The 2024 Deadline Party line-up includes:
- Amy putting her wealth of educational experience to good use by creating a course on inclusive education for all kinds of online course creators.
- Annetta transforming her extensive knowledge in the end-of-life scene into a full-length book on atheism and dying.
- Annie creating an immersive performance art piece in the death and dying space while seeking potential festival viewing and funding.
- Grace publishing a novel in a new genre – Pride and Prejudice IN SPACE – edits, cover and all!
- Martina embracing a new direction and shining up her freelance website with a new look and new copy to go with it.
- Rebekah chasing 100 responses for a survey she needs to help workplaces be better prepared to work with freelancers.
- Rhiannon photographing 250+ LGBTQIA+ community portraits for a temporary Public Art installation, Newtown Pride Square for Mardi Gras
Come celebrate the 2024 Deadline Party achievements while saying goodbye to another year in freelancing.
2024 Deadline Party replay
WATCH THE REPLAY VIA THIS LINK: https://share.descript.com/view/73xLT9eEdFa
Art By Jessica Harkins
2024 DEADLINE PARTY TRANSCRIPT
GMT20241212-000606_Recording_2094x1112
Rebekah: [00:00:00] So, welcome to the deadline party for 2024. This is the summer edition where we’re all scraped in before Christmas. And I, in the spirit of reconciliation, I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land and the custodians of which the lands we are gathered on today, and their continuing connection to land, water, and sea, and pay a special respect to Elders past, present, and emerging, and anyone of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage who is joining us today.
Rebekah: The official position of the Freelance Jungle is that sovereignty was not ceded, and we support the treaty position. Okay, so, without further ado, we’ve got some brave people that put themselves up against the clock, committed to six weeks of time with each other to build projects that some of them have been putting off for years and years and years, as you will see.
Rebekah: There has been, as usual, a learning curve. with these sorts of [00:01:00] things. When you put yourself out there and you decide to put your projects out there, you will often find that what you thought you were going to create in a six week period is not necessarily what you get to. But we will have a look at what we’ve got to and enjoy the process as it is and as it stands.
Rebekah: Each person has five minutes or less to present their idea. You’ll get a wide range of wonderful ideas. Um, some of people have actually not been able to make it today to present their ideas, but they’ve sent their files. So that’s part of it as well. Um, but without any further ado, I think it’s probably time to hand over to the lovely Dr.
Rebekah: Amy McKernan for her deadline party presentation.
Amy: Thanks, Bec. Um, I will share my lovely slideshow presentation, which I think is actually more of a work of art than the project that I’ve actually been working on for the deadline party. Um, I will describe my [00:02:00] visuals as I go along, um, where I think that’s necessary, but essentially, my spread, my Slideshow is titled Amy has a deadline, and it’s gliding on by as we speak, and the image there is of a calendar with a little gold star for the deadline, and it is zooming off the screen because I did not make my deadline.
Amy: So if I rewind a little bit back to 2022, I was taking an online course and the image on the left here is a stick figure Amy with gold stars. two hairs, uh, with an angry expression on her face, looking very frustrated with a, uh, online course that she was taking on the screen on the computer in front of her, which then led to an idea.
Amy: Because this course that I was taking was one of many that I took that were quite boring, Not very engaging, badly designed, and inaccessible in lots of ways. I had the idea that I should create my own course about courses. Very meta, as my friend has said. Um, To try to help people make their courses more [00:03:00] engaging and more inclusive.
Amy: Um, So, I had the idea in 2022, in 2022 I made very little progress, in 2023 I made very little progress, and then in 2024 I continued to make very, very little progress until later in the year I was crowned, or I crowned myself Queen of Procrastination, and the image there is me with a lovely little crown.
Amy: Um, enter the Deadline Party. Um, That’s me looking a little happier, and the deadline party people have just zoomed into the screen. They are generic stick figures because I didn’t want to offend anybody with my attempts to represent them on screen. And suddenly, I am not alone anymore. Which has ended up being a really, really good thing for me, because it has got me out of my head a bit, given me the support that I’ve needed, and talked me down off a ledge when I reached the point where I was a very frustrated Amy with That’s me on my computer screen and I am holding my computer and [00:04:00] attempting to throw it into the sea.
Amy: Uh, and then in comes the Deadline Party Crew to stop me from going completely over the edge. Uh, and throwing my project out the window. So that support was really, really important for me and it turned out that not working in isolation was a really, really good thing for this project. Um, and then that brings us to today.
Amy: Uh, the deadline has arrived. It is I am shrugging on screen. I have a very neutral expression on my face. Am I finished? No. Have I made some progress? Yes, and I have actually made some really good progress. Uh, is my mental health okay? Mostly. Represented by an upside down tick there. Um, The course is obviously not done, um, but the progress that I’ve made has been really good and the support that I’ve had has been excellent.
Amy: And I’ve learned a lot about the actual [00:05:00] process of getting projects completed. Um, I think that I set a really unrealistic deadline for myself because I didn’t anticipate the technical challenges that I would have in actually building the course. Um, so I do have a lot of expertise in designing.
Amy: learning, uh, but I don’t have a lot of expertise in actually building the online courses. So that’s been a learning process for me and something that I’m also sharing through the course, which I think is quite useful as well. Um, and that is all I really wanted to say today. So that is the end of my presentation.
