How To Be The Best Freelancer You Can Be
Sophie Phillip
Freelance Event Manager
Self-Care
Number one top tip! You can’t be of any use to your employer if you arrive on a site broken from the last gig.
A few tips:
You cannot work over 12-hour days consistently and still be the best possible version of yourself - this is not healthy or sustainable!
48 hours off between jobs – driving from one job to the next does not count as time off.
Remember the outside world exists – leave the office sometimes and go and do something that has nothing to do with work. Run, go to the pub, go bowling, get a massage, whatever works for you.
Exhaustion is not cool – we don’t want to hear about how little sleep you got, we want to hear how great it is that you got 8 hours! Burnout being fashionable died a long time ago.
Food is fuel – you cannot perform without it, so don’t forget to eat.
Work smart not hard – working on a document at 3am will take you twice as long as doing it at 9am, go to bed and try again in the morning. You will be refreshed and nail it faster.
Know Your Worth
Knowing when to take a job and when to turn one down is tough. Your gut instinct will build over time and from making your own mistakes. A friend of mine only takes a job if it fits in to 2 out of 3 categories:
Is she learning?
Is she earning? (plenty)
Is she going to have fun?
(Friend/Source - Nat Taylor)
If you are finding it hard to figure out if you should take jobs or not, then figure out what you value and make your own list of requirements. What is important to you will be different to your colleagues so don’t start copying this list! Another option is to bounce your thoughts off your fellow freelancers, your friends that know you well will be able to spot when you are being pushed into taking a job or if you are being a fool and passing up on a great opportunity.
Your Reputation is Everything
The best way to grow your reputation in the industry is by being terrific at your job, nailing tasks, delivering on time and going the extra mile; this is what will get you noticed. Sometimes you will see people talking the talk, how many plant tickets they have, qualifications completed or countries worked in but at the end of the day everyone is judged on their output. There is no need for dick swinging (vagina swinging?), get your head down and show them just how brilliant you can be!
The second way to grow your reputation is by making pals, which in itself has two benefits, the first is that when things get tough on events your brand-new friends will come and help you out in the trenches. The second is that these pals will go on to recommend you and hire you for future roles.
Building a network can feel daunting but the basics are simple; friends and excellence. (LinkedIn helps too).
It is Only a Job
When you are on-site and spent the last 3 weeks solely with people who are working on the same event as you, it can feel like the entire world is working towards the first day of show. When it feels like something trulyterrible has happened because someone doesn’t have a wristband or a telehandler broke down in the arena, just remember ‘it is only a job’ and as long as no one is going to die, it is going to be ok. Yes it is very important we do our very best to drag that telehandler out and get the wristband to the VVVIP but nothing truly awful will happen while people wait!
Always keep your cool and remember, it is only a job.
Kindness
Leading on from ‘It is only a job’ is to be kind. This doesn’t mean you have to be soft, it only means that you need to recognise that the outside world will have an impact on the event bubble. Every person on your event site has a life which includes family and friends, as colleagues we don’t always know exactly what is going on in their life outside of work. When someone is acting out of character or their work is not up to par, always consider asking the question of if they are ok before acting.
Negotiating
Negotiation is a skill required for most jobs but for the event freelancer it is also about remembering to negotiate the finer details beyond the date rate or project fee. I made plenty of mistakes in the early days of my career not nailing down exactly what was in my contractual package. Catering, accommodation and travel are the big ones, get the detail in writing and never assume what you are getting. When you have been on the road for 3 months you quickly learn to appreciate an apartment with a washing machine versus a caravan without power!
The Freelance Female
The NOWIE team asked me to write this, so I thought I should dedicate a tip to how to negotiate the events world as a freelance woman. We do experience a lot of the same issues as men but often in a heavier aspect, I believe this is even weightier if you are a person of colour, have accessible needs or belong to any other socially oppressed category.
Handshakes – go in firm, the eyes should say don’t fuck with me, while the smile says let be friends!
When dealing with sexist men, don’t assume all of them in the same team/office are the same; you will find male allies in the most unlikely of places.
When a person says a sexist comment, ask them to repeat it like you are assuming you have heard it wrong, over and over again until they realize what they are saying is offensive, usually, it only takes about three times.
Don’t be spoken over in meetings, when interrupted just keep speaking at the same volume, eventually, they will get it. The same goes for when your female colleagues are being interrupted consistently, if your feel comfortable doing so, call it out!
Hire/promote/recommend people who are allies, they will call out those that are not. Curating a culture of mutual respect is a foundation for parity in the workplace.
Always, ALWAYS report grievances, as a freelancer you might be the only one comfortable enough to do this and you might just start something that causes real change within a company. This has been the case for me several times.
Never give anyone the power to make you feel small.
Recognise what privilege you have and use it to help those who don’t, maybe it the colour of your skin, your age, or you just have more pull than others. If you see an injustice, step in and professionally question it.
Talk to your male colleagues about their day rate and ensure it is relative to your own.
Don’t shit where you eat.
Like What You Do
You don’t have to be madly in love with every gig you work on but you should like it! When planning your year make sure you have a couple of passion projects booked in that you really care about. This means that you always have something to look forward to, especially on the tougher jobs. Maybe you take a role because of the team, the location or the event itself, just ensure that you don’t always follow the money because money alone will not make you happy.
Make the Most of Being a Freelancer
The main joy of being a freelancer comes in the name, you are FREE! So, make sure you make the most of it, take huge holidays and spend time with your family or go on a three-month-long trip to South America because you can. We don’t get sick pay or maternity leave or any of those lovely things that come with a salary but we get to run our own lives and that is bloody great so make the most of it!