A guide for forging a creative path

What the pandemic has proven time and time again is the power that lies in bringing a supportive community together. Whether that’s shopping local, looking out for your neighbours or turning inwards to examine what you can do within your own industry; investing in community matters like never before.

Someone who is perhaps more familiar with this than most is Nikky Lyle, creative recruiter and founder of Nikky Lyle Creative. As the country went into lockdown in March 2020, Lyle was tasked with the unenviable job of ringing her clients to inform them of job offers being pulled and opportunities revoked.

As the industry collectively went into crisis mode Lyle’s advice was in demand. She explains “I was inundated with people asking for advice.” Hundreds of freelance creatives out of work turned to her and, at the time she says she felt “floored and overwhelmed.” Faced with this challenge, she made a decision to “knuckle down to stay and weather the storm with everyone”.

Becoming a creative guide

She explains that she sees herself as a creative first and foremost, alongside the work that she does as a recruiter. “I’ve always felt like a creative and I guess that’s where my loyalties lie,” she says as she explains that what she wanted to do during the unsettling pandemic times is to inspire people and keep them up to date with what was happening in the industry. “I felt like I was at an advantage where I knew what was going on because I was talking to my clients and I was talking to creatives,” she adds.

She says of the position she found herself in that, “being a guide helped me create guides.” So, she turned to friends across the industry and specialists around her and asked them for their CV and portfolio advice, developing a series of free webinars called Industry Leaders. Then she reached out to people across every creative industry like Lou Bones at Jelly London or the copywriter Vikki Ross, spanning companies from Pentagram to Wolf Ollins, Design Studio and Bulletproof.

She turned to creative directors at the agencies she knew her candidates wanted to work for and delved into what it is to forge a path in the creative industries. At the same time, Lyle had taken on a job in care work supporting adults with disabilities who live independently to provide an additional source of income. She was also running a letter writing series called Post-Quarantine that encouraged people to write a letter to their future self. As she says, “it came naturally to me to ask; how can I support the community?”

Crafted by creatives for creatives

What she realised quite quickly was that one piece of advice shone through from nearly every leader who spoke. What those in hiring positions want, she explained, is to “look for the person’s voice. [They] want to know who you are.”

Lyle believes that “everytime there’s a challenge, there’s an opportunity to find a solution.” So, she says, having looked around her and questioned what people needed, the logical next step was to collate all the information and knowledge from the Industry Leader series into guides for those who were asking. For people who needed help in their careers whatever age and stage they were at. So, instead of simply answering the questions of those who asked her, she could provide support to hundreds of creatives across the industry.

She commissioned a designer, Luke, one of the last people she’d had to let down for work back at the start of the pandemic, to create a series of invaluable guides, from how to nail your portfolio to a guide for day rates and salaries and, most recently and timely, the Fool-Proof Guide to Going Freelance. Each guide is produced in the same tone of voice Lyle uses across her platforms, from her website to Instagram to the Industry Leaders series she hosts and the recent podcast she created. This felt important, she says, so that it feels more personal to each and every creative reading the guide.

“I see myself as a creative as well as being a recruiter...I speak creative because I am part of the industry,” she explains. Because that is what she is, first and foremost: a freelancer.

She says of the guides that her desire was to “create something because I knew people needed to be inspired.” It’s a lesson in what can be done when you harness the power of the community around you, when you reach out to others for advice and, instead of holding onto it yourself, choose to pass it on to the next person.

To download the guides or find out more visit Nikky Lyle Creative