The reality of going solo
Freelancing on your own sounds like a dream until you're living it every single day.
You're the creative, the producer, the editor, the marketer, and the admin team, all rolled into one. Every idea starts with you, and every deadline lands on you. When things go well, it's incredibly rewarding. When they don't, there's nobody to share the weight with.
After spending most of my career working alongside teams, agencies, and clients, going solo has been one of the hardest transitions I've made. Not because the work is harder, but because doing it alone takes a quiet toll.
How short form burnt me out
For a long time, I poured almost everything into short form content. Multiple personal accounts, multiple posting schedules, and a constant pressure to keep up with trends and the algorithm. It was also challenging navigating the many passions I carry with each personal account.
I told myself it was the only way to grow. Post more, post faster, stay visible. But somewhere along the way, creating stopped feeling creative. It started feeling like a treadmill I couldn't step off.
The truth is, I was burnt out. And the hardest part was realizing that in trying to build my personal brand, I'd stopped doing the thing that made me fall in love with this work in the first place: creating with other people.
Stepping back to create with others
So I made a choice. I've taken some time off from my solo personal branding work and started saying yes to collaboration instead.
Lately I've been working with different brands, creative groups, and platforms, each bringing their own energy, ideas, and ways of working. Some projects have been small and spontaneous. Others have been bigger, with full teams behind them. Every one of them has felt like a breath of fresh air.
There's something special about walking into a project where you're not carrying the whole vision alone. You bring your piece, others bring theirs, and together you make something none of you could have made on your own.
What this season has taught me
This change of pace has reminded me of a few things I'd forgotten:
Collaboration refuels you. Bouncing ideas off other people brings back the spark that solo grinding wears down.
You grow faster together. Every team I work with teaches me something new about my craft and myself.
Your worth isn't tied to your post count. Some of my most meaningful work this year will never live on my personal feed, and that's okay.
Community beats competition. The creative world is so much lighter when we lift each other up.
If you're a freelancer feeling stretched thin, maybe it's not about working harder on your own. Maybe it's about finding the right people to create with.
My next 30 days
To keep this new chapter going, I'm taking on a challenge: vlogging every day for 30 days on YouTube. No polished highlight reels, just the real day-to-day of freelance creative life, the collaborations, the wins, and the hard days too.
Follow along on YouTube: youtube.com/@robespierre-au
I'll also be blogging about freelance life here for the next 30 days. If you'd like every new post sent straight to your inbox, sign up for my newsletter.
Subscribe to the newsletter: robesdornagon.com/newsletter
Thanks for being here. If you're craving more collaboration in your creative life too, reach out. Let's make something together.
Robespierre
