Meet the Independent Professionals Who Powered Disruption Magazine

Upwork recently partnered with Disruption Magazine to bring its “Great Resignation” issue to life.

The many moving parts of putting together a magazine were powered entirely by independent professionals, including art director Mateja Miladinović and voice actress Tiana Hanson, whom we’ll hear more from below.

About Disruption Magazine

Disruption is a quarterly magazine published by ​​Connection Silicon Valley and Canadian Women’s Network. The publication prides itself on being the first Canadian magazine dedicated to disruptive innovation.

In its first issue of 2022, the magazine focused on the Great Resignation. World Economic Forum defines it as “a phenomenon that describes a record number of people leaving their jobs.” Multiple articles in Disruption highlight the latest labor trends and what they mean for workers and organizations.

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As Joanne Fedeyko, CEO of Connection Silicon Valley says in her publisher’s introduction, “This issue of Disruption is packed with insights and wisdom from the thought leaders at Upwork and other partners on topics like the Great Resignation and its drivers, how to access freelancers to mitigate and prevent key talent shortages and why organizations need to radically rethink their approach to hiring and work to remain sustainable into the future.”

Professionals are taking their power back

One of the key conversations surrounding the Great Resignation is about the shift in power balance from companies to workers. Fedeyko says, “Rather than go back to the status quo, [many workers are] deciding instead to jump-start their independent freelance careers. They’re taking their power back and making bold choices for their future.”

This is in line with the findings from Upwork’s Great Resignation report. This workplace phenomenon isn’t just about workers moving from one full-time job to another; 20%, or 10 million Americans, are instead considering freelancing.

Why freelancing?

Why are so many workers choosing to drop their full-time jobs in favor of freelancing? According to the Great Resignation report cited above, 73% of those considering freelancing cite the ability to work remote or flexibly as a reason.

Further, Upwork’s Freelance Forward report found that:

• 68% of new freelancers say that career ownership is a top draw
• 54% are attracted to the ability to work remotely
• 78% of skilled remote freelancers cite schedule flexibility as a key reason for freelancing
• 73% cite location flexibility, and
• 73% say freelancing allows them to pursue more meaningful work

To get a firsthand perspective, we asked two of the independent professionals who worked on Disruption to tell us more about their own freelancing experiences.

Mateja Miladinović’s freelancing story

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Mateja Miladinović is a graphic designer originally from Belgrade, Serbia, but currently based in Bali, Indonesia.

Miladinović spent 14 years working in newsrooms at various companies, magazines, and daily newspapers. “I had what you could call a complete editorial designer journey—from a junior designer in a small newsroom to an art director in a major publishing company in Serbia. Over the years, work became uninspiring and repetitive but I didn’t see any other option, as my hometown Belgrade is small in the sense that there are not that many publishers or magazines and newspapers.”

However, after a falling-out with management resulted in a terminated contract, Miladinović began to rethink his career. The thought of looking for a job with another publisher for a “similar exhausting and uninspiring job” didn’t motivate him. Instead, he decided to try something different.

Miladinović signed up with Upwork after hearing about it from a couple of former colleagues. Within six months Miladinović had established himself on the platform and began to consistently make a good income. He hasn’t looked back.

When asked how freelancing has changed his life, Miladinović says, “I stopped working in an environment that was draining all my energy and where I felt my creativity was slowly dying. I no longer waste my time driving around looking for a space every day. I have more time and I got my life back. I even moved from Belgrade to Bali!”

Check out more of Mateja Miladinović’s work here.

Tiana Hanson’s freelancing journey

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Tiana Hanson is a voice actress based in Berkeley, California, in the United States.

As a theater student at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Hanson discovered sound design. “That led directly to my falling in love with audio work and everything connected to it. It’s a love that carried me into freelance work when I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to pursue my dream of becoming a working actor. However, there was always something about the daily grind that made it hard to do the work I wanted to focus on.”

On a friend’s recommendation, Hanson signed up with Upwork. Since joining, Hanson has connected with a steady stream of clients, working on audio magazines, product video voice-overs, and podcasts. “I started with a microphone and a kid’s building playset for a makeshift booth, and now I have a full workspace!”

How has freelancing changed Hanson’s life? “I’m an actor, a writer, and a creator, but traditional jobs were wearing down my desire to create. When I moved to the Bay Area, I briefly had a retail job before realizing that they weren’t paying me what I was worth, and I needed to do something different. Freelancing gave me the freedom to live my life and work on projects I’m passionate about, such as the podcast I edit, produce, and perform in: “The Redacted Reports.”

See more of Tiana Hanson’s work here.

Want to create your own magazine?

As the team behind Disruption will testify, magazines are a team effort. They require the coming together of creativity and skills from various professionals, who often live in different parts of the world.

If you’d like to put together your own magazine or publication, you may need graphic designers, writers, editors, proofreaders, social media marketers and other independent professionals on board.

“At Disruption … independent talent has been building these pages since the beginning,” says Fedeyko.

Hanson shares about her experience working on the magazine: “I’ve been working with Disruption since their inception in 2018, and it’s always a joy to collaborate with them. I always feel like a valued member of the team and have enjoyed getting to know the other people involved in creating each issue.”

For Miladinović this project was a career-defining experience. “I was rather new to the platform with only a few projects completed when they hired me. I really liked the whole concept of the magazine and I needed something inspiring that would make me feel an urge to design again. The creation of the first edition was an inspiring moment for me. At that moment I thought the whole freelancing thing might actually work for me!”

In light of the Great Resignation, Fedeyko advises organizations to upgrade their traditional hiring mindsets. “With so many people quitting their jobs and turning to freelance, and with unemployment rates at record lows, hiring full-time has never been more difficult. Tapping into the freelance pool on Upwork and other similar platforms is crucial for organizations to address talent gaps.”

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Hire professionals like Hanson and Miladinović on Upwork.