Category: work

Serendipity

On By broadsideblogIn aging, behavior, journalism, life, work5 Comments
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By Caitlin Kelly

It’s one of my favorite words, coined in 1754 by Horace Walpole — a chance bit of good luck or good fortune. Something you didn’t expect or plan for.

Basically, much of my life!

It’s happened so many times, beginning in my teens when a friend of my father’s lent me his Minolta camera and I shot a lot of photos and sold three of them to Toronto Calendar magazine as cover images when he told me there was an annual contest open to everyone. I was still in high school and they paid $100 each, a fortune at the time. It also showed me I had some talent, which is a great thing to learn young, as it gave me confidence, income and a sense of career direction.

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Paris…so much beauty, everywhere!

It happened when I was 24, living in Toronto with my boyfriend and dog, freelancing. I was bored with all of it (OK, not the dog!) and desperately wanted an ejection seat from my predictable life. Not easy! I ran into my landlord’s ex-girlfriend at the grocery story in January, where she told me about a Paris-based journalism fellowship that ran for eight months and would send us all over Europe to do reporting. I had mere weeks to fill out the application and get proof of my fluent French. Toronto by mid-winter is a grim, gray, cold, cloudy place to be. I was so so so fed up and what could I possibly do about any of it?

I won it.

BOOM. I shrieked with delight as the news arrived just as I turned 25, the youngest chosen that year.

It happened when I was 30 and my American boyfriend had committed four years of his life to a medical residency at Dartmouth, in Hanover, NH, a place I knew nothing about. But I’d been doing a bit of stringing (research) for the then TIME magazine correspondent in Canada — who (!) knew an editor in that town who hired editors, freelance, for three-month stints, complete with free apartment and car and a good salary. And I got an H1-B visa allowing me to take it and see if I could actually live there. (I did, although unhappily as it turned out.)

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It happened when I pitched a story to Mademoiselle magazine about on-line dating, which, then, was very declasse and no one wanted to admit it — decades before Tinder and Grindr and Bumble and Hinge and…The profile I placed on aol.com had a beautiful headshot of me taken by a photographer for Family Circle. The PR person ended up putting my profile on the aol.com homepage — where an NYT staff photo editor saw it and immediately replied, one of 200 who did, worldwide. That’s Jose, my husband.

It happened in early September when we had four lovely days in Southampton, LI and I passed a silversmith shop and dropped in to take a look. I saw a gorgeous fossil and had it made into a sterling ring with an oxidized bezel for Jose. I wanted something really special and unforgettable for his birthday this terrible year. He loves it!

It happened very recently when I went to a jazz dance class that turned out to be cancelled and instead went that night to a movie in the same town and the trailers included a plug for their upcoming eight-week screenwriting class — which I’m now taking and really enjoying. I would never have known about it, or in time, otherwise.

And last weekend when I planned to have lunch at a favorite cafe. First I found a free spot for street parking and didn’t have to pay on Sundays, then (!??) walked the wrong direction on West 12th and ended up instead having a great stroll down Fifth Avenue past two gorgeous mid 19th c churches, turned a sharp right onto 8th and — boom! — found a boutique hotel, the Marlton, where I settled in for a lovely two-hour lunch. Perfect, unplanned excursion.

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A fabulous 20s gown in a Paris vintage shop.

Writers often say they’re either plotters or pantsters…people who plan everything out carefully or those who fly by their seat of their pants. I’m a bit of both. I’ve never really said “I have to (do this) by (this age) or else” although I always wanted to live in the U.S. and was able to do so thanks to my mother’s initial American citizenship; as the then unmarried child of a citizen, getting a green card was fairly simple and quick.

I think allowing for serendipity means being willing and able to try some new things, no matter how scary — I cried really hard the day the plane took off for my Paris fellowship, knowing I would return forever changed in ways I couldn’t possibly foresee.

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It’s being willing and able to leave the familiar behind — my Toronto friends were furious when I left for a job in Montreal. How dare I leave the city they loved so much?

It’s being willing and able to sacrifice comfort and relationships for longer-term gain — I never allowed myself to fall in love with anyone appropriate in Toronto throughout my 20s, knowing I wanted to leave. Who would, or could, follow me? That was hard and lonely.

