Freelancer Nation

"It’s not like, I do a gig here and a gig there, it's really more about how do I show up as an expert who can add value every single day? How can I really inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs?"

Bonus episode about future of freelancing with Anne-Laure Herrezuelo and Satya Kothimangalam!

Catch up on all Freelance Creative Exchanges episodes here: https://creativesatwork.asia/fce/

Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/N9_rAwGHe0I

Listen to the full episode on Spotify or iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/sg/podcast/freelance-exchange/id1401167998?mt=2

“There are so many people out there who have a problem they want solved. So, if you can just be that person who can solve that problem for them, they'll happily pay you to solve it.”

Listen to the full episode on Spotify, Stitcher or iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/sg/podcast/freelance-exchange/id1401167998?mt=2

This week, two amazing badass ladies Anne-Laure Herrezuelo & Satya Kothimangalam discuss the importance of knowing how to charge, networking and self-care while running your business.

Anne-Laure is an artist, facilitator and community builder. She helps individual or university organisations identify and align with their big vision through collectve art experiences.

Satya Kothimangalam is the founder of ZAC Studios and she helps service-based businesses create brands to stand out and create messages that will help them get their best clients really quickly,

Anne-Laure is an artist, facilitator and community builder. She helps individual or university organisations align and build together the relation to this vision through collectve art experiences.

[00:26:43]

Anne: Every time you meet a client, what I'm trying to do, and a lot of people would advise the same, ask this potential client, “Hey, can you recommend me someone else to meet with, just to have a coffee and get some feedback and understand?”

[00:32:08]

Anne: So that's a tip that you never leave, and if the person is busy or something, or they say, “I will follow up later.” And they don't, you do follow up, until they give you a contact.

[00:28:56]

Satya: Definitely go out there and be useful, and the second this is, understand that you have an inherent value, just because you have time, passion and interest in a certain topic.

[00:38:54]

it's important to reverse engineer how much you should be charging, because think about it from the perspective of, “How much money do I want to earn every month?” And then break that down into, “How much time do I have available to work on client projects?” And then come up with the project fee.

- THE FREELANCE CREATIVE EXCHANGE SERIES - The Freelance Creative Exchange Series is our first ever podcast about freelances by freelancers. Every 2 weeks, we catch up with professionals over coffee at the PIXEL Studio and share stories about freelancing or anything in and around the topic. Each episode is about 30-40 minutes long and available in both podcast and YouTube formats. Hosted by CreativesAtWork co-founders Fanny and Jayce, you will find candid conversations with the creatives professionals about freelancing and the gig economy in Singapore & beyond.

FOLLOW US

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/creativesatworkasia/
• Instagram: . https://www.instagram.com/creativesatwork/
• Website: https://creativesatwork.asia/fce/

Have some questions, or want to be a guest on Freelance Creative Exchange Podcast? Reach out to us at [email protected]

“We must paint a realistic picture of what freelancing is. I think freelancing is tougher than as a full-time employee.”

Watch all Freelance Creative Exchanges episodes here:
https://creativesatwork.asia/fce/

Listen to the full episode on Spotify, Stitcher or iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/sg/podcast/freelance-exchange/id1401167998?mt=2

- THE FREELANCE CREATIVE EXCHANGE SERIES -
The Freelance Creative Exchange Series is our first ever podcast about freelances by freelancers. Every 2 weeks, we catch up with professionals over coffee at the PIXEL Studio and share stories about freelancing or anything in and around the topic. Each episode is about 30-40 minutes long and available in both podcast and YouTube formats. Hosted by CreativesAtWork co-founders Fanny and Jayce, you will find candid conversations with the creatives professionals about freelancing and the gig economy in Singapore & beyond.

- FOLLOW US -
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/creativesatworkasia/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativesatwork/?hl=en
Website: https://creativesatwork.asia/fce/

Have some questions, or want to be a guest on Freelance Creative Exchange Podcast? Reach out to us at [email protected]

“If I think back about every conversation I’ve had with HR people and they say to me that, “We only hire culture fit,” then I would like to challenge that. If you only hire culture fit, do you usually hire people who are just like you? And if you hire people who are just like you, it’s really great to find agreeable people, but does that take your business further?

Watch all Freelance Creative Exchanges episodes here:
https://creativesatwork.asia/fce/

Listen to the full episode on Spotify, Stitcher or iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/sg/podcast/freelance-exchange/id1401167998?mt=2

Karoli is a TEDx speaker and founder of Jobbatical – a marketplace for international career adventures. She founded her first company at the age of sixteen (officially becoming the youngest inventor of Estonia). Karoli successfully lead the launch of seven television channels in Northern Europe (including National Geographic Channels, MTV, and Fox entertainment). She was named one of the 20 most promising young entrepreneurs under 25 in Europe by the prestigious international business magazine BusinessWeek and one of 50 Most Influential Women in Tech of Europe in 2016 by EU-Startups.

