Michaela Leyland is the founder of Wood For The Trees Coaching and a "hybrid" freelancer, as a performance and mindset coach, for the last 7 years.
Michala believes that freelancers, and other business owners, should have greater clarity of their vision and then live their vision now, because our vision is very much possible right this minute, even when we set future-forward goals.
In this episode, Michala talks about the freelancing journey that has brought her to today. She also shares some of her experience and wisdom to help you plan for the coming weeks, months, and the year ahead too.
#EFWeek 2021 is an annual event focused on recognition and community building — providing freelancers with the opportunity to come together, focus on issues close to them and take collective action. In this episode, I chat with 2 of the founders of European Freelancers Week with other freelancers chipping in too.
We talk about the state of freelancing, what collaboration looks like, how Governments can (and should) do more to help, and much more too.
Get involved at podcast@freelance-heroes.com and #FreelanceHeroes across social media.
Steve Folland and Frankie Tortora are two heroes of mine, for all they give to supporting freelancers around the world. They run their own communities, podcasts, book clubs, and more and, in this episode, I felt it was time to get to know them a bit better. What made them set up their own communities? How does it help them and their members? What have been their own highs and lows of their freelancing journey? These questions and more are chatted about and more. About Steve Folland Steve is a video/podcast producer, running his business whilst also looking after his two kids. His other babies are the long-running Being Freelance podcast where Steve chats to freelancers from around the world about their story. And co-hosting the award-winning* Doing It For The Kids podcast - a fun Q&A for those parents freelancing 'with kids in the mix'. He does this with his friend, co-mentor and founder of the Doing It For The Kids community, graphic designer Frankie Tortora. These days Steve spends a lot of time hanging out in the Being Freelance Community where he brings together self-employed creatives from around the world for support, fun and biscuits. *Bronze for Best Business Podcast at the British Podcast Awards 2020 and shortlisted again for 2021! About Frankie Tortora Frankie is a freelance graphic designer, mum of two and founder of Doing It For The Kids — a community by and for freelance parents. Through the DIFTK blog, Facebook community, face-to-face meetups and podcast, Frankie is proving that all sorts of good stuff can occur when self-employed parents are given the opportunity to connect. Connect with Frankie at francescatortora.com and doingitforthekids.net.
“If you don't see the book you want on the shelves, write it.” ― Beverly Cleary, American Writer
But what is the writing process? Should I write with an ebook in mind or a printed version? How many words should it be? And, arguably most importantly, should I pitch it to a publisher or self-publish it?
Even before your pen has been put to paper, then are many things you should know about the book you are about to write, and Eloise Cook, Publisher at Pearson, is here to help as she answers your questions.
About Eloise Cook
Eloise is Publisher of the Trade, Consumer and Professional Business Publishing list at Pearson, and looks after the Financial Times Publishing and Pearson Business imprints. She is an engaged hands-on editor who's part author coach, part content editor, working with authors to help develop and shape their idea from concept to publication, and always on the hunt for practical, informative and engaging books that help readers improve their personal and professional lives. So if you're a subject expert with something interesting to say, get in touch via eloise.cook@pearson.com.
You can find 10 Questions about your Book idea here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eloisecook/.
Ayo Abbas started her Marketing Consultancy with verve and energy. Then, a few weeks later, a global pandemic hit which impacted Ayo's ability to grow the business as planned. Did it dampen her spirit? Not at all. Like many freelancers, Ayo had to dust herself down, look for the opportunities in front of her and grow her not let the world around her affect her new freelance business any more than it needed to.
In this episode, Ayo candidly tells her story and shares her experiences to help any new freelancer, or experienced one, looking for diamonds in the rough to help their freelance business kick on.
Ayo Abbas, Marketing Consultant, Abbas Marketing
I'm Ayo Abbas, marketing consultant and founder of Abbas Marketing. I have 20 years' experience in B2B marketing and have represented many major construction and professional services firms and think there's a gap in the market for practical business advice for SMEs. ayo@abbasmarketing.com or www.abbasmarketing.com
Links
Link to marketer without a brand - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ayoabbas_branding-builtenvironment-marketing-activity-6758362378586349569-XMhM
Link to my website www.abbasmarketing.com
Link to Carilion blog https://www.abbasmarketing.com/blog/carillion-fall-construction-broken
Link to the Times piece (£) https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/toxic-and-dysfunctional-industry-in-race-to-the-bottom-kmd8n7ct9
How has the pandemic changed the perception of freelancers? What value do freelancers truly add to the wider business community? How can freelancers get in front of the exciting businesses they truly want to work with, and the right people who work within them? How can freelancers help themselves when it comes to late payments?