It’s being willing and able to postpone marriage/motherhood for shorter-term goals.

Jose and I have talked about this many times., I think it’s too easy to overlook or ignore an opportunity when it can, happily, change your life forever and for better. You have to notice it and act fast!

But I also know that bringing a good mix of skills — languages, writing, high-level experience — that has positioned me well for interesting opportunities.

Not sure what will show up next, and hoping it’s something good.

Gratefully, it has been so many times.

Mentoring (and being mentored)

On By broadsideblogIn aging, behavior, business, education, journalism, Media, women, work4 Comments

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Oh to be young and ambitious and winning major assignments

By Caitlin Kelly

I signed up a few years ago as a volunteer with Report for America, a program that matches veterans like me with early career journalists in small regional newsrooms, whether print, digital or broadcast. My first worked for a newsroom in West Virginia, the second in Minneapolis-St. Paul, the third in Virginia (I think — she disappeared almost immediately due to a family health emergency) and my fourth near Richmond, Virginia (who very kindly nominated me for Mentor of the Year, which I did not win.)

This week, via Zoom, I met my latest, 5th, mentee, who works in California. She’s the oldest I’ve been matched with so the vibe is immediately different and more challenging some ways. Which is good!

I never had a mentor, so it’s all a bit make-it-up-as-we go — and there’s little direction or support from RFA. Which is fine. My mentees are all young women and all seem to be well trained in the skills of reporting and interviewing and writing. My role is often more about navigating newsroom politics, asking for more work or better pay or fending off the bullshit macho posturing of young male colleagues. Ugh! T’was every thus!

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I have never studied journalism or really had a beat and never even worked for a small outlet (always national magazines and newspapers, national or large city papers), but the skills are always basically the same and the competition is always tough and self-doubt inevitable, especially at the start. Being a reporter anywhere is intimidating, especially for young women, easily dismissed or spoken over or bullied — whether by press officers or sexist politicians or arrogant sources. It’s our job to stand firm and push back, which — of course — means not being “nice” but persistent. Being a truly effective reporter really means breaking many social “rules”, like not being quiet and polite, deferential to your elders or the wealthy and powerful and submissive to authority. You may have to be the loudest at a press conference or the last in the room, and I’ve been both (surprise!) Being able to switch into French or Spanish (or Mandarin or Creole or whatever) adds a terrific advantage in any competitive and crowded situation as so few journalists, still, seem to have a second or third language.

My role is as much cheerleader and friend as coach and nothing is off limits. I really want these young women to thrive and succeed and move ahead in this chaotic industry and I know it’s hard and there are no guarantees. I tell each one to be sure to produce a minimum of three to four “legacy” stories a year, by which I mean work of such depth and excellence they can help them win individual awards, fellowships, grants, book deals — and maybe a better job with higher pay. But these also mitigate against the daily grind of pumping out four to five stories every week, far more than was expected of me back in the day, before social media. Our toughest competitor was often “the wires” — Canadian Press, Associated Press or Reuters.

As readers here know, I have no kids or nieces or nephews, no younger folk — early 20s, for sure — with whom I have a close relationship so I really enjoy and value these. It’s good to know I can be useful, even if only sometimes to offer a sympathetic ear and a “yup, been there!”

Have you been a mentor? How was it?

Have you had one?

Solo travel

On By broadsideblogIn aging, behavior, cities, journalism, life, travel, urban life, women, work, world12 Comments

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September 2024, my lovely small hotel in Spitalfields. I went on crutches!

By Caitlin Kelly

This recent New York Times essay struck me as a little hilarious — about how it’s really OK for women to eat out alone:

I’ve never been afraid to eat alone; I like eating out so much that I write a newsletter about restaurants. Since I can’t always be bothered to get a friend to come along, I end up having more solo experiences than most. Sitting by myself, I’ve been offered free drinks from restaurant staffers and comments with an admixture of admiration and sympathy: I just love that you’re having a steak by yourself on a Sunday night.

The pitying or you-go-girl sentiments never cease to puzzle me. Does ambling outside all by myself and sitting down with a credit card merit me a courage badge? Society still seems to think of women as permanently social creatures, not meant to be by their lonesome. But women don’t need encouragement to live an independent life. It is infantilizing to be treated like a sad, lost lamb just because someone has not accompanied me outside. It’s essential to recognize the absurdity inherent in viewing a woman dining alone as a brave act performed in the face of embarrassment. It is neither brave nor sad for a woman to dine alone.

