- Hi everyone, welcome to a new video.
I've got a friend this time. - Hi.
- This is Femke, and this is my podcast co-host.
So if you listen to Design Life, which is our show,
you will have heard her voice before,
but maybe not seen her face.
- No, this is what my face looks like.
- Last year we filmed a video about podcasting 101
I think it was, right, where we answered lots
of questions about podcasting.
Today, though, we decided to film a video
talking about doing a side project with a friend,
because normally with side projects
you're doing them on your own, so there's not
really anyone else to think about, it can just be
your own personal project, but when you do one
with someone else, there is more things to consider.
- Changes the game a little bit.
- Yes it does. - A bit different.
- So do you wanna talk about how we started
our podcast, which is our side project together.
- Yes, and if you haven't checked out our podcast.
- Plug, plug, plug.
- You should, go to designlife.fm, and you'll see
our lovely faces and our episodes,
and we've been podcasting for almost a year and a half,
I think now. - Yeah, I think you're right.
- And we started it because, I don't know,
I guess we both had these, were having these conversations
together about design and freelancing and side projects
and stuff, and I think we both had the same urge
where we wanted to teach and help others,
and we realized there was a lot of value
in the discussions that we were having,
and so thought, why not turn it into a podcast.
- Yeah, we both listen to a lot of podcasts, as well.
- And that, too, yes.
- So what made you want to do a podcast like with me,
or with someone else rather than
just doing one yourself, though.
- Well, I don't know if I would be able to do one
by myself, and just be able to talk to myself.
I also like how we can share different perspectives,
and different views on things,
and sometimes, most of the time, we agree,
but sometimes we also disagree, which I think keeps it
really interesting, and so you kind of get to hear
two different perspectives.
- I wouldn't be able to have a podcast
if you weren't doing the editing of it.
There just wouldn't be time, you know.
So that's how, I guess that is a thing to talk about,
we split up the duties, which is definitely a pro
to having a buddy in your side project.
- Yes, splitting responsibilities, and if you are thinking
of starting a side project with someone,
I would recommend having that discussion up front
before you get started, and figuring out
who's gonna be responsible for the different tasks,
because it's gonna be harder to figure out later on,
and you're gonna be like, oh,
well I thought you would do that, and you know,
you kind of make assumptions about who's gonna do what.
So clear that up early on.
- Yeah, definitely.
We learned as well from, it was from listening
to the Seanwes podcast I think, right.
He talked about how when you're in a partnership
with someone, it shouldn't be 50-50.
That you should always have one person who's 51 percent,
and the other 49, so that there is that controlling state
to be the decision maker I suppose.
So in our partnership, Fem is the 51 percent.
- And so we made sure before we started
who was gonna do what, and so, you know,
you were very honest and very upfront at the start
about saying that you couldn't commit the time to editing,
and so I took on the responsibility of editing the show.
- And you had to learn to edit, as well.
- I did, which was a challenge, but fun.
- Oh shit.
(Fem makes beeping sound)
- I was gonna put that down.
On to questions.
- Questions, we have questions.
- We have questions. - Thank you
to those of you who asked a question, we will now answer it.
I don't know how to do YouTube.
- Randy has asked how we assign responsibility
and hold each other accountable to deadlines,
which I think is an interesting question.
So we talked about assigning responsibility,
we sort of decide within ourselves.
We just had a meeting actually this morning
about a new project that's coming up,
which is very exciting.
Maybe, I think we've got a question that might be relevant
to talk about that later, but anyway,
within that it meant deciding on responsibilities,
and who's gonna do what,
we pretty much just split it up fairly evenly, right,
like whatever made sense for us each to do.
- I feel like the workload is pretty even,
and if one of us can't commit, because of some reason,
like maybe we're super busy that week,
or have something on that kind of unfortunately
gets in the way, then we're very honest and upfront
with each other, and I feel like we're always helping
each other, like, oh that's fine.
There's a lot of give and take, I think.
- Yep, and being flexible, as well.
But I like the accountability side because I know
that every Wednesday morning we've got
podcast recording time in the diary,
and so I can't schedule anything else in there,
because Fem's gonna be there waiting on Skype for me.
- Likewise.
We always show up at the same time every week,
and yeah, that helps us keep accountable.
I think that's all you need is just something
in the calendar, and then you know that you gotta
show up every week, because you don't want
to disappoint the other person.
- Yeah, so set a schedule I guess would be advice
for working with someone else.
