Adrian Ashton - Freelancing As An Unpaid Carer
About this podcast episode…
ENTERPRISE CONSULTANT ADRIAN ASHTON - UNPAID CARER
Adrian’s been a successful freelancer for 21 years. But in the past 7, his definition of framing success has changed.
For the last seven years, Adrian has also been an unpaid carer for three immediate family members. He talks honestly about what that's meant for his business - the travel he's had to give up, the networking events he can't get to, the inquiries he's had to turn away, and why he deliberately caps how much work he takes on (and how much money he can make).
But he also talks about the bigger picture. Seven years ago, he went looking for support and found nothing. Half a million freelancers were in the same boat - and nobody was talking about it. So he stepped up and opened up.
In this episode of the Being Freelance podcast with Steve Folland, we cover:
Why Adrian chose to make his caring role a "first date disclosure" with every new client - and how it's actually strengthened client relationships
Planning marketing around your worst week, not your best
The theory of constraints - and why having less can unlock more creativity and enjoyment
His annual impact report: a 20-year habit that's never won him work directly, but keeps him accountable, sane, and focused
The impending crisis for the UK as the numbers of freelancers with unpaid caring responsibilities increases
How we can make a difference and a change
The impact freelancers have in the world - yep, you included
This episode is available to watch in video here on the site, on Apple Podcasts, YouTube and Spotify.
Adrian is a member of the Being Freelance Community - come join us, you’re not alone being freelance.
Read a full transcript & get Links in the tabs.
More from ADRIAN ASHTON
Transcript of the Being Freelance podcast with Steve Folland and Enterprise Consultant Adrian Ashton
Adrian Ashton:
Hello, I'm Adrian Ashton. I'm an enterprise consultant, and I'm based in the north of England in the glorious Pennines.
Adrian Ashton:
So I'm actually an unpaid carer now for three immediate family members, and that started seven years ago. It struck me that I had to rethink my business model.
Adrian Ashton:
I've still got to market. I've still got to promote myself. So I plan my marketing on a worst week scenario. If everything kicks off, what's the minimum I know I could do? That's what I aim for.
Adrian Ashton:
Everyone, at some point in their lives, will need care or will need to be a giver of care to someone else.
Steve Folland:
Welcome to another one. Now, you would've thought after 360 episodes, we would've basically heard everything, right? But I don't think we've spoken about the experience of being a carer for somebody whilst also trying to run your freelance business. Being an unpaid carer, also trying to keep your clients happy as well. But that's Adrian's experience, and he really opens up about it. Thank you, Adrian. Talks about the challenges and the changes that he is trying to bring, the support that he's trying to bring. You can find links to these topics in the show notes to this episode. But even if that's not something you're going through right now, I'm always conscious that who knows what curveballs life will throw in our direction. So I really think it's worth paying attention to. I hope you enjoy it.
Steve Folland:
Also, want to let you know that these episodes are now available in video in extra places. Not just YouTube, but also Spotify and now Apple Podcasts. It's been quite a lot of effort to get them up on Apple, but hopefully it's been worth it. So it still sounds the same if you're listening, but if you're watching as well, thank you very much. So that's on YouTube and Spotify, where you can also leave comments, and then Apple Podcasts as well.
Steve Folland:
Okay, let's crack on. We're heading to the north of England, to the Pennines. It's like the backbone mountains of, can you call them mountains? Maybe hills, maybe mountains is pushing it, of Britain to chat to this week's guest. That is freelance enterprise consultant, Adrian Ashton. Hey, Adrian.
Adrian Ashton:
Hello.
Steve Folland:
How about we get started hearing how you got started being freelance?
Adrian Ashton:
It starts with me being professionally shafted by one of the country's leading national social businesses of the time. So I was living down south. I was born in Cambridge, educated there, was working there, and then just over 20 years ago, got approached by this company I've decided to never name publicly, saying, "We've heard about you." And remember, this is an age before iPhones, social media. Fax machines were the height of instant communication. So the fact that they'd heard of me all the way up there showed there was something I was doing really interesting. And they said, "We want you on our team. We're going to create a post, and we know you've just started a family." We'd just had our first kid. "So we've got this package, really attractive package, great career prospects." So I did it. Recruited my successors, moved up north to somewhere that I didn't know anyone, had no reputation, no network, no contacts. And in the process of moving up, they said, "We're very sorry. We can't create the job after all. Bye-bye. Good luck."
Adrian Ashton:
Now, I had the half-second conversation in my head, which is, I know I can take them to tribunal for this. Absolutely. But do I want to start this next chapter of my life with blood on the carpet? So I decided, no, I'm not going to do that. I'll do what I've done ever since I was a kid, which is I go and knock on doors. "Hello, give us a job."
