.
Be present in the moment.
Camille Prairie was really only part of the 9 to 5 long enough for her to know she didn’t want to be in it any longer! Her journey into entrepreneurship began when she finished a graduate program. It was designed to bridge the gap between an undergraduate program and medical school. Then she decided she didn’t want to go to medical school. “I did well in my program, and I only had to take the MCAT one more time, but the hours of tedious work just bored me. So I moved home (from Philadelphia, where I was in school) to North Carolina, where I currently reside. I was lucky enough to have the privilege to stay with family and then my now-husband while I tried to figure out what I wanted to do. I tried community gardening at a few different places (thinking being outside would be a nice change of pace) and I also worked as a research assistant for LabCorp for a bit. No matter what I did, I simply got bored of doing the same thing every day.”
Freelancing
Throughout this period of job-hopping post-school, Camille was gig working. She started freelance writing in undergrad, in 2019, when she lived in Argentina and needed some extra money. She kept doing it in school, and would work on freelance writing jobs when she was at work as an emergency medical technician. It was a good fit because they could have hours of time when they were doing nothing. So she kept freelance writing throughout these jobs that bored her. She resigned from her last position in September of 2022. A little over a year after she decided to move home, she decided to try freelance writing full time.
LinkedIn has been very helpful for networking and finding clients. Upwork is not overly helpful now. Still it’s always a reliable place for Camille to go back to if her pipeline is really dry. It was very helpful in the beginning. I feel so much happier.
Making It Official
Camille is has been doing freelance writing for almost 2 years now. She incorporated her LLC in January and currently has two contractors that work with her. One helps with writing and one who helps with social media. “The best part is, I’m rarely bored! And I love what I do. As a copywriter & SEO strategist (something I got into more when I went full-time) I work with businesses that are mainly in the healthcare & medical industry. So I get to merge what I love to do with what I studied.”
Now she is able to work as little or as much as she wants. She is taking a lot more vacation( about six weeks a year). Camille enjoys not having anyone monitoring what she does. “It has a profound impact on my well-being to have agency over my working life, which takes up most of the time in our lives, anyways.”
What About AI?
While many people worry about being replaced by AI, Camille is actually editing AI generated content from her clients. It’s just as time consuming as writing, if not more. “I’ve found AI to be very helpful in speeding up the research process. I think with the right clients, AI could be a useful tool in helping writers become more versatile. But the shifts I’m seeing right now are these:
1) writers being manipulated into working for less because a “machine could do it better”
2) the role of writer shifting to incorporate AI-editing and AI research. Particularly in my industry, AI is not useful yet in the way it might be for some other industries. There’s a lot of nuance and specialized knowledge in healthcare that AI simply can’t convey yet. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if my work continues to shift more into an AI-assisted role.”
Of course, people are worried about SEO now that Google has released it’s AI search feature. But it still hasn’t tangibly affected the work Camille does. People want to rank well on Google, still. As long as people are putting content on the Internet, Camille thinks an SEO strategy driven by humans will be in demand.
Lessons Learned
Camile believes you shouldn’t be afraid to make mistakes. She has started creative ventures she didn’t follow through on; She flipped a website and couldn’t keep up with it on top of her regular work; She underpriced herself and undervalued her work more than once. “Most of my mistakes are doing too much. I like to feel in control, and the biggest thing I’ve learned is that control is just an illusion. You need to put yourself out there, especially with client acquisition. It’s usually not you if an email goes unanswered or a pitch isn’t opened. It’s a busy world. Just keep pitching people and keep growing your network. Trust that the seeds you plant today will bear fruit in the future. “
Learn more at: https://camilleprairie.co
l
