Category: FEU Training Blog

IN SUCH a competitive environment, it’s vital to be proactive in getting your work under the right people’s noses and showing them why you’re the best person for the job. To help you do this, some direct sales techniques will help.

Identify and target your ‘hot leads’

Establishing new work can be a lengthy process so, to avoid wasting valuable time and resources, it’s important to focus your efforts on those people who are most likely to be commissioning your type of work now rather than take a scattergun approach.

You’ll probably already have some likely candidates in mind. As well as these, it’s advisable to expand your radar by keeping up with who’s hiring whom and when, e.g., through word of mouth and online research. Once you start looking actively and regularly, you’ll be surprised at how many opportunities are out there.

Set realistic targets

If you’re currently going through a hectic period, it can be difficult to find time to do much else. However, to create work continuity, you need to keep an out for future opportunities constantly.

Get into the habit of setting manageable targets, e.g., you commit to contacting one potential client per week. Here, ‘contacting’ doesn’t mean a passive email that you never hear back from or a message left on voicemail. It means getting through to the ‘buyer’ to instigate two-way communication and move a step forward towards agreeing the commission e.g., an email that results in a producer agreeing to look at a demo; a phone call to set up a meeting with an editor.

You’ll probably get some ‘quick wins’ but it often takes several conversations over a period of time to get that final ‘yes’, so patience, persistence and follow- through are key.

Research and prepare

• Find out as much as possible about the potential client and their needs before making contact for the first time and keep asking questions on an on-going basis. This will allow you to pinpoint the specific experience and skills that you have that will best match their needs.
• Think about how the client will benefit from hiring you and be prepared to spell out these benefits. In addition to your talent and experience, think about the less obvious benefits that differentiate you from the competition and add value. For example, the client may be deciding between several wedding bands, all with an excellent reputation. Your USP (unique selling point) is that you live locally, which means that you can pop in to the venue the night before to ensure that things are set up properly for the big day. This re-assures the client that everything will run smoothly and is one less stressful thing for them to think about. Ca-ching.
• Decide on how to deliver your pitch and what you need to use to showcase your work, e.g., you might have a 15-minute window of opportunity over coffee so you take a laptop to show the client your blog on screen or perhaps you’re delivering a formal presentation to a group of executives where you’ll need to ensure all the right technical equipment is on hand.

Practise your delivery

The amount of effort you put in to this will depend on how important the work is to you, how complicated the pitch is and how much time you have to deliver it. At the very least, rehearse your introduction and key messages, i.e., the most important details that you wish to convey at that time.

You need to be aware of how you come across to others too. Just like any performance, preparation and practise will help you manage your nerves and convey confidence. If you feel that you know what you’re talking about, you’ll also be less self-aware with the headspace to better listen and observe the client and adjust what you’re saying if necessary.

Also, using appropriate and dynamic vocabulary that builds a clear and enticing picture in the client’s head, being animated when you speak, using positive body language and varying the volume, tone and tempo of your voice to make it more interesting are all important factors in getting the result you want.

Ask for the work

In sales terms, this is called ‘the close’. If people seem to be reacting well to what you’re saying, do prompt them to make a decision by asking for the work. For example, “You seem to be happy with everything that we’ve talked about. Would you like to go ahead?”

It doesn’t matter if they say ‘no’ because this is a way of flushing out a concern that they perhaps haven’t mentioned yet. So, you might say: “OK, is there anything else that we need to cover before you can make a decision?”

Be courageous

If you’re not keen on the idea of ‘selling’, use the passion and enthusiasm you have for your work to motivate you. You offer something valuable that people want, but they can’t hire you unless they know that you exist and how perfect you are for them! The alternative is waiting and hoping that work will land in your lap. You may get dribs and drabs with this approach but taking control and being proactive is logically a much better strategy.

If you’re nervous to start, bear in mind that the more practise you get the more confident you will become – especially when you see your efforts paying off.

