Midlife Makeover with Jennifer Denison

Thank you Jennifer Denison for sharing your guest post with us today! We hope you enjoy as much as we did!

For a few years I’d entertained the idea of making the transition from longtime editorial staff writer, editor and photographer to freelancer. In fact, about five years ago, when I was 44 years old, I confided in a friend and fellow equine media professional that I had a gut feeling that when I turned 50 things were going to change with my career and life, and I was fearful. In January of 2022, just shy of the 20th anniversary of my hiring date at Western Horseman and four months prior to my 49th birthday—I took a leap of faith and made two major life changes. I resigned from the senior editor position I held at Western Horseman and launched into freelancing with the Cultured Cowgirl Collective. I also moved from my native Woodland Park, Colorado, to northern Arizona and started an Air BnB business. It was a huge change, but one that’s been nothing but positive.

My cameras equipment and I can’t get enough of the swirling dust in the branding pen.

SAYING FAREWELL

I remember well the day I made this life-changing decision. Last October, I was driving from my second home in Arizona back to my primary home in Colorado, where my mom and retired horse, Romeo, also live. I cried nearly the entire 11-hour drive. Leaving Arizona and my main man, Lerry, had become hard over the four years I commuted back and forth every couple of months. It was also taking a toll on my mom and horse. Packing up my office, fitting in business trips and living what felt like a gypsy life was getting old. Years of deadline pressure was boiling like a pressure cooker inside of me, and the “do more with less” mentality was wearing me down.

My entire career, since 1996 when I started at Horse & Rider, had revolved around equine media and I still loved the industry. I had my dream job at Western Horseman, and for years it was my No. 1 priority. But I was burned out, lacked creativity and story ideas, and filled with overwhelming depression and anxiety that were adversely affecting my health, relationships and overall well-being.

The day after I arrived back home in Colorado, I drafted my resignation letter, offering to stay on staff through mid-January to get the March issue out. I admit I shed a few tears, but I knew I was doing the right thing not only for me, but also for Western Horseman. How could I be an asset to the editorial team and our readers when I was stuck in a five-year funk? Within a few weeks, I put my Colorado home of 22 years up for sale. It sold within a week and by New Years I had moved to northern Arizona and was finishing my last few weeks at Western Horseman.

I spent my first 10 years at the magazine working in the Colorado Springs, Colorado, headquarters. When it moved in 2010 to Fort Worth, Texas, I began working remotely. My last day was quiet, and I eased out of staff member mode to freelancer over a few weeks. I had originally intended to take a few months off to get organized and mentally fresh, but right away a couple of editors offered me story assignments. I wasn’t sure how this freelance gig was going to go, and I didn’t want to decline work this early in the game, especially with editors I wanted to build relationships with for future stories. I also enrolled in three online photo-editing courses, while cleaning and furnishing the Air BnB for a spring launch. I feared not getting work and being idle because for so long I operated on overdrive, so I jumped in full force.

DOUBLE THE JUGGLE

I listed the vacation home on Air BnB in late March, and to my surprise every weekend from April through June was booked quickly. Then there were reservations for July, August and even November. Part of my plan was to clean and manage the Air BnB to diversify myself, get a good workout, and supplement my freelance income. I truly love cleaning and preparing the home with personal touches more than I imagined I would, but it consumes a few days of my time each week.

Now in my fourth month of freelancing and third month of Air BnB hosting, I’m learning to juggle both businesses. I still have deadlines that I struggle with—both with writing/photography and guest arrivals—but I’m also giving myself grace while I figure out how to integrate two businesses, as well as life, into a steady routine. I try to respond to emails, transcribe, write and edit photos in the morning, while washing loads of bedding and bathroom linens at the vacation home. Then I try to spend the afternoons making beds, cleaning, running errands and sometimes helping Lerry in the office of his semi-truck repair shop. This spring I also co-hosted two photography-driven workshops to share everything I’ve learned through the years about ranch photography and ranch writing. I hope to grow this area of my business in the future.

I left my longstanding role of senior editor of *Western Horseman* to become a freelancer and Air BnB hostess.

REINVENTING MY RESUME

I miss staff collaboration and planning, the rhythm of putting out a monthly publication and introducing myself as Jennifer Denison, senior editor of Western Horseman. That title came with hard-earned credibility and was my identity. But there is a lot to be said for having the time and space to start learning again and reinventing myself as Jennifer Denison, freelance writer and photographer at Cultured Cowgirl Collective. I’m finding freedom, diversity and glimpses of that creative spark again writing and photographing for other publications, as well as developing other ways to generate secondary income streams that keep me fresh and give me new purpose.

A couple of weeks ago at the American Horse Publications Equine Media Conference in Lexington, Kentucky, it was refreshing to network with likeminded professionals in a new way. I had attended many times as a staff member. As a media professional member, however, I enjoyed deeper conversations, felt closer connections, shared successes and felt secure expressing areas where I needed advice. On my last day there, I had a meeting with an editor of a Western lifestyle publication, and lo and behold the dam that had clogged my creativity broke and a stream of story ideas suddenly flowed through me again.

I still have a lot to figure out about freelancing and juggling interviews, story and photo deadlines, invoices and bookkeeping, while also wielding brooms, mops and dusters. But having the courage to uproot my steady life and career to create space to do something new has been the best decision I’ve made. I’m grateful for the support of my former co-workers, industry friends and Kate, Abigail and the entire Freelance Remuda for inspiring me to take this leap of faith. I look back on my adventures traveling throughout the West for Western Horseman fondly, but I also know it’s time to share my experience more, try new things, take care of myself and create my best life.