Mountain bikers vs. hackers
Ep. 87: Behind the scenes at Magazine Street
Hi friend,
This is the penultimate 15 Minute Freelancer podcast-slash-newsletter of 2022!
Next week I’ll be sharing a look back over the year – biggest wins, biggest pains in the bahookie, biggest lessons learned, biggest ideas for 2023 and all that good stuff. A bumper episode to see us into the festive season. Stay tuned.
If you have any specific questions you want me to answer, reply now and let me know. No holds barred. Ask whatever you want.
This podcast exists to help *you* so if you have a burning question about freelancing, finding clients, managing projects, setting rates, whatever – just ask.
But after that, I won’t be leaving you (or the algorithm) hanging until Jan. I thought I’d share some of the most-listened to episodes of this year, in the spirit of looking back at where we’ve been and reigniting our excitement about where we’re going in 2023. So you might spot a few faves in your podcast feed over the next few weeks.
If you have any convos with friends who are pondering a left-turn into freelance life next year, do point them this way.
Onto today’s episode.
When things don’t go to plan
This week I take you behind the scenes at the Magazine Street conference, which took place in September.
(You may remember my interview with Nikki Simpson, organiser of Magazine Street, back in Episode 75.)
You may also remember that I was planning to record a vox pop-style episode live at the event. I did work the room with my lav mic, sweet-talking chatty-looking types, but unfortunately, the recordings captured a little *too* much of the vibe. The sound quality just wasn’t where I would want it to be, so I ended up scrapping the vox pop episode. We live and learn, don’t we?
Dragons, hackers and cocktails
But I still wanted to share my top takeaways from a few of the many brilliant speakers who shared their stories of creativity, resilience and problem-solving. As you’ll find, these are relevant to all freelancers, not just those in the magazine industry:
A cocktail-loving couple who demonstrated the power of listening to your audience
A brand new magazine creator with a simple idea that's already inspiring others (including George Clark of C4’s Amazing Spaces)
A remarkable turnaround story from Dragons Den rejection to international bestseller and the lessons learned along the way
How a mountain biking community defeated a website hacker
How experimentation and understanding your audience can help you grow your reach
What we can learn about writing from news reporting for 9-year-olds.
Listen here »
The vox pops that almost made it
Here are a few snippets from some of the other attendees:
Joanna Cummings, freelance writer and editor, captured the event by creating a magainze in a day. A DAY! I asked her how on earth this was possible and what she’d enjoyed about the event so far:
“It’s very frantic! I’d spoken to a lot of the speakers beforehand to get to get a feel for what they were going to say. But yeah, it’s very much off the cuff. The biggest challenge is being able to include as much as I want.
So far, my biggest takeaway has been hearing Arusa Qureshi [writer and former editor of The List] speak about her career so far and the need for more diversity in the industry. She talked about a manifesto for change. We really need to run with that. There are a lot of young people here today and hopefully seeing this event will encourage them to make some of those changes and bring that with them.”
Speaking of the next generation, Caden Armstrong is a postgraduate student in the MSc Publishing programme at Edinburgh Napier University:
“Obviously the industry has changed a lot. I’ve seen it firsthand because I’ve had a blog since I was 16 that’s grown through social media. One of the amazing things about Instagram, YouTube and TikTok is how they’ve changed the relationship with the readership – they have a voice now. People can tell you what they like and don’t like. You hear their side of things. We’re hearing more diverse stories because of that.”
Change can be uncomfortable, but as the “old rules” disappear, this makes way for new opportunities. Leigh Dodd, editor with White Light Media, shares what this might mean for freelancers and why she attends events like this:
“The agenda is jam-packed, covering creativity, challenges, being brave, experimentation… it’s a cliché but I’m really just looking forward to getting out and meeting people and hearing the talks. Sometimes you get in a bit of a creative rut. So it's nice to come to these events to expand your mind and your skill set and spark some new ideas. The industry is full of people who work for themselves and there are more opportunities for that now. I think it's become more collaborative. And I think that's really fascinating that we’re not boxed into one thing anymore. You can cover a variety of roles. You can be an editor, writer, designer, photographer, all working for yourself.”
🌟 Bonus clip: Guess who I bumped into over the bacon rolls? Only former 15 Minute Freelancer guest, Kirsty Waite. Later in the day I asked Kirsty for her top 3 lessons from the day:
➡️ 15-Minute Action: One of the things that struck me at this event was the magic of being in a room with people that really love what they do and are really good at what they do. It doesn’t matter if it’s not your industry. I don’t work in magazine publishing, but the stories of community, resilience, bravery and creative thinking were inspiring.
If you want to generate new ideas for your own business, your marketing or your clients, it pays to step outside your usual world and see what takeaways you can get elsewhere. Many of the most interesting ideas occur at the intersection of seemingly unrelated fields.
So I encourage you to pick one event to put on your calendar for 2023 that’ll give you the chance to explore another field, meet new people and fire up the ol’ idea machine. And lemme know what you choose.
Until next time, don’t forget to drop me a note if you have any questions you want answered on the next ep. And happy freelancing!
Louise xx