Focused - 32: It's Scary, Dude! with Kathy Campbell

Episode Date: October 17, 2017

Unicorn Sidekick Kathy Campbell joins us to discuss how she ended up becoming a Free Agent while behind a desk at her "real job," when having her new career discovered her.

David Sparks and Jason Snell spent their careers working for the establishment. Then one day, they'd had enough. Now, they are independent workers learning what it takes to succeed in the 21st century. They are free agents. Welcome back to Free Agents, a podcast about being an independent worker in a digital age. I'm Jason Snell, and I'm joined as always by my fellow host, Mr. David Sparks. Hi, David. Hi, Jason. Well, we have a guest.

Yes, we do. Welcome to the show, Kathy Campbell. Thank you. I'm excited to be here. Some people may know you as Mrs. Soup in the chat room because you are a podcast listener who is also on podcasts. How about that? It's amazing how that works out. It's incredible. You are also the unicorn sidekick. That's correct.

So Kathy, not everybody knows Mrs. Soup. So tell us a little bit about you, what you're doing. Yeah, I am the unicorn sidekick and I help small businesses kind of get control of their life and business. So a lot of times when people start a small business or are freelancing or something, they don't really know what they're doing. And it's very easy to get overwhelmed and to let their business run themselves. They tend to not have systems in place or templates or things that would make life so much easier. And so I come in, usually when they're completely overwhelmed or have a to-do list that's three miles long that they can't handle, I come in and help them out. I help structure their business a little bit better, put systems in place,

everything that they need to really get control of their business again. You're doing all this as like a subdivision of IBM, correct? Isn't that where you're working at? Exactly. Yeah. No, not quite. Yeah. This is actually a business that you've built on your own as a free agent. That's correct. I started out just helping someone edit their blog posts because they had horrible grammar and spelling and they kept getting hate mail. And so I was like, here, let me help you out.

And then it just kind of exploded from there. So why don't you give us your origin story a little bit? We'd like to ask that on this show. here, let me help you out. And then it just kind of exploded from there. So why don't you give us your origin story a little bit? We'd like to ask that on this show. How did you get started on this journey? What were you doing before you were working on your own? Yeah. So I worked for a company that shall remain nameless, that was horrible and soul-sucking. All right, that explains it. Awful. It's a weird name for a company, but... Right.

I think that name's taken. Probably by many places. I'm sure there's disputes going on right now. I had gone from being a project manager to running the front desk, which there was maybe a dozen phone calls a day and nobody ever came to the door except for the UPS guy. So there wasn't much to do. And I was like two rooms away from anyone else.

And so I was like, what am I going to do? Of course, I'm going to commit time theft. Intense time theft. Yeah, sounds like a good opportunity if it's just 12 calls a day. Yeah, it was horrible. I was so bored. I was like, okay, fine. And so this was back when Google Reader was a thing. And so it was easy enough to go into incognito mode and go through my Google Reader.

mode and go through my Google Reader. And that's where I found a blog post from my first client who was apologizing for her terrible grammar and spelling, and that she really wishes that people would stop sending her hate mail because of it. So I immediately emailed her and was like, Hey, can I help you? She's like, Oh my gosh, really? And it was like $5 an hour, totally nothing. But it was more, more importantly, it kept my brain entertained. And eventually it expanded. She was a photographer and a, um a like a supporter of photographers and helping them get from like just I have a camera. Now, what do I do into like a profitable business? So I eventually helped her with her both edited her photos as well as blog posts and helped structure the business and eventually got referrals from her to other friends. And so I was like, okay, this is a thing that's needed. There's photographers out there that need help. And so my very first business was called the Photogs Helper. So I was helping strictly

photographers. I would edit photos. I would do blog posts, I would do pretty much whatever they needed. So I was a virtual assistant just for photographers. Fast forward a couple years. So about a year and a half ago now, more than half of my clients were not photographers at all. And I realized that I didn't really want to keep working with just photographers because they never really wanted to pay money and were very cheap and so I was like okay time I gotta change I gotta rebrand gotta adjust everything and I one of my clients was like you're a unicorn you know how to do everything I come to you and I ask you hey do you know how to do this and you're a unicorn. You know how to do everything. I come to you and I ask you, hey, do you know how to do this? And you're like, yeah, you're just a freaking unicorn. I was like,

