Creative Freelancers in the Corporate World

If you are a freelance creative professional, you may have chosen your career path to avoid the restrictions that a corporate career demands – bureaucracy, time commitments, travel, long hours, and irrational leaders. And, you want to spread your creative wings and let your spirit fly, right?

Funny thing though - the corporate world actually provides an enormous opportunity for freelance employment, but there is a minor Faustian bargain that must be made when working within those structures. Your job is not to be a creative guru, nor have you been brought in to dazzle with artistry – you are there to dazzle with results.

It is critical for creative professionals to understand that corporate clients hire freelance creative professionals because they can’t do what you can do with the resources and talent at their disposal. They have a complicated problem, and they need your unique abilities to make it go away. Period. They don’t really care about your passion, your skill, your craft, or your process – they just want their problem solved as soon as possible. This may assault your ego, but that is why you get paid: to make their problem go confidently away, and as soon as possible. If you can do so with creative acumen and brilliance, even better – but don’t expect them to bow to your brilliance.

People in the corporate world are the same as you and I, but they have to live in that world. They can’t really influence their system, and neither can you, so you must embrace working within that structure. And, you can enjoy the fact that as a creative freelancer you can be the breath of fresh air in their structured, routine workdays. Creative work is the fun stuff - as long as you don’t give them any cause for concern, you can (and should) be the best thing in their week. People love working with freelance creatives, and they want to love working with you – don’t give them any reason not to.

What is required of you in the corporate world, ahead of all creative deliverables, is the provision of confidence. Make it clear that you have the vision, and that everything will be OK. You are the oracle. You are the solution. The client needs to trust that your expertise will give them what they need – not just what they want. If that trust is lost, then you are in for a really difficult gig. But if you give them what they need, they will reap results, and you reap the reward. Don’t over-reach on the job – just be focused, efficient, and “professional” in every sense of the word.

A creative freelance professional is hired to make time-based, thought-intensive challenges go away. The client needs ideas, they need innovative plans, and they want your relationship to be fun – as long as you provide accountability so they can trust that their bosses won’t hammer them later. You are getting paid so they can shine. So get polishing, comfortable in the knowledge that your time in the corporate world is on your terms, according to your strengths.

We Are What We Buy

You’ve heard people say, “You are what you eat.” By extension, since about 98% of North Americans aren’t farmers and aren’t growing a significant quantity of personal food, it’s easy to suggest, “You are what you buy.”

People often self-identity by their personal choices. Alongside your career and your specific interests (“I’m a teacher”; “I’m a sports nut”), you may also say “I’m a foodie,” “I’m a vegetarian,” or “I’m a beer aficionado.” These are personal choices that shape, and are shaped by by your commercial purchase decisions.

Many believe that commercialism and materialism are soul-sucking scourges that are corrupting the foundation of society. The problem is, like it or not, materialism is one of the greatest foundations of modern society. Ever since “civil society” was conceived, it has been accompanied by various degrees of urbanization, technical innovation, and “stuff” that the “haves” accumulated and the “have-nots” dreamed of. The American Dream is about one rising up like a phoenix from the ashes of your poorer, “lesser” self. According to this definition, success is defined by what you can accumulate: if so, then success in western society is defined by the things you buy and the status (and feelings) that accrue to you from those purchases.

If people just bought products that specifically (and only) filled their immediate needs, brand names would be largely unnecessary. It seems crazy to think that someone pays significantly more money for 500mg of acetaminophen with a recognizable “brand-name” label, than a package that is only slightly less recognizable – but of course, many people do.

The system works, in part, because people tend to be pretty distrustful. One of the primary reasons a “brand name” works is because it confirms “consumer confidence” that the product will meet expectations – brand communicates expectations. Acetaminophen, one would assume, is a highly regulated and mass-produced chemical that is surely identical between a store-brand medicine and a name-brand medicine. They may even be manufactured in the same facility - but one is perceived as the “value brand”, and is less trusted as a result. We pay more money for trust.

It’s not always about trust though. Think of beer – the core promise of a beer purchase is that the fizzy liquid will have 5% alcohol in it, and that will create a change in your physical state that you desire. Do you trust an expensive import to deliver a finer state of inebriation than a regional value product?

So why do people pay more for Heineken than they do for the buck-a-beer stuff? Is the product more trustworthy? Probably. Are the ingredients better? Maybe. Does it matter if the choice of yellow fizz makes one look more discerning? Likely. The core product and its core function isn't the only point behind the purchase - the consumer needs to feel that the product somehow defines them.

Manufacturers spend a lot money to make you think ingredients are better (once filtered, is Rocky Mountain Water better than Ontario tap?), or that the product will somehow make you be (or just look) better. Ironically, this is often the key difference between brand names and non-brand-name products – value-priced products don’t advertise. The “trusted brands” advertise…. which is a big part of the reason why you trust them, even though you are paying a price premium that allows them to convince you they're trustworthy. It's kind of crazy. Sam Walton’s genius with WalMart was that he only stocked branded items, knowing that the manufacturers would end up doing all his advertising for him. His business became a trusted retailer as a result.