More info (free to members)

• Quick tips on pitching your work
• e-courses on related topics include Business Skills for Freelances; Marketing your Work, Social Media for Freelances and Negotiation for freelances.

IF YOU HAVE one or more goals that have been hanging around on your ‘to do’ list for ages, it’s time to think about why you’re procrastinating. Look at each goal and ask the following questions:

Do I really want to achieve this goal?

Perhaps your life and aspirations have changed since you set this goal. If this is the case, cross it off your list to make mental space for the things that you still want to do.

Also, consider if this is your goal or is a goal that you think you should or could pursue because it’s a typical ‘next step’ or is perceived by others as something that you’re meant to be doing.

You won’t be motivated unless, in your heart of hearts, you value the attainment of this goal. If you don’t, you’ll constantly find reasons to put off starting your journey or you’ll give up at the first hurdle. Don’t let life be, “should have; could have; would have…Didn’t.” Rather, concentrate your efforts on what is truly important you.

Is this goal overwhelming?

If you have a major goal that perhaps will take some years to achieve, it can be difficult to know where to start and to keep motivated throughout the process.

If this is the case, break down the overarching goal into smaller, more manageable steps. Also, set deadlines to deliver each milestone. Doing this will help you see what you’re achieving as you progress and build stepping stones to what may currently be the distant horizon.

Am I weighed down by self-limiting beliefs?

In some instances, our ‘inner voice’ sabotages our efforts even before we begin: “I’m not really good enough,” “I’m not a natural leader so who’d listen to me?” “I’m being over ambitious”, we tell ourselves.

This way of thinking often stems from what we learnt in childhood. For example, a highly intelligent colleague of mine admitted that he constantly struggled with decision making. His inner voice told him: “I don’t know what to do for the best,” and “I might make the wrong decision” which often meant that others took control. Consequently, he found that he was failing to capitalise on career opportunities and also that he was resentful of those who were moving on to achieve bigger and better things.

After much reflection, he concluded that this self-limiting belief came from growing up as the youngest in a loving and protective family of four children. As a child he was happy to follow the lead of his adored elder siblings but now realised that, in adult life, taking control of his own career path and fulfilling his potential required a different approach including creating a more constructive inner dialogue.

If you suspect that you are holding yourself back, listen out for what your inner voice is telling you. Every time you finish off a sentence with something that stops you moving forward, test out your views. For example,

Thought: “I’d love to get the book I’ve written published...

Inner voice: “…but I’d never get an agent because I’m not good enough?”

Test questions:

• Is this a fact or is this an assumption I’m making?
• Have I tried to get an agent?
• How do I know how good I am if I haven’t tried?
• Even if one agent were to say that my book wasn’t for them, does this mean I’m not good enough or is this just one agent amongst many?
• Do I need to get an agent to get my book published?

The answers to such questions should help you identify the situations in which you're talking yourself out of achieving your goal even before you've begun as well as give you clues on what your short-term goals need to be, e.g., in the above, actions to find an agent would be first on your list of interim goals.

Am I resisting change?

Even if it’s for positive reasons, change can be daunting. This is because moving forward often means saying goodbye to something, e.g., if you get that wonderful West End part that’s within touching distance, this may mean leaving the town you love to move to London.

When you’re planning your goals, it is important to uncover underlying concerns and evaluate your priorities to ensure that the pursuit of this goal is worth the possible sacrifices.

Do I fear failure?

Success depends on the ability to be able to ‘Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway’. The path to achieving your goal is often challenging, especially if it involves considerable change. You’re likely to come up against hurdles and make mistakes. And, even if you try your best, the end result isn’t guaranteed.

However, successful people tend to view challenges and setbacks as learning experiences that take them closer to their goal. If things don't work out as they plan the first time, this doesn't put them off or make them feel stupid but provides them with valuable information on how to improve.

Alternatively, there’s the Homer Simpson approach: “You tried your best, and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.” Amusing Homer, but we’ll ignore that advice thank you.