Adrian Ashton:
And the first place that said, "We'll give you a job," was an enterprise agency. So they said, "We're looking for business advisors. You seem to know your stuff, but you've got to be self-employed. We bring you in as a freelancer to deliver on the contracts." So that's what kind of tipped me into it. And then I kept saying yes and went, obviously did a good job. My name got passed around. People invited me to other things. And I've always tried to say yes in life rather than no.
Steve Folland:
And what year are we talking about that you first went freelancing?
Adrian Ashton:
The 5th of January, 2005.
Steve Folland:
Wow.
Adrian Ashton:
21 years.
Steve Folland:
Your term of sort of being an enterprise consultant, that has basically stayed the same?
Adrian Ashton:
Yes. But I kind of define enterprise not as let's make a business to make lots of money, as the Pet Shop Boys so eloquently sang- ... in Song of the Opportunities. But the question, what if and why not?
Adrian Ashton:
Why can't we change the way that this board of a charity works? What if this government policy focused on something else? And those sorts of questions about change and influence.
Steve Folland:
So those first clients sounded very much word of mouth?
Adrian Ashton:
Yes. And that's continued ever since. So recently, I've become a case study focus for someone doing a doctoral thesis.
Steve Folland:
Wow.
Adrian Ashton:
Which has been really interesting because I've had to actually look back over my history as a freelancer to look at all the data and what's worked and what hasn't worked.
Adrian Ashton:
What hasn't worked is a website, even though it's been SEO'd and it's got all the stuff. What hasn't worked is social media, despite lots of different campaigns and experiments and things. What has worked is repeat clients and direct word of mouth introduction. And I have an idea that that's possibly linked to the fact that a lot of the work I do is quite messy and also sensitive.
Steve Folland:
So word of mouth, what would you say-- Do you do anything to encour age that word of mouth?
Adrian Ashton:
I try and be helpful. I try and encourage follow-ups. So I recently reached out to a client I did some work with six months ago, sort of large charity, who'd asked me to come in to do a salary review for them. And then, of course, job's done. "Okay, thank you very much." Sign off, off they go. Then, of course, I follow up a few months later saying, "What happened next?" And encouraging that they got back recently and said, "Because of that work you did, we've now looked at it as the trustees. We've been able to spend some time going through it. And what it's meant is we've changed our salary points, so people are now actually getting paid more." And they feel more likely to want to stay with the charity. And it's made it easier for us to recruit the talent and skills we were needing to before.
Adrian Ashton:
Now, that's kind of reinforced that message to a client that says, as freelancers, we do work with clients all the time, but then they move on to something else. I think we have to go back and prompt them every so often to say: Remember that adventure we had together? Wasn't it nice?
Adrian Ashton:
And then also, I cheat as well a bit, so I send Christmas cards every year, actual physical cards through the post. And it's quite sad. So something I've noted in recent years, Steve, about the cards, is the increasing propensity of people to send me a thank you message saying it was the only physical Christmas card they received in their office that year. It's quite sad. We're kind of losing that human connection.
Steve Folland:
So if word of mouth is so important, you obviously need lots of mouths talking about you. How do you go out and meet more people?
Adrian Ashton:
Well, here's the trick. I don't want lots of mouths talking about me. A few years ago, I made the choice to deliberately restrain and restrict the amount of work I do as a freelancer. I am not looking to grow my client base. Well, there's always a churn of clients, but I'm purposefully limiting the amount of money I want to earn, the amount of work. And that's because I'm limited in the amount of work I can physically and emotionally deliver.
Adrian Ashton:
So I manage the expectation thing. I don't want to generate lots of inquiries that then says I've set people up, I've upset people. It's broken, I think. Earlier this year, in sort of January time, I started to get approached by different people saying, "Oh, word of mouth's working, and can you work with us on this project? But it's short deadline because we're coming up to the end of the financial year. We've got to deliver this by then and now." And I had to turn around and say, "No. There is no capacity in my calendar to do that work by that time with you to any level of quality or standard that you'd need it." And that was really hard for me. One of them was a national museum wanting to work on a community campaign. I love museums. We should all spend more time in museums because they're really cool places. And it's a museum that I know of, and I think is one of the really good ones. And I had to say no to them because they'd come at the wrong time of year.
