About this podcast episode…

FREELANCE MARKETER HANNAH ISTED

Hear Hannah's journey to becoming a successful freelance social media manager, marketer and then beyond into running a membership and courses.

She founded her business, HI Communications (when your initials spell HI you go with it right?) eight years ago. She quickly built her client list through word-of-mouth. Then things exploded when she moved to a new town, a new country, where she new one person, but with the plan to become 'famous' there. 

Meeting her neighbours worked.

Hannah started a local magazine, organised local networking events and even put together the first Barry Pride festival.

Recently, Hannah transitioned away from social media management to focus on her membership program 'The Best 90 Days Ever', which offers daily prompts to help business owners. She's also written a book of the same name, which will be our next Book Club read in the Being Freelance Community.

Hannah shares insights on balancing various projects, the importance of community in business, and her belief in taking the plunge into new ventures sooner rather than later.

Above all, it feels like Hannah doesn't take no for an answer. When she thinks 'wouldn't it be cool if...', she'll make it happen. And once it exists she won't stop shouting about it. Because if she wants to keep being a freelancer, she needs to keep visible and telling people what she can do.

Such a huge lesson.

PS. Hannah is also doing a LIVE Q&A in the community - come join us and join in!

Read a full transcript & get Links in the tabs.

More from HANNAH ISTED

Hannah’s HI Communications website
Hannah’s book The Best 90 Days Ever
The Liz Mosley episode of the Being Freelance Podcast

More from Steve Folland

Steve on Instagram
Steve’s freelance site
Being Freelance Community
Steve’s course for new freelancers
The Doing It For The Kids podcast

Transcript of the Being Freelance podcast with Steve Folland and Freelance Marketer Hannah Isted

Steve Folland: As ever, how about we get started hearing how you got started being freelance?

Hannah Isted: Yeah, there was probably two turning points that made me become freelance, I suppose. The first was that when I applied to go to university, I'd originally applied to do forensic science. And, yeah, which is not what I'm doing now, as you know.

Steve Folland: Exciting!

Hannah Isted: Yeah, and I think I remember seeing on TV that they'd cut loads of forensic science jobs, and I'd really struggled with all of the science modules, my A levels, which is quite essential for a forensic science degree.

So I cancelled all of my options, didn't tell my parents, and decided to go through clearing instead and do Event Management, which was a bit of a turn. So that was probably the first thing.

Steve Folland: So, what's clearing?

Hannah Isted: It's the bit where if you didn't get the grades you needed for university, or you maybe wanted to change what you were going to be doing, then I think it's basically where everywhere that has spaces left, they all get put forward, and they're basically trying to fill up the spaces that they have.

Steve Folland: So what, so would you get presented with a load of different course titles and you'll go, Oh yeah, I quite fancy that one, I quite fancy going to that town. That sort of thing.

Hannah Isted: And originally I'd said, I want to be near the sea. That was one of my main goals. Like, things, the universities that I wanted, I looked at Bournemouth, I looked at Canterbury and I ended up in Coventry, which is actually furthest from the coast.

Steve Folland: Coventry, which probably is factually right in the middle of the country and equidistant from any coast.

Hannah Isted: Literally. And, I'm so glad I did. I remember speaking to Ian, who ended up being my lecturer when I went to university, and he was talking to me about what the course would be like and I thought it sounded really fun and I'd just done, I'd like, organised some events. I thought I was really good at organising parties, so I just went for it, and actually, while I was at university, I learned a lot about the marketing side of events and I ended up doing my dissertation on charity rebranding and sort of focus more on that marketing side of things. And so that's what kind of led me into the marketing side after.

So yeah, that was probably the first thing that started my freelance journey. And then the second thing was that while I was at university in my second year, I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. And so for anyone that doesn't know that, it's a bowel disease.

And I just knew that when I left university and then went into work, it was going to be a bit of a challenge. For me, with the kind of structured working hours, and yeah, just not being as in control as I wanted to. So, they were probably the two main things that started my path to being freelance.

Steve Folland: So what then happened when you left university? You've got in your head that you want to do something marketing wise, presumably you're liking charities as well, but you also need the flexibility or want the flexibility.

