Sat in a quaint café, busy with the sound of background conversation, located at the end of a tram line near Birmingham's New Street station, I wait for Sarah to arrive. Soon after I sat down, she walks in and introduces herself to me with an vibrant smile. The mood is instantly friendly and the interview felt more like a conversation with a friend.
Raised in a small town in northern Warwickshire, Sarah Seaton has gone from strength to strength as a brand and content strategist for startups with a social, environmental or wellness agenda. 8 years ago she moved to Birmingham and from there she has made her mark in the marketing industry.
The decision to become freelance was spurred on from encountering the metaphorical 'glass ceiling' throughout her many jobs in digital and marketing agencies and she talks about the possible challenges facing women going into the industry.
Sarah Seaton is a brand and content strategist, with a strategic perspective, who speaks with startups and small business and helps them develop their brand. This involves looking at positioning, insight in terms of their eco-systems, competitors and what others are doing in their field.
"I help them to create a go-to market strategy as often, if they're startups, they have no idea what they're doing. I help them put together digital and offline strategies to launch and then create on-going content and assist them with their on-going strategy. This is so they can see their unique propositional value within that space."
Brand is a perceived notion so the personal brand is what is put out there and going freelance can help a creative learn more about the part of the industry that they want to go into and then further develop their image as a professional.
"The thing that changed my whole approach to life was going freelance. I decided to go freelance because I just got really annoyed with not being able to do what I wanted to do.
"I got stuck on the account management side of things and I wanted to be on the creative side but I didn't have the right degree or skills to of done that straight away and be hired as a creative.
"The clients weren't always that interesting and I was always the one who wanted to be in the meetings coming up with the campaign ideas. I was so eager and always looking at things but I was never really given that opportunity. Now what I've done is, by going freelance and now having a more developed knowledge of branding, I have a bit more control over it now and pursue the things I want."
Quitting your current job and deciding to go freelance can be very daunting for some people as you can experience a new level of pressure when it's up to you to find your own work and sometimes, especially at the beginning of this transition, you may have weeks or even months of no incoming work projects.
You can hear the passion in her voice through the way she channels vibrancy and colour which brings to life the stories she's telling. Maintaining a constant smile on her face, she talks about her choice to go freelance and how it was 100% worth it. She would never look back even at the times when she had no work for months and didn't know whether she was going to pay her bills.
Her freelance career started in Birmingham and with the city having the largest number of start-ups of any other city outside of London and one of the most active business populations, this is the perfect place to be especially with a business focus in helping startup companies.
"My journey here has been, like I'm sure everyone who's wanted to do something purposeful with their life, very emotional and a journey of self-discovery but I think constant development is key.
"It's been a roller coaster, literally, as I've changed ideas and what I want to do, even though I've stayed within the industry of marketing, and I've started little businesses here and there."
Growing up in a small town in Warwickshire, Sarah wasn't surrounded by the creative opportunities that she is now and said herself that she wasn't as focused on her work as she is today.
"I didn't imagine being a freelancer as I didn't know what that was when I was younger. I was from a pretty rough school where we weren't really told about all of these different opportunities.
"You were told that you were going to be a teacher because they didn't know what else to say to you but I definitely knew that I wanted to build something myself.
"I would tell people that I wanted to be a vet or a teacher but never really wanted to do any of those things. I just said that because that’s what I was told would be right for me.
"I remember my uncle saying that I'm going to grow up and be one of those girls with her own motor bike who just sails off into the distance and I liked that because that was how I always felt because I could take my life and put it into my own hands. I always just wanted to be a writer, before that an actress and before that, a vet."
With an original interest in studying English and American Literature but not having the initial qualifications, Sarah decided to choose English and sociology to study at Manchester University and then go on to do a postgraduate degree in Journalism in Brighton.
Even though it wasn’t what she initially wanted to do, she ended up loving her degree course. It helped her develop skills she uses everyday and allow her to improve her writing skills which is important when writing to different businesses as, for example, she would want to use emotive language when trying to impact people or make a change.
The choice to focus on socially and economic brands is a particularly new choice but something she has always wanted to do though hadn't made it her niche yet. Inspired by the book from author Timothy Ferris, 'The 4 hour work week', which talks about how you can work from anywhere and control the way you work, transformed the way Sarah thinks about her business.
