90 days as a freelance Circular Innovation Advisor. How is it going?

It’s already (and only) been 3 months since I started working as a freelance innovator and advisor for the circular economy.

Since I started freelancing in March, I’ve been reflecting on my progress on a monthly basis. In my 12+ years working for corporations, time to reflect was often scarce, and when present, it was pressured, resulting in learnings that were difficult to implement or superficial. 🫣 End of year feedback rounds, anyone?

I am now trying to make a habit of reflection, so here’s a collection of learnings from my first 90 days working independently.

Lesson#1: To do the job that I am really good at (innovating for circularity), I also need to do many other jobs that I am not good at (marketing, sales, admin).

Over the last 3 months, this has sometimes demotivated and frustrated me, while other times it’s driven me to learn new skills and experiment. I experienced similar frustration as an employee, especially when politics slowed or stopped initiatives, but I found this easier to overcome in a corporate environment since I had more information and power to influence the situation than now.

👀 I'm keeping a very attentive eye on this aspect, as I've experienced burnout twice for this very reason.

Lesson#2: I intentionally started out without defined services. This led to experimenting with consultancies in unexpected industries (I landed a circular product consultancy for a Japanese multinational electronics company!) but ultimately made me realise that without a specific offering, it’s more difficult to explain to others what I do. Moreover, my background, experience and skills are not linear nor common in the sustainability space.

I've always been fearful of missing out by defining services too much, but it's now clear to me that it's a matter of finding the sweet spot between someone's problem, my skills/knowledge, and what I want to offer. ✨ I'm finally excited about this: more coming in the next few weeks!

Lesson#3: Over the past 3 months, I delivered 2 keynotes, took part in 2 panels, moderated 3 panels at global conferences, and got interviewed 4 times, once even featured on Italian national TV. 📺 I’ve known this for years: storytelling is a huge passion of mine and a superpower that helps me connect with others and share my vision of circularity as systemic, abundant and balanced.

A big change now compared to the past is in how I can own my own voice. I have full narrative freedom of what to speak about, I can be open and challenge how fu**ed up the system we keep promoting is, and I can share systemic perspectives that in the past were limited due to not aligning with the company's directions or scope.

I want to do a lot more public speaking as I believe that too often the circularity space is unfortunately perceived (and communicated) as a space full of limitations and problems, but storytelling is a powerful way to envision the plenty opportunities instead.

Lesson#4: As a freelancer, the highs are high and the lows are very low. Over these first three months, I’ve been in discomfort or struggled with overwhelm for about 75% of the time.

Calendar management and decision fatigue are aspects that I struggle with a lot. My work and personal life are more mixed than ever, but in a very different way than before and I'm still learning how to manage this and log off properly. My job fully weighs on me and depends on my ability to work.

While my chronic migraine has improved dramatically, I’m still navigating through quite a lot of grief and loss from 2023 that hits me at the most random times.

Lesson#5: I was looking forward to the freedom that comes with freelancing. But while freedom is awesome, too much of it is paralysing. I am learning to design my weeks, my own work culture, and rituals to put some routine and order within the freedom.

I usually work really well with deadlines so when self-managing, procrastination is a pattern that I have to regularly battle against. Sometimes I won, others I lost.

Back in November I got diagnosed with combined ADHD: I had suspected it for many years and it didn't come as a surprise, but it has brought new tools and frameworks that I'm now implementing to work with instead of against my easily distracted and hyperactive brain.🧠

Lesson#6: I’ve opened my eyes to how my experience and my time really are precious resources, and I’ve often been giving them away without a mutual value-based exchange.

I quickly counter-balanced the lack of working in a team with networking and while this has led to new perspectives and interesting people, more often it has made me feel exhausted and energy-drained.

I'm naturally a generous and talkative person, but lately, it's taken a toll on me, especially when I experience ghosting behaviours, or when people who benefited from me are then unwilling to support back.

Overall, I don't think I've ever learned so much about myself, what I love doing, my superpowers, limitations, insecurities and triggers as much as these first three months. It's been both extremely hard and rewarding, and the list of learnings is longer these 6 points (but like, way beyond). Despite no longer having a team, on top of my friends and former colleagues, I found a global network of experts and professionals that challenge, support, cheer for me and are open to share learnings and perspectives.

Yes it has been a rollercoaster and it doesn't look like it's anyhow close to flattening out, but I'm up for the ride 🎢

#circulareconomy #designinnovation #impactcareer #freelancing