Erika G Musser: On Freelancing, ADHD, and Becoming the Niche

You can look successful and still be disappearing inside your own life. That’s where Erika G. Musser found herself. She was working in nonprofits, climbing the ladder, and honestly, doing everything right.

She was the kind of person who could carry a lot. The kind of person who made it look effortless. But under the surface, it was taking everything she had. The meetings, the pressure, the performance.

Until one day, under all the stress and reaching burnout, her husband looked at her and said, “I feel like I don’t have my wife anymore.”

Her husband meant well of course, but that sentence cracked something open in her.

Erika didn’t pivot immediately. She didn’t storm out or make a viral post about quitting. But she started asking harder questions. And slowly, she began to live her life on her terms.

Pursuing your own thing

In our conversation, Erika shared what that moment was really like. She and her husband were selling their house. They made the decision to move in with family. Not forever, but long enough to build a new foundation. They gave themselves six months of breathing room.

She started freelancing. Ghostwriting. Running content strategy. The client work grew, not overnight, but through thoughtful effort. And more importantly, it made space for her to come back to herself.

Today, she’s the writer behind The Secret Life of Freelancers, a beautifully honest newsletter about freelancing with tips and stories she wish she had heard as a newbie.

The ADHD diagnosis that changed everything

Like so many women, Erika wasn’t diagnosed with ADHD until adulthood. The diagnosis helped her better understand aspects of her identity.

Suddenly, her working style made sense. The sprint-focus. The sensory sensitivity. The deep dives. She realized her brain wasn’t a problem to fix, it was a pattern to understand.

Instead of trying to squeeze herself into someone else’s productivity system, she built her own. She started protecting her deep focus hours, giving herself permission to rest, and creating around her energy instead of against it. At one point she even referred to her ADHD, when combined with her creativity, as a superpower. (Her own words, it's important to note that not everyone with ADHD appreciates this phrasing)

You don’t need a niche. You just need to be you.

At one point in the episode, Erika said, “I am the niche.” And that was it. That was the truth so many of us are circling around.

In freelance spaces, in marketing, and in business, we’re often told to pick a lane and stay there. To brand ourselves into clarity. To shrink ourselves into something tidy and understandable. That advice is so common because it works for a lot of people. But it doesn't work for everyone.

Erika is a ghostwriter, a strategist, a mom, a former singer, and as I called her, a multipotentialite. (I first heard this term from Emilie Wapnick in her Ted Talk, check it out) Erika also loves nature, going for walks, and reading memoirs. She writes, leads, and creates without apology.

She doesn’t need a niche to be legitimate. She’s already whole. Her direction comes from the inside, not from a positioning statement.

When your story goes viral

Erika wrote a vulnerable personal essay for Business Insider about taking her baby on a plane. It got picked up by Yahoo. It went viral. And then the internet came for her.

The comment section was brutal. Strangers projected their assumptions, twisted her words, and turned a thoughtful piece into a punching bag.

We talked about what that experience was like. When a personal truth gets consumed, reinterpreted, and attacked by people who don’t know you at all. Virality might bring visibility, but it doesn’t guarantee understanding. And it doesn’t always feel good.

Our advice? Don’t read the comments. Know your worth before the internet tries to rewrite it.

The myth of balance 

Balance is a word we hear constantly. At work, at home, in every conversation about productivity or parenting. But Erika challenged that idea in a way that stopped me.

“I don’t feel like there’s a balance,” she said. “But there is a dance.”

Instead of seeking some impossible equilibrium, what if we started moving in tune with what’s needed? What if we let ourselves adjust and sway and shift with each season, each week, each moment?

For Erika, that looks like working while her daughter naps. Creating when her ADHD brain is lit up. Resting when it’s not. It’s imperfect, but it’s honest. And it works.

You don’t have to monetize everything

A quieter theme that ran through our conversation was about creative energy. As freelancers, content creators, and marketers, we’re constantly being told to turn every passion into a product. Every skill into an offer. Every idea into income.

Here’s the thing: as a creative in the workplace, you have to decide how much of your creativity is for sale.

But Erika is learning to resist that. Not everything has to be monetized. Some things can just exist. Some ideas can be private. Some forms of creativity are meant for joy, not for scaling.

Holding onto that sacred space might be the most radical act of all.

This episode is for the people who’ve been told they’re too much, or not enough. For the gifted kids who didn’t grow up to be productivity machines. For the ones who don’t want to pick a lane. For the ones who are trying to do meaningful work without losing themselves in the process.

It’s for the nicheless. The brave. The burned out. The ones rebuilding.

Erica’s awesome. You can find some of her stuff here:

💌 Subscribe to The Secret Life of Freelancers Newsletter 

📄 Read Erika’s Business Insider article 

🔗 Connect with Erika on LinkedIn