Creative Director Jerel Ramsey
About this podcast episode…
CREATIVE DIRECTOR JEREL RAMSEY
From a young age, Jerel Ramsey was inspired by his father to work for himself. And here we are.
In this episode of the Being Freelance podcast, Jerel shares how he turned his passion for design into a full-time business, Sola, which he runs with his wife from their home in Trinidad and Tobago.
He talks about how his experience with the Red Cross sparked his desire to work on meaningful projects and how he built a business based on collaboration rather than competition. Building a network of other freelancers to 'co-create'.
Staying to true to his father's message to work 'with' people, not 'for' them.
Jerel opens up about the realities of freelancing, from finding clients in a saturated market to balancing work and life with his wife, and how their complementary strengths make their business thrive.
Available as a video podcast too - Watch Jerel here on the site, on YouTube, or Spotify.
Read a full transcript & get Links in the tabs.
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Transcript of the Being Freelance podcast with Steve Folland and creative director Jerel Ramsey
Steve Folland: Let's crack on. Head to Trinidad and Tobago to chat to freelance creative director Jerel Ramsey. As ever, let's get started hearing how he got started being freelance...
Jerel Ramsey: So I've been a, first and foremost a graphic designer for the past, I would say 12 years.
I started doing a lot of work with the Red Cross through, you know, working with my wife and working with the Red Cross on a whole as a volunteer. And I started realizing that I can do this as a business, like for myself. Outside of that, I was also doing little odd jobs here and there. And I decided, well, yeah, I'm gonna do this as a business.
So I spoke to my wife about it. We spoke and we decided, all right, we're gonna have this business together. And yeah, we started our business and started doing work for other people and within branding, creative direction, graphic design, communication design, design for social impact, like very purpose-driven work.
That's basically our story.
Steve Folland: How long ago did you start out?
Jerel Ramsey: This would've been in 2020. Yeah.
Steve Folland: What were you working as before 2020? So you were working as a graphic designer?
Jerel Ramsey: Yes. So I was working at as a graphic designer for different companies around the way. From ad agencies to just straight up social media management where I would have to design all the graphics for those campaigns.
And through that experience, I started realizing that I can start using my abilities for different things other than just graphic design. And I started realizing that since I can come up with these things in design. Like I can do this as well for whether it's film, photography, social media campaigns, you know, ad campaigns, websites, apps, and I can start building out those stories for other companies and other people.
So I started doing it on the side, that way I can make a little extra money. At the time I wanted to get a little more income, so I started doing that to get more experience in different things, and it worked out pretty fine for me because I'm here now.
Steve Folland: Where did you get those sort of freelance clients on the side of your full-time work though?
Where were you getting those?
Jerel Ramsey: It was usually from either word of mouth, or through friends, family members even like work sometimes they might have a client that needs extra work that I can, you know, assist with.
Steve Folland: And did you start to build like an online presence? Was there any, did you have a portfolio?
Like what did that look like?
Jerel Ramsey: That was. Some years ago, like that was probably like before I even decided to have the business, so, or even met my wife. So that was like 2015, 2016, 2017, where I'm still in school at this point, 'cause I wanted to formally like, do my graphic design, even though I've been doing it from there since 2012.
I wanted to formally have a degree that says that I can do this so people can't question it anymore. What I did was I actually went to school in Miami and while I was there I got a lot of jobs from other students at first, a lot of odd jobs outside of my actual day job that I was doing as well.
Through that, I started meeting new people. They might have somebody else that they know that they think that I can work with or, and that's just how it went. It was just word of mouth. Throughout the way. I didn't have any portfolio. I didn't have any online presence. My online presence was pretty much just me on Instagram, not my work.
Yeah. Just kept going like that through people that worked with me and thought that I was good at what I do.
Steve Folland: That's cool. So what changed then? At what point did you think, well actually I could turn this into my own business instead of working for other people? What? What was the switch? The turning point.
Jerel Ramsey: I always had that mindset that at some point I would do that because that's how my dad raised me. My dad always used to instill in me from, since I was five years old, he's been telling me, when you start to work, work for yourself, don't work for other people. 'cause then you are basically a slave to them and you need to have your time, your freedom to create and do what you have to do.
