The Leapers Survey is closed. But what's your story?

We've collected the numbers, now we're looking for a few people to share deeper stories, to illustrate our work. Are you open to sharing?

Over 1000+ people took part in our 2025 study exploring mental health and self-employment - which is a huge number, thank you to EVERY SINGLE ONE of you who took part.

I’m busy working through the data now, and will have something to share later in the year, and you’ll be some of the first people to read it.

I also had feedback from many folk who were keen to add some context and nuance to their answers. The reasons behind some of their scores. Their unique context. Their story.

And I want to help you tell those stories.

So, in parallel to the “quantitative” data (i.e. the numbers), we’ll be collecting stories from any subscribers who are keen to share a little further. We’ll use some of these stories to add colour to the report, and bring the data to life. And we’ll continue to gather and share stories over the course of 2026, via the Leapers project.

We want stories with benefits and challenge.

We want stories that show the real experiences of self-employment.

Where it’s not as simple “I’m a carer” or “I didn’t take time off this year”.

So, if you’re open to sharing your story, whether anonymously or not - I’d love to hear from you. We’ve created a little form to leave your details, and the headlines of your story - not the whole thing, just a few points where you can outline what story you’d like to tell.

I’m especially interested in hearing from groups who don’t often have their experiences represented in the “classic” perception of self-employment.

I’ll try and do my best to ensure we gather diversity of experiences, rather than just volume. This means we might not be able to use everyone’s story - but I’ll do my best to have as many experiences shown as possible.

And don’t worry, submitting the form doesn’t mean your story appears somewhere on a website, I’ll be in touch to explain the process and what we’d need from you next.

ps. if you’re an organisation which engages freelancers and the self-employed, i.e perhaps you hire them, perhaps you research this group, perhaps your business sells them services, perhaps you’re developing policy - and you’d like an early look at the results when they’re ready, drop me a note.

🫶 mk