Hannah Isted: Yeah, so I did an internship while I was at university with a charity, and then when I left university I did get a job first with a charity, so I was doing their social media and PR, and then after that I worked for a housing association doing their PR, so that was also a not for profit, and then I was about a year into that when I thought, this is just not for me and I remember going to one of the long service awards and I saw someone getting like a 25 year service and I thought like, wow, amazing for you.

I don't want that at all. I can't imagine. I've been here for less than a year. I can't imagine doing 25. So I decided to quit my job and go freelance and I actually took them on as one of my first clients. So that was a really nice, quite smooth transition then.

Steve Folland: How did you have that conversation with them where they ended up being a client?

Hannah Isted: I think, so we were midway through a project, and I knew that it was going to be difficult for me to leave and for there to be a handover with someone else as well, but I just knew that I had to, I had to go. I couldn't stay there for much longer. And actually someone else in the team that I worked with, she ended up leaving as well to also, she did, she's freelance, she does stuff.

So we kind of both left at a similar time and then started our own businesses, which was really nice to like share that journey. So yeah, and they were amazing. They were so good. And I think they knew that it wasn't maybe the best place for me to be. And I obviously had this like, ambition to run my own business.

So yeah, they were brilliant.

Steve Folland: So what did you do though? Like, okay, you've got them as a client. What were you calling yourself as in a 'freelance marketer', a freelance what?

Hannah Isted: So I was doing social media management. So from the beginning I was always doing like social media things, website bits, basically marketing stuff. I think people kind of knew that I just did marketing And they didn't really know what that meant a lot of the time, but they just knew that I could help them with different things.

So whether I was like writing people's newsletters, or doing their social media, building websites, things like that. I was just kind of like mucking in and helping out with any business that I could. Yeah, I remember at that time, so I was doing some social media stuff on the side, and I remember one of my clients said about, like, what could I do for 50 pounds a month?

And it was then I was like, hmm, I think I need to actually put my prices up and turn this into a proper business, you know, with packages and actual things that I offer them. So that tied in really nicely as well with when I decided to have my notice in.

Steve Folland: So did you have a company name? You, you know, you decide to be a proper business. As you

Hannah Isted: Yeah, so I was always HI Communications. I've always been that. I remember my dad telling me when I was first thinking of a name and he said, 'Make sure it's a name of a business you can sell, so don't call it like Hannah, like Hannah's Marketing Company or something, but I kind of knew that I wanted my initials because it is just cool that they spell out Hi, so I, I wanted that and that's partly why I got married last year, I haven't taken my husband's name, I've kept my own name because I just love my name, I think it's really good and quite memorable, so yeah, I've always been HI Communications.

Steve Folland: And so what would it have looked like if we went to your website then? Mainly social media packages?

Hannah Isted: Yeah, just social media. Whatever you needed, really, actually. So yeah, posts and things.

Steve Folland: Other than that first client, where were you getting those first clients that saw you through?

Hannah Isted: I think it was mostly word of mouth. So at that time, so I think this was about eight years ago and obviously I wasn't the only person doing marketing. There was lots of people doing marketing, but it didn't feel like there were lots of freelance social media managers. Like there are now, there's plenty, but it didn't really feel like there were a lot.

And I lived in quite a small town. In Bedfordshire at the time, I live in Barry now, and yeah, it just felt like as soon as I said, this is what I'm doing, it spread really quickly. And I think that was like a really important thing, is that I told everyone what I was doing, and I told them to tell people as well.

So people started coming to me, Just to ask what I did and if I could help them and, you know, what marketing stuff I offered. So I was just having loads of conversations with people about lots of different things, like lots of small business owners were getting in touch.

Steve Folland: Were they local to you?

Hannah Isted: So they either were or they had a local connection.

So I did have clients that were like in Australia and things like that, but there was always someone, you know, that what's the phrase about degrees of separation? There was always someone between them, so yeah, that was really good. And yeah, just word of mouth mainly. I was obviously using some social media, but I didn't have an Instagram page, I didn't have a newsletter, I had a very basic logo and website, I had a Facebook page, and that was kind of it, really.