I’ll soon be back in England for three weeks alone after Jose and I speak at a travel conference in Ireland. That means plenty of meals eaten by myself, whether a quick breakfast or a leisurely dinner or an elegant afternoon tea. Will people feel sorry for me? Maybe, although not sure why. It doesn’t mean I’m a widow or have no partner or no friends. It just means…I’m fine being seen in public without a companion.

In June 2022 I took the trip of my dreams — a solo month driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles. I had more friends there to see along the way — eleven! — than I even have at home in New York. So I never felt lonely.

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San Francisco

I had a role model in my mother, who traveled the world alone for years, through South America, to Australia, through parts of the U.S. She taught me to wedge a chair beneath my room door handle if I was ever worried, to throw myself into the sympathetic arms of a hotel manager if ill or in distress (it saved me in Istanbul.) We lived in Mexico when I was 14 and I wanted to wear miniskirts. She pointed out this might be seen as provocative in a macho environment, and I was hassled verbally all the time — juerita! (little blondie), fuerita! (little foreigner.) But none of this put me off traveling alone.

For one thing, as a journalist, it’s part of our job! On my eight-month fellowship at 25 I had to make four solo 10-day reporting trips — I went to small town Sicily, to Copenhagen, Amsterdam, London and spent eight days in a truck going from Perpignan to Istanbul. Being scared wasn’t an option.

Traveling solo, I enjoy the privileges of having a credit card and good health and being white. I know these help me. But I also know that cultural respect and situational awareness are key. There are things you simply don’t say or do in another country that may be normal at home; do these at your peril.

I always do a fair bit of research before going anywhere — although (oooops!) the worst error I made (and it was bad!) was booking a cheap courier flight to Caracas, then a pal at the New York consulate warning me there was an advisory about that country. I had a friend join me and we did have a good time, well until the landslides and evacuations…

To help stay safe, I don’t drink to excess and I don’t use recreational drugs, two things that could stupefy me enough to make lousy choices or let someone else take charge of me to “help.” I made that mistake only once (of course) in San Francisco, having been flown out from NY for a cool Internet writing job. I stopped in a bar near my hotel for a drink but had two on an empty stomach. Ohhhhhhhhh. Very bad idea. Let’s just say the next day of interviews went poorly.

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Rovinj, Croatia, July 2017

I’ve been alone in Sicily, Mexico, Istanbul, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Thailand, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. I went alone to Kenya and Tanzania but did group safaris in both places. In June and July 2017 I spent six weeks traveling alone through Europe.

I would much rather be out in the world alone than cowering at home in fear or anxiety.

Of course I love to travel with my husband! We voyage well together and take our time slowly. We’re not box-tickers rushing from one spot to another and we have different interests, so a day at a flea market is my idea of heaven and not always his.

In earlier years I traveled with my mother and father (after their divorce) and only once with a friend, to Venezuela and Jamaica, where she grew up. I know some people always have a person or group to travel with, who have the same tastes and budget and time off…I just never have. I do have friends in many places, so I have people to look forward to in London and Paris and California and many other spots.

Solo travel means setting your own schedule, moving only at your own speed. If you want to spend a day in bed resting, do it! If you want to skip the Big Museums and sit in a cafe and read or sketch or people-watch, no one’s there to suggest otherwise.

I always have a book and a camera to amuse me. I speak fluent French and decent Spanish, so I can converse in those. Maybe growing up as an only child was good prep because being alone doesn’t scare me. I enjoy meeting new people, engaging with strangers (when safe!)

And yet (UGGGGGH) several airlines are routinely charging solo travelers a higher fare because…we’re unaccompanied.

Have you traveled alone?

How was it?

The challenge? Making a new website

On By broadsideblogIn behavior, blogging, books, business, design, journalism, Media, Technology, work15 Comments

By Caitlin Kelly

I know many of you don’t need a professional website, but as a freelance writer and writing coach, I do. It had been seven years since my last update and I was perfectly happy with it, but thought…let’s take a look.

