EPISODE 4
It might seem like a typical Generation Y story. A young couple moves from the big smoke of a large metropolis, with all of its anonymity, congestion and exorbitant house prices, in favour of a picturesque seaside town in search of freedom, real-life community, and a place to build a home.
And embracing this change, my guests today not only continued their metropolitan careers, but also developed a local practice with a magnetic pool of fresh clients and collaborations in their new environment.
This is Freedom Unscripted with Katie and Noel Leeman.
Have you met people that the baseline is happiness?
Well, apparently I am.
Yeah, Noel.
I would agree with that. You're probably the only person I know that the baseline is happiness.
I'm like literally like this.
Like a normal person.
I'm just like an emotional brick.
You're an empath, [Katie]. And you're a brick, [NOEL].
An emotional brick.
BETTING ON YOURSELF
How does a girl from St Kilda, Melbourne, one of the most beautiful places on earth, land in London?
I was a senior graphic designer. Eventually all of my friends who I went to University with, they all just kept sending me postcards of everywhere they'd been, all over Europe, and I was like I'm just getting a bit sick of it now.
So one morning I woke up and I thought I need to get out of here. And so I freelanced everywhere, at KPMG, Willis, I was in tax, I was in insurance, I was in theatre.
That didn't scare you that you?
Yeah, it scared me. I was like, "why am I here? Why am I doing this?" And my dad said, "because you need to, because you can do this".
And then I ended up at OMD and eventually, my boss wanted us to build an internal design team. And so this was like the first design team that I had input into building. And now I've built three over the course of my career.
And because I'd freelanced so much, all the processes I'd learned from all the different places I'd been, we basically started inputting them into them, into this wireframe of a business.
And then we were looking for digital expertise. Enter Noel. My boss, Laura, was like, "we should get Noel". And I'm like, no, we can't have Noel, because I'm dating Noel. Every day, she asked me for six months. And we basically smashed it as soon as he was hired.
You're the person that's been brought in because they don't have someone who knows how to do that stuff. So, you're that guy. It's always wearing lots of hats, one minute you're doing graphic design, next minute you're trying to code something, next minute you're doing layout, next minute you're doing animation.
And then you start to think that all this is just one job. That's just the job. And then you go to a bigger place, and actually, that's like five jobs.
FINDING YOUR COMMUNITY
I realise now London basically spat out photographers and designers and artists. And they all seem to be here! And we're all working with them or chatting with them in WhatsApp groups so it's like we've got this little creative hub here.
It's a creative community as well as just general community. It's weirdly easier to make friends. There's less people, but you make deeper connections more quickly.
MENTAL HEALTH & WELL-BEING
So one of the things I wanted to ask you about in being a freelancer is how do you keep good mental health and well-being?
So mine is sea swimming.
I've found that's a really good way of sort of resetting myself. There's no pressure and that's a really good way for me to deal with stuff. Even Noel gets to a point, where he says to me, "I think you need to swim".
And I'm like, "I think I do!"
Because he can notice if things are mounting up or getting too much for me.
You need to just get in the sea.
It's like the sea takes what you don't need - all the stress - that's my interpretation of it.
Noel, how does a constant optimist take care of his mental health and well-being?
I think it's about getting outside - something I started doing since moving here, which is quite unlike me, like starting playing five-a-side football. I'm fairly ambivalent or disinterested in football generally, but five-a-side football seems to have found a little place for me.
TRANSPARENCY WINS
I think the concept of transparency is so powerful because a client can make an informed decision based on something that's very real. Like you saying, this is how long it's gonna take, this is how much it's gonna cost, and we're gonna work together in creating something.
I think that's very refreshing.
When we were trying to work out what our offering was going to be, our niche and all that, we just wanted to get rid of all of the unnecessary stuff that clients have to deal with.
We just say exactly what's happening, how it's going to work, what the timings are, and an honest budget, and be as clear as possible so that they can make a decision.
And then everything is out in the open. And that's the one thing we've managed to do with every single client, no matter who it is.
That's really become one of our tenants. It's just a pragmatic and no nonsense way to get along with clients.
WORKING FROM HOME
You're now working from home. How much of that also applies to your life? That demarcation of work time, home time, and anything else?
We do try and keep it clear, but it is tricky. It's easy to go, well, we're just going to have to work late, just have to overrun this thing. Or conversely, we just need to do the laundry, just need to do the dishes, because we've got the time.
So we're trying to carve out that time to just do the work and not expecting anything around the house to change.
