5to9

In this episode of 5to9, I had a chat with Rachel Renock, a self-proclaimed creative monster, a rogue lesbian, former freelancer, and now co-founder and CEO of Wethos, an all-in-one platform for freelancers to create proposals, send invoices, and get paid.

In 2016, Rachel co-founded a freelance creative studio that worked with non-profits. After putting together various project-based teams for her clients and making over $1.4M in a little over a year, she realized that there was a bigger problem to solve - helping millions of freelancers double their income and scale their businesses.

We talked about why freelancing is the future (according to data), the most important things for freelancers to learn, collaboration over competition, whether you should freelance in the current market condition, how she persisted in building Wethos after getting rejected by 150 investors then ultimately raised $12M, and more.

This is Rachel Renock for 5to9.

In this episode of 5to9, I had a chat with Carol Chan, a brand strategist & marketer, business coach for female founders, lover of travel, and a loud and proud native New Yorker.

Carol had over 10 years of experience at creative agencies, mission-driven organizations, and high-growth companies like 72 and Sunny, Built by Girls and Pepper. She is now a freelance brand strategist and business coach for modern purpose-driven brands.

We talked about owning our creativity, how she got closer and closer to what she wanted to do after quitting each job, making career decisions from a place of self-love and play, the evolution of My Dearest Co - her creative playground, how she helps people have more self-trust, rest, and ease in both business and life and more!

This is Carol Chan for 5to9.

In this episode of 5to9, I had a chat with Alaina Andreozzi, a fractional CMO, a Pizza Aficionado, and a super networker.

Alaina rose through the ranks in account management at agencies like Wunderman Thompson, R/GA, and Suma Brands. Ultimately she realized she wanted more flexibility and is now a fractional CMO for Haldi - a personalized clean skincare brand and Aavia - a mood and period tracker. She’s also the co-founder of Pizza Wine - a sparking red wine best paired with pizza! 

We talked about what prompted her to leave a good career, being unafraid to name what she wanted (even when it didn’t make any sense), her path to being a fractional CMO, what is fractional work, pitching it to clients (who usually aren’t looking for it), building your network, her "work-pie" and more!

This is Alaina Andreozzi for 5to9.

In this episode of 5to9, I had a chat with Tori Lazar, a fashion stylist turned marketer turned entrepreneur turned tech executive turned leadership coach.

Tori’s had a a pretty untraditional career path and is all about owning failures as opportunities, while always staying true to herself and getting closer and closer to finding alignment in her work.

We talked about her various chapters and learnings in them, when it’s time to quit, how to pick yourself back up after a layoff, sabbaticals, the importance of her support system, finally embracing being her multi-faceted self, and more!

This is Tori Lazar for 5to9.

In this episode of 5to9, I had a chat with Jezz Chung, an author, public speaker, multi-model artist, a karaoke connoisseur, and host of Deem Journals’s podcast Dreaming Different.

Jezz, who uses they/them pronouns, is on a mission to build a liberated future. Their neurodivergent, queer, Korean American experiences shape their work and beliefs in personal transformation as a practice of collective change.

We talked about growing up in a religious household, their advertising career where they made headlines designing a role and why they left it to become an artist, the relationship between self-care and community care, taking risks as a practice, being your own biggest source of permission, and so much more.

This is Jezz Chung for 5to9.

In this episode of 5to9, I had a chat with Nikita Walia, founder & CEO of BLANK - a strategy-first creative company, internet culture aficionado, obsessed with her Spanish greyhound, and an advocate for logging out.

With an educational background in media theory, Nikita started her career as a social strategist in the agency world, she then realized that she did not quite love the environments that she was in and decided to freelance, which led her to build her own brand studio.

We talked about what led her to freelance, and then build an independent brand studio, how her idea of a “dream client” has shifted throughout the years, her process of finding clients, creating an operating system for your life, and more!

I also want to give you a trigger warning that this episode contains a bit of content about self-harm that may be alarming to some listeners.

This is Nikita Walia for 5to9.

In this episode of 5to9, I had a chat with Nicole Cruz, a corporate manager turned life coach, a digital nomad, a mango lover, a 90s hip hop die-hard, and most recently a TEDx speaker.

After climbing the corporate ladder in the insurance industry for a decade, in 2016, Nicole quit her 6-figure corporate job, downsized her belongings, and traveled the world with her husband for 10 months. During that time, she worked on her transformation like it was her full-time job, dove deep into spirituality, and mindset, tried new things, and eventually realized she wanted to become a life coach.

She is now on a mission to help 1st and 2nd generation immigrants of color move from fear and self-doubt to clarity and joy.

We talked about her “good girl” days, what led her to take a sabbatical, evolving her identity, the mindset shifts she had to make from employee to entrepreneur, whether an MBA is worth it, and more!

This is Nicole Cruz for 5to9.

In this episode of 5to9, I had a chat with Alice Katter, Culture & Community strategist, digital nomad, lover of working at cafes, and founder of Out of Office, a life-centered research and design lab committed to scaling a culture of well-being.

Originally from Austria, she moved to New York and has been fascinated by America’s relationship with work.

With a community-centered approach, she designs strategies and programs to empower organizations in catalyzing workplace well-being with companies such as Kyu Collective, Dropbox, and Working not Working.

We had an insightful conversation about Alice’s point of view on the intersection between work and play, how she brings intention to her daily life, her work culture shock after moving to the US, the importance of creative projects, community, and more!

Here is Alice Katter for 5to9.

http://spacetogrow.world 

https://www.instagram.com/spacetogrow.world/

In this episode of 5to9, I had a chat with Allison Fillice, an illustrator, mom to two young children, Creator of The Journey oracle deck (aka my favorite oracle deck), host of the Friendly Unknown podcast, and an avid explorer of creativity, spiritually and psychology.

Allison used to be a design director at a market research company in San Francisco. One day she realized that she did not want to continue down this path and decide to go rogue and be an illustrator. Since then she has worked with clients including the New York Times, The New Yorker, WSJ, Refinery 29, and many more brands in addition to birthing multiple creative projects.

We talked about the moment she realized she wanted to make a big pivot in her life, self-expression, having a detective mindset when embarking on something new, listening to the feeling of resistance, and so many more juicy topics. I truly felt so connected to her in this conversation and was inspired by her deep curiosity to stay true to how she wants to work and live.

This is Allison Fillice for 5to9.

5to9 is a podcast for people seeking inspiration and aspiring to work on their own terms. In this intro episode, I will be talking a little bit about my work and life journey so far and why I’m creating this podcast. 

In upcoming episodes, we’ll have conversations with freelancers, multi-hyphenates, creators, side hustlers, full-timers, coaches and all sorts of folks who made pivots and challenged the status quo to reimagine how they work in relation to the life they want to live and redefine their own success.

 My hope is that it will fuel you in moments of stuckness and keep you going so you can get closer to working and living your dream life. Welcome to 5to9! 5to9 is a podcast by Space to Grow.

http://spacetogrow.world

http://instagram.com/spacetogrow.world