A Freelancer's Tale

By Michael Brockbank

Everyone has a story about how they became successful at their chosen career path. In my case, it was more about being able to support my family than trying to gain fortune and fame. Although I was able to come out on top in the end, I had an incredible uphill battle with depression to make it happen. I did it all while facing down one of the worst bouts of depression of my entire life. This is my story about never giving up and pushing forward to reach your dreams. Everything in life is temporary, especially the darkest moments.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Brockbank
• Release date: Nov 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9798215126691

Michael Brockbank

Michael has been a freelance writer since January of 2012. Since then, he has completed thousands of articles for thousands of clients spanning the globe. Today, he is the Content Marketing Team Lead of a prominent web hosting company, owns several blogs, publishes videos on several YouTube channels, maintains a podcast, and is working on publishing more fiction in the future. 

Book preview

How it Started

Almost a decade ago , I decided to take a leap of faith. Actually, it was more of a leap to offset my income from working a low-paying job. You’d think that network administrators would have been paid quite well in 2011. But the truth is, even the IT department can get stiffed when it comes to salaries when working for the school district. Especially when you live out in the middle of nowhere. That’s what happens when you live in a very rural area in the armpit of Colorado. I know that I probably would have been paid at least twice what I was getting if I lived closer to Denver back then.

At the time, I was head of a household of four. My computer business, which was bringing in a six-figure income, went under quite quickly as my largest client went out of business. And although I still believe we could have kept the Iliff Computer Center open longer thanks to online sales, my best friend and my first ex decided to abandon me and move back to Utah. And at the same time, they took my boys away from me yet again. But, that’s a tale for another time.

Never hire friends or ex-lovers from decades past to work for your company.

Needless to say, I just couldn’t keep the company going on my own. Debt was starting to climb rapidly and I just couldn’t seem to get my head in the game. I was trying to keep more than my fair share of tops spinning, but I was spread too thin. In the shape I was in both financially and mentally, it was next to impossible to continue the way I was going. This was also the beginning of an incredible depression that I still battle with to this day on some levels.

You see, I put my heart and soul into that business. I turned a sixty-seven dollar lot purchase into a business that generated more than a hundred and twenty-two thousand during one of its best years. In the grand scheme of things, this wasn’t too bad of an income. After all, my store was located in Iliff, Colorado...population two-hundred and fifty. Essentially, I bought a box of random computer parts, made sure they still worked, cleaned them up, and resold each individual part on eBay. Then, I would roll that money into another lot and do the whole thing all over again. Each time, I would buy bigger and more profitable lots to fix up and sell. It was actually quite fun, and I wound up keeping quite a few awesome pieces of hardware that I wouldn’t normally be able to afford. Out of the thousands and thousands of products we sold over the years, our ratings on eBay were damn near perfect.

Of course, we had the few disgruntled people who wouldn’t be happy no matter what. But with a quick shipping rate, detailed listings, and offering quality merchandise, we were doing quite well there for a while. I shipped a variety of products all over the world. And although we specialized in computers and gaming equipment, we sold makeup and clothing lines as well. In reality, I don’t think there is anything we didn’t sell. I’d research the contents of each auction consisting of products, use a spreadsheet to see if it would generate a decent amount of money, then I’d try to buy it if the lot looked profitable. Of course, this was all based on stats of what sold well on eBay at the time. Surprisingly, we made quite a bit of money as a computer shop selling lipstick and lingerie.

But once our biggest client closed down, and the lack of eBay selling effort by my friends, we just couldn’t pull in enough to pay for everything. In one fell swoop, we lost around eighty-three percent of our income literally overnight. If I would have been paying closer attention to what my first ex was doing behind the scenes on eBay, I probably would have been able to adjust and keep the business afloat. Unfortunately, I decided to trust the wrong people in my store. By the time I realized what was happening, the damage was already done. And it was irreversible.

Even though the computer center made quite a bit of money, I did spend most of it making sure my staff was taken care of in terms of pay. I pushed myself for nearly four straight years over one hundred hours per week to make sure we all had enough money to survive and have a bit of fun. Looking back, I sacrificed a lot to keep everyone employed.