She was naturally working with environmentally or socially conscious companies and enjoyed working with them more but actually choosing to do ethical branding as a project was a real conscious decision and Sarah Seaton has been building it since which has spiraled into the massive project that it is now.
Sarah tells me about what the biggest influences are in her work.
"Definitely nature, people and their stories which I think are all connected. More than anything I am such a people watcher and I love to hear their stories.
"How people get inspired themselves, how people connect with others and where their ideas come from. One of my favourite things to do is to talk to someone who is very passionate about something because it makes me feel like I can change the world with people who are so passionate. I get so lost in ideas.
"Nature is a big influence as well and if I'm trying to be in a creative space to think about a campaign or business ideas, I give myself space and spend some time doing nothing.
"Doing the opposite of what you're meant to be doing can actually allow your head space to think about your ideas. I work on the sustainability and environmental angle for brand strategy, and so my messaging came from words taken from nature like 'eco-system'."
A lot of the time, being a freelancer can involve working from home and spending most of your time working alone which can prove to be difficult when searching for inspiration.
"When it's your own project and so you're doing it all on your own, it's almost like an echo chamber of constant self-doubt.
"You constantly go from thinking: 'is this a good idea', 'oh yeah it's brilliant' to 'no it's rubbish bin it'. It's constantly like that which can be very difficult.
"What I'm doing to overcome this is talking more to my friends and peers in the creative industry. I take the opportunity to bounce ideas off of them and often do skill trades which is where you help each other and do a task for them which uses your skills set and they do the same for you.
"The power your visual identity has when it's out there is massive so it definitely helps to get some help on it.
"Having fresh eyes look at your work is good as they could spot something that you can't see because you've been looking at it for too long. Someone you trust though with the opinion, someone who is specialised and authoritative."
For Sarah, it wasn't a straight path to being a freelance brand strategist but instead, after graduating her postgraduate, she had to overcome the struggles of finding a job during the recession, the glass ceiling effect and challenges facing her as a woman entering the industry.
"I was working in London for a while freelancing and then the recession hit. I was living in Brighton, working in London, and there were just no jobs.
"It was terrible. I had no money so I went for this waitressing job in Brighton and 200 people turned up for it and I just thought that this wasn't going to work out so, for two months, I applied solidly every day for every job on all of the job sites but nothing was happening.
"That was the first big stumbling block because even though I've always interviewed quite well and convinced people that I can do a job really well, which I think is my superpower, I suddenly couldn’t even get a waitressing job and I just didn't know what I was going to do.
"That was really hard to deal with because I had just spent a lot of money on a post graduate course and I was really stuck but I think persistence was key and constantly applying and developing what I needed to be.
"Then I happened to get a job in the Midlands where I worked client side for Aldi and ran their marketing and advertising tv campaigns in collaboration with a bigger agency and that’s how I got back into marketing."
The UK's recession started in April and ended in June of 2008 and had records unprecedented in Office for National Statistics dating back for more than 60 years. Unemployment rose by 877,000 from April 2008 to hit 2.49 million in the three months reaching October.
Sarah wrote a piece for an article about women in marketing and the topic of the article was whether being a woman has ever been a challenge and it has but, at the same time, it can be a positive.
The United States Federal Glass Ceiling Commission defines the glass ceiling as "the unseen, yet unreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements." This can effect almost two thirds of the population and is a concept that governing bodies are trying to tackle.
"I've always tried to teach myself new skills and keep up to date so, this may sound ridiculous but if I've ever wanted to change my job, the first thing I do is change my Twitter bio as I actually think, as your social media is normally the first thing people see about you, why cant I be a brand strategist. You've just got to make sure you have the skills and work behind you to back yourself up."
In today's society there is often phrases or items of jargon which can become fashionable or unfavorable in a specific context. One of these buzzwords has been 'entrepreneur' which many use to define someone who has set up their own business but some don't like using it.
"The other day a friend of mine was saying that she hates the word 'entrepreneur' and I thought that it annoys me when people say they hate a certain word because they think it's too much of a buzzword where if it's just a word that describes something, I can't see why it's so harmful. Why does it annoy people so much? But I do get what she means from the perspective that it can come across in a certain way, like does it actually mean something other than you're trying to start a business?
"I think some people use it when they don't actually have a job. But yes, I would count myself as an entrepreneur because I have started a number of businesses with other people.
"I work with a lot of start ups who don't always have the budget to work with me so sometimes I do a buy-in where we have shares with different peoples businesses instead of them paying me so I guess that could count as an entrepreneur."
