The Freelancer Life: Beckie Sanderson

The Freelancer Life
Written By Guest User

Meet Beckie, a branding designer, online marketing, and publishing specialist who set up Miss Digital Media after being made redundant in 2019.

We chat to Beckie about how important collaboration is to her and how she helps female business owners build their confidence, by boosting their skills, boosting their brand, and boosting their content.

“ I’ve found that building relationships with people through networking and collaboration, leads to quality clients and genuine supporters for your business.”

Hey Beckie, tell us a little bit about yourself, what you do and how long you have been doing it for?

My name is Beckie Sanderson. I'm a branding designer, online marketing, and publishing specialist. I have worked as a creative professional for over 15 years, (I stopped counting a while ago!).

I set up my current business Miss Digital Media in 2019 after being made redundant. I offer design, online marketing, and training services to support coaches, consultants, and creatives who don't have the time, creative skills, or expertise to produce and publish branded content. For example, I design unique logos and creative content, branding, and graphics, for social media, email marketing, websites, and blogs. 

I'm also a publishing specialist, designing, typesetting, and formatting books, ebooks, and publications for printing and publishing on platforms such as Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and IngramSpark.

Why did you first become a freelancer? 

I’ve always had a few side hustles in graphic design, publishing, and website projects on the go whilst working in the day job and while studying at uni, but I started freelancing ‘properly’ in 2008 whist I was working part-time as a print shop manager and graphics and media lecturer at Leicester College. I had always wanted to be self-employed since studying at uni, the part-time work I had at the time gave me the confidence and financial security to start. I worked as a freelance tutor and designer on a community adult learning project, which led to me setting up a social enterprise in Leicester.

Where’s your favourite place to work from aside from your home and why? 

I love that I can go to my mum’s, with my laptop or even just my phone and work, while she makes me cheese on toast for lunch!

Share your struggles – what do you find hardest about working for yourself and why? 

I’ve really struggled with imposter syndrome and limiting beliefs. This has really held me back, but the aspects of running a business I really find hard are the numbers, pricing, and accounting.

How have you found ways to combat these parts of working for yourself? 

In the last year, I’ve been working with a coach to overcome my mindset and money blocks. This has helped me in so many ways, to combat my crippling imposter syndrome and identify my limiting beliefs. It’s very much an ongoing process, but I’ve tackled various aspects and I feel I’ve overcome quite a lot really when I look back!

Share your perks – what do you enjoy most about working for yourself and why?

In my last “proper job” I had to clock in and out, I had limited comfort breaks and was told when I could and couldn’t have a cup of tea (I believe every designer needs their tea!). I now start and finish when I want and have endless cups of tea!

What are your top tips for anyone thinking about working for themselves?

I think that it is really important not to expect your friends and family to support you in your business. If they do that’s wonderful, show them your gratitude. 

Instead build your business support network of trusted friends, mentors, and advocates. I’ve found that building relationships with people through networking and collaboration, leads to quality clients and genuine supporters for your business. It took me a while to find my tribe, as it were and I am blessed to have lots of champions in my corner now. We boost each other up and get each other through the tough times!



 

What are your top 3 recommendations - podcasts, books, people to follow, sources of inspiration etc. and why?

  1. The Digital Women Community has been invaluable for me, it’s a supportive network of inspirational women working in Digital through which I have met many great women who are experts in their field. Digital Women has provided me with many opportunities to network, promote, and collaborate not to mention appear as guest speaker for their online summit and the endless learning opportunities, training courses, and resources. 

  2. I’m totally inspired by @the_ideas_girl on Instagram, whose Instagram puzzles are a thing of beauty and genius. Her design, content ideas, and copywriting are outstanding. 100% Worth a follow!

  3. I highly recommend Samantha Slater’s Facebook Group: The Female Business Owners Mastermind which has been a fantastic source of support and encouragement and where I started to really find my tribe and work on my mindset because it was a safe place to do that. I’ve built some great friendships and connections there.

“These collaborations have led to numerous design and publishing projects and have helped me to build great client relationships, grow my audience and gain valued supporters of my work.”

What role does collaboration play for you? 

Collaborations are a big thing for me! It’s very much a part of my game plan! I’d love to work on some creative design, book, and publishing projects. I enjoy delivering talks and training workshops as a guest speaker or guest blogger sharing my expertise and tips on all things branding and books! Plus I’m always on the lookout for guest speakers/bloggers for my Facebook Group and Classroom Blog. 

I’ve had some particularly great wins after collaborating on guest blogs and guest lives with people who I have connected with through Facebook Groups. These collaborations have led to numerous design and publishing projects and have helped me to build great client relationships, grow my audience and gain valued supporters of my work. I’d love to connect with anyone for collaboration opportunities.

What do you love to do? What makes you tick and what do you simply love doing?

Firstly, I love to design! I love creating graphics and page layout. I have a real passion for entrepreneurship and developing business brands. I particularly love to design page layouts for books and magazines, it’s like therapy to me! 

Another part I love is empowering other business women with my digital skills and expertise. It’s really important to me that to help others, either by providing design and online marketing support or through digital skills training which helps to put them in the driving seat with their business and online marketing.

I love to be in my garden, it’s my happy place, where we spend time with family and friends. I like to potter around and pick our homegrown fruits and vegetables to cook, bake and eat! 

Plus, I love to get creative, with painting, drawing, and colouring!

What are you really good at? What’s your marketing superpower? 

I’m really good at supporting female business owners, such as coaches, consultants, and creatives to design and build unique brands, create and publish their content and online marketing. 

My superpower is giving business owners a boost! I’m empowering and supportive. I’m a creative and visionary ideas person! I inspire people and help to build their confidence, by boosting their skills, boosting their brand, and boosting their content!  

I provide a range of services, support, and training:

What is the best project you’ve worked on since going freelance?

This is such a tough question. 

I’ve had the pleasure of working with so many great people throughout my career, and I’ve worked on a broad variety of books, magazines, projects, and events that have been creative, exciting, and high profile or that have made an impact on the businesses, organisations, and communities involved. But, I’d have to say that launching my magazine and publishing my ebook has to be the projects that have given me the biggest buzz!

What were you doing this time last year? What have you learnt or how have you changed since then?

This time last year we had just gone into a lockdown. I was fortunate to be in the position that I was still able to work and that it didn’t affect my business too much. In fact, my business began to thrive through the lockdown. Despite having to juggle homeschooling my daughter!

I’ve learned that self-care needs to be my top priority, that sometimes it’s best to say NO to clients, and that mindset matters big time! I’ve changed some of the services I offer and I created my Facebook Group, in August and I launched the #BoostMembership in December which has been positive steps for my personal growth and development and has increased my business visibility and sales.

“I’ve learned that self-care needs to be my top priority, that sometimes it’s best to say NO to clients, and that mindset matters big time!”

Check out Beckie’s ebook available on Amazon: ‘Boost Your Brand With Books’ which introduces the opportunities that self-publishing provides for many business people as well as authors. Whatever your profession, a book or eBook is an excellent lead generation tool for your business.

Want to learn more about Beckie? Visit her website missdigitalmedia.co.uk or give her a follow on Instagram @missdigitalmedia, LinkedIn @beckiesanderson or Facebook @missdigitalmedia. You could also join her Facebook Group @missdigitalmediaclassroom.


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