[00:01:24]
I actually became an entrepreneur when I was 16, from a student company. I grew out my first company. I became the youngest inventor in my country. It was a very inspiring experience, realising that as a 16-year-old, you can invent something that will change people’s lives and you don’t have to have a PhD to do that, but you can be a simple girl.

[00:11:20]
Karoli:
Our headquarters is in Tallinn, Estonia, where we have people, now I think it’s 42 people from 19 nationalities. They all came through Jobbatical, or most of them came through Jobbatical and they flew in to build our vision. So, I think that’s really inspiring, and I think that’s where the world will be. Like your career shouldn’t be defined by where you were accidently born and live, but maybe for the best team, you have to circle the world and then you get there.

[00:18:30]
After several discussions around this topic, the Estonian Ministry turned to us to help to figure our the digital nomad visa. So, their plan is to get it launched. Basically, make it effective from the beginning of next year and basically, we are together, putting together the criteria. But the idea of that is that basically you can be a freelancer, a contractor, servicing different kinds of clients. You can be an entrepreneur who has a small agency and working as a freelancer. Location independent.

Basically, then initially, the visa will be one year and the goal for Estonia is that those people would actually want to stay there and make it a very easy transition if they want to stay there later to get either a work permit or to extend the digital nomad visa, but that visa would also give access to Schengen, but with a limitation of 90 days then.

[00:33:28]
Karoli: So, I think the future of work, in that sense, will be much more global and so attracting people will be, like a big thing that the countries will have to start focusing on. That means, also, again we were talking about user experience and I think the countries will definitely have to start thinking about the user experience of a country, because if you create barriers, I mean, look at America right now, we have seen the decline of international interest, even to go and travel there, not talking about studying, which has dropped enormously. So, if you create barriers or fear, that will mean that people won’t want to come here, so they will go somewhere else.

- THE FREELANCE CREATIVE EXCHANGE SERIES -
The Freelance Creative Exchange Series is our first ever podcast about freelances by freelancers. Every 2 weeks, we catch up with professionals over coffee at the PIXEL Studio and share stories about freelancing or anything in and around the topic. Each episode is about 30-40 minutes long and available in both podcast and YouTube formats. Hosted by CreativesAtWork co-founders Fanny and Jayce, you will find candid conversations with the creatives professionals about freelancing and the gig economy in Singapore & beyond.

- Jobbatical-
https://www.jobbatical.com

- SUBSCRIBE -
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/sg/podcast/freelance-exchange/id1401167998?mt=2
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgpc3wRVbypvM9pzYeGvVBQ

- FOLLOW US -
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/creativesatworkasia/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativesatwork/?hl=en
Website: https://creativesatwork.asia/fce/

Have some questions, or want to be a guest on Freelance Creative Exchange Podcast? Reach out to us at [email protected]

“The one thing about freelancers, because you do everything yourself, means you are marketing yourself. If you're stuck in a project, most of the time your brain just focuses on what you're doing, and you forget about your networking, your marketing. So, in a sense, freelancers, as good as it sounds, you have your flexible hours, you'd be surprised to know that you actually sleep very little. In fact, you do a lot of work, sometimes more than people who are working in offices or have regular jobs.”

Watch all Freelance Creative Exchanges episodes here:

https://creativesatwork.asia/fce/

Watch on Youtube:

https://youtu.be/tbIRwzBKL0o

Listen to the full episode on Spotify, Stitcher or iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/sg/podcast/freelance-exchange/id1401167998?mt=2

Alex Oh, a film composer, producer, and pianist, with more than a decade of experience, is one of Singapore's most prolific and versatile film composer. His latest project is A Simple Wedding, a romantic comedy about a bride having cold feet at her wedding. In this episode we speak to Alex about his freelancing career, from starting out in Shanghai to establishing himself as a pioneer in the Singapore film industry and how he recently pursued further studies to become a better film composer. We discussed why it is important to set aside time and budget for music score in a film and the challenges of balancing our love of craft versus making a living.

- THE FREELANCE CREATIVE EXCHANGE SERIES -

The Freelance Creative Exchange Series is our first ever podcast about freelances by freelancers. Every 2 weeks, we catch up with professionals over coffee at the PIXEL Studio and share stories about freelancing or anything in and around the topic. Each episode is about 30-40 minutes long and available in both podcast and YouTube formats. Hosted by CreativesAtWork co-founders Fanny and Jayce, you will find candid conversations with the creatives professionals about freelancing and the gig economy in Singapore & beyond.