Need help with your goals? Phew, it’s FEU

• Apply for the ‘Tools for Goal Setting’ workshop - London, 11 December. Also look out for workshops in your region in 2016.
• At your convenience, try out our e-course Overcoming Freelance Challenges at the digital learning centre. Here, you’ll also find a wide range of learning opportunities and information that will help you grow your creative career.

FEU TRAINING is supporting young members with the Get Fit for Freelancing initiative, which aims to help young people establish themselves in the ever more competitive entertainment industries.

To do this, we’ll be running a targeted programme of training courses and networking events that aim to help young creative professionals understand and overcome the challenges that freelance work entails so that they can more easily and quickly build a successful career.

To coincide with the TUC’s Young Workers’ month, we’re kicking off this November with:

• Get fit for Freelancing – 20 Nov, London
• Get the best deal: how to pitch for work and get paid properly – 25 Nov, London

Coming up…

We’ll be expanding the programme over the coming months including developing online facilities that will improve access to skills development opportunities and support. You can learn on the hoof, in bit sized chunks, or sit down and work your way through an entire online course – whatever is most convenient.

In the meantime, there is already a range of free online information and learning opportunities available for all our members including e-courses from marketing work to managing finances already available at www.feutraining.org.

Photo by Kate Willoughby: young members up for the challenge at recent FEU Training event

A surprisingly large number of people have suffered from being bullied, harassed or discriminated at work at some point or another.

According to an FEU survey, the creative industries are no exception to this with results showing ‘shocking levels of ill-treatment, inappropriate behaviour and a culture of silence, with only one third of those suffering bullying and harassment reporting the incidents’.

Given that few companies have policies that extend to freelance workers, unwanted behaviour can be particularly challenging to overcome.

Help at hand

If you experiencing bullying, harassment and/or discrimination, your union can support you. For example:

• FEU Training is holding a ‘Dealing with Bullying and Harassment’ session on Nov 17, which is free to members. Read more and apply now.
• The FEU has produced a ‘code of conduct’ and is working with employers and organisations in the creative industries to adopt this code. It has also published a set of guidelines for freelance workers as part of the ‘Creating without Conflict Campaign’.
• If you think your are being bullied, you can take the following steps immediately:
• Get informed – the FEU’s Creating without Conflict booklet is a good place to start and recommends the following immediate actions:
  • Contact your union representative as soon as possible to get advice
  • Keep a diary of events and the effects of the unwanted behaviour
  • Discuss with your union rep what outcome you wish to achieve. Most formal procedures expect you to have tried to resolve the matter informally first.

Finally, don’t suffer in silence. Whether, it is union support or support from a colleague or friend, tell someone you trust what is happening and get advice to ensure that you nip the situation in the bud and avoid damaging effects to your work and well-being.

MINDFULNESS IS one of the latest buzzwords but what is it and why has it become so popular?

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is at the core of many Buddhist practices and includes many forms of meditation. It is also about learning to put your focus onto the task at hand at any given time, spending more of your life consciously, in the moment, fully experiencing what you are doing, without simultaneously worrying about what you need to do next, or what might have gone wrong in the past.

Why do we want to be more mindful?

Hands up all of you out there with a smart phone that has e-mail, internet, social media, text, oh and by the way, it also makes phone calls! I’ll bet there are quite a few. It’s almost become an essential tool for a freelance. But what has this gadget done to our lives?

When I started my career in the mid 80’s, if you left the office, you were not contactable, mobile phones existed, but were in their infancy, so few people had them. If you needed to contact someone, and they were out of the office, you wrote them a letter. This letter took a day to arrive, and even if answered immediately, took another day to come back to you. E-mail was barely on the horizon. In offices where information had to be obtained urgently, they used Telex!

Even as I write this, I find it hard to believe we worked like this, so I can understand how someone born into the current plethora of technology may struggle to imagine life without it.

