How to Start Ugly with Freelancer Turned Founder Alex “Nemo” Hanse

In this episode of The Talk Freelance To Me® Podcast, host Ashley Cisneros Mejia sits down with creator, designer, entrepreneur, and all-around inspiration Alex “Nemo” Hanse, the mind behind the Foolies movement and one of the most refreshingly honest voices in the creative world.

Nemo shares how rap became his gateway into entrepreneurship, why honoring his late mother fuels everything he builds, and what it truly looks like to serve the people who have stood by you. He talks candidly about self-doubt, imposter feelings, layoffs, creative courage, and the emotional truth behind his popular clothing line. 

ABOUT ALEX "NEMO" HANSE

Alex Hanse (Nemo) is a senior graphic designer at Jobs for the Future, specializing in graphic design, branding, and marketing strategy. He has collaborated with industry leaders like Arlan Hamilton and Raymond James Investment Management. As the founder of Foolies Limited Clothing, Nemo's designs and socially conscious messaging advocate for Black women and women of color in entertainment. Recognized by Essence, the Oprah Winfrey Network, and Gary Vaynerchuk's bestseller "Crushing It!", Nemo's work reflects his commitment to using design for social good. He holds degrees from the University of Florida and Full Sail University. Connect with Nemo on LinkedIn and click here to learn more about Foolies.

Full show notes here.

Chapters

• 3:08 Meet Alex “Nemo” Hanse
• 4:16 The Birth of Foolies
• 6:54 Representation and Uplifting Black Women
• 8:58 Niche, Community, and Support
• 11:44 Imposter Syndrome & Inspiration
• 15:56 Overcoming Doubt and Speaking Up
• 21:42 Navigating Corporate and Freelance Worlds
• 24:03 Staying Motivated Through Tough Times
• 28:28 “Start Ugly” Collection

Transcript

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 0:00

You're the answer. You've always been the answer. You need to speak up more. You need to speak up louder. If you're trembling while doing it, that's okay too.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 0:12

Welcome to Talk Freelance to Me, the podcast for women freelance writers, 10 99 independent contractors and solopreneurs. I'm your host, Ashley Cisneros Mejia. For more than 20 years, I've worked as a journalist and freelance writer. Today as a mom of three kids, I'm passionate about helping other women leverage the freedom that freelance offers on top freelance. To me, we're all about the business of freelancing. If you want to learn how to monetize your talents, make money on your own terms, and design a flexible work life that actually works for you. This show is for you. Before we get started, don't forget to follow us on your favorite social media platforms. Review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen, and don't forget to share this episode with a friend.. Today's episode is one that I've It's a conversation with Alex Nemo Hanse. He's the artist who founded Foolies Limited Clothing. So Nemo and I both went to the University of Florida. But at different times, and I first heard about him through my friend Bes Auer who used to host a conference here called the Florida Blog Conference. And actually Bess was one of three women freelancers who were willing to meet me for coffee back in the day in 2009 when I first started. And she was so kind to teach me all about freelancing. So shout out to Bess. I followed Nemo on social media because he was speaking with so much wisdom about entrepreneurship and motivation. In this episode, you're gonna hear him talk about his clothing line. It's called Foolies And one of the shirts has the words, Imposters Never Have the Syndrome on the front of it. And when I saw it, I purchased it right away. Over the years, I've admired the way that Nemo pours life into people with such ease, and I really appreciate the way that he honors and centers black women in his work as a tribute to his late mother. It's really powerful. Nemo's comments and his advice to entrepreneurs is really what we need right now. It's honest and uplifting. And when you hear him talk about that clothing line, Foolies do yourself a favor and check it out. There are some great gift ideas for the holiday season. Let's get into it. I'm so excited to connect with someone that I have watched from afar, been inspired from, and also bought merch from, which we'll have to talk about. Hey, the Amazing Nemo. How are you ne.

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 2:51

I'm good. I appreciate you and it's always weird hearing people talk highly of you. Just 'cause I think in, in our cultural nature you try to deflect as much as possible, so, but I thank you and I will leave it at that.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 3:08

You have done so many things from rapping. I know you're a graphic design expert, an art expert. You're an entrepreneur. You have this wonderful line of clothing we're gonna talk about in a minute. Ies, how did you first stumble into this wild, crazy world of entrepreneurship?