Thanks to more than a few dealings with a questionable landlord, I just couldn’t keep the business alive. That’s what happens when you hitch your wagon to someone with a God complex. I was being tapped from every direction and was sinking quite quickly.

And dealing with the landlord, well, that’s a long and sordid tale of its own. Let’s just say that being roped into indentured servitude is never a good thing. Having to work jobs and accept meager pay just to make sure your family doesn’t get kicked out into the snow. It’s a terrible way to live. Especially when this man went out of his way to make sure I didn’t get ahead or move on to anything more. It was like he purposely put me in positions to become reliant on his whims, whether through guilt or threat. For the longest time, I didn’t feel like I was ever going to get ahead, or at least out from under his thumb. I lived this way for several years; a high-stress environment where depression, anxiety, and anger thrived.

But, as I said, that is a tale for another time.

Losing the business is what drove me to start working for the school district. I wasn’t the head network administrator, though. I would have thought with my background, I would have been in a more prominent role. Or, at least making a livable wage. Instead, I was just one of the technicians. At that point in time, eight dollars per hour was the starting wage, and not a lot to support a family of four. Unfortunately, that was the only job in the area in which I qualified.

I applied for everything...even fast-food restaurants, as I’ve been known to work a grill or two in the past. I’d be more than happy to flip burgers to keep the money coming in. Apparently, I was overqualified for most jobs available in the small city. Driving close to three-hundred miles per day made it unrealistic to find work in the Denver metro area. By the time I covered gas expenses, the trip wouldn’t be worth the income. Not to mention that I would never get to see my babies since I would be on the road for the vast portion of the week. So, I had to find something closer to home that would at least bring in a bit of cash.

Sometimes, you gotta do what you need to survive.

Working for the school district barely brought in enough money to keep the lights on. Thanks to food stamps and public support, we were able to eat. My ex, Sam, and I worked different shifts most of the time, which is probably partly why she didn’t notice my emotional degradation at the time. More on that later, but suffice it to say, I wasn’t doing very well at all. Although I was doing what I could to provide for my family, the depression got worse. And I was seriously starting to pack on the pounds.

On January 1st, 2012, I decided to give the content mill, Textbroker, a try. It was touted as an easy way to make a few bucks online for those interested in being ghostwriters. Being a writer has always interested me, and it seemed like something I could probably sink my teeth into. I had my doubts, not that it was a fraudulent site, but about my skills as an actual writer. I can’t count the number of times that I started a novel only to delete it a few chapters in. But Textbroker was quite a bit different. This wasn’t creative work, and many of the orders centered more around copyrighting.

Textbroker is a content mill that connects you to clients. You’re essentially a ghostwriter whereas the content you create belongs to those who pay. You have no rights to the material once the client accepts the work. This means someone else takes credit for the piece you wrote. It’s a bit unfortunate, as I’ve created some of my best pieces of work under the guise of another author. To know that I couldn’t use any of the pieces of work as part of my resume or to demonstrate that I know what I’m doing is perhaps one of the biggest downsides to using content mills. And although that might sound distasteful for some, to someone like me, it was quick money.

I’m exceptionally good at writing about any topic. I’ve even had to write the exact same article for different clients multiple times. However, I am quite good at writing every piece in a unique fashion...even when the keywords and topics are virtually identical.

I guess I’m tooting my own horn, but I am really good at what I do. And the rating I currently have on Textbroker is a testament to my skill. After all, out of more than five-and-a-half thousand articles, I only had three rejections, two of which weren’t even my fault. This is greatly helpful for someone who suffers from impostor syndrome on a daily basis. Whenever I feel like I’m a loser or doubt my abilities, I can always look back at my past work in the content mill and get a brief moment of pride.

My best friend came across the company as it piqued his interest in writing. Yes, the one who abandoned me at my lowest point is actually the one who introduced me to Textbroker, in a roundabout way. We all were trying to find some way to keep the cash coming in before shutting down the computer business. He fancied himself as a writer and thought it was an incredible idea to make money from home. But once he submitted his sample article to Textbroker, they rated him as a three-star author. Having the ego