have to group clients into three groups. Passion payer, portfolio. So I try to look at my relationship with clients and the projects I take on from them in that lens. So it's not purely a money decision. Always for me, it's like, oh, am I growing my skills in other ways? Do I really enjoy working with this company and working on these types of projects? Because then I can treat it as, to use another business term, a loss leader. Yeah. I'm not making as much money on this project, but I can make up for it with other projects with other clients. So it all balances out in the end.

I like that. Yeah. Because it brings a qualitative element to the decision. It's not just numbers. But, yeah, that's really impressive that you take the time not just to track it, but to use it as the basis for your analysis, because you just said something really important. It's like sometimes you have this feeling like something's not working out. But if you look at the numbers objectively and some of the other key factors, you realize, like you said, hey, that they're only 10% of my income. You know, I could let this go. I could. I know, and I trust myself that I can make this up. And then another thing that you mentioned that I thought was really important, if you could talk about it a little bit, was having safety nets, developing buffers that enable you to make good decisions. So, you know, what do you do in those areas? To make sure that you have a sustainable business that you can make good decisions from.

I mean, just like in regular life, you need an emergency fund with your business, you need an emergency fund, you need some kind of Runway, whether that's three or six months to give you that financial cushion to say, okay, I can make a decision like this. Or also you honestly, you never know what can happen where you need to step, step back from work for a few months and take a break. You know, like I had to do because on maternity leave. But you know, you prepare for those things. I will also say I'm married. I have a husband who has a really great job, a stable job. So I always know, God forbid anything happens with my business, we have that to fall back. So I just think that's also important to say because there are a lot of freelancers that are single parents or solo or it's just them and they can't always make the same choice. So I think it's important to acknowledge that.

Absolutely, absolutely. And I would also say however, that there's a lot we can do individually, you know, just to at least build some sort of financial cushion. And not just a financial cushion, but to the marketing machine. Make sure that that marketing machine is always running. Because that's another way to build a buffer is if you have a healthy pipeline, then makes decisions a lot easier. You know, you've done a really good job of landing high paying clients over the years. I'm often asked, how do you find high paying clients? How do you find and land high paying clients? What do you feel are the secrets to doing that?

I think once you have a good client, find lookalike clients. So if you're working with a certain content studio that's part of a media organization, it's likely their competitors also have a content studio and that the pay is pretty similar. So I think what helps me too with high paying clients is I like working with agencies and content studios because they take care of the business development end of things. I'm not constantly having to find new clients in that respect because they already have a pipeline. I do have some private clients, but I really like working with agencies in that respect.

What's the ratio by the way? Would you say on average is it like 80, 20?

Probably, yeah.

Okay.

And then, you know, I feel, it's just weird. I feel like once you work with high paying clients, you tend to attract other high paying clients. Because I had one, a new client recently. Another content studio that approached me just sent me an email out of the blue, I think they found me on LinkedIn, then went on my website, found my email and scheduled consultation with me and I was told, I was asked them, how did you find me? And they're like, oh, I think I saw your byline somewhere. So I think you work with like not just high paying but highly visible publications.

That helps of course, but visible public, where you got a byline for a content marketing, not a journalism piece, correct?

Yes. So, and that's, you know, with a lot of companies in the content marketing space, you may not get a. You may do a lot of either ghost writing or you write a paper. They're. They don't put your name on it. But There are some B2B clients I work for that actually do give you a byline and I've been told that's how some of my new clients have found me.

Going back to that original question, you know, how do you find high paying clients? Are there any factors you look for? So let's say you are. I know a lot of it has been word of mouth and referrals, but if you were to do a little bit of prospecting, like what do you look for? To say, okay, based on what I'm seeing, they're probably a high paying client.

Well, if the website looks like it's from 1992, that often gives me pause. I feel like if you're not investing in your website or your brand presence in that way, your online presence in that way, then you're probably not willing to invest in marketing in other areas. To me that's a red flag when the website just looks very outdated. And I know some freelancers do this, I don't necessarily do this. Like they look at enterprise companies and they see what their budget or what their revenue is. Sometimes they might go through 10k filings or whatever to see how much they budgeted in certain areas if it's a public company. So I wish I could tell you my marketing methods are that sophisticated, but they aren't. And I also get a lot of, I'm lucky at this point, 10 years in to get a lot of inbound leads.