I went back to the same company, Bizango, in Seattle, and had an initial chat which was insightful and helpful. We agreed on a price — gulp — the cost of my first used car, $4,800. Yes, a fortune! But it’s also a business expense I can deduct from my taxes, so I went ahead.

I had seen many writers’ sites and didn’t like many of them, also knowing many writers are on very tight budgets and can’t spend a lot. The Big Name writers had very cool ones that had much less need to sell themselves, so they weren’t good models.

The designers insisted that New York is part of my brand, having lived near the city for decades and doing much of my media work for major publishers there. Lucikly, a fellow Torontonian now also in New York, Gary Hershorn, is a friend and a fantastic photographer whose many NYC skyline and city images are available through the Getty agency. He very generously let me use one of them gratis for my home page, and another as a page header for interior pages.

But then what? Designing a site from scratch means making so many decisions — what font? what size? what color palette? which photos or illustrations and where? How much self-promotion is too much and too little? (You never really know.) The designers suggested (OK, also insisted) I include a brief video to show potential coaching clients what I sound like. No pressure! My husband shot it in three takes as I sat on the stairs of a classic 19th century Manhattan office building, with exactly the vibe I needed.

I’ve included a lot of my published stories, some quite old, to show the variety of my work and pieces I’m especially proud of, many of them for The New York Times, some winning 1,200 comments or 300,000 page views. A rotating list of some of the many outlets I’ve written for runs at the bottom of the home page.

For the first time, I’ve included an additional page with two items from my career I’m really proud of — my Canadian National Magazine Award and my framed invitation to a reception aboard Britannia to meet the late Queen Elizabeth after covering a two week Royal Tour for the Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper. Both were exceptional moments for me!

Here’s the new site — please take a look and let me know what you think?

And — if you’re an ambitious freelance writer (or know one?), our next webinar is September 29 at noon ET for $35. with a video of it available later if you can’t join us then. We did this one twice last spring to 90 writers and several have told us they’re selling more of their story pitches faster and for higher rates. Matt Potter is a good friend and highly skilled editor and writer in London, so we offer a highly unusual global partnership.

Being a mentor/mentee

On By broadsideblogIn behavior, business, education, journalism, women, work7 Comments

By Caitlin Kelly

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Mid-20s. Scared to death!

I never had a mentor!

Jose, my husband, found one very early in his career and they are still, decades later, very good friends.

But I know it can be super helpful to have one, and so I signed up a year ago through Report for America, which places young journalists into regional newsrooms and pairs them with, what, they hope, is a good match as a mentor, whose commitment is multi-year but we’re only asked to meet up a few times a quarter or so.

I started working with one young woman in May 2023 whose situation was truly terrible, so our energies were more devoted to keeping her calm as we figured out her exit strategy. We’re still in fairly frequent touch as we try to find her a new, permanent job in the industry. Ours was a good fit from the start and we’ve since even written letters of recommendation for one another as we have gotten to know each other well. I have so admired her resilience and sense of humor.

My next match was not a good one, ever. It was a useful lesson that you can’t tell initially if it’s you or them or just poor chemistry. After six frustrating months, we mutually agreed to to end it.

I now have a new mentee, with whom I have a lot more in common, which has me feeling more confident going forward. Our initial conversation was easy and comfortable, and she’s already asked me to have another, so I already feel I might be more useful.

As readers here know, I don’t have kids or nephews or nieces so I especially value relationships with younger people and the feeling I can share some of my skills and insights, especially with new journalists navigating this chaotic, underpaid industry. So many of them burn out within a few years, and I can see why. My goal, always, is helping them succeed — not just staying in a toxic newsroom. Much as I’ve survived a few of those myself, no one should stick around for abuse.

Interestingly, most of my conversations with mentees haven’t touched on the actual mechanics of reporting or writing, but their broader challenges of navigating sexism, chauvinism or sharp-elbowed competition — some things never change!

Have you been a mentor?

A mentee?

How did it turn out?

Want to sell your stories? Our event Feb. 25 is for you!

On By broadsideblogIn business, journalism, Media, workLeave a comment

By Caitlin Kelly

This weekend, I and a friend in London, Matt Potter, are offering a 90 minute webinar to offer our best advice for how to sell your stories to websites, magazines, newspapers.