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 3:30

It's all really outside of like my own faith in God. I think when I was going through some of the toughest times and seasons in my life that loved me to rap music and rap music is what helped me understand my own. Pains. Hearing other rappers talk about family members, they lost as I lost my mom to breast cancer and hearing those kind of narratives and hearing them get me through tough times, it made me say, okay, could I pin a really cool rap as well? And my first rap was pretty garbage. It was like, I come in multiples of three. Alex is my name, but J is who I actually be. Like I was lot of my mop, Eminem and Jay-Z and those kind of things. But it was the first sign to see success, right? That's all I had as a, a young kid outta Miami was, oh, look at that artist. They weren't in the hood or in some tough times in their life, and now they have the, the car, the clothes, women, whether that's like a admiring of that or just a realm they were in, they're in the mansion now. All the people that I'm seeing in the space of success are artists, and they're from, you see the artists with a clothing line. You see 'em with a jewelry line, you see them with a perfume line, a cologne line, and then you would see this constant, oh, it looks like the people who are in success, who are in entrepreneurship, who are in these different endeavors. In the space of rap. But I think the one like curve ball was seeing Damon John and it was a fresh time. I think I saw like someone who like wasn't rapping, do a clothing thing and it was just like really cool element and I was like, oh, okay. So we could do that too. But I don't think outside of that real tight sector, no. I didn't really see it or understand it until I saw it through music and through rap. Yeah.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 5:36

That is so cool. And you touched on seeing the clothing lines and seeing that as a way that a lot of rappers and entertainers were using as part of their greater business plan, right when they got into products and things like that. Can you tell me? Could be, and I have one of the fully shirts on, this is my favorite. The imposters never have the syndrome. And isn't that true? It's my goodness. I'll tell me about the Foley story and. How it has gone from t-shirts and the ideas that you initially had to the movement. It is today.

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 6:12

I started it with me and my brother of another mother in skin color way back in the day. And we were, he was my engineer and I was the rapper, and we were thinking that, look, we're gonna go and do this rapping thing, like I'm trying to be. The next Big Sean or next Jay-Z, or whatever the narrative is, and we were like, this is foolish. You know, after like where a college grad, I had my sports medicine degree at the time before I ended up going to full sail letter and getting two more degrees in audio engineering and graphic design, but. We're college grads. We went to uf. It was like, what are you doing? I'm sports medicine. He was journalism and like he's engineering and I'm rapping. You're almost like wasting your time and energy. But it was like, no, we're not foolish. We're ies. We're these people who are so passionate to LaVar our goals and dreams that were called foolish for doing so. And when the song would start. I would yell out foodies, it's the movement, and that would be how I would start the song, but it was really just lessons and reading and learning about branding. Lady Gaga had the monsters and then other. Like was Khalifa would say, Taylor Gang or Die, or there were certain catchphrases, like Big Sean would say, whoa, there. So as you were listening to artists, they were giving you that thing to latch onto. So if you heard the certain signature or you went to, nowadays, it's the swifties and the beehive, right? So. If you hear these certain things, you have an identity, you have a group, you have a community you can attach to something. And so that was the cool part about stepping into the space and doing the music and everything.'cause it was like, oh, this is really just a really big lesson in personal branding. And if you don't do this personal branding thing, you message, while it might be great, it just won't censor anyone. It won't build that community. So we're like derived in. I just, I thought I was just going to kind of full steam ahead and do rap and create things like that. But RAP also taught me about things like album covers and I would go in record stores and look at physical records or actual CDs and, oh man, look at this. And I would go through the CD books and, oh wait, there's an artist who made this cover. Rap once again led to clothing. Okay. Look at the different designs and what make me go to our mall in Miami and actually walk through and I want to see the different designers. So for me it was like academics and Ichi, like those brands who, once again rap was that gateway to make me say, oh wow, look at this, or look at that. Or even just to learn. I would hear certain things from rappers talking about. Different parts of the country or different parts of the globe, or I remember, I think it was Met the man who was like, I'm the rap sesar. And I was like, what's a Siz R?

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 9:14

Yeah.

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 9:14

What does that mean? So to go and be like, oh, oh, the ssar is an emperor king, like of that sort. So do that. Made me wanna rap, made me want to create clothing. So we're in college, we're talking about being foolish enough to chase our dream and we're pushing this foolish thing. And, but also, once again, it opened up my world to design. Like how could I make, not necessarily just t-shirts, but I gotta design my own album cover 'cause I'm bootstrapping or can I get friends to design it and I need to know how to talk to them and now I need to know how to record myself. And so it was just a lot of, just evolution of things. Which once again, is that foolish nature, right? That sounds crazy, but I'm doing it. That sounds crazy, but we're doing it. That sounds crazy, but like you should go do that. So yeah, a lot of layers.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 10:02

