Season one of Work Unlocked wrapped up with two episodes that dive into how rewarding and profitable it can be to step out of mainstream thinking about how to make a living and how to get large, high-visibility projects done. Here’s a recap of what you missed on this season’s final two episodes.
Episode 7: How to Find and Open the Third Door
Many of us are taught that choices are an either/or decision: Do you want this or that? This episode is about people who create a third option, so they can have this and that.
In the first half of the episode, you’ll hear from Abbi Perets, a freelance writer who worked with some of the world’s largest companies and a mother of five—one of whom has special needs. When Abbi faced the common dilemma of choosing between a career and time with family, she created a way to have both. Then she turned her successful experience into another revenue stream teaching women how to support themselves and their families as freelance writers.
Hear Abbi’s advice on common concerns for new freelancers including:
- How to overcome the belief that you can only get low-paying projects through Upwork.
- Ways to define your writing niche and find clients willing to pay fairly for your skills.
- Proven tips for managing personal and work responsibilities without going into overwhelm.
Hear all of Abbi’s tips now.
Continue listening and you’ll hear how “the third option” applies to businesses as well. When Ken Circeo, a senior creative director at Microsoft, couldn’t keep up with the number of video requests flowing in, he leveraged Upwork to 10x his production.
“What I found was there are a lot of very qualified, very skilled creators who not only could support me, but could do things that I couldn’t do myself,” said Ken. “I’m simply taking this skill that this freelancer has and adapting it to my projects and we’re scaling our production tenfold.”
Get Ken’s tips for hiring managers who may be new to working with freelancers such as:
- The power of patience when searching for the right person for your project.
- Your first project may be a bit rough: Why it’s okay and how to make the next one smoother.
- How to develop a reliable talent bench that you can tap again and again.
Episode 8: Teams, Unlocked
In our final episode of this season, two famed brands—Budweiser and Amway—decided to change how they normally get work done by contracting global professionals through Upwork instead of using traditional creative agencies.
For Amway, the change was out of necessity. “I think I speak for a lot of people in creative when I say that COVID has really changed the way we work and approach creative productions,” said Adrienne Young, lead art director at Amway. What Young didn’t expect was how the change saved $100,000 on a single project and launched Amway into a new way of working.
The creative team at Budweiser learned that accessing global independent talent, as they did in their #RaiseABud campaign, can produce better results. “We never want to have a one-trick pony or get too siloed into our way of working,” said Jake Vizek, Senior Brand Director, Innovation & Design at Budweiser. “And we know that, a lot of times, freelancers are the best in the business.”
Adrienne and Jake speak candidly about trusting independent talent to handle large projects and getting stellar results. Their tips cover:
- What to include in your creative briefs to attract qualified talent.
- Why it’s important for independent creatives to defend their recommendations and how clients should receive them.
- When reviewing creative pitches, what elements to look for and how it affects your timelines.
- How to leverage the diversity of talent on Upwork for any project, big and small.
Don’t miss a single tip from season one. Browse other episodes to learn more about the new world of work from freelancers, the businesses that rely on them, and the experts who help everyone succeed.
Season two is already in the works, so stay tuned—there’s much more to come!