Amy: Uh, and then in brackets there, it says in very bad handwritten, um, computer techs, please buy my course, uh, from early 2025. Thank you.
Rebekah: Thanks for the very entertaining presentation and, and capturing the spirit of how deadlines can go wrong. Just, just for the members of the audience that may not be aware, what is the course that you’re working on Aims?
Amy: So the course is, is called [00:06:00] inclusive and engaging online learning, and it is basically about how you can design online courses to make sure that they are inclusive and that they’re accessible for lots of different people. Um, and engaging, that they’re really. fun, but also, um, meaningfully designed to really kind of foster learning in a way that actually sticks for people.
Amy: So not just a content dump into a course.
Rebekah: That’s excellent, because I think you’ve demonstrated the principles of that with that very engaging, uh, PowerPoint. The dogs now think I’m completely insane because I couldn’t stop laughing. So. Yay, Amy! What a great way to start. Alrighty, now remembering my alphabet thing without saying the alphabet, I believe Annetta is next.
Rebekah: Take it away, lovely Annetta.
Annetta: Hey, thank you very much. Uh, I’m coming to you today from Australia. country in the central north of Lutruwita, Tasmania. So [00:07:00] my Deadline Party project, um, was also ambitious, uh, which is finally getting my book into shape for a draft read through, and it’s called Atheist with a Shroud.
Annetta: Um, because I often get a lot of, um, sometimes very aggressive and belligerent pushback from end of life workers and people in healthcare as well as non medical roles about insisting that not everyone has a religious or spiritual position at end of life, which is borne out by global, um, trends in terms of secularization and a shift away from religion.
Annetta: But the tentacles are really strong. And, um, I think it’s timely to put a book out and it’s something I’ve been sitting on for probably three years. So I, um, I was crippled by imposter syndrome for well over two years. And as Amy has also described very [00:08:00] vividly, and I apologize for my lack of stick figures.
Annetta: I do very well in a supportive community and I do get up in my head in isolation. So the deadline party environment. And the multiple ways that Beck made it really easy for us to stay in touch with each other and to communicate. And in fact, Beck taking time from an incredibly overwhelming schedule and her own projects to check in with all of us and just keep everything running is a testament to how important the freelance jungle is for me.
Annetta: Um, coworking works really well for me. And Grace and I would, did a lot of, um, morning work together. Um, and Grace had already published and this I’ve published journal articles, but, um, this will be my first book. So that was incredibly helpful for me too. Um, thanks to the deadline party approach, I’ve actually done more in six weeks than I have for over two years.
Annetta: And in the middle of [00:09:00] things, um, I needed to have my gallbladder removed. Which was crippling pain and days lost to medical stuff and getting an emergency and unexpected surgery slot when I happened to be at the hospital. Um, and the recovery from that has been slow and I can’t do anything because of the hernia risk.
Annetta: And the pain meant that, um, it’s a testament to what’s been going on for me that I Got so much done in six weeks, even with probably losing half of that time. So I didn’t make my full deadline. Um, my goal was to have a first rough draft ready for read through, which is ambitious, but I’m actually close.
Annetta: I’m probably about halfway through and I’ve, what I did to help encourage myself to bring this together is I sent a rough treatment through to a trusted friend, um, to, to read [00:10:00] through for initial feedback and I’m still on track. I think to have the book released at the end of February, which is a personal deadline with self publishing.
Annetta: for listening. And, um, this is a great book. If you don’t have it, Anna Featherstone is fabulous. Um, so I want to say a huge and heartfelt thanks to all of the deadline party members of 2024. Um, I’m going to ensure that co working is something that I do more of moving forward. Um, and any, Anytime that I know that I need to reach out, knowing that I’ve got this community here means more than, you know, so thank you all very, very much.
Rebekah: Thank you very much for that. And then I think it’s a much needed thing. And I love the fact that you use the deadline party for your community, but while building a book for a community of people that are often disregarded in a space where [00:11:00] everybody needs the most support. So. Please let us know when that book is for sale so that we can champion it out there in the world and also get it out there to the people that need it because we all need choice when it comes to end of life.
Rebekah: Thank you. And far out! Losing a major organ while you’re still doing your project? Jesus Christ, you get double stars today.
Annetta: Okay, so I’m not the procrastination queen, but if anybody tries to take my drama queen crown, I am so coming for you.
Rebekah: Excellent. I love it. I love it. Alrighty, uh, learning my alphabets yet again, we have Annie.
Martina: Yes! Thank you! Um, alright, I will share my screen. Uh, will I? I’m sure I will. Hang on. Um, this one. Is that good? Can you see? [00:12:00] Yes, we can see. All right. Fabulous. Um, okay. So I’m Annie Caulfield. My business is grassroots death care.
Martina: And why did I join the deadline party? Okay. Accountability. Um, there’s nothing like a weekly check in to keep me accountable. So actually it, it really helps me a lot. The deadline, having it expedited. deadline, not just one that I make myself because any that I make myself, I am just letting myself off the hook all the time.
Martina: Um, motivation seeing other people progress in their, um, projects is really inspiring to me. And that helps me show up and forward motion. So even if I don’t get to the original goal of the, of the deadline party, um, I know that I can make definite steps towards that and the steps that I wouldn’t have made otherwise.
