Beginner's Guide to Freelancing (Mindset, Tips, & Planning)

1. Trailer: Hi, if you're creative photographer or videographer and you're looking to take your hobbies into getting paid for it. This is the perfect video for you. Now in this course, I highlights the mentality behind what goes on when you're shooting for a client, how to find clients and leveraged herself and how to create some content that gets you K. I share insights and ideas from my experience as a freelancer and also real practical advice so that you can go watch this and start making money from it. There's no fluff, a lot of actionable tips so that you can go and put this into action as soon as possible. And it whereas if you're ready to begin, I'll see you on the inside. Wow. 2. Consider What You're Shooting: Consider what you're shooting for your client. So this video, we're gonna talk about what we would be shooting for our client. Now, for the most part, social media is one of the big, big things going on these days. And people use content for social media because it's so repurposing their stories shots. There's Instagram post, there's Azi can do, there's many different ways to use this content and flex this content as much as possible so that you can cover all the bases. So while we do this and we shoot for our clients, it's good to have in mind what in our content can be used in different aspects of social media for your client. So this video, I'm going to cover a few of the ways that I've been using social media and the content that I use so that my clients get the most benefit out of hiring me when they shoot with me. So let's start off with the 16 by nine story type post. Now, 16 by nine is a very common format of videos to shoot these days. Essentially, it is having 16 on one in the vertical end and nine on your wide end, so that it basically fills up the entire iPhone screen. And well, we go out and shoot. A lot of times. We can just flip her camera over and shoot these scenes, four stories, four tick talks. And for these vertical videos that are so popular these days. And because mobile is only getting more and more popular, this is going to be the best thing to help add a lot of value to your client. So for storage shots, I like to do a lot of behind the scenes and a lot of 16 by nine photos that gives them a sense of what the scene is going to be like. So for example, as you go through your shoot, turnover does turn your camera over, do a quick little scene of behind the scenes thing where it shows people getting ready, how the scene is set up, and how some of the objects are being used. And in that way, it provides a behind the scenes shots for the consumers and for their client is viewers to see and to be more connected with the business. Ultimately, a lot of marketing is about sharing content that resonates with clients, customers, though, when the customers see how everything is done behind the scenes, they're gonna be more like, oh, I know what this company does now. I know what this company is all about. And I essentially, you know how the process works. And sometimes when you see how the process works, you are intrigued and want to buy more. So in turn, this comes back and helps the company out, like the client that you're working for. Have you ever thought about when you go to Chipotle and you're in that line and the person at Chipotle asks you exactly what you want, pack into the ball or the burrito. And you go through this whole experience of hand crafting your own meal. And because you do that, you have this feeling of like, hey, this is a more catered service then Burger King for example, where you're not really sure what goes on behind the scenes. Maybe they're not very fresh ingredients. But here, when you're standing in front of the person making the food for you, you're able to see what goes on behind the food and what is going into what you're eating. So you like that and you feel connected to that. And ultimately with creating content for your client, you want their customers, their viewers, to feel connected with them. Because when their customers and clients feel connected with them. Dan, they're able to buy and spend more money and guess what? When they spend more money on your client, your client is going to want to spend more money on you. Next, we're going to talk about Instagram posts. Now these days, Instagram posts aren't as powerful as they were back in the day. Don't get me wrong though. Instagram posts are still very relevant and still a good way to put your client in front of their customers. But the thing is there's so many different outlets these days to push media out that the Instagram post itself is only one part of the equation. Our purpose here while creating Instagram post is to create a portfolio for a client so that when their customers and viewers gone through webpage and look at their Instagram, they see this well catered five, that represents the brand fully. Now back in the day when Instagram just started out and there was no stories, no tick tock, It was the thing to do. Instagram posts had a lot of pull to it. But these days, Instagram posts don't have as much pull as they used to have because there's so many distractions. Now the whole goal of Instagram posts still is to keep in front of your news feed. So what that means is when your client posts something and their customers are scrolling down their news feed, they need to still be able to see this and to interact with this meeting, just like Facebook, the goal is to stay always in front of the customers eyes, updating them with things that are starting with the company knew promotions, new ideas, new products. It's basically just stain in front of the customer. So the customer doesn't forget about the brain, because after awhile, we tend to forget about a lot of the different brands that we follow. Say for example, go into your Instagram profile and look at your following. More than likely, you're probably following hundreds to thousands of people. And when you're falling that