Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Meredith Lindsay. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Meredith thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Being able to make a living while doing what I love has been one of the greatest gifts of my life. The only thing that tops this is being able to use my skills and experience on projects that contribute to the greater good. Working with non-profits and charities can be quite intense and complex, but it is also equally rewarding. Knowing that my work will be used to help to further human rights, to shine a light on our unhoused population, or to reintegrate child soldiers back into society is worth more that a simple paycheque. As a large percentage of my work with non-profits is behind the scenes, intended for small groups, and is mainly educational, I was happily surprised and honoured when asked to design something that would be seen by millions across the globe.

In 2018, I was approached by Plan International Canada to design a Twitter emoji for the Day of the Girl through a collaboration between the United Nations and Twitter. The new emoji was unlocked to celebrate the International Day of the Girl and appeared when people used the hashtag #DayOfTheGirl. I was floored when they informed me that the emoji was to be used internationally (at first it was just for Canada) and in many languages. To see Michelle Obama, Malala, Justin Trudeau and so many other people and institutions that I respected and admired using my design was absolutely incredible. Hands down this was the highlight of my career. I feel so lucky and honoured to this day to have been a part of such a cool project!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Before doing what I do now, I worked for over a decade in the broadcast industry as a video editor. While I absolutely loved my time working in television, such an intense work load (and commute!) did not mesh well with starting a family. There were just not enough hours in the day to fit it all in and I knew I wouldn’t be happy trying to stuff 36 hours of life into 24. This was the dilemma and experience for so many new moms I knew. The work environment we were once able to navigate and balance with relative ease had become exhausting, stressful and so full of compromises.

The scariest thing I ever did was to leave my guaranteed paycheque and steady supply of work to become a wild freelancer. I was very lucky to know a few other women/moms who had already made the leap. They mentored and encouraged me as I ventured out into the unknown. I started out designing for a former colleague, who herself had gone rogue and had left broadcasting, and through her referrals my business began to germinate. In all honesty my escape from the office world wasn’t planned or even well thought out. I stumbled and tripped a lot in the beginning. I was a new business owner and shy introvert who needed to “get out there” and drum up business. It was overwhelming and felt hopeless at times.

Through years of expanding my services, partnering up with extrovert connectors and collaborators, as well as always going above and beyond, I collected more and more referrals and built up longterm relationships with my clients. I went from “a woman with a laptop and some design skills” to having my own company that works with individuals, companies and non-profits from around the world.

When people would ask me what I did for a living, I would always have a very hard time summing it all up. The image of an octopus came to mind one day, so now I often describe myself as a media octopus. My tentacles working in different creative areas – from logo design, branding, packaging, websites, book pagination, social media ads, writing, video editing…and on and on. Anything that requires some creative juice and design experience, and I’m all in!

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Working with extroverted connectors has been such a game changer for me. After a few years of working with only client to client referrals, I was lucky enough to meet several people who expertly straddled the gap between sales/business and the creative field. Their talents, social skills, and expertise complimented my creativity and professionalism. In my years of freelancing, building a network of collaborators and connectors has brought so many new clients and projects to my door. Some of my connectors operate on commission (which is completely worth it for me) while others mark up my services later on down the line. They refer me, I refer them, and more often than not we work together on projects that would have fallen outside of our scope had we ventured it alone. So in short, collaboration with connectors is the fuel to my business fire.

A large part of my client base is made up of independent authors. On my own, I would never have had the time or energy to find and market to all of these individuals (also did I mention that I’m a shy introvert?). But, by having a social connector who works in the publishing as a contact, I’ve been able to follow one of my design dreams by working on book design and pagination.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I think the most important mindset I needed to unlearn was the how to put a dollar amount on my services. It took a long time to break the hourly workplace mentality. After over a decade of receiving a paycheque based on hours worked (no matter the client or project) it was hard for me to determine my monetary worth. Before I was working for a large company. It was their name on the sign and I was a small cog in the system. Now I needed to put a price on Meredith’s skillset and experience. Imposter syndrome really took hold at this point. Was I really worth more? When I first struck out I charged exactly what I was making when I had left the broadcasting fold. At this point, I had to manage all the overhead, but still couldn’t imagine asking for more. It took several lectures from two of my clients (one a savvy financial expert, and another, a photographer freelancer with an MBA) for me to really understand how much the game had changed and how much value I actually brought to the table. The best piece of advice they gave me was that undercharging was a race to the bottom. My advice is to do your research on pricing (hourly, project based and the overall value the client receives from the design). Also, and this is important, add a buffer to your quote. It never goes as smoothy as they say it will and scope creep is very real. Best case scenario, you don’t need it and you can invoice a little less. They love that!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mediamercantile.com
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/meredith-l-63b034bb