okay, I can work with that. And that is where the Unicorn Sidekick came from. So I'm more than just a virtual assistant now, which has allowed me to expand my offerings and expand the clients that I help and has made me so much more happy. So when you were sitting at the front desk and you did that first gig of proofreading, was that the beginning of an exit plan for you or was it just a thing to do? Not really. It was kind of just a thing to do because at the point that I was working at that front desk, I was still getting paid the project manager amount because they had moved me to the front desk when I was on maternity leave. And so in order to protect themselves from lawsuits and things, they couldn't change my pay because they changed the

job. And so after a couple years of them not bringing me back to any of the job openings in the main part, I had started looking for other jobs. The problem was is because my current job title was front office, I was having a hard time finding a job that would pay enough to cover what I was making there that would hire me. And so I really was like, there's no way I'm going to be able to pay myself as much as I was making there in the side gig. So it was mainly just survival mode, a way to get me, keep me as sane as possible, really. But you grew up pretty quickly. Now, how long was there between your first client and your second client? I would say maybe a month and a half. And the second client was a surprise. Like I didn't even think that it was a thing that more people would want

necessarily. But she was like, oh, hey, my friend needs help doing X. Can you help her? I was like, sure. And so it grew pretty quickly from there. Somebody told me once when I was a young man, always say yes and figure it out later. Exactly. That has been my motto for sure. At what point in this process did you start to think, hey, maybe this thing I'm doing on the side could become the thing I do? this thing I'm doing on the side could become the thing I do? It really happened after my husband had a stroke. He was hospitalized for about a month and a half in the end of 2010.

And during that process, we were accepted for disability, social security disability, process, we were accepted for disability, social security disability, which gave us a check every month that would start after six months, six months after the incident. And that amount was enough to counteract me getting a different job with different pay that would allow me to pay our bills. Yeah. I was actually able to cover the extra costs needed with a part-time job so I could concentrate more time on growing the business as well. So as horrible as his stroke was, and he's still fully disabled and stays at home and gets to play video games all day, it really was an amazing benefit in the way that I was able to turn it around and let

it become what it has become. It's amazing how many of our guests end up going out on their own because of some kind of external event or push. Yeah, for sure. I think more do it that way than just one day and say, okay, I'm going to just do this now. Well, that would be easy. Like being able to make all of the decisions in the process and the journey and being able to recognize and not be scared to take that because it's scary, dude. It's so intimidating to, you know,

you look at that spreadsheet that you made that has, you know, your costs and expenses and what money comes in and you're just like, how can I make that money doing X? And then, but if you have an external force pushing you, you do whatever it takes. And you don't question the fall from the high cliff because you have to survive. And so you'll do exactly what's needed to be done to get that to happen. I would think that also with your husband's stroke, that the flexibility of running your own thing was probably an important element as well. Definitely. And I never really

realized that until I became a true free agent, how important it was. It's funny because about a month after I quit the part-time job that I'd been working. I was working at a winery for like 12 hours a week. And it was not, I don't know why I kept doing it, just that security bit. And finally, I was just like, okay, I'm done. And about a month later, Ryan was hospitalized for another issue, medical issue. And I was like, I'm working from the hospital on my laptop because I'm doing this and I can work whenever I want. I don't have to be there at nine o'clock because, oh my goodness, he's having surgery now. Like that flexibility has been completely life-changing and I'm never going to be hireable as an employee again,

because I need that flexibility. I need to know that if he goes to the hospital, I don't have to call somebody and say, Oh, by the way, I'm not coming in today. Yeah, get permission or worry about losing your job because you need exactly. Yeah. So because of your business, I mean, you help people, you help free agents is a lot of the things you do. So I'm guessing that when you decided to go on your own, everything just went swimmingly. There was like no problems, right?

