Insights: How Creative Freelancers REALLY Make Money - Part 1
Insights: How Creative Freelancers REALLY Make Money - Part 1
Ed Leigh, Sophie Hellyer, Demi Taylor, Owen Tozer and Gilly McArthur on the reality of the creative life.
If you’ve been following me for a while, either on here or through my podcast Looking Sideways, you’ve probably heard me refer to my ‘weird little job’.
It’s a daft line, obviously. But there is some truth in it, especially if you compare what I do to the work of, say, my mate Emma, who runs an ICU.
That’s why, whenever somebody asks me what I do for a living, I tend to alter my answer depending on who is asking the question. Sometimes I’ll say I run my own business. Other times I’ll say I’m a journalist. Other times I’ll say ‘I work for myself’ and leave it there.
On one of the rare occasions I told the truth, it actually got me in real trouble.
I was on my way to the US Open with my pal Phil Young. Phil had brought me in to write a load of blogs and content (although absolutely nobody called it that back then) for Motorola who, as was often the way during the glory years, had adopted ‘let’s throw buckets of cash at snowboarding’ as their global marketing strategy.
It was 2007, the height of the post 9/11 ‘axis of evil’ hysteria, and I was fresh from snowboarding trips to Iran, Lebanon and Uzbekistan, with the visa stamps to prove it.
As I was about to find out, the Homeland Security agent leafing through my passport took this whole axis-of-evil schtick much more seriously than I did.
And, at the sight of this trio of offending stamps, their eyebrows abruptly went ceiling-wards. I was swiftly taken into a back room, and asked to explain, in forensic detail, just exactly why I’d visited ‘I-ran’ and ‘Bay-root’ in the previous months.
Funnily enough, they did not find my answer - ‘I’m a snowboard journalist who went there to write stories’ - in the least bit convincing.
I spent the next two hours convincing an increasingly incredulous group of border guard Massholes that, no, I wasn’t a spy. And yes, there really was such a job as ‘snowboard journalist’. And yes, honestly, somebody had actually paid me to take those trips.
They let me in eventually, even if they clearly still couldn’t get their heads around the very idea that somebody would voluntarily go snowboarding in these places.
By the time I caught up with him, Phil was halfway across the car park, convinced I was being put on the next flight home.
All of which gets to the heart of an essential truth about the freelance life: often, people simply do not understand it.
And they especially don’t get the fact that it usually involves many different roles and - a key point, this - multiple income streams.
Take my own case as an example. These days, my own particular income streams are: running my company
, podcasting, journalism, mentoring and public speaking.
I also earn cash from the occasional bigger project, such as making my documentary The Announcement, or writing my book Looking Sideways Vol. 1.
And you may be surprised to hear that I am not unique in this regard
The reality is that everybody living this type of life - even that person you probably think is effortlessly rinsing it - is juggling many different income streams. They’re trying (and occasionally failing) at many different things, and essentially hustling 24-7 to make it work.
It’s really quite odd, then, that nobody ever discusses this, which is what gave me the idea for this piece.
Initially, I thought I’d just go into detail on my own income streams. Then I remembered what I wrote in my Welcome to Insights piece back in July 2024:
“There is an absolute hive mind of information and intelligence among the LS community - and together, we’re going to unleash it”
With that in mind, I contacted a load of friends asking them if they’d like to spill the beans on how their earn money.
Usually, when you ask people to participate in a piece like this, a few people will say no, and you’ll generally have to twist a few arms. Not in the case. Absolutely everybody replied saying they were down; and, as you’ll discover, everybody had a LOT to get off their chests.
So I decided to run it this across multiple parts, starting today with broadcaster Ed Leigh, outdoor professional Gilly MacArthur, content creator and swim coach Sophie Hellyer, festival organiser and Big Sea producer Demi Taylor, and photographer and film-maker Owen Tozer.
I’ll run part two soon. And I’ll be running a THIRD international instalment of this feature, with Jamie Brisick, Tom Monterosso, Shelby Stanger, and others, at some point later this year.
Right. Let’s get to it…
The Broadcaster: Ed Leigh
What do you say when people ask you what you do for a living?
I say presenter and commentator because it's the highest profile and most straightforward work I do, so it's easy for people to understand and it usually helps grease any wheels that may need some help.
Do your parents understand what you do?
Not until I started commentating on the Olympics and working for the BBC. All of a sudden it made sense to them. Prior to that, I had been doing really well MCing and commentating at snow, skate, and BMX events all over the world and getting paid decent money. The BBC was a step down in an economic sense, but the profile and legitimacy it offered was immense.
I had been writing prior to that and my parents did understand that. As the offspring of an English teacher, there was a lot of pride in that.
When did you first earn cash for doing the thing you do now?
The first time I got paid to speak in public was probably Board X in 1997. The first time I got paid to be on television was maybe a year later, but then almost nothing happened for 3 years after that.
“The way I look at it now, essentially I spent those three years between 1998 and 2001 studying at a kind of vocational public speaking communications degree put on by the world's best action sports events”.
How do you earn money? What are your main income streams?
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