It sounds like you've created a situation because of the clients you work with and have worked with, where that kind of elevates you and your name and then other similar companies and content studios are then approaching you. Right. Who are already at the level of the other ones you work with.

Yeah.

So I like that. When does budget fit into the conversation with a new prospect? Because I gotta imagine that you want to know as early as possible. If this is someone who can afford you.

Yeah. So in the initial conversation and this week, I had another call with the prospective client and, you know, after we got through the nitty gritty about, like, their process, how they work with freelancers, I just straight out, what are your typical freelance rates or the projects we've talked about? And they usually share. And I feel like that puts you in a position of power to ask the question first rather than you state with your rates are. Because I realized this several months ago or last year, there was a client who I asked this question first to. And I wasn't expecting the response that I got because if I would've said my rate first, it would've been half of what they paid.

Ooh, yeah.

And they probably would've still paid me the same because it's a major, major content studio. But I feel like don't blink first.

Like, that's great advice.

Blink first, lose us first. So I think always ask that question first on initial call with a prospect.

How do you deal with the issue of, you know, especially with agencies and content studios who want to know an hourly rate or want to pay you hourly, but you'd rather work on a fixed fee basis?

I just tell them that I said, I don't work hourly. I work on a fixed fee or per project rate. And sometimes it's like based on a word rate, like $2 a word, a $50 a word, which I know you don't always like, but. Yeah, but that helps me in my mind internally. Okay, this is a 2000 word white paper. I'll charge 3000 or $4000 for it, whatever the case may be. But I think just being transparent about that. But then you have to make the decision, if this client only wants to work hourly and that is their pay model, then do you want to work with them? Because I find that hourly rate projects, I'm penalized for being efficient and it doesn't value my experience. And that's what I communicate to clients like that. It places an emphasis on time rather than the value and experience I bring. And I also say for them it's better for transparency to do a flat rate fee for on both ends. I know what I'm being paid, you know, for budgeting reasons, how much you can expect to spend.

So that's, I'm assuming, well, do. Have you had success? I'm assuming the answer is yes. Have you had success taking someone who says, yeah, but this is the way we do it, and you're able to Convince them, look, this is the way I work and they've gone along with it.

Yeah. And I've had some clients after the fact like oh, can we switch to hourly? And just like no, I just. You flat rate and explain again, use that reasoning. And it usually works for some people. They just can't. For whatever reason, if they have to run it up the chain and get approval, they know that it's not going to be possible and that's fine. Then it's just not a fit on both ends.

I want to point out something you haven't mentioned that I think factors into the high fees. You're able to command everything else you've mentioned. Completely agree. You're also working in vertical markets that tend to be higher paying. Right. Fintech, certain sectors within healthcare, certain sectors within tech. So you have done a really good job. I just want to commend you done a really good job of kind of staying in these vertical markets and really building a nice portfolio and track record which only attracts more of that. Right. I mean, is that a fair statement?

Yeah. And that was a deliberate or that was intentional at a certain point. You know, I would say maybe around the six year mark. Because I think when you're first starting out as a freelancer, you will take for the most part whatever work you can get. You don't really have a niche. You're like, my niche is whatever client will pay me to do this project. So after a while you figure out the things you enjoy doing and the things you're good at or the things that really pique your interest, I think it's really important to say, and then you pursue those things. Like I like, you know, enterprise tech and fintech and financial services because I'm actually really interested in those things. Some of those things people would say, oh, these topics are really dry. But I think they're interesting, especially with technology. It touches so much, so many facets of our lives. Like it's ubiquitous in a way, especially now with AI, which I write up a lot. Like it has such a great impact that you can explore so many different angles. When you write about those topics, you're not just talking about technology and databases and all of this techy stuff.