Steve Folland: But you were telling everyone you knew, be it personal or from past, you know, educational or working relationships, this is what I'm doing. Tell everyone, you know,

Hannah Isted: Yeah, tell everyone I know, but I'm not doing it for myself. I just want to do it for you. But yeah.

Steve Folland: And then did you go after. like reviews or testimonials or anything like that. Like, how did you keep up the momentum because you know, you can tell people once and they might just " okay, I'm sure I'll mention it Hannah, if I see someone and by the way, cool initials, I like, I like your business name", but that doesn't mean that they're gonna keep remembering to do it.

Hannah Isted: No, and I think it was kind of like looking for other little communities that I could get into as well. So, I think at that time, I was almost looking at what, like, traditional marketing is. And so I was going to a lot of networking events and I felt really awkward at them, really out of place. And I can remember going to one and you paid like 12 pounds and it was quite early in the morning and you got a full English breakfast.

So I was like, Oh, this is great for 12 pounds. I'll definitely have full English. So I sit there with my full plate of full English. And then they start going round the table, And everyone's done, because everyone's just had, like, a piece of toast, because they know they're gonna be speaking, and I didn't know.

So it gets to me, and I'm still, like, shoveling beans and egg into my mouth. And I'm like, oh yeah, I'm Hannah, I do marketing, like, I can help you with this. And then, after that, I just thought, I love networking. I love talking to people, but this, whatever this is, it's not for me.

Steve Folland: I'll have my breakfast and then go networking, thanks very much.

Hannah Isted: Exactly

Steve Folland: So what kind of networking did work for you?

Hannah Isted: Actually I don't think any networking while I was in Bedfordshire worked for me. I can't actually think of a good one, a good opportunity. But when I moved to Barry so I moved to Barry six years ago this year, I knew one person in Barry, my friend Emily. I was like, I just want to be by, you know that thing, I wanted to be by the sea, and so I thought, Barry sounds great, I'll move to Barry. Came over to here, I viewed like ten houses in one day, and found a house that I loved, it looked exactly like my granddad's house in North London, bought it, moved here, did it up in a month, and then the week that I actually moved into the house, I met my now husband, Tom.

And the link to that story was that me and Tom have done a lot of stuff together, and one of those things was Barry Business Club. And so that was like a networking event for local businesses in Barry. And it was in the evening, and you got a cup of tea and a coffee if you wanted. And there were snacks, and there was no pressure, and you just chatted as much as you want to, there was a little quiz to help you get to know people, and then you left. And it was nice. And that was the networking that I liked doing.

Steve Folland: So did you start it or you went there?

Hannah Isted: No, we started it,

Steve Folland: You started it. So Tom, your now husband, was he a freelancer as well?

Hannah Isted: Yeah he was at uni, so he did, he went to university and did Music, I think. And then he went to university again and did graphic design.

So he's a graphic designer. So he was just finishing off his degree when we met. When we met, we, I mean, ever since, basically, we've done so much stuff together.

So, As soon as we met, I was going on a charity trip to Kenya, and I had to raise like three and a half thousand pounds, and I said, Tom, I have got this like trip in January, I think this was September I need to raise like three grand, and I was thinking we could just make a magazine together, and sell space, like advertising spaces in it, what do you think?

So, Tom is just amazing and he says yes to most of my ideas and he was like, yeah, let's have a go. So we started a magazine together called Barry Magazine and it was a digital magazine and it ran for about two years. I think it stopped in COVID and that is what helped me get to know so many business owners in Barry.

Like the best networking tool I could ever say is to start your own magazine.

Steve Folland: So it was an online magazine, but it looked like a magazine

Hannah Isted: Yeah, it was literally you flick through the pages. And we do have a couple of printed versions. I'm like looking at one on the bookshelf now, just so we could have a physical copy of it. But yeah, it was all a digital magazine. So it was on issue and we had like some advertising slots in it, but it was mostly just about promoting small business owners in Barry and talking about what was going on.

And all of that good stuff. And yeah, we kind of, we stopped it just after COVID really, because there wasn't anything going on. It was so hard to, to create a magazine that was based a lot on events when all of the events had been canceled. So yeah, that was difficult.