Martina: So that’s why I joined. So the background. Um, I’m a death doula, funeral celebrant, funeral director, and death [00:13:00] literacy advocate. But I’m also an artist and I wanted to bring those things together. So I wanted to create a theater piece around the theme of death and dying, um, create it so that the audience has an impactful immersive experience, ensure that it’s accessible, and provoke deep questionings around death and dying.
Martina: So I’ve been skirting around the edges of creating some sort of theater piece for the last few years, um, but very little has happened this whole time. So the concept has changed numerous times as well. And I thought it was time to get off my ass and actually do something. So the objectives were to collaborate with other artists, to gauge interest and availability, to participate in the project.
Martina: So to do that, you know, getting over my fear of reject, rejection in approaching the artist and just do it. Um, I wanted to have an outline or a form for the theater piece, [00:14:00] uh, up till now, it’s been really vague and I wanted to have some sort of form or flow, um, sort of, um, nailed down so that I could then start telling people about it.
Martina: Um, and then I wanted to have either a festival date or a work in progress showing date locked in by the end of this. So the execution. Um, so I contacted artists in my network, so I phoned and messaged them. Um, and some actually even approached me, which was great. Um, met with a Director, producer, and theater maker for a creative development, um, session, uh, met with an artist who’s already doing work in the death realm.
Martina: So that was amazing to talk to her, applied for funding, um, a few different sources applied for the anywhere festival, which I’ll talk a bit about in a minute. And I wanted to create the story of my mom’s death and how that all went down. So the [00:15:00] results, so theater of the last breath was born. So this is a working title.
Martina: Um, and it might change, but I I’m really loving it. So it may not. And this image here is just one version of a possible. Um, sort of, um, project image. So, and I got selected to do my piece at Anywhere Festival in 2025. Woohoo! So that Anywhere Festival is, um, a festival in Brisbane that is, um, anywhere but a theater.
Martina: So you can, um, you can do it anywhere you like. So we’re thinking, you know, it might be in a cemetery. Oh, various places. So that’s, that’s happening. So I’ve got that locked in. So which means I have another deadline, which is great. Um, I applied for three funding sources, but I haven’t heard yet about any of them to see, um, if I’m successful and I have six artists who are keen to collaborate on the project.
Martina: Which is amazing. So, [00:16:00] what did I learn? Okay, it’s okay to pivot. So, before the deadline party, um, I changed concepts several times and then beat myself up for it. Um, not being able to stick to things, but I’ve realised it’s actually okay. It’s actually okay. Um, any forward motion is progress. So even the baby steps that I’ve been making have all happened and it is all progress towards the end goal.
Martina: So that’s amazing. Um, I have great ideas, so I have no shortage of ideas. It’s just the execution where I fall down and I need to back myself and my ideas. I need accountability. So, um, left to my own devices, I will come up with a million reasons. Oh, excuses. I call them reasons, um, why I can’t do the thing.
Martina: So having to check in weekly really worked for me and money helps. So I would love to be able to pay artists. And up till now, I hadn’t really thought about that too much. So thinking about the money [00:17:00] aspect and applying for funding has been amazing, amazing process and heaps of learnings in that. So it’s been great.
Martina: And that’s the end. And this is just another possible image for the. for the project. So the end. Thank you.
Rebekah: Thanks so much, Annie. I’m really pleased to hear that the project has already got its acceptance somewhere out in the world. That’s really freaking cool to hear. And Anime Festival sounds great. I think they need to do that in Wollongong.
Rebekah: So we need to become friends.
Rebekah: Thank you. That’s awesome stuff. So look out for that if you’re in Brisbane. And, um, and we look forward to seeing whether the review funding results and all the rest of it. Like you say, money is really important with these kinds of projects. And I just love the way that the process was outlined, um, on that presentation.
Rebekah: That’s amazing. Now, next is Grace. So Grace, unfortunately has had a change in [00:18:00] her living and working environment. So what she did though, cause she’s Grace, is she recorded a video for us to play. So Martina, uh, is my lovely visual, um, assistant for today.
Martina: So everyone, advice, uh, turn your speakers way up because the sound on this is very quiet.
Martina: We’ve done everything we can to maximize it, but do what you can at your end as well.
Rebekah: Mm
Grace: hmm. Very
Grace: sorry. I can’t,
Grace: maybe I’ll tell you if I have. So, uh, my book, Universally Acknowledged, Pride and Prejudice in Space. It’s been a really long time coming. I first had the idea around 2013. I wrote most of it in 2017. I finished it in 2018 and promptly, uh, abandoned it. Uh, that’s what you’re supposed to do with the first draft, so you can come at it fresh, but not for [00:19:00] six years, bro.
Grace: Uh, anyway, um, Let’s see here. Um, so finally this year, earlier this year, I got some wonderful people to edit it, thanks to Lee and Elena. And, um, the cover art is also from 2017, because I got my, uh, friend Michael to do the art right when I was first writing it, you know, which is premature. But, hey, it’s there now.
Grace: I put the text on it just this week, so it’s the old and the new. And um, yeah, so the process for this book was the same as I would do for any of my editing clients, except from the other side. So when I got the comments back from Lee and Elena, I worked through and put them in, and then I did the final read through myself, and fixed the last things that were bothering me, which were quite a few.
