[00:00:57] – Frankie
Hello. You’re listening to 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.

[00:01:06] – Steve
Hello. Yes. Each episode, we take a question from the Doing It For The Kids community, do our best to answer it, but we start each episode by looking back at the last one. Last time, we were talking about…

[00:01:16] – Frankie
The mean male fish in my tank is what we were talking about. Who, by the way,- he died about 24 hours after that episode went out! I felt really guilty about that.

[00:01:28] – Steve
WOW.

[00:01:31] – Frankie
No. We were actually talking about how to work out what your rates should be.

[00:01:35] – Steve
Which explains these comments we had in.

Francesca Spence says,

“I took my last full-time reward package as negotiated in 2020 (total value of salary, employer’s pension contributions, bonus car allowance, and private medical) and then multiplied it by 1.3 and divided that by 228. Because I’d seen that calculation used somewhere before. Don’t ask me where.”

[00:02:00] – Frankie
Sorry to interrupt. 1.3 presumably so that it includes tax? Because freelancers have to earn more than a salary, right? So is it that the 1.3?

[00:02:11] – Steve
Oh, yeah. Maybe…

[00:02:12] – Frankie
And then 228 is probably the amount of days you actually work in the year?

[00:02:15] – Steve
Francesca continues,

“Then I went on to the inflation calculator tool on the Bank of England website and checked what that day rate would need to be in today’s money, given I had been hired at that salary one and a half years before, so it was already out of date. It was a weird number, so I rounded up to the nearest £50 for the day.

I tried to review those rates at the start of each calendar year, aiming to add 10% ish to cover both inflation and career progression/additional experience. I love that. Though the 10% might be a bit high now inflation isn’t quite as rampant.”

Good use of the word rampant!

Francesca continues,

“I normally charge full or half days though. If I was doing an hourly service, I would probably add another 10 to 20% rather than just dividing by 7 or whatever. That’s because I know what I’m like. It would never actually only take an hour of my brain’s time. Not exactly scientific, but hey ho.

PS, I benchmark mine to other professional service providers, but it’s very hard to do. Some charge 2 or 3 times what I do, others half. Not that useful.”

[00:03:18] – Frankie
Sorry. I love that she says it’s “not exactly scientific”. This is by far the most scientific breakdown of how anyone has worked out their rates ever!

[00:03:27] – Steve
That was really good.

Also, I mean, quite interesting what she says about-, she based it on her last salary, right?

[00:03:34] – Frankie
Mhmm.

[00:03:34] – Steve
But the fact that 1 and a half years ago that was created, it was already out of date. And so many of us maybe don’t put our rates up every year or whatever. And it just goes to show how quickly she found that had gone out of date.

[00:03:47] – Frankie
But also, so many of us base our freelance rates on jobs that we had, like, 10 years ago. Do you know what I mean? We’re like, “Oh, yeah. Well, when I worked at blah, I earned this”.

Folks, that was 10 years ago!

[00:03:58] – Steve
Yeah.

[00:03:58] – Frankie
You know, the world moves on.

Matthew Knight says,

“In terms of putting your rates up, I think we, the freelancer, are always more scared of doing it than the client would be offended by us doing it. So put them up. Rates are a starting point and there’s always room for clients to negotiate it down rather than simply saying no. And if they flat out refuse to work with you at the rate you’re asking for, perhaps they don’t value the work enough anyway, and you’re freeing up time for a client who does.”

[00:04:22] – Steve
Laura Mingozzi-Marsh says,

“In the early days of the podcast, Frankie used to say, ‘raise your rates’ each January. Listen to Frankie. Remember, you can warn existing clients in advance, offer them discounts for loyalty, and much more. If you’re transparent with them, then you have more power to ask for what you want. Also, just a reminder that December is only 2 weeks long. August no longer applies once you’re self-employed and have kids on summer holidays. So factor those holes into your income.”

[00:04:51] – Frankie
Yes. And Kiemia — who put in the question for the last episode — messaged me again with a follow-up, which is great.

She says,

“The main thing I thought I would get out of asking my question was that I thought there was a ‘right’ answer, but it really seems there was no right answer at all. We are so used to being surrounded by pay bands in the corporate world. But within freelance reality, this just isn’t the case. Freelance rates are very varied and seem to be calculated based on your own circumstances and financial situation.

So while I was hoping for a more definitive answer, what I’ve learned instead is that there is no right or wrong. And as long as it works for you and your clients, then you are in fact doing it right.

I’ve also put my damn prices up because of all of you! None of my clients questioned it. Just said a lovely little thanks for letting us know and that was that. Hooray!”

[00:08:11] – Frankie
Okay. Episode 113. It is anonymous. Hi, anonymous.

They ask,

“Hi, Frankie and Steve.

I’m struggling to get back into the rhythm of creating content consistently. This isn’t just an after Christmas thing. This is an after the summer last year thing.

I used to create every week without fail, and I know people like what I do. I even know it made a difference to my business, but I struggled with even once a month for the second half of the year.

What do you think? How can I get my making mojo back?”

