Lori Franze | FreshGigs.ca

Author Archives: Lori Franze

Tips on freelancing – from a few who’ve been there: Part Two

2016 LF Freelance pt 2Image of beautiful young woman sitting on bench from Shutterstock.

Many people are starting off the New Year with a resolution to quit the corporate gig, release themselves from the shackles of their full-time gig and finally go it alone: freelance. This is the second of a two-part series, where writer Lori Franze polls a few of her cronies to get some sage advice from those who fly solo. 

In Tuesday’s piece, I got some sweet freelance tips from art director Wendy Bloemink. On the other side of the creative spectrum is Ruth Zuchter – a writer and copy editor has been working in the industry for over 15 years. When I asked her if she’d like to share some advice for other freelancers she jumped at the chance to pay it forward, noting that she wouldn’t be where she is today without the guidance of others. Continue reading →

Tips on freelancing – from a few who’ve been there: Part One

2016 LF FreelanceImage of beautiful woman looking at laptop from Shutterstock.

Many people are starting off the New Year with a resolution to quit the corporate gig, release themselves from the shackles of their full-time gig and finally go it alone: freelance. In the first of a two-part series, writer Lori Franze polls a few of her cronies to get some sage advice from those who fly solo. 

There is an obvious trend in our workforces across North America – the freelance economy is growing and will continue to grow. There are a number of factors that have led to this shift – lack of jobs available forcing people to create their own, ebbs and flows of work within organizations and technology enabling people to work from any four corners of the world.

So maybe you are considering taking the leap into the world of freelance, or you’ve been working at it for a couple months and things aren’t falling into place as you had hoped. Continue reading →

Five easy ways to make the most of your mornings

Morning-RitualsImage of woman running outdoors in the morning from Shutterstock.

Of course you’ve heard the saying, the early bird gets the worm and thought, “Who wants to catch a worm anyway?” as you hit the snooze button. It turns out there may be more than worms out there if you get up early and start your day. Many studies show that being up early and starting your day can increase productivity; additionally many uber-successful people claim that getting up before the sunrise is what helps contribute to their success. As a former early bird I tend to agree.

So maybe you want to change your night owl ways but don’t yet have a plan on how to make that transition, well here are some ideas (I picked out the ones that work for me!) on what to do and what not to do from Entrepreneur.com. Continue reading →

Five Things Friday: Matan Ahlfeld

Matan-Ahfield

Five Things Friday is a departure from the interviews and features we typically post. Part conversation, Part Proust Questionnaire – but with just five questions, Five Things Friday (hashtag alert! #5TF) shows the lighter (and sometimes sillier) side of our interviewees. We’ll be talking to everyone we can get our grubby little hands on; it’s our way of introducing you to the communications, marketing and creative cognoscenti who rock their respective industries. This week, Lori Franze chats with media mister Matan Ahlfeld.

Why media? How did you end up doing what you’re doing?

Growing up, I was always fascinated with advertising. I thought Angela Bower on Who’s The Boss had the coolest job. Ironically, I did my business degree at Schulich School of Business, but advertising was never part of the program.

It’s actually an interesting story how I ended up getting into media: To be honest, going into it, I had no idea what it even was. Back in 2000, My uncle, Peter Simpson, was a movie producer at the time, found out I was looking to get into the ad business, suggested I interview at an agency (Genesis Media) that was across the hall from his office. It sounded interesting, so I ended up taking the job. Sadly, my uncle lost his battle to cancer in 2007. It was at his memorial service that I discovered he was one of the pioneers in the media industry. Back in the 60s, he founded Media Buying Services (MBS), the first ever stand-alone media agency in North America.

I always knew him to be in the movie business, so it was a surprise and a delight to hear that I’m following in his footsteps. Continue reading →

When losing is winning: lessons learned in the face of defeat

Win-Some-Lose-SomePhoto of Baseball on a baseball field from Shutterstock.

It’s been a little over three weeks since the Jays’ heartbreaking loss to the Kansas City Royals saw their dreams of winning another World Series dashed. And while Kansas has gone on to defeat the New York Mets, and claim the 2015 MLB championship title, some Jays fans are still in post-season mourning. “When you lose, don’t lose the lesson,” they say; there’s a valuable takeaway that can be applied to our professional lives. Author Lori Franze explains.

