Leah Vernon’s Post

I’m working on Labour Day. But why? After all, I’m a staunch advocate for workers. I’m a founding member (and board secretary) of the Arts and Cultural Workers Union, IATSE Local B778. AND I’m a freelance copywriter. Isn’t flexibility the whole point? Well, if you’ll allow me to be direct: business ain’t easy right now. I stepped out and started working for myself full-time only about three months ago. I’m in what I’m sure is the hardest stage, building a tower out of toothpicks. Doing fine, but only just. So: something’s gotta happen. Luckily, I’ve had the privilege of absolutely incredible folks like Madelen Ortega, Emily Court, Ryan Abbott, Kim Jacob, Julie Wang, and many others to come taking my out-of-nowhere requests for advice and hooking me up with their hard-won knowledge, and it’s provided me with a much more concrete path forward. I have immense gratitude to anyone who's fielded my scattershot questions asking (in my best David Byrne voice): "Well, how do I work this?" Part of this new plan is to start posting. Despite all my misgivings about social media, the fakeries of business culture, and the terror of being regarded online, I’m realizing that LinkedIn isn’t (always) the disingenuous black hole I worried it was before I became active on here. People are actually quite nice, it turns out! TL;DR: Expect to see more of me on here. Expect a new website coming soon, a levelled-up approach, and a general total overhaul of how I do things. And I promise I’ll get better at selfies.

Politicians should also work freelance as coaches and train corporate employees on office politics. At the end of boot camp, they can pick those so-called- "vocal", and "perceived hustlers" to join their party and give them a legit deserving designation. #satire #officepolitics #corporate #office

I just need Upwork support for my account😪. Please repost and tag Upwork till they see this Day 26 of reaching out to Upwork concerning my account Hello Upwork I was asked to re-verify my Upwork account and I tried to do this by uploading photos of my National ID card. When this couldn’t be verified, I contacted INEC (my country’s electoral body) for a new copy of my voter ID card. I received it about a week later and quickly uploaded it for verification. But to my dismay, I received an email from Upwork saying my account had been permanently suspended for uploading false/altered documentation, This was shocking to me as I had in no way done this. While I quickly submitted an appeal, I reached out to INEC for documentation proving the card to be legitimate while also swearing an affidavit at the local high court. I now have documentation from INEC proving that my card is legitimate and I’ve attached that below. I’m also attaching photos of my voter’s card, a live video, and a copy of the affidavit. I've attached some of them below but because of size, I've had to upload them as a Google Drive link as well. Please find them below or open the attached link. I hope these pieces of evidence establish my innocence. Upwork is my source of livelihood and I’d never jeopardize that by breaking any of their terms of service. I sincerely hope this appeal is read and considered. Looking forward to your anticipated response. Warm Regards, Aikhenomian Paul. Appeal Documents https://lnkd.in/dMCN-fcZ #upwork #freelancing

I just need Upwork support for my account😪. Please repost and tag Upwork till they see this Day 32 of reaching out to Upwork concerning my account Hello Upwork I was asked to re-verify my Upwork account and I tried to do this by uploading photos of my National ID card. When this couldn’t be verified, I contacted INEC (my country’s electoral body) for a new copy of my voter ID card. I received it about a week later and quickly uploaded it for verification. But to my dismay, I received an email from Upwork saying my account had been permanently suspended for uploading false/altered documentation, This was shocking to me as I had in no way done this. While I quickly submitted an appeal, I reached out to INEC for documentation proving the card to be legitimate while also swearing an affidavit at the local high court. I now have documentation from INEC proving that my card is legitimate and I’ve attached that below. I’m also attaching photos of my voter’s card, a live video, and a copy of the affidavit. I've attached some of them below but because of size, I've had to upload them as a Google Drive link as well. Please find them below or open the attached link. I hope these pieces of evidence establish my innocence. Upwork is my source of livelihood and I’d never jeopardize that by breaking any of their terms of service. I sincerely hope this appeal is read and considered. Looking forward to your anticipated response. Warm Regards, Aikhenomian Paul. Appeal Documents https://lnkd.in/dMCN-fcZ #upwork #freelancing

Freelancing is amazing. Until it isn’t. You wake up one morning and you realize that you’ve created a very demanding job for yourself. And chances are, you take LESS time off than you ever did in any previous job you held. Sometimes it even feels like you’re working for a tyrannical boss who makes you feel terrible any time you ask for a small break.  That boss, by the way, is YOU. 👹 Sound familiar?  Not to Wendy Helfenbaum, my guest in this week’s episode (link below). Wendy is an established freelance writer out of Montreal. And for the past 18+ years she has taken 4 months off every year. And when I say “time off,” I mean real, non-working time off. No client work. No working on the business. No marketing. No nothing. Just time to be with her family. To decompress. To enjoy life. And to savor the freedom freelancing is supposed to afford us. Just as impressive, Wendy has consistently maintained a 6-figure income for years — even while taking a full third of the year off.  There's ZERO bragging in this conversation. As you'll see, Wendy had to work hard and SMART to pull this off. If anything, I think it will really inspire you and force you to ask yourself a different set of questions. Because in order to create the kind of lifestyle you want as a freelancer, you have to change the story you're telling yourself, act more boldly and take bigger risks. https://lnkd.in/eGw8kvH7

