- Hi everyone.
Back again for another video with Ariel here.
(laughs)
- Can't get enough of me. (laughs)
- Can't get enough of you.
Ariel recently started freelancing, right?
- Yes.
- As your main way of earning money.
That's what you do now.
- Yes.
- And so-- - It's become more serious.
- Yes.
I want to do a video talking about that.
Because freelancing is something
that I only do part time, really.
So I feel like I've not really dived
fully into this freelancing world.
So Ariel's going to share some, I don't know,
some advice, some struggles you've faced
and actually, I will say also that
she's got a podcast about freelancing.
It's called, Portrait of a freelancer right?
- Yeah.
- Anyway, tell us about freelancing.
Why did you decide to pursue this terrifying
way of life?
(laughs)
- Scary is accurate.
So, it is an idea that I've wanted to do
for a long time.
I started making videos when I was 16
and completely as a hobby.
There was no aspirations to make it any bigger.
And so for the first few years of doing it
it was just something I did for fun.
I was studying English at university
and I was kind of like, I'm not sure exactly
what I'm going to do but I had career goals, (laughs)
like maybe publishing.
Hopefully writing books and stuff.
So I did see myself getting a proper job.
I just didn't know in what capacity.
But the more that I made videos, the more that
I started to like doing stuff on my own.
And being very independent.
The more I enjoyed it.
And the bigger my audience got, the more
it seemed feasible.
That I could sustain myself
by doing stuff online.
So then there was a catalyst moment.
An epiphany of sorts
where I went and did an internship,
and this internship was lovely.
This is the thing that I don't
want anyone to think.
That it wasn't a good time, because it was.
The people were nice, the office was really fun.
It was at a publishing house.
And so it was really valuable for me as a person,
by the way, I make book videos.
So as a person who makes book videos
it was so valuable to get to go into a publishing house,
and it was a small publishing house,
which meant that I got to see every aspect of it.
It was fantastic, but I hated it.
The people were so nice, everything was so nice about it,
and I honestly can't really imagine a way better office.
It was a really great office.
- It's just that office life didn't suit you, right?
Yeah.
- But it was, I didn't like it at all.
Okay, this is going to sound to a lot of people
like I'm a spoiled brat.
I can accept that.
Waking up at 7:00 a.m.
Every single day, made me want to die.
- Right.
- It was awful.
I hated it.
Because, if I have to wake up, like today.
I had to wake up at 7:30
to get ready and everything.
That's fine.
Once a week, I can do that.
When it's necessary, I can do it.
But every single day--
- Do you think it's not so much the time
being early in the morning
but the fact that it was a deadline?
- Yeah. - Almost thing.
Like you have to be working at this time.
- No, yeah.
It's like if I want to wake up
at 7:00 a.m. of my own volition.
I don't mind 7:00 a.m.
as a concept.
(laughs)
You know.
But I hated that it was the same time everyday.
But also, that I only had one hour for lunch.
Which was actually, apparently pretty liberal because--
- Yeah, some places get half an hour.
- Yeah, some places only get half an hour.
So I was actually granted a lot of lunch time
but it was only an hour.
But also, again, it's not just the hour.
It's the idea of a time constraint.
So this internship was so illuminating because
it really made me realize what I want is
a lifestyle that I can control
and now that I feel confident that I've
kind of closed that door.
I kind of had to know
that I didn't like that office lifestyle.
I'm just gonna pursue the freelancing life.
- So maybe, if you're watching this and you're feeling
I don't know, the thought of working in an office
is really discouraging for you,
sounds like you might be like Ariel.
- (laughs) You might be like me.
- And that freelancing life might be a good thing.
I will say though, that with freelancing
because you had that experience of doing videos
and doing a project, you obviously
had some time management skills and can be self-motivated.
- This is a thing.
Because, you can't just jump into freelance
and think it's gonna be woo-hoo you can
work whenever you want and you don't have
to wake up if you don't want to.
You can stay until whenever you want.
I actually do have a lot of experience
managing my own time.
I did my first year of university completely online--
- Oh, wow.
- In a foreign country.
- Wow.
- So I had no support system.
Anytime that I wanted to ask for help
I had to email and wait a few days.
So there was a lot of trouble shooting on my own end
where I had to figure everything out.
I had to self-motivate myself.
I didn't have classes to attend.
I had lectures to watch online.
- Wow.
- And so I had to make sure I watched them, right?
So that was a really big lesson.
Also in high school I did a few
courses online.
I did gym online.
That should be illegal.
So a lot of the stuff I have done
I feel like has given me that foundation
of motivating myself to work when I need to work.
So here's the thing.
When I tell people that I didn't like going into the office
and going and having these time constraints and everything.
It's not that I don't like doing work.
I like doing work.
I like doing stuff.
I just like doing my own stuff in my own time.
- Yes, and that is the very important
distinction to make here I think.
Because a lot of people think freelancing
means total freedom, but you have to work a lot.
- There's a lot of work.
- It's hard.
- It's very hard.
- And you do have to have that self-motivation
to be able to do it.
- Yeah, I've been drowning lately in emails.
Can we talk about emails for a hot second?
I want to make a video
I'm going to make a podcast episode about emails.
I hate emails.
- Same.
- They are the worst part about freelancing.
So basically, freelancing...
I've been having this thought in my head.
What's the difference between freelancing
and self-employment?
I think freelance is self-employment.
But self-employment isn't necessarily freelance.
Would you call someone
who owns their own store a freelancer?
- No. No.
- But they are self-employed, you see what I'm saying?