Yeah, it's the business and societal implications. I'm with you. I find that stuff so interesting. But I think you kind of have to gotta be a bit of a business geek, you know, which is great. I don't mind admitting that I'm curious and I want to definitely want to hit on your maternity leave. But before we get there, I have a question about what's going on right now, because we're kind of in an interesting time and, you know, the economy is definitely softened over the past year. And I'm curious. And then that will lead into more discussion about maternity leave. But have you noticed over the past year a business slowdown or when you got back from maternity leave, having a tougher time, kind of now getting back in the game and landing projects and landing clients?

I would say I noticed in Q1 of last year a little bit of a slowdown because there was a lot of uncertainty about whether or not we were going into a recession. So I feel like clients were being more cautious with their budgets. Like January, as a freelancer, and a lot of freelancers will say this is usually pretty slow, but it was slower than usual. And I would say things didn't start to pick up until like beginning of March.

So that's of 2023. This is 2023 we're talking about.

Okay, that's when I felt it. And then I took maternity leave November 2023 to March of 2024. So I just came back last month. I would say yes and no, but I think it was a lot when I came back from maternity leave. But I think it might have been fear on my part. It's like, oh, gosh, I took four months off and I've been back to work a week. And things aren't crazy yet because I'm used to being very busy, but I think it was the universe working. It's working itself out and working things out for me, where it's like you're adjusting to this new period of life where you are still a full time freelancer and small business owner and self employed, but now you have two kids and you have more responsibilities. So I think if things would have been crazy that first week in March when it came back, it may have been too much for me. Now things have gotten crazy again.

But at least you were able to ease into it a little more gradually.

Which is still necessary, which is good.

You know, I think your experience just tells me and confirms a suspicion that I've had is that, look, the market might be slowing down, but it's not a hundred percent slowdown. It's slow for a lot of people right now, but you know, there's still plenty of work out there. I'm seeing and I'm hearing from people like you and others who are really, really busy. But it becomes one of those, it depends things. And I think we all Got used to a time, especially like 2020-2023, where it was like beyond full capacity for everybody. And that's not reality. This is my take. That's not reality. And now it's definitely below that. So, you know, not everyone, like before you could just, if you sneezed, you'd land work, you know.

Yeah. And I think a lot of freelancers I've seen online on LinkedIn are worried about AI. There's a lot, like if you fall down that rabbit hole, it can make you feel like my business is going to disintegrate. So I try not to focus too much on macro trends. I try to focus on what I can do. And I feel like AI can't replace me if I'm doing long form white papers and all this other stuff in the B2B space, creating very high value content that you can't really have a machine create. So I feel like it's important to just focus on what you can do, keep on marketing and growing your business and let the rest take care of itself.

Well, and I'm going to go back to a word you used a little bit earlier in our conversation, the collaboration element. You know, so even if and when AI gets to a point where I can actually do long form content really well, you're missing so many other elements, the collaboration, the back and forth, because you're crafting something that a machine wouldn't really be able to do. That whole experience end to end is very much a human thing and you can incorporate some machine work in there somewhere. But yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you. It's. That's good, that's good advice that you're not going down rabbit holes and just freaking yourself out.

Yeah.

So let's talk about your maternity leave. Why don't you set the stage for us a little bit? Right. Cause you have one, you had a young son, Right. And now you call me up one day and says, ah, guess what, I'm pregnant and I'm thinking about taking maternity leave. So walk us through what happened, what you planned and kind of, you know, the preparation stage.

So I have a five year old and an almost five month old. So I will say my first time taking maternity leave was very different than this time. So that was in 2018. So I was four years into my business and I think I more so operated from a place of fear. Like I intended to take a three month maternity leave. I took two and a half months because I had a client come to me with the project And I was like, you know, and they were a retainer client beforehand. So I was worried about losing that retainer contract. So I'm like, you know what, let me just hop on it. But this time I was very deliberate, intentional and prepared and you really helped me with that. So just preparing to go on maternity leave from a business perspective, like I created a post maternity leave like marketing plan or you know, during maternity leave. I checked in here and there, like just I did stuff on LinkedIn, posted things on LinkedIn, you know, engaged with folks on LinkedIn. But I just created a plan for how I would go on return leave. Like letting my clients know in advance, probably a month or so in advance. I let my clients know with certain clients who I was on retainer with, I let them know even earlier because we have ongoing projects. I also did, you know, identified some prospects or warm leads or people I had talked to over the course of 2023, but work hadn't materialized in yet. So I have this massive document that I created to really structure my maternity leave and my return from maternity leave. So again, I'll say I was much more deliberate this time than I was the first time. Cause the first time I was just worried about not having work to return to.

