Una Herlihy, Co-founder, The Indie List
Úna Herlihy is a marketing consultant and facilitator and has been a member of the advertising and marketing community for over 25 years. She studied Languages in UCD and Advertising Studies in DIT, after which she started her career in agencies with McCann-Erickson.
She spent most of the following 15 years facilitating a perpetual cycle of ideation and creation for some of the world's biggest brands. In 2005 she set up her own consultancy to help brand and agency teams create strong, high-performing relationships.
In July of 2020, she co-founded and launched The Indie List, a marketplace for freelancers in marketing, communications and e-commerce to find work, network and feel part of a like-minded community. She is a board member of AsIAm, Ireland's Autism charity, and lives in Kilkenny with her husband and three children.
What is your favourite social media platform, and why?
LinkedIn. I love to keep up with my diverse network of contacts, and LinkedIn helps me do that easily. In addition, I find that it's largely quite a positive social network and that there is an openness and understanding among the community that makes it easier to connect with new people.
Tell us about you and your current role or area of interest.
I started my career working as an account executive in a multi-national advertising agency and got the opportunity to work on amazing brands and businesses with incredible people for the duration of my time in this field. I'm obsessed with how creativity can build and transform businesses and have spent most of my career trying to understand what conditions need to be in place for creativity to thrive.
I became a freelance gun for hire in 2005 to have more flexibility and control in my life, and I never looked back. I found that being a freelancer really pushed me to perform at a higher level. I knew that all I had was my reputation and that I was only as good as my last job. So, every job was an opportunity for me to build my reputation and to learn new skills.
At the start of 2020, I was ready for a change, but I wasn't too sure what that change might look like and when the world was gripped by a global pandemic overnight, all my work was postponed. So, I took this as a time to rest and to reflect on what I really wanted to be doing for the next decade of my career. I was inspired by the front line workers and wanted to help out in a small way, so as a means to helping out other freelancers whose work was precariously hanging in limbo, I set up a pro-bono initiative to help freelancers find new sources of work during the first lockdown and within a couple of weeks, I had found the answer I had been looking for.
On the 4th of July 2020, a former colleague and industry legend Peter McPartlin and I joined forces and launched The Indie List as a marketplace for freelancers in marketing, communications and e-commerce to find work, network and feel part of a like-minded community. Since launching, we have almost 800 people signed up for our community, and we have completed over 300 individual searches, which have generated almost €1.5m in new revenue for the freelance sector in Ireland.
What do you like about your career or area of focus?
It's so simple, really. I love it when a customer comes to us with a problem, and we know precisely the individual who has the right experience and attitude to be able to fix that problem. We call it the 'win-win'. First, it's a win for the customer, a win for the individual, and then it's a win for us.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
Your personal brand is always moving forwards or backwards, and everything you do and say has an impact on that.
What inspires you, motivates you, or helps you to move forward?
I find inspiration all around me. But, mostly, I get inspired by people who stop talking and start doing - positive people who don't let problems get in the way of the bigger picture. People who are courageous and brave and not afraid of hard work. People who are talented yet humble, open and collaborative, good-humoured and great to work with.
What are you proud of in your life so far?
Setting up the Indie List has been a career-high for sure. When setting it up, we benefitted from an unbelievable amount of goodwill, and I like to think this was because of the fact that it originated from a good place and a desire to help people out during a really challenging time. That social ethos of The Indie List keeps up very grounded and is a real north star for us.
What is your preferred way to meet new people/network?
You can't beat in-person meet-ups, but failing that, I am happy to meet up over zoom or the phone.
What skills or qualities do you feel have helped you?
I genuinely love meeting new people and trying to establish points of mutual interest. I believe I'm quite self-aware, and that keeps me from getting too cocky or too insecure. I'm a nurturer, and I like to help people realise their potential.
I like to have fun and not take things too seriously, but I am very serious about business, adding value, and being a decent person. Therefore, I have zero tolerance for nonsense, small-mindedness, bad manners and people who aren't prepared to put in the hard yards.
I am also aware that I am not perfect, but I'm trying, and that's half the battle!
What do you wish you had known when you started out?
I wish I had known that "I don't know" is a perfectly acceptable answer to a question as long as you follow up quickly with "but, I'll find out". It would have saved a lot of stress and guesswork!