Being a young woman going into the world of freelance can be a tricky business, said Sarah, as you can meet a range of clients.
"The thing I find, certainly as a young woman in business, is that older men try and make consultations with me when they're just trying to make a pass at me and I have to be very careful when filtering that. There isn't always a way to filter it.
"They often do have businesses that need help but they've chosen me because I'm a young woman and they think they can....I don’t know....whatever. It can be really awkward sometimes.
"I had a client who did circus accessories and they were just crazy. The client would break down and tell me these stories and even cried in the meeting which was just very strange. It just came out when we were in a meeting talking about websites.
"When you first start a business it's so much of you that’s in it so people really bare all to you so you do hear some really interesting and personal stories."
It can be important to have a love for what you do in your life and your chosen career path, especially when you chose to go freelance and so are solely focusing on a certain area. Passion is a key ingredient to your day to day life and can be a pushing force in your work when you love what you do.
"I'm really passionate about so many things. I get really caught up with ideas and I have to put all of my ideas into a book because I can't do all of them at once. I listen to a lot of podcasts like Humans of Purpose which are great for inspiring stories as they talk about people who are doing social impact projects which I'm really passionate about at the moment.
"Building my business is something that I cannot get off my mind as when you run your own business there is no line between personal and business life though I have to make sure that I do look after myself at the same time.
"If you ask my boyfriend he'll say that all I talk about is ethical brand labs but it's because it's got a purpose and is coming from a place where I know I'm helping people who are helping other people or the environment.
"In my day to day life I'm trying to make my own shampoo and not use plastic and I'm even looking at starting a social enterprise that balances social and environmental issues. So, I'm constantly looking for these ideas so the ethical mostly but also the business and personal side of things too."
Even when you're not working as a freelancer, constant development can be key to yourself as an individual especially in an ever-growing landscape. I ask Sarah if there are any elements of what she does which she wishes she could do better.
"Everything. The quote that says 'the point of knowledge is that you don’t have all of it and you're stupid to assume you know everything because there's always something more to learn' is important as I think, especially with the landscape of social media and marketing, everything is changing so quickly.
"Look at the economic and political effects of BREXIT. You have to keep up with things as you can't always know everything. You should always strive to learn and develop yourself everyday. So yes I want to improve everything, all of the time."
With Sarah's 33 years' worth of knowledge and with the marketing and digital industry ever growing, I ask what she would say to herself 10 years ago and whether she would students to pursue their interest in the area.
"Stay determined. Keep going. I don’t like to say that things always work out because they don’t but during the times of self-doubt, I've just been like 'look you have the power to overcome these things because you learn, because you develop, because you’ve got that motivation within yourself; hold onto that and have those down days because you need to process them as a down day. Look for opportunities, overcome them and keep going because there's always going to be an opportunity there.
"Perseverance is key and just keep going because you will find something that’s right for you eventually even if it takes you 20 jobs to get to the one you love, it's so worth it. I've given myself the freedom to choose which projects I work on now but It wasn’t the same when I was younger and I need to learn that.
"You can't have everything perfect and you can learn a lot from those imperfect moments or roles that might take you onto something that's bigger and better than anything you had previously imagined.
"I wouldn't pursue it if you just want to do it from a business angle, you’ve got to really love what you do, especially if you want to do it for your own business. Because it’s a creative place you’ve just got to be really interested and completely consumed by the ideas otherwise you can't live in it."
At the end of the interview I ask what is next for her and if she could tell me about any future plans for her business.
"Big plans. So 'Ethical Brand Labs' is something that is dominating my work world at the moment. I'm doing a series of workshops where I'm collaborating with other ethical professionals like a photographer who used to work for Vogue but now only does ethical photoshoots, a copy writer and blogger who writes around ethical sustainable, a sustainability consultant and a video studio who only work with social impact companies.
"I'm hosting this series called 'We've got ethics' that’s going to have a big launch in London. I'm launching a podcast at the same time about stories from really inspiring people doing what these brands should be doing or those are leading the way. I'm doing a lot of talks this year at start up generators and hopefully get into some universities too.
"I feel like I could pop when I talk about ideas and the future. I haven't been this hyped up for anything in ages and now I feel like I've found my place, my niche and its all working out and my business objective is to have people associate ethical brands with me and that’s starting to happen already which is really cool."