Adrian Ashton:
So again, there's a balancing act, I think, in terms of how I get word out. The second part then is how do I get the mouths blabbing about me as we go along? I very rarely go to networking events now. Not because I'm an introvert or I don't like them. Love performing in front of other people. I used to have a reputation as the guy with the shiny red helmet at networking events because I'd go there on a bicycle. Listen, any networking you do, the follow-up is crucial. You've got to do something at that event that gets you remembered when you do the follow-up. So I used to go on a pushbike, cycle there, and then I would say to people afterwards, I was the guy who came by bicycle with safety first shiny red bicycle helmet. But my ability to get out of the house now to those physical events has curtailed a lot in recent years because I've become an unpaid carer.
Adrian Ashton:
So it's a lot of kind of direct relationship follow-up, being very targeted and precise about who I reach out to in those messages. But it seems to be working for now.
Steve Folland:
So when did you become an unpaid carer? Or however you want to approach this element of the conversation, because it's obviously a big part in, well, not just your life, but your business life as well, as the two come together.
Adrian Ashton:
Yeah. This is my 21st year freelancing. In those first few years, I built my reputation up. I'd travel all over the country, even overseas. It was unusual if I'd gone two months without being on a plane to go somewhere, to work with a client or deliver some kind of workshop training course.
Adrian Ashton:
And then about seven years ago, my stepchild had an episode. And that started a process where they went through various assessments. They now hold various badges. And I became recognized as their unpaid carer as they go along. They're now an adult, but they still need that element of support. And then, from my previous marriage, one of my children there came to live with us. They started to struggle. They have, again, gone through some assessment processes, now got some badges as a result. And then through that process, I've become registered as their unpaid carer.
Adrian Ashton:
This whole thing's like seven years ago. And then a couple of years ago, my now wife had a significant health issue. She had some major surgeries. And because of that, she's physically limited at the moment in terms of where she was, where her recovery's at. We'll hopefully find out over the next couple of years how much of her previous independence she can physically retain. Should all be pretty straightforward, but bodies are weird things in terms of how they work. So in my last carer's assessment, when I went through with the kids, they said actually because of the support she needs from me, that they said actually it also ticks the box for her. So I'm actually an unpaid carer now for three immediate family members at the moment. And that started seven years ago.
Adrian Ashton:
So seven years ago, when I started this journey, it struck me that I had to rethink my business model. I wasn't going to be able to travel around the country or overseas as freely as I did before. I wasn't going to be able to go to the events that I could in person. My flexibility was changing as well in terms of health appointments or emergency care that might need to happen. So I tried to figure out, how do I do this? How have other freelancers done it? So I started to go out to forums and groups at that time. Couldn't really find anything. No one was talking about this.
Adrian Ashton:
And so I thought, okay, this is interesting. So I thought, well, maybe there's not a lot of us after all. So I did some research. I looked into official statistics. And then at that time, it's about seven years ago, what I found through official statistic sources is there's about 500,000. Let me reframe that. Seven years ago, there were half a million freelancers who were also unpaid carers, but no one was talking about it.
Adrian Ashton:
And so I dug a bit deeper, and what I discovered then is that if you are self-employed, freelancing, or small business owner, you are the only type of unpaid carer not recognized in the legislation or policy about unpaid carers. Which means that none of the carer support services recognize you or understand the support you need or can offer you any support. Which also means none of the business support services that government supports or funds or is out there recognize you or can offer you support to kind of remix your business model.
Adrian Ashton:
So I decided to out myself, to make it a first-date disclosure with any prospective client, which is completely at odds to all the advice that I was given by the experts and the gurus in the mastermind chairs and things at the time. Because for me, I didn't want that secret in the back of my head that if I'm working with a client on a project, at any moment, knowing that I may have to cut a call short or on the day or the day before, say, "We've got to cancel this online workshop, we've got to cancel this meeting. I can't finish that draft for you tomorrow as I thought because I've got to take someone to A&E because someone's fallen on the stairs." Whatever it is. I can't live with that, trying to hide that. I thought, let's just be open about it. So I was open with clients about it.
Adrian Ashton:
So I say, "I can't work with you if you can't accept this." And then also started to out myself in different freelancer forums and groups as well. And that was really interesting. So subsequent to that time, there's been some national bodies. So we've had the likes of what was Freelance Heroes. Freelancing Business, so it's a kind of a European model as well, asked me to do some roundtables with them. IPSE, Independent Professionals and Self-Employed, another kind of professional body for freelance sole traders, picked up on my research, asked me to do some work with them. They've now created their own policy position on this. I was invited to a roundtable with the Department of Business and Trade recently as well about this. Enterprise Nation, that we've both been invited to do turns on in the past as well, invited me to do one of their sessions about this.