Thomas J. Barrett, the founder of Pears’ Soap, created one of the first products that stamped the product name right into the product. Barrett knew what he was doing – he said, “Any fool can make soap. It takes a clever man to sell it.” This unique point-of-difference was the key to elevating Pears' products from another. Soap used to be sold in crates and barrels, and store clerks were asked for “two bars of soap”. Once brand names were stamped into the bars, people started asking for “Pears’ soap.” Once other manufactures caught on, Pears’ invented a translucent soap bar, a point-of-difference that was supported by established name recognition. Similarly, Ivory (who had also started to stamp their name in the soap bars) learned that filling their bars with micro-bubbles of air until they floated imparted “purity” (99 44/100 pure – ever wonder what the other 66/100 is?). The “branding” of the name into the bar made it easier for the manufacturers to talk about the unique product features – which begat advertising. Was the product any better than competitors? It’s hard to know, because those competitive manufacturers didn’t survive. It was all soap, and both products surely got people clean, but the key difference may have been that more people simply felt better about purchasing Pears’ or Ivory. That’s all that mattered in the long run.

Not-so-translucent Pears

These days, we tend to buy “brands” that directly support our beliefs. Organic food may make you feel better about your health. Chocolate is a “guilty pleasure”. You buy imported wine to entertain guests because you want them to feel welcomed and special, but you drink from a box when you’re home alone. Dandruff shampoo will keep you from being a social pariah, while the label on your shirt will accelerate your social status. Brand choices are rarely supposed to make you “just like everyone else” – they are in fact designed, albeit subconsciously, to make you unique, a palimpsest of personal expressions that define who you are - through the things you buy. Even anti-consumerists self-identify by the absence of corporate products in their lives – but they still need food and clothes, which must be purchased somewhere, somehow.

It may seem a little bit tragic, but consumerism and materialism are at the core of the human condition – for better or worse, we are what we buy.

Sustaining Guelph

I wrote this article for "Guelph Sustainable Solutions" (www.guelphsustainablesolutions.com), published June 5th, 2013.

What Sustains Guelph for me?

What sustains Guelph for me is the fact that my children know their hometown as a walkable place and a vibrant collection of people that do things together. Their home town is so much more to them than a scattering of houses, schools and stores, and it seems so important for children to feel this way about their home.

On summer Saturdays we walk together downtown to the City Hall splash pad (where they always meet countless friends), before sharing cookies (for the kids) and coffees (for the parents) at a downtown cafe over newly purchased books from an owner-run bookstore. On a Friday winter evening we build ice-block sculptures in the downtown square during Fourth Fridays. We walk along river paths in the spring and watch the nesting geese. Their school trips travel to concerts at the River Run Centre, and to dairy farms that are only a short bus ride away. They see community volunteers working together to make great things happen – from Hillside Festival events, to Guelph Humane Society education programs, to the Christmas tree pickup that supports the Guelph Children’s’ Foundation.

I often think that Guelph is Canada’s largest village – it certainly feels that way when you look at our community through the eyes of a child. Even though we attract world-class arts, cultural and sports events, the community is still small enough for a six-year old to recognize the Mayor as “the lady with curly hair who is always smiling” - because they have met on numerous occasions about town. Global industries thrive alongside a growing culture of cross-sector entrepreneurs who know that creative collaboration is the clearest path to success (and the most enjoyable one). We can watch Hollywood movies at lavish theatres, or locally filmed documentaries at a repertory cinema. OHL, or pond hockey? Tiger-Cats, or touch football? Avant-garde jazz on Wyndham Street, or country music at the Ranch? A bustling mall or a busy Farmer’s Market?

Guelph is a magnificent place to raise a family because so much of the community operates as a family – doing its best to be caring, nurturing, thriving, educational and fun. Like any family, you get out of it what you put into it – but if your family embraces this community enthusiastically, there is so much to be gained.

Rob McLean – Owner, Sociable Communications & Marketing, / Vice-Chair, Guelph Chamber of Commerce.

Consultants, Rules and Conformity

Dear social media “experts”: f&%# off with the rules. The point of online communication is that it is self-published. There aren't supposed to be any rules - in fact, rules miss the point entirely. Your intentions are likely honorable in trying to make other writers adhere to your vision, but seriously - it takes gall to declare yourself the voice of reason in a system that in anarchic by nature. The only “rules” anyone should follow with online communications are their own – the same rules that they live their life and conduct their business by. Anything less would be inauthentic and dishonest.

Many “consultants” proclaim various “rules” under the guise of providing “business advice”, but seriously - the only time cookie-cutter advice should apply to an entrepreneurial enterprise is if someone is trying to build a business EXACTLY like someone else’s. One of the main reasons why it’s great to be an entrepreneur is that it gives you the freedom to play by your own rules: it is supposed to be anarchic. It is supposed to be the precise vision of the founder, rules be damned.