Asking for a raise can be daunting, especially in uncertain economic times. But when you deserve more money, you need to make the ask. In this edition of Content Therapy, Ernest Chaney offers advice for making the ask firmly but respectfully so you can get the “yes” you want and deserve. https://hubs.li/Q02tdcp20 #careeradvice #contentmarketing #ContentTherapy #compensation

As a business owner/ freelancer, I think the FTC ban on non-competes is GOOD for employees and contractors. If you’re hesitant about this change, here’s a perspective that might help you see things differently: 1. Most of what we work with today is open sourced information… we’ve reached peak innovation 2. NDAs exist so we don’t divulge secrets or proprietary information 3. Companies can learn from each other’s pain points. There are enough problems to solve out there. 4. I as one employee/ contractor can’t solve all of your problems. If you want to keep me at a company, compensate me fairly for my talents 5. We are going to see the rise of the contractor economy soon. This allows people to have more than one job in the same sector (even though we should be able to make a living wage from just one job) If you’re curious about this topic, I made a tiktok about it! #noncompete

A 40% reduction in hours and an 85% increase in pay! 💼💸 You know those numbers we usually keep hush-hush? Well, I'm about to spill the beans because let's face it, when we are thinking of making the leap into the Freelance world, it's important right? Before I started my business, I worked as a Business Administrator for one of the best businesses I have ever worked for (and still take inspiration from!) Childbase Partnership Ltd - I was earning around £21,000 a year working 30 hours a week over 5 days😴 Fast forward to 2021 and my first full year of trading. Drumroll, please! 🥁 Despite only clocking in 3 days a week (okay, maybe 4 during the occasional whirlwind), guess what? I skyrocketed my earnings by a jaw-dropping 85%! 🚀 That's right – I turned that £21,000 into a dazzling £39,000! 🤩 That was just the first year - imagine what I have done in the 3 years since then! Pop me a follow and click the 🔔 on my profile to be one of the first to find out when I reveal how well we are predicted to do this year!!! 😉 Do you talk about the money that you make or does it make you feel squirmy inside?! #MakingMoney #HRSupport #FreelanceWorld

Ya know what doesn't so much boil my piss as vaporise my entire bladder? Blaming others for your own dumb decisions. For example I saw someone pissing and moaning the other day about “reality of life as a freelancer” because her client won’t let her raise her invoice until they give their “permission”. She completed the work. She wasn't given "permission" to invoice until eight months later. Almost two months after that and she still hadn’t been paid. A dire state of affairs and reprehensible behaviour by her client. But she’s no victim. She’s a volunteer. Let me say that again because it's so important: She’s no victim. She’s a volunteer. And they’ll continue to treat her like this until she puts a stop to it. As you can imagine her echo chamber is full of fluff and saccharine from fellow freelancers who suffer the same kind of humiliation and indignity, but not ONE of them is showing her how to fix it (mostly because they all suffer with much the same problem of being paid long after their work is done and delivered). But I can show her how to fix it. I can show them all how to fix it. But the work they have to do to get the results they want won't change because I sell it to them in more attractive wrapping — and most will balk at it when I tell them what they have to do. So all I'd be doing with that is storing up hassle for myself. Guess what? I can show you how to fix it, too, but you have to be prepared to do the work. So... if you want to take control of your sales and start reliably and predictably attracting the best clients and selling to them at vastly higher rates, fees, or prices your competitors will spit feathers over, then you'd do well to pay attention to what I say. Three ways to get my help: 1. Get the free Death of Social Media Marketing white paper (link in my profile). 2. Get my book, M82 (link in my profile). 3. DM me (only for the brave and serious). Alternatively... ignore me and keep struggling.

✨#DirectorsUKAdventCalendar Day 8 This year our Head of Industry Relations Paul Evans started a regular blog on our site, in which he shares his thoughts on the industry as he meets and collaborates with directors across the UK. In his first blog, Paul wrote “My role is to get talking to directors and get beyond the joyful discussions about their craft and onto the pressing need that they have to protect their own interests – as creators, as wage-earners and as citizens of a country that cares about the quality and quantity of its production output.” Since his first post, Paul has written blogs about topics as varied as holiday pay, collective efficacy, the industry’s “culture of fear” around freelancers, and more. Explore our Advent Calendar: https://ow.ly/U1vn50UmzRH