These topics and more were discussed at Freelance Heroes Day and this episode is a recording of one of the panel discussions. This episode looks deep into the future of freelancing and its relationship with start-ups and bigger businesses.
Joining Ed for this recorded Zoom chat are:
Sam O'Connor - CEO and Co-Founder of Coconut
Merlie Calvert - CEO and Founder of Farillio
Alex Hughes - CEO and Founder of Shifties and Shift Momentum
* Coconut were also proud sponsors of Freelance Heroes Day and you can find out more about them at: https://www.getcoconut.com/freelanceheroes
What is it like to start a freelance business in 2021? How do you attract and win your first client? What is the transition from an office environment to a company of one like? How should you manage your time? There is a lot to focus on, both big and small, when starting a freelancing journey. On top of that, there is the matter of a pandemic too.
This week, Ed chats to the third in a series of conversations with freelancers who launched their business in 2021.
Nakita is a graduate of the University of Cambridge where she read Politics, Psychology, and Sociology (specialising in Psychology). Since graduating, Nakita has spent several years in research (resulting in several papers of which she is a co-author). Nakita then went on to work as part of Human Resources coordinating Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion-related projects. This included working in higher education and supporting the construction and submission of Athena SWAN applications, the building of wellbeing programmes, and critical analysis and action planning following staff surveys.
This background and experience led Nakita to set up Five Ways Consultancy to bring together interrelated areas of work under the heading of staff engagement. Five Ways now offers a range of packages and individually tailored services to help companies critically assess and improve staff engagement.
Connect with Nakita on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nakita-gilbert-910b3aa5 and her website at https://www.fivewaysconsultancy.co.uk.
What is it like to start a freelance business in 2021? How do you attract and win your first client? What is the transition from an office environment to a company of one like? How should you manage your time? There is a lot to focus on, both big and small, when starting a freelancing journey. On top of that, there is the matter of a pandemic too.
This week, Ed chats to the second of in a series of conversations with freelancers who launched their business in 2021.
Gareth Hawkins is a time-served Managing Director and an MBA Graduate, He has acquired, built and sold businesses over a 20-year career in the industrial engineering sector, and, in Q1 2021, he founded Enterprise Insights Ltd.
Discover more at http://e-i.london. Also check out Gareth’s podcast The Chief Executive Optimist, by visiting https://ceoptimist.com.
“Look back to learn how to look forward.” - Jo Girard
There is so much data available to us that understanding which data is most relevant to our freelance business, and how to use it efficiently, can be a daunting task. This week, we start to unearth the hows, whats, and where, to understand where we are in order to move forward.
Katie Thompson In Her Own Words
Professional content marketing with a sense of humour – if she says so herself.
If you’ve ever tried researching a blog post, writing an ad, or even throwing a bio together, you’ll understand how difficult it is. Good content – that which inspires, educates, and entertains – takes time. It’s an art and a science, and goodness knows you don’t have time for both.
That’s where Katie Lingo comes in. Whether you need a website rewrite, an in-depth blog post, magazine interview or simple press release, we’re here to help. Let us handle the content, the house style, the grammar, and the tone, while you focus on growing your business. The right message won’t just keep the Google gods happy. It will excite your audience, and push them to convert.
Connect at katie@katielingo.co.uk and www.katielingo.co.uk
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing” – Walt Disney
What makes someone start a business in 2021? How different is it from when you started yours? This week, Ed chats with the first in a series of freelancers who launched their freelance careers in 2021.
In this first episode, we meet Deborah Frampton, a VA from Trowbridge in Wiltshire to learn why she started and what the journey has been like for her so far.
Deborah Frampton (in Her Own Words)
I help busy business owners leverage the Pinterest platform to drive traffic to their website and increase leads. As a search engine, Pinterest provides answers to questions that people are searching for along with eye-catching graphics.
I also assist the busy business owners with their email management, calendar management, and appointment booking, so they don't need to worry about forgetting to send that zoom invite or double booking their time.
Facebook groups are a fantastic way of building community with your potential clients/customers. However, they are very time-consuming. I offer to manage the day-to-day community management (post scheduling, commenting, event scheduling, etc) so the busy business owner can focus on other things they cannot outsource.
Connect with Deborah at https://firebirdva.comand on Twitter at https://twitter.com/firebirdva92
Last week, Ed spoke with Freelance Heroes members, Les Howard, for (almost) weekly "Thank Freelance it's Friday - Live" show on Youtube and Facebook. As ever, during the conversation, they spoke about the hot topics raised in the Freelance Heroes community. This week, they covered:
Tips for Managing Clients
What is the Imposter Syndrome to you?
