You know the difference you can make for someone’s project in a day, or even just a few hours. Yet we have a hard time believing other creatives could do the same for us. This is walking. This is the left foot and the right foot of commanding larger budgets for your projects: invest in quality, then get more money.

I often encounter photographers, graphic designers, and writers who refuse to post short-form video content. They miss the old days of Instagram, when images were king, and their content performed without them having to try very hard.

When a client trusts you, you can follow your vision to an interesting creative end.

When a client trusts you, they'll happily pay more to work with you, instead of your competition.

When a client trusts you, they'll buy you the time you need to do a good job, and even understand when there are delays.

Photographers and videographers (and all sorts of creative freelancers) spend tons of time tinkering with their portfolios, hoping that big brands will notice. What they don’t realize is that big brands are searching for something beyond just good work.

Wherever the folks in your industry are spending time, you need to spend time there too. I’ll add, it doesn’t matter which end of the industry. Clients and colleagues are equally as important in the freelance game.

There’s a study in which different people were tasked with interpreting an email. Those deemed in “high-power” positions were much worse at understanding the perspective of the email sender than those in “low-power” positions.

Baseball has a truncated outcome distribution. When you swing, no matter how well you connect with the ball, the most runs you can get is four. In business, every once in a while, when you step up to the plate, you can score 1,000 runs.

On Instagram, you could get by with pretty visuals, even if they were devoid of opinion. This isn’t the case on Threads.

There’s a tipping point in many decisions. If you’re wondering whether or not to do all the startup work for a new project you’re testing, just don’t. Get a few dry runs under your belt. It’s okay if it’s not a perfectly clean process.

You lost it. You worked overtime to put together a last-minute pitch for a client, and then…nothing. You’re not alone. I’ve lost and won hundreds of freelance pitches throughout my career. I’ve taken notes and I’m sharing my top 5 lessons with you.

I had walked too far to turn back but wasn’t sure how much further I had to go. Then, a woman driving a golf cart (decked out with neon lights and a speaker playing house music) rolled up to me. “Want a ride?” She said. “$20.” 

I became aware of the idea of the $100,000 salary in 2005, and have held that number in my mind since then as a benchmark. Here’s the crazy thing. 2005’s $100,000 only has the equivalent buying power of $66,000 in 2023’s money.

I’ve worked with Nike, Disney, and Toyota, and none of those logos are on my website. Why? Because I’m not that concerned with getting credit for my work. Now you may be asking, “Isn’t getting credit for your work essential to new business as a creative freelancer?” Let me tell you a story. Then you can tell me.

You know the feeling, right? Staring at the blinking cursor on the blank word document? Or fiddling around with a few video clips in an editing software, not getting anywhere because nothing looks cool? Feeling stuck is the worst.

When did you realize you won’t be a world-renowned prodigy? Maybe you realized it when you turned 20 or 30 or 40. Maybe it became clear when you stopped understanding TikTok lingo. Maybe it sank in when someone much younger than you was in charge.

I’m here to argue that video is becoming the new email. Not in a way that it will be used for daily communication, but in a way that if you don’t learn to use it, you’ll go extinct.

In order to make more money as a freelancer, you have to be willing to leave money on the table. You have to be able to say no to money when it’s offered to you.

I knew I could deliver a solid pitch or whip up a decent creative concept in no time at all, with little preparation. So I took on more clients than I should have. When one client dropped me for lack of attention, I networked my way to two new ones. And it wasn’t until a few years in to this turn and burn and churn that I realized this wasn’t a recipe for success.

The old saying goes What would you do if you couldn’t fail? It’s a fine enough question, asking people to dream a little a bigger. Maybe it inspires people to face their fears, or suspend disbelief for long enough to see that something is possible. But I’ll ask you this: What would you do if you couldn’t succeed?

Sending notes to an editor is an integral part of the video-making process, but it’s difficult to convey exactly what’s in your head. Videos are visual, and words only go so far to explain your vision. I’ve found five best practices that help clients get the video they want without exasperating their editors.