A lot of people think entrepreneurship is a foolish thing. A lot of people think freelancing is a foolish thing, especially when you were talking about the degrees that you earned at the University of Florida and that maybe it's perception or expectations from other people in terms of. Are you gonna use the degrees that you earned, that you worked hard to get into school, you worked hard to study, worked hard to receive that degree and then to not use it. And I feel like there's a lot of those conversations I see in the freelance space. There's a lot of freelancers that I've noticed and connected with now who are former nurses and they were burnt out, and so now they're using their know-how and their expertise in medical and healthcare to write. For hospitals or healthcare organizations. And some people will tell them, are you crazy? Like you gave up this lucrative healthcare crew. That that is foolish. Right? But I love how you embraced that lifestyle, that, and you're elevating it. And that's the name you're saying? Yeah. You can call me fool, or maybe I am fool, or, yep, let's get full clean. And I love that. I love that. That's really cool. One of the other things that I really appreciated about you, and I've seen this in your work and your designs, is just how you uplift black women and women, and I love that so much. Can you tell me some more about what the role representation plays in everything you do now and how do you, when you're making these designs, you could create anything, right? How, how do you go about choosing. What you're going to put out into the world and how it ties into this deep commitment you have.

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 11:45

Outside of my love for my mom, 'cause she's a dope black woman, Japan, American, and I once again lost with her breast cancer. And to think of like someone who embodies the spirit of ies, it would be her. She came from Jamaica. To America to, she was a nurse and she took her skill sets in nursing and was like, I want to pivot and went into cosmetology. And my very much like inspiration is her and to see her like. Go through getting like her GED and start all over again and chase's passionate dream and you know, a slight deviation. So she goes to Chase's dream, she helps to open up her own hair salon and doesn't get to do, has the blueprints all mapped out and all this other cool stuff. But once again, doesn't get to carry that dream out. So my purpose and my mission is to make sure that no one leaves this earth with their blueprints still inside of them, right?'cause of that fact. So now thinking about that space, right? Of honoring her, okay, I gotta honor those who look like her, right? I just get the beautiful privilege to say, Hey, anyone that looked like her, or adjacent, you gonna get this motivation right? You gonna get this encouragement? Because we see that, you know, that's not necessarily the space given, right? We're not gonna talk about the world that's burning, but general,

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 13:18

yeah,

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 13:20

it's just my heart. It's just I want to see black women especially. I want to see like. Someone leaning in and believing in them and pushing them and motivating them, Hey, I got you, and hey, I care for you and I want to see you win, and I want to see you move up the corporate ladder or see you chase your entrepreneurial dreams, or do that community garden on the side, or write that book. And as I was putting out the brand, those are also black women, were the ones lining up and supporting and purchasing and saluting and sharing and passing it to their homies, their homegirls. Like I had a, a young lady who bought like 15 to 20 shirts for her and her friends at a her birthday gathering.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 14:12

Wow.

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 14:12

Your time at your birthday gathering to wear my apparel and. Spread that wealth of I see you, I wanna help and I want to help. Not just, okay, I could buy one for me, but I want to put all my friends in it, and I want to let others know this message is being carried on. I'd be silly to not reciprocate. Can anyone wearing a pasta syndrome shirt and all this stuff? Yes, absolutely, but I don't want to get it confused that I'm here for black women. That's my heart because of my mom.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 14:49

Yes. I love that On business you hear different philosophies about nicheing and about narrowing, right? And really zeroing in on the specific person that you wanna serve. And sometimes we have. I don't know if it's fear, I don't know if it's perceptions of what we should be doing that bigger is better and that more broad, that it's good to go broad and serve everybody, but not everybody's gonna be the Amazons of the world or the the Walmarts of the world right out the gate. And every time and time again, even with freelance, with a lot of the writers that I speak with, some of them, they started as generalists and people can be successful with that. But a lot of the people that have really. Reached a critical mass or really achieved something like a change in their business was when they just got really determined and committed, even if they were scared to what their niche is, whether it's signs or hell or tank.