Just like started, no trouble, right? Sure. I'm trying to think of specifics, but, you know, there's always little things like the invoice you sent out doesn't get paid. And you're like, OK, now what do I do? How do I. Oh, hey, by the way, the credit card didn't work. Can you pay me, please? Like that first time you have to actually beg for someone to pay you is really like, whoo, it's scary because you're just like, what if they don't like me? What if they don't like what I did? And you're second guessing yourself.

But then you have to kick yourself in the head and just be like, look, I did the work. You owe me money. How about you pay me? And most of the time, you know, your clients are gonna be like oh I'm so sorry such this didn't work whatever and then they pay you right away and or if a project like ends up taking longer or so I did I edited a wedding for a client and I had been doing all of their all of their like portrait work well a wedding has a lot more photos and I charged hourly instead of per image well it ended up because

the photos for the wedding were horrible is the nice way to put it. It ended up taking me 52 hours to edit the entire wedding. And she came back and was just like, this is not what we agreed upon. And I was like, no, we did. It's in the contract. And just like put this whole fight. Eventually, I just like settled and did like half the time. But I was just like, I can't do that again. And at that point, I charged a per image editing fee as opposed to hourly. And that really started my progress to get away from hourly pricing because hourly is horrible. And no one should do hourly unless you have a specific type of job, like tattooing, tattoo artists, it's okay to do hourly, but like, it's, it's amazing how, cause let's see, I've been doing this for eight years and I'm a, been a free agent for four. And overall my journey has been pretty smooth. Not really any gigantic pitfalls or anything that I can think of. This episode of free agents is sponsored in part by fresh books. Hey, all you freelancers out there, you know how important it is to make smart decisions for your business. Our friends over at FreshBooks can save you up to 192 hours

with their cloud accounting software for freelancers that's ridiculously easy to use. It simplifies tasks like invoicing, tracking expenses, and getting paid online. FreshBooks drastically reduces the time it takes for over 10 million people to deal with their paperwork. FreshBooks automates late payment email reminders so you can spend less time chasing payments and more time working your magic. It will remind the people who haven't paid you to pay you without you having to do a thing. And when you email a client an invoice, FreshBooks can show you whether they've seen it, which puts an end to the guessing games. FreshBooks may now have over 10 million users, but they managed to stay a pretty small company. They, in fact,

won the title of small giant on Forbes' list of the best small companies this year. If you're listening to this and not using FreshBooks yet, now is the time to give it a try. There's an unrestricted 30-day free trial for listeners of this show. No credit card required. All you have to do is go to freshbooks.com slash free agents and enter free agents in the how did you hear about us section. Thank you to FreshBooks for supporting free agents. So what was the biggest surprise for you when this became your full-time gig? How happy I was. That's a good one. I was super excited to get out of bed at 530 to do my morning

routine for the first hour, make breakfast, sit down at my desk, like that music that the Mac makes when it starts up. I was just like, all right, let's go. Let's go. Let's happy. Let's start. And I would get so much done before everyone else in the house woke up. So by the time it was lunchtime, I had put in almost a full day's work so I could have lunch. We could go to the park with my daughter. We could, you know, come back, maybe watch a movie, do more work, whatever. And then by dinnertime, I was good for the day. And I was able to shut off my computer and go have family time, which was pretty great. It is interesting how often flexibility is a prime motivator for someone who wants to go down this journey. You know, the ability to do what they want, when they

want. Exactly. And like, I'm a morning person most of the time. And so being able to get it all done, I mean, nine o'clock, which was most job starting times, that's so late. I can get so much more done if I had the chance. And by, you know, 12 o'clock, one o'clock, my brain is starting to shut down. I need an afternoon nap. And oh my goodness, can we talk about naps? How amazing is taking a nap in the middle of the day because you're tired? It's funny you say that because I do that more often than not anymore as well. And I do have an early start to my day and sitting down at one o'clock and I set a timer for 30 minutes. That's a 30 minute nap is all I take. But to be able to lay on your bed and take a nap for 30 minutes, it just kind of gives you a boost for the rest of