People take social media far too seriously. I’m guilty of it too – one of my Facebook “friends” recently chose to share their pro-handgun beliefs - repeatedly. I took them to task on it, only to be told to “chill out”. No big deal there – just a sharing of viewpoints, really – but if I heard them discussing this topic at a party, what would I do? Call them on what I think is bullshit, or would I just walk away to find a discussion more suited to my taste? Probably the latter, and yet, there I was continuing to be engaged with this person through the gauze of the Internet. Why don’t I just “walk away”? Better yet, why don’t I “unfriend” them? It’s not like I’m breaking ties forever – it’s only Facebook, right? If I’m not enjoying the discourse, then why continue? I gain nothing from sticking with a conversation that I’m not engaged in.

Another thought: I recently received a Facebook message stating, “On April 30th, I will delete all Facebook friends that haven’t “liked” my business page.” My first reaction was that this person has paid too much attention to a social media consultant…. but at the end of the day, do I really “know” this guy? Nope. Do I know what his business is? Not really. Why are we Facebook “friends” anyway? He’s a nice guy - I think we met at a networking event or something. But if I haven’t engaged his services professionally then I can’t choose to “endorse” his business with a “Like” (which is my view of what a business “Like” means – everyone is entitled to their interpretation of “rules”, right?). So, there goes a Facebook connection.

But really, who cares? How well do I really “know” all of my Facebook connections? How about you? Can you say with confidence where they all live? Have you been to their homes? Are they friends – really? My answer is “no” in about 25% of my Facebook connections. That just seems weird to me – I mean, I post photos of my kids there. Lots of ‘em. I also strive for a work/life balance, which means that I don’t really want business connections to know about my daughter’s birthday party – it’s simply not relevant to our business relationship. We may become friends in the future, but if someone added me as a “friend” to preach their real estate listings, but I don’t recognize them on the street, then we ain’t friends yet.

So, I’m choosing to stick with people that I do recognize immediately in person for Facebook, and I’m keeping my professional contacts in other areas. That’s not to say that my future best pal isn’t lurking in my current group of Facebook friends already – but I don’t believe we’re going to become best friends through the trolling of each other’s complaints, accomplishments and family photos. It takes an actual personal connection for that relationship to grow. That will come later – and if it does, I will be honored to ask for their hand in Facebook friendship once again.

My point? This is all my choice – it is how I will choose to manage my human connections. People will tell me differently, and they are entitled to their opinion, but they shouldn’t tell me I’m wrong. I may not be “right” - I may even actually be “wrong”, but I don’t adhere to most business rules anyway (within the law, of course): it won’t do me (or my clients) any good to be fake about that now. We are all unique, and our uniqueness is the value that we bring to every relationship – professional, personal, real, online, or imagined.

The Local Entrepreneurial Economy

There has been significant growth in the number of Canadian start-ups over the last few years. Blame the economic downturn for sending a bunch of former workers to entrepreneur-land if you wish, but I believe it has never been easier for someone with a great idea to hang out their own shingle – and it has never been more straightforward to keep a small business sustainable.

Ten years ago, a company like Sociable would have required a physical office, an office manager, an in-house creative director, office supplies, and even a sign on the door. This would have carried a price tag of at least $100,000 per year – with no guarantee of customers.

Now, my entire business infrastructure is plug-and-play, and it travels with me, including all partners and client services. I conduct real-time meetings with partners and clients regardless of their location (or mine): my “physical location” is stitched together between online meeting rooms, partner spaces, and a variety of low-cost (usually free) web tools that make face-to-face meetings a pleasant luxury, rather than a day-to-day necessity.

Does this mean it’s easier to do business? Absolutely not: now more than ever, innovation and ideas have the opportunity to flourish on the open market – but you have to fight for them, and availability of distribution does not guarantee ease. It takes a lot of hard work. That hasn’t changed regardless of evolving business models. Independence comes with a heavy price in terms of effort and engagement, and while affordable technology makes it easier to work, you still have to do the actual work to earn any results.

The key element that an entrepreneur needs to cultivate is respect, and respect is granted to independent entrepreneurs now more than ever: no longer derided as a basement-dwelling wanna-be, an independent entrepreneur can command respect as a savvy, efficient and agile results-generator. The trick is that you need to provide evidence of results – not BS on a website, but real, measurable, repeatable results – and that means good ol’ fashioned effort, by bringing your ideas to life.

Finally, even the most locally-focused business or organization can benefit from global reach, which is now readily available. It’s not just that you need to engage a new global customer base these days – far from it. Rather, your local customers can reap the huge benefits that your global networks can provide: distribution and supply-chain logistics, lightweight technologies, production, muted trade barriers of language and culture, and even foreign market knowledge and shared best-practices will benefit even the most local of businesses.

Self-employment is not easier than it used to be, but it is more sustainable, and the tools exist to make your customers more satisfied - with less time required, and a much better cost for the services they require.