I won IPSE's Freelancer of the Year 2015. I still find that a bit surreal to type, if I'm honest. But before the ceremony and the shock and the pizza (more on that later), there was the judging process. And the judging process nearly didn't happen at all.
The whole thing started on a quiet afternoon in the shed. I was between projects, feeling a bit reflective, and I stumbled on the IPSE Awards application. I almost scrolled past it. Competitions aren't really my thing. But something made me stop and think: when was the last time I actually sat down and took stock of what I'd built?
So I started filling in the questions. It was supposed to take an hour. It took days.
Taking Stock
The application forced me to think about The Code Guy as a business, not just a series of projects. What had I actually achieved since going freelance? What was the vision? Where was it heading? These aren't questions you ask yourself when you're deep in code at 11pm trying to fix a deployment pipeline.
Honestly, the exercise itself was worth it regardless of the outcome. I'd recommend it to any freelancer - just sit down and write about your business as if someone's judging it. You'll be surprised what you discover.
A Surprise Invite
I submitted the application and promptly forgot about it. Life went back to normal - coding, tea, cats on the keyboard, the usual shed-based existence.
Then the phone rang. They wanted me to come to London for a Judging Day. With a presentation. A presentation. I immediately searched the IPSE website for a way to withdraw my application. They'd hidden it.
After a few days of fretting about PowerPoint and public speaking - neither of which are natural habitats for a developer who works in a garden shed - I decided the only thing I could do was be myself. So I picked out my best hoody (my wife picked it, actually - I'm not that daft), put together some background slides and an animated stick man, and hoped for the best.
Tea, Anyone?
On the morning of the Judging Day, I filled my best flask with vanilla tea and headed to London. The other applicants turned out to be lovely - just as down to earth and self-employed as me. That helped with the nerves.
When my name was called, I straightened up my hoody, took a deep breath, and walked in to find the friendliest bunch of judges you could hope for. So I did what I always do in business meetings: pulled out the flask and offered everyone tea.
That's how all of my business happens. Over tea, as informally as possible. It was the only way I was getting through this.
The judges seemed to like vanilla tea just as much as I did. What happened next? That's the ceremony story.