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 15:53

My freelance stays like black women were the ones who were hiring me as well. Yeah. When other brands were like, never heard of you. I had black women that I see you. One, I'm like, I'm gonna work with you two. You name the price that I'm paying it. There's no, I'm not gonna skimp. I'm not looking for a discount. Like were literally that group that was like, Hey, that number's high, but that's your number. And whoever telling their accountant cut the check. And to be honest, that was the first time I started to get paid my worth. When I really was like, look, I just wanna highlight dope black women CEOs and focus on elevating their brands and elevating what they have going on and being their right hand.'cause I thought about people like your Gary V and all these like big games who, they always have this right hand, like social media person or whatever, and I'm like, let me. Be that person for these black women who are out here building these businesses, building these companies, building something just amazing and extraordinary and exceeding all expectations and going past the industry stats and norms and data. And I know they're doing it all alone. All right, gimme some of that load, right? You should have gone this road alone. I know why you have to do this. But I'm gonna pick up some of that weight and let me help get you across a few more finish lines, right? Because now you get to step out and go focus on something else. So even to get to this point where I'm at now. It was because of black women were black women giving me my first opportunities to even use my skills to design something, to create something, to create content, to do marketing, to do. Everything is aligned to them. My resume came in with all the stuff I've done with working with them. So once again, my career is literally, I'm indebted to the black women who were like, we got you. We care for you. We're gonna support you. We wanna see you win. And they're the fabric of my story.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 18:15

I think there's so many messages that are so important, I think for entrepreneurs, for people listening to this who are solo printers. Is really paying attention to who, who is supporting you and leaning into that 'cause. Sometimes we can get maybe distracted or again, there's all of these perceptions or messages about how success is defined or who we should be serving. Or we might miss what's right in front of us. We might we're, if we ignore that. Look at just what you've just described, this beautiful, longstanding value transfer of support over time in different ways that you've had with black women in your life. The, I see people missing that sometimes because. Maybe we're trying to keep up with the Joneses or be competitive with other people in the space, and we're not looking at who is actually buying from us. Pull out our client roster, pull out our our invoicing system, and paying attention. How can I serve those people more? Because obviously they're the ones supporting me. Maybe I shouldn't be going and trying to target this big fish. Because it will sound good or look good. Yeah. Let me lean into the people that are actually supporting my business. That's really important.

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 19:35

And then tying into even I, I think you alluded to like how are shirts being crafted and formed?

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 19:41

Yeah.

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 19:42

Is it is because of the conversations that I'm in all the time. So I'm in these conversations where it's, you see this decorated professional, right? Master's degrees, PhDs, certifications. 10 years this, 15 years this, they're doing all of this work. It's award-winning even though they don't have any awards.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 20:05

Yeah.

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 20:05

And they're like, but I'm not good enough. What?

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 20:14

What

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 20:17

do you have? You never been scam before? Because a scammer is like always 10 toes down. I'm the best. I'm the greatest, but yet you're scared. And so it's a lot of those conversations that I'm in. And to be honest, a lot of the conversations that you just see in the comment sections on social media, right? If you see a conversation about, yeah, I'm battling with fear and ness and doubt and anxiety, and you see the comments and it's Me too. And me too. Oh my gosh. Again, yeah, I'm tired of never being valued or looked at or I've been having so much issues and troubles of just, uh, speaking up or telling people. About what I wanna, you see all these conversations, man. Okay, cool. For my current shirt fair, don't live here anymore. Or do I have the syndrome? Or, stop being so hard on yourself, or whatever that conversation is, what's amazing, your goals, your dreams, and your melanin. Hold onto that, right? Like,

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 21:17

yeah,

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 21:18

if every time. I'm either in the conversations or I'm looking through social or we just see the landscape of corporate America and all these things. Once again, you're seeing us sit with, once again, the skills, the degrees, the certifications, and we're not getting the notoriety and we're not getting the highlights, and we're not getting the shout outs. We're not in those conversations all the time. Some are not. Everyone's. And nor do these people want handouts either. It's like I'm, they're actually working hard and they're not being recognized or honored. Once again, you hear that narrative gotta work twice as hard and you know stuff, and you have all these biases and you're, you don't even realize like, you've knocked me off the opportunity list because of the name or the school I want, whatever those things are that people are finding ways to like, I don't know if we want to give it to you. And saying, okay, cool with me, knowing that there needs to be like, like the old school Apple method or there's an app for that, police has a shirt for that, and it's, I wanna make sure that I am continually listening to be able to be like, Hey. You don't want to put that thing out 'cause it's not perfect. But you gotta start ugly sometimes. Right? And some things are just accidents. And I'll say a phrase or I'll wrap a line on my page or whatever may come out, and somebody's like, Ooh, but that line though, right? And they're like, yeah, that line. And there's double taps and likes and comments and all this other stuff on it. And I'm like, huh. Some people may say, Hey man, make that into something. And I can't make everything into something.'cause that's just,

