💌 Being a creator helped me land a better nursing job
On the benefits of being a creator, social media makes us lazy, and the desire to be a creative
Hi friends and new subscribers,
My first month as a local travel nurse is officially over.
If you're new here (hello and thank you for being here btw) and you don't know what a travel nurse is, they're nurses who go around different cities and hospitals to fill in the nursing shortages happening worldwide.
They're like freelancers but in hospitals :).
But this week, I want to share how being a creator can positively ripple into other areas of your life.
How Being a Creator Helped Me Land a Better Nursing Job
I got my latest nursing job while on my 5-week soul-searching trip in the Dominican Republic.
When I interviewed for the job, I had no intention of taking the job. She described the places I'd be working in, and I was only interested in one place.
I've worked in many different hospital units in my previous position so I knew what I liked and didn't like. This is why the exploration mode is so crucial.
I told her that I was only interested in working in the Mental Health program.
She said that she couldn't guarantee that since the whole point of hiring me was to fill in the shortages in all of these programs. Secondly, they offered me $40/hour as an hourly rate. $40/hour is more than my previous rate, and I would've needed to be a nurse for 5 years to get that rate (I'm in my 3rd year). (see below for the graph)
If I weren't a creator, I would've probably settled for the "sure, put me anywhere, and I'll take the $40/hour rate."
But thanks to my creator and freelancing background, I learned how to negotiate.
At least, I learned to make mindset shifts to be able to negotiate. Here are some of them:
They're asking me to move away from my hometown. Sure, they're covering gas and hotel, but how much is living farther from my family worth to me?
They're asking me to work in a hospital I've never worked in before. If I don't do a good job, my license could be at risk. How much am I willing to get paid for that?
They're not the ones who will be with the patient being (potentially) verbally and physically abused. How much is that worth? (This doesn't happen often, but it *can* happen).
With those thoughts in mind, I asked for $50/hour + 6% in lieu of benefits and sick pay, and I was firm that I'd only accept if I were in the mental health program. The pay may not seem much, but the maximum you can earn as a nurse, whether you've been working for 8 or 25 years, is $49.02.
And within the next day of the interview, they said yes to that rate and the placement in the mental health program.
It would've been impossible for me to do that if I didn't have the experience to raise my rates as a freelance writer.
As a freelancer, I had similar thoughts that helped me raise my rates from $250 to $1000/article in the span of 3 months:
They're not the ones doing the research, writing, and editing this piece. So what's the cost of me doing things they don't want for them in a high-quality manner?
I love writing about these topics. What's the cost of my passion and putting my whole heart into this piece so that the client can get more brand awareness that will potentially bring them more money?
I could be writing for myself and building my personal brand. But here I am using my creative energy for this client. How much does that cost?
So the next time you want to ask for more, think about the things they're asking of you to deliver the work they need from you.
Sometimes, they need you more than you need them.
In my case, I was privileged enough not to accept the terms if they disagreed.
🧚 3 Fairy Tips for Multipassionate Creators
On writing: Make your writing thick.
Have you ever scrolled on Twitter, and after 20 minutes, you feel like you've lost a lot of brain cells. That's how I've been feeling lately. And this guy named Lake Burgis, has a whole argument about how social media isn't making us stupid. Rather, it's making us lazy. We consume social media like they're empty calories. They feel good at the moment, but they have no nutritious value. We don't bother going deep into the topics we find fascinating.
We're all suffering from cultural anorexia. I try to avoid such type of creation, that's why I'm a fan of long-form content like blog posts and YouTube videos.
Luke Burgis describes Twitter as such,
Twitter is not, as some of have liked to called it, a ‘public square.’ It is a public pile of leaves blowing in the wind that we’re all just playing in.
This type of thin-culture consumption thrives because the things that we’re consuming are empty calories with no solidity, weight, and depth; and the empty categories make us want more.
On entrepreneurship: Solve your own problem and then turn it into a business.
I've heard dozens of successful founder stories, and many of them have a recurring theme. They solved their own problems first and turned it into a full-pledge business.
In an episode of Digital Writing Podcast, Nicolas Cole and Dickie Bush interview Sahil Lavignia, the founder of a popular creator-platform called Gumroad. He talked about how he had a side hustle during his employment at Pinterest, where he created icons or wallpapers that he wanted to sell to others. He found it amazingly difficult to get paid for it. So, what did he do? He built a software called Gumroad so that he could get paid for his creations.
Ten years later, this software generates millions, and hundreds of creators make a full-time living doing what they love.
On life: Take advantage of your ability to create.
I binged watched this Netflix show called Unorthodox Life. It's a story about a woman who was an ultra-orthodox jew. During her 40's, she decided to leave the community abruptly and has become the founder of one of the biggest modeling agencies in the world.
But what struck me the most in the TV show was the fact that girls in the orthodox community weren't allowed to do many things. They weren't allowed to sing, run, play sports, and create things.
In the eyes of their religion, boys might want to have dirty thoughts about them, which would cause them to be sinful. Even though that's a whole different conversation, let's not forget that if you're reading this, you're able to create freely, without a religion stopping you.
P.S. Let me know if you like this new format or if you like the very short format from before.
✨ Latest Work On The Internet
✍️ You Don’t Want to Become an Entrepreneur. You Want to be a Creative
🎥 Why I’m doing nursing again.
🤔 A question for you this week:
How can you use your previous skills to apply to new things in your life?
With online love 💌,
Jerine
P.S. if there are a lot of errors, I’m writing despite having a fever, chills, and body ache. I might’ve gotten COVID but I’m not sure. Either way, I apologize.