Adrian Ashton:
And that's been really encouraging because sharing that story openly has helped me normalize it more, make more sense of it. The way we tell stories helps us understand our position more. But then through that, so many people, and even within our own family of biscuit munchers here in the Being Freelance, there are quite a few of us who are unpaid carers as well. Now, I choose deliberately never to kind of go, "Oh, they're a carer, they're a carer, they're a carer." It's their choice to disclose or not. I also never choose to disclose any of the details of the family members that I'm the carer for, because it's their story to tell, not mine. But through those processes, loads of people have come forward to me, either in public comment or by direct message, going, "We are so encouraged to realize it's not just us.
Adrian Ashton:
We didn't know how to wave a flag. We were concerned this would damage our reputation with clients. We thought we'd lose work. How do we kind of to make this go?" So there's been this real kind of appreciation in some places from some people, which has been great. It's purely selfish on my part. I'm just trying to help find other people who figured it out to go along the way.
Adrian Ashton:
Now, just to go back to that figure, 500,000 people seven years ago. Now, recently, Carers UK put out some research last year about our counterparts in salaried employment. And what they identified last year was that every day, 600 people who have regular jobs have to quit those jobs because they become unpaid carers. Okay? Six hundred people across the whole economy in regular jobs. Now, that's a huge knock to the economy, productivity, all the rest. However, carer's allowance is a weird system because less than 10% of unpaid carers are actually eligible for carer's allowance to apply for it.
Adrian Ashton:
So that means of those 600 people who were working, they've now had to stop. Most of them will not be able to get any financial support as a carer role. But they still need to earn money, so they're going to become freelance like us. So we've got about 500 people a day becoming freelance because they're an unpaid carer, because they can't find any other way of working, which means that in the next year or two, there's going to be a million of us out there.
Adrian Ashton:
That's the context. Now, why this is important, if you're listening in, folks, and you've got the badge like me as an unpaid carer, then you know that according to the research and the statistics, we are twice as likely to be in poverty than any other type of unpaid carer. Okay? Which is what the data tells us.
Adrian Ashton:
And that's largely because our ability to do freelance, to work, is at least 20% squashed, again, other national research, to deliver client work, because we haven't got the support to kind of balance this out. So there's a moral case on it there. There's also an economic case. There's a policy case. This is why if you're not an unpaid carer and a freelancer, you go, "That sounds awful, but so what? I'm glad it's not me."
Adrian Ashton:
We should all care about this because as freelancers, our productivity is squashed. Then the wider economy that as freelancers we rely on to get work from other clients is running short by about 20 billion pounds a year GDP So all businesses are struggling and not doing as well, and can't generate the inquiries and the work for all of us in return. So this kind of feeds around.
Adrian Ashton:
And there's also a longer-term issue on this as well, which is, we know that being freelance, being self-employed, research shows it's pretty much the worst thing you can do for your future mental health and wellbeing. Actually, being an entrepreneur, being freelance, if you're not careful, actually damages your mental health and wellbeing, unless you're part of a great community like Being Freelance, obviously. Now, being an unpaid carer is obviously also the worst thing you can do for your future mental health and physical health, which means that this nearly million people of us at the moment are ticking time bombs in the NHS. We are the most at-risk group of a future health, physical, mental health crisis, and yet we're not in the systems anywhere. We're not recognized.
Adrian Ashton:
So what I've been trying to do is by outing myself, waving this flag, trying to kind of show some solidarity with fellow biscuit munchers who are trying to figure this out as well, share each other's stories carefully, respectfully, so we can all make more sense of it, and also try and get a bit more recognition for us to say how more and more of us are in this circumstance all the time. Because at some point in our lives, everyone at some point in our lives will need care or will need to be a giver of care to someone else. Probably both.
Adrian Ashton:
Care is one of these massive taboo stories we have in the country. And for most of us, most unpaid carers, freelancing is the only way we can do it in terms of being able to keep the rent paid because there is no support. Like I say, carer's allowance, less than 10% of unpaid carers are eligible for it. And that's not because the government's been a duck about it. It's because carer's allowance was designed on certain assumptions about how unpaid care works. And in the day, that was broadly correct. Time's moved on.
Adrian Ashton:
Unpaid carers now come in much more varieties and colors. Unpaid care is not just about being with your parent in their final chapter. Being an unpaid carer is not just about having a young child living with pronounced physical disabilities. It can be someone who foster cares children. It can be, in my case, a spouse. It can be children who've now become adults, but who need that ongoing support as well. There's this huge range of circumstances that unpaid carers crop up in.
Adrian Ashton:
Anyway, this is becoming a bit of a-- there should be kind of an orchestra playing in the background to all this as we go on.
