Having trained in computer science, Kirk came to realise it was the visual design of software and sites that he most enjoyed. So he rebooted his career - self-taught how to develop as an illustrator, designer and businessman. 

Kirk shares his journey including the results of experiments with working space, social media and pricing.

Femke manages to fit in a lot. Full time work, freelance clients, a podcast, speaking, blogging, conferences, a social life. A cat.

She shares her story: from New Zealand to Amsterdam, forming a 'studio' with her boyfriend,  dispanding a studio with her boyfriend,  growing in confidence, growing an audience. The power of connection. The power of reflection. Making goals. Making time.

In 2010 Andy started a blog exploring his passion for data visualisation. It led to a huge multi-national knocking on his door as his first client and that gave him the confidence to visualise life being freelance.

Hear Andy share his story, discussing the pressures of pricing, knowing when to hire others and the value of writing books on your subject.

When a 16 year old Emma started sharing her artwork on her blog, she had no idea how quickly she'd turn from teenager to freelancer and ultimately from freelancer into 'influencer'! 

Hear the way she's diversified her income, copes with an RSI and shares tips on social marketing (including great success with Instagram Stories).

How does a builder from Jersey end up photographing a future King?

Hear how Matt took the plunge, followed his passion, knocked on doors and took every job that came his way.

Nowadays Matt's joined forces with other freelancers to form a studio that allows them to be creative and take on even more work. His passion for travel and underwater photography still shines through and it's all going swimmingly.

A year before he went freelance, Austin started blogging. Not only did it give him a space to document and reflect on his progress, but it brought him connections that referred him for work. Since then expanding his network through conferences has done the same.

He continues to think big, experiment, grow and develop his business chops.

When Sara went on maternity leave it wasn't just her child that was born. A business was too.

Sara's story shows what can happen when you find and connect with your people, with your audience. Her Instagram followers have given her the ability to quit her 'day job' and follow her passion for photography and writing.

How do you go from having no idea of a career... to becoming Net Awards Developer of the Year? In just a couple of years?!

For Lebanese freelancer Sara it's been a journey of self development as much as anything she's done for the web. Hear her story of learning, sharing, writing, speaking, teaching, creating... and then learning some more.

Paddy left agency life behind to satifsy a craving for creativity and diversity in his work. Dividing his time between home and co-work spaces, between client work and his own passionate side projects, all the time keeping his portfolio fresh.

A freelancer for many years, from magazine junior to TV presenter and wordsmith. Adrian shares his story from Top Gear to top wedding speech writer.

Plus, hear how he invests in Google marketing to get himself found and third party reviews to prove he's worth finding.

Full-stack web developer Louise didn't know any other freelancers... so she started a meetup. From that came confidence, fun, growth, friends, collaborations, work and even a business partner.

Hear how she got started with the event, manages as part of a double header company and stays focused daily.

Freelancing for the best part of 20 years has seen Andrew go from filming anything corporate for money to shooting his passion and creating exactly the kind of content he wants to be known for, finding his own audience and building his own platform.

With 'Walks Around Britain' he can choose his own path and now enjoys the freelance opportunities that find him along the way.

After a decade in New York, pattern designer Elizabeth swapped the city for the suburbs and a regular job for being freelance.

Despite her industry experience, it felt like starting all over with a new career. In this episode, Elizabeth shares her tips on marketing, diversifying her income streams and making it all with persistence.

After going freelance, Lee went from undervaluing himself and ignoring his family... to building an agency and reclaiming his weekends.

Learning from epic mistakes, facing his fears, nailing his niche and using podcasting to build his reputation and his business.

After starting out as a teacher, Janet made her dream of becoming a national press journalist a reality. Years later, now she's helping small businesses grow and get media attention as a PR coach.

Full of ambition and a think it, do it attitude, Janet shares her story and tips on building a network and community. Taking on hard work, content marketing and more than a few risks along the way.

From agency life to a freelance partnership with his wife that's seen him work with the likes of the UN. Ben's built a successful career on the back of his network and delivering great work.

He shares his experience of controlling growth by steadily oustourcing work and dabbling with the digital nomad lifestyle.

Pippa created a freelance social media business when she saw the need. The need of businesses local to her and the need of her family for her to have flexible hours.

In amongst her story, 'Social Pip' shares her tips for using local or industry niche Tweet Chats to grow your network and business online. Plus we hear how she reigns in potenial growth to stay true to the reason she went freelance in the first place.