So it sounds like the plan, that the pre planning was really instrumental to helping you. Right. Bring down the temperature so that when you did have that time, you were able to be present, you know, and actually take advantage of your maternity leave instead of living in fear.

Yes, definitely. And then I came back from maternity leave March 4, I will say like two to three weeks beforehand. That's when I started reaching out to like current clients who I worked with a lot or even some who I had maybe only worked with on a quarterly basis. And then once I returned from returning leave, I started reaching out to like dormant clients or clients who I had conversations with, but it never materialized into work. So I sort of have this multi step and multi stage process for returning back to work.

Got it. So before you came back, you started planting those seeds, reaching out, touching base. Yeah, I remember we talked about that and it's good to know that it worked in practice.

It did, yeah. Because I didn't want to come back that first week and just have nothing to do. So I prepared and I got work even before a few days or a week before I came back, I started getting assignments so that I could work on them that first week.

I want to come back to that. But let, let's rewind a little bit. Cause I want to Hear about your experience. So last time you felt really bad because you didn't take the time with your first son that, you know, in hindsight you should have taken it.

Yeah.

How did it go four months now with your baby and with your family overall, how was that experience and you know, what things came up for you that maybe surprised you?

While I really enjoyed the time, it was nice to focus on one part of my life. You know, we talk about work life balance all the time, but there's like no such thing. You're always juggling multiple things at multiple times. So it was nice to just wake up in the morning and not have anything to do aside from take care of this little baby. So that was nice in a respect. On the other end of the spectrum, I did miss work. I missed being creative. I miss that collaborative element, you know, and I'm gonna be very honest and candid here. Taking care of children can feel very isolating and lonely, especially if it's just you when you're on maternity leave. Because my husband, he was fortunate enough to have a six week paternity leave and then he had to go back to work. So after that time it was just mostly me by myself. So you have a lot of time to, to be by yourself and you miss some parts of your old life in a way, even though you're grateful for the time to focus on this one area of your life.

How did you manage that? Were there some things that you did that ended up working to help lower that isolation factor?

I mean, I think I can't remember if I, you know, had lunch with the freelance friend or she and I traded emails back and forth to check in. I think actually what was really helpful was being in touch with my freelance community. So there's a community I'm part of called freelance success. So, you know, I would go in there from time to time. I think when I was on maternity leave, I did a webinar. Just before I went on maternity leave, I did a webinar and I would just check in. So it was nice to have that connection to people. And sometimes people post questions, I would answer questions there. So that helped me to maintain some sort of a connection as well.

That's good. And that feels very balanced. Right. It's not like your brain is now all there, you're still present, but at least it addressed that urge that you had to, you know, kind of stay in the game a little bit in, in those conversations. Yeah, yeah, that's good. Anything else you learned during that four month period? You know, planning forward, you planned, now you're in there. Looking back, any other kind of lessons learned or aha. Moments.

I just think, like, I'm capable of a lot more than I realize and that. And then we all can be flexible and adapt. Like, things can seem so daunting when they're ahead of you, like when you're about to enter a new phase of your life. But once you get there, you realize you really can't handle a lot more than you give yourself credit for. So I think that was the thing. So. And it's like, if I can do this, like, to me, taking care of children full time is harder than any other job that I. Oh, yeah.

You know, mad respect for anyone who can do that.

Yeah. That I've ever done. So it's like, if you can do that, you can do anything. So.

So then what advice would you have for someone who's looking at a different kind of leave, you know, to take care of an aging parent for three months or take a sabbatical having done what you just did? If you had to kind of narrow it down to a few recommendations, what would you say?

I would say prepare, prepare, prepare. Keep the lines of communication open with your clients. I'm assuming you're talking about freelancers. If they're going, yes.

