Today was my last day as a full-time employee of Business News Daily/Business.com. While I will continue working with the team part-time for the immediate future, my primary focus will be the independent writing and content marketing work I’ve been doing as a side project for many years. 

Business News Daily was my very first freelance writing gig, which I started as a college student back in 2010. It was my source of income during my unpaid internships. It was also the first time I realized I didn’t have to work in a newsroom to be considered a media professional.

In the five years since BND hired me as a full-time staff writer, I’ve tried on many different hats here. I’ve been a reporter, a content strategist, a social media marketer, a copy editor, a regular editor, and occasionally even a coder. I’ve also developed tons of amazing professional relationships, not only with my team of coworkers and freelance writers, but with marketers and PR reps who gave me a deeper understanding of opportunities in the media and communications field. All the while, I continued taking freelance writing and editing gigs to expand my skills, grow my network, and bring in a few extra bucks.

Over time, those “few extra bucks” grew into several long-term client contracts. As my side hustle expanded, I quickly fell in love with the idea of setting my own course and turning my freelance work into a full-fledged content marketing agency. I wanted to tackle different projects every day and use all of the skills I’ve developed in my career to help people create awesome content for their blogs, company websites, social media accounts, email newsletters, and more. 

So here I am, standing at the beginning of a dream job that’s been eight years in the making. It’s been a lot of early mornings, late nights, and work-filled weekends. It’s been stress, tears, and near-mental breakdowns. It’s been thoroughly and utterly exhausting, and frankly, I’ve wanted to throw in the towel more times than I can count. But I have arrived, and I wouldn’t trade this journey for anything in the world. 

I can’t say exactly where I’ll go from here, but I’m excited as hell to be behind the wheel.