EPISODE 08
My guest today knows all too well the challenges of living an independent life — the highs, the lows, the unexpected twists, and the constant drive to stay relevant in an ever-evolving world. Yet, through it all, she’s remained unwavering in her pursuit of a life filled with purpose, resilience, and undeniable grit.
This is Freedom Unscripted with Sam Valich.
Knock knock. How are you? So good to see you! Look at this. Is this really a Harry Seidler building?
It really is. It was built for the family that lived here in the 50s. They designed it for them and I'm the first person to live in it since them.
That's incredible. You could tell almost by the coloured doors and the panels.
My kids call it the Tele-tubby house. It's a little less classy.
I really want to see how you start your day.
Let's do coffee.
Wow, look at this! This is what you wake up to every single day?
Yeah, otherwise I can't hit the ground running. I actually need to start my day here.
SLOW INTENTION
How long do you give yourself to get into the day?
As long as I can before my brain starts going. Maybe half an hour, 40 minutes. And if I feel like I need a little longer, I'll grab some sort of reading or I'll journal and I'll just like some morning pages or scriptures or a book I'm reading that's not about my work. It's more about being or about art and that keeps me really in a slow intention, which is where my best stuff comes from.
I like that - slow intention.
It's just coming at life from a different place, and when you're making decisions, it's like, what feels right? And sitting in that and having enough space to go, how can I actually really manifest that?
For as long as I've known you, you've always wanted to be an independent, creative, professional. There are so many people that can glean so much inspiration, understanding about the pitfalls, all of that stuff from someone like you.
I remember the moment where I went, "it's too hard to be an artist". Life isn't built for artists, I need to actually shift gears and go up into my head. And I'll build art from here. And so I became a strategist.
STRATEGIC ART
I don't want to say a "proper job". But a strategist is a very defined role/position.
It is. It's productive creativity. Very results-oriented, and you're working to produce things for others, which is very different from being an artist where you're actually bringing, birthing things that are maybe not in existence yet. The struggle for me has always been, how do I bring those two back together? Advertising's beautiful, but it's about the creative work. It's not about the insight.
I would have advertising cats come to me and go, can you give me this insight? So I can prove that creative's going to work.
Oh, right, yeah, of course. So you can post-rationalise.
That insight doesn't exist. And so I kind of came to a point where I was like, I'm either going to really honour the truth about the research, the data, and what that taught me was there's a flow to human understanding, you don't get to control it all the time to get your outcome. You've got to get in it and flow with it a bit.
Which is why I'm in absolute admiration of freelancers all over the world. Because they have to go and do that every day.
There's grit.
Yeah, grit. Perfect word for it.
It has to come from inside you and you have to find that place in yourself. And I think the only way you can learn it is by getting the knock-backs or by hitting the end of your bank balance and going, what else is in there that I can actually draw on? It pushes you to really discover the fullness of what you can bring to the world.
And the grit can be stressful, like really stressful. But it's built an emotional intelligence in me to know, oh, I recognise that stress. I now know what to do with that stress. I'm not going to just sit in the stress and let it become anxiety. I'm going to actually let it be fuel to push me.
Like, how do I actually use it well? But I have to stay calm and grounded for that to happen. If I get that anxiety, it's like then it's a runaway train.
I think also, I have three children, so I've done a season of work and motherhood, and that's a very different life. So for mothers, that juggle in the morning, that juggle in the evening, you don't have a lot of space so you have to try and find and carve out the space. I stuck you know I'm not I'm not trying to segment my life up this is when I work this is when I do this this is I'm trying to live so I want to respond to life and having the freedom as a freelancer lets me respond.
GROUNDING YOURSELF
I love that you've got this identity as the barefoot brander. Tell me what that's about other than having no shoes on.
Well, it's, you know, all the stuff that we've been talking about, about being grounded and being values driven in everything you do as an organisation is what I really work hard with clients to do so that they are actually who they say they are all the time.
I know that it's a bit of a buzzword, especially in the last decade, but that doesn't make it any less important. How do you maintain good mental health and well-being?
I think the basic things, the things that everyone knows but you kind of have to really be intentional about crafting space for is being in nature. Whether it's the ocean, whether it's bushwalking, whether it's a run, like whatever it is, being outside as much as possible, and sleep!
But we overlook the basics because they seem so simple. And it's amazing how hard the basics are to achieve sometimes.
Yes, but then I think one of the other things I've learned with mental health is that I'm my own worst enemy.
Extrapolate.
It's that inner voice that tells me I'm crap. You're having that thought. You're listening to that thought, but you are not that thought, and you don't have to accept that thought.
And believing the best and staying positive, not fake positivity, but being realistic, being grounded. I think that's one of the biggest things I've had to learn how to do and it's about really good discipline, mental discipline.
You know, when you were talking about before about how as freelancers we think we're impostors and it's doing that dance well.
I feel like that follows the same things we talked about earlier - intention. You have to make an effort to do that, right? Going for a walk takes an effort, just to mentally say, I'm going to do this because I know the benefits of doing this. It's not just for my own mental health, but everything then benefits from that. My work benefits from that. My relationships benefit from that.
And not being afraid of suffering and pain. I think we live in a culture where you have to be on or happy or if it's good then I'm happy. Yeah, there's pain, there's suffering, there's hard things, there's things I actually need to learn grit in. But the more you practice it, the stronger you get and the less hard it is next time. And so then you're producing more happiness, more joy in the process. So, yeah, I think learning that discipline is really, really, really, really critical, especially when you're isolated, you're not, when you're working by yourself.
I think in true Sesame Street fashion, the words of the episodes are going to be intention and grit. This episode is brought to you by...Intention and grit.
AWE & WONDER
As a freelancer, who's been in the game for a while, how do you tackle learning and development?
I think you have to be innately curious to continue as a freelancer.
You have to have an appetite and a curiosity. I did this talk recently at a conference on Awe and Wonder and did a call to action around 10 days of Awe and Wonder as a practice. It was really interesting some of the feedback I got from people who engaged in the 10 Days.
It was like a little mini movement that sort of started. But people kind of got to a point where they were like, oh, I'm seeing all of this new stuff. I'm asking different questions. I'm looking at things differently. And it's freaking me out because I've gone through my life like this. And now suddenly the world's got bigger and I don't know where to put it. So I'm going to stop. Instead of, this is exciting, I'm going to push through and see where this takes me. I think a freelancer has that attitude of, I'm going to see where it takes me.
Not "I'm going to pull back because this doesn't feel like it fits into what I've created so far".
There's a Tolkien quote, not all who wonder are lost. Which I think is you know really apt because you just kind of see where the road takes you.
I’ve had the privilege of watching Sam’s journey and her commitment to human-centred work for over three decades. Even when life threw her its toughest challenges, she held tight to the belief that she had the agency and power to shape her own path — and that belief has propelled her forward. She is the embodiment of perseverance in the independent life, and it’s inspiring to see her strength and resolve finally in the spotlight for all to witness.
- fin
