Allison Butler has always had a passion for motion design. Mostly self-taught, she has been creating professional digital content for five years as well as running a monthly meetup of Connecticut based animators, motion designers, and related creatives.  Allison tells her story of how she started her own freelance business as an alternative to full-time but temporary work. While it provides a large amount of freedom, it also requires courage and determination and many hard lessons. Allison shares what she learned by becoming a freelance motion designer.  While it wasn’t always the case, Allison is a master of networking. We chat about the power of networking and how Allison created a local motion design meetup which helps her and others immensely with their freelance careers.   In this episode Lessons learned from chasing one temporary gig after another  Learning the basics of transitioning to a freelance career Tools and tips for overcoming the fear that comes with a career change The power of in-person motion design meetups to support your career How to start your own motion design meetup or event   Quotes “Freelancing is never easy to jump into when you’ve only known full-time work.” [8:43] “I needed networking practice. It’s something people don’t tell you - that you need to practice networking and just talking to people and being human.” [17:47] “Everyone has these online platforms to talk to and chat with people and they’re absolutely wonderful. But people still want that in-person connection. They want to know people in their area. They just want to know who’s around.” [23:52] “If you can find one or two people in your area who are pumped to have a meetup, that’s all you need.” [32:48]   Sponsors Milanote Milanote is a tool for organising your motion graphics projects - everything from the creative brief, mood boards, storyboards - all your pre-production material in one place. Watch Evan's series on pre-production where he uses Milanote and shows you how to organised your motion design projects to get better results. Check out Milanote and sign up for free milanote.com/motionhatch   Links Find Allison Butler online Follow Allison on Twitter | Instagram | Linkedin Connecticut Mograph Meetup The Ultimate Freelance Guide Work_Space, Manchester, CT Can we add the Mograph Mastermind logo like on this page?  https://motionhatch.com/046-masterminding-with-jess-peterson Find out about the upcoming Motion Hatch mastermind   Thanks for Listening! To share your thoughts: Share this show on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest. To help out the show: Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help. Subscribe on iTunes. Podcast music licensed by Big Waves sonosanctus.com dankoch.net Some of the links above are affiliate links. Basically, this means that if you decide to make a purchase through one of these links, we will earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. You can be sure that we would recommend these products whether or not we made any commission on them. Please don’t spend your money on them if you don’t think that they will truly help you improve your business, although, in our experience, they will.