Meet Josue Ledesma | Writer, Actor, Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Josue Ledesma and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Josue, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I had a full-time job for a long time but a lot of my work revolved around being creative. That was really helpful in taking on ad-hoc projects and writing for a few other colleagues while I was still working full time. After a few years of taking on these freelance assignments, I found myself with a decent portfolio and several clients under my belt. It also helped that my writing was pretty niche — it was about B2B cybersecurity, not a common topic for many writers.

Eventually, I was able to maintain a steady clip of clients and after 2020, I was really burnt out. I wanted to focus more on my creative interests (acting and painting) and having to work 40-60 hours a week and attend an endless amount of meetings was really affecting my quality of life.

I did some rough math and realized that if I could expand my work with two clients (a possibility) and take on another two clients, I’d be able to match what I was making with my fulltime job at a fraction of the time. I knew I was taking a risk as losing a client or two would impact my finances but the tradeoff in life satisfaction was near priceless. So I left my fulltime job and decided to go full freelance.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
To be honest, I think what sets me apart is as a writer.

My education was in creative writing, specifically prose but a lot of the elements that made up good writing also applied to the writing I did for companies. Effective writing, whether creative or not, requires having a consistent structure, a narrative, clarity, brevity, and rhythm.

I also think my love and passion for writing stops me from cutting corners or just settling for mediocrity. Unfortunately, the online writing today is fairly weak. The same terms and phrases are used constantly, SEO templates homogenize content, and it’s really easy to tell when AI is being used. The writing is just weak.

What makes me stand out is that I’m able to write effectively while still successfully reaching the goals of the writing, whether they be SEO goals, response-driven content, or thought leadership content.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
New York City has an endless amount of places so it really depends on the day, season, and the interest.

I’d start with a few not-so-bad tourist places. For example, I’d avoid Central Park but I’d opt for the high line. It’s a wonderfully walkable park that can get you from point A to point B. Hudson Yards, a relatively new development in the city also has some gems like Little Spain that you can start off before making the trek to the High Line.

I’d also check out some live shows — Broadway’s great but I prefer more interesting shows like Sleep No More or a local rock show at Piano’s.

Lower East Side is probably my favorite neighborhood to show someone. It’s very walkable and has an option for everyone, whether you want food, want to check out the game at a local sports bar, are looking to have a quieter night, or if you want to catch some live music or comedy.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d definitely want to shout out Zach Pardes who I met at Trustpilot nearly 10 years ago now. We clicked as coworkers and did some good work together.

After I left Trustpilot, he reached out to me to see if I could work with one of his clients and over the years we worked together in this freelance capacity. Things worked so well that he introduced me to a few other companies, one of whom is my longest client. His trust and willingness to make introductions to me was invaluable and I wouldn’t have had the confidence or comfort to be a full-time freelancer without him.

Website: josueledesma.com

Instagram: josue.a.ledesma

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josueledesma1/

Twitter: JL_illustration