Pitching your story ideas is never easy and we’ve done a lot of it — successfully!

The event is 90 minutes and will include 40 minutes for your questions and answers.

I hope you’ll join us and share!

Register on Eventbrite

The endless song and dance of freelance/creative life

On By broadsideblogIn behavior, blogging, books, business, culture, journalism, Media, work4 Comments

By Caitlin Kelly

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This new book by a friend from Toronto needs to be as visible as possible to find readers —

which is why I wrote about it here. Mutual aid is key!

This is an excellent discussion, on Vox, of how much time and energy (hello, blogging!) many creatives now must spend endlessly promoting ourselves and our work:

The internet has made it so that no matter who you are or what you do — from nine-to-five middle managers to astronauts to house cleaners — you cannot escape the tyranny of the personal brand. For some, it looks like updating your LinkedIn connections whenever you get promoted; for others, it’s asking customers to give you five stars on Google Reviews; for still more, it’s crafting an engaging-but-authentic persona on Instagram. And for people who hope to publish a bestseller or release a hit record, it’s “building a platform” so that execs can use your existing audience to justify the costs of signing a new artist.

It is really tedious and really necessary!

No more working away in obscurity hoping to be “discovered” — especially if everyone you’re competing with for work or commissions is very much visible and audible.

I confess, I have so far managed to survive nicely without using TikTok and YouTube, although I’ve considered both. I don’t think my target audiences for coaching live on those platforms, so for now Twitter is my go-to, still. I only today (!) looked at the number of lists there I’ve been added to and it’s surprisingly (to me) really extensive. I’m flattered!

So I blog (only once a week, now); I tweet, multiple times every day but not just monologue and self-promotion — but fun and funny interactions with others there, allowing my personality to show, for better or worse! I see people who only sellsellsellsellsell and think you are sooooooo boring!

More from Vox:

You can see this tension play out in the rise of “day in my life” videos, where authors and artists film themselves throughout their days and edit them into short TikToks or Reels. Despite the fact that for most people, the act of writing looks very boring, author-content creators succeed by making the visually uninteresting labor of typing on a laptop worthwhile to watch. You’ll see a lot of cottagecore-esque videos where the writer will sip tea by the fireplace against the soundtrack of Wes Anderson, or wake up in a forest cabin and read by a river, or women like this Oxford University student who dresses up like literary characters and films herself working on her novel. Videos like these emulate the Romantic ideal of “solitary genius” artistry, evoking a time when writing was seen as a more “pure” or quaint profession. Yet what they best represent is the current state of art, where artists must skillfully package themselves as products for buyers to consume.

It’s precisely the kind of work that is uncomfortable for most artists, who by definition concern themselves with what it means to be a person in the world, not what it means to be a brand. There’s been a fair amount of backlash to this imperative, recently among musicians on TikTok.

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This pathetic pile is my desk drawer!

My dears, as I bang this out on my laptop on top of the dining table (we have no office space), I’m still in my sweaty workout clothes from spin class. I have zero impulse to show anyone how I work. The most essential thing, anyway, is how I think. That’s unique to me and I’m not clear that blasting it across social media helps anyone much.

It’s not even noon, and I’ve already emailed an editor and sources for two separate stories. I still have to deal with paperwork for one of them and am also planning a Feb. 25 webinar on how to pitch…with a pal in London. We’ll split the proceeds, maybe a few hundred dollars each. It will be a lot of fun — but also a logical place to pitch my own individual coaching sessions. None of this activity is the least bit photogenic! Admin. rarely is.

I really loathe the word “brand” when it refers to creatives….all I can picture is a piece of hot iron hitting a cow’s ass.

10 true things about freelance writing

On By broadsideblogIn business, journalism, Media, Uncategorized, work7 Comments

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One of my best adventures ever! At 26, chasing the Queen around Canada

By Caitlin Kelly

First, this post is mostly about journalism and written by someone who has been — by choice — a lifelong generalist, not a niche specialist in science, medicine, tech, crypto, cannabis, etc.

I’ve never studied journalism although I’ve taught it at several colleges.

You don’t need a journalism degree to be a good journalist; to get a full-time staff job, maybe. But they’re thinner on the ground than they once were — 43,000 journalists have lost their jobs in the past few years.