Steve Folland:
From all of that amazing sort of bringing together of other voices and letting your voice be heard, is anything happening?
Adrian Ashton:
Are things happening? Things are happening if you know where to look for them, I think is the answer. Things are always happening, whatever circumstance you're in, unpaid caring, divorcee, freelancers who are divorced. I've been divorced, remarried now. But then what it meant was I've had to financially reset everything at the age of 50. So as a freelancer, how do you rebuild that identity? Anyway, sidetrack.
Adrian Ashton:
The communities that are out there, so IPSE, Independent Professionals and Self-Employed, took my initial research that I'd done about unpaid carers, how many there were, the issues. They laid onto that research with their own, and they've produced a policy position. So you can look on their website, there's stuff there.
Adrian Ashton:
There's Carers UK. They are looking to expand and update their guidance, their resources for unpaid carers who are also freelancers because they recognize now there is this growing army of us out there. And there really should be something better for us to do that with. So I've kind of offered them, said, "Look, here's all the resources I've amassed over the years from the roundtables, from the other webinars, to help feed into that." So we're seeing something come out there.
Adrian Ashton:
Department for Business and Trade did a roundtable last year. So it's about the Carer's Leave Act, which of course, freelancers, we don't get any of that kind of legislation or legal protections in anything. But the fact that I got noticed for my efforts, and I was able to get this onto their radar to say this is not part of their consultation for that roundtable, but it is in the system now. Things slowly trickle through. And this is what I've seen with stuff changing, Steve. We have this idea that we need to do a big campaign, big petition, and that will change it. Stuff takes time. A few years ago, I changed company law. Well, I changed community interest company law by accident. So we can change stuff. We all change stuff. We all think we can't, but actually, no. If me, without any formal qualification, can change company law with some well-crafted letters to the right people at the right time, any of us can change anything. And we as freelancers, we do this to our work all the time. I think it goes back to the earlier point about how often do we go back to previous client projects six months on and say, "What happened next?"
Adrian Ashton:
We all create massive impacts, way more than we realize. Because we don't stop and pause and realize them, recognize them, capture them, and then share them on as a celebration, as an encouragement to others. That potential, it gets lost. We lose that momentum. But yeah, that potential to create more change doesn't happen.
Steve Folland:
You mentioned being very forthcoming with clients.
Adrian Ashton:
Yeah.
Steve Folland:
Straight up, "This is my situation." How else have you kind of dealt with this within yourself and your own business?
Adrian Ashton:
Pragmatically, I think is the answer. So as an unpaid carer, the needs, the support that the people you care for is constantly changing. So, for me, what that means is I've had to calendar block out certain times of the week, standing caring commitments that happen on a regular basis. At the moment, those are about to expand, so there are certain blocks of the week where I cannot commit to any client work, calls, being at a keyboard, researching stuff, just can't do it because I need to be on hand for those activities.
Adrian Ashton:
And like I say, recently that's now expanded, so there's another kind of block of the week that that's happening in So I've made this choice to go, okay, I can try and reflex my calendar. So be a bit more flexible about where people say, "Be clear with your boundaries." I say, "Well, I'm flexible with my boundaries." It's not unknown that I'll be catching up with stuff at weekends or on an evening to balance out the hours from the work. We mentioned earlier about the fact that I don't want loads and loads of inquiries all the time, because that's an unmanageable expectation in the world, and I don't want to set myself up, and I don't want to let people down.
Adrian Ashton:
So I purposefully, in my head, have limited my growth aspiration as a freelancer. I have purposefully curtailed my ambitions and my expectations for how much I can earn. And that has a knock-on effect, which is, that means there is less disposable income to do things with. But it's a trade-off, right? No one in this world says the world is a fair place or you're owed anything. No one says you are entitled to two holidays overseas every year. That's not in law anywhere. That's not a thing. The fact I have all my limbs, there is a coffee in the pot, the power is on. It's raining, but it's raining. That's going to water the plants. We find ways to make it work.
Adrian Ashton:
I use Google Calendar a lot, click and drag that calendar blocking stuff all the time. Great way to kind of triage stuff day by day. Marketing, saying that I've still got to market, I've still got to promote myself, remind clients I'm there. That word of mouth will dry up otherwise. So I plan my marketing on a worst week scenario. If everything kicks off, what's the minimum I know I could do? That's what I aim for, and if I can do that, great. If I can do more, even better.