Grace: Uh, so I just finished the read through on Sunday, I fixed it on Monday, and was messy with the cover [00:20:00] then too, and um, so yeah, it all goes really quickly in the end, but you have to decide when to stop messing with it, that’s the thing with writing, with books, I mean, not that I have any kids, but I guess it’s like when you have an adult kid and you’re trying to get them out of the house, it’s like that.
Grace: I mean, I could have spent another year or two changing every second line in the story. It would not really have materially improved it. So it’s time for it to get out into the world. And it is. It is. So yay. Um, yeah. So now it’s live at the link, which I hope one of my lovely colleagues will drop in so you can see it.
Grace: But that’s just for proof. I don’t want you to buy it there because Amazon puts a lot of extra fees on it and stuff. If you want a copy, give me a yell. I’m happy to send it to you for free because I’m in that kind of mood on launch day. Yay! So, uh, yeah, and I got that done while going through some interesting [00:21:00] things in my, uh, day to day life.
Grace: The campground where I work and live has been sold. I suppose that’s public knowledge now because the new owner is in, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to stay in my flat or even keep my job. None, nothing was guaranteed. But, uh, we got through that, and there’s still a lot of things going on, which is why I have to work today.
Grace: Um, but, uh, yeah, it was really good just to have a project to be focusing on while that was going on. Took my mind off it to some extent, but also was really distracting. But life happens, you know, this is, this is how it goes. So, um, let’s see, is there anything else? I’m really tired because I finished it at like 1 in the morning and sent it off and it’s live, both the Kindle copy and the paperback.
Grace: And if you happen to want to buy a paperback, contact me because I can do it cheaper than Amazon. So, uh, but don’t worry, you don’t have to, you [00:22:00] can read a sample at that link. See what it’s all about. And, uh, yeah, I think that’s everything. Thank you. Drop me a note any time, I love to hear from anyone. And, uh, thanks to all the deadliners for pushing through it, and to Annetta for all the cool co working.
Grace: Hey, maybe we can do that again sometime, because it really works for me. Uh, yeah. So, I’m at four minutes now, I think I’m going to call it quits because I’ve got to pop over to the office shortly. And, uh, thank you for listening, and thank you Bec for the deadline party. Thank you.
Rebekah: Ladies and gentlemen, that was Grace Bridges. And that was a peak Grace presentation, the calm, the ability to get things done, the quirk. I just, and I love, sorry, the most Kiwi quote, not six years, [00:23:00] bro. Like I just loved everything about that presentation and I just love the way that, um, Grace owns her stories as well as her creativity.
JB: And, uh,
Rebekah: thanks to Marty for, for helping me present that one. Okay, so forgive me for not knowing my alphabet. I think Martina, you are next.
Martina: Yeah, M comes after G, so yep, definitely, definitely me next. Um, so my presentation is called, uh, My New Website Lessons in the Entitification of WordPress and the Ongoing Craptacularity of COVID 19.
Martina: Um, it’s been a fun time. Uh, so I, um, have been trying to refresh my website for a while. Um, as freelancers, we know, you know, what we do and how we describe ourselves to the world evolves. And, um, that’s definitely been the case for me in the last couple of years. Um, most of you know me as a grant writer.
Martina: [00:24:00] I’ve gotten my master’s in evaluation and I’m doing more evaluation now as well. And I’ve moved into doing more training and things. I’m still doing grant writing, but I want to sort of have. More of an emphasis on the other things I do as well. Um, I even won an award for evaluation recently, so that’s pretty nice.
Martina: And I need to make my website have the 2025 version of me rather than the couple of years ago version of me. Um, so I’ve been working with a copywriter, um, and she has been. pulling together lots of great words. Um, it’s been a really good process to go through with someone who I trust a lot because, um, a big part of shaping how I want to come across to the world is business planning and kind of deciding what it is I want to do.
Martina: What do I want people to see as my primary services? Um, what do I want to highlight and do more of? And what do I want to sort of not highlight as much? Because I don’t want people to be asking me to do that to quite the same extent. And how do I want to sort of come across? There’s been a lot of discovery and a lot of refinement as [00:25:00] we’ve gone through these processes.
Martina: Um, my copywriters had COVID a bunch of times. And as we know, that thing about COVID is that doesn’t just sap you when you’re sick. It is ongoing, particularly if you have kids and they get it. And you know, there’s all sorts of other stuff going on in the world. Um, so there’s been a lot of delays to getting the words finalized.
Martina: Um, and that’s just, you know, the ongoing craptacularity of COVID. That’s just. part of it, how these things go. Um, so that’s fine. Um, I told my copywriter, I was like, so I’ve signed up for the deadline party. She was like, okay, great. Yes. This is going to give us the deadline that we need to get this done. Oh, by the way, I’ve COVID again.
Martina: So the words are not. are not where they need to be, um, yet. So I pivoted my project rather than trying to actually finish my website. What I’ve tried to do is create a, uh, Laura Nipson version of my website. So, um, [00:26:00] what I have, um, is a whole lot of beautiful, uh, wireframe versions of my website. So this is, these are the draft words.
Martina: Um, there’s still some work needed on these, uh, particularly reducing the quantity. Um, but I absolutely love the way that she’s, that she’s put these together because it makes it really easy for me to understand how this is meant to look. Um, there’s also a, um, word version that you can actually like make edits to and things like that.