the afternoon. I never get those afternoon doldrums that I used to feel when I was at the office. Yes, exactly. And that's something I've never thought about it. But the only reason I can do that is because I work from home. I don't understand you nap people. I've never been able to nap. I can't do it. I'll tell you what makes you not have to sleep

in the afternoon is not starting really early in the morning. And that's true. And I'm fine. But good for you. Good for you that you can actually go to sleep during the day because I can't. Well, and it's great. So my husband's medications make him have an afternoon slump. So he gets really tired. So he usually takes a nap about two o'clock. And so getting to have

that snuggle time where we're just snuggling in bed and get to take a quick nap. It's such a good recharge. Yeah, I get it though. It works for me but but i i'm with i understand you as well jason people are either not people or they're not not people um yeah i've never been able to do it yeah even when i was back working for the man i would on occasion like for lunch i would take a very quick lunch and then i'd park my car in the darkest spot of the structure and and just take a little snooze i the problem is the people who aren't now people uh people on my side who are um not to choose sides or anything but aren't understanding of other people's issues and this means that they're jerks essentially because

my company uh back in the day idg had a nap room and they had a nap room because they were very forward thinking and they knew that some people would be better and more effective employees if they got a chance to take a little nap and then come back out. But as you can imagine, other people in management who came on later thought it was the most outrageous thing that people would be literally sleeping on the job. And they, I believe, I don't think they got rid of it. I think they converted it because they needed legally to have a nursing area for nursing mothers mothers and they turned it into that and they said stop going to sleep you and i always thought that that was just being jerky just because you don't um you don't see the value and it doesn't necessarily mean that there isn't value in it agreed okay so so so napping is one benefit of going on your own the um but so you've been doing this four years now you this you're no longer a new free agent

um uh you know looking back as you you've been doing it a while now where are the the areas that you feel like you made mistakes as you got started i mean what would you do over differently if you were getting started as a new free agent? I definitely would have raised my prices a lot sooner. I started out at $10 an hour. I raised it a couple months later to $12 an hour. And was told at some point by one of my clients that they would never be able to pay more than 15. That 15 was their limit. And I agreed with them. Now, my hourly rate is much higher than that. And I probably could still go even higher and be comfortable. But the fact that I let my clients justify my worth was the biggest mistake I probably made. Letting them tell me what I was worth as opposed to sitting down and actually thinking about it myself. I wish that I hadn't, for sure.

Yeah, money is hard, I think, for a lot of people. And you can be really good at a thing and really good at doing it and performing it. But when you go on your own, you've also got to be the heavy, the one who says, no, you have to pay me for this, too. Yes. And that's a whole different skill set for people. Oh, absolutely. Especially when you are a free agent and you're relying on this income. And it's so hard to be ready to walk

away if someone says no and not beg them or not change your price because you were uncomfortable with standing strong with what you believe you're worth you also have to fight against that fear of turning down work right i think when you're on your You also have to fight against that fear of turning down work, right? I think when you're on your own, like, well, I can't turn my back. There is somebody here willing to pay me. I should just let them pay me whatever so that I can take the work and being able to say, no, this is not work I need to do if it's going to be under these terms or at this rate.

Exactly. The only time I've ever had clients that did not end up being amazing clients were the ones that I agreed to do a job for less than originally quoted. They ended up just begging for more or being less welcoming or less giving with what I needed and just gave so many, so much trouble, so much more trouble for less money than real clients that I love to work with that are willing to throw money at me. Like it doesn't, you can't question that. Go for the clients that want to pay you. There's a reason that they want to pay you and you're worth it. Yeah. I have a new rule because I, a couple of times I've had clients when they first hire me, they want to negotiate the rate or the flat fee down. They're like, Oh, what can't

you do better for me than that? And a couple of times I've done that. They've always turned out to be nightmares. And now when someone tries to negotiate with me at the beginning, I just, not only do I not negotiate, I'm I back out. I'm like, you know what, this just isn't going to work. And they'll say, no, no, no, we'll pay you the regular rate. No, this isn't right. You know, because to me, it's a huge warning sign. Yeah. If you were going to try and, and negotiate that price. No, I'm sorry. I don't want, what else are you going to try and negotiate? But it's so hard to do that, especially when you're getting started. Oh yeah.