Freelancers, yeah.

Sabbatical, yeah. So prepare before you leave and prepare for after when you return. You know, keep the lines of communication open with your clients. Let them know. Give them specific dates, you know, and let them know your availability. And also kind of, if you're changing, shifting what kind of work you do or you want to take on new work when you come back. Because some people take these sabbaticals and leads, and then their perspective changes and they want to approach their business differently. So I would say just openly communicate about that. Like, for example, if you did a lot of writing and you're like, I'm just going to do content strategy now or make it a larger share of my business. Communicate that to clients and also in your mind, prepare for that. Seek out those kinds of projects. And I think the best way to do that may be with current clients, letting them know you're making that pivot while also prospecting for new clients. Like, you have to market not just to new clients and prospects, but to your current clients as well. It's twofold.

We don't have to get into numbers here. But I'm curious, from a financial preparation standpoint, what was your model? Did you save up for a few months so that you can then use that to help you know where you're living expenses or did you decide? No, I'm just going to kind of through my regular savings. I'll just tap into that. Or was it some other model?

Yeah, through my regular savings from my business account. Because I have enough of a margin, given what I make each month and what our expenses are, that there's always like leftover and a buffer there. And then obviously, before I went on maternity leave, I tried to take on a little bit more work. Obviously it was hard between last trimester of pregnancy, but I really wanted to be cognizant of that. And there are certain adjustments I had to make. Like, I don't know if I've ever told you this. Focus on early retirement. So I really try to supercharge my retirement savings. Why? I had to pare that back a little bit to accommodate for the fact that I wouldn't be working for four months. So I think, you know, with everyone, there's adjustments you can make. You just really have to look at your numbers and your data and then make the changes accordingly from there to prepare for whatever leave or sabbatical you need to take.

You know, I've talked to people who have done similar things, and one of the things they've all shared, and I'm curious, curious to get your take on this is a lot of the fear happened ahead of time, like, oh, my gosh, what of this? Or what of that? And then once you're in it, it was all fine. And then looking back, you realize that you worried. When you did worry, it was for nothing. Did you find that that was a similar experience for you?

Yeah, exactly. But I think as freelancers, that's just part of our DNA. Fear is a natural part of our DNA. We're always worried about that because, quote, unquote, there is no safety net as a freelancer. But I feel like being a freelancer actually has given me a bigger safety net. Coming from a place where I was laid off twice within five years, I had my income evaporate in one fell swoop. As a freelancer, it's very, very unlikely that would happen to me.

Yes. Yeah. It's like having five employers or whatever. Right. So one goes, yeah, you have.

And I have. Like, at any given time, I may be juggling like six or eight different clients. So I think that gave me a little bit more confidence. But again, fears in our cna, there is still some worry in the back of your mind, like, what if, when I come back, you know, I Lose this client.

Yeah. Well, that's good to know. For people who are thinking about it, recognize that the fear is normal, but it's not going to manifest. You know, the things that you feel are going to happen. I'm curious, I know it's still early days. Have you coming back anything interesting in terms of who's come back and versus new clients that you reached out to or dormant clients? How. How has it basically shaped up so far?

I would say most of my clients have come back and there were some that I would expect to already have projects underway with right now that haven't yet materialized. But you know, I know that there are things in their pipeline and that will eventually materialize. And then in terms of new clients, have I gotten any new clients that I'm working with? I will say there are some clients that I was working with before, not as frequently that I'm working with more now. So that has sort of surprised me. Yeah.

Okay. So it's been an interesting mix, but is it anything outside of what you expected so far in terms of your return and building back up, or is it kind of as you imagined it would be or hoped it would be?

It's kind of as I imagined it would be. Like as of this month, I'm back to like my monthly average.

So that's fantastic. And just for context and reference, you've been back about a month?

Yes.

Right. Okay. Yeah, that's pretty amazing. I thought, look, figure out a three month, you know, on ramp. So that's fantastic to learn, especially in an economy like this. So kudos to you. I'm curious as we start wrapping up, if someone listening is thinking about two things. First of all, how do I get my business to be really successful and. Or I love the idea of being able to take a maternity leave, a sabbatical, some sort of leave. What advice would you give to each.