[00:08:50] – Steve
#I’m making mojo back.# (To the tune of Sexy Back by Justin Timberlake).

[00:08:53] – Frankie
#Mojo’s back. Alright!# (To the tune of Backstreet’s Back).

Is it though?

[00:08:59] – Steve
That’s what you need. You need to change your Ring doorbell to have Frankie singing that. And then that’ll be it, fixed. We’re done for another episode! THANK YOU.

[00:09:09] – Frankie
You were sent this one. Do you know anything about what this person does?

[00:09:12] – Steve
No. Well, the thing is though, because whether it’s a podcast or YouTube videos or blog writing or newsletter writing, like, whatever it is…

[00:09:21] – Frankie
It’s all content! Content, content, content.

[00:09:24] – Steve
Content, content. Yeah. It’s that regular creation of something. How to get it back, how to get it back, how to get it back.

[00:09:31] – Frankie
He’s made notes. He’s looking at his computer. He’s made notes, that sly bastard.

[00:09:38] – Steve
Well, you were making a cup of tea!

[00:09:40] – Frankie
Yes. Fair enough.

[00:09:40] – Steve
Do you know… I was trying to think, because this-, I don’t know-, I don’t know whether I ever felt I’d ‘lost my mojo’ as such. But, weirdly, I did episode 300 of the Being Freelance podcast a couple of years ago. Big fanfare. “Episode 300!! It’s live!” And then it was the Easter holidays, and then it never came back until, like, I don’t know, October or something?

Basically, I totally relate to well, again, I didn’t ‘lose my mojo’… but I did quite happily not publish content. Despite having done it for, like, 8 years or whatever at that point — I was suddenly quite happy to do not that thing!

What helped me get back into it? Partly, simply doing it.

[00:10:35] – Frankie
Mhmm.

[00:10:35] – Steve
As in, I enjoy making a podcast. So simply scheduling it in, inviting some guests. Once the guests were in — Wow, I had to do it. And then in editing it and making it, I suddenly thought, “Oh god, actually, I do love doing this! This is something I love doing”.

So sometimes I think simply forcing yourself to do the thing can help get you back into the thing. Perhaps as well, you haven’t listened or read or watched whatever it is that you’re creating for a while. And so maybe you’ve forgotten how much you enjoy it. Maybe you’ve forgotten how good it is or whatever. So maybe, whilst it might seem a bit weird, you need to go back and consume your own stuff and think, “Oh, actually, yeah, I like this”.

Or maybe you need to go and consume other people’s stuff and go, “Oh, yeah. I’m liking it. I wanna be part of this!”, or “I could do better than that”.

Yeah. I’m not saying all of these things you have to do. I’m just saying maybe some of this might help you get your mojo back.

[00:11:31] – Frankie
I mean, a half joke, but, like… what is a ‘mojo’? What does the mojo mean to you? What does one mean by ‘mojo’?

[00:11:40] – Steve
To me, your mojo is your, I guess, your enthusiasm, you know? It’s like a joy de creation.

[00:11:48] – Frankie
A spark?

[00:11:49] – Steve
Yes.

[00:11:50] – Frankie
There was a series, like, a viral thing on TikTok, I think.

[00:11:54] – Steve
You were on TikTok?

[00:11:56] – Frankie
No, I was not on TikTok, no. But I saw people talking about it on Instagram.

Basically, a series of videos of women making reels,- not Reels, whatever you call them. Tickety tocks?!

[00:12:11] – Steve
Tickety tocks!!

[00:12:12] – Frankie
About how they’ve lost their ‘spark’, how to get their spark back. And it’s basically mostly women of a certain age who’ve probably had children who are like, “I’m really fucking tired”.

This is a roundabout way of saying — if you’ve lost the spark, there’s probably something that has put the spark out. What’s the word when you put your fingers over a candle?

[00:12:31] – Steve
Extinguished the flame.

[00:12:31] – Frankie
Extinguished the flame. Yes.

[00:12:34] – Steve
Pissed on your chips.

[00:12:35] – Frankie
Yeah. EXACTLY.

What has pissed on your chips, Anon? Because I don’t-, I mean-,

[00:12:49] – Steve
Do you know what? Right, so there are AI content creation tools…

[00:12:53] – Frankie
Yeah.

[00:12:54] – Steve
…where they take the transcript of a podcast and then-, have you seen these things? And then they animate or they bring in B roll or extra footage to bring to life what the person is saying. And I would LOVE to run that little clip through one of those tools and see how they cope with it.

[00:13:10] – Frankie
Do it!

But yes… when was it? Last summer they said they stopped, basically?

[00:13:18] – Steve
Yeah.

[00:13:18] – Frankie
I mean, I can tell you what happened last summer. You were fucking tired. You probably had small people around over a 6 week period. You know, it’s long, it’s exhausting. You got out of the rhythm, and you lost the spark. I don’t know. I guess part of the approach could be, if you can identify what extinguished the flame, maybe that will help you work out what it is that will make you excited about it?

