ABOUT MONICA
Well hello there!
I’M MONICA DAVIDSON & this is CREATIVE PLUS BUSINESS.
I started this organisation because I’ve never had a so-called ‘proper’ job – I’ve been a self-employed writer, performer, and filmmaker all my professional life. I started working as a freelance journalist for my local paper while still at high school, started singing professionally around the same time, and got my first paid gig as a camera assistant on a late-night comedy show in my first year of uni. And that was just the 1980s!
In the early 1990s my creative career started to take off. I directed a couple of long-form film projects, my writing was being published – I was actually making a living from my craft as a freelancer, but there was still so much I didn’t know. I had some real professional wins, but also a lot of losses, including being exploited, underpaid, and generally shafted a couple of times. I had a funny feeling there was a better way to freelance and make money, and so I decided to learn through experience.
I’ve always been very aware that it’s not a lack of creative talent that gets in the way of professional success. For me, and for so many other creatives like me, it’s our lack of understanding about small business skills, financial literacy, marketing strategy and wellbeing maintenance that make success in creative self-employment so hard. I learned all those skills the hard way through nearly a decade of freelancing before I started my film and television production company Twoshotmedia in 1994.
While running that company I also started helping my fellow freelancers with informal advice and education. Every time I learned a new skill, I shared it. I looked everywhere for a creative business course and when I couldn’t find one, I started my own. That first ‘Freelance Survival’ workshop in 1996. was a smash success, and my expertise as a creative business expert started to grow.
After 20 years of running my production company, I decided to down tools on production and make creative business support my primary passion. In 2014 I completed my Masters Degree in Screen, Arts and Business at the Australian Film, Television and Radio school. My thesis examined how mentoring and education could positively impact the issue of gender inequity for female creatives, which ultimately contributed to sweeping change to gender policy.
In the same year I was appointed as Australia’s first Creative Industries Business Advisor by the NSW Small Business Commissioner. I was responsible for developing programs and providing business advice and training to professionals in the creative economy across NSW. Afterwards I was also named as one of Westpac’s 100 Women of Influence for my work in the creative industries, which was a real thrill.
All of this led to the birth of Creative Plus Business in 2016. Since then we have supported over 30,000 individual creatives and arts leaders through our advice, education and strategic planning services. I’ve also written two books (including the Australian version of Freelancing for Dummies), received an Edna Award for my loud feminist voice, and in 2019 I won the Creative Trailblazer Award from QUT Creative Enterprise Australia celebrating “an individual who creates enterprises and opportunities and who advocates, mentors, donates, educates and advises within Australia’s creative economy”. SO fabulous.
I have had the great privilege of swanning about in gorgeous frocks helping thousands of creative people with their businesses, from strategic planning in the dusty Pilbara desert to creative business incubators in big bad Sydney city (plus a bit of London hustle and New York City bustle to add to the mix). I’ve also raised three gorgeous children to adulthood, married a handsome Irishman, made a feature film called Handbag, drunk too much champagne, and indulged my affection for the gentle art of pub karaoke as often as possible.
I am grateful every day for the opportunities I’ve had to continue my vocation, and I’m so proud of the team I’ve assembled to bring our products and services to the world. I hope to keep helping creatives for a long, long time.