About this podcast episode…

ILLUSTRATOR HELEN RIDLEY

In this episode, we hear from Helen Ridley, a freelance illustrator who has carved a unique niche in live event illustration.

Helen shares her inspiring journey from studying fashion design, to working in retail for over a decade, and finally making the leap to full-time freelance illustration during the 2020 lockdown. 

She discusses the challenges and rewards of building her business, the importance of pitching and persistence once you have a contact, and her success with live portraits at events, including a notable partnership with John Lewis. 

Helen’s not just pursuing her passion. She’s focussed her freelancing on what’s actually profitable.

Helen also delves into her collaborative creative workshops and retreats, strategies for email marketing and PR for freelancers, and the value of community and networking in the freelance world.

Available as a video podcast too - Watch Helen here on the site, on YouTube, or Spotify. Enjoy!

Read a full transcript & get Links in the tabs.

More from HELEN RIDLEY

Helen’s website
Helen on Instagram
Helen on LinkedIn
Found & Flourish Retreat on Instagram

Being Freelance Podcast - Hannah Isted episode
Being Freelance Podcast - Liz Mosley episode

More from Steve Folland

Steve on Instagram
Steve’s freelance podcast and video editor site
Steve on LinkedIn
Being Freelance Community
Steve’s regular emails for freelancers
Steve’s course for new freelancers
The Doing It For The Kids podcast

Transcript of the Being Freelance podcast with Steve Folland and illustrator Helen Ridley

Helen Ridley: Hello, I'm Helen. I'm a freelance illustrator. I create live portraits and host creative workshops and retreats. It was just kind of being a bit brazen about it and just putting myself out there, sending pitch emails, following up over and over, just making the most of a contact once I had it. I think I had this idea that when you reach out to a client you'd want to work with, they can be super scary.

Most of the time, people are so lovely. Don't assume that people are super scary or, you know, on this sort of massive pedestal above you. We're all human beings.

Steve Folland: Yes. Their story coming up in a moment. I'm Steve Folland. Welcome to another one. This episode is supported by and recorded using Riverside. If you're after high quality audio and video for your

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Helen Ridley: I think in any business, it's that thing where you have to step back and go, actually, where is the majority of my revenue coming from?

I might enjoy that slightly niche thing that I've been doing, but is it actually making me very much money? And if it isn't, why am I spending so much time on it?

Steve Folland: Yes, there's Helen another episode to add to the back catalogue of over 300 freelancers from around the world sharing their stories if you've not checked them out.

I know that sounds like a lot. That's a significant to do list if this is literally your first one, for example, but honestly, it doesn't matter what they do for a living It's all about the being freelance so do take a look back through all of the years of this podcast, 10 years of episodes there for you to see and to listen to and if you want to get a bit closer into the world of Being Freelance and what I do, my name is Steve Folland,

I'm a freelance video and podcast editor and creator. Then go to beingfreelance. com. You can sign up for the emails where I send out stuff to help your business, stories from the podcast stories from my own business, community updates. It's all in there. Sign up at beingfreelance . Com right now. Should we crack on and chat to this week's guest and that is freelance illustrator, Helen Ridley

As ever how about we get started hearing how you got started being freelance?

Helen Ridley: Well, I think it makes sense to go back to the beginning where I started out. I did my degree in fashion design. Quite a few years ago, to say the least. Yeah, so I did a degree in fashion design, loved creating fashion illustration and loved that side of the industry, but I just didn't have a clue what to do once I graduated as is the case with a lot of creative degrees.

You don't, often get much support on, how to become a freelancer, which I didn't even know was an option when I graduated. I thought I had to work for someone else. I didn't know I could work as an illustrator freelance. So although I loved illustration and I loved doing it as a hobby, I never quite got the hang of it straight out of uni.

So I ended up working in a completely different industry for a while and worked in retail through, it started out as temp jobs and then became my main job for more than 10 years. I was actually a, a quality assurance technician. So I would be working with buyers and merchandisers, developing new products, making sure they were safe, getting them tested.

It was kind of fun. I'd get to visit factories across the world and see how the products are being made, improve their quality procedures and their testing, build relationships with suppliers and agents. But it wasn't particularly creative. And after a few years, I realized regardless of the fact it was paying well, I needed to get out and be creative again.

