Jon Younger, Agile Talent Collaborative, Forbes Contributor, 'Godfather' of the Freelance Revolution
Transcript
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Leaders, Jon Younger is the real ‘OG’ of our space.
He recently led the most comprehensive global study on freelancers with the University of Toronto.
In his episode he broke down quantitative and qualitative data like how there’s 15 million full time freelancers, about 45 million part time freelancers, and the top 3 needs of freelancers are Autonomy, Agency, Affiliation/Community.
He also broke down why he got into freelancing in the first place, and what the freelancing platforms of the future need to be successful.
Enjoy!!
Our Favorite Quotes from Jon:
What’s The Impact of The Great Resignation?
The great resignation is the Great Awakening. And there are two categories of people that are leaving their jobs, people who feel exploited and people who feel empowered, the people who feel exploited are very often the folks that haven't been treated with the kind of respect, etc, the people that feel empowered are the people that realize that they have a strong economic argument for independence. And, and I know that you guys have written about that in your wonderful book. And I think it's absolutely true, I think what people are experiencing more than anything else, it is that they can make it independently, they can create a better life. And freelancing has made that possible by giving so many people the opportunities.
If you think about it, sidekicking wasn't about just making extra income. It was an insurance policy that said, I can make it on my own if this doesn't work out.
And so what we've got are 45 million folks in the US alone out of the 60 million that are supposedly freelancing, and who knows the real number, but let's assume that that's the case, the way that I get to the 45 million is I divide this, I subtract from the 60 million, the data from Steve King's work and the data from Mary Meeker’s work and I get to about 15 million full time, freelancers, which means we've got about 45 million part time.
HUGE: 15 million full time freelancers, about 45 million part time.
And every one of those is discovering that they can make it on their own, that they can be solopreneurs, that they may in fact be entrepreneurs at some point in time. And when you think about that, the most important thing that I take away is have employers understood that this is a different population, it's a different situation, etc, etc. And so I'm pretty excited about where the world is going. And I'm pretty excited about the future of freelancing. And I think that companies are making a big mistakE by thinking that they have people over a barrel that the Freelancer is just kind of available on demand. Well, it ain't true.
And the war for talent is not just a war for full time talent. It's also a war for freelance talent. Freelancers have choice, they have options. And they're not going to work for companies like better calm, that treat them badly, or it's just not going to happen. Anyway, that's my opening salvo. I hope it's helpful.
Why do we need freelance platforms?
One of the one of the extraordinary benefits of the freelance platform is that you're now part of a community of people.
Now, some platforms work well, some forums don't work well, in terms of building community. But for those that work particularly well, you're in a community of mutual support and mutual encouragement. And that helps as well. So you've got the information, asymmetry reduced, you've got the insurance of knowing that I can make it and what we know is that freelancers have been as encouraging and as competent as full timers is very different than people were temporarily looking for work. And we know that people are feeling like they're they're part of a of a larger community, a larger revolution, who's moving forward.
The three things that people want, they want autonomy, they want greater autonomy, they want greater agency, they want greater affiliation or community and they're saying you know what, some people are saying I like being part of a large corporation. Other people are saying, I get all that I need that other stuff from a different way of making money.
People want: Autonomy, Agency, Affiliation/Community
What can we expect in the next 5 years?
60% of freelancers said they were committed to freelancing, and 60 plus percent, it was 62% of total, said either that they had more work than they could handle themselves, or they had sufficient work. Only 38% of folks said, we don't have enough. And again, because of that about 60 or 62% said, I feel that I will meet my finance my financial goals, which I think is really, really powerful.
60% of freelancers said they were committed to freelancing, 62% have enough work, 38% don’t have enough work.
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