Steve Folland: But it obviously done amazing stuff by then. So you were showing what you were capable of organization, marketing, graphic design for Tom with the magazine, but you were meeting all of these people, all of these businesses. So did they become clients, some of them?

Hannah Isted: Yeah, a lot of them did, whether it was through like workshops, or they were coming to the business club, or things like that, like they weren't necessarily direct social media clients, but we built people websites, and actually, I remember saying that it was such a good way of meeting new people, because I was going into their shops, with an iPad, because obviously it was digital, and saying, would you like to advertise in our magazine?

And even if they said no, I would be like, 'oh, well, I'm Hannah anyway, it's really nice to meet you. And, you know, if you need any help with your marketing and stuff, then I'd love to chat to you'. And that was kind of how we got to know people. It gave us a reason to go and speak to them. So it was kind of like cold in person sales.

But actually, because if they said no, we were just like, okay. I mean, we hardly made any money from the magazine. We were probably paying each other like 50 pence an hour. But, what it led to was so, so many other things. Like, I'm so grateful for that.

Steve Folland: Yeah, so you've got a magazine, but and at the same time you start Barry Business Club, how often was that ?

Hannah Isted: Oh, I don't know. Maybe monthly. And then, we also organized the first ever Barry Pride. So we organized the first ever Pride event in Barry. Which was the most incredible day. It was amazing. It was in September 2019, and I think that we just met so many people through that and it was amazing. It was the most perfect day.

Steve Folland: How nice so, I mean you move to this place where you only know one person but man have you thrown yourself into it. That's amazing.

Hannah Isted: I remember saying to Tom that my goal was, and this sounds silly, but I said, I want to be famous in Barry. And I didn't mean that in like a, I want everyone to know me. I want to be famous. I wanted to know everyone, and that was the thing. I wanted to be like, so in that community. And yeah, I do think we've done that, to be fair.

Steve Folland: I love this especially because.. So this was what, eight years ago,

Hannah Isted: So I moved here six years

Steve Folland: Six years ago. Let's face it a time when you could work with anybody in the world. You've already had clients in Australia at that point, but you realize that actually focusing on those one to one connections in a local community can have real power for a business.

Hannah Isted: Yeah, 100%. And I think, Start where you are now. Start with literally your neighbours. Like, we lived behind the high street. So I literally started with the business that my garden backed onto. And I think that that was just like, such a nice, like, way to go about that. Like, growing my business and growing the community, and actually, I remember, like, going to introduce myself and say I've moved into the house, like, behind you, and they said, Oh, we loved the guy who lived there.

Like, unfortunately, he passed away, but he used to walk around to the high street every day and get the paper and chat to them, and they were like, 'We're so glad that you've moved into that house now, because it feels like you're gonna do the same thing'. It was just so lovely.

Steve Folland: Oh, this is warming my cockles, my cockles are warmed.

Hannah Isted: I'm glad

Steve Folland: Do you know what also reminds me is that when like one of my very first proper freelance clients, when I went full time freelance, rather than doing it on the side, I used to take out our little son, he was maybe two , down this road opposite our house every day so that we could go and wave at the trains.

And on that little lane, there was this old stable block that had been converted into offices. And I always thought to myself, Man, it would be cool to work for one of those companies because then this would be my commute, but without having to wave at the trains. So I might, they always wave back. So I investigated who they were and then the ones I thought, Oh, maybe I could do something with you, I sent them an email and one of them ended up being like my biggest client ever and as you say, You know, the neighbor, the neighbor business all of our towns and stuff, which are surrounded by business parks, let alone a high street.

There's these little bits, which you, you can miss entirely. Oh, I love it.

Hannah Isted: Have you heard about, I can't remember who says this originally but I was talking to someone else on podcast about it the other day. I think she said it was Liz Gilbert, but it was you make a list of 'wouldn't it be cool if'. So all the things that are not goals necessarily, but it's like, 'wouldn't it be cool if I could work with one of those businesses that was in that location' or like You know, I remember we said, 'wouldn't it be cool if we could run an event in Barry' and like, 'wouldn't it be cool if we could connect with other businesses' and you almost like put the intention out there and you're not necessarily sure how it's going to work or how it's going to come back to you.

