The Fractional Frontier: Harlan Kennedy on Owning Time and Our Tendency to “Navel-Gaze”

For some, ‘freelancing’ has become a loaded word. In the past, it’s been associated with insecurity - but in a climate of rampant redundancies and restructuring, ‘insecurity’ feels more universal than ever before. In that context, it’s perhaps time to look afresh at ways of working which challenge traditional models. 

Partners in Crime’s ‘syndicate’ approach - one of fractional employment in which individuals dedicate only parts of their total working time to single employers - isn’t a new invention, but it is newly relevant. As the company says of the creatives, strategists, and talent that make up its syndicate: “some may call them freelancers, but to us they’re Partners in Crime”. 

For clients, the streamlined approach means that costs are lower, and the creative is powered by staff which are hand-picked and bespoke to them. But there are benefits for those staff, too. 

Harlan Kennedy is a strategy director and independent consultant who has been “plugging in” with Partners in Crime ever since he left full time agency life five years ago. To find out more about how Harlan is thriving within this alternative model, LBB caught up with him… 

LBB> Harlan, why was a fractional employment model something that appealed to you? 

Harlan> Mostly for all the reasons it appeals to anyone else, I guess. I spent 25 years working for agencies. I went out on my own in 2019 and initially it was just a question of whether I could make it work. I love the flexibility. I love owning my own time. I love being able to choose who I work with. And I love being able to take the dog for a hike at 3:00 in the afternoon, Zoom meetings permitting.

LBB> And what’s been most satisfying for you about working in this way? 

Harlan> I’m someone who enjoys variety, so there’s that — working with different clients and different colleagues. Sometimes working directly with clients, sometimes working with agencies. The time spent is very efficient. You get to a certain point in your career and you really appreciate how important it is to be efficient with your time — and working with others who feel the same way. There should be a word for this - diversity of partnerships plus efficiency of time. Efficierty? Diviciency? We’ll workshop that.

LBB> How do you get a sense of being part of a team when you’re not working in a traditional office environment? 

Harlan> This feels like something everyone is struggling with, whether you are a solopreneur or an FTE. For me, it’s honestly just about finding your people, and being able to quickly make connections with new people as these teams can kind of shift and morph based on the shifting needs of a project. Of course I’ve had to let go of the camaraderie that happens in the office, with full-time co-workers. But what replaces it is a shifting network of people to meet and form new relationships with. And it feels like we are all slowly getting better at this? Or maybe I’m just an optimist? I’m a natural introvert but I’ve become much more extroverted – at least professionally – probably because I’m making up for that baked-in sense of “team” that you get when you are full-time agency people. So plugging in with Partners in Crime – and other agencies, clients, and networks – is a great way to have the best of both worlds. And of course, when we are able to create those connections – even in the constraints of this new reality – it almost always makes the work better.

LBB> And do you feel like you're still growing professionally and creatively with this newer model? 

Harlan> I guess I’m pretty “seasoned” at this point. But “seasoned” doesn’t have to mean “jaded.” On the one hand, the value I create is applying that 30 years of experience and expertise to marketing and advertising challenges. At the same time, I still want this to be fun, and for me that means adopting new approaches, incorporating new technologies, and learning from others. And I learn a lot more when I’m working with others than when I’m “lone-wolfing” it. Also, one of the reasons I went into advertising in the first place was because I wanted to work on a variety of stuff. I like quickly learning about a new client or industry. And that hasn’t changed. In fact, it’s accelerated. 

LBB> How has this relationship with Partners in Crime helped you consider yourself a business as opposed to a freelancer, if at all? And how do you feel about the word 'freelancer’?

