• Alison is an author, film / tv producer, MBA, trainer, mentor and creative industries consultant. She describes her key skill as "transforming creative ideas into a business reality" She accomplishes this with the films she produces, the creative entrepreneurs she mentors, SMEs and freelancers she advises and in her Penguin published book, 'The Freelance Bible'. Alison "has an unique skillset in that she has formal academic training (INSEAD MBA); has worked at senior level in many media companies; is an entrepreneur who has established several businesses and is a Nesta accredited Creative Enterprise trainer and mentor. She brings her passion, knowledge and experience with her in all the work she does."
• The Freelance Bible was published through Penguin on 5th March 2020, was an Amazon Bestseller and Financial Times Book of the Month 2020
• With Careers & Employability, Alison will front a four-day summer school with a different focus each day. Building freelancing operations and arming with tools on how to reach an audience.
• Compliments and wraps around the learning in my studies
• This workshop series is essential for any student looking to work in the creative industries sector upon graduation.
• In this workshop Alison will explore how the practicalities of what it means to be freelance, from how to organise your time to meet client needs to the mechanics of tax returns.
• Being a great freelancer is more than being great at working ‘in’ the work you want do – you need to be great at working ‘on’ your freelancing.
- Delivering work for clients
- What’s wrong with overdelivering?
- Managing the process of client work
- Why feedback is important
- Mechanics of freelancing – Tax / NI / Insurance
- By the end of the session participants will have the tools and the confidence to manage a flourishing freelance career in a sustainable fashion.
• Differences between employment and self-employment. Difference in income, payment, taxes, holidays, pension, equipment, hours, schedule and work. When we are self-employed, we get all of the money but have to do the tax returns. If we don't get work then we don't get paid. If steadily employed you get £20k but at the end of the year you don't receive that full amount as it's already been taxed for you.
• Autonomy to work when we are productive. 9 to 5 makes me unproductive. Peak times and concentration times. Turn it on and off when it works for me. Organise my own time. When you are a freelancer you have to find your own work, when you are employed the company finds your work for you and if they can't they will make you redundant. Think with that freelance mindset. Entrepreneurial way. "This is 6 months' work, then I need to find the next thing" More fixed-term contracts now we are coming out of Covid. If your contract has an end-date, you need to think like a freelancer.
• Why do companies employ freelancers? Specialist skills at the point of need and to add capacity. If you are adding social media skills to a brand, you can go in with specialist skills, you can add capacity. If we are talking to an agency they will be looking at working with a team. What does that tell us about the narrative?
• Working in our freelancing is not "in" but "on". "In" spinning plates. All the different projects you are working on, all the projects in the pipeline, plates take priority. Being the CEO of many hats. "On" CEO, Finance Director, Marketing and Sales Director, Operations Director.
• Imagine sitting on a three legged stool of the "successful freelance psyche," it will only balance when all 3 legs or angles are balanced. The desire, the finance, and the skills.
- Looking at skills in today's two hour session
- Finances in tomorrow's session
- Desires on Wednesday's session
• How do we find ways to be secure in insecurity? Can we be an employee in a permanent way? Being a freelancer - am I open for business? Am I seeing those opportunities?
• Listening challenge; framing and talking to clients, being open for business. Clarifying information, suggestions. Client liking the product, thinks it sits within in the portfolio, has selling point. Where is the "but" coming from? "But I won't sell today" So when? Question when and do not be afraid to push.
• Skillset: knowing your mindset - understanding the value that we can bring to customers. Freelance mindset. Staying secure in insecure. Feast and famine. Risk profile. How much time do I have available? We can say no, do it with a smile on your face. introduce to someone else who can do it instead. I can't do it but I now this person. Not taking everything on.
• Work/life balance. It's okay to say no. Look out for yourself. Put your own oxygen mask on first.
• Reputation - Your reputation is your currency. Building relationships with clients. Keep them coming back. Things can indeed go wrong, our best relationships can come with adversity. Can make as much of a difference and impact.
• Switching on and switching off. Easier said than done. Work zones. Blanket over the computer at the end of the day? Whatever works for you, what routines work for you? Routines. Clients' time zones. Create your own routine. Know what relaxes you, commuting usually helps with that so how do we do that now in a pandemic? Switching on and off helps with productivity. Meditation? Mindfulness? Control what is controllable.
• Getting started: What is in my control? Control the controllable. Thinking about that. Investing in planning. Where are we trying t get to? Writing lists, looking ahead, prioritising. Setting yourself up to achieve. Break down big tasks. You cannot control the pandemic, the economy, etc. You can control your portfolio and CV but cannot control the reaction to it.