But like more often than not, those things happen because you've kind of said, Oh, that would be really cool. Actually, I would like that.

Steve Folland: Love it. And one of those events then was Barry Pride. Clearly you don't organize something like that for business reasons, but did that help your business?

Hannah Isted: In not directly, like I wouldn't say we got any business from it, but we did a Pride issue of Barry magazine and we yeah, it was more just about the people that we met along the way I suppose and we held it on Barry High Street, so behind our house. And so the businesses that we met through doing that, so making sure that all the high street businesses were happy, we had Spectrum, I don't even know Spectrum, the makeup brush company but they're two sisters based in Barry and they sponsored the event, which was amazing because someone had said to me, this event will never happen.

You won't get the money for it. You know, who's going to sponsor this basically. Which is obviously enough for me to just go, Okay, well watch me then. Because I will just get you... And then literally, straight after, we got a sponsor. And it was Spectrum, which was amazing. And they, like, gave away brushes. And we had the Spectrum stage.

And it was just so amazing. So, although there was no direct business. I worked with lots of other businesses to put this event together. So yeah, that was really cool.

Steve Folland: Okay, so we've had a couple of years in Barry running, so this, this takes, this started six years ago, this part of the story. Let's catch up then. What are we missing? You and Tom. aren't in business together, you, but you're just working together, right?

Hannah Isted: Yeah, so Tom does a lot of stuff for me. I help him where I can and Yeah, so we were doing those things and then kind of post COVID we stopped doing most of them. Tom did end up getting a job for a while and I carried on being freelance like the whole time. And yeah, I kind of was just doing social media management and running some workshops.

I remember at the start of COVID I launched my first website. A little, like, ebook to kind of have some, not passive income, but just something that wasn't the social media management, basically.

Steve Folland: So is COVID a pivotal point in, in what you've been doing?

Hannah Isted: I don't know if it was, for me, as much as it was for other businesses, because a lot of the businesses I worked with, either, carried on as normal in COVID or they actually sold more because a lot of them were product businesses and they had websites. And so, you know, people were buying stuff during COVID.

So they were, they were doing fine and they still wanted to advertise. It was kind of the end of COVID that I think, Things were different and I kind of started to think to myself, I'm not really sure if I want to do the social media management anymore, but it has literally taken from then to the 1st of February this year.

for me to actually give up that social media management because it's so difficult to lose that part of your business, I think.

Steve Folland: So what was the thinking and how did you start to move away from it? How long did it take? Because obviously the end of COVID in quotation marks is, is quite a blurred line, isn't it?

Hannah Isted: I would say like at least a couple of years. I think it always is around Christmas time when I'm still working for clients doing social media management and it's Christmas and then it's New Year and then, you know, it's my birthday and I'm thinking, Why, like, why am I still doing this? I keep saying every year, like, my New Year's resolution, I'm going to stop doing the social media management this year, I'm going to do something else but it is so difficult, but I think, so one of the main, like, shifts from that was launching The Best 90 Days Ever, which is my membership, and that was October 2021, near the end of COVID, I would say.

I can't even really remember when COVID ended,

Steve Folland: Well, that's the trouble, isn't it? That like could, could, but like Christmas 21 was still like a lockdown Christmas here in the UK anyway. Yeah. So the start of 2022 was still very, very weird. But yeah, that's a, that's a couple of years ago. So you've decided you want to move away from it because it's so.

Well, it sounds like because there's no flexibility, like you have to be working on it, even if everybody else is enjoying

Hannah Isted: Hmm. I feel like even if you schedule it, it's still, you're still checking it. You're still looking to make sure and you still want their business to do well. So there's that pressure as well of like keeping it up as I think.

Steve Folland: And how many clients would you have had by the way, in social media management terms,

Hannah Isted: Probably only around four or five a time. Hmm.

Steve Folland: And that would be the main bulk of your business.

Hannah Isted: Yeah, until I launched the membership, that was definitely the main milk of my business.

Steve Folland: Where did The Best 90 Days Ever suddenly come from? Like, how did you suddenly, you know, it sounds easy to say, 'Oh yeah, I launched a membership', but where did that come from?

