Going Freelance & Monetising Your Skills
After three super successful events, we weren't going to let the pandemic slow us down and decided to take things online; last Saturday saw our first virtual event, where we sat down with Brand Designer, Ben Mottershead, and spoke about his journey from working in agencies to becoming a freelancer and starting his own practice. Ben has around a decade of experience in the creative industry and has worked with some amazing clients ranging from Coca-Cola to Nike; he possesses a wide range of skills covering animation, motion design and strategy.
We loved talking to Ben and felt all the wiser for it, gaining valuable insight into what it takes to become a freelancer. Here are some of the key points we took away from the chat:
Build your network organically
Ben stressed the importance of taking the time to build strong relationships and connections within the industry, suggesting that instead of just contacting people in search of work, try to get to know more about them and what they do. He makes sure to "always be available for a coffee or phone call" and highlighted that being a nice, friendly person demonstrates that you'd be good to work with.
Talk about your work
"The more people you tell about who you are and what you do, the more likely it will benefit you in the long run". This goes hand-in-hand with building an organic network, you might not get the work immediately, but the more you put yourself out there, the more likely people will think of you when they're looking for someone for a project.
Understand your flaws and work around them
Ben emphasised that being yourself is key, to not fight who you are as a person, and to focus on what makes you most productive. For example, if you work best at night, maybe try and find clients overseas!
We hope everyone who tuned in to the event took something away that they can apply to their own practice; we were really happy to see so many people asking questions and contributing in the chat. One major benefit of taking an event online is that people can attend from anywhere, it was great to see attendees from all over the UK, but also from international cities, such as Paris and New York as well!
We look forward to organising our next event and hope you can all join us again. Make sure to give us a follow on the social media links below to stay up-to-date with everything Identity Creates.
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