It's so, especially because you haven't proved, if you haven't been able to prove yourself yet to prove that you're, the work that you're providing is worth what you think it is. How can you, it's so hard to get other people to believe what you're offering when you're questioning yourself. I think another piece of that math is getting started as a free agent for most lines of business, your costs aren't that much. So you start out with this idea like, well, I can do this cheaper because it doesn't cost me as much to do things. But that's a problem because as you get the business started, you have to think about, I have to pay taxes. I have to pay insurance.

You actually have to pay for a lot of things that you don't think about. That's why we talked about the spreadsheet a few months ago. Because if you're not aware of that stuff, it's easy to make those deals and get yourself into a spot where you're working harder and harder for less and less. And the business is failing because of your own inability to deal with this money problem. Right. That was another big thing I learned when I was working for photographers. A lot of the people that I was helping were photographers in it for the art form. They weren't, they didn't understand the business side. They didn't really get it. So they were able to say,

okay, I'll do a two hour photo shoot for $50 and you can get all the photos. And they'd be like, look, this is 50 bucks in my pocket. I don't have to do any product. I don't have to, you know, I already own my camera. It was a gift to me from my husband. He pays all the bills. So this is just fun money. And trying to explain to them that that's not really how that works. how that works. Every single client I worked with, I had to do that. And it got exhausting. It was so hard to try and explain to people that didn't really want to understand the business side, didn't really care about taxes, that it was just like, I got to get out of here. I got to start working with actual companies that have business entities and pay their taxes. So, but you got started as someone taking care

of photographers, but you've transitioned into something very different, really. How did you make that change? I mean, that that's a significant change in your business. Yeah, it kind of happened by accident. Like so many things do. A lot of my work was that if it wasn't a referral, it was found because of Facebook groups. There's a lot of groups out there for because of Facebook groups. There's a lot of groups out there for freelancers, small businesses, etc. And specifically for photographers. So I would be part of Facebook groups and somebody would say, Hey, I need a website. And I would throw my name in the in the ring. And sometimes they'd pick me sometimes not either way, it was was fine because it was super easy. I was always on Facebook anyways. And so at one point, someone, I think, in a non-photography group asked for help with blog posts.

And I was like, oh, yeah, I totally can help you. And it just kind of kept growing. and it just kind of kept growing. And that's when I started realizing that maybe I don't want to work with just photographers anymore as well, because there was no negotiating price. They were like, yeah, sure, whatever. I need help. I'm willing to pay you whatever you ask for. And it was the first time I had experienced that. And it was amazing. And that's when I was really just like, okay, I don't have to just work with photographers. My skills are universal. I can help anyone with what I know. How about marketing? How do you market your business? How do you get new clients?

So it's funny because of the restructure that I've done, I work with a select number of clients for a certain chunk of time during the month. Not specifically hourly, it's more of a retainer with a general hour idea. And so for example, right, my docket is full. I have three main clients and a couple projects that I'm working on. And so, I don't really have to market right now because I'm not accepting anybody. However, when I am looking for people, I'm on social media looking for people that need help. Or I talk to friends or clients that I've worked with in the past or that I've helped with like a one-off project. I'm like, hey, I have some availability. Do you know anybody that needs help?

But I don't need to do Facebook ads. I don't need to do Google ads. I get just the right amount of inquiries to where I don't have to turn down 100 people a day because I don't ever want to be that size of a company. I don't want that many clients. I don't. Please, no no, please no. I'd much rather have very intimate connections with the people that I work with. Um, and so my marketing has been pretty much word of mouth. So now I think an important point there that you mentioned too, is about your docket being full. When we talk about what you charge that people don't think about, which is if you charge too little, but it's work,

at least it's work. That's one thing and you probably shouldn't do it, but at least you're getting money and at least it's work. But if you underprice yourself and you fill up with work, you are costing yourself money at that point, right? Because you should be charging more. You can't take on any more work and you can't make more money because some of that work that you've taken on is too low. So, you know, that's always a good sign, I would imagine, for you when your docket is full. It's like, all right, well, you know, you're definitely charging. You're probably not charging enough at that point if you've got that much work. Yeah. And it's funny because the most recent client that I signed, I charged double what another long-term client I've been working with.

