No dream ever comes true until you believe it can happen. Sometimes, someone else has to believe in you, too. I’m fortunate to have parents who told me I could be anything I wanted to be—and they actually meant it! I’m fortunate to have friends who genuinely liked my stories. My friends and family made me believe I could be a writer.
But could I ever make a living as a writer?
When I was in college, my friend Josh told me I should start that editing business I had been talking about. Not only that—he offered to be my first paying client. He asked me to edit his book.
I did the logical thing and said yes. He mailed me the manuscript in a yellow envelope, and I sat in the yearbook office and edited it the old fashioned way: in the margins, with a pen. Then I mailed it back. Josh suggested I make a Facebook page for my business.
And thus, a business called “The LandonEdit” was born. All of my college friends liked my newly created Facebook page, because that’s what friends do. I may never have gained the confidence to create the page and click “The LandonEdit” into existence if it hadn’t been for Josh’s insistence that I edit his book. I got a few more clients, but I didn’t allow myself to hope I could make a career of it.
Soon after I finished college at Asbury University, my friend Matt told me he wanted to build me a website. He taught himself to code (the dude is brilliant) and needed something to add to his resume. We had to pick out a domain name, and he wrinkled his nose at the business name “The LandonEdit.” Facebook, as it turns out, used to be called “The Facebook,” which still amuses me to this day.
I gave in and went with Landonedit.com, henceforth calling my business LandonEdit. Throughout graduate school, I got more clients, including Amerman Creative, CEO’d by Christine McAlister. A few months after I finished my master’s degree at the University of Kentucky, I got a great full-time contract job as the corporate communication writer/editor at UK HealthCare.
I was thrilled to finally work full-time as a writer, something I’d always wanted to do, something so many people had told me that I could never do. But still, something was missing. When I was a toddler, I watched my dad start his own business. For the past 22 years, he has run his advertising company. He’s the company salesman, writer, accountant, bulk mailing specialist, editor, and strategic planner. In other words, he’s a one man show. I’ve always wanted to run my own company, too.
Because I’d previously worked for Christine McAlister, I joined the Facebook group she made for her new consulting business, Life With Passion, which is dedicated to helping women quit their 9-5s and work for themselves. Throughout my time in my first full-time job, I kept seeing stories of women doing just that: quitting their 9-5 office jobs and starting their own companies. Part of me wished I could do that, too, but I ignored it.
About seven months into my full-time gig, I had to turn down freelance work because I was just too busy with my office job. That’s when it hit me. I wasn’t using my website or doing anything with LandonEdit at all. I wasn’t even working toward running my own business. I was trying to win a bicycle race riding a horse. And the horse was on a merry-go-round.
When my contract at UK ended, I pulled a Jack Black and became a long-term substitute teacher to find myself. I didn’t start a band, but I wrote some blackout poetry, re-read Romeo and Juliet, and gave a kid detention. After school ended, I worked with the Olympic Channel Services in Madrid, Spain. I have worked for many fantastic companies, especially OCS, so I want to emphasize that in many cases, I have greatly enjoyed working for someone else. And, might I add, even if you own your own company, you will still be working for your clients.
In Spain, I was almost robbed twice in the span of fifteen minutes. I swam in the Mediterranean Sea. I told a bunch of strangers the story of Jesus at a bar in the middle of the night. I got lost in the city at 2 a.m. with a girl from NYC.
After all that, I decided it wasn’t too risky to start running my business full-time. I discovered this amazing principle: if you don’t apply for jobs you don’t want, you won’t get any jobs you don’t want. Fantastic logic, right? So, when I returned to Kentucky in the fall, I only applied for work that involved writing/editing and that I could do remotely.
Since October, I’ve been doing what I’ve truly wanted to do since the beginning of LandonEdit: run my own business full-time, just like my dad. I’ve faced many roadblocks, and I’ve learned a lot. The number one lesson I learned is that I didn’t really do any of this myself.
My parents taught me how to write. My teachers taught me how to write better. My professors taught me how to network. My grad school professors taught me how to be a professional. My former bosses taught me how to negotiate and form business relationships. My friend Josh believed in me. My friend Matt built me a website—something that I could never have afforded and something I still could not build myself.
If you believed in me, hired me, taught me, encouraged me, liked my Facebook page, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have by no means arrived, and LandonEdit has a long way to go. But I would never be where I am without all of you. LandonEdit is now an LLC, all praise and honor be to God.