Community and Circles
Jots and Tittles
Tips for Tracking Time
...and, of course, VAT.
You can watch the show here on Youtube and, when you do, subscribe to be alerted ahead of the next show.
Cambridgeshire-based, Les is a partner in VAT Advice. They are a specialist VAT consultancy practice that works largely with Charities and Churches and also provide support for other professional advisers. He blogs a lot on VAT issues for a number of technical websites and, from time to time sits as a non-legal Member of the Tax Tribunals.
Les has also added a number of valuable tools to his Freelance Heroes profile too, which you can see here.
Contact Les at vatadvice.org, on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Lesvatadvice, and on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/les-howard-847999/
Some people dip their toes in the pool of support offered to others. Tony Robinson OBE dives into the deep end and has been a long vocal campaigner for freelancers, micro-businesses, and (more recently) those excluded by Government support during the Covid pandemic. What drives him on? How can freelancers, and other business owners, help each other? How would Tony's business world differ from the one we're in now?
All these and more are discussed in this week's podcast.
About Tony Robinson OBE
Tony Robinson OBE is the Micro Business Champion, multiple business owner, #PayIn30Days Campaigner, Co-Founder of the Annual #MicroBizMatters Day and Movement, Co-founder of the Micro Business Awards UK, Founder of the SFEDI Group, Chair of Yorkshire in Business Limited and Patron of the John Cracknell Youth Enterprise Bank.
Tony has been awarded an OBE for services to small firms and two Lifetime Achievement Awards for Enterprise. He was the National Enterprise Network's Enterprise Support Champion 2019. He is a judge for the UK's most prestigious entrepreneur awards competitions and a prolific author of fiction and non -fiction.
Tony's latest business book is the culmination of a two-year project with co-author, Taryn Lee Johnston, to write the new 'Small is Beautiful ' entitled 'The Happipreneur - Why MicroBizMatters?'. He is on a never-ending tour with his 'Who Wants To Be A Happipreneur?' talk to raise funds for the #ExcludedUK Hardship Fund.
Find out more at: https://TonyRobinsonOBE.com
You can also order Happipreneur from your local bookstore or here at Amazon
Of the many technologies and emotions that freelancers need to juggle, productivity is one that is so often talked about in the Freelance Heroes community. It comes up time and time again, since before the pandemic began, during (unsurprisingly), and it'll no doubt come up after.
However, we know why we are freelancers and what work we need to do, so why do we struggle so much with being productive? How to try to avoid it before spending all day doing nothing? Do we procrastinate to put off doing what needs to be done, or is it our subconscious saying "Hold on, I haven't worked this out yet"? Is procrastination a form of stress relief?
All these questions, and many more, are discussed when Ed chatted with Grace Marshall, Productivity Ninja and author of "Struggle - The Surprising truth, beauty, and opportunity hiding in life's sh*ttier moments".
Order your copy of the book here: StruggleTheBook.com
How do you fan the flame of creativity and keep going when doubt and fear are threatening to put it out? How do you find motivation when you don't know where you're going? What's the difference between motivation and a spark? What can I do to get myself motivated in the morning?
Motivation matters. But it’s also mysterious. We all know what it feels like to be driven to act, but we don’t always know why we feel that way. Nor do we always know what we can do about it?
These questions, and more, are discussed when Ed meets Louise Harman, and aim to inject a heavy dose of motivation into your freelancing lives.
About Louise Harman
Lou runs an online business support service for small businesses and entrepreneurs who are struggling to get things done due to lack of time or simple overwhelm. Lou has a team of VAs, each with their specialist area ranging from admin to digital design, marketing, content creation, and copywriting. Lou provides strategy sessions with clients and considers herself a pro sh*t sorter-outer.
She loves helping people figure it all out and get cracking on whatever it is they’re putting off. She’ll force you to get out of your own way and get sh*t done, so be sure to contact her if you need some tough love and a helping hand.
Connect with Louise at https://louiseharman.com/
Anna Codrea-Rado is a journalist, podcaster, and campaigner, and her writing appears in the New York Times, the Guardian, BBC, Wired, and many others. She writes about business, culture, and technology, with a particular focus on working life.
In 2021, Anna published her first book, "You're The Business" which includes everything from finding clients and setting rates, to saving for taxes and dealing with insecurities, You're the Business will help you build a long-lasting career you love. Packed with everyday examples and transformative insights, this book will remind you that although you're now going it alone, you don't have to be alone.