So in 2020, as with a lot of people, I had time to get back to my creativity and I started building an illustration portfolio. I think the year previous I had taken a short course in illustration, which got me much more excited about it and helped me understand how I could make money as an illustrator.

And then during lockdown, I did an online course as well and built up my portfolio. And by the end of 2020, I decided to take redundancy from the job I was in at the time and went straight into full time freelance for a year, which actually I would not recommend having never done it before and in the middle of lockdown still.

So, it was an interesting year. I was kind of living on my savings for a year because I was finding my way, figuring it out, setting up a business from scratch. And actually I started out as an illustrator for illustrated products and gifts and decorations. So I was making cards and party decorations that were illustrated by me.

I was selling them online and then as things started to open up, I was selling them in markets. But ultimately it really wasn't making me a lot of money on its own. I think if you want to go into that part of the industry, it needs to be one of the things you do, or you just go full on into wholesale with that side of the business.

But I didn't have the time or energy for that. And for the amount of time it was taking me to design everything, develop everything, and then try and sell it as well. It, it wasn't a very good return. So that was four years ago. So, two years in, I decided to completely flip my business, pivot, as they say, and I decided to go into live illustration at live events and weddings.

And it took me about a year to kind of prepare. So I started doing it at small local events at art fairs and things like that and got a really lovely response from people. So then I started going to wedding fairs and speaking to couples and getting a few bookings for weddings. So the first year I was mainly I'm doing live illustration at weddings.

And in the last year I've been doing lots of weddings, but also live pet portraits. And I've had an amazing partnership with John Lewis in the last year where I've done pet portraits in about 14 or 15 stores throughout the year, drawing pets live. So I'm not asking... it's dogs and I'm not asking them to sit still for 10 minutes cause it takes me that long to do a portrait.

I take a quick photo. They go off and have a browse in the shop and come back and collect their portrait. But yeah, so that's kind of become my, it's almost half of my business at the moment, which is a bit crazy. And then alongside that, I also teach creative workshops and host a calligraphy and watercolor retreat with a friend who's a calligrapher.

Steve Folland: Wow. Okay. There's a lot to unpick here. First of all, though, I love the fact that, you know, you weren't feeling creative and you, you've made this change and it's worked out. I love that. So that first couple of years was mainly you create... rather than getting clients, for example, it was you creating your own products and trying to sell them, but realizing that really it just wasn't going to work out financially.

Would that be right? Or were you getting commissions?

Helen Ridley: I was getting commissions for pet portraits in the traditional way where people send you photos, you do them in your studio. So I was doing a few commissions like that, sort of personal ones, not with, branding clients. And yeah, I was pitching to do editorial work.

I was building my portfolio for publishing work, but I think it was a confidence thing. Putting myself out there, but not always getting much of a response or just not putting myself out there enough in hindsight. I think I really needed to amp that up a lot more. and it just took, it took me quite a while to build up the confidence to realize what I could do as an illustrator and what I was capable of.

I think also, I realized perhaps my heart just wasn't in it enough to pursue those parts of illustration. And actually when I started live illustration, I was like, this is what I love. This is what I'm enjoying. And I just can't stop talking about it. And because I love drawing fast. Some illustrators, you know, want to take time over their pieces and go into tons of tons of detail, which is amazing.

And I just don't have the patience for that usually, I like drawing fast and so it turns out there's a job where you get paid to draw really fast. and it's really fun... because that was the other thing, setting up a business in lockdown, you just don't see many people in real life. And I missed that.

So live illustration and hosting workshops means you meet people all the time and it's really sociable. And so that's the bit I was missing and wanted to get back to.

Steve Folland: Okay, so we have to address what I'm sure lots of people are thinking is, how do you go from, you know, sitting in your house thinking, I like the idea of doing live events, to actually doing them and then ultimately doing them for John Lewis, which for those listening around the world is like the biggest department store and a very, very high end one.

Like it's accessible to everyone. It's not like Harrods or whatever, but it's, it's a classy affair. I think it's fair to say. Yeah. Take us through that.

I guess that first step, how, how did you go about taking the idea 'I fancy doing live drawing' to making it reality? And then, even if that's further through the story, how did you end up with that kind of deal going on?

Helen Ridley: I guess to start with, I did lots of research. So I looked at other live illustrators out there, what their style was, as in, you know, how could I simplify my drawings to be stylized enough to do them quickly? I didn't want to copy someone else's style. So I, I had a look at what they were doing, what packages they offered, you know, what, what does a live illustrator do to kind of get my head around that?