Hannah Isted: Around that time, I definitely was thinking more about courses and, you know, group programs and things that weren't me doing the work for other people, basically. And so I, I did a launch with someone and it didn't quite go to plan how we wanted it to go. And I remember saying to my dad, like, What am I going to do now?

Because I'm not getting this income in, you know, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do. And he said to me, if you try and come up with three ideas by the weekend of what you can do to make up that extra money, basically. And so I remember saying to Tom, I just think it would be so cool if someone could just like tell you what to do every day.

Because I was at that point where I was just feeling like a bit deflated from a launch that didn't go to plan. And you know, when you just want someone to go. This is what you should be doing. This is the path that you should be taking to get to where you want to go. And, yeah, so I just thought, okay, well, that would be very cool.

It was like, wouldn't it be cool if someone could just tell you it? And so I decided to, I had a hair appointment. that next week. And I said, if I can come up with at least like 30 prompts for this, like, whatever it was going to be, like a course or whatever, to tell people what to do each day, then I would go for it.

I would make it happen. And I think I did about 56, something like that, just sat there because I'm blonde and it takes a long time. And. I had this huge list of like, little things that I would tell business owners to do each day. And so from that, I just thought, there's something here. And yeah, that's kind of, that's kind of where it all started.

Steve Folland: It's a great idea. Wouldn't it be cool if. But how did you then make that 'cool idea' a reality?

Hannah Isted: So, I was researching, like, what's a good amount of time to have a membership or to build habits and things like that. And a lot of things that were coming up were 90 days. So, obviously the The kind of habit stacking idea varies a lot, but 90 days kept coming up. And it was like, almost the end of the year then, we had just over 90 days to go.

And I just thought, okay, like, what can we do to just make this the best 90 days ever? And that's where the name came from. And so I called it The Best 90 Days Ever. It was a one off 90 day program. It was like £34. 99. And that was that. I was like, let's just launch it, see what happens. And I think we had about 30 people join, which was really good because I only had like 600 followers on Instagram at the time, so by then I had actually made myself an Instagram account which was good, and a website and an email list.

And so, yeah, we had this first group, and I remember saying to them that I really wanted to start a membership, but what could it be? You know, like what, I need a new idea for a membership. And I didn't really realize it was literally like staring me straight in the face that The Best 90 Days Ever is a membership.

It just needs to continue to carry on. So yeah, that was almost, well, it's two and a half years ago and we've had continuous Best 90 Days Ever, since then.

Steve Folland: Wow. How did you find running a membership? Like, how did it compare to the model of the doing, I guess, doing people's social media to running? And I know you, you were still doing social media alongside it until the start of this year, but,

Hannah Isted: Think they're just so different, and I don't know how to say this without upsetting other social media managers, but a lot of the time I felt like the businesses I was working with probably could have done their own social media with some help. Rather than me doing it all for them. So to have this group of business owners where I could help them with their marketing, but they were actually doing it, the content was just much better.

I think like it was all really authentic to them and they were trying new things and they were learning different tools and techniques. And so it was just really nice. to work with people like that and I think I like working with a group of people. That's probably where I'm like the most confident and the most comfortable.

So that suits me better.

Steve Folland: But how have you continued to grow? I guess your audience for people to find it and therefore potentially join it. Cause not everybody will join it, but they, yeah. How have you got, well, how have you done your own marketing is probably what my question is by the sounds of it.

Hannah Isted: That is the hardest part, I would say, is continuously finding new people who would want to come and join the membership, or find out about other things that I'm doing. But I think that is literally the challenge that everyone has with their marketing, is how do I grow my followers, you know, how do I grow my email list?

We always want growth, and I think a lot of the time it's focusing on who you have in front of you. So doing lots of things to kind of re engage the people that you already have. So I'll do a lot of like email challenges and things like that. And that will kind of give people a little nudge if they were maybe thinking about joining The Best 90 Days Ever, but they weren't sure what it was going to be like, then doing like an email challenge can be really helpful.

For that, but I think a lot of it is just collaborating with other people. So doing podcasts like this I became really good friends with Liz Mosley, who I know you know, and we collaborate on a lot of things. So we will share our audiences basically because we don't compete with each other, but we do have a very similar audience.

