[00:00:31] – Frankie
Hello. You are listening to the 100th episode of the Doing It For The Kids podcast! Where we swear a bit too much and talk a bit too fast about freelance life with kids in the mix. I’m Frankie and this is Steve.

[00:00:45] – Steve
Hello. 100?

[00:00:45] – Frankie
100.

[00:00:51] – Steve
Each episode, we take a question from the Doing It for the Kids community, but we start each episode by looking back at the last one.

[00:00:58] – Frankie
It was Lucy Critchley talking about feeling like an imposter.

[00:01:01] – Steve
Yes, doing Canva graphics.

[00:01:03] – Frankie
Yes. And feeling like that she wouldn’t be taken seriously, she needed to maybe do Adobe Suite training or something.

Helen Greenwood says,

“I’m in a similar situation to you, Lucy, although I can use Photoshop and, to a lesser extent, Illustrator at a push. My thoughts:

Your clients are happily paying for your work in Canva and no one is writing letters of complaint that you don’t use Adobe Suite, so is it really something you want to spend time on? I also tell myself that I need to do a graphic design course so I won’t be taken seriously. I panic about using the word ‘designer’ to describe myself because I only use Canva, and yet here I am, merrily helping clients to create social media graphic designs.”

[00:01:43] – Steve
Jo Shock said,

“Firstly, I want to thank you for your mini rant on creativity, Frankie, because I would love everyone to realise that creativity isn’t just about being artistic! I work on streamlining systems, which on the outside looks like the least creative job in the world, but it’s actually problem solving layered on top of problem solving, which is definitely creativity. Heck, we all need extreme creativity to be a parent sometimes.

As for impostor syndrome and requiring qualifications, I think we grew up in a world that put a lot of stock on qualifications, but the world of work is more fluid these days. This shift is great, but I wonder if we’re still struggling to shake off the ‘shoulds’ that we grew up with.”

Interesting point!

[00:02:27] – Frankie
And Emily Crosby says,

“The not being properly trained thing is fascinating. This year, a London uni has started a podcasting MA, and so many women in podcasting have told me they considered applying for it. One of them’s been running a successful production company for years. If anything, she should be teaching the blooming course. I think we — mostly women — are conditioned to think that qualifications convey legitimacy. Like you both said in the episode, if you’re doing it and people like it, you’re legit.”

[00:06:04] – Frankie
We have reached 100 episodes of this podcast, which is genuinely bonkers. High five.

[00:06:12] – Steve
Mind your wrist.

[00:06:13] – Frankie
And rather than doing like, what we usually do, which is answer one question from somebody and go into great detail and waffle, waffle, waffle. Instead, we’re going to waffle across multiple questions in an Ask Us Anything type format.

So, I put a call out on Instagram for questions on literally whatever you want. And we’ve got quite a few.

[00:06:32] – Steve
So we’re going to pick out a load of question and answer them much quicker than we normally do, right?

[00:06:36] – Frankie
Correct.

[00:06:36] – Steve
Okay, here we go with our AUA quick fire questions.

First up, Becky Jacobs: “Have you ever regretted going freelance?”

[00:06:47] – Frankie
Absolutely. 100%. Multiple times this morning.

Yeah, I would say my most poignant moment was the first year I had to pay actual tax and payment on account and all that, and I basically didn’t do my math right at all and ended up with a massive tax bill that I couldn’t afford to pay. That was… I definitely regretted being self employed at that point.

[00:07:09] – Steve
Have I ever regretted going freelance? You know, I don’t think I have.

[00:07:14] – Frankie
Oh, shut up, for God’s sake. Sorry, carry on… it’s a beautiful story. Please continue.

Layla Alexander says, “You can only eat one thing for the rest of your life. What is it?”

[00:07:29] – Steve
Apples.

[00:07:30] – Frankie
Apples. That’s a good shout.

[00:07:32] – Steve
I like apples.

[00:07:33] – Frankie
It helps.

[00:07:34] – Steve
But also, I’m not picking one variety of apple. And apples do change in their taste, their texture. You get different ones from across the year.

[00:07:44] – Frankie
I wonder, Layla, if we’re allowed to cook?

[00:07:46] – Steve
Yes, I could cook the apples.

[00:07:49] – Frankie
Poach it or stew it.

I’ve got more of a meal in my head. I’m not sure that’s quite what she’s asking. I’m thinking like a Cornish pasty. Is that one thing?

[00:07:59] – Steve
Well, I suppose it is. You’re right. You found a loophole here.

[00:08:04] – Frankie
It’s a meal in pastry. Specifically, there’s a curried one I had, a curried vegetable one I had once. I would gladly eat that for quite some time.

[00:08:16] – Steve
Franky Shanahan says, “What’s your proudest achievement and what’s your lowest point in each case? What did you learn or do next?”

Well, proudest achievement, in all honesty, winning that podcast award.

[00:08:30] – Frankie
Stop it.