But also…having a staff job, if the pay is decent and the atmosphere workable, is also highly useful for better understanding how editors think and what they most need.

I began writing for a living in Toronto as a 19-year-old undergrad at the University of Toronto. I actually first began making money as a freelance photographer, with my images in the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail and Time Canada. Plus three cover photos for Toronto Calendar, sold when I was in high school.

I worked on staff at The Globe and Mail, Montreal Gazette and New York Daily News as a reporter and feature writer. I learned a lot that has helped me as a freelancer and one thing is — be efficient!

I’ve written for newspapers, magazines and websites in Canada, the U.S., Europe, even New Zealand.


If you only read Twitter, you think everyone writes only for the highest prestige places: The New York Times, New York Magazine, The New Yorker, The NYT Magazine, Washington Post. etc.

Not true!

Most of us also teach, coach, have a part-time non-writing income and produce “content” for companies and non-profits, as I have as well.

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Here’s a partial list of the places who have bought my work and published it:

The Yale University alumni magazine

Boy’s Life (the Boy Scouts magazine)

The New York Times

The Washington Post

The Wall Street Journal

VSD (a French weekly)

The New Zealand Herald

The Miami Herald

The Boston Globe

The Ottawa Citizen

The Financial Times

Quartz

HemAware (a magazine read by/for hemophiliacs)

The Canadian Medical Association Journal

JWM magazine (a magazine for guests of Marriott hotels)

Smithsonian

USA Today

The American Prospect

NBC News

The Harvard Business Review

Salon

Elm Street (Canadian women’s magazine; defunct. That piece won my Canadian National Magazine Award.)

Cosmopolitan

Glamour (print)

Marie Claire (print)

Mademoiselle (print)

Family Circle (print)

House Beautiful

Ms.

Penthouse (yes, really. Fantastic editor, very good pay and enough time to do the research that led to my first book)

AgroVie (a magazine read by French speaking farmers. I did two stories for them on assignment in Quebec. Had never even been to a farm before.)

Mechanical Engineering (one story on STEM education, one on new ways to find and create fresh water.)

American Banker (learned about neural networks back in the 90s)

Chatelaine (Canada’s women’s magazine)

Flare (Canada’s younger women’s magazine)

Toronto Life

Canadian Business

Report on Business magazine (a Globe and Mail supplement)

The New Yorker — who killed my story and I had to pay my then agent 15% to even have an editor look at me.

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Planning out my 5,0000 word investigative story on Canadian healthcare — the result of three months’ reporting. This image has been redacted to protect the identity of two sources.

Here are some home truths:

You need talent

You just do. If you truly find reporting, interviewing, researching and writing a tedious chore and a burden you avoid every time — maybe this is just not for you. Or you need to strengthen your skills, using online material or webinars or conferences or classes or coaching. Maybe all of these. You don’t have to be amazing at all of these skills, as some reporters are excellent diggers but not lyrical writers and vice versa. But you must be 100% comfortable speaking to a wide array of people and putting them at ease — or confronting them as needed. That means, yes, on the phone and/or face to face. Your talents also need to include emotional intelligence, being comfortable working with many different personalities.

You have to invest in your business — it is a business!

You need a phone, reliable Internet and a computer. You need a quiet, safe place to work (unless you’re working in a conflict zone, then it’s whatever you can find and you’ll also likely need a helmet and Kevlar vest.) If you want to work in a conflict zone PLEASE take HEFAT or HEAT training (risk assessment, first aid) and get a client to pay for it. Here’s a link to British and U.S. places that offer it.

You may need to pay someone to design a great looking website rather than some sad, generic one that looks like all your competitors’. I paid $3,000 for mine and it was a huge amount for me. I regret nothing. It’s my 24/7 billboard. If you do take on an assignment that requires a fixer and/or translator, those costs will be tax deductions — but your client (s) should be paying for them, and for your travel and lodging.

You need a terrific website

With an easy way to contact you, lots of recent (or awesome) work samples, maybe some testimonials. I like seeing a nice headshot and a short, interesting bio. Why does someone want you especially?

Here’s mine.

You have to hustle

Seriously! Work rarely just lands in your lap without a lot of prior experience, and/or a network for referrals. Places cut their budgets all the time. Be prepared. Don’t focus only on one idea and one market…you need to have lots of both, all the time.