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 23:00

yeah,

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 23:01

go crazy. But if I keep seeing a through line,

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 23:04

yeah,

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 23:05

I keep seeing it get mentioned and then I keep hearing other conversations around this like, all right, and I think we should actually, we. Put it onto something or a graphic and even just, or just what's missing. I think even when we did the Black Women in Hollywood Church and we were highlighting all these dope black women in the field of acting in, once again, Hollywood in general, it was something that was missing. And even before putting that shirt out, like I cried. You know what I'm saying? Because I'm like, why aren't these women getting the recognition they deserve? Not that everything needs to be so emotional when y'all are putting out your content and your branding and all that stuff. For me, it was very much so emotional. It was very much so visceral. Like I can feel certain things in my bones and I'm like, yeah, holy Spirit, hey, you need to drop that or something. That's just like gnawing on me. And it is funny. AI is the craze, and so I talked to AI like a homie, and so I was asking AI one day. I was like, man. Is it cheating? When I get an idea and I ask this AI tool for help, and I know it's my idea, I dropped, Hey, I got an idea for this and that, and I want to see this, but help me make it make sense. And it's like, how is it, how is it cheating? Wouldn't it be the same as if you were talking to a team, a professional?

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 24:30

Absolutely. A hundred

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 24:32

Like, like that light bulb moment of. No, you don't have to. But this is once again, how someone who has the, like, my skill and my gift is I ideation and I see things that nobody else sees. This has been my life since a kid and I'm still 30 plus years old saying, oh no, that I, I cheating. Like I'm asking myself, am I cheating while the imposter right. I got an idea and it's not an idea worth anything, but they have so much passion and heart behind it and the company goes and they launch it. It might trash and suck, right? But you couldn't tell them nothing. And they knew that it was the best. And even though the numbers said it wasn't, they still were like, the market's the problem. They never own it.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 25:21

It's never, no.

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 25:23

But just me thinking in that moment of just. Am I cheating because I have an idea and I need help to flesh things out. It's dude, like this is the imposter syndrome that you are laced with and we gotta get our audience, your audience out of that hole. No, you are the only answer to the problem that the industry, company market. Whatever is happening. You're the answer. You've always been the answer. You need to speak up more. You need to speak up louder. If you're trembling while doing it, that's okay too. Yeah. It out because every, you're like, I know other people are thinking of it. They're not. They're absolutely not. The lightning bolt that you get hit with all the time when you're in those conversations is not coming to anyone else. Start talking and start speaking up.'cause sometimes just because they're silence, it doesn't mean people aren't listening.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 26:25

Oh, a hundred percent.

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 26:27

And that's always the case. Like they heard you and now it's, I think sometimes people are just shocked. Dang, like, I didn't even think about that. Sometimes people have to literally register how profound something was that you brought to the table, and a lot of times people just don't understand that level and that gift that you constantly bring. And maybe just people are in awe, right? I think people don't realize you might say something and you're like, why isn't it registering? It's like, no, it's you've, it's planted now. You just have to sit too and let it, they use it for sales. Like they came, my, my number is like five grand and you have to shut up immediately. Yeah. But if you try to like, if you guys don't like the idea, then I get it.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 27:16

Oh my God. That's the worst thing. You've

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 27:18

done this to yourself,

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 27:19

you're diluting it. Yeah, a hundred percent. When you were talking, I was thinking about my little son the other day. I have three kids, they're all in elementary school and my youngest, he's in kindergarten, so he's learning the rules of the game or he's being socialized by the system and how to act, how to be, how to work. And it's so funny 'cause we're eating dinner and he's like raising his hand and he's doing this little symbol to me and he is like, like this. And I'm like, what? What are you doing? Why are you like. You want something to happen, you're like, oh, I hope something will happen. And for those people listening, I'm crossing my two fingers, like I'm hoping for something. And he is. I had to go potty. I had to go potty. And I was like, baby, go ahead. Like you're home. Like you don't need specific permission. And I, when you were talking about the ideas that you had, and can I say them or who am I to do it, or some of those things that you're hearing from your audience that we all feel and know. In terms of, can I do this? Is this okay? Or I don't know all the answers. Yes, so let me not say it yet, and I'm, and it sucks because I'm seeing those things, how we've been socialized when you talked about being the idea person since a child, that you just, that's your gift. You can create idea and you see the connections. You see the opportunity, you see the demand. You see the gap. You see the need. That it's sad to me that I feel like because of our system, get in line, be quiet, raise your hand, wait to be recognized, wait to be spoken, to ask permission. Those who we are, when we come out of our mothers and we come into this world and we breathe our hair the first time as human beings on this planet. We are who God intended us to be. And then I think sometimes because of these structures we've made as humans, to organize things and to keep people in line, feed it out of us where we start to question ourselves and say, oh, is this okay? Yeah. And entrepreneurship is like a classic. Uh, it's counterculture. Entrepreneurship is counterculture. It's against the norm. It's saying, okay, I'm gonna put this rap out and I'm gonna design my own stuff and I'm not gonna wait for somebody to call on me and recognize me and put me on. I'm putting myself on. And I think that is, so that's something that I think because the way we're socialized that, that is a challenge that we see in business is a lot of us have good ideas or something we wanna say. Because we've been taught to wait or that we don't, we're not gonna get a plus. Like all of these systems, the testing systems, the school system, like all of it,