[00:08:31] – Steve
What?

[00:08:32] – Frankie
No, that’s nice. That’s great.

[00:08:34] – Steve
That felt amazing.

[00:08:35] – Frankie
It did.

[00:08:36] – Steve
We were up against proper big media companies.

[00:08:39] – Frankie
With loads of staff and budgets.

[00:08:42] – Steve
Particularly somebody who partly makes his living out of making podcasts and has spent so much extra time, like the amount of effort that you and I have put into this podcast — as well as my own podcast — winning that genuinely legit award felt amazing. So sod you, I don’t care. I’m proud of it.

[00:08:59] – Frankie
Yeah, absolutely.

[00:09:00] – Steve
In which case, what did you learn or do next? Bugger all. It’s always going to be down hill from there.

[00:09:07] – Frankie
I’m genuinely proud of getting through the lockdowns. They were really bloody hard. And similarly, I’m proud of what I managed to achieve when my children were really small, which at the time I knew was hard, but looking back on it now, I’m like… bloody hell!

[00:09:26] – Steve
Franky also says, “What’s your lowest point?”

[00:09:29] – Frankie
I’ve had quite a few moments where I’ve had to refer to my lawyer because I’ve had some emails. Those are the scenarios where I’m like, “I want to quit, I don’t want to do this anymore. I’m not cut out for being self employed because I’ve just had a really scary email and I don’t know what to do about it and is my career over?” You know, that kind of stuff. It literally makes me want to crawl under a rock and not come out.

I’ve survived them all, by the way. None of them have come to anything. Just so we’re clear.

[00:09:56] – Steve
Lowest point? I think the moments where I’ve had too many of my eggs in one particular basket and then that basket has smashed. Obviously, it knocks your finances, it also knocks your confidence. And clearly what I learned from it is trying to never have all your eggs in that one basket again. In fact, financial worries in general, whichever way they come at you, those are hard.

[00:10:28] – Frankie
Frankie Gilman says, “What’s your most memorable moment or moments from the podcast?”

[00:10:33] – Steve
This is easy for me. It’s one that really stands out in my head. I could still put myself back in it and laugh all over again! It was the time when Frankie lived in, like, a flat above somebody else, right? So there were people doing work in the flat below and she came back and she said into the microphone, “god, I’m sorry, I’ve got these two men banging on my living room floor”.

[00:11:02] – Frankie
God, that was so early on! That was like one of the first episodes, wasn’t it?

[00:11:05] – Steve
If you listen to that episode, the laughter goes on for a very long time, but in reality, it went on for about 10, 15 minutes.

[00:11:13] – Frankie
We cut half of it out.

[00:11:16] – Steve
Leila Ainge asks, “Which episode are you most proud of and why?”

[00:11:21] – Frankie
One of my rants, Frankie TM rants!

Basically, her husband was a massive dick and was not supporting her, setting up her business in the early phases of her business. In fact, he was doing the opposite of that. And I went on quite a lengthy tirade, but I’m super proud of that episode.

[00:11:41] – Steve
Love a Frankie rant.

[00:11:45] – Frankie
Roswen Knight says, “In the movie version of the Doing It For The Kids podcast, who’s playing you?”

[00:11:49] – Steve
Clearly Hugh Jackman.

[00:11:52] – Frankie
Clearly.

[00:11:52] – Steve
Why would you doubt that? Because if it’s not Hugh Jackman, then it’s Shane McGowan. It depends what the film is. Is it earthy and gritty?

[00:11:58] – Frankie
Who the hell is Shane McGowan?

[00:12:00] – Steve
From the Pogues.

[00:12:04] – Frankie
Okay, yeah.

[00:12:05] – Steve
No, Hugh Jackman, clearly. The parallels are just… They just mount up.

[00:12:10] – Frankie
Uncanny.

I think I would like Joe Lycett to play me in the movie version. I think he’d really nail it, to be honest. He’d give it his all. He can swear like a trooper as well. Also the Hugh Jackman, Joe Lycett chemistry. Oof.

[00:12:25] – Steve
Yes.

Natalie Doyle asks, “What’s the best and worst business decision you’ve ever made?”

[00:12:34] – Frankie
Well, the worst business decision was having children.

No… I love them! But I had been freelance for three or four years before I had a baby, and then my career basically died when I had my son. I mean, it’s recovered, but…

[00:12:50] – Steve
Doing It For The Kids wouldn’t exist without them though.

[00:12:52] – Frankie
This is true, fair point. So maybe it’s both?

[00:12:54] – Steve
Yes.

[00:12:54] – Frankie
Having children was the best and worst business decision I’ve ever made!

[00:12:59] – Steve
Jon Richards, “What’s your favourite podcast snack?”

[00:13:03] – Frankie
I have learnt that podcast snackage, soft or meltable is preferable over hard, cracky, dry, makes loads of noise, gets stuck in your throat.