I kid you not, since I was five years old, my dad has been telling me that. So I've always had the mindset that one day I will work for myself, not have to work for others. I'll work with others, but not for them. So it's, it's been ever since I just, at some point I just realized, okay, I need to start working on that, that he's been telling me since I've been that small.
Steve Folland: Did he run his own business I take it then?
Jerel Ramsey: He does right now actually. Yeah. he has two businesses. His creative side is that he does decor for events. So if an event like needs a design for how they want the space to look, they come to people like him. So that's what he does right now in Miami. And then his other business is technical and, you know, what he went to school for, is he does elevator inspection. So he inspects elevators, escalators, lifts, anything that with a pulley system. That's what he does. So that's what he does on a day. That's his day job pretty much.
Steve Folland: Nice. Okay, so you are at university in Miami. You are working on the side, but not building up a business as far as you see it. You're just taking things as they come and then you, you head back to Trinidad and Tobago and start working for companies there?
Jerel Ramsey: Yes.
Steve Folland: But you mentioned the Red Cross at some point.
Jerel Ramsey: Yes. So when I came back to Trinidad, my wife was actually just a volunteer at the time at Red Cross. So when I came back, probably like a week or two after, she got promoted and she became the director of volunteer management there.
With that came me volunteering a lot at the Red Cross and through volunteering, and one thing that I love about the Red Cross is that it's always a upward mobility where you can volunteer for years and then there might be a job and yeah, just kept pushing and pushing to get more work with them as much as possible, especially with the International Red Cross.
Steve Folland: Amazing. And, and that was graphic design work then?
Jerel Ramsey: Funny enough, it started as graphic design work, but when I worked with the IFRC, that's where I saw that I can do other stuff because they saw things that I would do voluntarily for the Trinidad Red Cross, like edit a video for them, for instance, or direct a video for them, for some, for something that they had for like an ad or anything.
And they saw that and they was like, okay, well you can do this as well, so now if we have these kind of projects, we can reach out to you for a quote as well. And a lot of the times I would get those jobs to edit videos for their projects and stuff, but also like branding projects for certain programs that they might have.
Yeah, it came, it worked out pretty well.
Steve Folland: So it sounds like the, the fact that you got work and it inspired you to start your own business via the Red Cross also changed the sort of work that you decided that you would want to do?
Jerel Ramsey: Yes. So it, it got me thinking more of how I can apply myself in different creative fields as well as, I would also attest that to the fact that my wife dances as well. So through her dance and seeing just different forms of art, just in general, I start seeing that I want to work in different fields, just out of natural passion to want to work in different artistic fields.
And now I do film and music and, well, I always did music, but like I always, I, I do it more professionally now, and I just like to create, and it just, it, it brings out a, a really passionate side about me when I'm working on a project and I can really put my all into every part of the project.
Steve Folland: So with that, did you start to call yourself a business, have a business name? Like how did you put yourself out there that people knew these were the things that you could do? Or did you continue to rely on word of mouth?
Jerel Ramsey: When my wife and I decided to have our business, because that's when we officially made it where I don't work for anybody else but me and...
We decided to do it together, start the business together, where she will do the strategy side, I'll do the design side and the creative, and we bring that together. It, it was such a refreshing like experience because now I have a partner that can actually just be there along the way, every step of the way.
So what we named the business was Sola. Sola is a mixture of Sol for SOL, for the Sun and Luna. So we put those together for Sola the sun represents me and the moon represents her, and it's about duality and how we work together.
Steve Folland: So did you start marketing yourself as Sola?
Jerel Ramsey: Yes. So we created the Instagram, we worked on a website, everything.
And then two years later we registered it officially and now that's what we do.
Steve Folland: And so how does work come to you?
Jerel Ramsey: Right now it's through similar word of mouth, but we also do our own posts on Instagram and get the word out there that we are doing this and but also show our expertise in the fields that we are doing while also talking about just things that we wanna talk about as well.