About how to prepare for it or just go about.

Let's start with that one. In terms of general encouragement or advice for someone who's looking or likes the idea of taking that kind of time off. Let's start with that one.

I will say if you are not tracking your business metrics, that's where you need to start. You need to know how much you make per client. Who are your most profitable clients? Who are your least profitable clients? What kind of projects are most profitable for you? So I will say that transparency at the outset is really important. You need the data and the information and the insights. This is a lot of business speak, but that's what it is to make an informed decision about when you can take time off and how long you can take and you know when you need to come back. So I'll say, first track your numbers and then from there, come up with a plan. Like, you know, if there are clients that you're on retainer with, how will going on leave affect that? And if you can't pick work back up, have a plan for how you can replace that income. Like, if you're making $5,000 a month with one client and the retainer will likely end when you go on leave, come up with some ideas for how you can fill that gap. And then communicate openly and transparently and proactively with your clients. So once you decide how long you're going to go on leave, explain that to them and put it in the context of how it'll affect your work with them. Like, tell them, okay, I know we have this project that's in progress, and I plan to wrap that up before I go on leave. And if we can't wrap that up, here's what I think we can do from a handoff perspective. Perspective. And then also have a plan for returning from leave. Like, don't wait until the week you get back to tell your clients, hey, I'm here. You got any work for me? You need to do that in advance. And at the same time, you need to prospect. Because that's, you know something that when I was talking to you about this, you're like, okay, so what's your plan for prospecting, getting new clients? I was like, Because I didn't really think about that before. I'm like, I already have a solid roster of clients. But always be marketing, abm. You have to always be marketing. And I'll say, I actually do have new clients. I've been onboarded with them. I just haven't started any projects with them. And again, there are actually two major content studios for major news organizations. So I've been on board, but I haven't started to work with them. So even just being back a month, I've already landed two new clients. And that was as.

That's awesome.

Continuous prospecting.

So that is fantastic. You may have said this already, but just to clarify, for anyone you were on retainer with, you know, obviously you had to end or pause. Were you able to resume any one of those retainers?

Yes, all of them. And then that's great. Two of them. And then I had two retainer clients and I continued to work with them. They were actually the first clients that gave me work before I came back officially from maternity leave. I had work lined up the week before. They're like, oh, can you work on this next week when you get back? And then I also have anchor clients and that work has resumed too.

I love it. So yeah, you are back in the game right away and that's very encouraging that even retainer clients resume their work with you instead of just like, you know, going to find somebody else and that's it, it's over and sorry, we don't need you anymore. That's very encouraging. So for those who would like to learn more about you, your work, where can we send them?

You can find me on LinkedIn. I'm @Sadasarma Hightower on LinkedIn. You can visit me on my website Sadasarma.com and my email is on both those websites. So if you want to shoot me an email if you have a question, feel free to do that or contact me on send me a message on LinkedIn. I really, really believe in the power of freelancing. It's opened up so many opportunities for me and the flexibility I have now, especially now with the two kids, I feel like is unmatched. I couldn't get that if I was in a regular 9 to 5 job or in my previous role. So I really, really am an evangelist for freelancing side, you know, really encourage people who want to do it to be brave enough to explore it.

Well, in an evangelist you are and I really appreciate you, Sada, just sharing your story with us because this has come up quite a bit for people who are thinking about taking that time but they're afraid to do so. And what you shared with us is so encouraging. You've inspired me. So thank you, thank you for sharing your story with us and being so generous with your time. I know right now your time is really at a premium and I just appreciate you. Yeah, just sharing some of that with us.

Well, thanks for having me, Ed. I've been a longtime listener and admirer and fan. So the fact that I'm on high income business writing podcast with Ed Gandia is just blows my mind. So thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Oh, thank you. Well, that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed the episode. And just a quick reminder to grab your free copy of my latest book earn more and less Less time. The proven mindset, strategies and actions to prosper as a freelance writer. You can get your free copy@b2b launcher.com or you will also find the detailed show notes to this and all my other episodes. Enjoy and have a great day.