Creators Need To Support Creators
There’s a wave of creators opening up and sharing their experiences to support their fellow creators. Over the past decade of building a creator company, I’ve gone through just about every mood swing & emotional roller-coaster. I feel that although there are groups that start up, creators who turn into business coaches with the goal of building communities and business, the freelancers who are striving to step out into this path to ‘lifestyle freedom’ often isolate themselves. Whether this is because we see other creators as competitors in the beginning or we simply don’t know how to reach out to others and start a conversation around collaboration, there is a big isolation problem.
Recently, I stumbled across a couple of other freelancers who are trying to find a way to change that. Kat & Francesca started a terrific podcast called ‘Not The 9 To 5’ which started out as wanting to share the lives of freelancers to support others on this journey. When I saw it, I binged a few episodes and saw that they’re really wanting to help support the freelance/creator life and show that there is a lot of good, and what to do when it’s bad.
I’d be contradicting myself if I said I didn’t reach out to collaborate with them, because that’s what this blog post is, a collaboration. I asked if they were looking for a guest for the show (happily they were! To be released soon…) and we created this blog post as a way to help share their message even further. In true, Ryan fashion, I had to ask them a few questions about the freelancing life, so here they are.
Katheryn Siggers (Left) & Francesca Marago (Right)
Listen to the podcast HERE.
A recent episode that resonated well with me 👇
1. What has starting this podcast taught you about freelancing and creating as a career through the experiences of the guests you've had on the podcast?
Starting the podcast has taught us that tenacity and flexibility is a freelancer's superpower, you need to put time, effort and momentum into the work you create. Having started this podcast in December it has taught us that not only are we freelancers within the job roles we do but we are now much more than that. We have now had to learn how to be Social Media Managers/Creators/Graphic Designers through the course of creating the podcast. In S2 when we started interviewing guests we realised how lots of freelancers have had to adapt, change and learn within their freelancing careers which really resonated with us. Our guests have touched upon many topics that freelancers say they often suffer on their own, such as: not getting enough clientele or struggling to market yourself in an ‘acceptable’ way without sounding arrogant or cocky or charging the right rate for your service. We also love the importance most of our guests gave about knowing your worth as a freelancer and to take into consideration the benefits of a ‘normal’ job (annual leave, sick pay, pension, contracts etc) that as freelancers we don’t get, when deciding on your rates. So it’s taught us to be even more open than we have been in order to help others through our freelance careers because at the end of the day we struggle too.
2. What is the one thing you've learned from guests that you implement into your daily life now?
Kat:
Definitely having or striving towards a work/life balance. The point of freelancing is that you are the captain of your own ship, which means you have the freedom to control your own life and what you do with it, unlike in a traditional 9 to 5 PAYE job. Whilst my work gives me joy and energy and it’s my passion, I am striving towards making freelancing work for me, as opposed to me working for freelancing.
Francesca:
To be more confident in the work I do and create and to not be cringed out or afraid to post ‘day in the life’ videos because you live in fear someone may judge you because your day isn’t as busy as it ’should’ be. Love yourself and be proud of the work you do because only you can do that.
3. If there was one person who you wanted to be a guest on the podcast, who would it be & why? And what is the burning question you would want to ask them?
Kat:
I would love to have Elizabeth Day on the podcast. She is an author, journalist and fellow podcaster who started “How to Fail’ which celebrates the things in life that haven't gone right and what you might learn from your failings along the way. Her journey hasn’t been plain sailing, and although she is currently at the height of her fame, I would love to talk to her about how she navigated life both professionally and personally to get to where she is today.
I would love to ask her “How do you stay true to yourself and grounded in what you are trying to achieve with your work?”
Francesca:
Sam Valentine @ One Broke Actress. I've been following her journey for years. She is an actor, podcaster, YouTuber and she shares her own life struggles that many actors like myself go through. She creates funny, engaging and also REAL content that many would relate to as a freelancer as well as a creative. I don’t want to jump the gun but I had reached out to her earlier this week, with the thought of ‘I’ll try and just see if she comes back’ and to my shock SHE DID. Now she will actually be a real life guest on S3 of Not the 9 to 5 and I actually cannot believe it. The power of social media eh?
Hmmm…I would probably ask them ‘What made you want to move to LA and persue a career in acting and what struggles did you face doing so?’
4. Talking to your younger selves who are thinking about stepping into the freelancer world, what would you tell them?
Kat:
Drive headfirst through the hesitation and the fear and believe in yourself and your abilities. Nobody expects you to have it all together when you first start your freelancing career and there will be many times when you will learn along the way. Embrace those moments of learning and for god sake, get into the habit of writing down your expenses and income every month… it’s going to make your life SO much easier.
Francesca:
Be bold, be ambitious, be challenging. Times may be tough, your journey may not always be the way you thought it would be, but you’ll get to where your meant to be. So enjoy the rollercoaster and don’t worry so much. Whats meant for you will find you.
