Being Freelance

David Airey is a freelance graphic designer based in Northern Ireland, self-employed since 2005. 
He's the author of several best-selling design books including Logo Design Love and Identity Designed - both of which started life as blogs, before turning into books... before turning into a steady stream of client work.
In this episode, David talks with us about:
Persuading his former employer to be his first freelance client
Why his early "business blog" flopped, and how switching to writing about design (not just his own) changed everything
Launching logodesignlove.com in 2008, and getting an out-of-the-blue email about a year later from a US publisher that led to his first book deal
How that one book grew into four published titles, translated into multiple languages
Niching down into logo and identity design after realising it was the part of the job he loved most
The costly early lesson of doing design work before securing payment upfront - and how he gets paid now
Why he's deliberately kept his business to just himself for 21 years
How those same blogs, barely updated these days, still bring in client enquiries years later
What makes a good client relationship, and why he pushes back on purely subjective feedback
Why he doesn't set long-term goals and prefers to stay focused on the present
Find David at:
davidairey.com
logodesignlove.com
and identitydesigned.com
JOIN THE COMMUNITY
You're not alone being freelance.
Come and hang out with your BFFs (Being Freelance Friends).
beingfreelance.com/community
 
NEW TO FREELANCING? THERE'S A COURSE FOR YOU!
The Being Freelance course is made for you!
Take the course and you'll also get 6 months FREE community membership.
 
FREELANCER MERCH
Get Being Freelance merchandise at beingfreelance.com/shop
Like VIDEO? - Check out the Being Freelance on:
Instagram - Instagram.com/beingfreelance
YouTube - YouTube.com/SteveFolland

Being Freelance is hosted and created by freelance podcast editor Steve Folland.

New full episode coming soon. But in this super short one - Steve Folland explains why he's not publishing a new interview this week.
Too often we rush on from one thing to another.
But by doing so we don't do justice to the thing we just finished.
With the Being Freelance podcast, that can mean not promoting an episode with clips, socials and emails. That doesn't help the podcast, the guest OR the listener who could have benefited.
Same in our freelancing businesses. If we don't reflect, get testimonials, build case studies, share... we don't help do justice to the project we just finished. We don't do justice to ourselves, to our client... AND we don't help potential new clients know what we're capable of, so weirdly, we're not helping them either.
If you find yourself rushing; pause. Try and build in some buffer to big up your business.
JOIN THE COMMUNITY
You're not alone being freelance.
Come and hang out with your BFFs (Being Freelance Friends).
beingfreelance.com/community
 
NEW TO FREELANCING? THERE'S A COURSE FOR YOU!
The Being Freelance course is made for you!
Take the course and you'll also get 6 months FREE community membership.
 
FREELANCER MERCH
Get Being Freelance merchandise at beingfreelance.com/shop
Like VIDEO? - Check out the Being Freelance on:
Instagram - Instagram.com/beingfreelance
YouTube - YouTube.com/SteveFolland

Being Freelance is hosted and created by freelance podcast editor Steve Folland.

Lisa Emmington is a freelance instructional designer (or as her newly SEO'd website puts it, a training course designer) based near Milton Keynes. 
She's been freelance almost her entire career, starting out as an IT trainer back when Apple Macs were a mystery box on people's desks, and has reinvented her business every time the market has shifted underneath her - from face to face training, to early e-learning software, to mentoring individual course creators today in the face of AI.
In this episode we talk about:
How the desire to be freelance came before Lisa knew what she wanted to be freelancing in
Spotting the shift from face to face training to e-learning, and moving with it
What happened when she and her husband became a limited company for three years, and why it made her invisible in the market
Rebuilding visibility from scratch with a social media VA and an SEO overhaul
Why "instructional designer" doesn't bring in enquiries, but "training course designer" does
Filtering and pacing leads using nothing more high tech than a paper diary
The balance between promoting decades of expertise and the very real ageism facing freelancers in their 50s and 60s
Her three income streams: templates, done with you mentoring, and done for you course creation
Pensions, retirement planning, and why she's planning to keep freelancing well past 67
What 60 actually looks like now, versus what she expected it to look like

So much great advice and things to think about in here around change in our careers - brought about by the inevitability of developing tech and age.
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EPISODE SPONSORED BY ECAMM
For years people have asked how Being Freelance live shows look so good. Well, this is the secret.

Ecamm is a video studio for your Mac. 
Give anything you do with video, a pro look in real time.
Presentations, screen shares, webinars, video calls, demos. Plus livestream/record in landscape & vertical at the same time, perfectly designed for both formats.
Try Ecamm for free. 
Use code BEINGFREELANCE to save 15% on your first payment.
JOIN THE COMMUNITY
You're not alone being freelance.
Come and hang out with your BFFs (Being Freelance Friends).
beingfreelance.com/community
 
NEW TO FREELANCING? THERE'S A COURSE FOR YOU!
The Being Freelance course is made for you!
Take the course and you'll also get 6 months FREE community membership.
 
FREELANCER MERCH
Get Being Freelance merchandise at beingfreelance.com/shop
Like VIDEO? - Check out the Being Freelance on:
Instagram - Instagram.com/beingfreelance
YouTube - YouTube.com/SteveFolland

Being Freelance is hosted and created by freelance podcast editor Steve Folland.