many people, you tend to forget some of the people that are following. There's no way for you to be able to rem, remember hundreds to thousands of names that you are following. So the goal of the news feed is to stay in front of your consumers. Now, I'm only going to go into this a little bit, but Facebook and Twitter are some other platforms as well. But I don't tend to work with them as much. And a lot of my clients don't focus heavily on Facebook or Twitter as much as they used to. Just because it is a pay to play game these days. It's not like back in the day were organic traffic comes and it's much the same for Instagram as well. Unfortunately, is a pay to play type of game. But Instagram still brings in a big pool of people to brands. So I still mentioned Instagram, and Instagram is still one of the main big traffic driver is for a lot of the brands that I work with. Now of course, beware that Instagram these days have changed a lot from back in the day where you do have to pay to promote. And you do have to, you pay to get your brand out in front of people. Unlike back in the day where it was all organic traffic. And that just tends to be how social media works is they built a huge traffic. They have your page built a huge following. And then after a while they start pull, putting out a paywall and then you have to pay a little bit to get your content out to people that are currently following you. You must have heard it with marketing on Facebook. Is that back in the day, all your posts will be seen by people following you. Now, it's only seen by like five to 10%, maybe even less. So that's just how the nature of the game is played these days. 3. Ways to Create Value for your Clients: Ways to create value for your client. Okay, I think this is the most important chapter in this video. Now there are many ways to create value, but with this guide, I am really showing you some easy basic ways where if you're just a beginner, you can still create value for a client that makes you money. So the first thing to do here, look books. Books are typically a select group of images capturing a vibe or a feeling that a brand is trying to promote, essentially is just a lifestyle shoot of the things that the brand represents. Now look books are essentially a style would shoot. So when you go for a look book shoot, it's having a friend of yours styled up in a certain way so that when you shoot for a certain brand, it matches the brand's image, branding, et cetera. So the key to this is to identify what you want to shoot. And a good way to identify what you want to shoot is what do you resonate with? What kind of lifestyle do you associate yourself with? And for me, for example, I associate with the beach lifestyle, surfing, skateboarding, and yours is individually your own as well. And when you're able to isolate what style you're best at, It's best to work with these type of brands because one, you are the target demographic for this type Brin. And to you understand what the target demographic values, what kind of media communicates that speaks to them. For example, the type of content that speaks to skateboarders and surfers don't match with the content that speaks with a computer engineer. Not to say that they're mutually exclusive, but a lot of the main culture of one thing might not be the same culture as something else. So whatever it is that you're good at, that is the type of work that you should be working for. So the point of this is to look for brand step match with your aesthetic and your lifestyle and do some lifestyle type shoots for them. Whether it's having your friend come over and you shoot some photos of your friend doing certain things that match with that brand image or you doing it yourself. Many times, I've been the model myself and have done shots that the brand expected to get from me. Product shots. Now actually these are one of the easiest shoots that you can do. Because if you follow certain product shot guides, for the most part, you will have a lot of the things down. Like a lot of times, clients that aren't very into the photography world only expect a certain type of shot. And the shots that I'm talking about are the ones that are subject and middle, blurry background. That's essentially it. And if you're able to provide these type of shots, a lot of clients will be happy. The main concept here to take away is that when you're able to provide a shot with a blurry background that differentiates you from all the other photographer. Basically, to get that effect with a shot, you'd have to have a lens with a lower aperture. And not too many cameras have a, an interchangeable lens system. And because you do, and you're able to buy a lens like that, you're able to completely differentiate yourself from most of the hobbyist photographers that are just shooting on their phone. Now that he have a shot in mind, think about where you're setting is. And if you're setting matches what the brand that you're trying to shoot with. And once it all matches, you put that together and you shoot in that setting and it provides a unique point of view for that brand. 