- Yes, that is a good point.
- So I kind of think I'm a mixture of the two
because I'm self-employed by making my YouTube videos.
That's not really freelance because
no one's hiring me to do that.
But I'm also, I do edit videos for other companies.
- And that's freelancing. - So that's freelance.
So I'm kind of doing both.
But essentially, freelance and self-employment
you're running your own business.
You are your own business.
You have to bring in your own clients.
You have to bring in your own collaborators,
connections, et cetera, et cetera.
and all of that happens through email.
I can tell you right now it's a stressful time.
(laughs)
My inbox is my most stressful part of freelancing.
- Yeah, I like to ignore mine.
(laughs)
- Yeah, yeah, no.
And so do I and then I'm in trouble
because then I've pushed my own projects back.
- Yeah, would you say that that's one of the
toughest things about freelancing then
is that you have to deal with everything, right?
- There's no support.
- There's no one to, I don't know,
re-fill the printer with paper or whatever.
You have to do everything yourself.
- There's no help.
There's no assistance.
There's no higher up.
There's no, hm.
I don't know how to do this,
I'll just ask my boss.
It's like, okay--
- Nope, you've got to work it out.
- Ariel, what do I do?
- Google.
(laughs)
- There's no input from other people.
Unless you're clever and you build a community of support.
- Yes, actually this is a good time
to bring in that by the time this video comes out
the Design Life Community should be live.
- Oh, I've signed up and so should you.
(laughs)
- There we go.
So we wanted to make this place
for people who do freelance to have
a water cooler of sorts.
- Ooh.
- Because you do feel like
you're working by yourself and you're alone.
So we wanted to make a place where you can come
and get advice, get feed-back and give it as well
because we want it to be a place where
everyone shares their thoughts.
I feel like you're going to have
some good thoughts to share.
- I think that's really valuable because,
for example, I do a lot of work
with publishing houses and sometimes
I don't know what I'm supposed to do.
Like I don't know exactly what they want from me
I don't know what I should charge,
that's a huge problem, et cetera, et cetera.
And so thankfully through BookTube,
which is what people are calling
the BookTube Community is the book YouTubers.
Through BookTube I've met a lot of people
that are doing what I'm doing and work in publishing.
And so I have these friends who
I can reach out to and be like--
- That's great.
- And be like, dude, what do I do?
But then also, I'm so happy when
people email me or message me.
I had a friend a couple weeks ago
who was like, hey Ariel, I've never
done a sponsored video before,
I just got this offer--
- Like how much should I charge?
- How much should I charge?
- That's my favorite thing is when freelancers
talk to each other and help each other
figure out the price.
I think it helps the industry as a whole
and obviously for me this is more
about the design industry but
it can apply to pretty much everything.
You don't want to be taken advantage of.
- No.
- So you want the company to be paying
what you're worth.
You don't want them to feel
like they can get you at a steal, you know.
- Yeah, you also don't want to feel greedy though.
I really worry that I'm going to ask for too much
and they're going to be like, who does she think she is?
But then at the same time,
I need to eat.
- Yeah.
They want to work with you. - I need food Charlie.
- So yeah you do, it's essential.
- I really need it. (laughing)
- Well, okay, any last, I don't know, advice
that you want to share for someone
who is thinking that maybe freelance is the thing for them?
- What I would say is don't feel
like it's an all or nothing situation.
You don't have to today decide you're a freelancer,
drop everything else and throw yourself into...
You can do that if you want, but you don't have to do that.
The way that I've come into freelance
is part of the reason that I like freelance.
Natural, organic.
I did talk about this
a little bit on part of my podcast but
there's this idea that to be a proper freelancer
you have to do it all the time.
But you do it part-time.
- Yeah. - Right?
There's no right way to do this.
So what I would say is if you want to,
let's say you want to make YouTube videos, because
that is something we're both doing,
and we're both doing right now.
If you want to make YouTube videos
start right now, but don't put the pressure
on yourself that it has to be a full-time gig right away.
- Yeah, and that same can apply I think,
to any freelance industry you want to be in.
- No, exactly.
- If you're doing design, you can start
on little projects for yourself,
or little projects for stores that are around you.
Friends that have businesses, or whatever.
Just build up the work
and you'll have a track record, right?
- Yeah.
- That people can see.
- I thought of another tip.
I really want people to not feel like their
career has to follow a linear path.
I feel like there's this pressure
that the next thing you do has to be
bigger and better.
And then after that, the next thing
has to be bigger and better.
Obviously, ultimately we want
the trajectory of our career to head upwards.
In an upwards direction.
But if the next thing that you're really
excited and passionate to do
is not going to bring you as much income
as the last thing, don't let that stop you.
- I love that advice.
- Ah, thanks man.
- I don't know if I've ever heard someone--
- You were giving a real poker face there
and I was like, oh God.
- I was just taking it all in.
I love that.
I don't think I've ever really heard
someone talk about that before.
But it is important because you do feel
like you have this pressure to keep improving
and keep stepping up.
You don't want to feel like you're moving backwards.
But yeah, the overall trajectory
is more important than each individual project.
- You don't need each project to be bigger and better.
- Yeah, I like that.
- And don't panic, just do what you want.
- That was great advice to end on.
Thank you for having this chat Ariel.
- Absolutely, thanks for having me on again.
- Make sure you go and check out
her YouTube channel if you didn't
already from the last video.
She's obviously great.
- Thank you. - And you will enjoy it.
All right.
Give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it
and we'll see you next time.
- [Both] Bye.