The Lone Wolf Dies, But the Pack Survives!
“The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.”
If you're someone who has transitioned from a corporate or typical 9-to-5 job to freelancing, you know how exhilarating it can be. It feels like embarking on an exciting adventure.
But after a few months, the initial excitement starts to fade, and you begin to feel overwhelmed and overworked. You find yourself longing for the support and reinforcement that can keep you going. This is a shared experience for solo entrepreneurs, like most of our clients at Team Dklutr Digital Marketing Agency.
Let's be honest, it can be exhausting. That's why we've reached the conclusion that collaboration is the key to finding fulfillment, an essential component of success. Success can be achieved in many ways, including building a brand, establishing sustainability, and ultimately leaving a lasting impact on your industry or community. Collaboration creates a ripple effect that goes beyond business and resonates throughout time.
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TDE Episode 4: The Lone Wolf Dies, But the Pack Survives!
What is the Dklutr Mantra?
Carl: One of the most memorable quotes from Game of Thrones is from the Stark Family. And it goes: The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.
This was ingrained in the minds of the Stark siblings at an early age.
And this is the same mantra that guides our agency, so I wanted to talk about this. This is something we’re both very passionate about.
Anne: Yeah, let’s unpack this.
Before Team Dklutr became a fully registered agency, we operated on the freelancing market. The 2010s onwards is when the gig economy started to take shape.
2017 is when I was first introduced to freelancing and the creator economy when I started as a virtual assistant. And the experience was both exciting as I saw it as such a lucrative industry, and at the same time overwhelming because, well, you’re all on your own! There’s no supervisor to guide you, no teammate to hold your hand when you’re feeling a little lost or unmotivated. It’s all on you. And working remotely doesn’t help either - you’ll feel pretty disconnected or confined from the rest of the world from time to time.
Carl: What was the most number of clients you’ve had to handle by yourself?
Anne: I think it was seven at a given time, all by my lonesome. And you were also handling your own clients as well. You were working with an Australian client handling their Shopify ecommerce site
Carl: Yeah, handling the front end of their store as well as their inventory.
Anne: And then as for I, I was working with these seven clients and it was my first time to work with a Russian client. She’s great and all, and sweet, but the tasks were difficult.
Freelancing can be challenging
Carl: And do you remember how many times you cried?
Anne: Oh yeah, it was definitely a lot for me. For both of us, With that Russian client, I learned to do SEO and blogs for the first time. I thought it was just as simple as publishing a blog and attaching a photo. But I didn’t know there was so much going on behind the scenes.
Carl: But all’s well that ends well since everything we both learned, we were able to pass on to our team - and more.
Anne: But yeah, going back to that time when I was just doing things on my own, instead of having a team to rely on, or in our case, an agency, that really burned us out. It was lucrative, but work-life balance definitely wasn’t there.
And that feeling of working on a silo - especially for someone like me who’s been used to working for somebody or working with a team, having someone manage you, motivate you, that was important when I had my corporate job. But that all went out the window when we started freelancing.
Collaboration vs. Isolation
Carl: Yes, I want to poke on that more. That feeling of isolation. So collaboration vs. isolation, and why the current economic landscape favors collaborative teams vs. highly skilled individuals.
If you’re jumping from a corporate or typical 9-to-5 job, freelancing is exciting. Especially if you’re in your mid or late 20s and don’t have kids yet, it feels like you’re going on an adventure.
But as you get to your 5th, 6th month or so, that feeling of being overwhelmed or overworked starts to kick in. And you start looking around, wishing you have the reinforcement you need to get going. This is a similar experience if you’re a solo entrepreneur…
Anne: Which most of our clients are. And yeah, even the two of us, we’ve felt this way many times in our lives since we’re serial entrepreneurs…
Carl: It can get tiring for sure. Which is why we (you and I) came to the conclusion that collaboration is the key to achieving fulfillment, which is a component of success.
Teams provide a strong support system, and you all enjoy and benefit from working with a dynamic energy that brings out the best in each other.
The way we’re working with our clients, they definitely benefit from working with a team or an agency because of that wealth of skill, talent and expertise. And again, that’s key to achieving success.
Anne: Success can come in many ways, one of which is how you want to build a brand, achieve sustainability and ultimately a legacy of creating an impact in your industry or community that creates a ripple effect throughout time.
