A New Path: Freelancing for a Change

The thought of working a full-time job outside of sports has always been a terrifying, unfathomable concept to me. I spent nearly a decade, even more if you mix in the contract work I performed while still in college, working in broadcasting and communications for a team or school.

That concept of a life “outside” of sports, became a reality in October.

For over a year as a full-time employee and an additional year as a contractor, I spent three hours a day driving to and from work. Do the math, and that’s an additional 15 hours on a 40-hour week. When a week called for six days, as they often do in college athletics, that’s another three hours of driving for anywhere between another five and 12 hours of work.

Don’t get me wrong, I love working in sports. The daily grind and the fast-paced game days don’t bother me. What got to me? It was the rising costs of gas and the rising cost of time away from my wife and our special needs child.

Those two expenses had finally weighed too heavily on my mind and my heart, and so, in October, I stepped away to pursue a career in local government, coordinating city events.

In my interview, I was asked if I would miss working in sports. I said that I would, but I had a plan to meet those needs while still excelling at my new role: Freelancing.

So, here we are: A new era.

Through my network, I was able to immediately begin scheduling broadcasts that fit into my newly opened schedule. This was new to me. Being able to pick and choose my availability, that was a world which I never experienced before.

Scheduling broadcasts wasn’t the only uncharted water I was setting sail on. With freelancing, I was in control of my schedule, so I generated a master schedule for all of my broadcasts and events. Along with the master schedule, I realized I needed a way to track my income and expenses and, of course, the taxes.

And just like that, I had a business platform. Scheduling, invoices, finances, contact lists, running my own social media and website. Maybe I didn’t leave the front office or athletic administration after all.

I mean, look at this, I’m writing a blog, it’s basically a written piece that goes on a team website. But seriously, a blog?

I was nervous about a full-time job outside of sports and what the freelance world would look like, but after just a few weeks of this new adventure, I’m optimistic. I’m excited.