However, there was an upside. You could plan your day, and set time aside for specific tasks with far less chance of being interrupted than you can now. When you were out, you could give clients and colleagues your full attention, because you weren’t trying to simultaneously answer ‘urgent’ queries from the office in your absence.

Anyway enough of the history lesson, or was that just old person nostalgia? Either way, the point is that technology has made it much easier for us to be in constant, indiscriminate contact with everyone, to work non-stop, to relentlessly network and interact. Added to the myriad of demands of every day life, it means that we can sometimes struggle to maintain perspective, focus and even our identity.

So what’s to be done about this? The answer for some is to practise mindfulness. There are two main aspects to this:

1. To habitually take time out of your day to deliberately do nothing, by which I mean, meditate. There are lots websites and apps that can help you with this. The Independent suggest their best 10 apps here. There is a growing body of scientific evidence about the benefits of meditation. It lowers our blood pressure, improves our immune system makes us calmer, helps us gain perspective, and allows us to hear our own inner voice, which often carries some of the answers to problems, that have been alluding us.
2. To do things mindfully, by which I mean recognising that carrying out a task is going to take a certain amount of time, so devote that time just to that task, focus fully on it, and nothing else. Don’t multi task, leave all thoughts, plans and worries about anything else you need to do aside while you do this, and just see how the quality of the experience changes for you. You will be amazed.

Doing this can transform your life. People rediscover joy in tasks that had become time-pressured chores. It can transform relationships. Consider a situation when a family member is trying to talk to you about a sensitive subject. As they talk to you, you carry on preparing a meal, while mentally trying to solve a work problem you have been mulling over. Ever done that? I know I have. Imagine instead taking a seat and really listening to what that person is saying. Imagine the difference it would make to them. As Richard Moss, an internationally respected spiritual teacher said, “The greatest gift we can give is the purity of our attention.”

So really, there’s much to be gained, and nothing to be lost by giving this mindfulness thing a go. If I’ve whetted your appetite, a good place to start is Headspace, where you can sign up for 10 days of short mediations for free. And of course you can just slow down, and start to think about what you’re doing as you are doing it, and start to notice more and more about where you are putting your attention.

More info

We’ll be holding mindfulness workshops around the country from the autumn so look out for updates.

AFTER OUR Get Fit for Freelancing workshop recently (targeted at young members and new entrants), I found myself wondering, of all the tips and advice offered, what was the single most useful recommendation I could make? How could I distil a two and a half hour workshop down into one great tip?

I thought about the session and all the issues we discussed. It was hard to focus on one being more important than another, especially as every topic had a quite different impact on each member of the group.

Get organised

For example, we covered being organised. There were some who rolled their eyes in horror at the thought of keeping tidy records, and using their diary to make all their tasks happen, as if I’d just asked them to eat a cockroach. On the other hand, others couldn’t imagine running their lives any other way.

Develop resilience

We discussed the whole issue of rejection, an occupational hazard for creative freelances, and had a long discussion about how not to take it personally. Then one of the group casually shrugged, and said, “Lots of people are going to say no to you, but some will say yes. It’s not personal, it’s a numbers game.” A completely different take, that took the sting out of ‘no’ for them.

Set boundaries

We spoke about setting boundaries between home and work, and the group had lots of suggestions how this could be achieved. We laid out what good goals were, and how it’s necessary to monitor your progress while staying flexible. We talked about assertiveness, resilience and motivation, all really important topics.

So what’s my number one tip?

But where could I find this top tip, this overriding piece of advice that could really make the difference for someone starting out? Then it hit me. On pretty much every topic we covered, there was someone in the room for whom this wasn’t so much of a problem.

This added so much to the session. It’s all very well me as the tutor saying, “you need to be organised,” or, “don’t take things personally,” but when someone else in the group leans forward with a genuine, works for them solution, it reinforces the point beautifully, and makes that advice much more accessible and possible for the rest of the group.

