I recently fulfilled a year-long ambition: to certify in the Lego® Serious Play® method. Ever since I read Michael Fearne’s book last year, I knew I wanted to train in it. Fairly new into freelancing, and with a fairly hefty price tag for the course, I sat on it for a year before…
Tag: Self-employment
How to Be a Great Client
So, there are clients and then there are clients. I braced myself for a range of clients when I started out – the brilliant ones and the hair-pulling ones, because that’s life, right? Some people are clear, logical, structured and great communicators, and some people….less so. I’ve been looking back over the last…
The Freelancing Essentials: Accounts & Apps
After thinking about the top bits of equipment you might need as a freelancer, next up is the accounts and apps. There’s a whole host of options for almost every area of business (and life), so what are the real corkers if you’re starting out, whether you’re looking to simplify your admin or…
The Power of Proper Childcare
After all my hopes of having this super flexible work schedule, the last year and half have proved that work still sometimes feels really incompatible with being a parent. There’s days when you feel you’re neglecting work, and days when you feel you’re neglecting your children, neither is great and the guilt can…
How to Have Good Conversations
Stephen R. Covey was pretty damning about people’s ability to listen and listen well – his famous quote claimed “most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” Is he right? This month I finally started my coaching qualification, something I’ve been wanting to do…
How To Freelance Through Maternity Leave
Balancing parenthood and freelancing is something I write about pretty often – it’s probably my biggest daily challenge, and one that doesn’t have a sense of an end date any time soon. A number of people I know are starting a family while freelancing, and it’s got me thinking – what would I…
How to Start Freelancing
It’s a question I’ve been asked so many times since I started. I hadn’t appreciated how many people were looking for something beyond employment, had a side-hustle they wanted to turn into a full-time job, or really wanted to zone in on a niche by working for themselves. Starting out freelancing is the…
Sleep: An Undervalued Superpower
My consumption of podcasts rose exponentially this year – partly from trying to distract myself from the painfully long runs of marathon training and partly trying to make the long car trips to a friend in the midlands a bit more productive. I found “Diary of a CEO” for the first time and…
How September is the New January
As we ease our way into a month, it’s got me thinking about how much September is a month of transitions. The crazy British weather definitely hasn’t helped – for the past two weeks you’d have thought we were already in October from autumnal it felt. It’s also a reflection on what’s going…
How to Keep Yourself Accountable
I’ve had a really unexpected success this year – it’s something I’ve been meaning to trial for a while and now I’m a little bit addicted. I signed up to a time tracking app. If you aren’t using one, here’s a few reasons why I’m sold: Project Value for Money Some of my…