How to build resilience in a changing news ecosystem

This piece is published as part of the Top 50 Creator-Model Journalists of 2025 project.

After more than 15 years working in newsrooms, I feel confident saying this: journalists are resilient.

Chasing down a source who’s ignored three of your calls. Covering an endless stream of mass shootings. Watching your company downsize — or getting laid off yourself. These build resilience. (Some of them also build burnout and trauma, but that’s a different piece.)

Resilience is the ability to bounce back in the face of adversity. It means that you can fail, or feel scared, or get laid off – and keep going anyway.

Despite the predictions floating around on LinkedIn, no one truly knows what the next few years will look like for the news industry, for creator-model journalists or for the platforms that we contend with daily. I do know, after leading more strategic pivots than I can count, many thanks to Silicon Valley, that it will involve change. I do know that it will be hard. 

I also know that resilience is one of the few skills that will help us through it. It’s also something that every person on Project C’s Top 50 Creator-Model Journalists list has in spades. Journalists and founders are two of the most resilient folks I’ve ever met. The people on this list are both.

I’ve been studying resilience in some form or fashion since I was 16, but my crash course began a year ago this month, when I started working for myself. While my own experience has taught me in over and over, I learned even more from talking to dozens of creator-model journalists in Project C’s community, and through teaching Going Solo.

Below are 18 tools and tactics that have helped me build resilience, and speak directly to some of the speedbumps that creator-model journalists hit most often. They’re divided into what I’ve come to see as the core pillars of resilience: self awareness, support systems, mental strength, and capacity management. 

This list is by no means comprehensive — just what’s been most impactful for me, and what I hope is helpful for you.

Three big things

These have had the biggest impact on my own ability to bounce back from a setback. 

1. Learn how to retrain your brain.

I’ll never make enough money. No one will take me seriously. There isn’t enough time. That coach costs too much.

Solopreneurship has a way of dredging up your deepest fears and insecurities. While normal, these thoughts will bury you. Learning how to shift your mindset, especially toward abundance, positivity and confidence, make it easier to take the kinds of risks that lead to growth.

Visualization and mantras might sound woo-woo, but they work. I like mental fitness expert Maya Raichoora’s practical, science-backed frameworks. Gratitude is another one: daily practice has been shown to improve mood and mindset. The Gratitude Journal is an easy, five-minute, facilitated way in.

Journalists, in particular, need to watch for a scarcity mindset around money. One of the most common mistakes we see is underpricing rates or sponsorship packages. Which is understandable! For the past 30 years, news business upheaval has led to low salaries and under-resourced newsrooms. That warps your perception of value. Whatever you think you should charge — double it.

2. Listen to your gut.

The number of decisions that I have to make can feel endless, and I find that my body often knows the answer before my brain. Emotions manifest physically — in your stomach, chest, shoulders, jaw — and serve as green flags or red flags. If you’re new to this, The Way of Integrity by Martha Beck is packed with helpful tools.

3. Lean on your professional network

Even coaches need coaches. Look for individuals or groups, like the Project C community, who can hold you accountable, offer feedback and lift you up. Pay for them if you need to. If it’s the right match, you’ll recoup your expenses in both revenue and peace. That’s one reason that I’m so happy that the Project C community exists; many members have turned it into their office water cooler.

What to do each day

1. Structure your days around your energy: Your calendar is your most powerful tool. Use it to protect your time. Figure out when you’re most creative. Block it off. When do interviews or outreach feel easiest? Schedule those there. For me, that means reserving 7–11 a.m. for deep work. Afternoons are for meetings and lighter tasks.

2. Limit your to-do list: Pick no more than five tasks a day — two of which can be deep thinking. This preserves your energy and forces you to prioritize. Workflowy and Sunsama are great tools to help you do this. I’ve used Workflowy for more than a decade. Each morning, I look at my “This Week” list and move five things to “Today.” 

3. Mid-day exercise breaks. I won’t belabor the benefits of exercise. But I will say this: if you don’t take care of your body, your business will suffer. Take a walk around the block every two hours. I also love Yoga With Adriene’s “Yoga for Busy People” playlist.

4. Break big tasks into little ones. Finishing something big is just a series of small steps. If something feels insurmountable, ask: What’s the next step? For example, I have “Prep for travel guide post” on my to-do list, broken into even smaller tasks. Drafting comes later. 

5. Feel your feelings: You can’t outwork your emotions. Avoiding them just means they’ll just fester, and become big problems later. If you don’t know how to name your feelings, which is true for lots of people, here is a feelings wheel.

What to do each week + month

1. Make time for what fills your cup. I need to exercise, read and journal every day, and at least 20 minutes in a forest or by the beach every couple of days. These aren’t indulgent habits; they build capacity for emotional regulation. Yours probably look different! The key is to know what they are, and prioritize them.

2. Grounding exercises: When you crash out, as the kids say, turn to breathing and grounding exercises. For particularly hairy moments, try the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique to combat anxiety or simple breathing exercises, like box breathing, to help reduce cortisol. The Mindfulness in Minutes podcast also has a pretty good five-minute breathing exercise.

3. Designate no meeting and admin days: I protect two days a week for creative work and deep thinking, and decline all meetings. Every now and then, I also set aside a day for admin and knock out as many of those annoying business tasks as I can. 

4. Treat your partner like your teammate. We love Brene Brown’s tip: you split duties according to each others’ energy levels. Our Sunday “weekly logistics” checkins also ensure we’re aware of schedules, capacity and needs for the week.

5. Use the 15% rule. This helps ease the discomfort of growth, while still pushing yourself. Imagine your comfort zone as a circle. Now picture a circle 15% that is larger. That’s your growth zone. Go bigger, you panic. Stay in your 15% zone to learn and grow. (I learned this from executive coach Corey Ford, who learned it from Stanford professor Carole Robin; thanks for teaching me!) 

6. Celebrate failure: Normalizing and practicing something scary makes it less scary. I love how Bridget Thoreson, founder of Explore Your Career River, has been celebrating her rejection board. 

7. Embrace iterating: Try things. See what works. Adjust. Solopreneurship rewards people who can move quickly and learn as they go — and constantly getting feedback that your ideas need work will help build resilience.

What to do each quarter

1. Decide what enough looks like. Knowing what you need to earn to live comfortably is foundational to capacity management. I’m talking a specific dollar amount. It will help you set and stay firm on rates, and help you say no to that project you really didn’t want anyway. I teach this in Going Solo, but here’s the short version: download a budgeting app, like Monarch, and average out six months of spending. Add what you’d like to save. Add 30% for taxes. That’s what you need to make each month. 

2. Maintain a financial cushion. Creativity and risk require a stable base. Before leaving my W2 job, I saved one year's worth of expenses. Many people only need six months, but I struggle with financial anxiety and wanted to ensure that I built my own stability. If saving now feels out of reach, consider staying in your job until you gain momentum. Many successful entrepreneurs do this.

3. Set S-M-A-R-T goals. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timebound. When I started one year ago, my only SMART goal was to get one client by the end of August. It can really be that simple. The point is to help you stay grounded and focused; here’s a handy template.

Whether you’re a working creator-model journalist or contemplating this path, I hope that you’ve found a useful nugget in this list. It’s by no means comprehensive, and you don’t have to do all of them; the key is to find what works for you and to practice regularly. 

Building something new is the hardest thing in the world. But it’s easier, and more sustainable, when we build it together.

Blair Hickman is a consultant, contributing strategist to Project C and cofounder of Going Solo. Before that, she was Executive Director of Strategy at Vox. Subscribe to her newsletter for more tips on resilience and solopreneurship.