Adrian Ashton:
And then there's other things that I take a serendipitous approach to. So some people may know that I've written some books. I'm doing some more in the future. So accepted wisdom says you set yourself a target, 500 words a day, a chapter a week, hour a week, whatever it is, right? You kind of have this habit. We build these habits. I don't do any of that. I wait until a client cancels a call on the moment.
Adrian Ashton:
So like yesterday, I was due to have a review call with a client, and came to the time, they didn't show up. They weren't on the call. I couldn't get them on the phone. Something's obviously happened. That's life, right? I get it. So I've got an hour in my calendar, and so in that hour, I go, "Right, this is now my hour to write." Get the manuscript up, get the notes out, go back and do it. So there's certain things that I go, "This is critical to remaining a freelancer." Doing a tax return, sending out the invoices on time. There's certain things that are that enjoyment we get as a freelancer. There's stuff that we can only do because we're freelancing, that political freedom we have. I changed company law because I'm a freelancer. I couldn't have done it otherwise. It's too sensitive. No one's paying me to write books. You don't make money writing a book either, so that's why I'm hoping. Netflix, if you're watching, open to being optioned. Alexander Skarsgard, if your agent's listening, my wife's very keen to cast you in the role. Just- ... if you don't know who Alexander Skarsgard is, just Google him up, people, and then take a moment. That's fine.
Adrian Ashton:
So yeah. So we talk about the flexibility of where I was a freelancer, and I think there's something about absolutely flexibility and working habits, but then there's also about constraints. And one of the things I've always loved since I came across it decades ago is something called the theory of constraint. And theory of constraint says you can be so much more creative and have so much more enjoyment if you draw a line around yourself.
Adrian Ashton:
I think we had this idea of being an unpaid carer, being freelancing. Oh, I can't get... This is why I don't get to the meetups, to play crazy golf with you all. Not because I'm embarrassed that I wouldn't do very well. I'd probably trash you all as a kid... But because physically, it's really hard for me to arrange to be away from the family home. That time I've got is either spent caring or earning money. It's just the nature of the world. It's a constraint, but because I recognize the constraint, I lean into it. What can I do within this? Where are the opportunities to have more fun? And because I recognize those opportunities as being less, fewer, I enjoy them more. I get much more out of those times I have just to sit and read a chapter of a book unexpectedly, to write another few pages of a manuscript. That's so much more enjoyable for me as a freelancer because it's that theory of constraint. Work with what you've got, and it's so much more liberating, and you realize, my gosh, this opens up new ways of thinking about who I am, what I can do.
Adrian Ashton:
Talk to other unpaid carers, what comes out is we all suddenly realize we have become, as people, our skill set, the way we see the world, the way that we can connect with other people It's just massively amplified in ways that we never thought possible. There's a really great blog actually called Number 18 in the Corner. Number 18 in the Corner is written by someone who is also an unpaid carer, a solo unpaid carer like me for a family member, and trying to juggle freelance with it. Fantastic stuff they put out. And one of the things was about if you were applying for a job and you listed the skills you got as an unpaid carer who's also freelancing, any employer would bite your arm off to go with that skill set.
Adrian Ashton:
But employers, this kind of idea that if you're an unpaid carer, you're not employable, you're not trustworthy because you're not dependable. Which again, is part of what I'm trying to do in terms of not only my working practices, Steve, but how I play this out to the world as well, is I'm very open about what's it cost me to be an unpaid carer and what's it cost my clients. So as part of my impact report every year, and we've mentioned, you featured in the last one, this is not the first time we've tried to do this conversation. You tried to get me in before, but I said because of the unpaid caring commitments when you were able to do it, I wasn't. There was a lost opportunity. I turned down an invitation to meet with the chief executive of the RSA to talk about my book. Well, one of my books that has kind of caught their interest. It's on their library.
Adrian Ashton:
Because it just didn't fit with that. But then also I kind of say to clients, this is what, especially a part of that disclosure that I do, that first date conversation is, "I'm an unpaid carer. This means I may need to suddenly disappear mid-call or miss a deadline with you." However, before they can start to panic too much, "However, this is what I put in place to protect it and mitigate it. And then over the last year, this is the number of times it's happened and what it's cost clients." Over the last year, the money that my clients have lost in terms of lost productivity to them and all the rest is about 500 pounds in terms of when I couldn't balance it and something just was-- I couldn't mitigate it off.
