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So You Want to Start Your Own Thing: The Questions Nobody Answers Honestly
Monday, August 31 at 4:00 PM (New York) · 90 min
SGHosted by Stephen Gates
Founder / Executive Creative Director @ CRZY
Most advice about going independent is either recycled LinkedIn platitudes or a sales pitch for someone's course. This isn't that. I'm opening up 90 minutes on Hop for anyone who's freelancing, thinking about it, or trying to figure out if it's time to build something bigger — an agency, a studio, a real business instead of a series of gigs. I'll walk through how I actually started CRZY Design, the lessons I learned building it, and the mistakes I'd fix if I were starting today. Then it's open — bring your real questions. Pricing, positioning, clients, contracts, when to hire, when not to, what nobody tells you about running your own thing. Free. Group format. Come with a real question, not just to lurk — the more specific you are, the more useful this gets. This is for freelancers, soon-to-be freelancers, and anyone eyeing the leap to running their own creative business.
Mentors and mentees are both welcome. It's a mentor session, just with company.
No AI notetakers, please. Read AI, Otter, Fireflies, Fathom and similar record everyone and email the whole room afterwards. If yours auto-joins from your calendar, turn it off for this session.
SGrab a seat with Stephen
Free and live, hosted by a designer with 5+ years in the field. Hop is Design Buddies' hand-reviewed mentorship community, and Stephen's link lets you skip the waitlist.
You pick mentee or mentor on the next step, fill a two-minute application, and we review it by hand, usually within a day. Your seat is held meanwhile.
