Ep. 126: Christine Olivas, Founder & CEO of No Single Individual, The Power of Freelance Teams and Advertising

Agency and Freelance Leaders, 

Are you ready for a masterclass on how to win as an agency, how to scale a talent platform, and how to balance the cultural and tactical aspects of scaling a freelance workforce? 

In this episode, we will learn from Christine Olivas, Founder and CEO of No Single Individual (formerly known as Co Conspirators) which was founded in 2021 and is the ad industry’s preferred choice for freelance strategy talent.

We’ll touch on how today’s advertising and marketing agencies can be successful by integrating freelancers within their talent strategy, as well as intentionally integrating freelancers into teams and talent planning rather than treating them as a secondary, “plug the hole” resource.

We’ll also hit on two main blockers for successful freelance integration within agencies - (1) cultural challenges, specifically being open to freelancers, and (2) red tape, specifically the blockers to hire, onboard, and re-hire freelancers.

Then, we’ll look at 4 keys to success that make No Single Individual a trusted partner for agencies:

1. Successful platforms inherently have founder market fit, and grow by scaling the founder, and the founder's book of business

2. Successful talent platforms are niche. They are not everything for everyone. In No Single Individual’s case, they are an agency that specializes in serving agencies. 

3. Successful talent platforms make it easy to get started and know exactly what they’re hiring a freelancer for. In Christine’s case, her use cases, in order, are (1) Winning RFP’s and proposals, (2) Family leave and re-onboarding, (3) Skills outside of an agency's core, like influencer marketing, and (4) Scale in the volume needed to execute.

4. The reasons No Single Individual’s members freelance with them are (1) To collaborate with fellow freelancers, (2) To have predictability, (3) To focus on the work.

It was truly a masterclass. 

Christine brings full transparency in this episode. For example, she mentioned how they scaled from $500,000 in year 1 to $2 million now in year 4.

Enjoy!