I charge. So like the difference over even just a year in my pricing changes has made just an incredible difference because I'm able to concentrate on my clients, not trying to make sure I have other ones lined up, which is a huge relief. Yeah. That's, you know, I think that's so gutsy. I don't, I probably could say that to people now that I'm not taking new clients and it would probably be the smartest thing I can do, but I am not that I'm not that place where I feel like I can do that, I'm still freaked out that I'm not going to be able to keep this thing going. And that really never goes away. Even doing this for four years, I still am like, okay, what would I do if I had to go get a job? How would my sanity survive? And thankfully, though, I have stopped getting very kind hearted emails from my parents with job openings that that just ended about last year, I think. And you know what? I'm always I'm always looking for ways to get for income to come in that is not based directly on my work. Residual income is something that I've been always aware of and never really been able to

think of something. But I'm finishing up a book right now that would help people hire someone. So not necessarily me, but being able to get help hiring your first contractor or your first employee or your first freelancer, because there's so many things that I have had so much experience with that most people don't even know to think about. Like, how do you fire somebody? How do you start working with somebody? What can people do? I mean, it's just the number of things out there that people don't know is huge.

And so I'm like, okay, I found something that I can write about. I found something that I can help people with and hopefully have some residual work in there. Do you have a website for that yet? Not yet, but just my general website is where it will be announced. We'll put the general website in the show notes so people can go check it out. But just like for someone who's a free agent out there and thinking about bringing on someone to help them out, what is a common mistake people make with that first contractor or person helper they bring in? Because I think for a lot of our listeners, they're not looking to bring an employee so much as somebody to help out with a piece or two of what they're doing. Yeah, the biggest thing is communication. communication, making sure that you over explain what you want, over explain your expectations, so that nobody is surprised, so that everyone is fully aware of what is required,

what pay is going to be covered, what sort of feedback is going to be desired or requested, making sure that you start open communication early and just keep it going. You don't have to have an hour meeting every week, but communicating through Slack or text or email, just to make sure that everyone's aware of what's going on. That's the biggest, biggest thing to be aware of. Yeah, that makes sense. And it's such a small thing that people don't really think about. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it is really, I think it's a real challenge for a lot of free agents to, because I think as a breed, we're, we're all pretty fiercely independent and, and it's hard to, I'm struggling with this now,

is what parts of this enterprise can I get help with? And how does that help me do the parts that need me better? And it's a struggle. I'm sure we're going to do future shows on this. I'm exploring, I think more than you are, Jason, because for what Jason's doing, it's very independent. I mean, you can't get someone to help you write your articles.

Well, I can, but then it's not my articles anymore, right? That's the problem. Yeah. And the same thing. I can't really get someone to write my books or do the legal briefs, but there are parts of what I do that I don't need to be doing. But it is hard handing it off and I've been experimenting and I'm never happy with what they do because I'm a jerk. Not

because it just because what they do, it isn't exactly the way I would do it. Well, and that's, that's, that's definitely, that's a hard, uh, hurdle to pass. Um, when I start with clients, I send them out something I call a delegation matrix. And with that, along with a time diary, they go through and they write down everything that they've done. And then they put those tasks onto the matrix. So on the top left is things that I love to do and things that I'm good at. And the other opposite side, of course, is things that I love to do and things that I'm good at. And the other opposite side, of course, is things that I hate doing and things that I'm bad at. So you can delegate everything in the bad and difficult tasks to somebody. It doesn't matter what it is. There's a chance that there

is somebody out there that you can hire to do it. And maybe they love it. And that's all the better. Exactly. And so why not get some of that time and energy back by not having to do something? Yeah. And the math makes sense, too. If you've got something like that, it's always cheaper to hire somebody else to do those things and allow you to spend more time on the stuff that actually earns you income. Exactly. This episode of the free agents is brought to you by Squarespace. Enter offer code free agents with no space at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase. Squarespace is the perfect fit for a free agent. One of the first things I did

