This podcast is part a published article on The Digital Project Manager. You can read the entire article here.
Audio Transcription:
Ben Aston:
Thank you for listening. This is the Digital Project Manager Podcast. I’m Ben Aston. Natalie Semczuk is our resident DPM expert at the Digital Project Manager. We are so grateful to Natalie for being back on the show. Natalie is back, I believe, for the third consecutive time.
Natalie Semczuk:
It’s nice to be here.
Ben Aston:
Today, we’re talking communication. Communication is an important part of our job. But what tools can we use to improve our communication skills? A communications plan is one of those tools. If your clients keep harassing you or vice versa for information, it could be that you are the one harassing them. We have a tool that can help you fix that. Let me first introduce Natalie. Let me introduce her.
Natalie is a digital project manager and has just started full-time. This is a huge deal for Natalie. She is a remote project manager in Arizona. Previously, she was freelance but has now taken on full-time. You can also check out her newsletter, DPMish, as well as her PM reactions blog.
Natalie, one of our DPM experts will also be appearing in the upcoming course “Mastering Digital Project Management”. It’s a seven week crash course that includes interactive video lessons, group discussions, and webinars. There’s also the option of coaching sessions as well, so head to digitalprojectmanagerschool.com and get yourself signed up. Natalie will be there. We have not received one in months. What’s the matter?
Natalie Semczuk:
Oh, man. I was afraid I would be called out for this. I recently started a full-time job, as you mentioned. I was kind of taking a break from the holidays to revamp my newsletter and to put together a longer-term plan for the type of content and topics that we wanted to cover, guest editors, and other things. I found a full-time job in the midst all that. I also have a freelance job that I do occasionally. It took a while to put together that plan, but I promise that a new DPMish will soon be out. It’s only been one year since it started, so I want to keep it going.
Ben Aston:
Oh, congratulations.
Natalie Semczuk:
Thank you.
Ben Aston:
Good stuff. Tell me. I am interested because you were, I feel like you, one of our poster children for remote freelance PMing. So now, with your transition into full-time, what made you decide to make the leap or plunge back into… yeah freedom and back to being tied down?
Natalie Semczuk:
Yes, I do still work remotely, which is something I love. It gives me a sense of freedom. I’m actually wearing pajamas right now, and no one would have known that. I freelanced for five year and was beginning to feel… I spent a lot of time learning and taking risks on the projects that I was working on. I felt that it was time for me to push myself a little further.
Freelancing is something I love. It was great. It was great fun, but I was beginning to get tired of the one-project contract.