• What is in our toolkit? What kind of freelancer am I? I-shaped. Depth of experience. Make-up artists, for example. T-shaped. Depth of collaboration. Producers, collaborators for example.
• Perform a skills audit. We all have hard skills, soft skills, and other skills. Hard skills are technical skills that we have learned perhaps through our degree. Not very transferrable. Soft skills are simple skills, composing emails, communication skills, transferrable across careers. Other skills, our hobbies, passions, things we love and care about. Passionate about - baking, gardening, medieval history. Form part of our value. Thinking of the social media skills job mentioned earlier, if I have an interest in gardening, I may think of pitching to gardening places or stately homes. Marry both together.
• -Where am I now? Where do I want to be? How good am I? It's incredibly subjective. Corroboration through friends, colleagues and loved ones. The things we take for granted and don't think of valuable in ourselves, we do it on autopilot, we undervalue that and don't realise how valuable it is. Others can genuinely and honestly tell us and rate our skills.
• We can start to look at an action plan. what will improve us the most is the things we don't know well. developing confidence, talking to clients, getting work through that.
• The Dunning-Kruger effect. People's confidence and levels of expertise. People can be unaware of how bad they are because they don't have the relevant knowledge. We think we know so much, at the peak of Mount Stupid, imposter syndrome kicks in, "I couldn't possibly do this." Challenge freelancing and freelancers, understand that there is more that you need to know. Bear in mind, what do I need to know? It gives us tools and tactics. People coming up behind. Have you considered this? Have you considered that? Show our knowledge and expertise. Someone who is at the "I know everything" stage will not consider what they need to do and the scope of it. Keep ourselves in check.
• What does success mean to me? We can define success however we want. We aren't climbing a corporate ladder. Balancing between work and family life. Taking time out in the summer to spend with family, making it work.
• This is what I can do. As we work through over the 4 days we can unpick what we can offer to a client. Start building our brand. We are desirable. Customer focused thinking. What are my brand values?
• We are sophisticated consumers of brands. We know what we like. Apple products. Clean, functional, work well. My freelancer brand may align with some of those values too.
- What do I want my brand values to say? Values that I admire in other brands.
- What brand values are important to me?
- What professional values do I have? What values do I believe a professional freelancer should adopt?
• In Alison's case it is to be trusted. She is trusted to get on with work in her own time. Trusted to deliver on time for the client. Trusted with confidentiality.
• Why do we do an item? Based on facts. Differentiate ourselves. Connect with the heart.
• Looking at how MP3 players are sold, for example. New features are spotlighted. Everything else goes down in price.Why? We connect in a totally different way. How we can solve their problems in a different way. What provides factual understanding? What tries to convince based on fact?
• Case study: Why are video making workshops valuable in schools? Developing literacy skills, building teams and team skills, leadership development, reading from a script. Are you selling video making workshops or literacy enhancement? Fully engage the kids while enhancing literacy. Understood what business they were in. If OFSETD some in, they can prioritise this school. They were able to explain "why me" that unlocked opportunities.
• WHY ME? I’m severely sight-impaired so it’s unusual to have someone with double retinal detachment in an art field. I think my value will be the representation of disability in the painting world and the power in my story of not giving up. Resilience and representation. Who are the clients I want to work with? What is my value?
• Advice from Alison: How I plan to use my "secret sauce." Arts Council support people from all backgrounds. RNIB, RNIB Library supported with the audiobook of the Freelance Bible. Creative Industries Federation. Sharing my story and my instagram in the presentation to professionally network and get some feedback on my element of "why me" increased engagement and networking.
- to inspire others
- to represent disability
- to think ahead in times of adversity after a terrible few years
- to consider what painting became for me which was much more than just painting. It was a very valuable tool for my mental health
• Ended the webinar with a quote from Alice in Wonderland. Where are you going? This is the direction I'm going in. This sense of freelancing, owning it and thinking like a CEO.
• Spotting opportunities, understanding the context and culture of your industry and how your experience can translate into a valuable offering, matching your services with a client's needs.
• The buzz lightyear mindset, how to get £500 beyond the end of your nose rather than £50 immediately. Longterm mindset through trust. To infinity and beyond.
Reflection: What have I taken away from this first session of Summer School?
- A networking opportunity to share my instagram and my story
- Considering my values as a freelancer: authenticity beyond all else
- Considering the dunning-kruger effect. Not being at the peak of stupidity or being arrogant. Questioning where I am, what I can do, and a skills audit.
- The value of what I can offer, how I offer my writing and my lens. Joining up the dots and unlocking. Looking inside myself to give myself confidence. Challenging and adding value.
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