4. Mindset behind Shooting: Mindset behind shooting. So let's talk about mindset behind shooting for your clients. Basically, you're there to fill a need. Many times, beginner photographers feel very nervous and don't want to do what they think they can't do. So for instance, when I started using a camera, I didn't think I was going to be paid to shoot photographs. I did this as a hobby. Now the thing is, what do you do it as a hobby? You learn so many different skills that in fact, you can actually make this into something that you get paid for. And if you don't know the skills where you can go out and learn it. My other courses I highlight in many different ways to shoot videos, to shoot photos. So that when you go and talk to your clients about it, you actually have an idea of what you can shoot and what value you can provide. And to know what is needed, you need to talk to your client and understand what their need is. So for example, when I go and talk to different shops, I know that social media, having more people coming into their store is a big important thing for them. So I talked to them about how they can create more customers based on what they already have. And as I mentioned earlier, social media is a big, big driver of traffic and as his driver of getting attention to that brand. So we talk about social media. And then because we talk about social media, I get to see and understand what their style is and how they speak and how they present themselves. So that when I do edit, it's not me editing in my own style unless I was hired to do something in my own style. But for the most part, you're just starting out, it's best to do things in your client style. This way you get to learn about how to edit in a different style and also how to work with clients. Because many times we have this ego that wants to create things in our own style. But the thing with creating things in our own style is one, you're going to have so much pressure on yourself trying to make the picture's perfect and try to have it fully represent yourself. And many times this leads to a lot of stress. Now if you just do things in your client style view already have clear instructions on how to edit, how it's going to look like and what you want to make that product turned out to be like. So it's simply just copy and paste really. You do the work, you shoot the photos, you shoot the videos. And then you put this filter or this look into your product and then send it off to them. Now that you have a clear understanding of what your client wants, You have a pathway to delivering them, a result of what they are going to want, what they're gonna be happy with, and what's actually going to help their business. And this is supposed to be able to give you the confidence that you need to go out, talk to clients and deliver them product that would change their marketing game. 5. Getting Your First Client: Getting your first client. Now, this is the infamous question that everybody asks, how do you get your first client? And the thing is, it's not a straightforward answer. What might work for one person might not work for you. But the ultimate concept of getting your first client is to know that you can provide values for someone. And that when you meet someone, you can communicate that you can provide value for them. There's many different ways to find client. You can go to your local networking meeting or you can meet friends, or it could be an College. It could literally be anywhere. The beauty of it is that when you start thinking in the way that anyone can be your client, it opens up this huge perspective where when you talk to someone, you can tell them about what you do, what kind of value you provide without being a super salesy type of person. So what I mean by this is that when you're talking to friends or new people that you're meeting, you can describe to them like, oh yeah, this is what I do. I've worked with these brands. So and so or you don't have an experience working with brands, you can discuss that, hey, I've been practicing shooting product photography. I've been doing model photography. I've been doing the videos for these brands at alike, or I've been doing product videos. It all comes down to what you are practicing doing. And that's the most important thing is that you have to have practice in doing what you say you can do. If you want to get paid, you need to deliver value. And that's the most important thing. You can't just buy a camera and be like, hey, I'm going to make a ton of money just because I have a fancy camera now, That's not the way it works. And one big secret of mine is that I still use a lot of my old cameras. And when I shoot photos for clients, they can't tell that these are 10-year-old cameras because for the most part they're still just as good as a lot of the news ones these days. Like maybe the new ones have GPS or some WiFi transferring stuff or some crazy autofocus feature. I don't need those things because I know how to use my camera. I know how to deliver valuable product to whoever needs my services. Also, just because I use old cameras, for the most part, doesn't mean I am not willing to use new cameras if it is a big gig and if it is something that needs a cinema camera or something that I can't risk failing on, then I do go out and rent gear because renting gear is so much cheaper than buying gear. Say for example, you're shooting a multi-thousand dollar wedding and you only have like a cheap cameras, like I do. So what I would do in a situation like this is I would rent a cinema camera for maybe $6,200 today even. And that in turn would be worth it for me because it only takes one day to film all the stuff and I'll be making thousands of dollars. Now, my cost of this equipment is only a few 100. So my net positive would still be in the thousands of dollars. You don't necessarily need to have the biggest, greatest newest equipment in order to be a good photographer or a filmmaker. So the main takeaway from this is to understand how to craft and create a powerful product that you can send to your client so that there'll be appreciative of your services. 6. Ending & Thanks: Thanks a lot for finishing the course. Now the next step that you should take is actually to watch some of my other courses that highlighted some practical steps on how to create content for your clients. For example, one that comes to mind is how to create a minimal video which takes nothing at all really, just the proper implementation of the techniques. And I show you exactly how to do in the video that you follow, that you're going to be able to make a good-looking minimal video that you can provide to your clients and give the result. Now, found this helpful, please leave a review. It does help get this course in front of the people that need to see it, such as yourself and other hobbyists, creatives. And thanks again for watching. I appreciate you a lot.