CorbySimpson.com

Corby Simpson is another jack-of-all-trades freelancer: flash animation, web site coding and even writing interactive CD-ROMs for corporate training, plus he’s done it all successfully enough to earn multiple awards. But there’s another twist - he manages to do all this for fairly large clients while maintaining a regular 9-5 job.

In this interview, we discuss switching gears - between Flash and interactive CDs, and between the 9-5 job and the freelance career.

RJ: You mentioned that you work a full-time 9-5 on top of a lot of freelancing, how do you balance that?

CS: Balancing a full time job and freelance is like dancing on glass. You can do it… but you gotta be careful. I guess since I’m a workaholic it helps but even more importantly, I love what I do. I can’t turn it on and off. When I feel like doing something creative, I’ll do something creative! There’s no 9-5 around that. It also likely helps that I enjoy working in the evening (it sucks for my full-time job that I don’t like working in the morning). Anyways, I’ve managed to break it down what I feel impacts my ability to balance both best.

1. My wife is amazing. Without her support, I’d be burnt out by now. She’s like a really good engine oil. Lets the engine run forever! She’s been an amazing support throughout everything. When the baby starts crying, she’s there to make the noise go away. If I need a second set of eyes on spelling, she’s able to spend some time proofing (she worked in a lawyers office and is really, really good at proof reading). Basically, She’s the reason I can do what I do. You need to have a good support network (both those who you can rely on in the field and outside in real life)
2. I never, EVER take on work that would cause my full-time job to suffer. To me this is pretty much a given. The way that I see it is that the fulltime job provides the stability, security and emotional foundation to your life. Freelance is gravy. It lets you pay for a new toy or save for your 8 months olds University/College education. Don’t sacrifice your stability, security and emotional support for freelance gigs.
3. I never do freelance work at my full time job. This is like knowingly inviting your mistress and your wife to the same function. I think it’s just dumb. My goal is to keep freelance and the full-time job as far apart as possible. I once worked with a guy who “somehow” managed to give his freelance client his full time work number. Freelance client called his place of business and was yelling at his manager about a freelance gig! You can likely fill in the rest of that story…
4. I don’t take on too much responsibility. I once knew a guy who would freelance until 3am and then come into work crazy tired. He got fired. Most people can barely handle a full time job. It’s emotional, there’s office politics, crazy clients and by the time you get home you don’t want to see a computer. I actually turned down a very good freelance gig about three weeks ago. It was very difficult to do. The project was perfect, it was with a new client, but the truth is that I wouldn’t be able to put 100% of my attention in it. Too much going on and I’m glad that I did. You gotta know when to walk (or run) away.
5. I do it because I love it. I think that freelancers really need to love what they do to succeed. You’re going to be hunting, prepping and cooking your own projects. You’re gonna have a helluva time if you don’t like or believe in what you do.

RJ: Your website states that you do web design and interactive CD-ROMs, could you elaborate a little more on what it is you do?

CS: I do everything from CD-ROM design and programming, website coding, backend coding (Though not so much anymore), Interactive flash based video, Search engine marketing to you name it. Pretty much anything other than copywriting. I like to do it all and I’m very much a jack of all trades. I leave it up to my clients to decide if Jack of all trades, master of none applies. I just love the variety. In the last month at a freelance level, I’ve designed and developed two websites and provided the flash animation on another website as a “small portion” of its overall delivery. Additionally, I also completed a motorcycle training course, my wife and I are looking for a new home, we bought a new car, I bought a scooter (yeah yeah…) and my little girl started crawling and getting into everything so it’s go go go!

RJ: Being a jack-of-all-trades freelancer also requires it’s own juggling act, how do you manage that one?

CS: It’s rough. There’s so much technology and things change so fast. It can be fun but you’re always dealing with the fact that if you don’t keep up, you’re obsolete. But the balance is that you can waste a lot of time following things that don’t really matter. I remember back in the late 90’s I was totally involved in a company called Digiscents. I thought it was the next big thing. Your computer could make smells just like your speakers make sound. How cool is that!?! I wasted a lot of time on a technology that went belly up. That was a great experience and through that and almost 10 years of experience I’ve managed to build a process that works really well for me.

1. I keep a good short list of websites and resources. There are so many good places to look, but I tend to keep about 5-6 sites/blogs/forums that I read daily (including freelanceswitch) and they provide me everything I need to know about the state of the industry. The trick for me is to follow trends closely but don’t learn them until the need arises. This way I can keep up with what everything is and what it does (but not necessarily how to do it). As soon as I find a need or just want to learn it, I’ll incorporate it in smaller steps into client projects. For example, I know AJAX both as a technology and as a tool. I know the pro’s and the cons but I’ve never used it. So I don’t technically know how to code it. When I need to though, I’ll simply learn it.
2. As soon as I need to learn something new, I usually order a training CD or DVD on it from Total Training or Lynda (Lynda has a great yearly fee for all their training resource downloads). I find that these tools are a great way to give you the fundamentals really fast. For example, You can spend days going trough an After Effects book but you spend time trying to find tools and other menu items rather than focusing on the creative. With a training CD/DVD you can actually watch the interface right in front of you. It’s video and it’s like being in a classroom. When the presenter does something, you get to see it, hear it and understand it. Recall level is much greater and it’s more efficient. A while back I ordered a PHP training CD-ROM from Lynda. It went through the process of setting up WAMP. Took about 10 minutes for me to do it including MYSQL. It would have taken much longer by trying to figure it all out.
3. However, these tools are generally only good for the fundamentals and getting my feet wet. Once I’m done with the fundamentals then it’s time to get a good book and check out forums with any questions I have. Good forums with helpful people are amazing. This will become a great reference and will let you extend your knowledge. Also, give back to the community. Help those who are struggling as well with the questions you once had.

