Blue Collar Job– Here I Come!

Yesterday I read a post online by a man whose part-time work as a copywriter was erased by A.I. (Artificial Intelligence). I hear ya! My lifetime career writing advertising and other corporate materials went up in smoke years ago when fees paid to writers crashed, thanks to the internet. Every Tom, Susan, and Harriet online suddenly became a content writer/copywriter willing to write for $40 what I would have charged $1500+ for. I was unemployable in any ad agency–too old–even though I was not yet eligible for Social Security. My small business clients had retired or were planning to retire soon. So adios, career as a freelance copywriter.

Move fast and do new things

A little hesitation, some discovery time, then I was on to other things. The man whose freelance copywriting job was replaced by A.I. also made an abrupt turn. His next step was to start a business trimming trees–on advice from ChatGPT, an A.I.! Self-employed, he now had a Blue Collar job and made more trimming trees than he had writing copy.

The parallel to my decision is striking–although I didn’t ask an A.I. for advice. Since I was pretty much out of clients and ad agencies wouldn’t touch me I decided to create my own small business making luxurious hand and face soaps which I sold in open air markets and gift shops in Los Angeles. Pasadena Soaps, I called the brand.

Heavy lifting–physically

It turned out to be a nice supplemental source of income for several years, but it was definitely Blue Collar work. I had to deal with shipping companies, pallet orders, ordering the right ingredients, arguing with fragrance makers, cooking pots of hot soap, hauling around 30+ pound containers of soap bars, putting up and taking down my own tent and table in the market, mailing online orders, and, well, the list goes on.

My bubble of being a former Saatchi Creative Director and writer of award-winning ads, popped. It counted for almost zero. No longer did I spend my days by myself in my home office in front of a computer or on the phone discussing competitive approaches to increase sales with Marketing directors. I now had to be very charming and very obsequious to Open Air and Farmers Market Managers who made Yes/No decisions about whether or not I could be in their market. (I may write a post about these Market Managers one day. They can be dictators!)

Blue Collar Benefits

It did not take long, however, until I realized a big benefit of this new Blue Collar “retirement job,” as I began to call it: Instead of the isolation of freelancing from my home office, I was regularly around a wide range of people and loved chatting with them in the local markets and art fairs. And none of them expected more than a beautiful, fragrant bar of soap from me, the Soap Lady, as I was known. And I delivered. (Well, delivered until Covid shut Pasadena Soaps down.)

There are several morals to this story: 1) If you plan to work after leaving your primary career (willingly or not!) you are not looking for a resume job, your primary career is behind you. You want income, not an impressive title. 2) You may find yourself having to add new skills, unless you decide to become a “consultant” in your own field. And 3) Blue Collar work has benefits that you may not see at first.

Visit my author’s website to see books I’ve written
including a charming children’s book