after I went out on my own is I set up a website and I did that with Squarespace. I didn't want to have to hire web developers and spend a ton of time on things, but I also wanted my website to look gorgeous. And that's what I did with Squarespace. I just set up an account and started writing text. In fact, I really found it kind of therapeutic setting up the website for my new business through Squarespace. That's because Squarespace lets you easily create a website for your next great idea with a unique domain name and award-winning templates and more. So maybe you want to create an online store or maybe you want to become a free agent and start your new consulting business or a blog or you're getting married. It doesn't matter what you're doing.

Squarespace is all in one platform is there to help you out. There's nothing to install, no patches to worry about, no upgrades needed. Just go to squarespace.com and sign up and you're off to the races. If you need any help, they have award-winning 24-7 customer support to give you any help you need. They also let you easily and quickly grab a unique domain name. So if you want to get the domain for your new business, you can do that at Squarespace too. And perhaps best of all, Squarespace sites look beautiful. They've got award-winning templates that are designed for just about anything you can think of. You can start with one of their great templates and then work from there. I still hear from other attorneys and clients that love my website. Sometimes they want to know who I hired to build it and I don't have the heart to tell them I just made it with Squarespace. But you can do that. Head over to

squarespace.com. Plans start at just $12 a month. If you want to just kick the tires, you can get a free trial without giving them your credit card. When you decide to sign up, use the offer code free agents. That's all caps and no spaces to get 10% off your first purchase and to show your support for the free agents. We thank Squarespace for all of their support and don't forget to use Squarespace to make your next move and make your next website. So, so you've been doing it for years. What could you get better at today in your, in your free agent business that, that you'd like to improve upon? And I'm sure you still are looking for ways to get better at this stuff. Oh, absolutely. I, I wish that I would, I need to start taking more time into learning how to do things more efficiently.

So whether it's, you know, in design classes, because I'm sure there's things that I'm doing wrong, or learning new software, or business structural, random articles and books that are out there that can give me more information that I can help my clients with. I just need to read more, I think, and just learn. One of the things I did, I am, because I'm, I did some courses for lynda.com. They gave me, when you, when you, if, here's a secret, if you make a course for them, they give you a free subscription. So I'm a free Linda subscriber. I feel like I'm stealing. And, uh, but, but when I went out on my own, I actually watched all the, like the dummy accounting and some of the business, you know,

business management type coursework and Linda and with an Apple TV, you can just stick it on the Apple TV. And as you're sitting on the couch eating a taco, it's pretty nice. But the, um, on the Apple TV and as you're sitting on the couch eating a taco, it's pretty nice. But the, um, but, but you're right. Like self-educating I think is a big, a big thing because whatever your free agent business is, whether you're an app developer or a designer or, you know, you make, um, whether you're a tattoo artist, whatever, um, your art or the work you do is always a little different than just the nuts and bolts running a business stuff, which you may have no experience with. Right. Or listen to a good podcast about it.

Sure. Yes. Which I also do. That part I definitely do. What's the best part about being a free agent for you? Definitely the flexibility. What's the best part about being a free agent for you? Definitely the flexibility.

I am currently in my first trimester of a pregnancy for a surrogate or as a surrogate. And yesterday. Because you had nothing but free time, right? Right. Exactly. Yeah. Basically, I'm too much of a helper. Like, here, let me help you have a child.

But yesterday was a really bad day. I was not able to keep anything down. I ended up going to the doctor and then put on medication. Thank goodness. And so today I have lots of energy and I'm hungry again. And it's amazing. But the fact that I could take that break yesterday and not worry about having to make sure we had a roof over our head was just I mean, you can't you can't replace that. Are you unhirable at this point? Pretty much. Yeah. I mean, I could depending if somebody wanted to pay me a lot of money, I could possibly become an employee. But again, I would have to have the ability to work from home when needed. And, you know, pretty much unlimited PTO or whatever to be able to take my husband to doctor's appointments or if he's in the hospital, like all of these things in place that would have to, it's more than just the money. It's all of the

other qualifications that would be needed for me to become an employee. Kathy, I don't believe you. I think that if you took a job and they'd say, we need you to go to this meeting about blah, blah, blah. You'd be like, this unicorn is busting out today. Right. Peace out. Plus, I get to wear headphones with the unicorn horn in it all day. So I can't.