And... so for instance, like our big thing for us is, you know, just spirituality and getting that connection to ourselves. And we speak on that a lot on our posts, people see that and they connect with that and they come to us 'cause that's what they want for their brand as well.
Steve Folland: Do you work with other people as well? Do you bring on other people for projects or is it the two of you?
Jerel Ramsey: So that's exactly how we work actually. So, what we do is
we work with other creatives that do different things.
So for instance, we work with like a videographer who would shoot the videos for us, but I would direct it. Or an illustrator who would illustrate, like, let's say a background for a graphic for instance, or an icon or something for a logo in particular. But I will be the one that comes up with the concepts to give them.
And we also work with other designers. If we need more designers on a project, we'll get other graphic designers that we know to come on board.
But these are all people that have their own businesses and we call them co-creators. 'cause that's what we do. We co-create together and instead of the constant competing that you see out here with different businesses, we prefer to work with people so that everybody gets to have a little piece of pie.
Steve Folland: How do you find those people and how do you find managing those people?
Jerel Ramsey: Usually, well, the majority of the ones that we work with are longstanding partners that we've had. So they're people that we know we can trust. And we don't have to micromanage them. We give them a deadline and it gets done.
In terms of understanding our creative point of view, they're people that we mesh with as well. So if we find someone that we think works really well, we usually just have a conversation just like this. And if it's something that we feel like it meshes, then yeah, it's perfect.
Steve Folland: What sort of work do you mainly work on? Where, where are your clients based?
Jerel Ramsey: Majority of our work comes from local in Trinidad. We also get international from time to time, like people who find us through other people who may also work in an international space.
We get a lot of non-profits and NGO work, and that's usually our international clients where it may be someone that we worked with before, locally, but they work in an international space as well with another company.
They might reference us to them and then well, you know, the same process they go through and they figure out if we're a good fit and we get chosen.
Steve Folland: How do you find working across sort of different time zones or getting paid across different boundaries?
Jerel Ramsey: Sometimes payment can be a hassle when you come from a third world country and banking systems are just a mess over here. But luckily, because I went to school in Miami, I do have an account in United States, so that makes things a little easier because they have better bank connections there than, you know here.
But in terms of the time zones, it's never been a problem. Mostly because of my work with the IFRC. Like they're usually on different time zones as well, so it's just a matter of like when we can meet, when times intersect.
If it's like such a vast difference in time, I'll make myself available at times that may not be normal for a normal person to be up.
Steve Folland: I think you described your work as 'purpose driven'. Did you say that?
Jerel Ramsey: Yes. I think through working with the Red Cross, that caused that. I think that aspect of just helping people and creating things that make a difference. As opposed to just creating, for creating sake.
Steve Folland: Do you find work that comes your way that doesn't tick that box? I'm just wondering how Yeah. How you deal with that.
Jerel Ramsey: Quite a few, actually, but what we do and how we look at it is that we focus on the fact that like, our main thing is that our clients should be sustainable.
Whether that means eco sustainability or just sustainability and the fact that it's not like creating any waste, both toxically like community wise or like you know, naturally as well. So once they tick that box for us and there's someone we can like work with, that's where we go ahead. We do have like, at least I think one corporate client, but that's because he's a friend and I don't mind working with friends as well, like if that has to happen, but it's not usually what we go after.
We don't usually go after corporate like that unless the corporate has some sort of sustainability aspect. For instance, like if someone was to have an online platform where everything is online. I don't mind working with that even though it's corporate, 'cause it doesn't add to any wastage in the world. And that's something that we would like, try to champion in our work.
Steve Folland: Do you ever come up against it where something comes your way, maybe it's a good cause, but they don't have the budget, but obviously you need to make money to survive. I'm just wondering about the friction that might sometimes come from that.
Jerel Ramsey: It depends. It depends on, 'cause you can not have the budget, but that don't mean you don't have a budget.
So if the budget is still something that we can work with might have to minimize like ideas if it's like a huge idea and might have to bring it down to what that would actually cost. Like what that cost that you will have as a budget can fit because we also don't want to overextend ourselves because then that wouldn't be fruitful to us mentally as well, not just working wise.
