For My Creative Friends Who Are Feeling Stuck
A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT GETTING TO THE WORK
Are you a photographer, designer, artist, writer, or some sort of creative person who is not getting the work that you believe you should? Perhaps this will help. They are not long answers to complex questions — they are simple answers to simple questions.
First of all, some ground rules. In order to be successful as a freelance anything, you must be willing to do the work. Yes, some people call it marketing, or PR, or “buzz” or whatever, but I just call it “the work”.
Here’s a shortlist.
Build a strong portfolio of at least 32 pieces.
This may take awhile, but be relentless and work on it with patient impatience.
Develop a list of potential buyers (200–300 names).
We call this research — and that takes time. Do this in conjunction with building your portfolio.
Show your work 5 times a day if possible, but as often as you can.
Yes, 5 times a day can be hard. But try for that and show it to as many people as you can.
Contact a potential client 3 times a day.
That can be an email, direct mail piece, phone call, text. No weekends.
If you show your work only twice a day, that is forty or so showings in a month. If you contact possible clients — just three possible clients per day — you will have made 60 client contacts in that month. With a strong list, you are nearly a third of the way through it and in only one month.
Just imagine: 100 potential possiblities to get a gig. In a month.
And you are in the upper 10% or so of creatives who market at all.
But here is where we get stuck…
I know. I hear this from creatives all the time.
We don’t know who to show it to.
Find them.
We don’t know how to get in touch with them.
Find the way. It’s not rocket science.
We can’t find out who to talk to?
Find out. Ask.
We don’t have time.
Yes. We do.
Our book isn’t ready.
Yes. Yes it is.
The town I live in sucks.
No. It doesn’t.
(And if — on the off chance — it does… move. Who wants to live in a town that sucks?)
Nobody wants to pay.
That is simply not true. Sorry, it isn’t.
Nobody is hiring creatives.
Yes, they are. You know they are.
And you can only make the statement that “nobody is hiring” if you have contacted EVERY POSSIBLE CLIENT ON YOUR LIST… and NONE of them wants to hire anyone for anything. And if your book is good and your list is researched, that won’t happen.
We don’t know what to charge?
Yes, you do. Charge them what you agree to.
How do we know what to agree to?
You know. It’s the price that gives you what you want and them what they want. Ask. Negotiate.
Start a conversation and get it done.
All of this isn’t hard, but we tend to make it so in our heads. And anything we tell ourselves to be true will be.
If you feel like you are in a prison cell, and blocked at every turn, push the door open and get to work.
The lock is controlled by YOU…
You can find me teaching commercial photography at Project 52 Pro System, or hanging around my own studio at Don Giannatti. I manage a group of commercial photographers at Visual Media Strategy.
Thanks for reading.