Martina: But having this layout is really, really helpful. And so I said, okay, well, what I’m going to do is I’m going to just use Laura Mipson text and I’m going to make all of these blocks. Um, so I’m going to make this slider. I’m going to make this, you know, heading, paragraph, quote, picture. I’m going to make this call to action.
Martina: You know, I’m going to just going to make all of these different, shapes of pieces so that once I have the words then I can just put it together [00:27:00] into a theme. Um, but the other part of my title is the Institutification of WordPress. Um, so yeah, Macquarie’s Word of the Year, if you didn’t hear that. Um, I am part of the MySpace generation.
Martina: I’ve been customizing my own websites, not building them from the ground up, but customizing them on top of an existing platform since like 2003. Um, and. I built my first website. I’m fond of telling people I built my first business website in a hammock in Guatemala. I was sick. Um, I had to stay put for a couple of days to recover.
Martina: And so I just parked myself in a hammock in the jungle and said, right, I’m going to get that website done. And it took me two days and I got it up and I was really happy with it. And this has taken me more than two days. And it’s just that ongoing frustration of trying to get things the way I want them and, you know, trying to click here and like, okay, it looks good on here.
Martina: But then when I hit, you know, show me how it actually looks, the words are over on the side of the thing. There’s no margin. And it just is in a weird block and everything’s not right. And I get, okay, this [00:28:00] has got the blue all over the background, but then I go and look at it. No, the blue doesn’t go all the way to the edge.
Martina: And it just, hang on a second. How do I fix that? Which layer of menu do I need to get into? And Oh, no, wrong layer of menu. I’ve changed the background on that, but not the background on that. And it just, Oh, it’s been extremely frustrating. The utility of the deadline party has been that sitting here in front of everyone going, well, I didn’t achieve it is not a lovely thing.
Martina: So I’m like, okay, you get at least something to show. And in the last two days, I’ve managed to have most of my work projects for the year done and really go, okay, no, I’ve got to. Get as much of this lorem ipsum version that I can, and I finally got it to start making sense. And I finally got into a type of flow where I can actually then, you know, look at one of these, these blocks and go, okay, I need it to look like that.
Martina: I can actually make it. And so I kind of have got. pretty much everything I need, which is really cool. So this is, this is how it’s going to look once it’s up. It’s not live. This is just the preview [00:29:00] version, but, um, it’s all sort of saved in the backend. Um, and I kind of got different things here. I made some stuff slide in.
Martina: Um, so this was like my initial, I was like, okay, I’ve made a block. Can I make the same block with a different color background? That took like a day. Um, can I make the same block with like the image on the other side? That wasn’t as hard. Um, adding a button. Um, so I’ve got sort of lots of bits that I can grab, um, changing the width and stuff and then starting to get more creative.
Martina: Okay. I actually had a plugin that did this really easily and it broke. So I actually did have to completely fix my current website and add this plugin instead because it wasn’t the one I had just what went wrong with it. It just broke. Uh, but anyway, and I managed to get icons and testimonial thingies.
Martina: And I did this number thing, which was. Easy once I figured it out. So that’s fun. Um, So, and then yeah, getting [00:30:00] these sort of like sets of columns and icons and things like, yeah, I finally figured it out. I can do the different widths. This bit ended up looking kind of cool and getting in different, um, different logos and different shapes and stuff.
Martina: So, so yeah, so I’m happy with where this is at for the moment. I, yeah, still need to get the, um, the proper words for it, um, and I need that before I think about things like the footer, because I can’t do that in a draft version, it will still apply to, like, my whole website, so I just need to do that, sort of, last once I’m ready for it to go, um, and, yeah, and, Yeah, I need to get those final words.
Martina: I also, like, went to look for images that I could use. Like, this is just, you know, obviously the same image throughout. Um, and I realized, like, I just, I just can’t pick generic pictures of people at a computer with a laptop and stuff like that until [00:31:00] I actually have the words there and know which kind of image I’m looking for.
Martina: So, um, so I wasn’t able to progress that part, but. Nevertheless, I’m happy with where I’ve ended up. Um, it’s been very useful from the deadline party just to have that sort of focus of like, you know, come on, like get this going, get this at least to a point where it’s then the jigsaw puzzle I can put together once I do have those final words.
Martina: Um, it’s been an extremely frustrating process. Um, I’m tempted to move away from WordPress, but also then I would have to learn something else and that would just be annoying as well. So sticking with it for the moment. Um, Yeah, probably, probably need to just hire a web designer, but I do like being able to DIY it.
Martina: So anyway, so yeah, so that’s where I’m up to with mine and kind of happy with where I ended up.
Rebekah: Yay, Martina! Like, it’s a big undertaking taking to wrestle a website in six weeks, and I think you’ve done a remarkable job. And as you say, like WordPress is It’s headed down the incentivization [00:32:00] routes, like so many others, which is sad because that was, it’s always, it’s benefit that we had ownership over our projects and our websites.
Rebekah: But I think you’ve done a remarkable job and I think it’s also really cute that the award is on every panel. So it’s like reminding you of like all the good stuff that you’re putting around as the words. leads towards like that. So that’s great.