[00:13:14] – Steve
There was a time that you sat there with a whole tub of sorbet because you’d had the shopping delivered and there wasn’t enough room in the freezer for the sorbet, so you ate it, the whole thing, while we recorded.

[00:13:27] – Frankie
Oh, that was good.

[00:13:29] – Steve
Claire Grace asks, “What client red flag gets you running to the hills?”

[00:13:34] – Frankie
Won’t sign a contract.

Oh, no. Yes! My favourite of all time — I sent them my contract and she sent it back to me, annotated. Like, a tracked-changes document where she’d basically changed 50% of the contract. Like my standard services agreement thing, they changed it. Like, 50% of it. I was like, “yeah, no”.

Liz Mosley says, “What impact has the podcast had on your business and your communities that you both run?”

[00:14:11] – Steve
Well, I wouldn’t have a community without the podcast.

[00:14:13] – Frankie
Well, yes, indeed.

[00:14:14] – Steve
But you had the community before the podcast.

[00:14:17] – Frankie
True. And it has completely changed the community and my relationship with it and people’s relationship with us and me. And I genuinely don’t think Doing It For The Kids would have got as far as it has if we hadn’t started the podcast. It’s an all round great means of building relationships with people. It’s good and it’s good fun.

I would argue, because when we started it — you were like, “I can’t do a podcast where I give advice to people. That’s awful. I have no advice, I know nothing”. And now you’ve gone on to make a course where people literally pay you for advice.

So has it impacted your business? Yes, definitely.

[00:14:59] – Steve
Jeanette Dibstal asks, “Top tips on how to secure a freelance contract with new or existing clients?”

Oh my God. That’s a proper question.

[00:15:10] – Frankie
My default for anything like this is the old Anthony Burrell, ‘work hard and be nice to people’ mantra. Do good work, be nice to your clients, you will always secure more work.

[00:15:23] – Steve
But also, you know where it says to secure a freelance contract with existing clients? I think part of that is just by taking an interest in their business, having conversations with them, but also maybe following them online, like seeing what they are up to. In doing that, you’ll have little interactions with them where maybe just by seeing you interacting with them, by having that feeling that you care about their business, they will go, “oh, I need to ask that person to do this thin”g. Or by having an actual conversation with them, you might spot an opportunity to help them solve a problem with what you offer and so on.

[00:15:55] – Frankie
That’s good advice, Steve. You should make a course or something.

[00:16:01] – Steve
Fiona Thomas Peter asks, “How do you structure your freelance working week? Break days into hours? Allocate days to different jobs?”

That feels like we could do a whole episode on that question.

[00:16:14] – Frankie
It does a bit. Bottom line — structure. What’s that? No clue. My brain doesn’t do structure. It does, “what is the most pressing thing you need to do today and concentrate on that!” most of the time.

[00:16:26] – Steve
Time for one more. Charles Commins asks, “Who’s your favourite Charles?”

[00:16:32] – Frankie
Charles Dickens. Charles Darwin. Obviously, King Charles. Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. What’s his name?

[00:16:41] – Steve
Charlie Bucket.

[00:16:42] – Frankie
Bucket.

[00:16:42] – Steve
Charles Leclerc.

[00:16:43] – Frankie
Who’s that?

[00:16:44] – Steve
The Ferrari F1 driver. He is a handsome, charming b*stard.

[00:16:49] – Frankie
Googling it.

[00:16:50] – Steve
Oh my God.

[00:16:51] – Frankie
He looks about twelve.

[00:16:52] – Steve
Charles de Gaulle.

[00:16:53] – Frankie
Heavyweight.

[00:16:53] – Steve
I mean, he has his own airport.

[00:16:55] – Frankie
I think genuinely, other than Charles Commins.. Obviously this is indicative of where I’m at in my life, but I follow Charles Dowding on Instagram. Do you know him?

[00:17:03] – Steve
No.

[00:17:04] – Frankie
He’s like the big pioneer of ‘no dig’ growing of vegetables.

[00:17:10] – Steve
Wow.

[00:17:11] – Frankie
But he strikes me as a genuinely really nice man.

[00:17:15] – Steve
So you’re saying he’s better than Charles Commons?

[00:17:17] – Frankie
No, I’m just-,

[00:17:18] – Steve
That’s kind of how it came across.

[00:17:20] – Frankie
I would have a drink with Charles Dowding. I think it’d be quite interesting.

[00:17:22] – Steve
Charlie from Busted. Wasn’t there a Charlie from Busted?

[00:17:30] – Frankie
The lead singer with the gappy teeth? He could play you in the film of Doing It For The Kids Steve!

[00:17:34] – Steve
Oh my God, she actually just said that.

Okay, that was fun. Thank you so much for, well, for listening to this for…

[00:17:46] – Frankie
100 episodes!

[00:17:48] – Steve
And for all of your comments on all of them, your shares.

[00:17:53] – Frankie
Yes, your amazing advice. Yeah, wouldn’t be the same without that.