Anna-Marie Descartes

I am Anna-Marie Descartes. I am in Hackney in East London and my job is a presenter and DJ.

Well, my days vary, my role varies a lot. No two days are the same.

But in a nutshell, as a presenter, I am often booked to host events. So this could be anything from music nights to talks with high-end talent or corporate events like award shows, to doing digital content for brands or podcasting or just being silly on the internet.

And DJing is just playing music, creating playlists and creating vibes for either a corporate client or weddings. I did a wedding recently and yeah, members clubs, things of those nature.

So yeah, a lot of things happen in my job.

No two days are the same. So while I do what I do, I often have side quests, I like to call them, or side projects, or I might work with someone and help them with whatever they're doing.

But let's say, recently, I've been working for this creative studio based in East London. So I'll start my day there. I usually wake up maybe about quarter to seven.

If we're gonna do a full day in the life, I wake about quarter to seven. My cat usually wakes me up to be fed and under duress, I have to get out of bed. So I'll feed my cat. Maybe I'll go to the gym if I have time. If not, if I start earlier, then I'll just go straight to work, which I have done recently.

I've been working with this creative studio, helping manage their books and get some new talent in. So I'll go there. Do the emails, do the admin, do what is required of me for the day.

At some point in the day I'll post on social media so I will usually batch create at a prior date, make sure everything's edited and then I'll show up at maybe lunchtime and I'll post what I have to post.

Then I come home, I get my stuff ready. If I have time I'll prep a DJ set. I usually do try to prepare in advance. Sometimes I just have to get ready to go, but I'll just pick up my stuff.

It requires a lot of equipment if I have a private hire. So that means I have to bring my laptop. I have to bring my DJ decks, microphone. So I'll make sure my bag is packed. Then I'll head off to the gig.

Yesterday's gig started about eight o'clock, finished at 11. So then I'm there playing music and then I drive home. And then I come back to look after my cat.

If I'm doing something to camera, then I'm probably working with a videographer, I'm working with a producer, maybe an editor, sometimes solo. And we might plan the content.

So if I'm filming for my own YouTube channel or podcast, then I like to have a rough idea of the script, a very loose script or topics that I'm gonna discuss, we'll go through it. They'll give me their input. So we'll kind of collaborate on the idea and bring it to life. And then we'll shoot that.

If it's DJing, I'm usually alone, which contrary to people's belief, you know, DJing looks like such a social career, but you're by yourself a lot of the time, you know.

People might join in, your friends might come to the party or whatever, but the majority of the time I'm by myself and maybe talking to the client who's booked me. Maybe a bartender might come and talk to me at one point, but that's about it.

And if I am doing creative work, so like freelance work outside of presenting and DJing, then I'm working with the client and working in their space, helping them get what they need to do done.

Usually involves a lot of admin being on my laptop or outreaching and talking to people, liaising with people.

Yeah, that's about it.

The best thing that I love about my job is the flexibility. It's also the worst thing about my job.

But I am a very creative person. I've really lent into that. Lent? Leaned? Leaned into that. Leaned into that. I had to check my English there. In the last couple of years, it's something that I didn't really embrace.

But now it's something that I, you know, I'm a creative, I'm a free flowing person. And I love that my career offers me flexibility to change, to pivot, to explore different people, different things, different topics.

It takes me to different places. I went to Belfast for the first time a few weeks ago for a job, which was very random. I would have never have gone to Belfast on my own, but hey, that happens.

And it's exposed me to a lot of great things that the world has to offer and personally it's really helped with my own internal confidence.

I'm always growing and learning and you know understanding how people work, how the world works and yeah I'm just very grateful to be in the position that I'm in.

The difficult parts of my job, like I talk about this often, is managing the finances.

So as a self-employed person, and with the nature of what I do, yes, we can earn great money, but then there are times when it might be quiet and you have to, you have to always be ahead.

So I can't take any sick days. If I had a regular job, I would be able to call my boss and say, hey, I need a day off and I'll probably still get paid. I'll probably get a nice pension as well.

But all of these things depend on you as a self-employed, as a freelance person. You have to be opening your own accounts. You have to be putting into your accounts.

You have to always be thinking ahead, thinking about your self-assessment, thinking about, how much do I need to put aside for the tax man? That's going to come for me in January.

What do I do if I get sick and a client has paid a deposit and then I have to give the deposit back? How am I going to pay my rent? How am I going to do all these things?