It’s to get out there and meet other people in the same or similar businesses. I’m trying not to use the word networking, because so many people have attached negative connotations to this word, but really, that’s what I’m talking about. However, in my definition of networking it’s just about putting a face to a name anyway. In my experience, these sorts of connections can often lead to work, but the emphasis for me is meeting interesting people, and maybe staying in touch with them.

Mixing regularly with other creative freelances helps you to understand that many of the pressures and stresses that may be getting you down, are often just a normal part of this world you have entered. The great thing is, that different people will not all find the same problems difficult that you do, so you all have the opportunity to support and learn from each other.

If someone does something easily that you find hard, ask them how they do it? Quiz them about how they think about this, and what steps they take to make themselves get on with it? You will be amazed at some of the answers you will get. Maybe not all of their strategies will suit you, but give the ones that do a go, and see what happens.

Where can I meet like-minded people?

There are lots of places to meet peers. The FEU Training events are special because there you can meet and work with actors, musicians and writers. Cross discipline collaborations have been born at our workshops, when people have met, shared ideas, and identified ways to combine their skills and interests.

Your union meetings and events are a great way to connect with people who share your passion, and who will have a wealth of knowledge and experience. There really aren’t many new problems out there, whatever you are worried about, other people will have solved. Find out how they did it, till you find a method you are happy to apply.

Use your creativity to find ways to link with other like-minded individuals. Create groups on Facebook, or whatever platform you prefer to work with. Keep up with people you trained with, or that you’ve met along the way. Make sure that this is a two way process. As well as looking for support, know that what you have learned, and what you do easily, will also be useful to others in the group.

So what’s my one piece of advice from this workshop? It’s to get connected, and stay connected, and learn from all the people you meet.

More info

• You find a range of straightforward e-courses at our digital learning centre from an overview of the business skills you’ll need to support your creative career to financial management. All you have to do is register on the website if you haven’t done so already.
• You’ll also find a range of quick tips including networking and confidence building.

IF YOU ARE anything like me, every time you have a lull, as soon as you get booked up with work again, you have instant 20/20 clarity about how you should have spent your free time!

Learning to make the most of periods of down time is an important freelance life skill. Some people are proactive and organised, and utilise down time well. Others have some nifty strategies for making sure they don’t enjoy, or use wisely the breaks in their schedule.

Here are some common displacement activities that we may have noticed other people indulging in:

1. Becoming nocturnal, spending days in bed, and nights watching rubbish television or YouTube videos.
2. Playing the pseudo busy game, where you get up as normal, switch your computer on, tell everyone you are looking for work, or are working on your book, then spend the day on Facebook.
3. Running around like a headless chicken panicking loudly about the situation while doing absolutely nothing constructive about it.

So what’s the alternative?

First of all, recognise that you are entitled to a break, so when you have free time, make sure you use it to help relax and re-energise for the next piece of work.

Plan in support work

When there is an unwanted gap in your creative work, use this to catch up on the support work you need to do to create more work opportunities in the future, e.g., telephone people you haven’t been in touch with for ages, pitch some ideas to potential clients, update your website, learn a new skill. The more efficient you are at this sort of work, the less likely you will be to have unwanted gaps in your schedule in the first place. Also, try to do this work little and often so you achieve work continuity rather than leave it until you are desperate.

Take time to reflect

Did you know that people often make the big life changing decisions when they are on holiday? A different environment, no deadlines with no expectations from anyone else for a day or two can help to create ‘thinking space’ that both allows you to reflect on your life and inspire new ideas. So, rather than spoil your free time by allowing a dozen unhelpful worries cloud your mind, use the time constructively to clearly assess what you need and want to do next. If you’re in a period of downtime because you can’t get work, it’s really important to honestly analyse why you’re in this position and what you can do to stop it happening in the future. Just grab a notepad to jot down any significant realisations or options, and go think.

If you’re not sure where to focus, start with your goals:

• Are you still on the path you want to be?
• Do you still love it?
• Are you making progress?
• What is not happening that you thought would?
• What do you want instead? And so on.