Rebekah: That was excellent. Thanks so much for sharing that, Martina. Now, um, it’s meant to be me. I’m just going to quickly experiment. I didn’t test this before, but I want us to get a sense of what Rhiannon was working on because while Rhiannon was unable to make a presentation today, she was being a good friend.
Rebekah: And that’s the reason why she’s not here. And I think we should honor that by being her good friend and seeing if we can show a little bit of Rye Rye. Up today, as I call her. I’ve never asked her whether she actually likes that.
Rebekah: Wait, all right. Did you hear that? [00:33:00] Could you hear that? No. All right. Well, you’re just gonna have to focus on the visual when I do this , because we know that I couldn’t get the bloody audio to work before. Let’s see if I can get this up. Share my screen. This is actually stolen off Rhiannon’s Instagram, so
Rebekah: this is her shooting 250 photos. of people to celebrate Pride for Mardi Gras to go up in Pride Square.
Rebekah: And the work that she put into it was just absolutely amazing because she went from pretty much zero and just having calls to actions and stuff like that for people to come along. Is that showing up as well, the carousel or? Yep. To actually getting people to turn up and come to see the project and all the rest of [00:34:00] it.
Rebekah: And I believe from talking to her, she hit 260. So she’s got to go through and cut everyone out. And then she’s found that she’s got an extra month to the deadline that she had for the grant that she’s doing it for, which is always a good thing to find out. Um, so that she can actually put that together.
Rebekah: But I urge all of you, if you are in Sydney, to go and have a look at that as part of Mardi Gras, because it is freaking sensational to 250 portraits, of people to represent the LGBTQIA community in full tilt and then putting it out in an outdoor installation so that everyone else can enjoy it as well.
Rebekah: So I just wanted to acknowledge Rhiannon’s effort there with that. Alrighty, and now that I’ve procrastinated enough, I guess I’ve got to present too. So here we go. Can you see that up on the screen? Is that there [00:35:00] for you? All right, I’m about to kill you once again with PowerPoint, but I promise it’ll be brief if it’ll work.
Rebekah: Let’s go. Okay, so this is me. I am a last minute creative. I completed this presentation at 10 31 this morning. PowerPoint tragic. Tried to do other things. Couldn’t get away from it. Came back to where I know. Pathologically uneven deadliner. Even though I set the principles of the deadline party and teach everyone else about accountability, uh, my head is ruled by a bunch of cats that are basically playing jazz.
Rebekah: So there’s no reason or rhyme to anything that I do. I just managed to pull it together. But I am an insatiably curious optimist who thinks that she can fix rather complex problems. So this time she took on workplaces. and trying to get workplaces to work better with freelancers. The reason why I chose the deadline party is because I am a freelancer, um, and, um, I always put my shit last.
Rebekah: So what was happening when I actually launched this program, project in [00:36:00] August was I had all these wonderful things and I had a methodology and I was going to get it out to this and ra ra ra and I’d ask for our gardener to help with social media and all these different things and of course nothing happened because Like every other freelancer in the world, the client work comes through and you go, Oh,
Sandra: I better do that.
Rebekah: So this was my way of actually getting this. freaking project to a certain point, um, so that it wasn’t on my to do list for next year. Because if it was on my to do list for next year, I think I probably would have gone down with Amy, called her up on Zoom and thrown my stuff in Lake Illawarra while she threw hers in the rivers of the Sunshine Coast.
Rebekah: So this time I set out to look at freelancing as a two sided marketplace, because as we know, You can only influence freelancers so far before clients have to start playing ball. I wanted to qualify what workplaces want from their freelance experience because, quite frankly, we don’t have that data. We have assumption.
Rebekah: And then identify areas of change. [00:37:00] P. S. This is the font that I need to be able to read anything. How’d you like that? So I’m a complete nerd. What I did was I put out a survey. Everything starts with product managers. When we start with surveys, it’s the only way we know how to do anything. I’m pretty sure that’s why I got into dating.
Rebekah: Cause that’s all about surveys as well. Anyway, so the challenges are me, um, I do too many things. And timing. Choosing 2024 to pretty much do anything. A challenge in itself, but also end of year challenges and all that sort of stuff. Preconceptions and misconceptions, which I touched on before. Workplaces seem to think that their own special little organisational tent that works for the people that have to go there every day and I have to learn how to work with it is going to work for us.
Rebekah: And breaking that down is kind of hard. There’s also the misconceptions about freelancers. We still have stigma attached to us, unfortunately, which is something that was coming through. Um, two sided marketplaces are always a struggle. Everyone in [00:38:00] product development goes two sided work. You know, marketplace do not go there because what you’re essentially doing is you’re taking two disparate audiences and trying to get them to agree on things and the majority of the time that it’s not as simple as it sounds, because even if you have the same problem, everybody believes that the other side is kind of a little bit of an enemy, which again, Um, ties into the next point, which is that bias of a freelancer coming to workplaces about how they can improve their freelance experience.
Rebekah: They don’t take to it too kindly, even if you say to them, former account manager, even if you say to them, worked in, you know, agencies, did product development, community manager. manage tens of thousands of people, they just don’t want to listen because there’s that sort of reservation that you have about someone else that benefits from something telling you how to do something.
