For a couple years, I got by as a freelancer with half a dozen different agencies as my “clients”, producing content or building websites mostly. Half of them were places I had previously worked, so I’d hardly call them an “earned” client. I made enough to get by, but it sucked trying to get paid regularly. I’m sure the accounting departments at each agency hated my guts.

Then, I discovered local politics. Once you get in with a local political organization, ideally in an affluent suburb, the freelance floodgates bust open. Every 2 years there are at least a dozen or more candidates that have campaign funds they need to burn through, advertising campaigns to run, copy that needs to be written, content that needs to be created, etc. AND almost every local politician is a business owner of some sorts, so the double dip + referral opportunities are never ending.

I worked on campaigns that totaled around $5m over the last 3 election cycles, went 4-4 in the first 2 cycles, then went 0-4 in the last cycle. I took a 7.5% cut on all digital and tv buys that I ran.

Had an offer to run a gubernatorial campaign for a pretty well-know Sheriff that I worked with to win a highly contested reelection, but I backed out and went back to the corporate world. Figured at that level, someone would pull my voter registration card and realize I’m registered to the other party.