I Left The Corporate World to Make a Living as a Writer

Here’s how I did it.

First of all, this isn’t going to be one of those “this is how you get rich from writing” articles that are filling up your feed, making you feel like shit about yourself and your success by comparison. The ones that are essentially written by the Instagram influencers of the writing world. One of those articles that describe the maybe .01% of writers that make 200k+ yearly. The ones that make it sound easy.

Remember, I’m a writer. I chose the words in the title very carefully. I make a living as a writer. Not a killing.

Now, do I plan to make more and more each year as I get better? Yes. But more on that later.

What this article will do, however, is provide a realistic and true account of how I’ve facilitated this transition, and hopefully serve as motivation for any of you that are sitting in the same boat I was in two years ago.

Let’s start with describing that boat.

The Corporate Sales World

When I say “leaving,” what I mean is: I was let go. That’s how much I resisted pursuing my actual dream career.

Two years ago, I was in a sales job that I actually hated. I really liked the people that I worked with, and so that kept me around for a lot longer than I should have stayed.

I worked there for almost four years in total. It was a good company, as far as I can tell, and the reason I didn’t like sales wasn’t a direct reflection of the company, itself (with a few exceptions).

What I didn’t like, was the way that it made me feel, or rather, the way that it didn’t make me feel anything at all. As a creative, I found the monotony of having the same challenges every day excruciatingly painful. I found it soul-sucking. I also found that I was often depressed and very hard on myself for not performing well. Even though some of it wasn’t within my control.

To be fair, I just wasn’t built for sales. I didn’t have the capacity to treat people like numbers. If I was ever good at sales it was because I understood people, and treated them fairly. But this wasn’t good enough to do extremely well in a competitive sales environment, where some of my coworkers would cut corners, lie, or sell the product at any and all costs.

I was raised in way where money was never a priority. We were middle-class, but I was brought up to understand that, while having money is nice, it will never bring you total happiness and it isn’t worth hurting someone over, ever.

Long story short, I sucked at sales. And I was smart enough to make decent money for as long as I could tolerate, but it was only a matter of time before they let me go.

And eventually, any sales organization will have a tough year and start to squeeze out those that aren’t built for it. Because people are numbers. If they could, they would have no employees at all, and just have machines do the selling. But because that’s not possible, they just try to turn you into a machine. They’ll make it more and more difficult, cutting resources to raise profits, increasing margins by decreasing the quality of the workplace and employee benefits.

So when I sucked at sales just enough, they started to single me out, and slowly pushed me out the door.

But I remember driving home smiling because I already had a plan. It was actually the best commute I had in four years.

How I Knew I Needed a Creative Role Instead

I was always more interested in the creative and the arts. I played piano and drums, I sang, I wrote poems and hip-hop albums, I won writing contests, I liked drawing and photography — just all of it. I found it so fulfilling.

In my sales role, I didn’t use that part of my brain at all. It was a challenge at first, so I enjoyed it as I would enjoy any other puzzle. But once it became second nature, I literally was on autopilot.

I found myself coming home from work and needing an hour of silence before I could even interact with my loving girlfriend or my best friends. So even while my career required absolutely none of actual energy and effort, it also completely drained me, every single day. I felt like a shell of myself for about a year, toward the end.

I eventually learned that I needed to do something creative every day to feel fulfilled. I started writing poems, lyrics, or even just cooking in a more creative manner.

But then I realized I would work from 9–6, or essentially 8–7 with the commute, need an hour to myself to unwind, and then another hour or so of creativity. Suddenly I didn’t have time to work out, or spend with important people in my life, or call my family. God forbid I had a doctor's appointment, or some other required engagement. I just started to feel more and more like shit each day. And this spiral lead to my epiphany.

Why not make my creative outlet my actual career? Why not just spend my 9–5 being creative? Then I would finish my workday and be energized and empowered instead of drained.

What I Did To Get Hired With Virtually No Industry Experience

I had enough saved to make it a couple of months with no income, but that was it. I was already used to working 9–5, so instead of sleeping in, or panicking and taking some other job, I just made research and freelance my new job.

I woke up early every day and walked to a coffee shop. I pretended that was my office. I would allocate some of my day to applying to jobs, even if they were a long shot, and the rest of my day to just writing.

By applying to jobs I started to learn what people wanted to see. I learned what I did or didn’t have that might get me a job as a writer. And I didn’t take it personally if I didn’t get an offer. I didn’t expect to, I was just doing research and making connections.

But when I wrote, I wrote any and everything. I wrote to-do lists. I wrote poems. I wrote lyrics. I wrote blogs. I wrote cover letters. I wrote a different resume for every job I applied to.

I just wanted to get better with words.

I started to learn about content writing, and I started a burger blog, where I would review the best burgers in the city of Atlanta. I started writing things for free for my friends' businesses, even if it was just web copy, emails, or flyers. I even did a couple of fake projects just to practice.

I built an online portfolio with all of this in it, and it slowly started to really look like I knew what I was doing.

Then I started applying to freelance jobs on Upwork. And I started building up my Medium account. I also started answering questions on Quora (something I’m still building on).

I eventually landed a gig or two on Upwork, which made me around $600 in total. It wasn’t much but it was half a month’s rent.

Before too long (around 5 months) I actually got an offer at what would become my favorite job I’ve ever had.

How Writing Pays My Bills Now

Today, I’m still at that company, a digital marketing agency, that hired me out of unemployment, where I’m now a senior content writer. I’ve gotten a couple of raises and taken on more and more responsibility. I’m learning more every day. I’ve grown more in a year and a half than I did in all four years in my sales role.

And I feel very fulfilled, every day. I have time to workout. I have the mental fortitude to take on side projects. I wake up early and walk my dog. I work out at lunch or sometimes at night. I even do more writing on the nights and weekends to build more income.

So, how am I making money from writing now?

My job, where I’m a content writer specializing in SEO strategy, pays me more than enough to cover my bills, put away money for my future first home, and invest into the stock market, all while having an active social life with ample traveling opportunity and “just-for-fun” purchases.

I’ve made over $100/month for the last several months writing blogs on Medium. It’s not a ton, but it’s growing, and it’s very doable. I’ve had some blogs make over $150 each, and if I can get to a place where every blog I write is worth that much, then Medium alone can be a substantial source of income. I try to write 4–8 blogs each month, and at that rate, I’d be bringing in an extra $12,000/year or so.

I’ve also built up my freelance work. With actual experience and endless portfolio pieces, word of mouth alone has produced months where I’ve made over $800 from just writing blogs or web copy for friends of mine.

I’m answering questions on Quora, which I hope to utilize as a platform to network and open the door to more freelance work. I share my relevant Medium blogs in applicable instances there, too.

All in all, I feel like I’m on the way up. And I’m just going to keep writing.

If you think you’re in a similar boat, these are my final words: love your career or leave it. Those are the only options.