The Human Cloud Podcast Matthew Coatney/Matthew Mottola

Leaders, the freelance economy is quickly transforming from a client first industry to a freelancer first industry. This means that rather than marketplaces having massive networks with little engagement, marketplaces of the future will create thriving freelancer communities that consistently exceed client expectations. No one better understands this than Maari, a freelancer herself and the founder of the freelancer first marketplace Uncompany. 

3:28 - Maari's journey of burnout, freelancing after college, and freelancing to take control of her life
6:35 - The difficulties of transitioning from full time to freelance and how that can challenge one's identity
15:18 - How Maari separated herself as a freelancer by packaging services and being insanely easy to work with 
19:30 - What freelancers really want...good work, good pay, retirement
30:18 - Why Uncompany is focused on a small, engaged freelancer network
38:12 - What's changed in the freelance economy and how Covid catalyzed acceptance
41:12 - Why freelancing won't save you, it can only make things worse
49:02 - How leaders can build their hybrid teams like sports teams

Leaders, it’s rare to see entrepreneurs and business leaders in our space that have real freelance experience, not the ‘I freelanced for 6 months then started coaching’. Brooke is one of those rare leaders. She not only built a successful freelance business, she’s seen all sides of our space as a corporate leader at Postmates, successful web development Freelancer, and entrepreneur helping small business owners hire freelancers.

It’s a path Matthew can personally relate to, and her learnings are crucial to every leader and entrepreneur building in our space.

In this pod we hit on a central theme that is controversial yet unavoidable - the disruption of freelance talent marketplaces. 

Currently our industry has two public company freelance talent marketplaces, Upwork (UPWK) and Fiverr (FVRR). Both were one of the first, both have clear strengths, yet both were built for an industry that is quickly and fundamentally changing. Specifically, freelancers the past 10 years look very different than freelancers entering today.

Enjoy this episode and make sure to subscribe to the Human Cloud Newsletter to be updated when Brooke's Leader Portal goes live.

2:01 - her parents had the flexibility that she expected but her career initially didn't have

4:50 - How she knew how to jump into freelancing

5:45 - Why teachers make phenomenal freelance project managers

7:55 - Why platforms introduced the freelance economy in a transactional way

8:54 - How prioritizing support of the freelancers gets rid of the transactional nature of marketplaces

13:45 - How Postmates shaped her understanding and vision of the freelance economy?

16:51 - What is the future of freelance talent marketplaces? When will they end? What forces will disrupt it?

17:32 - The more freelancers have power, the more the current talent marketplace will not be needed

21:30 - Why companies need full time talent dedicated to just managing freelancers

24:12 - Learnings from small business owners that corporations will need to adopt

24:53 - What companies need...REPORTING!!!!!!! Consistency, simplicity, and one resource to turn too.

25:47 - How can companies support freelancers? Onboarding!!! And empathy.

30:35 - How can government support the freelance economy?

Brooke: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brookemarkevicius/

How can an enterprise like Airbus innovate from within for an initiative as ambitious as an aircraft of the future that's built 'for the people, by the people'? Let's learn from Mina how freelancers have been an integral part of Airbus's innovation strategy, along with:

- Why Airbus Cares: Hint...Accessing 70m+ diverse experts
- How Airbus Started: Hint...Finding changemakers within each function
- Tips For Leaders: Hint...Align passion, build a solid foundation of minimum requirements
- Seeing the Future: Hint...an Amazon for talent (not in a way that commoditizes us freelancers though!!!!!)

Connect with Mina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/minabastawros/

Check out Mina's Leader Portal: https://humancloud.substack.com/s/leaders

EMERGENCY POD - We've recently seen the repeal (then un-repeal) of IR35 and the US's labor department classification proposal. Some call these laws the 'freelance killer' while others say this reaction is overblown. Unfortunately both are right, since the reality is that the freelance economy isn't going anywhere, yet the direction of current legislation does force companies to prioritize pro-active legal classification controls and partnerships, which in turn takes power and control away from freelancers and their choice to work how they want.

In this episode we'll cut through the noise and get to the core of where legislation is heading by talking with Glen, the EU's foremost legal and policy practitioner.

Our prior article on the US's legislation: https://humancloud.substack.com/p/emergency-update-new-worker-classification

It's a scary time as the Biden Administration proposes a freelancer killing bill that can rocket ship inflation and put the US 50 years behind. The freelance economy is going nowhere.
(find these statistics in our newsletter >> humancloud.substack.com)
40% of full-time employees in the US have a side-gig

90% plus of corporate leaders in a recent global survey said they utilize freelancers and say they will increase their reliance.

80% of employers say they are increasing their use of freelancers as they suspend full-time hires.

Instead the US classification direction will force companies to prioritize other countries like the UK who repealed it's equivalent law IR35 and put their freelancers in front of their US equivalent freelancers.

Learn about this and more with the Matthew's monthly update.

Also don't forget to subscribe to the Human Cloud newsletter for charts and more!
humancloud.substack.com

The Matthew's are back breaking down the state of the economy, inflation, quiet quitting, and how these 3 forces hurt millennial full time employees most.

To see the diagrams and stats mentioned in this episode, check out the Human Cloud Newsletter at https://humancloud.substack.com/