And it varies a lot. Some of them do live ceremony paintings and sort of will do a, a live painting. in a full day. and then they'll also do guest portraits, but I realized the thing I enjoy the most is the guest portraits of people. So I'll do portraits of individuals or couples on the day there and then, and they take them away as gifts, as wedding favors usually.

So I did my research on other illustrators. I figured out how much I should be charging. I realized the wedding part of the industry is perhaps a slightly easier part to get into rather than going straight into working with brands. So that led me to sort of going to wedding fairs and finding clients that way and updating my website, and marketing myself as a live illustrator.

But it was also, I had to time myself to know I could create a portrait in 10 minutes. So it was lots and lots of practice. So as I said, it took me about a year to get to the point where I did my first proper event. From practicing it, doing a few local events, like local markets and art fairs, and then, and building up my packages, updating my website, getting some, professional photography really helped as well, and having lots of examples of what I did.

Putting together price lists and packages that I could send to clients when they inquired. I added myself onto things like Hitched, which is a wedding supplier website. It was kind of a gradual process. It's.. It sounds like an overnight thing, but it really did take quite a lot of time to prepare and plan for.

But that was the thing, like I had to know I was doing it right and feel professional. But there's also just an element of being like... just saying I can do it and doing it and figuring it out. And I think that's with a lot of things where you want to try something brand new, you've just got to be a bit brazen about it and just say you can do it anyway and hope someone will trust you.

And luckily, so a few, you know, the first few couples that booked me did and they loved it. And then I started getting reviews and feedback and that was helpful as well to promote what I was doing.

Yeah. So starting with weddings for me was the easiest way in. and then when it came to working with brands, I adopted a dog, a year and a half ago and I love dogs and I love working with them.

So I had the idea at the beginning of last year to start pitching to work with dog friendly brands. And actually John Lewis was one where I got chatting to the events coordinator and my local John Lewis and I did live people portraits on International Women's Day just over a year ago. And kept in contact with her.

That was after following up with her for about a year, or nine months of sending her emails and saying, hi, I'm still free. I'm still available. I'd love to work with you. And eventually she booked me for that event. Off the back of that, I then got in contact with the person I found on LinkedIn who does all live events at John Lewis.

He's like the head of live events. And that person was amazing, responded straight away, which I was not expecting saying, love what you do, but actually could you do dogs? And I was like, actually, yes, I've just, I had at the time just done a live dog event, like, it was called Dog's Day Out in Hampshire.

And so I was doing live portraits. People were paying me individually. I wasn't booked by the brand to be there. It was just, it was a bit of a trial, but it was so popular, really fun. I had so many brilliant pictures from it. I did really well from that. So I had, I turned that into a blog post. So I sent, John Lewis, a link to that blog post.

And they're like, yeah, that's perfect. Can we book you for five dates in, in the summer? Because they wanted to trial it to kind of get people to come into store in the summer when it's a bit quieter. So they booked me for five different stores, summer last year. Again, it was really popular, particularly when it's free for the customers.

They're coming in, they're getting a lovely free portrait, but from John Lewis's point of view, they're getting people into the store, staying there, shopping, enjoying the experience, getting a lovely impression of John Lewis as well. You know, it sticks in their mind that like, this is a place where you get lovely free things and they look after you.

And they make my dog welcome, which as a dog owner, you don't always get that in everywhere you visit. so it was really popular in the summer. So they invited me back for another eight dates at Christmas, across, eight different stores, over the Christmas period.

So yeah, it was being, it was just kind of being a bit, brazen about it and just putting myself out there, sending pitch emails, following up over and over, just making the most of a contact once I had it, I guess.

Steve Folland: I was going to say, cause there was a bit there where you said, yeah, I got talking to the events person at my local John Lewis and I thought. You don't just get talking to an event person,

Helen Ridley: That's a longer story.

Steve Folland: It goes to show the dedication of like knocking on the door and then keeping, keeping in touch repeatedly by the sounds of it.

Helen Ridley: So I, that came off the back of me being part of a local art group. so when I first sort of went freelance, I started. I wanted to try and find communities locally. I thought as an artist, I'll join an art group, but it was more kind of fine artists, people doing paintings, sculptures, et cetera. But I did, I do a little bit of painting and I, I created some paintings and they were doing something called Open for Art where they have, they ask local venues in the Reading area where I'm based, The charity I'm speaking about that had the art group is called Jelly as well.