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 30:05

or where you put out the idea, the space and entity has used it and you don't even get a high five. You know what I'm saying?

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 30:14

Yeah.

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 30:15

All that. You've done the, and so now your resolve is to, I'm just gonna shut up.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 30:21

Yeah. Why? Why offer?

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 30:24

Yeah. I'm not giving out the best of me, but I would, I would lightly encourage,'cause I know it's tough for me to say for anybody to do anything. But

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 30:34

yeah,

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 30:35

push back against that feeling as much as possible because once again, it will shrink you to a place where of just no return. And once you get into that, like that dungeon of right, I'm good. I ain't get. You'll never come out of it. Even when you're in a space to be free and to now be your best and like most beautifully dangerous self, you will constantly be like, yeah, but 10 years ago in that other company, I did this and it did not go well for me. And so now you're just always in this like. Deep dark hole from that one. Any or one or 10. 10000th time.'cause I can't imagine that as just, it's like death by a thousand paper cuts, right? Like it wasn't just the one time, it was the one micromanaging moment. An email that went out that was like, your name got missed. The one, like all these little things. But if you can, you know what I'm saying? Push back, because that was me. I, I got in spaces and just silenced myself forever. You know what I'm saying? Didn't say nothing, didn't speak up. And it got to a point where people, when I would really have some one-on-ones with people, and I'd open up the treasure chest,

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 31:52

allow them to see,

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 31:53

and they would be like, yo, what's,

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 31:56

where's this?

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 31:57

And, and I, I took those things as a fence in the early stages of my, I'm like. I'm like, what you mean? Where is this? And why aren't we seeing more of this guy? And I'm like, what are you trying? I'm not here to ju and jive, but I, I misunderstood that once again. I wasn't being me and I wasn't being my most authentic self. And so now like I show up as me, you know what I'm saying? Call me Nemo. And we're working together. That is a character I've delved into. It is me. I can try to sidestep it and shake from it, but it's not happening. I rap. I use rap to create great copy. I have visions for designs and concepts and ideas. I'm gonna say things or bring things to a meeting that you absolutely never thought of and never thought through. I am not using that as a means to say, I'm better. Let's use this as firepower so we all can win. And that's it. Like I'm here to close, like you said, close the gaps. See the market, see what's missing. Hear the voices that people have constantly overlooked or just, just totally looked past. Let's go, let's work. And so I wish, like in the realm of, I know freelancing is a focus, but a lot of times our freelance world is to serve corporate. I'm the freelancer that has gone corporate and I'm like. I'm just bringing ideas to the room. If they don't like it, I don't care. Don't take it personal. Right. It might not be time. Put that idea in the bag. Sometimes it's good to flash out that idea. Maybe come up with some concepts. Almost like a pilot for a movie show. Like I can say Netflix, I got an amazing idea for a movie about a kid who's gonna change the world. Okay, cool. I'm gonna do with that. Yeah, come with

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 33:47

the what's next,

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 33:47

right? Come with the pilot, come with the artwork, come with the concept. Come with the layout. Come with these things. And if it doesn't go the way you want it to, wherever you pitch it or present it, that's now in your backpack or your pocket of things that you can showcase to other brands or company, other initiatives like now, if something that you can actually be proud of and use as your own like thing, if you want to go out and do things for yourself. I challenge us to push back and to speak up and to lean in and to have the conversations. And sometimes you can't have the conversations with the group. I think sometimes a lot of that happens where we're talking with these big groups and so there's always this one group leader who influences everybody.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 34:28

Yes.

