I had the opportunity to speak to MPs at the Houses of Parliament this week, during a roundtable on the topic of Statutory Sick Pay.
The self-employed here in the UK don’t get anything if they’re unwell - compared to many other countries across the world, where there are programmes in place to support everyone in work, not just employees.
Lack of sick pay, and lack of paid vacation, means lots of freelancers don’t take breaks, don’t take rest, feel they can’t step away from their work - because if they’re not working, they don’t have an income.
The fear, anxiety and worry around not working, not having a client, not knowing where the next project is coming from, can be crippling. It eats away at our confidence. It makes us ask “Am I even good enough to be doing this?”
I’d recently been asked to lead on a brand repositioning project - the sort of work I’ve done multiple times over in recent years, I know what I’m doing - but I’ve been contemplating turning it down because I’ve lost all of my confidence from a year of not getting work, and a year of feeling like I’m not good enough to do them a good job.
Not enough freelancers talk about the feeling of anxiety, the knot in the stomach when it’s not working, when the bank balance is worryingly low, when the self-doubt-fairy climbs on to your shoulder.
I’m not asking for pity here - but I am asking you to give yourself a break if you are pushing yourself so hard, working every day, every night, every weekend, to find the next project, or working doubly hard because you think you’re not good enough, that you’ve got something to prove - and it’s driving you to feel ill.
Personal and professional boundaries are harder when you’re self-employed.
But if you’re sick - there’s no income there either.
pssst. wanna take over an upcoming edition? Send me a note.
We’re hosting a little roundtable conversation in the community on AI - what role is it playing in our practise.
It’s an open invite to all community members (although I’m limiting numbers to keep conversations manageable).
You’re invited to share how you’re using it, ask questions of others, or just listen in. I’ll try and share the highlights/summary of the conversation.
Event details here: https://lu.ma/jmnmpfne
Each week, I’ll try to profile one of our members, so you get to know each other better, and find folk you might want to connect to. Shout if you fancy having your face here.
Hey, I’m Mayra Lima
I’m a brand strategist specializing in brand and communication strategy, with a background in Corporate Communications.
I’ve been in this field for nine years now, though I’ve only recently stepped into working independently.
While I primarily work on my own, I often collaborate with incredibly talented strategists and designers I’ve met throughout my career—people I deeply admire and am lucky to call friends.
Over the years, I’ve worked across industries like beauty, fashion, architecture, and tech, adapting to different geographies, brand challenges, and project scopes.
One project I really enjoyed was supporting a friend’s passion project—an independent fashion brand—by refining its positioning, narrative, and overall messaging.
Another was working on brand and content strategy for a long-standing cultural project with over 20 years of history. The challenge was twofold: supporting them in defining a new direction while ensuring they could bridge the gap between the new audiences they wanted to reach and the core community that had shaped their legacy.
Beyond that, I took on some projects that weren’t strictly strategy but helped me sharpen my skills—particularly in research and data analysis—as they involved understanding how industry and consumer trends showed up in brands’ social media data, and vice versa.
This also gave me the chance to observe how different brands—mostly luxury ones in this case—navigate their own unique challenges and approach strategy, trends, and data in different ways.
I want to work with brands and founders who care about depth, commitment, and playing the long game—not just chasing short-term impact, whether in numbers, engagement, or financial growth, but creating work that influences culture, moves and unites people, and reflects a vision that is uncompromising and courageous in its values.
The best work happens when passionate, creative people come together around something that truly matters.
Three things I’m reading/consuming/loving at the moment:
Reading – Internet for the People by Ben Tarnoff
Loving – The TV series Severance (obsessed with its photography!)
Consuming – I know this probably isn’t meant to be taken literally, but ungodly amounts of rosemary chips. So good, so dangerous.
You can connect with Mayra on Linkedin or via the Community.
What are you reading, thinking, seeing, feeling, doing? Post something in the chat to share, or in #curiositystream on the slack. Thanks to everyone for sharing what’s tickling their brains.
If you’d like to share something that’s making you think, or work you’re currently doing, drop me a note.
» Marianna Boguslavsky, founder & digital strategist, interviews some of the most interesting people in the film industry, regionally and internationally, on the topics of their careers, the film industry, creativity, and the latest marketing trends in the film industry.
“I've only interviewed six guests thus far yet I'm already sensing a shift in the focus of this podcast from when I first started. Instead of it being a higher level ''let's observe the state of the film industry in this region'' it's becoming abundantly clear that what's truly interesting are not the film industry stories, yet it's the people behind the stories.”
Listen here: https://www.boguslavskyandco.com/podcast
» Willem van der Horst has relaunched his newsletter, and is using gaming to explore pricing.
» Matthew Knight was written up in DesignWeek on the state of freelancers lack of support.
» Tash Peskin has launched her new agency website for Boring
» Chris Clarke wrote this powerful post on the importance of boredom
» Five years as an independent - learning from independent consultancy
» Bread based design - using materials in interesting ways to inspire
» Taste is currency - would you buy an empty Aesop bottle for $20?
» Agentic Era - lots of shifts in this fascinating AI space
» Losing your words - is chatgpt making us dumb?
Wanna share your work, ideas or thinking with the community? - drop me a message, and I’ll pop it in the next issue. This is a scrapbook of our ideas, so please open up your brains.
Bones Espresso, Twickenham - My local coffee shop has a “work away from home” menu item - which means you can pay to offset your guilt of sitting in the cafe all day, without buying drinks. I’m in.
Tell us where you’re sat, who you’re working with, what you’re drinking and thinking.
Every week, we share a list of roles found and shared via the the community. Some are directly from businesses who come directly to share their briefs with us. You can get these in real-time if you’re on whatsapp, telegram and slack.
VaynerMedia are looking for strategy people in Poland, Malaysia, Mexico and Spain - is this you? https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250304-vayner.html
Freelance Midweight Strategists (London,UK)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20252401-london.html
freelance media strategist with non-profit experience (UK)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250305-nfp.html
German content strategists for messaging / tov project (Germany)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250305-germany.html
Senior Strategist (Colorado, USA)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250305-ffbd.html
Poland, Spain, Mexico and Malaysia Strategists needed (Remote)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250304-vayner.html
Freelance Creative Strategists (Hybrid,London,Remote)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250303-tech.html
gaming/esports strategist (Remote)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250303-sports.html
Freelance Healthcare Strategist (Remote, UK)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250303-healthcare.html
Senior Strategist/Strategic Copywriter (Bristol,UK)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250303-copy.html
Senior Strategists with b2b exp (London,UK)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250303-b2b.html
That’s all for this week.
mk ✌️
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