Adrian Ashton:
So again, I kind of give them that sense of here's the issue, here's how it won't be a problem for us in our working relationship, and if you're still worried something might kick off, here's the likelihood. There's names, nice things, numbers. And everyone, no client has ever then turned around and said, "That's great, but we can't work with you." If anything, it's made it a much stronger trusting relationship, and actually some clients have come back to me and said, "We're really grateful you've told us this and explained it to us in terms of how you're managing and working, because in our team we know there are people who are unpaid carers, but we've never known how to open the conversation with them. We've never known what support they might need because we're all figuring it out as we go along day to day. But because you've done it, we've been able to support our team better." So it's not just about as freelancers, I'm trying to encourage and show solidarity with each other. I've accidentally, unintentionally helped some clients' own sort of teams and workforces have better relationships too, which is nice.
Steve Folland:
Tell me more about this impact report because it sounds-- Well, no, tell me what it is. But I'm imagining it must be important to you because the fact is you've done it for so long, and in the past seven years, this could've easily been something you went, "Well, there's-- I've got enough on my plate."
Adrian Ashton:
Screw it, yeah.
Steve Folland:
I'm not going to spend time doing this.
Adrian Ashton:
No.
Steve Folland:
But you've kept it up, so yeah.
Adrian Ashton:
I've been doing it for over 20 years, and it's never won me any work. Okay? This is the key thing. I don't do it to win work. So, in the 1990s, I came across this idea called social accounting, which is a concept that says, broadly, financial accounts tell us how well we managed our money. Okay? Social accounting tells us how well we managed our relationships and what happened in the wider world and other communities because we tried to be good with more than just our money. So what, in terms of running our business, what did our business do that helped not kill any baby seals? What did our business do to try and help reduce-- increase recycling? Because those are good things for all of us, right? So it's business in context.
Adrian Ashton:
And then over the years, I got interested in that, did some work around it in my previous salaried roles. So in my previous salaried roles, I sort of got involved in that community, that field of professionals. And then since becoming freelance as well, I've been invited by national sector bodies to create toolkits that says if you are, for example, if you're a community-owned football club, how do you understand the change, the benefit you're creating for your town or your city because your football club is owned by the community rather than some private shareholder? But that kind of got me interested in this idea of, I think it's a good thing to do for businesses, and I've always had an idea that why would I encourage anyone to do anything I'm not prepared to do myself? It's not credible otherwise, right? So I'll never suggest to any client and any fellow freelancer, "Why don't you try this?" Unless I've done it myself, like pricing. I occasionally with clients have a game of pay what you feel pricing with me. Bonkers idea, but actually works quite well sometimes.
Adrian Ashton:
Anyway, impact report. So accountability is important, so how do I make sure I'm accountable? How do I keep myself honest and true? How do I kind of make sure I'm living the values that are important to me in terms of who I am, how I can sleep with myself and answer to my God at night? So this idea of an impact report says I've created a framework that says, as I freelance in my business model, how has that helped me live out my values? How has that helped me not be a duck? How has that helped my clients to kind of do stuff? So my impact report is not about this is the project I did and the nice thing I did for the client. We have case studies and testimonials for that. The impact report is about because I've chosen to use local suppliers, what has that meant for my local community?
Adrian Ashton:
Because I have chosen to work remotely as much as possible, what has that meant for the environment? Because I have chosen to maximize the tax I pay, controversial I know. Most people go, "Don't want to pay tax." I think personally, I quite like tax. I want to pay as much of it as I can I've chosen my business model that maximizes the tax that I pay. If I think learning is important, how have I designed my workshops, my training courses to help learners get the most out of them? How am I working? How does the model that kind of echoes and amplifies that out?
Adrian Ashton:
So that's kind of why I've done it. But then again, over time, like with the unpaid care stuff, other stuff's happened. So I've kind of had feedback from the Institute of Social Value, who recently made me a fellow for my work of doing this over the last decades. I've also been invited by various kind of roundtables, other programs to say what you're doing as a freelancer, how you've evidenced it. I'm showing that as freelancers, we are having way more impact than people think we do in ecosystems, on national policy, on government agendas. Because I can evidence that really easily, and I've built into my management accounts, my receipt system, all the rest. I track it all the time.
Adrian Ashton:
And this kind of says that as freelancers, this is part of the argument we should be taken more seriously because to echo the unpaid carers things, you look at all government policy for business support, nothing for freelancers in it ever. It's all about the big businesses, all about bringing in big investment. But yet I'm showing at their end, as freelancers, we're actually probably doing more to support the wider ecosystems for communities, the economy, and others than other businesses are. As freelancers, we're setting standards for the business community that we should get more recognition for. But if we're not shouting about it, if we don't evidence that, if we don't share the story, if we don't get our trumpets out, blow our own bugles on this, no one else is. But that's the only way we're going to create change. We tell the stories. Podcast here is great, part of that. Clip it out, share the links. We try and get it to the right people as well. Don't go to your councilor, don't go to your MP, because as soon as they change, everything's reset. Find the civil servants. They're there for life. Find the people in those council departments. Get to know them. That's how we create that change that's going to benefit us all as a community, as freelancers better in the future.