Who do you most admire in business, academic or creative circles and why?
Gary Joyce, the CEO of Genesis, is a total inspiration to me. She is so professional and can hold a room like no one I have ever met before. She's fearless and formidable and so kind and thoughtful. I am a huge fan.
Adam Harris, the CEO of AsIAM, Ireland's Autism Charity. I have the absolute privilege to sit on the Board of this amazing charity where I'm constantly in awe of what Adam (at the tender age of 26) has accomplished for and on behalf of the Autism community and their families. As one of those families, I see first-hand what a simple vision backed by the commitment of a small bunch of people can achieve.
Patrick Hickey, the former CEO of Rothco Accenture Interactive, for being a total maverick, for having a big hairy audacious goal and for leading a bunch of people to grow Rothco into the biggest success story our industry has ever seen.
Outside of your professional/work area, what hobbies or interests do you have or what other areas of your life are of real importance to you?
I'm a mum to three teenagers, and that takes up a fair bit of time outside of work. But, other than that, for me, it's growing vegetables in my new greenhouse, endlessly going on about my new greenhouse, horse riding, walking and yoga. When I was younger, it was all about travel, and hopefully, when the kids are older, my husband and I will be able to dust off the backpacks and take them to the road again.
Has the pandemic had a positive or a negative effect on you and/or your business, and how have you managed it?
Notwithstanding the hardship and disruption that Covid has brought, it has been a very positive experience for me. The Indie List was born out of Covid, and I doubt it would have happened without it. Remote working levelled the playing field for freelancers, and this was great news for The Indie List. In addition, technology allowed us to network and communicate in a really easy way.
Spending more time working from home meant less time in the car going to and from meetings, and in fact, meetings are shorter now and more structured. Connecting with new people, ironically, has been easier. We are reaching out to new clients and freelancers in different markets and time zones, and I have found that people are more open to connecting than they were perhaps in the past.
It's great that things are starting to return to pre-Covid times, but I hope that we will hold on to a lot of the good stuff that came from it.
Do you have a mentor, or have you ever mentored anyone?
I am so fortunate to work and be friends with so many smarter and more talented people than me. As a result, I have a close network of allies who help me navigate tricky situations and guide me as I work things out. They are all people who challenge and push me (in a big way), who see and call out the behaviours and mental states that don't serve me well and who have my back when I need them.
Right now, I like to think that at The Indie List, Peter and I are mentoring people all the time. We are seeing people with talent and putting them into roles where they can do great work and thrive.
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same area of work or interests?
Be really passionate about what you are trying to do and why. Develop and promote your own point of view. Be (and believe in) yourself. Naysayers will try to grind you down, and if you let them, who is really in control?
What do you feel is the most common reason people fail or give up?
I honestly don't know, but I would imagine that it depends on a myriad of external and personal factors. If we were to fail at The Indie List, I think it would be because of not sticking to what we set out to achieve in the first place, which is to match experienced, resourceful and motivated talent with clients who are equally serious about hiring.
Is there a phrase, quote or a saying that you really like?
Prima donnas, blowhards and messers need not apply at The Indie List.
What companies, brands, or institutions do you like or do you think are getting it right?
Oh wow... you like the hard questions, don't you!
I adore An Post. Under the leadership of David McRedmond, that brand and business continue to impress me with how they have woven themselves right into the fabric of Irish life. They can't put a step wrong in my view, and if they do, I am happy to forgive.
I am also impressed with any business that is putting planet and sustainability at the heart of their decision making, but we have a long way to go before I nail my colours to the mast on that one.
How do you define success, and what lessons have you learned so far that you could share with our audience/readership?
There are a couple of ways I would define success for me personally.
The first is completely linked to our Indie List raison d'etre, which is about helping to create more and more work opportunities for professional freelancers at the top of their game.
The second is more personal. I've worked really hard my whole career, which was sometimes hard on my family. But, ultimately, if I can do something that makes my kids proud of me, then that there is the cherry on top. The big lessons I have learned over the years are:
If you don't have integrity, you have nothing.
Be patient. It might take you 20 years to become an overnight success.
It's better to be the least smart person in the room (unless you hold the nuclear codes or you're a brain surgeon).
Don't be an a-hole.