And they, yeah, so they have what they call associate artists that are affiliated with Jelly. And then they put on this open for art where they ask local cafes, shops, restaurants to exhibit art over the course of a few weeks in the summer. And one of those venues was the John Lewis Cafe. And I got allocated to the John Lewis cafe.

So me and a friend who's a painter as well, went to exhibit our work and set it and hang it in the cafe. And we got chatting to the lady there who was the events coordinator who was helping organize our work being exhibited. I said, well, actually I also do live portraits. Is that something you'd be interested in?

And so, she said she would. And so I had her email off the back of organizing the port.., the sort of painting exhibition. And that was, that was the one contact I had. And I just followed it up for like nine months. And finally it led to me doing live portraits in the store.

Steve Folland: Wow. Okay. Nine months is a long time.

How do you cope with, I mean, maybe it wasn't rejection, maybe it was, yeah, yeah, not right now, but maybe it was an open door. I don't know. But it's just that for many people, that sense of reaching out, staying in touch, you know, persevering, like that, that can be tricky. How have you dealt with it?

Helen Ridley: Well, that was something else I tried.

For probably, yeah, about a year and a half ago, I started something called the 100 rejections challenge, which I'd heard about through Liz Mosley and Katie Chappell. I think they did a podcast on it. They've written their own blogs on it. And it's, I think it's a lots of people are doing it, but I heard about it through them.

And basically it's the idea of that you gamify rejection. You try and get as many rejections as you can, as opposed to acceptance. Yeses. But actually in the process of putting yourself out there outside of your comfort zone and trying lots of new things, you actually get loads of amazing opportunities and, as a result, I, it's led to so many.

Brilliant things that I've tried in the last year or two. So that was kind of part of it. That was just kind of changing my mindset to think I'm just going to try it anyway and see what happens. I think previously if someone didn't reply or said no at first, I'd leave it at that and wouldn't follow it up.

Whereas nowadays I try and persist with following up. Doesn't always work. I've had other people that were super keen at the beginning and then disappeared and ghosted me. But then other times they're sort of, sound keen and then you just keep chipping away and keep checking in with them and eventually it does lead to things, you just never know

Steve Folland: Liz was on the podcast, episode 300 when we did it live and it was a couple of years ago but she talks about that challenge and I love now that it's like reverberating around the creative community and and seeing the benefits as well.

How cool is that? Do you then have a system for making those cold outreach and staying on top of?..

Helen Ridley: Yeah, I have a spreadsheet. I have a Google sheet thing. I just have a list of all the people I'm pitching to, categorize them. One of them was you. Like it could include, it's not just clients. It's working...

it's like press and getting onto podcasts. I've been on the local radio recently as well. just before Christmas. It can be anything. So I, yeah, I just have a, I do love a spreadsheet. I, for someone that's creative, I actually get quite geeky about spreadsheets from my years working in a, in the retail industry and actually doing quite a technical job.

I'm pretty good at Excel and spreadsheet stuff, so I can make it look quite fancy. I can put all the filters and colors and stuff into it and formulas if I want to. So yeah, I don't mind, drilling down into that detail. It's not a sort of perfectly slick spreadsheet. It's a little bit messy. But it does the job and I, when I pitch to something, I'll, I'll have it on the spreadsheet and then I'll check in whether I followed up.

So it's kind of everything's in one place really. And then I filter it by the type of thing I'm pitching for. And then I have a few templates that I use that I tweak depending on what I'm pitching for. So I'll say. yeah, to make them personal. So I, and I do my research, I don't just kind of send out random pitches.

I try, you know, if I want to be on your podcast, for example, I listen to the podcast, I listen to your guests, I make notes on what you talked about and why I wanted, why I thought I would be a good fit, you know, cause your time is limited as much as anyone's. So I want to make it easy for you if you want to decide to have me, on your podcast and the same applies to working with a client.

You've got to make it easy for them to want to work with you and give them the information they'll need to make that decision.

Steve Folland: Now, it's one thing to pitch to other events, other companies who do events, since you're doing live event illustration, but it's another to then think, I know, I'll put on my own events, but that's what you did, right?