Charm and genuine enthusiasm are much under-rated

I mean it. This not the place to be cool or hip or pretend you don’t care much if you get the gig. Be a person people whose energy would make them gravitate to you at a party. If you’re shy, yes it’s more challenging.

Make sure you know, like and trust other skilled and experienced freelancers — and vice versa.

We may work alone but we can’t make it in this very tough business without others’ help and their reliance on us as well. Be selective, not naive. Be ethical, always.

Don’t be a Big Name Clip snob

Not everyone is going to write for the Big Outlets, not at first. And maybe even never. So what? Do consistently excellent work that shows your talents and keeps your bills paid on time! Every single story, from a basic service piece to a profile to a breaking news story, polishes your skills.

But…Big Name Clips/Clients will open new doors

They reassure other clients and editors that you can work to a very high standard and handle a lot of rigorous editing. The stronger your proven, consistent skills, the more ambitious projects you can pitch and win. That can take time.

Having some language skills is a terrific advantage

My French and Spanish skills have gotten me some truly amazing work opportunities — like a 2014 work trip to Nicaragua with WaterAid.

There are many many competitors. Not all will have your talent, skills, experience, networks and drive.

Never rest on your laurels.

The allure of status symbols

On By broadsideblogIn beauty, behavior, business, culture, domestic life, life, work4 Comments

By Caitlin Kelly

I admit it — I generally loathe designer labels and logos, but (sigh) I did succumb to a long-coveted purchase a few years ago and bought an estate (i.e. used) Cartier watch.

I really love it and am glad I was able to finally afford one, thanks to an inheritance my late mother left me.

The truth is, depending where you live, those status markers can make a difference (even if they shouldn’t!) and in some social or professional situations just make me feel a bit more comfortable around wealthier people. New York, especially, is a place where appearances do matter in professional circles, whether a great haircut, fresh manicure or stylish outfit. It’s a highly competitive place and showing up dowdy or shabby, especially when you work freelance and don’t have a Big Fancy Job, the usual status symbol, in addition to The Right Address(es), can send an unwanted signal of desperation — which is where Zoom can help. I can usually pull off looking great from the waist up!

I’m proud of my writing career, but it’s only been fairly lucrative twice, once in 1996 for a year’s staff magazine job and 2005-6 as a newspaper reporter in New York City — where even then my salary was paying off $10,000 in debt accumulated after a bad year. Even a salary here of $100,000 is worth about $30,000 anywhere else because of the costs of living (mostly housing.)

Where I live, an affluent suburban county 25 miles north of Manhattan, is full of very visible status symbols and symbols of wealth — Maseratis and Mercedes and Range Rovers — although not nearly as bad as the much much wealthier towns with a median income of $250,000 where the women tend to be blond and thin and wear lots of cashmere and the men talk about their hedge funds or golf games.

In the city, it’s those shiny black Escalades, with never a speck of dust or dirt, idling for hours curbside for their clients. Private flights from Teterboro or helicopters to the Hamptons are table stakes for the wealthy.

One thing I found really weird when I moved here (do they do this in other parts of the U.S.?) is the decals on car bumpers and rear windows bragging what fancy colleges people attended, and the oval white ones coyly alluding to chi-chi, costly destinations like Hilton Head, NC or Nantucket (ACK, the airport code, of course!)

Canadians don’t do this and I doubt many Europeans either, but here getting into a fancy /costly college signals brains or money and too often it’s money as Americans have another weird thing called “legacies” which means if your family’s name is on the gym or library — you’re in!

And status is so much in the eye of the beholder — for you, it might be a prized musical instrument or a photograph or piece of art. It might be owning a piece of property, a huge win in Ireland where land was stolen by the English. We all value different things differently. While some might swoon over a new $3,000 YSL handbag (and I would happily accept one!) I’d be far more excited to have a Roman intaglio or Victorian earrings (i.e. rare.)

Two of my favorite subtler signs of status are the thin red thread you might see on a French person’s lapel (and some Americans) — the symbol of being chosen a member of France’s Legion of Honor.

In my native Canada, the elite sport a tiny, fingernail sized white enamel pin, with a maple leaf, The Order of Canada. I once attended an older friend’s wedding reception and it was a sea of those! It was created in 1967, our centennial year.