Steve Folland: You've obviously met with and worked with lots of other creatives. Is there a community around you of, of other people, of other freelancers, other creative business owners that you are part of?
Jerel Ramsey: I would say yes, as I would say, most of our co-creators would be that community for us, because they're all freelancers. They all work for themselves.
It's something that we try to help each other out at all times, but that's something we really, really believe in. And coming from such a small country, you see other creatives out there that compete a lot. Especially when you're in a saturated feel like design. There's so many designers in in Trinidad alone, so imagine just the region, like so many designers and it's always where it feels like a competition, but it's not a competition.
It doesn't have to be. We can all work together for what strengths we all have. Like, I may be good at designing very minimalist things with a big picture kind of perspective, but this person might be better at designing like 3D looking things or very experimental things. And depending on the project, we have to know who strong suits will fit this project better.
Steve Folland: And do you get to speak to each other about the challenges that you might face running a business?
Jerel Ramsey: Yes, we do a lot actually. We usually have our little get togethers just to, just have fun sometimes 'cause it can't always be work. And that usually comes up so it ends up being work again. 'cause we're talking about work.
Steve Folland: Let's go do something so it's not work. And then we'll end up talking about work.
Jerel Ramsey: Yeah.
Steve Folland: So your dad obviously inspired elements of business for you, but do you, do you talk business with him or anybody else in terms of moving what you're doing forward?
Jerel Ramsey: I do sometimes, but because he is not in this type of design field, it's a little different for him.
So he may not always get things from my perspective, but he's just like me. He has a very big picture mindset of everything, and I feel like I get that from him wholeheartedly. But I think more with my mom, she's the more structured person, so she would, you know, a nine to five her whole life. And, you know, she understands the business aspect of it because she was like in a higher position in her job, and it's something that now and again, I might talk to her about certain things. Or my wife and I might just mention to her about things that we are dealing with with our work, and she might see things that we might not see and mention it.
But usually the main person I talk to about things that I might be struggling with with our clients is my wife, because she usually deals with like the project management side of things and the strategy, and once that's done, it's usually me finishing up the rest of stuff, which is the design and stuff like that. And she helps me come up with the ideas. Sometimes she is very good at that as well in terms of coming up with ideas and sometimes I'm stumped, like extremely stumped, especially in terms of dealing with the client and how to explain certain things to a client. I might be at a fork in a road of how it, either I explain it to me very harsh or very like cold about it, and then she might find that perfect middle ground of how to speak to the the client and explain it to them.
Especially when it comes to like the creative, like she finds that perfect middle ground that I can tell 'em.
Steve Folland: How do you two kind of work together and also keep a separation? Or maybe you don't. Between like work and life.
Jerel Ramsey: That's the thing. We rarely ever do that unless we're actually working on something. And that's the one thing about us. We have a great work-life balance in terms of knowing when to cut off, when to not do any work. 'Cause usually when we're with our friends who also are freelancers they might have certain gripes with their clients and it ends up having, we end up having those conversations. But between us we might talk about it once or twice, like if something comes up, but we don't wanna like let that meddle into life. Like life should be separate. So we have a really great work life balance when it comes to that.
Steve Folland: Okay. So people might be going, I want a bit of that really great work life balance. How, how do you think you keep that balance?
Jerel Ramsey: I think even though we don't work a nine to five in the general sense of a nine to five. We have times that we know, okay, it's getting a little late, let's cut off. No work. We need to relax. So no matter where we reach in a project, it needs to save, close and put away; time to focus on home and just relaxing.
Even for like if we need to eat, like sometimes I go, I'm working and like I forget to eat. Like, I'll just keep working and she might have to tell me like, Hey, take a break, eat, have some lunch. You know, drink some coffee. Something like that, you know?
And it's something that we respect, period. So once, and I, and I tell her all the time, 'cause she, she does it. She makes sure that I'm taken care of in that aspect, especially because I think she has a better structure with that than I do. I tend to just work, work, work, work, and she really makes sure that I'm like, all right, you need to stop, take a break, eat, watch a show or something. Try to get your mind off of work for a little bit and then go back, you know?
