The Freelancer Life: Meet Claudia Moselhi, CloPR
Welcome to The Freelancer Life, a series of interviews with the freelance community. This series is all about community over competition in a bid to open up the freelance community and help you feel less alone. It’s also a chance for some shit hot freelancers to share their highs, their lows and gives them a chance to reflect on all they’ve achieved since going freelance.
Today we interviewed Claudia Moselhi, PR and Comms Consultant and founder of CLO PR, a consultancy that specialises in creating positive PR for positive impact. We chatted to Claudia about how she’s increasingly focused on working collaboratively, her manifesto to support gender diversity and how after two years working for herself her confidence is starting to grow.
Hello Claudia and welcome to The Freelancer Life, thanks for taking the time to chat to us.
Tell us a little bit about yourself, what you do and how long you’ve been doing it:
I am a PR and Comms consultant, running a consultancy called CLO PR, focused on creating positive PR for positive impact. For 10 years I’ve been driving awareness and PR campaigns of national significance. I’ve worked with clients across various sectors such as public health, education, food, consumer lifestyle, b2b….shall I go on?!
Why did you become a freelancer?
I worked in a few PR and marketing agencies and got sick of the rat race and frankly, making money for other people. I also realised that my confidence was at the mercy of my managers’ inflexibility and inability to see that positive results can come from lot’s of different ideas and routes, not just their way. This way ain’t creative enough for me.
We really admire your focus on equality and positive action and your joint manifesto with marketing duo Mac&Moore. Can you tell us more about this and how you make sure it stays strong through the work you do?
CLO PR and Mac&Moore’s Jess and Nat have shared something in common from the start: positive impact. And not just saying it, actually doing it. Through our collaborative work with clients, to supporting people on their way up. We have a strong urge to make a positive difference in business.
All too often forced ranking and hierarchy pit people against each other. Competition should always be for positive gain, no matter the age, race and gender. Previously, as three female employees we experienced gender inequality and fear, and felt we had no way to change it because the system was bigger than us. Now that we’re independent, we have the opportunity to support businesses to adapt and support the influx of diverse talent.
Our manifesto makes us accountable to a host of activities, which include always challenging our own bias and echo chambers by listening and opening ourselves up to the experiences of others, connecting to partners and fellow freelancers outside of the London bubble, as well as ensuring we’re always learning to advance our knowledge through regular training and workshops that support diversity.
Share your struggles – what do you find hardest about working for yourself?
The loneliness. I am a team player, love collaborating and bashing ideas around with other people. A big part of my job now is trying to collaborate. I’m focused on bringing freelancers together to share client work, and other exciting projects that I feel passionate about. This doesn’t come on a plate.
Share your perks – what do you enjoy most about working for yourself?
I’m more confident and happier at work than I’ve ever been! Even though I now have far more responsibility and accountability to my clients, clients listen to me and buy my ideas and that feels good. If I f**k up, there’s no one to blame but me, but I make less mistakes because I’ve had to learn to be far more considered in my processes.
And then there’s the freedom – physical and mental. It’s priceless to be able to work the hours I want and be able to have autonomy on everything I work on. I am playing to my own strengths of working with clients I actually believe in and respect.
What are your top tips for anyone working for themselves?
You have to learn to be really disciplined. If you think getting up in the morning and going to work in an office is hard, imagine having to do it when you know you could have a lie-in and faff about at home doing the washing up and dine on protracted breakfasts. Forget it. If you can’t trust yourself, you need to create a routine and fast. Set yourself up at a co-working space or at a place that allows you to get your head down.
And make sure you reward yourself for the little wins. It can sometimes be hard to keep up the momentum and energy of running a business or being freelance. Make sure you stay in the moment and congratulate yourself when you win a new client or piece of work, or make a breakthrough. No one else is going to pat you on the back but yourself.
What are your top 3 recommendations – podcasts, books, people to follow, sources of inspiration?
Otegha Uwagba’s Women Who community is definitely a constant source of genuinely helpful tips and inspiration for freelancers and creatives. Definitely sign up to her weekly newsletter – I look forward to it every Wednesday and spread out the reading across the week.
I’m obsessed with Adam Buxton’s podcast. He’s a thoughtful interviewer and he always takes his really diverse guests in different directions of conversation, always erring towards the emotional, sometimes sad, or funny sides of life. He’s opened up my eyes to the idea that we can laugh and cry in the same 5 minutes and I think as a society we need to be more in touch with our emotions and embrace sadness as much as happiness.
My Slack channel that I share with fellow freelancers, Mac&Moore. We’ll share new events to attend, news articles on diversity in the workplace and millennial mindsets, two really important topics for us in informing our clients, and weekly boasts on Friday of who’s cracked open the wine the soonest!
What role does collaboration play for you?
It’s so crucial to my business and in life! Without collaboration, there are no ideas, no action and no success. There’ll be a team of people behind the success of every athlete. This is true of anything with real meaning and purpose.
What is the best project you’ve worked on since going freelance?
Last year for the Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP) we launched a robust report, Silent Catastrophe, on the state of the NHS mental health services for children and young people. It was picked up by the national news and crucially by politicians and is still referenced 8 months later. The Association has since built up a much stronger influence to campaign for the survival of the profession. That’s positive impact right there.
What do you love to do? Give us a mix of personal and professional
Personal:
This is super cringe but I love making time to make fresh coffees with my husband! We have a fancy coffee machine, gifted to me by my old client Sage by Heston Blumenthal, and it grinds coffee beans to give the most glorious smell of fresh coffee. It’s ritualistic in our house because it takes a while to make with lots of processes like frothing the milk and making sure the cups are hot. For me, it’s a break in the day where stress or life admin is put at bay and for that moment everything slows down.
Making a beautiful home to entertain in. I am lucky to have a fucking awesome husband, with whom I share beautiful family and friends. We love to entertain and share experiences – whether that be parties, meals or just a good ol’ cuppa. We’ve just bought a house that needs a lot of work but I am excited by the challenge and feel so lucky to be in a position to make it ours, room by room. I cannot wait to host in a house that isn’t stuck in the 70’s!
Professional:
Winning new business! I love the thrill of the chase and the ‘will I won’t I win’ feeling. What I learnt early on in this independent business life is that when a prospect chooses not to go with CLO PR, it’s not personal, it’s based on so many decisions. And if it’s personal, it’s not meant to be.
Client relationships are so similar to romantic relationships. The best relationships are the ones where both parties fall for each other equally.
Building relationships. With journalists, fellow freelancers and of course clients. I feed off other people’s energy and passion to create positive impact at work and long-term positive change to business and society. I’m here to make money but I want to do my job with integrity and eschew a short-termist attitude that too many businesses stick to.
What were you doing this time last year?
I was celebrating one whole year of CLO PR’s existence!
What have you learnt or how have you changed since then?
I think I have grown in confidence and definitely feeling less like an impostor and more like I deserve to have a seat at the table. Year one was really about survival and seeing whether this route of work was right and sustainable. Since this time last year CLO PR continues to work with three clients, which I am proud of.
I think also, with this sense of confidence, I’ve got better at knowing what I am worth as a professional and a better sense of what work and clients marry well to my skills, passion and personality.
What one thing would you change in the freelance world and why?
I feel like I have landed in the freelance world at an interesting time. The gig economy is growing in impetus and freelancers are becoming more empowered as a respected part of the workforce. However, I am still dumbfounded to meet the number of prospective clients that literally want the earth but don’t want to pay for it. Sorry, professional consultancy and expertise do not come for free.