Rebekah: So you have to go a bit softly, softly. Australians and their risk averse nature, I’m going to put that in there. We don’t like change, um, and it creates a bit of a problem for us. And also the [00:39:00] other thing is to increasingly, you know, The usual survey link model is completely and utterly inaccessible. In a world where, um, neuro, neurodivergent identities are finally being discovered and people are realising that it wasn’t them all along, um, it was the schooling system that failed them and various different degrees of diversity and what people need with cognitive load and, um, in terms of colour and in terms of everything else.
Rebekah: How can a link to a survey and a bunch of questions really actually capture absolutely everybody else’s sentiments? You know, um, talking to Dr. Amy about things like that through her presentations for the Freelance Jungle, but also through some of the work that I’m hopefully doing with her next year with a client has really highlighted the fact that There are different ways to actually have this data.
Rebekah: And one of the things that I found quite interesting is that, you know, Amy’s presenting things like, you know, walking meetings and having pictures and all this. I’m [00:40:00] already doing that with people, but I wasn’t putting it into my data. So part of what I need to do is actually look at what I’ve done in a survey link environment, but then also trawl through all of those other conversations that I’ve had on the side, those moments where I’ve had things, things with people where there’s varying degrees of capture behind it and see what I can do about opening up the conversation a little bit more.
Rebekah: So what I’ve noticed though from the data that I got and the sample size is small, I think it ended up with 37 participants was aiming for 100, but again, this other data makes up for it. And I’ve also had some in depth conversations from some of the people that responded because I had the opportunity to do so because they gave me feedback on the survey at the time, so I took it then.
Rebekah: 62 percent struggle with finding, attracting and keeping talent. This is a really interesting point because there are job boards and how to find your job kind of places and recruitment agents coming up the wazoo. There are groups for it, the whole nine yards, but still people struggle. 36 [00:41:00] percent of people, um, are showing that there is inconsistent work quality.
Rebekah: Now, I’ve got a couple of assumptions behind that. that might actually explain it. But I also have, um, some beliefs on that in terms of what we do when we’re functioning and these sorts of things that I need to explore more because I’m not one to believe that it’s just a one sided thing. I believe that we’re probably missing a few pieces to the mosaic that really need to connect up.
Rebekah: Right. Um, 77 percent of places use us for additional skills, and this is a really important thing, I think, to highlight for freelancers in the way that we market ourselves, that we can slot into those skills, that we bring something extra. And I think also too, you know, when I pulled down the directory, I looked at over 200 freelance websites.
Rebekah: And unfortunately I noticed an alarming trend that everybody looked the bloody same and everybody was talking about themselves in a laundry list of [00:42:00] skills. Very few people were telling stories and those people that stood, you know, told the stories stood out really, really well. They will be the people that get hired for the additional skills because It’s a whole package.
Rebekah: It’s a whole person rather than just a laundry list. So I think we have a little bit of education to, to go through in those sorts of respect, um, respects as well. And 72 percent want introductions. So we know that it is sometimes who you know. So maybe this is why the job boards fall down. Maybe this is why the groups fall down.
Rebekah: Maybe this is why, you know, The other stuff falls down because people want a little bit of surety by knowing that the connections are there. How do we scale that as freelancers and with organisations though, poses another question entirely. Because we can’t all go around introducing each other all the time.
Rebekah: However, people like me, And other leaders in the scene clearly have a responsibility to be far more transparent and less gated so that we can just advocate for [00:43:00] freelancers everywhere to get work at rising tide, lifting all the boats and all that sort of jam. There was also a thing that I identified which I call enter porcelain doll syndrome.
Rebekah: So I got a creepy photo of some porcelain dolls to scare the crap out of you. Um, and I had to keep saying to people quite bluntly, folks, we’re not just sitting around waiting for work to happen. Um, Right. You’re saying that you need solid talent and you want them to be there waiting with a reserve sign around the neck to pull out of a cupboard.
Rebekah: And slot us into your workplace. But as we know, as freelancers, the better you are, the more booked you are. So that’s not going to happen. So how do we actually get things so that we can get the workplaces to understand that if they want quality, they will have to wait, which means planning to have a freelancer in future and planning to integrate them into their workplace.
Rebekah: What I’ve uncovered is also a little bit of a [00:44:00] gap, which I alluded to before. 94 percent of places say that they brief well, but only 77 percent continue to communicate with the freelancer. I find that freelancers don’t communicate often enough. I see the reticence with answering emails. I see the reticence with having meetings and stuff like that.
Rebekah: I think we need to improve that. But I also think that the workplaces are treating it as a bit too much of a set of set and forget kind of situation and that the communication has to be improved. 63 percent only allow for one draft or more. So it’s like literally you’ve got to be a one hit wonder with no communication to get the job done.
Rebekah: And that needs to change. Right? Um, there’s 37 percent of people out there that actually expect us to get it right in the bullseye the first time around. And I think if we’re not onboarding people and we’re not communicating with them, how the hell are you meant to do that? And then interestingly enough, [00:45:00] 45 percent allow for time delays.
Rebekah: And if you’ve ever worked on projects where everybody’s seeing timelines, No human knows how to adjust time. No human knows how to judge it. No human knows how to actually actively look for the medium case and the worst case, which is the times that we are living in. We are constantly getting disruption.