Having begun freelancing whilst still at university, Kelly realised if she was going to be doing this for the next 40 years then she needed a plan.

Crowned young IPSE Freelancer Of The Year 2015, Kelly shares great freelance tips and insight as she outsourced, took on an employee, joined trade bodies and more so that her company 'Making You Content' was making her content as well.

There's nothing quiet about this Mouse. Millie's love of graphic and web design is amplified by her passion for business itself.

Millie shares great tips for using Instagram and LinkedIn to grow. Plus, from her base in Sydney, hear how she's built a remote team of freelancers around the world to help evolve 'Design By Mouse' even further.

There's a lot in here: how Ben carved out a name for himself when moving to a new country; how he diversified his offering so he could be location independent and protected for the future; how he developed online training in various forms and uses YouTube for marketing and income.

And yet through it all... with much honesty, isn't always motivated at all.

How do you go from working for a Russian newspaper to creating successful picture books? By getting on with it!

Sarah doesn't wait for things to happen, she makes them happen. Hear how she gets stuck in with communities on and offline, challenges herself, promotes herself and fights the corner for up and coming freelance illustrators too.

What are you still reading for? Hit play, subscribe and just get on with it!

When his band broke up, he learned Flash.
When Flash was killed by Apple (arrrrghhh!), he taught himself After Effects.
When his little girl came along, he started learning how to juggle freelancing and his family.
Now, he's wondering what to learn next.

In this episode Timmy shares great freelance tips on putting your work out there, nailing accurate time and budget estimates and being proactively creative to get new work with old clients.

Alison began in social media at the beginning of social media itself, setting up the first Facebook pages for major brands. From within agencies, she sowed the seeds for a successful freelance career: now managing, training and speaking for a range of clients.

Now those seeds have sprouted Avocado Social. As a brand she's growing in confidence, growing her team and growing her audience. Hear how she markets herself and Avocado to finally enjoy the fruits of her labour.

Kyle built up a successful freelance career for major advertising agencies and the likes of The New Yorker... and then he had kids.

He realised he needed to create things on a bigger scale, that took him on a fascinating journey of trial and error with digital products of various kinds. Now, illustrators around the world create their work using his Kylebrush.com Adobe Photoshop brushes.

Hear how this 'accidental expert' looks ahead, spots opportunity and finds ways to use his illustrative talents to cash in on trends.

Hear how university lecturer 'Mister Phill' reluctantly photographed a wedding... and then another... and then... well, that was seven years ago. He's not a lecturer anymore.

His 'triangular' approach to client acquisition is really worth thinking about for your own freelance business.

As a US military wife, being freelance is a perfect fit. Wherever in the world she might find herself, she has the ability to work remotely with clients to help them build their brands.

Kaye shares really great tips on remote working, branding and how she's used content marketing to make herself seen, understood and to build her business.

How do you go from taking the stage at a small event in your home city to speaking at the world's largest social media conference in the US a year later?

Hear how Ian got seriously social to grow his business.

Freelance writer turned career & life coach Emma takes us through automating her processes, creating online courses, hiring a VA and getting work done as a new mum.

Plenty of freelance tips and a reminder that for all her content creation, it's those referrals that are key. Oh. And eating that frog first thing.

Akash shares the networking tip that speaks for itself after it broke him into the video games industry as a composer and sound designer. From introvert to TED talker, it's game on for Akash and he's winning.

We also hear about mentors, pricing and how he's evolved his business to help other freelance composers as well.

Hear Kaleigh's strategies on using Twitter to find clients, collecting social proof, regularly raising her rates, getting higher quality, higher paying clients and how she ended up writing for Entrepreneur and Inc. No thanks to the cat.

But with 90% of her work remote, how does she cope with the isolation? And what's the danger of being in competition with yourself?

What if the world could watch you while you worked? What if they paid to watch? What if they interacted with you so you didn't feel alone while working? What if they then paid you for work AND paid to watch you?

That's pretty much where Twitch streamer/entertainer/illustrator Austen Marie finds herself. It looks like a lot of fun. But it's definitely still a job. It's a business.

Ben's on a mission to make a difference to global warming and that's what drives his business.  

He's built a niche video content business serving the construction industry, laid the foundations to a membership site by building a successful podcast and aims to build his own house. He's always planning long term, thinking big.

Hear how a journalist with a passion for the outdoors and walking made her own route to being an award-winning Outdoor writer.

