Ruben van Selm is balancing passion and living creatively with reality— a recurring struggle for so many freelancers and entrepreneurs. He’s a freelancer who runs his own graphic design business and a salesperson for a hair growth company. The duality in work enables him to travel, take on projects he enjoys, and work towards creative goals.

Hi Ruben. Tell us about yourself and your work as a freelance designer and sales person at a startup.

Well, to give you some background information— yes, I am a freelance (mostly graphic) designer and I do sales for a company, and I do even more. I’d like to call myself a non-gangster hustler. Sometimes I’m a writer— in my mother tongue Dutch because it turns out to be quite a niche— blogger, an illustrator, animator, video editor, work on sets. etc. Most of it I can obviously do remote, so I travel and work at the same time.

I’ve always been a “spider in the web” or “jack of all trades”. Sometimes I think that it’s my weakness that I’m so versatile, but now I’ve learned it’s actually my strength. Ask Ruben something and he’ll make it. And if he can’t make it yet, he’ll find out how to make it. I guess it’s a perk of our millennial generation; we grew up with the internet and always had the opportunity to find a tutorial on how to get something done. And aside my design knowledge, I’d like to say that I have quite a bit of human knowledge which helps out with the sales.

With the sales job I can mostly work remote. But I do need to be in Amsterdam every once in a while for sales meetings. This is why I usually do short travels in summer but in winter I have an employee who does the sales meetings so I can be working fully remote.

So how would you say you balance passion versus reality?

So I would like to describe my design work as my passion. I can fully express myself and I can use lots of my qualities. At the same time design work mostly exists on a screen and I miss the human interaction in this. And honestly I am not made to sit at a desk for 40+ hours a week even if that’s remotely, I prefer to get out into the real world and find interesting stories. And yes, you guessed right I’m quite the social person. In my sales job I find more human interaction and I find it interesting to find my way of selling.

Honestly I hear a lot of freelancers struggling to find clients and work. They are determined to stay freelancing and want to only follow their passion. Personally I have always had a very commercial mindset. You simply cannot always follow your passion, because the bills have to be paid and the money has to be made. That’s why I chose this double career to be able to support myself and pursue what I love. I like to travel a lot, and I also like to have a homebase with strong family and friend connections.

I have a Bachelor's degree in Communication and Media Design. Sales is not completely a strange skill. To me, sales makes sense too, because after all, every design is made to sell something. So to me design and sales are quite similar. The subjects in my course contained a wide ranges from marketing to sociology, psychology, crossmedia design, communications, audiovisual design, concept design, graphic design, etc.

My personality shows in my way of sales. I like to be transparent, non pushy, and if I truly believe in the product, the client will notice that and find me trustworthy. And it’s also important to keep your website and social media up-to-date and also show the trustworthiness on those channels.

My work-social-life balance is very important to me and having freedom is one of my strongest values. That’s why I decided to work as a freelancer and stay freelancing. Even though it’s not always easy, and we all struggle, you always have to keep your values as a goal.

I have always doubted about what I wanted with my career and guess what? Up until today, I still think almost every day “what’s next”?

In a way I think that’s a natural and good thing, but perhaps I haven’t completely found what I’m made for. In a way this constant urge for more keeps you “awake and aware” and helps you strive to get more out of your career.

A graphic illustration from Ruben’s portfolio.

So would you say your personality is always on-the-move?

Lately I’ve been doing some research on personality types, specifically the the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, and even zodiacs— believe it or not— and I’ve come to know that I am who I am and there’s a place for me in the professional field. As an ENFP-A (aka. campaigner) you could say I’m enthusiastic, charismatic, and creative. People with my personality type are usually very charming, energetic, and independent. Independence and freedom are some of our strongest life values, hence the nomadic free lifestyle. We are also called seekers and have extreme difficulties to commit to things in life. Not the easiest to live with to be honest. But on the other hand, we’re also very explorative and charismatic and inspirational.