Rebekah: Only takes one person not giving the feedback on time for a whole project to potentially be in danger. So, yeah, That really, that time sensitivity and that ability to adapt and recognizing that our clients need visibility about timelines and how that interacts with things, I think is part of our ownership.
Rebekah: But I think also too, businesses need to be a bit more realistic because I don’t even work on government projects anymore. For the very fact that they’d say that it was going to take three months, most of them would blow out to nine months. We can’t simply wait as little China dolls waiting for that to happen.
Rebekah: Right. And they can’t hold us accountable to processes that were [00:46:00] never designed to withstand what’s actually going on within their organization. So what does that mean? Well, it means a definite need for, I think, account management. Rather than having a model per se slot in between two people, you need someone to actually advocate for the freelancer while the project’s live, whilst also having The workplace get funneled in and get that one point of contact and getting all the support and the translation they need as a universal translator or a person sitting in between things.
Rebekah: I think I love the idea of models. Um, because I think, oh, yeah, everybody will get in there. But again, I think I’m recreating that. that assumption that they everybody will be at their best. And I don’t think that they’ll be at their best. They’ll be at their most optimistic and then they’ll fall on their faces again.
Rebekah: So there needs to be a person that sort of stands in between the middle of it. I’m going to be channeling my inner Henry Lawson. So for those of you that don’t know, part of my not finished degree was actually third years in poetry and other [00:47:00] useful things. Um, and Henry Lawson, our bush poet, was actually seen as someone who, you know, City in the Bush, all of this stuff, he writes these gorgeous stories, Loaded Dogs, one of my favourites, but he was actually very well known for having the ability to, if the Liberal Party came up and asked me to write a piece of, stuff.
Rebekah: I could put my politics aside and I’d write for them, even though I’m a card carrying greenie. And I have actually done for them. I ghost wrote for a major politician for a very long time advocating for climate change from a fiscal perspective, um, rather than making it from a sustainability and a community perspective, because I know that fiscal Orientation is how to actually get it over the line.
Rebekah: Henry Lawson is the person that started all of that kind of thing, where he could put his principles aside and make a case for something in exchange for a bottle of port and a warm bed. Probably don’t need that much port, but I’m willing to give this a crack if I can talk to people on the other side of the fence and get them thinking about things.[00:48:00]
Rebekah: Obviously, continuing to teach via the Freelance Jungle and Advocate, we still have a ways to go. If we are seeing that there are trends with people in the way that we behave, we need a few more things to, to move it up there, but also making improvement sexy. So I’ve just bored you to death with the world’s driest PowerPoint, but I think we can actually make change rebellious, convenient, and fun.
Rebekah: It’s just a matter of working out what that looks like. What I relearned, 100 responses isn’t everything. There are different ways to get the information. Consistency on our part is a factor in where we stand today. We still suck at self advocacy as freelancers, but also workplaces are incredibly oblivious as to why things don’t.
Rebekah: You know, why things fall over, which you can see in those other statistics that I shared with you, where they’re, you know, briefing really well, but by the time they get down to the bottom in the drafts and everything else, they’ve lost the plot entirely. There are other places like the UK, Canada and US that are [00:49:00] actually building infrastructure we can borrow from and our fragmentation across the industry doesn’t help.
Rebekah: So having siloed leadership and all the rest of it and siloed advocacy really doesn’t help us get into a groove. So maybe that needs to happen as well. What does this mean for 2025? Well, there’s more of my face doing this in front of the screen as I read very small things on reports, but it also means holding more conversations, developing a theory of change, because I am a nerd, making that change, that theory of change interactive, creating educational content, highlighting what we can do and seeing what happens from that.
Rebekah: So yeah, hopefully you’re still awake.
Rebekah: Alrighty, so there we go with that Folks, we have come to the end of our deadline party. Did anyone have any questions or comments for any of the presenters today before we wrap up? We have four minutes. Time to use [00:50:00] them wisely if you, if you wish to. Hi
Martina: Grace.
Grace: Hi Grace.
Grace: Grab a few minutes to come over and say hi. Yay.
Rebekah: Your presentation went well.
Grace: Oh good.
Sandra: Just want to say thanks to everyone for presenting because it does show, you know, um, vulnerability, humility, um, I guess a bit of transparency that we’re all doing the best that we can do in what we can with what we have. And, um, even if it’s unfinished or it takes 10 years or what have you. Well done.
JB: Thank you, Sandra. I think that’s, I’m just a blowing today to get inspiration because I’m
Rebekah: dead. [00:51:00]
JB: I think that’s the end of the year feels Jack. Yeah, last meeting is at 2pm today for the year and that is it. I’m done.
Rebekah: Well, hopefully you managed to get the inspiration that you need.
Rebekah: Um, alrighty folks, well, this is our last official classy kind of thing for the year. Tomorrow, you can come at 1pm Sydney time, I still don’t know, is it Australian Daylight Saving Time? Whatever it is, time, time and I, not friends. Um, it’s at 1pm tomorrow, Hal’s and I will be breaking out the craft, you can wear a Christmas hat, you can create something, you can bring a toilet roll and draw a face on it and just do finger puppets, we don’t really care, just be on Zoom for that.
Rebekah: And, um, So everyone that’s participated today, everyone that’s joined us today, thank you very much for making it all very worthwhile.
Rebekah: Thank you. Bye everybody. [00:52:00]
Martina: Thanks everyone.