Sometimes this process will give you a gentle nudge to make changes while occasionally there will be an epiphany! Whatever happens, you will be clearer about what it is you are working towards.

Start new projects

After reflecting on your current situation, you may have come to the conclusion that you need to create some new options for yourself. You could be considering a new venture with other like-minded professionals, or have identified new potential sources of work, or even new types of work.

Perhaps your contemplations have led you to recognise that you need to acquire or brush up a skill. You may even find you have been working too hard, and need to spend time on a hobby or with friends and family.

Whatever it is, getting involved in something new will get your creative juices pumping again, and even if what you are doing is not strictly related to what you consider to be your core business, you will be amazed how often it subsequently feeds into, or leads to something much more relevant.

Do stuff

It’s a good idea to have a list of things you want to do, so when there is an opportunity you can just start working through it. The funny thing is that when we are actually in that situation, we often tell ourselves, that we can only do those things when we know what’s happening about work. Then when we sort the work out, we no longer have the free time!

We need to re-categorise the activities on this list from ‘nice to do,’ to ‘essential maintenance’. Just as you would wait for a quiet spell to have your car serviced, this doesn’t make it an unnecessary task.

Your necessary maintenance could include time in the gym, catching up with friends and colleagues, reading books, going to the cinema or theatre, visiting museums and art galleries, and filing.

Create gaps

If you are lucky enough to have a steady stream of work with no unwanted gaps, it’s important to plan some in. Let everyone know in good time, and schedule in holiday breaks. It won’t necessarily occur to anyone else to remind you to do this, so it’s important that you take responsibility for this yourself.

No breaks can all too often result in becoming stale or running out of steam. No-one would expect to employ someone to work all year round, with no breaks, no holidays and no time off for good behaviour. So don’t assume you have to because you are freelance.

Managing your client’s expectations, or being prepared to plan ahead to accommodate your client’s key dates, should allow you to organise this time off for yourself.

 

THERE ARE a few recurring themes that seem to reliably crop up when we run our Interview Skills workshop ‘You’re Hired’, and last week’s was no exception. Here are three common blind alleys and how to avoid them.

1. Be clear about your achievements

Many of us don’t like to appear to be big headed, so we play down our experience. This is stellar behaviour for a dinner party, but pretty short-sighted for an interview.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve spoken to people about their work achievements, and had to tease out information that made it clear that what they did was spectacular. Problem is, most interviewers will not make this effort. Whatever you say will be taken at face value, so if you, trying not to sound big headed, say you are “quite good’” they may well think to themselves, “What a shame, we wanted great.”

Lets think about it. The people interviewing you probably know nothing about you other than what you wrote on your CV or application. They will have other people lined up who are similarly qualified. When you walk into that meeting, what you say and how you behave will be all they have to go on when it comes to making a judgement about whether you are right for this role.

If you are coy and say things like: “Well we were fairly pleased with the outcome… we met the deadlines by the skin of our teeth… it wasn’t all me, we worked as a team… ” When the whole truth of the situation was that you drove the project; major catastrophes struck, but you got the bit between your teeth, and made sure they were resolved and while there was a team, you were leading it, and you inspired people to work hard to make sure that the job got done. If you don’t actually say all this, how can they possibly know?

2. Interviews are two-way assessments

Most of us forget that an interview is a two-way process. They might be interviewing you for the job, but you are interviewing them as potential employers and clients.

Now we all know this intellectually, but when preparing for an interview, our focus is usually on whether we are going to pass muster. We worry about being asked stress test questions, or being put on the spot, instead of being comfortable with the thought that anyone who thinks that’s an appropriate way to judge a potential employee, may not be someone you particularly want to work for.

Now the truth is that often the person you are preparing to meet has little or no experience of interviewing, so on some occasions, they are quite possibly as nervous as you. I always see trick questions as a sign that they are not confident in their ability to judge people, so I start to see if I can help make their job easier by trying to raise the aspects of my experience that I think they will be most interested in.