So the financial aspect is always looming at the top of my head, but I'm very fortunate that somehow it always works out for me and I'm always on top of my finances.

But you just always have to be thinking seasonally. You always have to be thinking about, okay, thinking, or like my bookings, I've already started taking bookings for two, three months ahead. So I know that, you know, I have work coming in.

So yeah, you just always have to be on top of your game essentially.

My path was very unconventional.

I think from a very young age, I knew I wanted to be on television. I was, we always had the news on in my household. So I was very much inspired by broadcast and you know, even the weather, was like, maybe I could be a weather girl. But then I didn't really love geography. So that kind of went out the window.

So yeah, I just loved television. I loved seeing people deliver the news and speak to the nation and I thought that was very commanding and you know, you have to be kind of a confident person to do that.

And when I was young I was very introverted and I didn't know how I could be like that but I knew that that's what I wanted to do, I just, you know, was drawn to it.

In school I was always into humanities and the arts. So I loved English, I loved writing, I loved politics a lot. And then I went to university, I studied politics and international relations.

And then I dropped out before I graduated. When I think back, I could have just completed it, but I was not happy. Yeah, I dropped out.

I decided, okay, I'm not gonna do the politics route. I had set myself up to be a political correspondent. So I was in my youth parliament, I was campaigning, I was an activist, did the degree, hated it, decided, okay, maybe I won't be a BBC news reporter, but I can still do television.

And then I took a massive switch, I bet on myself and I just started creating YouTube content in the entertainment space, because that's what I was around. I was around so many growing up in Hackney.

Quite a few of my friends became musicians or they became, you know, creators in their own right. So I was around a lot of creative people.

So I just said, decided, okay, I'm gonna buy a camera. I'm gonna buy a microphone and I am going to interview these people. I'm gonna go to events and I'm going to ask people if I could host.

And I had no experience, but I just knew internally that's what I should do. So I just always led with my gut, always followed my gut.

And eight years later we are here.

Okay, I would say, well, school sets the foundation for life.

I think there are a few teachers along the way that really supported me when I was into writing and then I started getting into drama and performing.

And one of my English teachers, she recommended that I take this writing course. And that changed, that just changed my life because I was able to write a play. I got it performed in the Young Vic. I was working closely with producers and directors at a young age.

Looking back now, it was, I was in such a fortunate position, but I didn't see it like that. I just thought it was a little class that I was doing, but it really helped me hone in on my writing skills and see my creativity come to life. So that was a huge light bulb moment for me.

I would say the school that I went to really pushed us to go to university, you know, really get the best grades. So I went along that path, but in hindsight, I don't think that I needed to go to university. I think I could have come out of sixth form, maybe got a job, maybe got an apprenticeship, maybe gone straight into journalism or media studies. And that would have probably helped me a lot better.

Something that I'm passionate about now as an adult is working with young people, working in schools. I give talks and mentorship about public speaking, about alternative career paths, because that's something that I didn't have when I was a teenager.

So I'm really passionate about highlighting the importance of being a creative and that you can have a career outside of university.

Moment in my career I'll never forget...

One that's just come to mind is I was doing a red carpet maybe like 2019, quite a few years ago. It was the ITV Lollapalooza red carpet, which kind of was a last minute gig, which is the nature of the job. Lots of things are last minute.

And I got to speak to quite a few people that you see on your television, but one person that stood out to me was Simon Cowell because... I love Simon, I don't care what anyone says about him or his TV persona. He's always been my favourite because, you know, I just think he's just a straightforward, straight-talking man.

He knows business, he knows what he likes, he knows what works, and I like people like that.

So I got to interview him and I think at the time his son was just born and I asked him about his kid.

I asked him, you know, what he's watching at home with Eric or something along the lines and we were just chatting about his kid and he lit up and after we had the conversation he said you're really good, you know I really like that you asked that question...

I knew that his son was just born and I thought let's go down the personal route and he seemed to appreciate that and I'll always remember that.

What advice? There are so many things that I wish I could say to my younger self or wish I got for my younger self.

I think, I think it's, I would say it's okay to be yourself. I think I struggled, I think I struggled with that, you know, just like finding my voice and... but knowing that I had a voice but being too scared to use the voice.

So yeah, it's okay to be yourself. It's okay to be a little bit weird. It's okay to have other interests outside of the norm. Yeah, in a nutshell, I think that's what I'll tell myself.