We tend to put a lot of pressure on webinars and other free resources. It’s common to expect endless insight and the equivalent of a three-year degree course condensed into a 90 minute presentation.
If you’re heading into a webinar expecting to emerge as an expert on the topic, I think you’re doing it wrong. In my opinion, a webinar should do one or more of the following:
- Challenge you to view a problem from a different perspective
- Introduce a new way to approach a common issue in your life
- Offer insight from another industry that you might apply to your own
- Give you one lightbulb moment you can take back to your own business
I don’t go into every webinar expecting life-changing results. More than anything, it’s about feeling connected to a wider community. As a solo freelancer, it can be incredibly difficult to feel like you are still part of the wider industry. Without colleagues to lean on, you don’t have anyone to explore ideas with. So any opportunity to connect with others in your industry should be welcomed with open arms.
In 2025, I’m making an effort to find and nurture my community. And this all starts with showing up and taking part. Here’s a quick round up of the courses, webinars, resources, books and classes I’ve enjoyed in January 2025. Hopefully, sharing my progress will encourage me to stay accountable.
The Marketing Meetup With Emma Harris: Slow The F*** Down
Emma is an incredibly compelling speaker, so it was fascinating to hear her insight. I also fully recognise that I was doing it “wrong” when I joined this webinar.
The title is “Slow The F*** Down”, and I was watching the webinar on my phone while also eating my lunch, proofreading an article on my kindle, catching up with emails and messaging colleagues on Slack. I was trying to do it all and simultaneously doing nothing.
And this was in fact the purpose of the webinar: slowing down isn’t about doing less. It’s about clearing the mental clutter that prevents you from focusing on the task at hand.
Emma shared her story about running herself into the ground and the journey she has taken to prioritise her health. The takeaway: drink water, move your body, prioritise sleep, stop at 2 cups of coffee, and remove stress from your life.
When you remove stress, you allow yourself to move into an abundance mindset that is far more likely to create the kind of opportunities that will enable you to flourish. It was exactly the kind of inspirational spiel I needed to hear this January!
Next Gen SEO: How To Dominate In Search In 2025
This webinar from NP Digital offered a comprehensive view of the current state of SEO. With so much up in the air, it’s natural to want some answers, but as we all know, there are no certainties with SEO.
It’s always helpful to stay on top of the latest SEO trends, and this webinar offered exactly this. They touched on topics like AI, voice search, Google Lens search and so much more. There were some really helpful takeaways that I’ve been able to apply to my own clients.
Candle Making Workshop: WeWork
One of the things I absolutely love about WeWork is the free events programme. Alongside healthy and mindful classes like yoga and meditation, they also offer occasional crafty courses, such as this candle making workshop.
It was led by the incredible Crouch End Candles and it was the perfect way to spend a leisurely lunch break. We explored the role of scent, and how it’s intrinsically linked to memory and emotions. When you smell a familiar scent, your brain goes searching for where you first caught a whiff, which is why so many scents can take you back to your childhood.
We then got to explore 6 different scents created by Crouch End Candles and select one for our own candle. We mixed molten wax with bespoke scents and then hand-poured our candles. We also got to name our candles with cute branded stickers.
If you’re looking for a mindful workplace activity, I would highly recommend Crouch End Candle’s candle making workshops!
Content Kaleidoscope: An Interactive Workshop
I finished off the month with a webinar from Willow Paule Creative. This was an interactive workshop I found through Freelancer Magazine. It was highly engaging and raised some really interesting questions about content creation for marketing. We looked at ideas such as where we find our best ideas and how to get maximum mileage from our content.
An unstable internet connection meant that I wasn’t able to participate as much as I would have liked. During my breakout session with Willow, she was only able to hear every 4th word I said, so that wasn’t ideal!
But! I took a lot from the session and will be able to apply this to my own work and to my client’s work.
What I’m Reading This Month:
- Hunger by Roxane Gay
- Scorecard Marketing by Daniel Preistley
What I’m Learning This Month:
- Dutch (Duolingo)
- Meditation (Headspace)
- Introduction to Human Physiology (Duke University Via Coursera)
