#120 How Do You Buy A Home While Self-Employed? Catherine Cusick on her path, acting, economics of Broadway, longreads, independent book sales, buying a home, digital media & how to navigate hostile US self-employment regulations,
- 0:00 – Audio intro
- 02:10 – What where the scripts Catherine grew up with?
- 8:46 – The differences in the experience of work between generations
- 10:55 – Going to college
- 16:02 – How Vassar teaches acting
- 16:41 – Auditioning in New York City after graduating
- 17:16 – Becoming disillusioned with a carrier path as an actress
- 20:24 – Producing her first play
- 23:34 – The American Booksellers Association
- 30:24 – Creating jobs for herself
- 33:15 – Working at Longreads
- 38:00 – Leaving Longreads
- 44:17 – Designing life with her husband
- 46:14 – Finding somebody that understands “the weird way”
- 48:18 – How the system is incompatible with the new ways of life
- 48:52 – Leaving the US as a way to gain perspective
- 49:42 – “I’m breaking some law right now, I just don’t know which one”
- 50:37 – Does work equal suffering? The IRS’ definition of a hobby
- 51:44 – Why Catherine doesn’t think in long time horizons
- 52:59 – Getting a mortgage as a self-employed person
- 59:12 – Small Bets
- 1:01:55 – LLC vs. S Corp
- 1:08:24 – Collective
- 1:12:24 – Healthcare in different states
- 1:16:55 – How to get a mortgage
- 1:17:20 – Tennessee Williams - The Catastrophe of Success
- 1:22:01 – What does Catherine aim at?
- 1:23:24 – Cathrine’s path role models?
The legible story is that Catherine is a writer, producer, and digital media consultant. She helps creative people connect with new audiences, usually writers, usually online. But she hasn’t had a W-2 job since 2017. Before that she worked as an actor, worked at a company called Longreads, and then has done a bunch of solopreneur experiments over the past five years.
Her recent interest is writing and speaking about how to navigate systems that make self-employment harder in the United States, like housing, healthcare, taxes, and insurance.
Links:
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The Catastrophe of Success (Tennessee Williams)
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