As the Nobel prizes are currently being awarded, seems to me that’s a nice one!

Some performers are EGOT’s — an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony award (TV, music, film, Broadway.)

Winners of major athletic competitions can cherish the hardware that comes with a win — like an Olympic medal.

I’m so proud of my husband, Jose, for the palm-sized crystal pyramid in our home — the team photo editing Pulitzer Prize he and others won for their work on 9/11 images.

Money is nice, of course, but it’s those emblems of significant achievement are the ones that impress me more than a Gucci or Vuitton label.

And the quietest/most expensive/luxurious clothes — The Row — are really only recognizable anyway to those who can even afford them, like this sold out (!) $1,910 cloth bag.

Upon reflection, the decision about what’s a status symbol for you is really between you and your values.

Dreams realized, dreams yet to be…

On By broadsideblogIn aging, behavior, books, business, domestic life, life, seniors, women, work7 Comments

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From the fantastic new sailing museum in Newport, RI. Have long dreamed of owning a sailboat. Big responsibility.

By Caitlin Kelly

With yet another birthday looming next week, it’s a good time to look back and forward.

In my 20s, I wrote in my journal I wanted to live in New York by the age of 30.

I had no idea how to make that happen!

And, yet, there I was…albeit 31 and in a lovely town 25 miles north of Manhattan.

I’m not, as you all know, much of a woo-woo crystals girl, but naming this desire must have tweaked the universe somehow. I was suggested as a great hire to the Montreal Gazette by a Globe and Mail colleague who knew I was getting restless and sick of Toronto after 25 years living there. I craved change and wanted to use my French skills and learn something of at least one other province.

So they hired me as a feature writer, which was not my dream job, but it is a dream job to have a weekly platform for long-form writing.

It was a big leap of faith and, in some ways, very stressful. I was now a five-hour drive east of all my closest friends who I thought, naively, might come to visit, and did not. I did have a spectacular sixth-floor/top floor apartment with two bedrooms and a working fireplace and built-in bookshelves, by far the nicest apartment I’d ever lived in.

I quickly met an American medical student, friend of a friend, and we fell in love. I followed him to New Hampshire and then to New York and….I was there by the age of 31.

Thanks to a family inheritance, I was able to realize the dream of buying my own home, and — many years later — I still live in the same apartment. Thanks to Jose, we were able to renovate the kitchen and only bathroom, both of which I designed, having studied at the New York School of Interior Design, which sharpened my eye and gave me skills and confidence for that work.

Luckily, after my brief two-year marriage and six years of being divorced (no kids) and often lonely, I met Jose and we have been together for 23 happy years. I had hoped for a happy second marriage but it’s nothing you can count on!

Other major dreams later materialized, writing and publishing two books of non-fiction with major NYC houses; I always get emotional with the very final scene of The Devil Wears Prada, as Anne Hathaway strides east to west on 6th Avenue right in front of the Simon & Schuster building where I sold my first book. I will never forget the exhilaration of exiting that building holding my galley (the unpublished version.)

I’ve sold more than 100 stories to The New York Times, been interviewed by one of the city’s top journalists on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show and by Diane Rehm on what was then NPR’s show with the largest audience.

I’ve taught here at Pratt, Pace and Marymount.

What’s left?

  1. We’re planning a photo/storytelling workshop in August 2024 in Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, with my husband Jose and photo legend Dave Brosha. It’s $2650 for the three days, about $2,000 U.S.
  2. An editor from Rolling Stone has asked me to pitch and I’m looking for great story ideas.

3. I still have so many countries I want to visit.

4. I’ve become a mentor with Report for America, helping individual young reporters as they navigate their early journalism careers

5. Will I ever own a house????? It really has been a lifelong dream, but I don’t know if it’s possible. We’ll see.

6. I’m going through my 1000s of images and hoping to sell some of them to interior designers, who always need interesting artwork for their clients. Had a very promising conversation recently with one potential buyer. I began my career as a photographer while in high school, selling three images as covers to a Toronto magazine and have since sold to the NYT, Washington Post and others. Fingers crossed!

It feels good to still have a few unrealized dreams, even later in life.

I think without them I would wither and be bored and depressed.

And you?