Original blog: New Beginnings, 5 July 2013 (Sarah)

On 28 June, a week ago today, I turned 28 – my “crown” birthday, so I’m told, turning 28 on the 28^th. Birthdays are strange days for me – days that usually cause me to look at my life and where I am, and see if it’s where I want to be.

When I was little, I thought my life would look quite different when I was 28. There would be a white picket fence, a labrador, and a successful career in the mix. Given that the fruitful career I had in mind involved being a ballerina and a part-time vet (obviously), I think we can safely say that my predictions were a bit off. What I definitely didn’t foresee (even a few months back), was that I would be leaving the safe haven of employment and entering the unchartered territory of self-employment.

The nice thing about starting from scratch is that you can decide exactly what you want to do and how you want to do it. The terrifying thing about starting from scratch… is that you are starting from scratch. It’s all up to you to make something out of nothing. And no one is there to say (in a voice I imagine to be Morgan Freeman’s, for some reason): “This is how it works, young person.”

 

 

So, on Monday, when I joined Liz at Pomegranite, it was with a mixture of excitement and some trepidation. It’s somewhat daunting not having a guaranteed salary each month – but on the flipside, the freedom to create a role you want to fill and work you want to do, is a thrill I am still getting used to. A freedom that I wouldn’t exchange for anything, now that it’s mine.

Taking a moment to contemplate exactly what you want to do and what you want your professional life to look like is, in many ways, similar to looking at your online presence and deciding what – and how – you want to communicate about your brand to the online world. You ask yourself a lot of the same questions.

Who are you, really? (Not a ballerina and a part-time vet, perhaps). What is it that you do? What do you want to do? How does that make you different from others? How can you stand out from the crowd? What story do you want to tell the world?

Creating an online presence may seem like a daunting task – as does starting a new business – but the hard part is getting to the bottom of these questions. Once you have these answers, you have a roadmap for yourself.

The fun part is making it a reality.