Today I’m excited to introduce you to Karen Mattiazzo – my latest guest on the Corporate Escapology podcast. A surface and pattern designer based in Manchester. She made the giant leap from Brazil to the UK just before Brexit and she’s a freelancer.
Freelancing is one of the routes many people take when they leave a job or a career. Just that word ‘free’ might tell you why it holds attraction. It implies choice and control – walking away without strings.
Karen has worked as both employee and freelancer over the years in a variety of design roles before coming to pattern and print design. And with these skills she’s been able to create a variety of revenue streams through freelancing: she offers commissions, she sells products online, she sells her time delivering projects, she licenses her designs and now she is exploring selling products through retail channels.
Is it because she’s a designer that she has all these options?
Maybe. But I don’t think so.
She’s definitely more entrepreneurial than many corporate people, but I believe this is largely a question of mindset. Open to us all.
Karen has a box of talents that she can deploy to deliver a wide range of things. She ducks and weaves around different customer types, changing customer preferences, new technologies, trends…to make money. And she loves it!
I think it’s a fascinating model for us – mostly non-designers – to explore.
What special skills do we have? What unique experience can we draw on? What do we know that others don’t?
And can we package these talents in a way that enables us to create products services and experiences that other people will value?
Can your skills and expertise be packaged up into a product, like the HR Hub that Katie Elliott offers alongside her HR freelancing?
Is your lived experience something you could share to help others? Like Claire Perry-Louise’s experience building her own community, Like Hearted Leaders, that she now shares with others?
Do you know something you could turn into a ‘how to guide’ like Kia Cannons did when she sold an ebook to help artists selling on Instagram and made £15,000 in a few weeks?
And whilst I am far from making a living from Corporate Escapology, look at the products from which I’ve been able to generate income: Book, Online Course, 121 coaching, Group Coaching, Paid Speeches, Paid Workshops…
Something that just started out as this blog!
We can so easily jump to the obvious when thinking about what we do next – a similar job, consulting, coaching…but what products could you create from your skills, experiences and knowledge?
It’s why I spend a lot of time in my group coaching, Escapology Live, helping people dig deep to list out all the things they have done – not just recently and not just in work.
Sometimes the answer lies in something that combines two or more different capabilities – and together that could lead to something that hits the sweet spot of solving a customer pain, something unique to you and something that gives you energy and joy.
See if these tips help you come up with your own product portfolio:
1. Go back: What jobs have you done where people wanted to meet you, hear and learn from you. These are often good places to uncover things that were totally obvious for you, but not to others.
2. Watch your speed: What do you do faster than most people? So fast it looks effortless. But it’s not. You’ve just got good at it – and it’s probably a natural strength. How could you help others go faster?
3. Repeat yourself: what could you do once but sell multiple times? Like Karen licensing her fabrics designs or me selling my online course?
4. DIY or DIFM: How could you set someone else up so they could do something valuable themselves for a fraction of the price they pay today? How could you do it for them for a premium?
5. Follow Karen’s advice: Research the platforms – Fiver, Malt, Upwork, Freelance, People Per Hour… See what others are doing to package up their talent into products that are easier for people to buy.
In today’s world you can spin up a product in a super short time and test it just as rapidly. And you can do all this before you even leave your job or alongside something else if you’ve already left.
Give it a whirl. And let me now how you get on!
I am so grateful to end January with three full cohorts for Escapology Live – what an honour to be trusted by 24 people navigating life after corporate. I think I’ll have a break now, but message me if you want to be added to the waitlist. Or I can help 121 – I have a couple of packages to help keep costs low.
