coolpilot,
I qualified as a rotary FI(R) last April, and started instructing part time soon afterwards. However, since the school didn't actually need me, I had to do it freelance, finding my own students and teaching them on the school helicopters.
AFAIK, this is the only way you could freelance as an FI(R), since you need to be working under a fuly qualified instructor. It's working, slowly, and the school is beginning to realise that students like me, and may be giving me more work...I hope.
I wasn't self-conscious, but I did find it a steep learning curve. Nothing has quite prepared you for the different types of people, and the things they really do in the air are very different from anything an instructor has simulated on your course. And you sometimes have to make it up as you go along - no-one had prepared me for someone who simply couldn't understand the concept of a reference point in the cockpit and a natural horizon, to find out if you're straight and level. I tried different ways of explaining and demonstrating, and finally got there.
However, it's tremendous fun; I love it!
Hope that's some use to you.