Helen Ridley: Yeah, so alongside the live illustration work and also selling products, I've been teaching watercolour workshops, illustration workshops at various venues, local to me, sometimes in London. And I really enjoy it. So I became friends with a calligrapher called Jodie Rose Calligraphy. And she came to one of my workshops at one event I did, and we got chatting, became friendly, and I sort of pitched to her, like, why don't we try and do a joint event combining watercolor and calligraphy?

Cause she does, teaches a lot of calligraphy workshops. She does really well from that. She also does live events doing calligraphy at live events. So there's quite a lot of overlap in what we do and we decided, yeah, well let's, let's do it.

So this time last year we had, we sort of finalized the idea, started researching venues, our budget, what it would look like. It took a long time to kind of bring all the elements together and research everything. But we've now got a lovely venue called, The Garden Gallery, which is part of, behind the Museum of Farnham in Surrey.

And, it's a full day retreat. You'd get a watercolor workshop and a calligraphy workshop. You do one or the other in the morning and then you swap in the afternoon. Then we, we also have a breathwork practitioner who's going to open the retreat and get everyone grounded and relaxed at the beginning of the day.

Everyone gets a personalized calligraphy, personalized, art box with everything they need for every workshop. And then we have lovely food from local suppliers, like Grays Board, delicious food, and local cookies from, the, the cookies were from the venue where Jodie and I met. So that was quite a nice full circle as well.

So yeah, we, we try and we worked with as many local suppliers as we could. We hosted our first one in autumn last year, and we've got the next one in spring on the 6th of April. The one last year was sold out. It was amazing. It all came together and was.. And we got some fantastic reviews and feedback from people.

Yeah, so it was, it was fantastic. It.. We learned an awful lot in the process. It wasn't straightforward. I wouldn't say it's made us loads of money, but it's been an amazing experience to do. And I've loved working with Jodie, throughout the process.

Steve Folland: I was going to say, I mean, it's so impressive. I mean, I love the fact that you're collaborating on it, but also there's the, the amount of work involved in even just getting a few people around a table in a pub is a lot.

So to put on that kind of thing in such beautiful detail as well. And, I guess almost like the financial risk, to it as well. Not knowing how that's going to work out. Like what, what did you, what were your biggest takeaway learnings from that experience?

Helen Ridley: I think, well, doing it with someone else is the key.

I think if I'd been trying to do the entire thing on my own, I would have really struggled alongside if it was.... Because, as I said, it takes, we're, we're probably not paying ourselves the amount of hours we put into it at all. We make a small profit off the back of the fact that we cover our costs and then, we get some profit on the top of that, but it's, it's an awful lot of work on your own.

So I think having, having someone to do it with you... saying that we also had Jodie's mum helping us on the day cause she was, and she helped us, just to like serving teas and coffees and helping tidy up and actually, and helping us set up and pack down. Having that extra set of hands was amazing and she was brilliant as well.

So I think it's actually like bring in people as much as you can to help, you know, people you trust and people that, that was the other thing Jodie and I had sort of. I've had different skills, like it's worked quite well where one of us is naturally better at one thing and the other is better at another.

So I, for example, love doing email marketing. So I've been the one sending out all the emails and the updates to the attendees. Jodie's a lot more active on Instagram. So she was doing lots of lovely reels of her doing calligraphy writing. And she's been organizing our Facebook and Instagram ads, for example.

And then sort of between us, we're researching the suppliers and contacting suppliers. So like you'll do the caterers, I'll do the venue, et cetera. So it's about dividing and conquering and delegating. And, yeah, don't, don't try and do it all on your own basically. That's what the main thing I've learned.

Steve Folland: The other thing you need, of course, is an audience of people who know you and want to buy tickets, I guess. So do you have quite a presence online that you've built up over the past few years?

Helen Ridley: Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't say either of us are huge on social media, but we do have established audiences for people that attend our workshops.

We have set up our own Instagram account for the Flow and Flourish Retreat, which is what it's called. But it's, it's interesting the places people heard about it. I did a podcast around this time last year about creativity with a lady called Irene, who runs a company called Makings and Musings. And someone heard that podcast and heard me talking about the retreat and booked off the back of that.

So I was like, that was unexpected. I didn't realize, you know, you never know who's listening or who's watching. And then I think I did a, an event in a plant shop in Reading year before last. Where I was doing portraits of people holding their plants that they just bought. It was like to launch the one year anniversary of the shop opening and the owner Jackie booked me to do live portraits on the day and a lady who was there having her live portrait done signed up to my mailing list and then came to the retreat the following year.