Like so many across the country I found myself heartbroken late in to the night of October 23rd when the Blue Jay’s run for a spot in the World Series came to an end but the heartbreak must be short lived when you think about what this team accomplished in a few short months and what they gave us.

Beyond the memories and highlight reels and of course the sublime Bautista bat flip, this team has reminded me of some important life lessons that I believe everyone should keep top of mind. Continue reading →

Five Things Friday: Patrick Carnegie, Senior Manager, Event Services at Toronto International Film Festival

5TF_Patrick_Carnegie_by_photo_wall
Five Things Friday is a departure from the interviews and features we typically post. Part conversation, Part Proust Questionnaire – but with just five questions, Five Things Friday (hashtag alert! #5TF) shows the lighter (and sometimes sillier) side of our interviewees. We’ll be talking to everyone we can get our grubby little hands on; it’s our way of introducing you to the communications, marketing and creative cognoscenti who rock their respective industries. This week, Lori Franze talks to Patrick Carnegie, Senior Manager, Event Services at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Your job sounds very cool! Is it as cool as it sounds? What do you between 9 and 5?

Well, one of the things that’s appealing about this line of work is that there really isn’t a typical day. Our team executes about 550 events a year ranging from boardroom meetings to large-scale galas. Most of the events fall somewhere in between. One of my responsibilities is to assign events to my team so that they have a balanced workload. We’re fortunate to have a great group of smart, creative, dedicated coordinators so they’re game for pretty much anything. So while the team gets their hands dirty with most of the events I typically get involved on the larger projects or those that come in last minute and need a pitch-hitter. Continue reading →

The 9 to 5: Nolin LeChasseur, Partner & CMO of Brainrider

nolin-FG

Welcome to The 9 To 5, our new series where we highlight and interview creative professionals doing great things. Today we’re profiling Nolin LeChasseur, Partner & CMO of Brainrider, a B2B marketing agency in Toronto.

You do B2B marketing – How did you end up working in B2B? Had you always wanted to be on the B2B side?
I just wanted a job in marketing. I moved to Toronto after graduating from WLU with a BBA degree before I had a job. After spending the summer bartending back home, I was sick of trying and failing to get a job in Toronto when I wasn’t living in the city. I ended up working for a company that developed video casino games. It was 1998, and they had just come back from a trade show where they told everyone to visit them on the web, but didn’t actually have a website up yet. They needed an internet-savvy 20-something to get a site up on their domain before too many people noticed they didn’t have one.

I think a lot of people believe that B2B is dull and less sexy than its B2C cousin. What would you say to them?

It was for a long time. Before marketing automation and digital marketing were cost-effective, B2B marketing was pretty stagnant and old school. Trade shows, events, direct mail, telemarketing, and eventually some very simple, painful, unsophisticated outbound email. Continue reading →

Take Your Dog to Work Day Has Merit

Take Your Dog To Work Day

Tomorrow is Take Your Dog to Work Day (#TYDTWD) and this post is dedicated to our furry friends who have to stay home the other 251 working days of the year! Now most organizations have a “no pet policy” in place and I am sure there are many reasons for that – people with allergies, people who are afraid of dogs. Other issues like dogs can be noisy and some may not be able to play nice with the other visiting canines. There is also the distraction factor – have you seen what happens to a meeting of people if you bring a puppy in to the room? And let’s not forget what occurs if they don’t get outside frequent enough or if they just want to claim the filing cabinet for themselves. There is a long list of reasons why dogs should stay at home.

Continue reading →

The 9 to 5: Elissa Fesyk, Project Manager, Press Operations for the Pan Am Games

Elissa Fesyk, Project Manager, Press Operations for the Pan Am Games

For our latest instalment of The 9 to 5, we interviewed Elissa Fesyk, Project Manager, Press Operations for the 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games. Here’s what she had to say:

1. What do you do for the Pan Am Games?

My title is Project Manager, Press Operations.  This means I manage special projects for the team that provides client services to accredited written press, photographers and non-rights-holding broadcasters that are coming to the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games this summer. The big projects I work on include the central management and planning of 800+ Press Operations volunteers, managing the Games time hiring of 50+ short term staff and the development and execution of the TO2015 Young Reporters Program, the first of it’s kind at a Pan Am Games.

Continue reading →