Most important is to recognise that your CV or application got you through the door as suitably qualified. The interview is more about relationship. So prepare well, be yourself, make sure they see the competent professional you are, and go make your assessment of whether these are people you want to do business with.

3. Stay in the room

Finally, because interviews can be a stressful situation, we can mentally duck out of the interview to have a rather frantic conversation with ourselves in our head. Just don’t.

You may think this sounds like a ludicrously obvious thing to suggest, but have you ever found yourself in a stressful situation, looked up and realised that someone just asked you a question and you never heard a word?

This happens when the conversation you are having inside your own head is so loud or intense, that it drowns out, or distracts you from what’s happening in front of you.

If you are prone to this, you will know exactly what I mean. In an interview, if asked a question and you give an answer you don’t like, you can find yourself saying to yourself in your head, “What was I thinking, what a stupid thing to say, I could have said…”

Unfortunately, while you are doing this, the interviewer has moved on to the next question, and there’s a very high chance you’ll only partially hear it, so the answer to that question is likely to be unsatisfactory too!

This is what I mean by staying in the room. Even if you have given a terrible answer, stay focussed on what is being said in response to it. If it really was an awful answer, and your interviewer has any skills, they may well you ask a supplementary question so you can clarify what you’ve said. If this doesn’t happen don’t be frightened to go back to it at some point in the conversation when there is a suitable opening.

If you are having a conversation in your head, you are no longer present, and that will be apparent to your interviewer. So if you catch yourself in an intense internal conversation, switch it off and get back out there. It’s not over till it’s over, so make sure you stay in the game.

If you can steer yourself clear of these three blind alleys, you will give yourself a much better chance of success at your next interview. Good luck.

For more info, go to FEU quick tips.

THE INSPIRATION to come up with new ideas is usually second nature to creative people. However, sometimes we simply run out of gas. If you feel like you’ve had your last good idea, don’t panic. Most of us hit the inspiration wall at some point. Best thing to do is to try to pinpoint the reasons why you feel like you’re running on empty. Consider the following:

Are you fatigued?

If you’re nearly at the end of a big project or you’ve been meeting rolling deadlines for months for example, you might be under par without even realising it. Fatigue will cloud your mind so it may be time for a well-deserved break.

“Get serious, I can’t take time out,” you say. This may well be true now but promise yourself you will take a break at the earliest opportunity. As a freelance, it’s particularly important to look after your mental and physical well being to ensure that you stay fit for work in the long run. In the meantime, take baby steps, e.g., a half an hour walk every day, a glass of wine with a friend, an afternoon doing something that you enjoy will go towards perking you up.

Are you bored?

If you’ve been doing something for a long time, you may have come to the natural end of this particular creative journey. You can’t get inspired about it because you’ve done it too many times. If this is the case, it’s time to explore new pastures. “What planet do you live on? This work is my major source of income. I can’t just give it up,” you say. Fair enough, and I’m not suggesting you dump your bread and butter work on the spot. However, you can start looking up from the rut to imagine what it is that will inspire you again.

You might need to make just a few small changes to get your mojo back. Alternatively, it might be a big change that’s needed that will take serious effort to achieve. Either way, planning and acting to move forward will help put a spring back into your step.

Are you too isolated?

Working alone for at least some of the time is a must for many freelances. However, too much isolation can be inhibiting. Perhaps you just need a good night out or perhaps you need more contact with other creatives on an on-going basis. Nowadays many freelances have set up working groups, e.g., in which they meet up once a month to discuss work and challenges. Since much of our work involves stories or music about people, getting out there to interact is essential (mostly).

Are you too introspective?

While the creative mind is a wonderful thing, too much brooding can lead us to the dark side.  Experiencing the work of others can help us step back into the inspirational light. So do make the the effort to go to the theatre or a gallery or whatever it is that feeds your creative soul and that helps re-ignite passion for what you’re doing.

More info

Try our ecourse ‘Overcoming Freelance Challenges.’