Solo Success Stories Edition #7

Featuring: Teddy Dondanville

and

Mar 22, 2024

Hi there! 👋 My name’s David - I’m a writer and solopreneur from Northern Ireland. In this publication, you’ll find a growing archive of resources (created by myself and a collection of valued guests) for those hoping to become - or grow as - solopreneurs. While you’re here, you should also check out:

My other publications,
How to Write for a Living
and
David McIlroy Fiction
This course I created (included in my paid plan)

Thanks for stopping by! Now, back to the article.

Happy Friday, and welcome back to Solo Success Stories! Each week, I’ll feature a fellow solopreneur with an instructive story to share about how the pursuit of solo business success has shaped their life so far.

So without further ado, let’s hear from

Teddy Dondanville

I date the beginning of my solopreneur writing journey back to when COVID-19 began.

At the time, I was working in youth development programming for the Parks and Recreation Department. As an industry, one whereby the bulk of the job is to herd children into different rooms, have them partake in different activities, and keep their hands somewhat clean before feeding them snacks, youth development did not do well in a world struggling with a pandemic.

When that job evaporated, I began vegetable farming on an organic farm. Regardless of the pandemic, people needed to eat, and so my job security was pretty secure. That was until I got my hair stuck in a brush washing machine, creating a bald spot on the side of my head that was the size of a russet potato. After the incident, I retired from farming.

So, with no job, once again, I resorted to my keyboard. At the time, it felt strange and new and totally out of the blue. After all, resorting to writing was technically my plan C. But come to think of it, it was just a roundabout way of arriving at something I’ve always been good at. As a kid, I remember writing stories in my monster-truck-themed notebook. As a teenager, I loved reading and writing. So much so that when it came time to go to college, I chose to get a liberal arts degree (Sociology, to be precise) and, later, a Master’s Degree (Once again, in sociology). During that master’s program, I dabbled in poetry and fiction. Afterward, I started a blog to record my volunteer experience in the Peace Corps.

Eventually, I chose Upwork as my interface between myself and prospective clientele. I began formulating a profile and personality and desperately tried to market myself as a writer. Starting off, I said yes to any project for any price– I just needed to gain some traction. I wrote about topics like the best metal detectors and auto-recycling. Starting out, my most consistent client was a company that made freeze-dried and dehydrated emergency food for doomsday preppers.

With time, I began to carve out a tiny slice of digital real estate on Upwork. I was getting good reviews, and my job success score was rising. All the while, I was upskilling and trying to refine my specialty, so I didn’t need to write about metal detectors until the end of my days. And then it clicked.

All the while, alongside my solopreneur writing, I was diving deep into rock climbing. So deep that decided I wanted to become a rock climbing guide. At the time, I was also guiding hiking and backpacking. The impetus of becoming a guide is a totally separate story for another day, but what’s important about it is that it provided me with a unique knowledge base and skill set that I could harness as a writer.

The turning point in my writing career came when the writing side of my life began to intermingle with the guiding side. I strategically began to deploy my guiding expertise in my writing and leaned into writing projects with topics that related to guiding. I accepted projects about hiking, camping, rock climbing, backpacking, RVing, and van life. I was thriving because my writing became an extension of my passion for the outdoors, sports, and recreation. Simultaneously, my background as a guide provided me with the credibility that clients desired. (Not even an AI could beat that).

With time, I became a top-rated freelancer on Upwork. After many successful projects, I boosted my job success score to 100% (Where it still hovers as I write this). Currently, I am collaborating with multiple clients and curating written content like website copy and blog posts about rock climbing, outdoor recreation, snow sports equipment, camping, and outdoor kitchen appliances.

Since I started writing sometime back in 2020, with a potato-sized bald spot on my head, my writing has never been more successful and aligned with my genuine passions. I look forward to what’s to come and further developing my skills as a professional writer.

To learn more about me and my writing, please visit my website.

Future plans

My goals for the future are more or less two-pronged. They revolve around my professional writing and my creative writing. These two things absolutely dovetail with one another, but it's helpful for me to compartmentalize them because one feels like it for other people (the professional stuff) while the other feels like it's for me (the creative stuff).

I would like to continue upskilling my expertise as an outdoor industry copywriter. In particular, I’d like to continue working with well-established outdoor brands and up-and-coming brands, developing their foothold in the digital world. In the long term, I envision being a savvy, well-connected, and passionate marketing copywriter who can be called upon for any project because of my chameleon-like writing abilities.

As a creative, I want to continue developing my storytelling, poetry, and passion projects. For storytelling, I function as a contributing editor for the Dead Foot Collective, a writer's workshop and digital journaling space.

Back in the day, as an academic, writing poetry was a playful and metaphorical middle finger to the technical writing I was immersed in. Now that the academic stuff is behind me, I’d like to return to writing poetry. I’ve got a poem in the oven right now, and that feels good. Get ready to cringe, people, because I am far from a poet. I plan to use my substack, Rope & Stone, to publish poetry, along with other creative concoctions and rock climbing-related stories, like my recent rock climbing honeymoon to Ecuador.

Regarding passion projects, I’d like to tell more stories about my adventures. I think maybe there is a book in here somewhere. I’d also like to rely on my unique background as a climbing guide to write articles and stories that I deem important and that I want to tell. A recent article I published on Climbing.com was a step in that direction.

Advice for fellow solopreneurs

Even though all the pros have done “it” before you, there’s room for you to be a pro too.

What I mean is that although it feels like you’re going it alone, which you are (yay you!), someone else has done it before you. The people who have done “it” can serve as massive sources of not only practical knowledge but also more personal inspiration. The Solopreneur Stack is a wonderful example of what I mean.

Once you’ve figured that out, you can pretend you’re a pro. Without plagiarizing or copycatting, you can model yourself after the motivating people in your industry. Start to present yourself as they do, try out the strategies they employ, and use the tools they use. Before you know it, you’ll no longer be pretending.

P.S. After reading my advice back to myself, I realized it’s the epitome of what I’m preaching. There’s no way I came up with it by myself. That’s got to be a piece of advice I absorbed from someone else and regurgitated here. Nonetheless, it works!

Thanks Teddy!

Interesting thoughts from others:

Read this next:

The Solopreneur Stack

You Don’t Have to Be An Expert to Offer Expert Advice

a year ago · 53 likes · 9 comments · David McIlroy

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