Being Freelance

The first part of Mocja’s freelance career was spent building her reputation. Starting with local companies in her native Slovenia, eventually spreading out to the US. Through content marketing, podcast appearances, nurturing Twitter relationships and speaking/attending conferences, she built a reputation as the go-to-person for Facebook ads. Then she hit ‘delete’ on all her other services to real...

First and foremost Gareth is a foster carer to three children. Whilst he’s busy mentoring them, a business coach is helping him find his way. Creating a freelance business that can flex to fit around the demands of the home first. Gareth has a lot of experience in building companies - he speaks about the importance of separating the pressures of work from your personal life. Yet here is a story wh...

What happens when we keep an open mind to the path we might take? When we listen to the needs of others? When we experiment - see what works? When we hire others? When we put our own lifestyle first? When we just try and be ridiculously useful? For Val Geisler the answers to these questions took her on a path from store managing to being an expert in a niche (with a diversion via motherhood on the...

Chad's a firm believer that his time working in agencies, has made him a better freelancer. He got to know the ropes - the techniques, the business, the rates, the people... and most importantly his niche of premium packaging design. We chat about the importance of Instagram, awards, work-life balance and client relationships. But it's interesting, he isn't one of those freelance gu...

When Gareth was made redundant from the building trade he found himself out of work for months. A new dad at risk of losing his house, car, self-esteem... Until he found a freelance job site and started to wonder if he could make money online. He'd try anything. What did he have to lose? No idea. No fear. But plenty to gain from giving it a go. Gareth started writing. Writing for money for st...

Penny's always been freelance. First as a photographer's assistant, learning the ropes, making connections - and then as a photographer herself. We chat about when working for free has made a difference (and still can) and how being freelance has actually made being a mum easier (not sure it's ever easy!). Despite a busy work-life schedule Penny seems really balanced. Maybe that&apo...

On Thursday 28th June 2018, Steve Folland hosted a live version of the Being Freelance podcast at IPSE's National Freelancer's Day in King's Place, London. Not just one guest but two guests shared their freelance stories to the live audience - and now they share it with you. They are athlete Gianni Frankis and business coach & digital marketing stratgeist Chichi Eruchalu. Check...

Latasha's YouTube videos didn't just gain her an audience. She gained customers. Both for her social media business and her courses helping other freelancers. Now, with her Freelance Friday podcast it's happening again. There's a lot going on - and that doesn't happen unless at some point you stop listening and start doing. Love learning from other freelancers like this? C...

Aussie freelancer Jacob has spent the last few years as a digital nomad. Freelancing on the road. And the plane. And the boat... Before packing his bags, he packed a lot into building his personal brand. Growing his professional blog from his days as a student. So wherever he is in the world he knows potential clients will find him online. But how do digital nomads get paid? How do they plan for t...

When Emma became a mum, she also became a freelancer. Trading as Big Bear Creative, she thought she'd get 15 hours of childcare a week and do little bits of work... But her freelance baby soon needed more attention. Now, not only is she working four days a week, but her husband has joined the business too. Big Bear got bigger. And so did their plans. We chat mentors, networking, work-life bal...

When Prerna’s husband couldn’t work due to ill health, her side project of writing suddenly became crucial for their family. Over time they realised it had real potential, her husband joined the business, they hired others as ‘Content Bistro’ served up hungry businesses around the world. It’s an amazing story. She had no money, no other options and no fear. And no idea how much her life was about...

Are we stronger together? Paris based freelance designer and art director Jonathan Da Costa has found that to be true. By collaborating with other freelancers he's managed to take on bigger projects - to grow his business whilst taking time out for his family. We chat about the benefits of splitting work space from home, of working in agencies before going freelance and of remembering that ev...

The title may be unconventional - but so is Kirsty's story and what she does for her client's emails. From counsellor to copywriter via French farm hand. Hear how Australian freelancer Kirsty discovered her skill, found her niche and figured out the business side. Still taking time for herself, finding wealth in life beyond money. Love learning from other freelancers like this? Check out...

James should be used to a family business. Before he went freelance as a photographer, he worked for his dad. Now he's partnered with his wife - working from home with the three kids not far away. Juggling the needs of his customers alongside those of his family. Where your business itself is like another child constantly after your attention as it grows. Love learning from other freelancers...

After being made redundant Tia Meyers didn't just take her experience of social media and start being freelance. She also decided to take it and grow a community of other freelancing females. 2 years on, we chat about the many lessons learnt both in adjusting her services, getting paid and work-life balance AND from growing a Facebook Group of 8000 members with meet ups globally. Love learnin...

Ron Timehin thought he would work in the music industry, but he went a completely different route. Playing music since he was 7, reaching the highest musical grade on the trumpet at 16, travelling and playing in ensembles around the world, it seemed like a natural next step. However, the reaction to his pictures he had been taking and posting on Instagram gave him the confidence to pursue photogra...

Elliot doesn't shy away from making a change in his life. After a string of non-coding jobs, he self-taught himself WordPress and became a freelance developer. From that he built up a successful agency - Raison. But when fatherhood beckoned he stripped back the pressure of being a boss to freelance once more. More flexibility, more time for his family. And plenty more to hear about too... We...

Roxanne is a planner. She plans what she's doing with her business 'by bun' two years ahead. TWO YEARS. And yet she'd never planned to be an artist. She spent six years in a proper zero-creativity job before realising she could make a living through her art. And she's done that by growing an audience who enjoy her content across various social media platforms. Who support...

Not long out of college, Kayla quit her PR job to become self-employed. She was seduced by the 'one to many' infopreneurs - making money online from being an expert, selling courses etc. The dream of passive income soon became a nightmare of over-work in order to keep her sales funnel topped up. After a year of crazy 80-90 hour weeks she switched from products to services and became a fr...

Ben’s always been self-employed. Right after graduating college, he hustled as a freelance illustrator and animator for two years, and grouped together with a team to run an animation studio for a few years after that. Although the studio work was successful, he had enough of “wearing multiple hats” there. He'd been doing illustration work on the side and really enjoyed it. He decided to “bre...

Working for agencies and studios as a graphic designer since 2012, Amber Asay hated that she couldn’t interact directly with her clients. She also couldn’t show off her work in a personal portfolio, since her creations were the intellectual property of her employers. Even if she could have, she didn’t take much pride in the type of corporate branding work she had been doing. Now she’s connected to...

Jenni Heffernan Brown has had a pretty interesting path to freelancing success. Working for mega corporations, then to graduate school with a bit of freelancing on the side, and now teaming up with another freelancer to form an agency. She’s never been one to thrive under strict rules set by others. A Straight-A student in high school, she was always in trouble for skiving, because she’d rather ge...

Mark Steadman has had a self-described checkerboard career. Freelancing on and off for years in between spells in companies, agencies and even running startups. He's always had side projects. And whether or not they're a 'success', the experience still feeds back into his freelance skills. But now he's bringing his podcasting project in from the side to be centre stage, gi...

Jess knew she wanted to work on her own terms. What she didn't know, was what a virtual assistant was. And yet when an opportunity came up to be one, to work remotely and become freelance... she jumped at it. As years went by the amount of work started to overwhelm her. So she hired her own virtual assistants to help out... and her company Don't Panic Management was born. Everything &apo...

It feels like Karen is being freelance on her terms. With her own voice, her own style. Stress free. Quite possibly in pyjamas. Here we chat about how she got started as a copywriter, how she got started making money from courses helping other writers and how she got finished with trying to be a digital nomad. Love learning from other freelancers like this? Check out the website beingfreelance.com...