And I, I, I've been doing markets and yeah, so I wouldn't say it's just an online presence that makes a difference. I would say putting yourself out there in real life in different ways, marketing yourself in lots of different ways. Really is the key and email marketing. I'd say like building up, we built up a wait list, which I would always recommend for any event, get people on your mailing list and, and a wait list because it's more exclusive.

They're the first people to hear about the event. They get exclusive access to it early. We offer discounts to them if they're on the wait list, et cetera. So that was key as well. I think, so it's a combination of things.

Steve Folland: So it sounds like you're really on top of your email marketing then.

Helen Ridley: I try to be, I, the fact I have one, I think is, a lot more than a lot of people, so many people are so scared of it.

I mean, I was looking back at the one I did when I really first started just doing cards and I was like, Goodness me, it was terrible. it was a pretty rubbish little email, but I was just sending it to like a handful of friends and family probably right at the beginning, but as I've gone along, I've learned loads and got better and better.

I've done a few courses on email marketing to understand how it works and how to collect, collect emails and get. Sort of people to sign up. I wouldn't say I have a gigantic mailing list. I don't do a lot of online marketing for it. I tend to get people signing up when I'm at live events usually, and I send on average one email a month.

So I don't send it that often. But then for the retreat, I've sent more because it's been a specific audience that want to hear from me about that particular thing because they're on the wait list. So, yeah, I, I, I keep improving. So yeah, the fact that I'm doing it, and I'm fairly consistent with it, I think is the main thing.

Steve Folland: So what do you put in that monthly one?

Helen Ridley: It's usually what I've been up to, what events I have coming up, so it's like the first place people can hear about my upcoming events. I also sort of recommend my favorite like exhibitions or books or podcasts I've been listening to or other small business...

small businesses. So like I've been setting my goals for 2025 and I've recommended a couple of small businesses I've worked with, which I think you've both had as guests. So it's Hannah Isted with Hi Communications for her Best 90 Days Ever, which has been great for helping me set goals for marketing.

And then Lucy Werner, who does her PR, Hype Yourself community on Substack, she's been helping, she's done a workshop on setting goals for, PR goals for the year. So I kind of linked to those in my latest newsletter, for example, and yeah, and it's talking about the retreat. If that's coming up, it's talking about the, how to book me for a wedding, how to book me for a live event, if you're wanting to work with me as a client.

And sometimes I take commissions for. pet portraits or people portraits.

I think the usual rule I have for a newsletter is make three main points, try to keep it fairly succinct and lots of nice pictures and I try and make them as nice and colorful as well with lots of photos.

Steve Folland: Amazing. So it sounds like you've taken, particularly maybe the last year or two, you're like, you're marketing very, I was going to say seriously, but it sounds fun, but seriously, you've taken it seriously.

Helen Ridley: Exactly. Yeah. That's probably become fun for the first time in a while. I'd say signing up to Hannah's Best 90 Days in the last year has really helped. That's got a lovely community of really supportive people. I think finding some cheerleaders and like working with, people like Jodie, where we can share ideas and cheer each other on really helps as well.

Like, I think the thing with marketing is, yeah, what I've mainly tried this year is loads of different things. I think previously I was fairly focused on social media and that's become much harder to make an impact on. So I, I try, I'm just always trying something new. I love, I get really geeky about things like PR and doing what I sort of, I've been in a couple of wedding magazines in the last year that I pitched to, I've been on the radio a couple of times, I've been on some podcasts.

So that's kind of my focus this year I think is what PR type stuff can I get? Because I don't know if PR leads to loads of new business necessarily, but it's a lot more fun than just endlessly posting on social media.

And I think social media is useful and necessary as a kind of shop window. Like this is what I do. This is who I am. This is how to work with me. Keeping people informed about what you're up to, but it really, for me, isn't my main focus. I, I try and do as many different things as I can. And actually I'd say my newsletters are probably my favorite type of marketing rather than social media stuff.

Steve Folland: How would you say you divide up your time? There's a lot of focus on marketing. And I'm guessing that, you know, it's not like you have a live event every day, like somebody sitting down to do a bit of work every day. So...

Helen Ridley: It depends. So really it's peaks and troughs and depending on the time of year, this time of year is much, much quieter.

