The Human Cloud Podcast

It's been one hell of a year for the $5.4 trillion dollar freelance economy. From seeing budgets expand to the number of freelancers increase, the freelance economy is now top of mind within every leadership team. This week we'll meet with the most important researcher and reporter on the freelance economy - Jon Younger.  We'll discuss: - What changed in the past year - How layoffs, tightening, and a looming recession necessitate the change in business strategy from growth to profitability - 9 predictions of what needs to change to 2x our industry Find the transcript and stats at our newsletter: https://humancloud.substack.com/

We consider Albert the Creative Leader of the Future. 10 years ago he’d be your fastest rising Creative VP. Today he’s better off being independent where he can rise quicker without your corporate bullsh**. Albert will breakdown the seismic shifts in work, the decline of freelance talent marketplaces, and how individuals can be ready for a freelance first economy.  Make sure to check out his leader portal to find exact quotes: https://humancloud.substack.com/s/leaders 3:50 - Albert’s Background 10:47 - The ‘freelance’ economy is just a term to describe how we get work done 17:24 - Difference between top freelancers and everyone else…clearly communicating commercial value 23:30 - How to create the best commercial differentiation 28:12 - How Albert built his freelance career 31:34 - The ‘fumble’ years of freelancing…years 3-5 43:01 - Marketplaces…do we need them? 45:34 - Why will marketplaces die…by being in the way of how a freelancer grows 53:35 - What systems will drive the future of work  Albert's Leader Portal: https://humancloud.substack.com/s/leaders

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/

Leaders, Kamran is the exact person we talk about when we say freelancers expand the scope of what you can build by tapping into specialized expertise you can't have, or it will take too long to learn internally. Kam started in the semiconductor industry. Then went into manufacturing automation. He now enables manufacturing companies convert leads by optimizing their copy...think email outreach, email follow ups, everything reps are moderate at but do anyways. 2:35 - Kam's background in the semiconductor industry and how he embraced remote before the internet 6:00 - Overview of the semiconductor industry and quantum computing 12:36 - Overview of automation and how the cloud accelerated automation 21:25 - How he changed from consulting to freelancing 21:47 - Why we hate the term freelancing 22:21 - Benefits of freelancing 28:41 - How Covid changed everything 37:20 - Big wins of Kam's freelance business 52:47 - Freelancing as a race to the bottom and how we can solve this

Why would a global digital transformation firm that provides services and solutions to global 1000 firms care about freelancers in the cloud? Let's learn from Vinod Kartha, VP of Strategic Initiatives. 1:20 - Why Open Talent? Hint...existing talent pools dried up 6:47 - What can we expect in the next 5 years? 7:10 - How globalization has brought us shared learnings and shifted boundaries 8:30 - The start of sharing individuals IP...if CEO's can sit on multiple boards why can't we? 11:00 - Existing archaic talent barriers 16:00 - Elasticity, the crucial resource for leaders 16:40 - Shifting from talent acquisition to workforce ecosystem 17:47 - What is Open Talent? Elastic talent you can access ASAP. 21:44 - Why do large companies care about freelancers? 22:30 - What are the barriers to hiring freelancers and how to cut through the tape. 36:00 - Culture tips to lead virtual teams 40:11 Vinod's biggest role model...his own mother Connect with Vinod: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vinodkartha/ Praise for Vinod's work: Forbes, A New Global Star in the Freelance Revolution: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonyounger/2022/08/17/a-new-global-star-in-the-freelance-revolution-ust-shows-the-way/?sh=1d14d79266a2 UST Wins GSA’s Prestigious ‘Changemaker of the Year’ Award for its Open Talent Strategy