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Episode #67 Your Freelance Lifestyle with Emma Cossey

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Today I am excited to interview Emma Cossey. Emma is a life and career coach for UK freelancers. She specialises in work/life balance, overcoming confidence issues, business growth and getting rid of limiting beliefs. She blogs and podcasts about freelancing, working from home and being self-employed, as well as offering online courses for freelancers to up their game.

In our conversation, we cover the unique challenges that come up for women in the workplace and all the reasons someone might decide to pursue freelancing as a career. We also cover Emma’s suggestions for women considering pregnancy and how to prepare for maternity as a freelancer.

Quotes

  • “Like many freelancers, I fell into it accidentally.” -Emma
  • “For new freelancers it can be really overwhelming, and there’s not a lot of clear advice on how to get started.” – Emma
  • “You don’t want to be working so hard that you’re on your phone the whole time that you are with your child.” -Emma
  • “One of the things they said when I worked in sales was ‘Under promise, over deliver!’ and I would suggest doing that to yourself.” – Emma
  • “You learn, as a mom, to constantly adapt.” -Emma
  • “I feel like more and more fathers are standing up and saying, ‘We need a little paternity leave too!’” – Jen
  • “If you are planning to have a family, don’t wait until your pregnancy to save up.” – Emma
  • “A lot of families that go bankrupt in the US because of medical expenses.” – Jen
  • “Don’t clean or tidy when your kids are asleep, if you can, because that’s the best time for you to get your work done.” -Emma

Sign up for Emma’s newsletter to receive four weeks of good freelance habits and her free eBook!

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Resources

The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much?

Sweden’s Shorter Working Days

Parkinson’s Law of Triviality 

Eat That Frog – Brian Tracy

image1Emma is a life and career coach for UK freelancers. She specialises in work/life balance, overcoming confidence issues, business growth and getting rid of limiting beliefs. She blogs and podcasts about freelancing, working from home and being self-employed, as well as offering online courses for freelancers to up their game. She’s also mum to energetic toddler Oscar and wife to Peter.
She can be found over at www.freelancelifestyle.co.uk, can be found on Twitter @freelance_life or @emma_cossey, and if you sign up to her newsletter (www.freelancelifestyle.co.uk/newsletter) you’ll get access to her Facebook group for UK freelancers and a bundle of other freebies including her ebook ‘How To Break The Freelance Feast Or Famine Cycle’.

Episode #62 Women in the IT Workplace with Cat Lam

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When it comes to women in the IT workplace, Cat Lam is here as living proof that it doesn’t take anyone especially talented, brainy, or extra-special to go into business for themselves as an independent IT contractor or freelancer. There is a way that you can use your current expertise, make a bunch more money, and have a whole lot more control over your own time and career.

This year marks her 12th year as an independent IT contractor / freelancer. She now call the shots. The day she became self-employed, and got that first contract, she instantly more than doubled her income, and was 100% accountable for her own career. Now, she assists others in finding their own way in that transition.

We speak about her career evolution, how she helps those starting out in an IT workplace, especially women going through the negotiation process, and the value of developing multiple income streams, no matter your industry.

In our conversation about negotiation and income equality, Jen mentioned the 3/5ths compromise, read more about that here.

Quotes

  • “I’ve actually had to learn a lot of stuff on my own.” – Cat Lam
  • “Being in IT, there aren’t a lot of “people” people, so if you have the soft skills you will be that much better than the rest of your peers.” – Cat
  • “Sometimes being a freelancer with multiple clients is more secure than having one job, because if you lose one of them, it’s not like a pink slip and all your income is gone.” – Jen
  • “It’s so easy online now to read bad reviews.” -Jen
  • “The art of the negotiating to being able to read people and figure out what is important to them in order to get what you want.” – Cat
  • “Pair your passion with money making potential, then you get to do what you love almost on somebody else’s dime.” – Cat

To connect with Cat Lam, follow her on her blog at itsolopreneurs.com, and catch up with her on Twitter or Facebook.

Remember you can highlight any text in this post and share it, give it a try!

Cat Lam 11Cat Lam is living proof that it doesn’t take anyone especially talented, brainy, or extra-special to go into business for themselves as an independent IT contractor or freelancer. There is way that you can use your current expertise, make a bunch more money, and have a whole lot more control over your own time and career.

When she moved from accounting into the IT workplace, it meant a big change for her. When you sign up for Oracle, or any consulting company for that matter, you sign up for 100% travel. It was fun at the beginning. But eventually, you start to schedule your life months in advance. Marriage meant a big change, and a break from consulting to work briefly with her husband and in the fitness industry. She grew bored of that and returned to her previous work as her own boss.

This year marks her 12th year as an independent IT contractor / freelancer. The day she became self-employed, and got that first contract, she instantly more than doubled her income, and was finally accountable for her own career. Now, she assists others in finding their own way in that transition.