So that works really well. So if you can find people that you're not competing with, You kind of share the same audience, then that can be an amazing collaboration. And I think I just don't stop. I do not stop talking about The Best 90 Days Ever, posting about it, about it, telling people about it. Yeah, I feel like every day for the last two and a half years I've like said the words The Best 90 Days Ever and I do think a lot of it is that like stubbornness that I want to be freelance, I want to run a business and I'm not gonna I'm not going to give up, so I'm just gonna just keep telling people about it.

Steve Folland: It's a great attitude. So I was going to ask you actually, so you, I mean, there's collaborating with Liz. So like I mean, what might that look like? So like podcasts or Instagram lives or

Hannah Isted: Yeah, podcasts, Instagram lives, we did a challenge which was the show up on stories challenge. Things like that we will do. Just Whenever we feel like we need a boost, we will help each other and probably turn it into something that will help other people too. So we did a daily reels challenge in November as well.

And that was really fun, like a lot of people joined us and took part in that. So yeah, it's kind of just noticing when either of us need help with something or need a little bit of motivation or something like that. And then thinking of a way we can collaborate on it.

Steve Folland: So somebody might be listening to this and thinking, I wonder who I could collaborate with, like, who might that be? And, you know, you don't have to be creating a, I know, a membership or course or whatever, in order to collaborate with people. So what do you think? Works or, you know, like, what do you think you look for in a collaborator?

But maybe I should have also asked like, who, who, who made the first move? Like,

Hannah Isted: With me and Liz?

Steve Folland: yeah, yeah,

Hannah Isted: Oh, me. So, like, Liz laughed at this story. So I told this at the book launch. So I was intensely jealous of Liz and I couldn't, because she's only in Cardiff, so I couldn't believe that she'd started a podcast and she had these cool guests and, you know, she was doing this cool stuff and I was like, oh, she's doing everything I want to be doing and it looks amazing and I'm so jealous.

And I said to Tom, there's only one solution for this, and that is to become friends with her. And so I invited her onto my podcast. So I was, I had recently started the podcast then. I think she might have been one of my first guests, actually. And, yeah, I invited her onto the podcast. And we got on so well that I was like, okay, we, we are going to become friends now.

Like, my sights are set on you, and that is it. And actually, like, ever since then, we have just been so close. Like, we message almost every day. We talk about business things. She has helped my business. It's so much, and I wouldn't have written the book without her, so that's how much her friendship has an impact on my business.

Steve Folland: That's so nice. So how, how long ago was that?

Hannah Isted: I feel like at least three years.

Steve Folland: And I should say for those listening around the world, that Barry and Cardiff are both in Wales. They're not far from each other. So actually, it's, it's, yes, you collaborate on things that help each other's businesses and help others. But actually, perhaps it's more, yes, it's a friendship.

It's more like that co mentoring thing going on where you're discussing your businesses and talking over them, is it?

Hannah Isted: Yeah, and I think finding someone who's where you want to be that you can and I don't really I wouldn't recommend you just go up to everyone say, you know Can I pick your brains and find out how you got where you are? But if you feel like there's someone that you could offer something to them as well.

So, you know, in a collaboration or in a friendship, like maybe you've got a really good audience that they would like to kind of get in front of, or, you know, you've done something that they would love to do, then there are loads of ways that you can kind of benefit each other with that. And I think sometimes it's just like setting your sights on someone and saying like, I just think messaging them and saying, I just think we'd really get on.

Like, do you want to become friends? And actually, that is exactly what I did for the one friend that I had when I moved to Barry. I messaged because I'd found her through a hashtag, and I said, I think I'm gonna move, like, to Wales. Do you want to become friends? And she was at our wedding last year.

Steve Folland: Amazing!

Hannah Isted: All it takes is that little bit of confidence.

Steve Folland: How do you figure out, like, Basically, there's a lot that we could all do with our businesses, with our lives and things like that.

And in many ways, it seems like often you have an idea and you go and do it is what seems to happen. But I'm imagining that actually you can't do everything that you think of, no matter how long your hair appointments might be.