RJ: Why did you start freelancing on the side to begin with?

CS: I think that freelancing has been influenced by my upbringing, formal education and gypsy-like nature. I don’t like to sit still. Always need to be doing something (or 10 things).

My family is full of small business owners and entrepreneurs. My entire life I lived with self-employed parents and the ups and downs; Rags to riches to rags again. I even had two jobs when I was 11-years-old (Paper route and dish washer at the local fish food restaurant)… I was a hard workin’ kid! So needless to say my upbringing influenced me.

Then off to College I go.

I went to college for video production (3 years), after that a post graduate program in Interactive Multimedia (All at Sheridan College in Canada). When I graduated from the Interactive Multimedia course, I spent 5 -6 months freelancing 100% with a few different companies.

I got out of school thinking “I’ll be able to make my own hours, I’ll be able to work on what I wanna work on, etc etc…” I was SOOO WROOONG!!!

I was working 15 hours a day (sometimes on work, sometimes not but it felt like it!). If I wasn’t working I was worried about the next project. Where would it come from? How would I pay rent? How do I advertise? I need to update my skills! after 6 months and nearly a nervous breakdown, I got a fulltime job at a place where I was already freelancing.

Several years go by and I regain my sanity. I took some marketing courses as well to spice things up a little. I still did some small freelance gigs but didn’t look for them, they found me.

However, about 2-3 years ago my wife (girlfiend at the time) and I discussed our life in general and getting married and having a baby. We were both working at the time but if we had a baby, she’d get maternity leave and pay for 9 months but nothing after that. We’d be a single income. After that period, she would either need to get a part-time job and make $10-$15/hour OR I could focus more on freelance work and make a whole lot more. We chose the latter of the two and have been focusing on that, successfully I might add.

RJ: Have you ever considered quitting the 9-5 and freelancing full-time?

CS: Absolutely! Each and every day it pops into my head about 50-100 times. The mentality of a 9-5 job doesn’t work well with me. It’s good for some people who can simply go to work, do their job and leave to go home but that’s not me. I need excitement and a bit of an unknown. I need an adventure to keep me motivated. Standard 9-5 daily with no risk is a pretty boring thing.

So why do I keep working the full time 9-5? The hardest part is getting rid of the stability. If I went to 100 per cent freelance, I’d likely start thinking “Where’s the next project, how will I feed my family, how can we afford the bigger home?” Banks don’t like freelancers much either and they give you money for cars, houses and other important things.

I find that the stability of the full-time job combined with the freelance on the side is a great balance.

RJ: You’ve got quite the list of accolades, do they help bring in more business?

CS: Yes and no. The ones I thought would bring business didn’t and the ones I thought would not, did! For example, local newspaper stories and articles written in published magazines or books… Nothing. Awards shows were okay but were mainly filled with companies looking to hire full-time talent. The biggest surprise was about two months ago when my website was selected as a site of the week at coolhomepages.com. I figured that it would be mainly designers checking it out so wouldn’t bring anything. It resulted in about 5000 pageviews and 6-7 calls from actual business owners looking to hire me who found me through the site!

RJ: What other marketing techniques do you use when it comes to freelancing?

CS: I’m lucky as I’ve never had to make a single cold call to generate business. It’s all through referral. I have business cards, my website and a select amount of really good contacts. That’s it.

RJ: And what advice would you give to other freelancers, particularly ones who are also juggling the 9-5?

CS: Freelancing can be very frustrating and rewarding and the most important aspect is to understand how to make money doing it. It’s nice to think that we’re all in it for the love of it, but the love doesn’t pay the mortgage, the car, the bills and most freelancers sell themselves short. FSw has an excellent and accurate calculator. Look at it, Use it, Apply it!

For those juggling the 9-5 as well, stick with it but keep it separate from the full-time job. I know people who started as freelancers and those who juggled it with the full-time job. The jugglers are far better off today because they learned how to balance the two and manage their time efficiently.

I guess the last bit of advice would be to focus on client relationships and how you can best service their needs. Learn to be a people person and build confidence. This will get you the work. People generally hire people that they like and trust. Don’t become fixated on the awards or trying to be the best at something. It ultimately doesn’t really matter. After all, if only the best sounding birds sang in a forest, it would be a pretty boring place. I heard that recently and it really stuck with me.

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