Harlan> Fifteen years ago, if I met someone and they said that they were a freelancer, I would have thought “Oh that’s cool, here’s a person who is so good at what they do they can make their way from project to project, and they are likely in high demand.” And I think those of us who were full-time were a little envious (at least I was!). Now, if I meet someone, and we start talking about what we do and they say “Oh, you’re a freelancer!” – the truth is I bristle a little bit. And I think the reason for that is that the word doesn’t really capture how drastically things have changed in this industry, and all the things it takes to be successful as a solopreneur. Now, to be successful, you have to have a strategy, a business plan, a clear value proposition, and approach your business proactively. I led a specialized division within my last agency. We had 10 or so dedicated employees, and the truth is that my business development strategy now is very similar to how I approached it when I had 10 FTE’s. Does “freelancer” capture that? Not really. So you can’t just sit around and wait for the phone to ring. Beyond my relationship with Goldie [Stephen Goldplatt, PiC founder], I think of PiC as an ecosystem that the business of Harlan Kennedy is inevitably rewarded for investing in. And the same is true of other ecosystems, clients, and agencies that the business of ‘me’ has relationships with. 

LBB> Do you think that this way of working has any impact on the actual work itself? Does it change the way you approach a brief, for example? 

Harlan> That’s a tricky question. I don’t think I approach a brief much differently. I still have my process, but I will say that there is a different dynamic that surfaces. I feel an ownership of the outcome that maybe I didn’t feel quite so acutely when I was an employee at an advertising agency. I don’t know that that makes the work better. It’s just that sometimes it feels like more is at stake. Whether I’m working on my own or with a small team, I just feel a bit more invested. I really want whatever I’m working on to be successful, for the work to have an impact. And, look, I remember feeling that way at the agency too, but now it’s my name on whatever the engagement is. I think that’s an outcome of thinking of yourself as a business, and not a “freelancer” who is maybe just jumping from one thing to the next. And one more note on that – over the last few years there are inevitably just fewer people involved in anything I’m working on. And there is a real benefit to getting a small group of very talented, seasoned people together with the right skill set. You can just do great work. The politics are minimized, and you can get there without the weeks and rounds and flurry of activity - i.e. kicking up dust - that I have often seen in my past agency life. There’s a dynamic sometimes within agencies for everyone to have a say, and sometimes there can be a tendency to smooth out the sharp edges of the work before it gets to the client. That “death by a thousand cuts” doesn’t happen when it’s four people. 

LBB> There's been a big conversation over the last few years about a 'new way of working'. Why do you think that topic has been so prevalent? And is it time to move on to a new conversation? 

Harlan> Well, as an industry, we love to navel-gaze. Lots of ink spilled on this topic. And now AI and what that means or doesn’t mean. I think over the last decade we’ve all watched a flight to the extremes - lots of opportunity for people like us. And still a reason for the big networks to exist. But a lot of agencies are stuck in the middle - without the flexibility on one end, or the resources on the other. And that’s a tough place to be unless you are bringing something that’s truly differentiated. 

I think the ‘new way of working’ is still unfolding. There are still many, many clients who haven’t really wrapped their heads around the efficiency and impact that they could unlock with a small team of highly talented creative professionals who are no longer gated behind an outdated agency business model. And there are still many agencies who are still trying to make the old model work. It just feels like this is happening, and it’s accelerating. And I think we can all agree that the old way of working is never coming back. So we might as well just get after it, right? 

LBB> And do you feel that the industry is getting closer to a resolution? Bluntly, what even is the 'new way of working'? 

Harlan> Goldie started Partners in Crime almost ten years ago. It was legitimately a new way of working then. It’s not really new at this point. Every week I see a new agency starting with a similar model. I think that’s just a sign that this now not-so-new way of working is real, and it’s delivering significant value for clients. That said, there are a lot of clients who haven’t yet embraced the model. So maybe we are stuck in the old “crossing the chasm” model – we’ve captured all the early adopters but haven’t jumped to the mainstream yet? 

LBB> What advice would you give to others who are new to this way of working?

Harlan> When you work at an agency, everyone has a role, and often there are incentives in place to not get too far outside of whatever your defined “role” is: “I’m a strategist. I write briefs.” When you start working for yourself you’ve got to get comfortable with ambiguity. My clients just need help. Sometimes they aren’t even sure how to define the need. That’s part of the job. And not all their challenges are going to be solved with a brief or a deck. Sometimes it’s a well-timed conversation, or a day spent with the product guys, or a workshop with the right people in the room, or some customer interviews, or an idea. Anyone doing this has to be good at creative problem solving, and not be limited by what it says we “do” on our LinkedIn page.