In this chat, Ed Goodman (Co-Founder of #FreelanceHeroes) chats with Anna about why she wrote the book, what Anna has learned about herself and freelancing, how she sees freelancing changing in a post-Covid world, and so much more.
Order your copy of "You're The Business" from your local bookstore now or here on Amazon.
Last week we looked at tools to grow a freelance business and those who play the biggest part in that are our clients. This week, we look at how to best pitch ourselves and our business, when speaking with new and existing clients. To help you with this, Ed speaks with Jenna Davies, who has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs and business owners to pitch with confidence and impact.
Topics we will be covering, and questions we will be answering, include:
…and so much more.
Jenna is a highly experienced training professional with a flair for public speaking. Since starting her career as a broadcast journalist, she has successfully navigated an exciting and varied career path that has led her to become a specialist in empowering others to up their game with their communication skills, through her business, The IAM Hub.
Jenna has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs and business owners to pitch with confidence and impact while supporting teams of all sizes to present, network, and speak up with influence, reaping the career and business development rewards that come with it.
She is a speaker, event host, and pitch coach and her expertise has supported a wealth of organisations from start-ups to large corporates, alongside ambitious founders, to engage and inspire their audiences.
In this latest episode, we take a look forward to how you, as a freelancer, can pick up the pace of growth in your business. Ed talks with author, entrepreneur, and business coach, (and Guinness World Record holder) Robin Waite, about the actions he has taken and the lessons he's learned as an agency owner and freelancer. Robin also answers your questions too, including:
...and so much more.
Robin is the Founder of Fearless Business, a regular speaker at various business events and bestselling author of several books, including Online Business Startup, Marketing Machine and the recent popular release Take Your Shot.
Since setting up in 2013, Digital Mums have supported thousands of women and mothers to learn new skills and to gain digital confidence, and even have big ambitions to support a million women by 2025.
In this week's Freelance Heroes Podcast, we speak with Digital Mums' Co-Founder, Kathryn Tyler to learn more about the Digital Mums story, We learn more about what drives them to make a difference to the many women and mums they support, as well as the good, bad, and bumps in their efforts.
Kathryn is a social entrepreneur on a mission to lower maternal unemployment and support mothers into flexible, rewarding careers. She co-founded Digital Mums, which offers career-focused training and support designed to do just that. Kathryn has worked alongside the top education experts in the world and used these learnings to inform Digital Mums' award-winning learning models. Kathryn was awarded the Red Woman of the Year and the Marie-Claire Future Shapers awards in recognition of her work supporting women in the workplace. She also hosts the Digital Mums podcast. Follow her on Twitter @kathryntylerDM and find out more about Digital Mums at digitalmums.com.
This week, we cover 3 key topics that affect all freelancers. It's all part of a new weekly Livestream called, "Thank Freelance it's Friday" in which Ed is joined by a guest to chat through the most popular topics that have been raised in the Freelance Heroes community.
The 3 questions that we answer in this podcast include:
What does it mean to be a freelancer?
Should Freelancers display prices on their website?
What is the impact of saying "No" to clients?
About Helen Hill
Helen Hill is a self-employed Digital Learning and Content Designer at Unlikely Genius Ltd.
Unlikely Genius is based on the principles of ensuring the user comes first, communicating in plain language, and making content available and accessible to all, living by the mantra 'The content you make is not for you'.
Being an eternal student who picks up new hobbies by the week, Helen fell into the eLearning industry by accident and found her place in the world – creating enjoyable learning for others.
She works as a contractor for eLearning agencies in the UK and Europe, plus has ongoing projects with the NHS, charities and a number of private sector clients in industries from health, to technology and media.
Helen lives in semi-rural West Yorkshire with the long-suffering Graham, and two extremely fluffy, diva rabbits Tiffin and Strudel.
You can connect with Helen via her website, by emailing helen@unlikelygenius.com, or on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Freelancing does have an image problem. This is why, across the Freelance Heroes community, we like to play our part on improving that and shout about the benefits of freelancers to many bigger businesses out there.
From time to time, as we have done previously with Coconut and Farilio, we like to talk to a business that truly understands the freelance community.
ContentCal is more than a content management tool used by many freelancers. Since its conception in 2016, it has also relied heavily on freelancers to help grow its business to where it is today.
So, what is it about the freelance community that it connects with? How employing freelancers has helped? How can freelancers be attractive to companies like ContentCal and successfully put themselves in front of those businesses? The best person to talk to for this is Andy Lambert. Director of Growth for ContentCal, and who has a lot of positives to talk about when it comes to the freelance community.