And then in the night, like once it reaches like, you know, five, six, just like a regular nine to five, we stop, stop work, no work, time to relax a little bit. And I feel like that balance really helps me not burn myself out.
Steve Folland: Jerel, what would you say you found most challenging about being freelance?
Jerel Ramsey: I would say client acquisition is still a little bit of a challenge. But only because you can put out work on social media and you can share as much as you want, but we know how social media is these days. The algorithm is terrible. Getting seen is hard. Unless you're putting that out every day, which is not feasible for just two people, it's very hard to keep putting out work and having that, you know, social media presence. And so I would say that would be the hardest part for me.
Steve Folland: So it sounds like you're really focused, you know, as Sola but I remember finding you online as 'Jerel'. You've got a lovely website. Yeah. Admittedly, it says at the bottom, made by Sola, which is great. But yeah, you, you do still have your own personal brand, your own self out there as a creative director. As a freelancer as well, right?
Jerel Ramsey: Yeah. I think I try to funnel everything through Sola just from a business perspective. But if, for instance, someone wants to hire myself or my wife, like for instance, through her dance, if someone wants to hire her for a dance related project within her pedagogy, it will be through her, 'cause she has her own website as well.
And I think it was through seeing her website is what made, pushed me to say, well, okay, I need a platform for my portfolio and my stuff as well, so let me create one for me.
And that's why I posted it and I created it. I actually didn't think of doing it. Not that I didn't think of it as in like it was an important, something that I had never thought about. I did, but I never put it at the forefront until we created hers. And when we created hers, I was like, okay, well I need a space that holds everything that I do, because I do stuff outside of Sola as well.
I'm also an artist doing music. I also do film, so that's like, I wanna put all of that in one space. Where people can see the full plethora of things that I do.
Steve Folland: Yeah, I like that. So that it's. Okay. It's a website about ll but it's not all about business. It's you.
Jerel Ramsey: Yeah.
Steve Folland: Artistically what you like to get up to.
Jerel Ramsey: Yeah.
Steve Folland: So does that mean side projects, like doing, you know, things alongside your work are important to you?
Jerel Ramsey: Yeah, it is because I feel like because I do so many different creative things, I don't wanna just work, work, work and not get to do a little bit of what's passion for me. Music is a huge passion for me, and film is now a huge passion for me.
Right now, I'm like creating a film right now, like in pre-production for it and working on new music right now that I just started this week, you know, and it's something that, I really try to map out time for as well.
Steve Folland: Okay, Jerel, if you could tell your younger self one thing about being freelance, what would that be?
Jerel Ramsey: I would say to start earlier. I think if I had started earlier, I would've been further along. I feel as though I waited a lot out of fear of being fully freelance and you know, not making money and not doing things right and I feel as though I should have started earlier.
Steve Folland: Do you think though all of the experience you gained in the companies you worked at has helped you with your work both creatively and from a business point of view, though?
Jerel Ramsey: I think the first job I got, well, second job technically that I got coming back to Trinidad, gave me enough experience that after that I could have gone freelance completely. And I did not take the leap there because I was just afraid of how am I gonna get my next dollar? How am I gonna get to feed myself when the month comes, or, you know I get to move out and, you know, not be at home.
And that was hard for me at the time. I just didn't see it happening anytime soon. And I would tell my younger self to allow myself to, you know, not let that fear take over. 'cause I feel like between that job and every other job I had after that, there's not much new things that I learned from those jobs, like not much new experience. All the experiences that I got between that time to 2022 when I officially left my job. 'Cause I, I started the business in 2020, but we only like officially left my job in 2022. So I wish I had started that sooner. That's what I wish.
Steve Folland: Jerel it's been great chatting to you.
Jerel Ramsey: Thank you.
Steve Folland: Love the look of your work and the variety of it as well. And the fact that you, you get to do it alongside your wife is really nice. I think it's really interesting the, the, the balance of it and going after the purpose driven work as well. Go to beingfreelance.com. I'll put links through so that you can see both the websites, that we've talked about, check out the work. But for now, Jerel, thanks so much and all the best being freelance.
Jerel Ramsey: Thank you for having me.
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