Give Give Give
To live an Epic Freelance Life, give as much as possible
I just counted 62 photo shoots my team and/or I have done since the beginning of the year.
24 of those shoots were free or for trade.
Over one in three gigs might be free.
(I am not recommending that you follow this formula and definitely not recommending you give this much away)
But let me tell you what some of those free shoots led to:
Baby/family photos for a planner friend: ~$20,000 of business in August.
Approximately three short shoots a month at my private club for their social media: $1000 a month in food/beverage credit.
Offered to shoot a gala project for free to a planner I hadn’t worked with yet: got paid $4300 for that job + got offered another job for $3100
Photographed head shots for a team running a ballroom venue in NYC: they booked me for a junior gala for $2500 and are now pushing me on all their future events.
I mentioned in a previous post how there are pretty much only three types of jobs you should take:
Jobs that build your Portfolio.
Jobs that build your Bank.
Jobs that build your Connections.
All of these free shoots are either building new connections or strengthening existing connections.
These free shoots aren’t hard or big or terribly time consuming. I can edit most of them within a day.
This is a terrible analogy but the best way I can think of it: When a drug dealer gives someone a free sample and that person gets hooked on the goods and keeps coming back.
That’s what I’m trying to do. I’m the dealer showing you what it is like to work with me.
And if I can blow you away with great photos delivered really fast, of course you will be coming back for more.
It can be hard because some people I want to work with are used to what they’ve already got (other photographers), so how do I break in? I shoot for free once.* It’s really hard to say no to free.
I give give give in many other ways as well, which might be a larger post: dinners and meals with planner friends. Gifts. Notes, cards. Calls on birthdays. Sleep in my spare room if you’re coming through New York.
I know someone whose company rented a penthouse in Manhattan just to be able to host out of town people in our industry for free. What a gift. Do you think they earn back their rent every month in bookings? Hell yes.
The real gift in all of this is that when you live your life in a spirit of generosity you are almost guaranteed to be happier. More connected to your community. Richer in spirit.
Thinking about ways to give on a daily basis puts you out of a headspace where you are thinking about yourself all the time. This is true happiness and true peace. Your reputation will be grand. Your friendships strong. Your business abundant.
And the bonus is, you just might book some great gigs in the future.
*just to be clear, this is not the only way I get my jobs. They come from all directions in many ways.