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 34:29

Right. So like you gotta talk to people individually and you gotta hear what they love and what they're passionate about and what their interests are, because then you can maneuver ideas a lot better through a room because you're like, cool. Cynthia wants to talk money and she wants to see where the money's going for this. So tell Cynthia I could do this for a little to no dollars. Cynthia is great. Now you talk to Jeff and Jeff is big impact, big like. Bright light stars. Hey Jeff, look how we can get this to the moon. Jeff is on board. Then this other person is, I need data backing all of this stuff up. You give this next person all the data they need. Now they're on the same page. So when you bring that idea back into the room, now that everyone's on board because you've sold it in different ways. And I think we just don't understand that as well as people who deliver things to others of, there are different ways people are looking at it. We have to understand that like they're not wrong in their thinking. We just need to understand how to make it make sense to the money person, to the branding person, to the data person, and all those other elements will fall into place and we'll see our ideas go off. But that's a slight ency.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 35:43

No, that's critical because a lot of times freelancers, we might be working with one point of contact, maybe it's the director of marketing, director of communications, pr, what have you. But there's a whole team usually behind, behind that. And sometimes there are multiple people vying in. If it's a graphic design, if it's a case study, if it's a ad and copy for something, there's multiple people who are weighing in and sometimes their opinions conflict. And then as the designer or the writer, we have to make consensus or figure out what to do with all this feedback that might even be. Conflicting, but understanding that is really, that is a superpower. That's a way to, to show that you're listening, that you validate what they're saying, that you're communicating to them, that you respect their point of view and you value it. So I think that's really wise to think about who all, who's around that table when they're looking at our work product. When you talked about the dungeon a few minutes ago. That really, I feel that because entrepreneurship, there are so many ups and downs and like crazy euphoric highs, and then deep can be deep, dark depressive seasons if we're being real. So how do you stay motivated through tough times and what advice do you have for creatives? I keep seeing people getting like layoffs on my LinkedIn. What advice do you have for people who are facing struggles in their business or even in their career?

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 37:16

That's always like heavy and tough, right? Yeah. So I, I know that I give these thoughts with like an asterisk of, I don't know, the layer of what you're going through. And I also give it with the asterisk of, I know you might've already done this, right? Because sometimes I hate when someone's, you just need to try harder or apply to my,

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 37:42

oh gosh.

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 37:43

I've applied to 500.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 37:45

Yeah,

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 37:46

I'm hitting 650 now. What are you telling me? But in regards to myself though, I look at things as if I'm in a Netflix show, and if you want to use your years of life as the seasons, I'm on the 37th season of my life, and if something goes wrong, I'm like, this is just a part of the story. This is. It has to be a cliffhanger before I win.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 38:15

Remember,

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 38:16

I can't end on this episode, and we're all binge watchers, right? And we all wanna see what happens next, and we won't go to sleep until we know the final answer. Some people even jump to the end and be like, I just wanna know. I'm so anxious. But I do really look at my life as a Netflix show, and I'm like, cool. We got a rough patch, but there's gonna be a supporting character that pulls up, or there's going to be that one moment where you put all the dots together and then you come in with the most brilliant idea that the company has ever seen.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 38:52

Yeah.

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 38:52

Or you're gonna get that one message as you're driving, like in most in movies. And then you drive past this one banner or one sign, or someone says something to you while you're just walking somewhere and you're like, that's it. That's when there's these moments of movies where they're like, you just changed my life. And they hug them and they kiss'em on the cheek or something and they, and it's like some old person that's like, get off me, you weirdo. It was, thank you do, and they run off. But you just gave 'em that light bulb because they were seconds away from maybe losing a client or seconds away from jumping off that bridge or tower or whatever. And now you've literally helped. Move them along in their journey. So I keep that thought process and it helps me and I like to think that maybe Denzel will play my character or something like that, working it, but that's it. I keep that thought process is, it's just a chapter. It is just a series. This is just a weird episode. Some episodes are slow, some episodes pick up and all the drama start happening all at once, and it's. But I like to think that I win at the end of my show, right? And I think I just keep that like thought process going and it's foolish and I'm okay with that. You know what I'm saying? Welcome to foolish, right? Like you're hanging out with the most foolish guy you'll ever meet, and I'm always gonna think there's a win. I'm always gonna think there's a way out. I'm always gonna think there's an escape hatch somewhere. I remember reading somewhere that. We use our imagination very poorly. So if you can think about the worst and how you're gonna get fired and left and your partner's gonna leave you and this is gonna happen, it's like, why don't you just spend that energy thinking about all the things that could go right? So what if it goes right and you can just literally ask yourself that question every time you throw yourself in danger or in indention or a dark place. What if this goes right?

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 40:52

Yeah.