How are you able to juggle two roles? Especially if you’re the one running your own business? Would you say they compliment each other?

To be honest it’s not always easy. So for the sales job, I simply have to empty the mailbox every workday, answer some whatsapps and calls and keep an eye on the CRM system. I think about campaigns, discounts, offers and cool social media content, also I keep the website up to date and write blogs. I try to do this in the mornings so I literally have a 50/50 career and can do my design work in the afternoons.

At the same time it’s a weakness because I do work a bit slower than most designers. I always have to tell my clients I can work half days on it. Most of them understand and are fine with that. If I have a client who wants me to deliver quickly that does mean that I work late hours, and on these days I can easily work a 12 hour day. On other days I’m finished after three hours. I like that I have control of it and I don’t have a boss making money over my back.

Running your own design business, what has been the hardest lesson learned?

Invitations to Kaarten Carrousels office opening party by Ruben.

Pricing for me is the most difficult. And also sticking with the price you gave. Clients tend to think design is something they can just change once you’ve negotiated a price. You always have to be very clear about how many revisions they get and also ask them to trust your design even though it might not exactly be what they expected. I’m the professional here and I’ve studied for this so they have to take my advice.

It’s not really just an hourly thing but you add value to a client. For instance with making a logo, the client doesn’t buy your hours of work but they buy value. This logo can be worth lots of money in the future so why should I have to make it by an hourly rate. They also buy the copyright of my creation, I always try to make that clear.

What’s your best advice for starting a new client relationship as a designer?

Honestly I have never done active acquisition. I’ve always trusted on my own network and friends and family. I know I can get more and more qualitative jobs when I do start doing that. I just had an epiphany that that’s the sales and human interaction part that sometimes lacks in my design work. I should just start doing more active acquisition!

But with any any new client relationship, as I’ve said about my current sales work, you have to build a trustworthy connection. And you have to believe in what you’re selling. Luckily with my design I’m always very intuitive and I have a big imagination. If I can transfer that to the client they’ll sure get enthusiastic too!

How would you describe the freelancing community in the Netherlands? How has it changed since you started freelancing 6-7* years ago?

Logo design + corporate style + webdesign for club Maggy in Utrecht by Ruben.

I’ve noticed a shift in how people work. First of all, the amount of coworking spaces in Amsterdam has exploded. It’s funny to think that about three to four years ago, I had never heard of the word coworking. And even people around me don’t really know what it is. I still have to explain to some of my friends how this “new way of work” goes. It’s funny that some of my friends call coworking “to GetCroissant”, because I always tag Croissant in all my social media posts. A friend once said “I wish I could just work like you do and go to a GetCroissant and just work from anywhere”.

Do you think freelancing and remote working is changing?

Obviously. I think more and more companies are changing their mindset. Nowadays it’s more important that you take your responsibility instead of working the exact amount of hours that’s on your contract. Remote working is part of companies letting their employees free. I think freelancing isn’t changing that much anymore, just that coworking spaces make it much more easy to connect with other freelancers and help you find new clients.

What’s your favorite Croissant workspace?

My favorite ones at home in Amsterdam are definitely Rent24 Magna plaza and Primalbase. They are very spacious have good desks and are inspiring workplaces with a cool community feeling. Fridays at Rent24 are my favorite because at 5 they start with their Friday drinks and you can really take time to connect with the other coworkers.

When I was in New York I worked a bit at Workville and the view there is just amazing! Furthermore I’ve hopped around coworkings in Paris, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, London, Valencia etc etc. Coming up are for sure Dubai and Bali, can’t wait to get super inspired in the Genesis Creative Centre on Bali.

One of Ruben’s goals is to find new graphic design clients in the New Year, so feel free to reach out to him through his site. A full-time digital nomad, he’s currently working from the Nomad Cruise X from Athens to Dubai. But he has a homebase in Amsterdam.

Ruben’s Found a Path to Balance Responsibility and Passion