- Alex Oh

Website: https://www.alex-oh.com/

- SUBSCRIBE -

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/sg/podcast/freelance-exchange/id1401167998?mt=2

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgpc3wRVbypvM9pzYeGvVBQ

- FOLLOW US -

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/creativesatworkasia/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativesatwork/?hl=en

Website: https://creativesatwork.asia/fce/

Have some questions, or want to be a guest on Freelance Creative Exchange Podcast? Reach out to us at [email protected]

For our pilot episode, we speak to Kevin Ou, Development / Executive Producer” of The Lumenere Group.

An entrepreneur with the heart of a philanthropist, Kevin Ou is on a mission to create beauty and incredible change in the world. Kevin has transcended his vision as a Celebrity photographer to developing business ventures that expand boundaries and provide innovative progress around him.

Kevin’s intuition for developing companies, lead to the birth of The Lumenere Group. Originally launched in Los Angeles, the agency quickly became Asia’s definitive Celebrity Marketing firm.

Tapping on personal investments as an early investor of Cryptocurrency, Kevin lead the expansion of The Lumenere Group’s portfolio into Business Development of Blockchain (ICO) organizations.

Freelance Exchange is our first ever podcast about freelances by freelancers. Hosted by CreativesAtWork co-founders Fanny and Jayce, you will find candid conversations with the creatives professionals about freelancing and the gig economy in Singapore & beyond.

5:50:
If you are excited, you know what you can do and you’re just excited to apply it, then really, there are so many different outlets where you can apply yourself. So, it really just starts with that mindset.

9:23:
Creativity can manifest itself in many different ways. Even in business, in terms of structuring different business deals, creativity and thinking outside of the box is very crucial as well.

12:44
“There are two types of photographers in this world,” and when I use photographers, they can be very interchangeable to designers, architects, any other positions. There are people that are very skilled, very talented, but without a business sense, no one knows who they are. Or, you could be a mediocre talent, but with a lot of business sense, and funny enough, these are the people that succeed.

14:44
You can either complain about it or you can figure out a way around it.

I think the first step is to realise that all this is happening. If you refuse to believe that all of this happening and you keep on that same path, you’re not going to get anywhere. If you understand this and you can understand, then you can come up with that creative model on how to solve it.

17:48
So, really that value is what a lot of freelancers need to be focusing on. If they can figure out what value they can provide, figure out how they can benefit a company or help a company grow.

21:46
Forget about technology. Technology will always keep changing and there will always be a lot of competitors. But if you are very effective in what you do, instead of a viewer taking ten seconds to digest a message, if your shot if very clear, you know exactly, and that same message is told effectively in one second, they can tell it, that’s where your value comes from.

30:57
I think with photography, creating something out of nothing, and then having a final picture that you can show the world, I think that excites me.

32:09:
There were so many different failures that have hit me along the way, but I think the drive and passion, you know what you want to make happen and you still keep going.

33:28
A lot of failures. The first clients happen after, let’s say 100 people turn you down, the 101st client that you get, that is your success.

33:42:
I think a lot of the students that I meet nowadays, the younger generation, I think they kind of take things for granted and they think everything is kind of given to them. So, when they hit that little bump of failure, they kind of give up. So, I think that is a mindset that you have to kind of get over.

36:49
If I disappear, no one’s going to miss me. But if I can create something bigger, that impacts a lot of people, so let’s say if I go at least I had value or a mark I made on this world. That is what keeps me driving.

38:54
Don’t give up, because failure is imminent, you will always hit failure,
Success is the enthusiasm to hit every challenge without losing any enthusiasm. So, to me, if you can do that, that will eventually lead to success.

42:15
Ask outrageously. I think a lot of people are very scared to ask for favours or ask for certain things and once again, there’s a lot of different stories.

44:12
Don’t be too comfortable in where you are at, because, I mean, more than ever, technology, your base skillset is always growing.

45:27
Take action despite fear.

- KEVIN OU -
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/kevinou/

- SUBSCRIBE -
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgpc3wRVbypvM9pzYeGvVBQ

- FOLLOW US -
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/creativesatworkasia/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativesatwork/?hl=en

Have some questions, or want to be a quest on Freelance Podcast?
Reach out to us at [email protected].

"Freelancing is like running your own business."

Heard that before? You've got to handle cash flow, client management, project management and you now supply your own 'employee' benefits. This is all while building your name up as a trustworthy business and getting more clients.

And there are also bigger things to worry about. Between AI, the blockchain, and whatever Elon Musk is up to—automation and digital technology aren’t just changing the big companies, but are impactingour everyday lives. What does it mean to be a freelancer today? How do we stay ahead of the competition? Can we continue to stay agile and upscale in a changing global economy?

Freelance Exchange is our first ever podcast about freelancers by freelancers. Hosted by CreativesAtWork co-founders Fanny and Jayce, you will find candid conversations with creative professionals about freelancing and the gig economy in Singapore & beyond.