Three years ago I decided to change my life — leaving my full-time position as a senior brand strategist at a large Milwaukee advertising agency to become a full-time brand strategy consultant.
This was a big decision for me, and one that required a lot of careful thought before actually making the leap! I realized I needed to have a few foundational elements in place before I jumped headlong into the freelance world. This included: building a strong portfolio of work, possessing a deep understanding of what services I could provide, getting set up as an LLC, speaking with other freelancers, growing my network and more.
Over the last few years, I realized there are a few other less-obvious learnings when you shift from full-time to freelance…and I’d love to share them with you, especially if you're thinking of making this change yourself!
Lesson 1: Work isn’t served up to you.
When you’re working full time at an ad agency, you often will be assigned projects as work comes in though a new business team. There are pros and cons to this — pros being — gainful employment! And some potential cons: your new project could be in a "less-than-inspiring" industry of new work, or the work doesn’t align with your morals or values. There could be additional tricky elements unrelated to the work or client itself — perhaps the team of internal individuals you're assigned to work with are feeling uninspired or there are huge budget and time constraints. Not an ideal way to start a project!
Here’s the flip side in the freelance world — you CHOOSE what projects you take on, and which ones you don’t. You choose your teammates. You choose the timing of when you take on new projects. You choose what industries align with your interests and skills. Choice and freedom is a powerful attribute of the freelance world. But do keep in mind that there will be times when you need to carefully evaluate your capacity for work, just as there will be times you won’t have as much work as you did when you were working at an ad agency. You need to get comfortable working with lots of unknowns — and view them as opportunities for growth.
There’s also discipline involved — can you turn down work if you’re overloaded with existing jobs? Or perhaps you’re asked to choose between a job that pays well versus one that leaves you feeling truly fulfilled at the end of the day? As a freelancer, you'll have to get comfortable making a lot of choices for yourself.
Lesson 2: Cultivate flexibility.
Flexibility is a huge perk of a brand consultant role — you make your own hours, design your specific project approach, and you create every offering to your client’s needs. In three years I haven’t had one client that’s exactly like another — and I love it! But it does require a shift in mindset.
As a brand strategist in an agency setting you’re often asked to work within a standard creative brief template, as the agency is responsible for a unified, standard approach among all strategists. You also have countless connections to extensive resources from a media, digital advertising, and PR perspective.
But in the freelance world, I’m often working with agencies of varying sizes, groups of other freelancers, or business owners with small, medium, and large businesses, etc. Nothing can truly be “templated” — for the appetite for research can be anywhere from HUGE to “scrappy” and you constantly need to be able to adapt your approach to the project at hand.
I personally take pride in creating custom research, business, brand and creative strategies for my clients. My secret? Understanding my own needs extremely well. As a freelancer, I'm very comfortable with estimating how much time a project will take -- as this is valuable information when you're crafting project proposals. This also helps create very clear and straightforward pricing for clients, so you can be surgical with both their time and money.
Lesson 3: Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone!
In an agency setting, I specialized in brand strategy — and there were many other strategists to rely on for help in all other departments -- content strategy, digital strategy, media strategy, etc. As a freelancer, it’s often just YOU and your client, and you’re their link to all things marketing and advertising! With this in mind, it's important to learn as much as you can about other fields, and elements of advertising, as well as continuing to broaden your network with other specialists in different fields of marketing so you can connect them as the best resources for your clients. I know I've truly enjoyed learning about other marketing disciplines beyond my own over the years, and it's helped me to create better brand and creative strategies for clients.
Leaving a full-time position to become a freelancer is stepping out of your comfort zone in a big way... but if you truly feel this calling — know that the only thing holding you back, is you. You CAN do it! And if later you decide to take a full-time position again? That’s completely fine. The lessons and growth you’ve gained as a freelancer will still stick with you for life.
If you have any questions about the freelance brand strategy life, feel free to drop me a line! I'd love to help in any way I can.
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