Okay, this is an interesting question,
what happens when we disagree on something?
A couple of people have asked about what to do
when perhaps the partnership isn't working out,
or I don't know, the side project isn't working out.
- I don't know, I guess sometimes there's been times
where we've each made a topic suggestion
and the other one maybe hasn't been as interested in it,
or hasn't wanted to do it as much,
and so I guess we kind of just let it sit there
for a little while longer before we decide to do it.
- And it's sort of up to if one of us wants
to suggest a topic, it's up to us to convince each other,
right, why it's a good one.
So like we can talk about this, this, and this,
and then generally we'd be like, yep, cool.
- You have to have a lot of trust within each other.
You have to know each other quite well,
and be accommodating towards the other person.
So yeah, you kind of have to have a bit of a founding
friendship or relationship there, I think.
- I think, too, it's important to pick to do
a side project with someone who has
the same mindset as you.
Like both of us are super committed,
and we know that once we start this thing,
we're not gonna lose interest two weeks later, or whatever.
We knew going into it, we were both gonna be committed
to this thing, and wanting to make it something big,
as big as we can.
- And having goals, too.
You have to have the same goals, if you don't outline goals
with each other before you start, I think that can cause
a little bit of,
if someone has a different goal--
- Yeah, especially if it's that someone wants
to just have fun, and the other person wants to
take it seriously and make it a proper thing,
I mean you're both just gonna be frustrated.
- Yeah, it's not gonna work, so you have to establish
that up front before you get started,
and make sure you have the same goals
and the same mindset going in, because otherwise
it's gonna get a bit tense.
- One last question from Michael says,
what's been the biggest surprise you've had
running your side project together,
and what are our future plans for it?
So, first of all, any surprises, or like, I don't know,
things that surprised you about working with someone else.
- Just how much fun it is, I guess.
There's play and work, you know.
Like it is something serious that we show up
and we commit to, but we also find it really fun,
and I don't think I realized how much fun I would have
doing it, that was kind of a nice surprise I suppose.
- Yeah, I agree, and I also really like having someone else
who is taking care of this thing, as well.
'Cause for all of my other side projects,
if I didn't do anything, they wouldn't get done.
Whereas with the podcast, when we needed to do
our website, you took care of that,
and if something needs to happen, we decide between us
who's gonna make it happen,
and we're gonna split the duties.
It just makes everything so much easier,
and I think more fun to work on
because I'm not having to think about every single aspect.
- And it's nice to sort of bounce ides with someone else,
as well, definitely it's handy.
- Future plans, let's end talking about those,
'cause we've got a pretty exciting future plan
for Design Life. - We do.
- We're gonna launch a community, which should be awesome.
It's going to be a place where people can join
who are interested in design, or you know,
creativity in general, and people who have side projects,
motivated creatives, as we say our podcast is for.
We want to gather everyone together and have this chat room
where, we're gonna run our own Slack to start with,
so that we have a bunch of different rooms
where you can talk about freelancing, about design,
get advice on your work, talk about the podcast in there,
as well, and we're planning on offering resources
and things to the community.
It's gonna be fun.
Anything else you think we should say about it?
- I am just very excited about it.
I think it's gonna be a great place to come
and have discussions with like-minded, creative people.
If you're looking for help, or advice,
or someone's, another different opinion,
I think it'll be a really great safe space to come to.
If you want to join the community, then you can go
to our Twitter page, we are @DesignLifeFM on Twitter,
and our pinned tweet will have instructions
about joining the community.
- Or, I'll put a link in the description.
- Oh yeah. - That's a thing.
- That's a thing on YouTube.
- Well I think that this video's been long enough,
but if there's any more questions you have about
doing a side project with a friend,
then feel free to leave them down below in the comments.
You can pop in an answer or some, too, maybe,
get used to using YouTube.
- I will learn how to do that, yep.
- Do make sure you check out our podcast, as well,
it is designlife.fm.
We've got loads of episodes about design, freelancing,
creativity in general.
Also, if you've been thinking about starting a side project
with a friend, and you've got a friend who is
on the same wavelength as you, and is interested
in the same idea, I would definitely say to go for it.
Would you agree?
- I would say go for it, yeah.
- Make sure you're on the same page,
and that you set goals and take it seriously,
and I think it could turn out awesome.
- Yeah, lots of possibility.
- Yeah, thank you for watching everyone,
give this video a thumbs-up if you enjoyed it,
and I will see you next week.
- Too-da-loo. - Bye.
(soft jazz beat)