We were lucky to catch up with Alice Sullivan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alice, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

I love being a business owner, and I do not anticipate going back to a corporate position. Being an entrepreneur has its challenges, but I feel the benefits far outweigh the negatives.

I set my own schedule so I can take time off whenever I want. I can time-block my days and weeks in ways that best support my creative process. The income is far better as a freelance writer than I anticipated and far more than I made while working for a company. I can pick and choose which clients I work with and which genres I specialize in, and generally, I have a say in how quickly a project is completed.

The only thing I miss from my corporate days is the social aspect of working in a large office. In my publishing house days, a group of us, all in our twenties, became friends, spent time together, and shared a similar sense of humor. Even better, our cubicles were close so it was fun to make the rounds in the mornings, catching up on the weekend’s events, and again after lunch. I still have some of those friendships more than 20 years later.

Alice, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I got into my industry by paying for a masters-level internship so I could work for free for 20 hours a week. Sounds backward, I realize. But I had to be in college to apply for the internship, and I’d already graduated.

Living in Nashville, TN, I grew up around country music and the CMT (Country Music Television) offices were 10 minutes from my house. I thought if I could get into the entertainment industry that way, I’d have more options once my internship ended.

I wrote short articles and artist bios for the website and longer articles for (the now defunct) CMT Magazine. After the internship ended, I worked the late shift at the Tennesseean’s sports desk, wrote for several lifestyle magazines, and wrote for an interior design blog. Then in 2003, I was hired by a publishing house, which began my career in traditional book publishing.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

In 2010, I was three years into my life as a freelancer. Income-wise, some months were great, and others were not. The spring of that year was surprisingly slow, and I was worried about not having enough work to pay my bills. Then, in May, the Nashville Flood hit my house. And things got much worse.

I didn’t live in a flood zone, but because we had so much rain so quickly, the water table rose, and water began shooting through my cement basement floor, flooding the space under 2 feet of water. A friend helped me hook up a pump to keep the water from rising further. But in all the chaos, it never occurred to me to check the second floor (which I didn’t use often) since my basement was flooding.

It wasn’t until a few days after FEMA had reviewed my basement damage and left that I walked upstairs and saw the ceiling drywall hanging in sheets. My 1947 house had an old chimney, and the water trickled through the crumbling mortar and seeped into my upstairs ceiling. And it was too late to make an adjustment with FEMA. So, FEMA funds didn’t cover all the work that needed to be done.

I had to sell a vehicle and request financial assistance from my church to make ends meet. It was a scary few months. But I survived, and it made me realize the need for a robust emergency fund.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Although writing is my career, it’s not my entire life. Many of my writer friends and peers fill their social media accounts with book quotes, images of books they’re reading, and other book-related content. And it works well for them. However, I have chosen to show more facets of my life on social media.

I have a few creative hobbies, like stained glass, painting, ceramics, traveling, and gardening. And I have a cute office manager (my cat) who is incredibly photogenic. So, I like to share what I’m doing because it’s a better representation of what the life of a freelancer can look like than spending every waking moment with a book in my hand.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://alicesullivan.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alicewrites/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicewrites/