Brand Strategist & Designer Hollie Arnett
About this podcast episode…
BRAND STRATEGIST, DESIGNER, AND COACH
In this episode of the Being Freelance podcast, Hollie shares how her journey as a freelancer began as a teenager doing design work for her youth group, how a life coach nudged her into officially launching her business, and the twists, pivots, and passions that shaped her freelance career.
She’s now running not one, but two brands from Wellington, New Zealand: Maker & Moxie, where she coaches artists and makers on building their own brands, and By Hollie Arnett, where she offers branding and illustration services.
High School Hollie would be proud.
We also dive into subscription services, pricing packages, the power of creative communities, her own experiences with chronic illness, confidence issues and ultimately following the joy in what she does. Which is good, because It's a joy to listen to.
Available as a video podcast too - Watch Hollie here on the site, on YouTube, or Spotify.
Read a full transcript & get Links in the tabs.
More from HOLLIE ARNETT
Transcript of the Being Freelance podcast with Steve Folland and brand strategist, designer and coach Hollie Arnett
Steve Folland: As ever, how about we get started hearing how you got started being freelance?
Hollie Arnett: Yeah, for sure. So I actually started freelancing as a teenager. I was studying design and I was volunteering at my youth group. And as with every youth group or organization like that, they need help with all of the things.
And they were like, you can do design, you wanna help us with the with the design stuff here. So I started doing that and then that kind of just turned into more people asking for more things.
Looking back on that stuff now. Awful. But it was like, that's how I started. That's how I got going. And then, yeah, just kept freelancing, kept taking the opportunities through high school, through university, and then launched my business.
Steve Folland: So straight out of uni, you launched your own thing?
Hollie Arnett: Not straight, straight. So I was already kind of doing the freelancing, but I didn't have an official business or anything. It was just me. And then I had, I tried a few jobs. I got my first design job in my second year of university, and then I did that, did a couple of other like startup jobs and everything.
And then at one point I had a quite awful experience with a startup and I was like, no, I can't do this anymore. And so I actually talked to a life coach who was like, well, what do you wanna do? And why not try it now? Because I was like, well, I'm young and I don't have like a kids or a mortgage or like anything like that, so why not give it a go?
So that's when I launched officially.
Steve Folland: And when was that?
Hollie Arnett: That was, wow. Eight years ago now. '21, '22, I think.
Steve Folland: Yeah. That's so funny. Especially because it feels like in that case, I must have been following you online for pretty much all of that.
Hollie Arnett: Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Vice versa. Yeah.
Steve Folland: Okay, so there's a difference though isn't there?
Between like taking a few jobs on the side through high school . Or university or whatever, and then thinking, no, actually this is how I'm gonna pay my bills. . So did you have to make any change? Like how did you get those clients? How did they start to come to you then?
Hollie Arnett: Yeah, so thankfully, because I had been doing freelancing for a while, I had like a roster of clients and kind of had started that network.
but what I decided when I decided to like officially start a business was that I wanted to niche down, as they say, quote unquote niche down and focus on typography and hand lettering.
So I actually started my business as a hand lettering and typography studio. And so then I went hard on like marketing that and saying like, Hey, if you want anything typographic or anything to do with hand lettering, then I'm your gal.
I still did like other design jobs as well, but I was primarily hoping to get typography and hand lettering. So I kind of tried to change my messaging and my, like the stuff I talked about and everything, and when I talked to clients, I was like, do you have anything this specifically relating to this?
'cause yeah, I wanna do that.
Steve Folland: How did that go then? Because obviously I've not introduced you as that now.
Hollie Arnett: Yeah. Yeah. So I've pivoted maybe like six times since then. And my whole business, I've just followed what I am excited about and what I love doing and what really interests me. And so I started doing typography and hand lettering, which led to people saying, can you make me like a custom hand lettered logo?
So I was like, yeah, I can do that. So I started doing that, and then from there I was like, okay, well you need more than just a logo. You need a full brand design, full brand identity. And then that led to going, okay, well actually you need strategy as well, which I was kind of already doing, but I didn't know that's what it was and I wasn't charging for it at all.
And so then, that kind of transitioned to that. And then, so then I decided, okay, I'm gonna do brand strategy and design. I dropped design for a while and only did strategy. And like coached people on their brand strategy. And then actually just last year I started doing the design again. Or was it just the year before?
So yeah, it's been a, a journey.
Steve Folland: Did you have like a company name when you, when you started out?
Hollie Arnett: Yeah, so before I launched, it was just me, and then I launched my business as Black & White Studios. Now the most terrible name of all time. It was really bad, like it served its purpose and like my hand lettering work was mostly black and white.
Like I basically only did black and white lettering, but it became a problem because I was just coming up in results for like black and white photography. People were saying they worked at my company 'cause there were so many other companies called Black and White, something like on LinkedIn. And it just, when I stopped doing hand lettering or focusing on hand lettering, it just didn't really make sense anymore.
So I think it was, I wanna say maybe three or four years ago, that's when I changed to Maker & Moxie, which is what my kind of brand coaching business is called now. The brand design work that I do is now back under what I call 'By Hollie Arnett'. So it's just, just my name.
Steve Folland: So you have two sides of your business then
It is Maker & Moxie, . So just so we're clear, so what does that cover? That's the strategy...
Hollie Arnett: It's the, like coaching. I coach artists and makers on how to build and design and market their own brands. And then By Hollie Arnett, that's where I do the brand strategy and design work for people. One-on-one.
Steve Folland: And what made you bring the design back in? Like the By Hollie, which I love By Hollie Arnett especially because that means, yeah, that could be anything by Hollie Arnett as the years go by and you don't need to pivot out of another name. Yeah. What made you bring that back?
Hollie Arnett: Basically like I coach all these artists and makers, and I've always been an artist myself.
So like when I started my business, I did exhibitions and sold my work and all of that stuff, my hand lettering. And I really miss that. Like I'm talking to artists and creatives all the time and I'm creative in my job, but I'm not necessarily like drawing or doing anything like that. So I really felt, again, following my passion.
So I was like, I just really wanna do that again. But I didn't feel like I had a style of my own that I could sell my own work or, yeah, do like products, that kind of thing. So actually I had been doing for a while, I had a long-term retainer client that I had up until the start of this year actually.
And I had been doing illustration for them for the longest time, illustration and hand lettering. And so I was like, okay, well I have that experience doing illustration for them. I have my hand lettering experience. I just like love illustration as well. So I was like, maybe I could do illustrations for businesses like mostly for online educators like myself who are teaching something and maybe need something to help them visualize the concept that they're teaching.
And so I started doing that, started it as a subscription model or service. And then a client of mine who loved that was like, can you now redesign the whole brand so that it all matches the illustrations and everything?
And I was like, yeah, of course I can do that. 'cause I have the experience. It's what I used to do. And then that just took off like, the clients were like, okay, I loved how you did that for this client. Can you do mine now? And I was like, okay, yeah, let's just keep this rolling. And also it just like reignited my love for branding.
Like I've always loved branding, but I just stopped doing the actual 'doing' of the branding, so the branding design anyway, so yeah, that's how kind of how I came back to it.
Steve Folland: I love that. How was that subscription? Well, I, it sort of weaving our way around here, all over the place. So many things we could talk about.
Yeah. But you mentioned the subscription, so is that something you still do? What was your experience with that?
Hollie Arnett: Yeah, so I've stopped the subscription now, but mostly because I just, my capacity was like reached its limit and I was like, I have to pick a lane here. Like I can't do everything for everyone all the time.
So I have stopped the subscription, but it was really good and an interesting thing for me to try. Like I, myself and my clients love the predictability of it. So like, you know, it's the same amount every month. You know what you're paying, you know what you're getting for that amount. I know what I'm making for that every month, you know.
But it also comes with its own challenges, like the current models of that kind of subscription, services, like a lot of the time people expect like unlimited revisions or, you know, you have to be quite strict on what you offer and how you offer it and how it operates.
So there's a lot of systems to set up and maintain so that people can like submit work for you every month or, you know, and buy a certain date. And then like how do you manage how many they can put in at the certain time and like all that stuff. So there's a lot of operations about it, but it's also really great for like profitability and like that, you know, recurring revenue. The clients liked that side of it too, so, yeah, it was good and bad.
Steve Folland: I find it really interesting. Yeah. That kind of sounded positive, like how, how does that differ from a retainer? Because it feels similar. There's a recurring expectation, a recurring relationship and revenue.
Hollie Arnett: I think it is like relatively similar. I think it's partly as like a marketing thing, but also I think a slight difference in it is that like with, I guess like some other subscription, like software subscriptions or whatever you.. How I did it anyway is that you could pause it. So if you weren't using it one month, like unlike a retainer, whereas like if you use it...
you have to use it or lose it, right? With the subscription, it was like, okay, if you are, if you don't have anything or you're away for a month or something, you can pause that and then restart it when you come back. So neither of us are wasting our time. You are not like wasting money. So that was kind of a difference, I think, but I think it's, they're relatively similar.
Steve Folland: Would people be able to just sign up via your website? Like without going through you, I guess, for approval or, you know, like what, what was the signup process like?
Hollie Arnett: Yeah, I didn't do that. Some people do have that option of like, you can just sign up and get started. But , I don't love that for like multiple reasons. One, it's like, yeah, you don't know. Who you're going to get. Like they, like anyone could just sign up and they might not be someone I wanna work with or someone I wanna partner with or work I wanna do. And also like, one of my favorite things about being a freelancer and working with my clients is like talking to my clients and meeting my clients and connecting and collaborating and all that sort of stuff.
So I didn't really love the idea of like not talking to each other or not like them not meeting me, me not meeting them. So, yeah, I had just like an inquiry form and then we usually jumped on a call, talked about it, and I was like, cool, if you're ready to go, here's like the Stripe subscription sign up.
So there wasn't like any proposal or anything like that. It was just like a set package. So this amount, for this many illustrations a month, this is what you get, sign up. So . yeah.
Steve Folland: How do you go about marketing your Maker & Moxie brand? Like how, how are you bringing in the creatives, the artists who you are helping with that?
Hollie Arnett: Yeah, I think there's a bunch of things. I think one is obviously like organic social media, so I create a lot of content. And also outside of social media, I have a podcast too. I have a newsletter. I have, yeah, social media content that I'm putting out there. I also try and collaborate with people.
So doing things like this, being a guest in like someone's community or doing newsletter swaps, like those kinds of things. To connect with people and their audiences who are people who I would want as a client or a customer. And then also like just engaging in the creative community.
So I like, as I said, I'm an artist. I love like supporting artists is like one of my favorite things to do. So, I'm always like going to markets or hosting events here in my city for artists or like talking about being an artist and just like, just engaging in that community so people know like, oh, Hollie is specifically here to help me as an artist, as a maker.
And so yeah, those are probably the three main ways that I do that.
Steve Folland: Hosting events. Is that events that you put on or hosting them for other people?
Hollie Arnett: Yeah, hosting events that I put on. So I've been, I did one at the end of last year and I want to like build that and I've done that previously, as well.
But like now I wanna do it more ongoing to create like, specific events so that creatives, especially like artists and makers, can come together because I, I used to host something for someone else, like someone else's company, that was all like design events. And I loved that and that was great, but the people that I work with now are not designers. They're artists and makers, and there's not really that many events specifically for them, and especially where I live in Wellington, it's like full of artists and makers and creatives in that way. So I was like, we gotta have space for these people.
So yeah, I've done like panel events. I launched my membership at the last one I did. The next one's gonna be like a workshop, like a hands-on workshop. So yeah, just trying to bring the people together, provide stuff that will help them with their businesses.
Steve Folland: So you've mentioned a membership,
Hollie Arnett: so say sorry, I keep dropping all these things and you're like, oh my God.
Going, yeah,
Steve Folland: I'm, I'm trying to catch them all there. So there's a me... there's a membership. Could you do one-on-one? I, I'm assuming you do one-on-one support for these mm-hmm. Artists through Maker & Moxie. Yeah. But there's a membership, a course is there?
Hollie Arnett: Yeah. The course is inside the membership and the membership is my main thing right now.
I do offer one-on-one, but it's not as, I don't promote that as much as I do the membership. Like the membership is my main thing right now. I think towards the end of this year, hopefully I'm gonna launch like a graduation offer from the membership. You know, like once you've got everything you wanted from the membership and you've gone through the courses and all of that stuff, here's how you could go to the next step or the next level or more support from me. But yeah, the membership is the, the main thing.
Steve Folland: And then we have the By Hollie Arnett. Yeah. How do you market that? I'm, I'm just wondering how, I mean, I know the two sort of like dovetail into each other.
Yeah. Yeah. But equally they're, they're different. So yeah. How do you deal with that side of things?
Hollie Arnett: Yeah, so I am lucky in that they are both... there's crossover between them both that it's all branding, right? My whole, I always call myself 'your handy dandy brandy gal'. so I am all things branding all the time, always. So yeah, there's definitely crossover, but the audiences and the problems that I'm solving are very different.
So I don't market them in the same way or the same places. So I told you how I market. Maker & Moxie. It's mostly like social media, usually Instagram, Threads, my podcasts, my newsletter, collaborations. How I do By Hollie Arnett is a lot of, LinkedIn is more where I post there 'cause it's more for like online educators that I work with. I'm usually over there.
In communities that I'm in, that first client that I got like a couple of years ago that restarted the whole thing hosts a quite large community for online creators. So that has helped massively because there's like multiple people now in that community who I've done their branding and so, someone sees it, then they wanna, you know, just kind of like there's the referral side of things.
Yeah, just the word of mouth. So those are probably the main ways that I do that is a lot of like showing my work, getting testimonials and posting mostly on LinkedIn, in the community. And yeah, just talking and doing the kind of networking referral side of things.
Steve Folland: What do you think works well if you are putting yourself into a community to make the most of the opportunity of being in there.
Hollie Arnett: I think like the main thing is to not assume or expect that you're gonna get work from it. Like I never went into that community to be like, "Hey, I'm a designer, let me design your brand" or anything, or let me do illustrations.
I went in because I was like, these are my people and I wanna learn from them, and I wanna hopefully be able to share what I know with them also. And so I think the more you can go in with that kind of attitude of like, how can I help and how can I just generally be a part of this community then that helps to like get people in your corner and wanna work with you.
And so, like I offered to do a workshop in the community because people were doing workshops and the person running it was going on parental leave and so they were asking for people to do workshops. I was like, well, I can do one on branding and share what I know, and then that helps.
I can answer questions if people have branding questions. I just try and be helpful and try to. You know, show like, yeah, this is what I can do. Hopefully this will help you, but I'm not expecting anything in return. If that happens, amazing. Would love to help you.
Steve Folland: Now, you mentioned a life coach right at the beginning.
Hollie Arnett: Yeah, yeah. Of
Steve Folland: all of this, have you had any other sort of coaching along the way?
Hollie Arnett: Yeah, absolutely. I feel like I go through phases of like learning and being input into, and then some phases where I'm like, okay, now I just need to go and implement. So I usually am either doing like all the coaching or no coaching. There's kind of usually no in between.
But yeah, I've had a lot of coaches that have helped me so much and usually not around like design or being a designer, it's usually around confidence or selling or marketing or finances or, you know, being the best version of myself that I can be, that's have helped me the most.
And like things like boundaries, like the latest person that I had as a coach helped me a lot with boundaries. So yeah. Yeah, definitely.
Steve Folland: How do you find those coaches? Like what makes a good coach if, because there's so many out there?
Hollie Arnett: Yeah.
Steve Folland: How do you know who to go for?
Hollie Arnett: The thing that has, I guess, helped me the most is like engaging and following with them on social media.
Obviously you have to be a little bit discerning with that because social media is a shiny, nice, beautiful place where people tell you all the best things about them. But like my latest coach, I just followed her for so long and I had actually met her in person. And so I just knew that like she was talking about things and doing things, and living her life in a way that I was like, that's what I need.
Like, I want to be in a similar place that she is in. And so that helped me to be like, okay, I think she's the right person, you know, because I'm not trying to join up with someone who's doing something completely different or something I don't want, I'm like, no, she's doing all the things that I want in my life.
So yeah, I'm gonna check out her work.
Steve Folland: But then you say, you know, there's the coaching and then there's the doing actually bringing that to life. Yeah. How do you stay sort of focused on that or like accountable to yourself in that respect?
Hollie Arnett: I think there's a level of like just being self-driven and self-motivated, and I think that's a quality that I have always had and that's always been a good benefit as a freelancer and as someone running your own business.
So what I usually do is just like set goals for myself and then verbalize those goals to other people. So maybe like my assistant, or my partner or online even, because I dunno about other people, but for me, I can sometimes easily let myself down, but I've struggled to let other people down.
So if I tell someone else like, Hey, we are gonna do this thing, or You are gonna make sure I do this thing, that helps me to like stay accountable.
Steve Folland: It's so true. So you have an assistant though.
Hollie Arnett: Yeah.
Steve Folland: How long have you?
Hollie Arnett: So I've had an assistant on and off for a few years now. So started with just a virtual assistant. And then now I have an OBM and Online Business Manager slash VA and she has other VAs on her team.
And she helps me with a lot of things. Mainly things like managing my inbox. She helps me onboard clients. She's currently working on like the whole onboarding process for my clients, so like mapping all of that out, setting up automations and systems.
I just launched a challenge in my community and she helps with all of that, like the logistics of those sorts of things. All the admin, any kind of backend admin that I need doing like a spreadsheet filling out or setting up or like, all of that sort of stuff. She helps with that. So many things I couldn't, I don't know what I would do without her help. So yeah, definitely grateful for that.
Steve Folland: That's brilliant. But how do you, you know, like when you get to that point and then there's the, okay, so I've got bringing enough money to Yeah. Invest here. Like, did you, did you just think, no, whatever, I'm just gonna do this. Or how, how did you sort of mentally get around that?
Hollie Arnett: Yeah, no, it's definitely is a process. And I'm like, currently in that process with like, I think I need design help, so like assistance with implementing my, client work. So like someone to come help me with finishing the projects off and stuff like that. But it's the exact situation where it's like, okay... I need to make enough money to hire them, but I need to hire them so that I can make more money. So it's kind of this like cycle.
I think there is a point where you obviously smartly and like with a lot of consideration have to understand that sometimes you do have to spend money to make money and it's hard to get around, but especially with a lot of like admin things or mac operator things, it's like, okay, I could spend my time doing that, or I could spend my time going getting more clients. Like marketing my work so that I can bring in, you know, I can spend $500, a thousand dollars paying them, and then I can go and bring in with that time $5,000 or however much.
So you just have to kind of figure out in your head, okay, am I ready to do that? Do I maybe have some savings or some backups so that I can cover things in the meantime while I, you know, use that time wisely?
But yeah, I think just realizing that that's okay, that you have to spend money sometimes to make money. And that taking a look at the different tasks and saying, okay, if it takes me an hour to do this admin task, that realistically I couldn't charge my clients like, I'm not gonna charge like a hundred dollars or $200 for that task, but I could pay someone else to do that so that I can spend money on the task that I can charge $200 an hour for or whatever. So yeah, I think, I don't know if that succinctly answered the question, but Yeah.
Steve Folland: You know, it sounds remarkable, like seeing you online, chatting to you today that you might have ever had issues with confidence.
'cause you said about a confidence coach.
Hollie Arnett: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Steve Folland: But what has sort of knocked your confidence or how have you built yourself up because we, we have to kind of like show up and feel good about what we're doing.
Hollie Arnett: Yeah, definitely. I think like I have had a lot of health things that have knocked my confidence hugely.
So a few years ago I got concussed and I wasn't able to work for a long time, and when I tried to work, my brain did not cooperate. And so, it knocked my confidence because to me, at, at that time specifically, I felt so tied to my business, like my identity was and is in a lot of ways my business and like being a designer, being a strategist.
And when I couldn't. Do that. I was like, well, who am I? Like what, what am I, what's my purpose? If I can't do that?
I'm quite chronically ill. So I have a lot of things that, you know, get in the way health wise. And so for a good like year or two, I was like, I don't feel like I have the confidence to show up because I'm not... I was like comparing myself to other people who are like doing all these amazing things and here I am.
But then I had to understand like, okay, but that. They're not chronically ill or they don't have, they have other things going on. I have these things going. I have to just accept where I am and figure out like. Who, who am I and what am I really good at and what am I really passionate about? So it's a lot of like internal work, to build that back up.
And like the having the coach really helped me because it was just really good to get outside perspective and someone to say, Hey, you are really good at what you do, and like, let's help you, you feel that. Like what can we do to help you feel that? And how can you feel good in yourself outside of work and like rebalance these priorities so you feel good all around.
So I think doing the internal work and also like getting people around you to help you kind of either snap out of it or like just re remind yourself, of those things that sometimes we struggle to see or try, struggle to know, is really helpful. So yeah, both those things helped.
Steve Folland: Well, I'm glad you came out the other side of it.
Hollie Arnett: Yeah, me too.
Steve Folland: Do you know, sometimes I even see in the Being Freelance Community, like a a, a client might say something or somebody else might say something that seems critical of their work and suddenly, despite all the evidence to the contrary, yeah. They start doubting themselves and you're like, are you crazy?
Look how good you are. Yeah. I wish, I wish I could do what you do.
Mm-hmm.
If only people knew what they did to us.
Hollie Arnett: Yeah. I also sometimes just have to remind myself, like, I think about like high school freelancing me and like what I wanted for my life. You know, I was dreaming of being and doing what I am right now.
So I'm like, I did that. I did that thing. Let me celebrate myself, you know?
Steve Folland: True, right? Because
Hollie Arnett: little little Hollie would be really proud.
Steve Folland: How about work life balance? Balance when, when you've got so much going on.
Hollie Arnett: Yeah.
Steve Folland: And so much that you could be doing. Yeah. how's that side of, of freelance life?
Hollie Arnett: It's good. Like, I definitely wouldn't say I have it all figured out.
I dunno if I ever fully will, but I just try and a, like, understand that there are seasons, so sometimes I'm really busy and that is okay. That is just like a season of life, the season of business. And sometimes I'm choosing that, right? So like right now I'm doing this challenge that I mentioned.
That's extra work. I don't have to do that, but I wanna do it. So I'm choosing to spend a little extra time, put a little extra love into what I'm doing. So doing that, but also trying to have, again, it's like a lot of internal work of like, okay, if I am not working. I don't have to feel guilty about that. I can try and not feel guilty about just relaxing, taking time off.
Also, filling my creative cup like I have to remind myself all the time. That work isn't just working. Like taking a break and refilling your creative cup is also part of the work. 'cause otherwise I can't do my best. My best work. If I'm not filled, I'm not rested. so a lot of just reminding myself of like, take a break.
It's really good for you, it's good for your work. Like all of those things. So, I try and have a lot of. Hobbies that are not on my computer. a lot of crafts or video games -still on a device, but not as bad.
Steve Folland: Yeah, but it's different, right? Yeah,
Hollie Arnett: it's different. Yeah. I can sit on the couch with my handheld Switch, which is different.
Yeah. I think. Just a lot of reminding myself, having lots of things outside of work that excite me as much as work does. Also trying to set, like I mentioned, I've been working on like boundaries, so setting clear boundaries with clients, with, myself, those help a lot.
Steve Folland: In what way do you put boundaries in place?
Hollie Arnett: With my clients, I have, like when they, my one-on-one clients, when they sign up to work with me, I have, and I got this from my assistant, I have a list of 'norms', what she calls norms. It's like these are the normal ways that I work. so it tells them like. I only work between these hours. I only communicate in this way.
This is how we will run the process. So just putting those in from the beginning so that they understand that, and they are agreeing to that when they sign the contract.
And same with like in my membership, it's like, okay, I am only gonna be checking stuff and replying between these times on these days, I might jump in outside, but that's not expected of me.
You know, I'll be there and I'll answer your questions and I'll give you the feedback, but I'm not gonna be in there like 24 7. Yeah, just kind of setting the expectations. Before people sign up to things. Nice.
Steve Folland: And do you work from home?
Hollie Arnett: Yeah, I do. Yeah. So I work from home 90% of the time. I try, me and my friends try to co-work together on a Thursday.
Usually on a Thursday, just to like get out of the house, talk to some other humans, talk about business and freelancing and stuff, so we're not super alone. And then I also try to go out and work in cafes or libraries when I can as well, just to get out of the bubble. Change up what I'm working on and how I'm working.
Sometimes if I feel stuck or I need to go focus on a specific thing, changing environment really helps. So often I'll go to a cafe or to the library or something like that. so yeah, predominantly work from home, but I try and change it up as much as I can and get out into the wide world.
Steve Folland: Yeah. When I've seen your vlogs in the past on YouTube.
Yeah. I don't know if you still do those. Do you still
Hollie Arnett: vlog? Not at the moment, no. just little short form ones on Instagram. I on Instagram. Ah.
Steve Folland: You see? So maybe I'm mixing the two in my head.
Hollie Arnett: Oh, you mean I used to vlog though, so you.
Steve Folland: I mean, you should be sponsored by the Wellington Tourist Board for a start.
Yeah. It makes you want to go there. But I, I seem to remember a point where you did, did you have a studio? Like you, you didn't just always work from home, right?
Hollie Arnett: Yeah. So before the pandemic, yeah, I worked in a shared, like artists creative studio and that was awesome. I loved that. And it was like a really great group of people.
It was, the place we had was beautiful and relatively affordable, so that was great. But yeah, then the pandemic happened and then we all went home, and then I just have stayed at home.
Steve Folland: Did you find that working in that studio environment helped your business, helped you?
Hollie Arnett: Absolutely. Yeah. And I like, I've met my best friend there, multiple best friends now i've met there and they are like all creatives and we all help each other and so that helps my business.
So yeah, it helped in so many ways. Yeah, absolutely. I think anything that I can do, anything anybody can do that connects you with other people and like brings you together, grows your network, helps to support you and you can support each other, is just, is, yeah, so valuable.
Steve Folland: So you used to vlog? yes, as did I. And so I remember watching yours and, and vice versa, perhaps years ago, but I don't anymore. Perhaps you don't anymore. Like, no. There's so many ways that we can market ourselves, create content that How do you know when to start something, stop something like keep it going regardless.
Hollie Arnett: Yeah. I think like for me, as I've explained, like everything in my business is very driven by what I love to do and what I'm enjoying and what I'm feeling passionate about. I feel like in like this is kind of what I teach people as well in marketing their brands and their businesses is like if you love something, it's gonna be so much easier to be consistent in doing that thing and to show up and do that thing.
So if you love making vlogs, you're gonna wanna keep making vlogs and like editing them and doing all that stuff. And so then that's great for your marketing, for your business. 'cause then it's more visibility, it's more consistency, it's more of all that good stuff. Whereas as soon as you start kind of hating something or resenting something, or wishing you weren't doing something, then it feels like a slog and then it becomes inconsistent, and then it's like, okay, now I'm not really doing it to the best of its ability. So anytime I've kind of gotten to that point of like, okay, this is not fun for me anymore.
I'm not enjoying it, and I'm also maybe not getting a return in any way from it other than just doing it, that's when I'm like, okay, it's time to change it up.
Like I'd rather stop and start something new that I love to do or give myself that time back to relax, then kind of slog through something just 'cause I said I would, I wanted to do it, you know? Mm-hmm. So, yeah, I'm very much like, if you love it. Keep doing it. If you don't love it, then maybe don't do it.
Steve Folland: So you must be loving your podcast then, because you've kept that going. Yeah, for quite some time now. I have,
Hollie Arnett: yeah. My podcast is one of my favorite things in my business.
Especially like these, these style of episodes interviews are my favorite of all time. Like I just love talking to people about what they do and what they're passionate about and all of that. So it makes me really happy. And also like the results of the podcast make me really happy. So when I hear from someone that it's really helped them or they learned something or, they enjoy the podcast, like that keeps me going because I'm like, okay, that is what I love, is that it's helping, it's making a difference.
So, yeah.
Steve Folland: What have you found most challenging about being freelance?
Hollie Arnett: I think just the unpredictability of it sometimes, not necessarily financially. Like yes, that, and we talk about that all the time as freelancers, but just like there are so many things that come up in your business that you're like, oh my God, okay, I have to think about that, or I have to figure that out.
Or now I have to learn this thing, or you know, I have to battle this mental challenge of like, okay, how do I keep my business going after I've just had a concussion?
You know, like these things, just the resilience and the adaptability, which I think are always the two skills I think I always say that you need to have as a freelancer, that is the most challenging thing, I think is just that there are always gonna be new things, and that's something I love about it, but it's also a challenge is that, you know, there's gonna be new challenges, there's gonna be new problems to solve, or new questions to answer or new things to figure out. and they can just be a bit like, ah, okay. But also the best part of it too.
Steve Folland: And you mentioned getting testimonials way back. I know. I was, I was quite, I was quite way well behaved and not jumping on it straight away.
Yeah. Do you have like a process for getting testimonials for your business?
Hollie Arnett: Yeah, I do. So once I, as soon as I have delivered files for a client, I send them a message which links them to my feedback form. So first they fill in the feedback form, which is like, how did you find the experience? What was your favorite part?
What was your least favorite part? What could have been better? All of those things. And then once they've submitted that it auto redirects them to leave a testimonial using a tool called Senja I dunno if you've heard of Senja?
Steve Folland: Well, I, I have. But how are we spelling that for people?
Hollie Arnett: Oh, yeah. So S-E-N-J-A. Right.