Hannah Isted: I don't know. I mean, I'll give everything a go, really. I'll try it. And I think it's not necessarily the not trying the things, it's what stays. So there's often, you know, I'd have an idea and I will action it tomorrow. That, you know, let's do it, let's do it, let's see what happens with it. And then the next week I'll think, oh no, that wasn't right, let's try the next thing after that.

So, I do love to try almost every idea that comes into my head. They just don't all stay around.

Steve Folland: What's that filtering process like though? Because other, other bits of advice might be, ah, well, you know, if you don't get any traction, it's persistence. You've got to stick with it, show up, keep doing it, blah, blah, blah.

Hannah Isted: I do, I feel like after eight years, it's just instinct. And you know, sometimes that might mean that I am missing out on something that if I just persisted, it would have worked out well, but I do think most things that are meant to happen will find a way of happening. So, you know, if you're meant to meet someone, then it will find its way.

It might just not look like what you thought it was going to look like. Which I know sounds very, like, woo woo and not business y at all, but that, yeah, that is what I believe. But part of it is that they're continuing to put yourself out there so that those other things can happen.

Steve Folland: Yeah. So it sounds like you have a sounding board in Liz. And in Tom and in your dad are there other, like, are you part of anything else or had any coaching or I know mastermind groups or anything, you know, like other people around you.

Hannah Isted: Yeah, I've had loads of coaching, not necessarily masterminds I don't think, like memberships, loads of stuff actually, and I do think you take something from each of them, and yeah, you learn something. At the time that you need it. So I'm in a course at the moment, which is amazing. And it's all about getting more engagement from your courses and from your memberships and things like that.

And I've learned so much about that and just getting more engagement from things. So yeah, there, I would definitely, I am one of those people that does sign up for lots of things.

Steve Folland: So where are we at then, like in terms of your business and like, I guess your income streams, either where you're at now or where you plan to be. So you've let go of social media management, but you've got the membership, you've got courses.

Hannah Isted: Yeah. So I've just launched a new course and yes, I'm hoping to, Run that as well. So that's kind of about like batch creating and creating a big library of content. So I'm excited for that. And then I do one to one Voxer coaching as well. So we like text and voice note throughout the week with what they need help with, with their marketing.

So they're kind of my main things now. And yeah, it's been really nice to see what I can replace that management and income with.

Steve Folland: That's what I'm wondering, actually. Like, was there a point where you thought, Oh, yes, I've done it. I've, I've made the same again. Or, is it more like a gut, Oh, I think I can, but maybe I just need to let go of those clients first.

Hannah Isted: Yeah, it was definitely, so by December I had two clients left, and one cancelled, like they handed their notice in. So I had one left, and I just handed my notice in to them, because I thought, there's probably, I either go out and look for more social media clients, or I go out and look for more, like, Voxer clients, or more people to join the membership.

And because I only had one left, I feel like it kind of just made the decision for me. And yeah, so that was this year, so I had my last day at the end of January, and then from February I've just been focusing on all my other things.

Steve Folland: And, yeah. You wrote the book, so The Best 90 Days Ever, which is an incredibly practical, like it is those, it is the things which you would have been emailing out, is it?

Hannah Isted: Yeah, so it is my 90 favourite prompts from the membership. So yeah, I had to kind of pick, I mean, I probably have like four or five hundred prompts now because it's been going for so long and I just think of them all the time, like if I'm walking the dog, I'll quickly jot them down in my Trello or like, you know, when you have like really good ideas when you're like in the shower or brushing your teeth or something like that and just quickly writing them down.

So yeah, I had to pick my favorite 90. And. I won the competition for the book deal last year and then I handed it in, I think it was around September time, and then it came out in March this year. So it was quite a quick turnaround, less than a year.

Steve Folland: Okay, Hannah, if you could tell your younger self one thing about being freelance, what would that be?

Hannah Isted: I feel like it's the advice that everyone gave me when I went freelance, and that is you will always wish you did it sooner. And that's with everything in business. So like giving up the social media clients, going freelance, moving to Barry. You will always wish that you did it sooner. So just do it.

What's the worst that can happen really?

Steve Folland: Brilliant. Hannah, thank you so much and all the best being freelance.

Hannah Isted: Thank you so much for having me. It's been really fun.

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