With 18 books under her belt, she shares how she's found herself where she is today and the importance of joining a trade guild to her career, skills and sanity.

Redundancy helped push Mike into a freelance career. Since then he's evolved, learned, focused, launched his own products, developed his own personal brand and formed his own design studio... and yet still regularly questions whether being freelance is right for him. Why?

You're 17. One of your stop motion films goes viral. A major TV channel calls comissioning you to make one for them. What do you? Start university as planned, or seize the moment and begin a freelance career?

For Graham, all of his tiny precise filmic movements led to a sudden leap forward.

London agency life was turning Laura into a zombie. Over-long days were filled with meetings and politics instead of being creative.

Now, she's alive again - as a remote freelancer. Out of the rat race, out of the city and into doing the work she loves. Not only could she start her own business, but she could start her family too.

Starting by selling Wordpress themes on Etsy, Kelly now offers an evolving range of branding services in amongst a generous supply of free resources.

From Brazil to a noisy New York City, we hear her story. And a few sirens. And planes. Drowned out by passion for her business.

After leaving the army, Andy soon found he had enough orders for capturing images of bespoke, tailor-made products, lifestyle and more to be a freelance photographer.

He shares his story on making a name for himself, making face-to-face connections and even making his own magazine to create his dream work.

"You have the chance to carve the career of your dreams, so dream!" Amy didn't just settle with regular copywriting gigs. She didn't just settle for speaking/training around the world. She kept 'checking in on herself' and tweaking her career path.

Today she will regularly hit publish on blogs, videos, podcasts and her own 'scalable' income online course - alongside the client work she loves.

Rachel's found inspiration, support, friendship and even clients in the communities she's joined online. Be it through courses she's paid for, Twitter or private Facebook groups she's joined (or started!), she's realised you don't have to freelance alone.

Hear her story: from finding her niche - the wake up call to her business, to finding herself in hospital - the wake up call to herself.

After struggling to find work after uni, with a year of bits, bobs and benefits, Kristian finally found the real benefits of a mentor, working for an established freelancer.

Now, he balances 2 jobs. One with a full time employer, the other: his freelance career. Kristian's experience of breaking out in to his freelance dream is full of ups and downs. Keep an eye out for lots of great lessons. Oh. And a daredevil cat.

Jamie went from gigging musician to composer for TV, film, games and stage.

Here he shares how it's all played out so far: heading back to uni, collaborating over Skype, mangaging his own band, the passive income of library music and how getting his own studio scaled up his work load and kept his home in harmony. Love a music pun. You keeping score?

Hear how Natalie went from the RAF to flying solo as a freelance illustrator.

Along the way she's found her niche, an agent and a dog... but almost not enough hours.

Col quit agency life to be his own boss. As you'd expect, he's very deliberate about selling himself; here he shares his experiences of SEO, content marketing, pay-per-click and even finding media opportunities to get yourself known.  Plus how he turns down work to keep his hours down and his 'lifestyle business' where he wants it.

After a career freelancing behind the scenes in TV, Olly Mann has found himself in the media limelight. Found? Or put himself there? Olly's a writer for major publications, a national radio presenter, TV panelist and part of the podcasting elite. But how did all of these doors open for him? Not without knocking. And then pushing all of Olly Mann through.

After a year of the podcast Being Freelance... what's that 12 months actually been like being freelance for our very first guests?

In this, the second of two special end of year episodes, Steve Folland chats to CSS consultant Harry Roberts and illustrator Jessica Morgan. Their challenges, their changes, their epiphanies, their year being freelance.

After a year of the podcast Being Freelance... what's that 12 months actually been like for our very first guests? In this, the first of two special episodes, Steve Folland chats to photographer Tom Miles, designer Liz Elcoate and audio producer Chris Hollis. Their challenges, their changes, their epiphanies... their year being freelance.

Without Instagram would Jordan be shooting for some of the coolest fashion brands and bands around? A great mix of passion, talent, social media and social life has been the focus of his career.

The question is: if you're a creative freelancer can you afford not to be 'social'?

Canadian copywriter Joel Klettke is focused on results. When it works for his clients it's working for him.

This chat has a crazy amount of useful freelance tips in it as Joel shares thoughts on using a personal name vs a company one, what makes his freelance site stand out, how he came to be a TEDx speaker, networking, growing the business... and all of this whilst being the best looking man in the world.