Detour
An update on 14 days to 40k. The short - I didn't get it. No one did. The client told the agency they'd be shelving it for now. It's funny now, how nervous I was preparing for it and how much anxiety I had over whether I and my portfolio so far was good enough. All of that instantly vanished when I got the message. I'm not sad at all though, being under that pressure got me to accomplish a few things:
I spoke with and learned from people much more experienced than me
I revised my portfolio and made a site as a studio (keeping it private for now since I have more time to refine it)
I learned where my weak points are and added a few names to my rolodex of people I'd want to work with
One of my bigger weakpoints is the commercial reel is not really there in terms of owning a production. My personal work is stronger which is a little harder to sell since I don't have a big audience either.
A bummer, but getting shelved was that third option that I knew was possible but forgot about. All part of the freelance game. But this is why I need to have a healthy pipeline of projects and people I'm continuously in conversation with. Overall I'm at least in a stronger position than before. Which I am able to recognize at an intellectual level but emotionally I’m rather exhausted since arriving back in NYC. I wake up at 11 and sleep at 2-4am. It probably doesn’t help that the Capitol was being taken over while I was in the air and I found out once I landed. Only to then be greeted by the army at the gate because NYC doesn’t let anyone in now without filling out a form and showing a negative test. I tried to tune out of the news and doomscrolling for the most part but it felt rather odd. I know this year I want to accomplish a lot in terms of projects I complete and establishing an actual studio vs just me as a freelancer so I do need to find a way to focus and take of myself mentally and physically.
Some things I'll be working on this next couple of weeks:
Make a list of brands and companies I'd like to work with and reach out
Continue reaching out to people at agencies and other creative places
Revise the site
Set up some equipment as rentals on Sharegrid (iffy on this but then again these are just tools)
Some personal projects - recreations, another mini doc, etc
Operational things - accounting, SBA stuff, moving
I got to trial Bench.co for a month, didn't really have anything for them to do since I wasn't on production but seeing the $169 charge come in for next month after the trial scared me so it's not necessary yet. I am testing out Wave now to see if its worth switching over. Quickbooks has been fine and I'd stay but it is being really annoying since I can't upgrade the self-employment to the accounting version automatically, I’d have to export and import all of the transactions and invoices manually. And Wave is basically free. I nearly got into the trap of setting up these systems and services that frankly I just don’t need yet. Glad I got to trial them and have conversations with sales people from a position of curiosity rather than need. I know for sure now my business really isn’t that big yet and there are incremental ways I can fill gaps for now.
January is light in terms of client work. That's ok. Although I have more free time now I am trying to protect it unless there's a really good project I'm excited about. I do have something fun in the works with an old colleague. I'm really stoked on this one since we're talking super early and we're only in the research phase. Later there's going to be a lot of experimentation with creative flexibility that lines right up with my aesthetic. If anyone does have projects for February or March would love to chat about those and how we could work together. Hit ya boy up.