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 40:53

What if I pitch this and it wins? What if I say this and the room has changed, right? What if I. Take that leap and I don't fall, but I fly and I soar, and then I take off. Right? Get lost in the possibilities. Versus getting lost in all these like weird like spaces and self-sabotage and you're pushing yourself down the staircase of like your own doubt and failure. Imagine falling down a staircase, right? Every time you think about your like fears and your doubts like that, you're literally falling down another staircase. And I imagine you'd probably be like, man, I would never push myself down a physical staircase.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 41:34

Yeah,

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 41:34

you do that every time you introduce all these weird things. To a moment that hasn't even happened yet. So that keeps me in this high place and my faith in God and I just can't think of anything else otherwise. And I've been through some crap.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 41:53

Yeah.

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 41:53

But I just, if I know all the stuff that I've been through and I'm still here by the grace, oh man, like your story might be so much better than mines and I just wanna see you make it.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 42:08

Beautiful. Beautiful. Earlier you said Start ugly, and that happens to be the name of your new collection, which I love that it's Yes. Just gets, yeah, stop talking about it. Thinking about it. Start it and it could be ugly. Tell me what inspired this collection? How does it apply to freelancers who are listening today?

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 42:33

It was like a kind of joke. It was because I was laughing at myself in my very first like IES video that I ever put out. I was in like an open outdoor area. It was my friend recording me on a cell phone. You heard the wind like literally going in and out of the, like the video and. It was just so whack. Like looking back, it was like so whack and I was like, just start ugly. And I just laughed and made it a joke and then everyone was like, yo, start ugly. Get something with that. Right. You struck a nerve with that, so I was like. Okay, cool. And then I said it a couple more times and people were like, yeah, bro, like this. I did a little mini series. And they're like, yeah, bro, I need, I needed this start ugly series, bro. You don't even know, bro, you helping me. So I was like, all right, cool. I'll just make it into a shirt. And it's funny, I like sketch it out myself and it deliberately looks ugly, but it's funny, even as I was putting it out, I was like, is this too ugly? I even questioned the ugliness of the ugly, so I just dropped it. And to be honest, I spent this year putting out shirts for myself. Like I stopped really caring this year about if anyone was purchasing the product and just said, cool. Fair To live in here anymore. For me to be my debt free year for me start ugly for me. Stop being so hard on yourself. For me. Going for it. I like, yes, sure. I wanted to amass millions. That's cute, but I don't care anymore. I need the encouragement and I'm gonna keep lifting myself outta my own deep, dark dungeons, because if I'm not lifting myself outta my own holes, I can't tell you how to get outta yours. So I'm using my shirts as my own hot air. Hot air balloons. I guess I'm like alpha

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 44:30

yes.

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 44:32

And. I'm just gonna keep putting out stuff that makes me happy and that's just really how I'm moving going forward. So

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 44:41

I appreciate that and I know that you are gonna continue to inspire people that listen to this episode, that watch this on YouTube. Where can folks find you and connect with you more after this

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 44:55

so you can connect with me. I'm gonna point you out to my LinkedIn.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 44:59

Okay.

Alex "Nemo" Hanse: 44:59

Find the Alex Nemo hats on LinkedIn. And I think that'll open you up to my whole world. And then of course you can go to the foleys.com, go grab me something and or just look through and get inspired. Be like, you know what? I got my motivation for the day. Thank you. And that's, to be honest, that's good enough for me. Um, and this, if I sat here and I talked and you made it this far,'cause people's attention spans are. Very, if you get it this far, like this episode was for you.'cause people don't listen to things this long for no reason. So yeah, get it this far. Every single word was for you. Take the meat, leave the potatoes, take what applies. Use it. Come back to this maybe every couple months or so and see where a new part of this episode might align with you in a different way. Just like a book. You read it 10 years later and it has a different meaning and purpose behind it.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 46:00

Thank you, Nemo. Thank you for the joy and inspiration that you give to the world because we need it. We need more of it. And we appreciate you so much. Thanks for being on the show today. And with that, we've come to the end of another episode. Please make sure you hit subscribe and give me a five star review on your favorite podcast app. Check out the show notes and grab my free guide to help you diversify your freelance business. It's called. If you do this, try that 220 plus smart ways to diversify your freelance services. Until next time, this is Ashley Cisneros Mejia. Don't forget, we all get this one precious life. Don't constrain yourself to a box that you were never meant to fit in. It is your right to profit from your own creative gifts. Our music was composed by Donna Raphael of World Instrumentals Talk Freelance to Me is a product of Fenix Creative Studio.