2022 winners
Cheers to our 2022 Rosie Award Winners!
Check out the amazing independent marketers below whose stories of work, life, and brave choices had us shaking our pom poms and weeping in our pretzels.
freelancer of the year
Amy Bell
Freelancer of the Year
Amy is an incredible writer. After years in corporate marketing, a relocation for her husband’s job combined with the arrival of her first child nudged her to break into freelancing (before freelancing was mainstream.. circa 2007!). She quickly built a portfolio of clients who adored her and depended on her for the amazing writing that she provided. She grew her portfolio and continued to run a very successful business. In 2018, Amy joined We Are Rosie and became one of the first Rosies! She is now taking junior Rosies under her wing on her current project with one of We Are Rosie’s big computer software clients.
Tasha Prados
The Liberation Award Winner
Tasha is a (mostly) recovered workaholic. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, Tasha learned there is more to life than work. Although, she sometimes still forgot this lesson. There was the stress-induced insomnia when she worked at the Embassy of Afghanistan that landed her in the psych ward. And the regular 10-12 hour days when she worked at a top-three global ad agency. Freelancing was Tasha’s path to liberation. Dreaming of being a digital nomad, Tasha quit her job in 2019 to travel the world while starting her own branding and marketing strategy consulting business, Duraca Strategic. After some literal and figurative bumps in the road, Tasha replaced her corporate salary within four months (you can read about it in Insider). She now makes six figures working less than half the hours of a traditional 9-to-5 job. Tasha did all this while traveling through Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Mexico, Switzerland, France, Austria, and Germany – oh, and a US cross-country road trip. Three years and one pandemic later, Tasha has her motorcycle and scuba licenses, has learned to surf, and has had so many firsts: deep-water soloing in Vietnam, swimming with sharks in Hawaii, and hiking a volcano in Indonesia. She even launched a side project, Duraca Travels, to help others gain the confidence to pack up their laptop and see the world. This year she had her first press trip and got her first byline in Travel + Leisure!
Rodney Moore
The Multi-Hyphenate Award Winner
“I’d like to thank We Are Rosie for the Multi-Hyphenate Award! And congratulations to the other winners and finalists in all of the other categories. Thank you to all of my family and friends who voted for me.”
Rodney has finally found his liberation, so to speak. In a career that has spanned over 30 years, Rod has been a founder, journalist, publisher, author, TV writer/researcher, professor, and even a personal trainer. But after hustling and reinventing himself half a dozen times, Rod had found frustration in the on-going cycle of feast or famine. Even though his last 10 years were primarily focused in the healthcare sector, the industry’s pandemic-induced pivot dried up many of his long-term clients. He was ready for a change. We Are Rosie was that change. Now writing for Big Tech, Rod is thriving as a contractor. In just a few months, he has already had one of his headlines featured on a premier product homepage. His multi-hyphenate days likely aren’t over though. Since moving to the mountains of North Carolina in late 2021, he has been dreaming of owning a letterpress and setting up shop in his basement. And there’s a half-written children’s book in his desk drawer that he’s determined to finish.
Jocelyn Johnson
The Pivot Award Winner
Jocelyn spent seven years working with Chick-fil-A, as a full-time consultant via annual contracts. But when the COVID-19 lockdown hit, what had been reliable and stable work was suddenly gone. Jocelyn was left to consider other options. She filled the gap by taking on freelance project-based work as well as long-term part-time contracts, including with We Are Rosie. But the transition wasn’t always easy or comfortable. More by necessity than choice, Jocelyn forged ahead. She took on new projects and launched her business, Jocelyn Designs. Along the way, she discovered two keys to thriving independently in an unpredictable economy: embracing diversity of projects and developing flexibility as a personal strength. Still, income stability is only one of the benefits Jocelyn has found in her new approach to independent working. “I’ve learned to pivot more quickly and easily than when I was in a full-time contract role,” she says. “It’s given me the opportunity to show up in different ways for different clients and do certain types of work I didn’t previously have access to.”
Olivia "Olive" La Estrella
The Survivor Award Winner
Olivia is a role model of resilience who’s used grit, strength, and self-belief to emerge from hardship and thrive as an independent marketer. In August 2022, when Olive accepted the freelance position through We Are Rosie, they had $5 in their bank account and didn’t know how they were going to pay rent on September 1st. Olive had just experienced a grueling divorce and had taken time off from their marketing career to focus on their mental health which caused financial strain. Thanks to Olive’s resilience, strength, and self-belief, they went from not knowing where their next meal would come from to having all bills on autopay and a nest egg in the bank by October 2022. Because Olive earned their master’s degree in Business Administration in 2019, they knew that it was only a matter of time before their hard work would pay off. Their hard work truly paid off, and Olivia is now thriving as an independent marketer.