Most people, most offices wouldn't allow you to do that. And take naps. Yes. And take naps. Oh, the naps again. And take naps. Yes, and take naps. Oh, the naps again.

So realistically, if you have to think about it to be a little bit negative, what is the hardest thing? What's the worst thing about being on your own, about doing this? The stress, that low-level stress that's always there. What if I've done something wrong? What if I get the IRS come after me for whatever reason. You know, it doesn't matter that I've had, like everyone has looked over my stuff and I'm good, but I still am just like, every time I file my taxes,

just like that low level stress because it's all on me. It's all on, I'm making these decisions and this is all about me. And so I make the mistakes as well. And so, and you can't prep for what you don't know. And you can have people look at your business structure and you can have people check your taxes and stuff and you think everything's going to be fine. And then all of a sudden you get hit with a million dollar lawsuit for X, Y, or Z. You can't prep for that.

And there's no, it's not, it's probably not going to happen, but it doesn't matter. It's still that low level stress will always be there. Yeah. You know, get insurance, get some professional help with that stuff. But, but you're right. At the end of the day, you're the one at the top of the food chain there. Yeah. Yeah. Cause you can, you know, you can get that insurance, you can get that prep work and you should, but you never know what's going to happen. Yeah. And there's all, I think there's also that it is, where's the next job coming from? I mean, that's the one that I always have and that I have to fight against is what's next. This could all go away tomorrow, which the problem is it's true regardless of where you're working, but it is magnified when you're that much closer to it as a free agent

than if you've got layers of company bureaucracy next to you. Right. Because that blocks that blocks your knowledge. The layers of bureaucracy. Yes. The CEO will know if oh we have three months of money left before we go out of business whereas if you're just a regular worker you don't know you're going to continue on with your work and then all of a sudden here come layoffs and it's yeah you are the CEO you're the CFO you're the COO, you're the COO, you're all of these things. And the broom pusher. And the broom pusher, yep, and the trash collector, and the supply orderer, you know. Oh no, I ran out of ink for my printer.

I don't have anyone that can order that for me. And if it takes me a week to order it, oops. You need to, what you should do is bring in, you should bring in somebody to help you. Who's like that? Oh, what a good idea. A unicorn helper helper. I actually have a neighbor teenager that folds my laundry for me. And I have a company that comes and cleans my house.

There you go. There you go. And, oh, it's not one of, you know, I was going to say Blue Apron, but they're not one of the sponsors for this week. But, you know, you got to do what you got to do to help support yourself. Yeah, I do think a big piece of this

is getting the ability to hand off things and being able to focus on the business, which is what any sane business would do. And it's something that I, it's one of my biggest failings in this whole process, but I'm working on it. Good. Yeah. Cause it's something that the level of stress that it brings you, I'm sure is high and that's not good for anybody involved, including your family. Well, Kathy Campbell, thank you for coming on The Free Agents and sharing your story with us. Thank you so much for having me. So where do people go to find you, Kathy?

Yeah, you can find me online. My website is theunicornsidekick.com. I'm on Twitter at Mrs. Soup and on Instagram as well as at Mrs. Soup. And Mrs. Soup, because my last name is Campbell. Campbell liked the soup. Throwing that out there. We've cracked your code. People can find us at FreeAgentsFM on Twitter

and at relay.fm slash freeagents. And David is Max Sparky and I am Jay Snell on Twitter as well. That's where you can find us if you want to look for us. And we'll be back in a fortnight with another episode of Free Agents. But until then, David, pleasure as well. That's where you can find us if you want to look for us. And we'll be back in a fortnight with another episode of Free Agents. But until then, David, pleasure as always.

As to you, Mr. Snell. Bye, everybody. Bye.