Zoe East has never had a proper job. A work experience placement at a big TV channel that felt old-fashioned and sexist put her off the traditional route before she'd even graduated, so she went freelance instead and never really looked back. That was over ten years ago.
She started with whatever work came along. The niche found her gradually: charities doing meaningful work, heritage and culture projects, things that will matter just as much when someone watches them in ten years' time.
This episode of the Being Freelance podcast with Steve Folland covers:
Getting started by networking and taking whatever came along
Winning six months of free studio space in a creative co-working community, and why staying there for ten years shaped the career around it
Building a niche in charity and heritage filmmaking - and why charity budgets are often better than people assume
Putting "win an award" on a vision board in January, and winning by April
The adventure filmmaking strand: films about running adventures across Iceland, Tajikistan and Patagonia, and getting into Kendal Mountain Festival and the London Mountain Film Festival
Why cold outreach has never worked for her, but word of mouth has - and how sharing only the work she wants more of has quietly shaped her client list
Dropping Instagram and going all-in on LinkedIn as the one social platform where her clients actually are
Monthly goal-setting sessions with a freelancer friend: yearly goals, monthly focus, and the accountability that comes from having to report back
The rate spreadsheet that makes quoting consistent and takes the stress out of pricing decisions
Buying almost everything secondhand, having all her kit stolen as her biggest low point, and using a post-COVID grant to buy her first ever brand new camera
Moving into the She Who Dares Wins studio with Michelle, and the documentary series and production company they're building together 
---

EPISODE SPONSORED BY ECAMM
For years people have asked how Being Freelance live shows look so good. Well, this is the secret.

Ecamm is a video studio for your Mac. 
Give anything you do with video, a pro look in real time.
Presentations, screen shares, webinars, video calls, demos. Plus livestream/record in landscape & vertical at the same time, perfectly designed for both formats.
Try Ecamm for free. 
Use code BEINGFREELANCE to save 15% on your first payment.
JOIN THE COMMUNITY
You're not alone being freelance.
Come and hang out with your BFFs (Being Freelance Friends).
beingfreelance.com/community
 
NEW TO FREELANCING? THERE'S A COURSE FOR YOU!
The Being Freelance course is made for you!
Take the course and you'll also get 6 months FREE community membership.
 
FREELANCER MERCH
Get Being Freelance merchandise at beingfreelance.com/shop
Like VIDEO? - Check out the Being Freelance on:
Instagram - Instagram.com/beingfreelance
YouTube - YouTube.com/SteveFolland

Being Freelance is hosted and created by freelance podcast editor Steve Folland.

French creative Émilie Chen had what she calls her dream job: senior designer at The National Theatre in London, working on posters she'd dreamed about since university. Years later though, it had turned sour in the studio, her mental health took a hit, and she gave herself 8 months to start saving money and figure out her next Act. 
What got her there wasn't a clever strategy. It was people. Co-founding the London chapter of Ladies, Wine & Design gave her the confidence to start asking the freelancers she was meeting, how they'd done it. Someone she cold emailed, handed her a contact sheet of art directors across publishing. And the recipe, she says, never changed: reach out, follow up, and keep doing it even when nothing happens for months.
This episode of the Being Freelance podcast with Steve Folland covers:
Co-founding the London chapter of Ladies, Wine & Design - starting with eight women in a theatre lobby - and how it built the confidence to ask near-strangers for advice, and to end up on speaking on stages (that got bigger and bigger over time)
Pushing back on a client who wanted her to create pitch work for free - and how that one conversation led to every freelancer being offered a fee from then on
Building a niche almost entirely from her old National Theatre colleagues, who took her name with them to new venues 
Waiting after a talk for the room to empty, then walking up to introduce herself 
Mailing a physical pack of postcards to The Guardian's creative directors and the years-later payoff
Surviving lockdown eleven months into freelancing, when her entire theatre client base vanished overnight, and the online directories that kept her busy until theatres reopened
The WhatsApp group of independent theatre poster designers who share contract terms, rates, and overflow work
Why the hardest part of freelancing isn't finding clients - it's learning to be a good boss to yourself
This episode is available to watch in video on Apple Podcasts, YouTube and Spotify.
The generosity of others shines through in this conversation. And how Émilie herself is passing that kindness on. 
You can hear how important having a community around her has been for Émilie - you can have that kind of thing too - if you’re freelancing solo, come join us in the Being Freelance Community. You’re not alone being freelance.

---

EPISODE SPONSORED BY ECAMM
For years people have asked how Being Freelance live shows look so good. Well, this is the secret.

Ecamm is a video studio for your Mac. 
Give anything you do with video, a pro look in real time.
Presentations, screen shares, webinars, video calls, demos. Plus livestream/record in landscape & vertical at the same time, perfectly designed for both formats.
Try Ecamm for free. 
Use code BEINGFREELANCE to save 15% on your first payment.
JOIN THE COMMUNITY
You're not alone being freelance.
Come and hang out with your BFFs (Being Freelance Friends).
beingfreelance.com/community
 
NEW TO FREELANCING? THERE'S A COURSE FOR YOU!
The Being Freelance course is made for you!
Take the course and you'll also get 6 months FREE community membership.
 
FREELANCER MERCH
Get Being Freelance merchandise at beingfreelance.com/shop
Like VIDEO? - Check out the Being Freelance on:
Instagram - Instagram.com/beingfreelance
YouTube - YouTube.com/SteveFolland

Being Freelance is hosted and created by freelance podcast editor Steve Folland.