I don't have live events in January particularly, but I've been using January to plan and prepare for the rest of the year and sort of pitch to work with different clients and plan things in for the sort of early sort of late spring and through the summer is when I have lots of weddings usually, and then Christmas, this last year was very busy for live events as well.

So it will depend on the time of year. So I actually have a part time job two days a week as well. I work for the Association of Illustrators working on the World Illustration Awards, but that's actually a marketing role. So I think through that, I've learned lots about marketing as well, because I do their social media, their newsletters, their blog posts.

So that's become, made me much more comfortable with, That side of the business is of running a business as well or promoting something. So yeah, usually when it's busy, I'll have around two events a week, often on weekends. So that kind of means I'd shift my days in the week as to what I'm doing so then I'll have a one or two days a week, I'm catching up on admin on and planning my marketing, or having meetings or going to networking events.

Networking, networking is another thing I've done in the last year that I hadn't done previously. And that's also helped my confidence and marketing, I think as well. So yeah, it's, it's a bit of a juggle.

It's not always an easy nine to five routine. I have a studio that I can come to a couple of times a week, which helps cause it's just mine and it's completely quiet and I don't get any distractions. So that helps me get on with things and catch up on what I need to do and have meetings like this. and yeah, so I, I'd sort of balance my week like that, really a couple of events, a couple of admin days.

And then my part time job as well, usually.

Steve Folland: It's interesting that you, so the job must give you a little bit of security, but it's also in the field that you're working in.

Helen Ridley: Exactly. I'm pretty, it's pretty incredible how relevant it is in the illustration industry. It's given me lots of experience of marketing and it's so inspiring as well, like seeing what other illustrators do, like when they're applying for the awards and then when we, when they're entering the awards with all their beautiful work and then when we start celebrating the people that are longlisted and shortlisted and then the winners.

I got nominated for an award, in November. And was highly commended for a, the Quirky Weddings Award, it's called. so it was The Most Unique Finishing Touch was my category. And I was thinking, well, I'm always telling illustrators in my day job. to promote themselves and make the most of the fact they've got an award or they've been shortlisted.

I need to do the same. So I pitched to my local press and I pitched my local radio to talk about it. And that's how I got onto my local radio was putting together a press release about it. They invited me on to talk about live illustration. And I also did a live portrait of the host of the show. Whilst I was on air, which is really fun.

And then she invited Jodie to come on the show a few weeks later. So she was talking about calligraphy and also about the retreat again. So yeah, I'm sort of trying to put myself in those illustrators shoes and think, what do I tell them to do? And what should I be doing? You've

Steve Folland: not been secretly painting me and you the whole time.

Have you? Just slightly out of shot.

Helen Ridley: No. Thinking I should have

Steve Folland: done my hair better.

Helen Ridley: No, everyone in my portrait is almost like. Lovely. So don't worry. I always make everyone smile. Everyone's got happy faces. It's honestly, people always like, Oh, give, you know, take away my chins or make me look slim. And I was like, people are beautiful.

However they come like, and I like drawing real people, like obviously doing a fashion degree. I was, I learned how to draw fashion models, which are skinny and elongated, but that's the thing I like about. drawing real people at weddings and live events is celebrating everyone in any shape or size they come in and, making them feel beautiful, which I think they always do, which is lovely.

Steve Folland: But now you mentioned elongated fashion models and you're looking at me, you're thinking, yeah, actually it's come full circle. That's nice.

One thing I did want to ask you about Helen is, and I guess this falls into the marketing thing is the video on your, I mean, your website is great anyway.

Of course, there'll be a link at beingfreelance. com, but right there at the top is this beautiful video that really captures, well it's filmed at a wedding. Did you commission that?

Helen Ridley: So that was a collaboration with someone called Chris Milbourne who has a company called Heart Shaped Films. And I met him at a wedding fair I did about a year and a half ago.

He was literally just starting out in his business, mainly wanting to become a wedding videographer. But he also does, he works with corporate clients and local businesses and, he also, yeah, has now started doing promotional videos for small businesses. So in exchange for me giving him some business mentorship advice, so we had about three mentorship sessions where I was giving him advice on how to improve his website, how to market himself, set up his mailing list, be more present on social media.

So I've been giving him lots of advice on that. In exchange for that, he offered to do a video of me at work at a wedding. So I checked with a couple. They were happy for him to be there, which they were, which was amazing. So he came along for a few hours whilst I was working, captured me working and chatting to the guests and drawing them and painting them and then he put it together in this incredible beautifully edited video. But yeah, he did an amazing job and now I've got it as a brilliant beautiful video on my website and that I can use for social media as well.

