How does a creative side project turn into a decade long freelancing business working with the biggest names in pop culture, like Disney, Pixar, Marvel, DC Comics, Lucasfilm, Warner Bros and Sony Pictures?

All good super-heroes have an origin story. And this interview tells the series of events that took Doaly from working for a company in Birmingham, England, to the front page of comic covers seen all over the world. Signing at Comic-con events. It's quite the transformation.

Tarlochan Doal, AKA Doaly, spent 15 years as a full time in-house web and UX designer. Illustration was the side hustle he did to scratch a creative itch, designing movie posters for films he loved.

Then one Saturday morning, Doaly woke to an email from a movie studio. And his whole script changed.

This episode of the Being Freelance podcast with Steve Folland covers:

- Why he filled his portfolio with the work he wanted to be hired for, and how design blogs and social media got it in front of the right people

- The passion projects that catapulted his career — including a Wonder Woman piece that sold 1,500 posters in a weekend and let him quit his day job

- Using UX contracting to bridge the financial gap in his first year of full-time freelancing

- Building a garden office to separate work from home - because when you love what you do, you'll work all day and night if you let yourself

- How a random 45-minute conversation at a New York convention led to his first Marvel Comics cover

- Multiple income streams across movies, comics, book covers and advertising - so no single client base can sink you

- The weekly phone calls with a fellow designer that serve as his informal co-mentoring

It's one hell of a story. And you might think - well, I'm not trying to work with Marvel, how will this freelancer's story relate to me? But there's so much relatable freelance advice and business tips to be drawn from his experiences.

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Being Freelance is hosted and created by freelance podcast editor Steve Folland.