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Creatives on Contra have earned over $150M and we are just getting started
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What a milestone.
Over 10 years ago, I was inspired to earn my income in dollars or euros — I accept pounds too!
😌 but over the years I learnt how challenging that was and how patient I had to be. As a 🇿🇦 freelancer, Contra connects me to a 💲 based economy and has every tool and feature I could possibly dream up as an independent creative chasing quality projects.
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“Matthew is an incredibly creative, strategic thinker with a very strong design eye. He’s thoughtful, personable, and highly collaborative. A great partner for projects requiring both vision and systems thinking. Highly recommend!”
Athena Snow
Home & FlowThe network for creativity
Join 1.25M professional creatives like you
Connect with clients, get discovered, and run your business 100% commission-free
Creatives on Contra have earned over $150M and we are just getting started
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One piece of advice to my past self as a freelancer: release your drafts ✍️
Sometimes, we let overthinking win the game. But action is the only thing that actually moves us forward.
That's why today I'm posting an article I wrote back when I first joined @Contra HQ in 2023.
The premise is the old dilemma of whether we can separate the art from the artist. With the surge of cancel culture in the last couple of years, the article is more relevant than ever.
You can read the full piece here ⬅️
365 days of building a freelance business.
I thought it was about finding clients and building cool websites. It’s not.
It’s about building infrastructure.
Here is what I learned in my first year:
1. Silence is for engineering, not panic.
No clients? That’s your maintenance window. I used quiet months to refine my process, my docs, and my stack. Real growth happens when no one is watching.
2. Improvisation is expensive.
Every project used to feel like a new world. That’s a fast track to burnout. Now, everything is a system from onboarding to final delivery. A solid process is what lets you sleep at night.
3. The experience is the product.
You can build with Webflow, GSAP, and Three.js and still fail. If the client feels lost during the journey, you’ve failed. My job isn’t just to deliver a link. It’s to lead.
The truth?
It’s still hard. There are days of doubt. But I choose this. I choose to improve not just what I build, but how I operate.
To my fellow creators:
Are you putting out fires, or are you building your infrastructure?
"Silence is for engineering, not panic" this reframe alone is worth saving. I used to treat quiet months as failure. Turns out they were my best R&D time. 🔧 🚀
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