Steve Folland: I mean, it's so good. You got to go take a look because it, I mean, obviously it shows how joyous my wedding could be if you were there doing what you do.

So it shows the actual work that you do, but it does also give a sense of your personality, even though you're not even speaking on it I think it's, it's great.

Helen Ridley: Okay. That's good to know. It's, I haven't actually had sort of direct feedback about it. So I mean, I love the video obviously, and I'm really amazed with it.

I think Chris has done an incredible job, but yeah, it's lovely to hear it. It gives that impression. That's really nice.

Steve Folland: So there's so... well, obviously you've you've focused like your niche is live events, I guess even within that wedding and dogs, by the sounds of it, equally this, it feels like there's so many things that you could be doing, as an illustrator.

I mean, you even mentioned like the product side of it and things like that early on. So I'm wondering, like, how do you keep focused when there's so much opportunity for what you could do?

Helen Ridley: So this was part of the reason that I pivoted the business, a couple of years ago. When I started out, I wanted to try and do a bit of everything.

I wanted to try editorial, publishing. I was interested in surface pattern design. So designing prints for fabric and products, or having my designs licensed by different companies or like working in advertising, there was so many different avenues I could have gone down and I was like, actually, I just need to pick two or three things I like.

It's also. I think in any business, it's that thing where you have to step back and go, actually, where is the majority of my revenue coming from? I might enjoy that slightly niche thing that I've been doing, but is it actually making me very much money? And if it isn't, why am I spending so much time on it when I could be focusing on something I also enjoy, but is much more profitable and it makes me a proper living and I can actually, you know, support myself as an illustrator.

So that was for me, the thing where I realized doing live events, because it's quite a high pressure thing, it's very unique, it's very skilled. It does pay very well. You have to find far less clients to do that type of work than you would, you'd have to find, you know, a few thousand individual people buying, cards very frequently in order to make a reasonable living from selling cards on their own.

So I, once I kind of did that basic maths, I guess I was like, okay, I need to... plus I'm, I have managed, I've been having like a part time job alongside this for the last couple of years.

And with that, you need to be economical with your time and real, you know, understand like, okay, I have these three to four extra days a week I can work for myself. What am I going to do in those days? That's going to maximize my time. And live events has been the most logical thing to do for me anyway.

Plus I really love it. So yeah, it's a case of stepping back a little bit and looking at all the different things you're wanting to do or have been trying and what's working, what's not, and just kind of pick two or three to focus on.

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

Helen Ridley: Well, I think being freelance at the age I am now is better than it would have been if I'd done it straight out of university. I think I've got way more confidence now to be a freelancer.

And although I would have loved to have been an illustrator when I started out, I don't think I would have made it the same as I am... I am now. I think all the life experience I've had and all the different random jobs I've had have led up to this point and made me ready to be a freelancer now. Yeah. My, my younger self was a bit, was a bit sad and a bit despondent that I wasn't being creative enough, but I would tell them, you just got to hang in there.

It will get better and you'll get to a point where you're illustrating dogs and being paid for it.

Steve Folland: You did mention in your retail career how important relationships were, and it sounds like they're very important now as well. I mean, we hear it again and again, you know, the connections that you make are important.

But how do you feel that you, like, what makes those relationships good? How do you deal with it?

Helen Ridley: I guess it's being yourself and being open to new experiences, new conversations. Remembering that most people would want a connection and most people are nice as well. I think I had this idea that when you reach out to a client you'd want to work with, they can be super scary, like someone, like a publisher or an editorial, art director.

And most of the time, people are so lovely, like, and love to hear from you. I'm always amazed at how excited people are to hear from me when I reach out to them. And yeah, I think that's the thing is don't, don't assume that people are super scary or like on this sort of massive pedestal above you, like we're all human beings and we all need and want connection.

I think it's just be personal, you know, make it, make them feel like you actually care about them, not just about yourself and what you can get out of it. And it's normally a good experience if you go about it that way.

Steve Folland: Helen, this has been brilliant. Thank you so much. Go to beingfreelance. com, follow the links through, go find Helen wherever she is online but for now, Helen, thank you so much and all the best being freelance!

Helen Ridley: Thank you.

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