Senja. And yeah, what that does is it has like preset questions and it allows them to, well, you can set the questions, and it allows them to leave either a video or text testimonial it then gathers them all in one place and then you can turn them into like graphics or I have like a Wall Of Love they call it.
So it like brings all of your testimonials together into one place and then you can embed those on your website. You can do whatever you want with them. So I like that because it's really easy for me and my clients and it's a great way to like keep it all in one place, make sure I get the testimonial after they've submitted their feedback and then I can use it for marketing it.
And the great thing about it is the video testimonials 'cause like that is. Really helps with like conversion. You know, if you hear someone talking about something from their voice, it's a little bit more compelling than just like reading a little snippet. So I love that they have the option to leave a video testimonial.
Steve Folland: Brilliant. In terms of, you know, you mentioned having savings, which is good for investing in yourself, but obviously you had this period where you struggled to work as well. Yeah. Like are you really intentional about your finances in in that respect?
Hollie Arnett: I am now. I try to be. Now. I have not always been, and honestly, it's something that I'm always working on is like, how can I learn to best like earn and steward my money because like, that's what keeps my business going and what keeps my family fed and like, you know, all those things is important. But as a creative, it's wasn't something I thought about at all when I started my business. So I have always been learning. I'm always learning about finances.
I'm always trying to learn like, can I make it easier or better or stronger or something. But yeah, I try to be quite intentional about it. I am currently using Profit First. If you've read that, you kind of use that system. And I also use a tool called You Need A Budget. Yeah, got that wrong. You Need A Budget so that I can see like are my upcoming bills, are they covered? Are they not? Do I need to bring in more money? So it helps me to see all of that picture and then I, yeah, combine that with Profit First. So I use some systems, learn as much as I can, and yeah, try to do the best I can. Yeah.
Steve Folland: And when it comes to pricing, then, have you evolved that? Because obvious, obviously. The more we charge, yeah, the more we can invest in ourselves or put aside for the future as well as covering what we need for today, but that that can be a, a big step in itself.
Hollie Arnett: Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely. So when I first started freelancing and as a business, I just mostly did hourly pricing.
Now I almost refuse to do hourly pricing. Everything is like a package, a set package, and it's like just a flat rate, 50% upfront, 50% at the end. and that has made things so much easier in terms of like budgeting, budgeting for my clients, not going over like time also doesn't punish me because I've obviously gotten better and faster as I have evolved and grown as a creative.
So if I'm spending less time doing a task, that doesn't mean I should earn any less money. so it has been the best thing I could have ever done is to just start charging flat package fees for everything that I do.
Steve Folland: And do you have those sort of like set in stone or are you, do you use them as a basis to then create a quote?
Hollie Arnett: So I've just changed that. So I was doing like using them as a basis to do like custom quotes, but I've just changed it to actually just be what it is, because I was spending so much time doing custom proposals, and kind of like changing up the pricing each time. And I was like, why am I doing that?
Like I know how much it's worth and I know how long it takes me and like all of that stuff. So yeah, I just have changed it over the last like few months to be, there's like two options. there's like basic branding and then if you want branding in like a bunch of applications, there's that. This is how much it costs and that's it.
And it says like on my website, like it starts at this. Are you happy to do that? Yes? Then let's talk.
Steve Folland: Hollie, if you could tell your younger self one thing about being freelance, what would that be?
Hollie Arnett: Ooh, that's a great question. I didn't think about this 'cause I was too hung up on the two truths, one lie. I think what I would tell my younger freelance self is that it's going to be challenging. But it's gonna be the best thing you could ever do.
Like you are made for this and it's gonna be so rewarding. So that is worth like figuring stuff out and learning and growing and doing all the things to make it, to make it happen.
Steve Folland: Hollie, it's been so good to talk. yeah, make sure you follow Hollie online.
Of course, there'll be show notes to this episode. There'll be links through so that you can go and find Hollie on Instagram. On LinkedIn. Go listen to the podcast.
Hollie Arnett: Yes.
Steve Folland: check out. Are your old vlogs still there?
Hollie Arnett: They are. Yeah, you can go watch all of them. Go,
Steve Folland: go check out, the old vlogs as well, or mine if you fancy doing that.
Um, but Hollie, it's been so good. All the best with it and all the best being freelance.
Hollie Arnett: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.
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