Meredith Paige

Snapshot:

• Industry / Sector: Communications / Media, Creative Industries

• Current Professional Life: Consultant / Contractor, Creative Professional

• Education Pathway: University

• Mid Coast Connection: Moved to the Mid Coast

The Blurb:

Meredith Paige is a freelance marketing consultant & website designer. She is currently travelling full-time with her family while serving small businesses & community organisations remotely. The Mid Coast will always be ‘home’, having moved to Tuncurry in 2014.

With a background in graphic design and a passion for purpose-driven work, Meredith shares insights on adaptability, imposter syndrome, and building a meaningful career in the creative industries.

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• Video Highlights

  • Current Role: Runs her own remote marketing consultancy while travelling full-time around Australia with her family.

  • Career Path: Started as a graphic designer (including a notable role with Panthers Group), evolved into digital marketing and strategy.

  • Key Skills: Tech-savviness, willingness to learn, strategic thinking, creative adaptability.

  • Challenges Shared: Burnout risk in creative industries, imposter syndrome, balancing broad capability with targeted service.

  • What She Loves: Working with value-aligned clients on meaningful projects; being able to serve a higher purpose through business.

  • Advice to Younger Self: Trust yourself, worry less, start small (even free), and lean into real-world learning opportunities.

• Key Quotes

  • “You’re doing better than you think.”

  • “Say yes early, build your toolkit.”

  • “Serve, don’t just sell.”

• Transcript

  [0:10] Intro

  Hi, my name is Hailey. Welcome to the Human Library video series. In this video series, we speak to people from the local community and hear their stories.

  Today we met with Meredith Paige. She's a marketing consultant, and she runs her own freelance business. At the moment, because she's her own boss, she's traveling Australia doing her work.

  [0:33] What does your professional life look like at the moment?

  So my professional life actually changed a lot about 14 months ago. I was able to take what I do on the road, and I'm currently traveling Australia full-time with my husband, my two boys, and my dog. We've just finished our first lap of Australia, and I was able to work completely remotely with the range of clients that I’ve got, doing what I do as a marketing consultant.

  Thankfully, thanks to Elon and Starlink, I was able to have consults from a paddock in the middle of nowhere, Central WA, right in the heart of the Northern Territory. I've had some really amazing experiences and worked the whole way as well with some really awesome organisations and clients.

  [1:20] Can you describe a skill that has helped you get to where you are?

  Definitely being tech-savvy has helped a lot—being able to work remotely—and also being, I suppose, a strength that opens up really good opportunities. It’s not necessarily just tech-savviness, but a willingness to learn and the willingness to try new things.

  You do have to balance that, especially when you become a freelancer. I’ve noticed this a lot in the creative industries: you sometimes fall into the trap of being everything to everyone, and that’s when you can get overwhelmed or potentially experience burnout. I don’t think that’s an avoidable part of the development of a creative career, but I do think you need to be mindful. When you hit that point, it’s time to start finding your groove—finding where your strengths are best applied, and who they’re best applied to.

  For me, I very early on got exposed to a lot of different platforms. One of my first gigs, even before I left university, was the graphic designer for the Penrith Panthers. And that wasn’t just the team, that was the group—including about eight different sub-clubs.

  That’s probably an interesting story I could elaborate on as to how I got that gig, which I would love for more people to put it into action in their own career development. In that role, I was exposed to a lot of print, digital, branding—a lot of different stuff from the base of being a graphic designer. It was just a case of complete creative freedom, as long as you could do it yesterday.

  It was a really good crash course in a lot of different things, and I said yes to everything because it was about stocking the toolkit, seeing what I liked. Then as I progressed, I started narrowing down on the kinds of work I liked doing.

  Eventually, I stopped doing logos, branding, and graphic design more specifically. I started working more with small businesses who needed things like websites, digital marketing, and social media support. So I transitioned into more of an overarching strategy role—asking questions like, "Who are you talking to? What are you trying to say? Why is what you do important?"

  I found I really enjoyed operating on that level, and then either doing the collateral that needed doing off the back of that strategy or working with other contractors, subcontractors, and freelancers who specialise in those specific skills. Eventually, I built a really good team of other creative people whose businesses I can also support while growing my own.

  [3:50] What do you love about your current role?

  I think the way I describe it at the moment is that the work is challenging, but the people are amazing—which is a really great mix. I’m constantly being challenged to try new things. Again, it’s that balancing act between trying new things and applying your hand to new skills, without straying into the realm of being everything to everyone.