[00:13:44] – Steve
Again, I used to vlog every single week, and I used to struggle bringing that back after the summer holiday break. In the case of the vlog, often I would have had too much footage. And in the evening, I would think, “Do you know what? I’ll just spin that off and start again”. But, actually, it got to a point where I just stopped making that vlog at all. And I did try and do it again, and I stopped again because I remembered why I stopped. And that was the fact that, actually, this is a LOT of work. And whilst I enjoy it, is it the best use of my time? Could I be spending that time hanging out with my kids? Because I literally used to remove myself from family stuff in order to edit the vlog.

Or could I spend that time networking in a community? If the idea is to bring me work or creating blog posts out of the podcast I’ve already spent time creating, like, yeah, maybe sometimes the fact that you have stopped creating content isn’t the end of the world? Maybe you can sit there and think, “Well, why have I? And is there a better use of my time?” Maybe this is a chance for you to reassess what it is that you want to create as content.

[00:14:51] – Frankie
Yeah, I think we underestimate how much of a creative process content ‘content creation’ is! And if, like, if I had a recipe for how to give somebody a creative spark, I would be a fucking millionaire because you can’t just magic that out of nowhere. It’s quite a mysterious thing being able to come up with-, not just come up with ideas, but also then see those ideas through. Like, that is a very full on thing. And I think we can be quite flippant about that.

You know, we live in the influencer era where everyone’s things ‘anyone can be an influencer’ or whatever. But actually, being an influencer is quite a LOT of work. And we sort of underestimate that. And then I think we then tell ourselves that. We’re like, “Oh, content creation should be quick and easy” and it’s something that everybody else is doing without any issues. But no actually, it’s a really bloody full on job making this stuff. Don’t underestimate how much work is involved in these things. I mean, that is probably half the problem.

[00:15:52] – Steve
If you do wanna get back into creating, perhaps think about what used to hold you accountable? I think accountability is quite important.

[00:16:01] – Frankie
Yes.

[00:16:01] – Steve
Sometimes we can just be accountable to ourselves. We’ve decided we’re gonna publish this thing every Thursday or every Sunday or every Monday or whatever. Sometimes we need an external force, I guess.

[00:16:15] – Frankie
Yes. So like, you and your podcast — you’ve got a guest. So if you record with a guest, you have a-, or you feel you have a responsibility to get their episode out because they’ve taken the time to talk to you.

[00:16:24] – Steve
And in the form of this podcast — you know, we schedule in a day to talk, and then-,

[00:16:33] – Frankie
And then Steve hassles me to actually show up!

[00:16:36] – Steve
Ha!

But I mean, back when we used to do this every single week, that was partly the rhythm. It was like, “Okay, we’re recording on a Monday. We put it out on a Thursday”. It just became part of our week. But also there was that degree of accountability. So that maybe if you weren’t feeling it one week, I was. If I wasn’t feeling it, you were.

So perhaps you might want to collaborate with somebody else on creating content? Or maybe you just need to get in some sort of accountability buddy. Somebody else is probably feeling exactly the way you’re feeling. Maybe you can pick each other up or join an accountability group designed specifically for this sort of thing, or join a co-work session where you say to yourself, “Right, by the end of this co-work session, I’m gonna have created x”.

So if you want to be doing it, maybe you need that extra accountability. Now we don’t know the exact format, and maybe it doesn’t matter for this content question… But, you know, one-, I’m not sure whether it’s an easy one,- but one way back in as well is by going live, be it on Instagram or LinkedIn. Wherever your audience is. The thought of going live, be it by yourself or getting a guest on and talking about a subject or interviewing them or whatever. Like, sometimes I’ve seen podcasts grow out of,- in fact, I’ve seen quite a lot of podcasts grow out of people starting off doing lives on Instagram and and elsewhere. And partly, they’ve had a chance to test that that format works, but, also, they start to enjoy it! They start to realise, “Oh, people are enjoying this but, also, I’m enjoying doing it too”. Maybe that could do it.

[00:18:27] – Frankie
It’s a really good point. Doing something like that — going out and creating ‘on the fly’, if you will, is a really good way to get back into it because, you know, like me — and a lot of other people that we know — we’re like chronic over thinkers. “Should I be saying this? Should I be saying that? Blah blah blah”. To the point where you don’t make anything. Whereas, yeah, if you’re pushed to do something on the fly, create on the fly, there’s a pressure in a different way, but it’s also deeply freeing to just go, “Alright, let’s see what happens!” It’s like, for any of the musicians among us, you know, improvising! Just seeing what happens can be absolutely amazing, and then really cool stuff can come out of it. And you feel that energy afterwards. You’re like, “Oh my god. That was really good. We should do that again!” And then it drives you to go off and make more stuff.

[00:19:12] – Steve
Alright. Crikey. You know the drill. We would love your comments on this! Maybe this has happened to you. Maybe you got your mojo back. Maybe it was where you left it all along, or maybe you binned it off and tried something else. Whatever your comments are, please get in touch with Frankie wherever she’s posted this both on social and, of course, in the community.