Steve Folland:
Just briefly, this impact report, what difference does it make to your business by monitoring these things presumably all the time and then collating it each year?
Adrian Ashton:
It gives me reassurance. It gives me confidence and validation. One of the things that we struggle with as freelancers is am I doing the right things? Is this good enough? Some people refer to it as imposter syndrome, self-doubt. Because we're in our own echo chamber, we haven't got colleagues or a line manager giving us that regular appreciation. So part of this impact report is my attempt to try and create an annual appraisal for myself to say, "Am I still doing this?" It's also part of my business development. So because I do this every year, if we measure something and don't use it, what was the point, right? Because we've got to measure. We've got to do something here. It's been an ego project otherwise. So every year as when I've done this, at the end of it, I have a page in the report where I go, right, I've reflected on this. This is what I think it's told me. This is what I'm going to change in how I work. This is what I'm going to do differently this year.
Adrian Ashton:
And then the next year, those regular numbers go on, and then I go back to those things of this is what I was going to change. This is what I'm looking at. And how that's helped me as a freelancer in my business model. I've tried changing this. I'm going to experiment with that. I've got a year then as an experiment to run with it, and I'm being open and accountable with the world, and some of that stuff's made me more resilient as a freelancer. We have a lot of knocks. I'm not trying to claim the title for the most, but since I started freelancing, I've gone through a divorce, been made homeless twice, had legal actions brought against me, had trips in ambulances, had to have short-notice surgeries, but clients don't care. They still need the job delivering, right? Kids don't care. They still want feeding at tea time. We have to kind of keep this going. So there's something about those things that I've gone through have helped me build that resilience, that reflection, give me that encouragement. 21 years freelancing. Very few of us make it this far. And actually, if I'm honest, confession-- Well, I've confessed this before, but for the first 20 years of being a freelancer, I was trying to get out. Didn't want to do it.
Adrian Ashton:
Every job opportunity I saw, every lead I got, I applied for a job. Wanted to get back on a respectable payroll because holiday pay, sick pay, pension contribution, remember? I had a hard financial reset at the age of 50. Would've been great. But then after 20 years of applying for jobs, the caring role expanding as well, I wouldn't employ me in terms of the caring responsibilities I have now and the flex that I need. So I've decided, 21st year of doing it, I'm going to take it seriously. And that impact report gives me a benchmark that says how have I-- I can go back over that kind of longitudinal data set and say, how have I changed the way that I work over time? What's worked? Because we get lost in the long grass as freelancers. It's very easy. We need to come up and say, "That thing I did two years ago," or, "When I changed my business model to do that, is it still the right thing?"
Adrian Ashton:
I've made a decision this year, after 15 years of being all over social media, I'm going to be less noisy on social media because this impact report, part of the data, the analytics has shown me over 15 years, despite different campaigns, efforts, experiments, all the rest, it's never generated me work. It's helped a little bit with that direct word of mouth stuff. But again, like I said, I'm trying to manage that now very carefully in terms of not overdoing it. So this year, I've said, you know what? I'm not going to be as prolific. I'm going to try and take that time back. I'm still going to be there. I'll still pop up from time to time, but I'm going to use some of that time and energy to look at other things, to try out, to see where it goes. So there's a business case for doing it in terms of helping me as a freelancer.
Steve Folland:
Okay, Adrian, there's so much that we could talk about.
Adrian Ashton:
I know. Sorry. I keep going off on tangents.
Steve Folland:
No, it's all-
Adrian Ashton:
You should give me a timer. You've got 60 seconds to answer this without hesitation, repetition, or deviation. Go.
Steve Folland:
It's all good. Now, if you could tell your younger self one thing about being freelance, what would that be?
Adrian Ashton:
Ask for more outrageous things. I have been constantly amazed, Steve, over the last 21 years, just what people will agree to do, how far people will be generous with their time, will flex, will agree to stuff that you think is just no way they'll do it, if we just ask nicely. Everything our parents taught us about good manners absolutely holds true.
Steve Folland:
Adrian, it's been so good to talk to you. Go to beingfreelance.com. As I offer all our guests, I put links through, try and fill out the show notes best I can. And in this particular one, I'll ask Adrian if he's got links that I can share to do with the carers conversation that we had as well, of course. Adrian, thank you so much, and all the best being freelance.
Adrian Ashton:
Well, to all of us.
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