  I offer a "let’s have a crack and see" attitude to the clients I’ve had for years—like Taree Universities Campus. We do a lot of really cool and interesting things, and we just figure it out as we go, which is a really nice way to work.

  For some people, I offer specialized services where I’ve developed a very specific process to achieve a very specific result—one that I’ve tried, tested, and found success with. Then it’s just about connecting with the people who are best suited to that process.

  So I suppose my favorite thing is the constant challenge, the constant ability to try new things. It’s just a matter of saying, "Yes, I can give that a go, why not?" But also being able to be very discerning about the kinds of people I work with. I’ve now got a suite of clients who have really good value alignment. We all have this desire to serve a higher purpose. It’s not necessarily about just earning money—it’s about contributing to the community, raising up others, increasing the capacity and knowledge of the people around us. It’s really nice to be at a point now where I can work with people with whom I have aligned values.

  [5:20] What does this say about what is important to you?

  I think again, it’s about: what’s the higher purpose here? Yes, we need to be profitable so we can be self-sustaining—and that’s true of any business. But then, what’s the higher good we’re serving in terms of what we’re doing for our customers and clients?

  That’s not limited to the not-for-profit space. It’s more about a mindset that you can help small business owners get into—actually getting them thinking about what would happen, what their customers would lose, if they weren’t trading. What’s their unique spin on what they do that brings value to others?

  That’s a really nice way to market, when you’re coming from a place of, "This is how I serve," rather than, "This is what I sell." So that idea of service and higher purpose is probably the number one value that I think all my work and all my clients get measured against.

  [6:15] If you could give your younger self just starting out one piece of advice, what would it be?

  I don’t really know because I feel really, really grateful for the decisions I’ve made so far—they’ve put me in a really good position now.

  Being one of those chronic overthinkers riddled with imposter syndrome—I don’t think you ever really outgrow that—but if I could say anything to my younger self, it would be: you're doing better than you think. Don’t waste so much energy panicking about the result. You’ve actually got this. Trust the process you’ve put in place, trust that you’ll figure it out, and try to enjoy it a little bit more.

  I’ve had heaps of fun doing what I’ve done, but I think I could have taken a lot of the anxiety out of it and still achieved the same result without beating myself up so much along the way. So that’s what I would do—just enjoy it a bit more and trust the fact that you actually are quite good at what you're doing.

  Trust the process.

  One thing I think I did right—and I’d encourage more people to do, especially in the creative industries—is to stick your hand up early and ask to do things, even if it’s free stuff. For me, the reason I got the gig with the Panthers is because I was a supervisor in their front-of-house team while I was at uni doing my design degree. I went to the head chef and said, "If you ever need any menus or posters for the restaurant designed, I’d happily do it for free—I’m just looking to build a practical portfolio."

  He’d actually been in talks with the entertainment manager at the time because their full-time graphic designer had been swamped—they were a large group with the football team and eight or nine sub-clubs. I got brought on board as a part-time graphic designer to support the full-time one, even before I’d finished my degree.

  Then, it just so happened that when I finished, the full-time designer got taken over to the Western Sydney Wanderers, because that’s when they were starting up. So I just stepped into the role I already knew fairly well, in a company I knew well, with a fresh degree ready to go.

  I didn’t realize it would play out that way, but working for the Panthers has opened up just as many doors as my degree has. So to anyone starting out, particularly in the creative fields, I’d look for opportunities to volunteer, contribute, and build a skill set by serving others—even in a free capacity. Don’t expect to work for free forever, and sometimes you have to price yourself accordingly when you’re starting out to get as much exposure as possible. Put it out there—you never quite know what that’ll eventuate into.

  [9:05] What do you think it would have meant for your younger self to hear that advice?

  I probably wouldn’t have listened. I probably still would have been just as anxious. I’d have been like, "You don’t understand, there’s so much pressure!"

  So, yeah—I probably wouldn’t have listened. But that’s the beauty of hindsight and maturity. You do learn how to cut yourself a break. When you’re young and panicking—and I’d met my then-boyfriend, now husband, and we had a mortgage we were paying off in Sydney—there was that added pressure of, "This has got to work, the stakes are pretty high."

  So, no—I probably wouldn’t have listened. But that’s okay. Not many people do in their early 20s. You kind of have to make your own mistakes.

Please note: All content is correct at the time of recording.