Our Work doesn’t speak for itself
In the past, I believed that if I consistently produced good work, everything would fall into place — I would build a solid personal brand, get more clients, eventually land more jobs, and be one step closer to financial freedom. But that is not the case.
In the past, I adopted the mindset of an impressionist. I would create the best video and photo content, put on a good show, get paid, and leave. However, little did I know that I was actually self-sabotaging myself while behaving that way. On the surface, it sounds like the right thing to do as a service provider, but there were little signs and signals in between that I missed out, which led to my downfall.
As the years went by quickly, I noticed that I was not getting hired as often as I had in previous years. Immediately, I assumed that the work I put out for my clients had degraded and become poor. I took some time during my downtime to reflect on what went wrong. I looked through my past works and concluded that my work wasn’t causing the problem. Instead, it was my personality and character.
I realised that our work doesn’t speak for itself. Our character and perception will allow us to land the following or recurring jobs.
In the past, I failed to listen to my client’s problems, needs and wants. Instead, I took a small piece of their brief and created work that was more aligned with my style than what they wanted. I was self-centered. I assumed that if I made a banging video that was both cinematic and appealing simultaneously, things would work out well, but the outcome proved otherwise.
I began to understand that putting out work to the best of my abilities is just the tip of the iceberg. In reality, it doesn’t matter if my work is cinematic or high-quality; it is more about how the content I create for my clients can help solve their problems and resonate with their customers.
Sometimes, a simple video would suffice. And that is all my clients ever wanted — to get their message across. In addition, my clients respected my vision and left the creative side of things to me, transforming their videos into something I deemed worthy of myself rather than theirs.
Our work doesn’t speak for itself; our character does.
As a content creator, I must remind myself that I am still a service provider. I am running a business, and I have to put my creative ego aside to serve my clients to the fullest.
After a good wake-up call from business mentors, I focused all my attention on my client’s needs and wants, and things slowly began to unfold in a positive way. Instead of adopting the impressionist mindset, I turned it around and became a friend or a problem solver.
I placed them first and only enforced my eye for good imagery when necessary.
I focused on building strong connections with my clients, which felt great. I noticed more jobs coming in through word of mouth. I allowed the work I put out for my clients to be simple and beneath what I called “perfection” in my eyes. This practice made my job so much easier in the end.
Sometimes, as industry experts, we want the best for our clients. Although this is a necessary mindset, it can also cause everything to fall apart. There are different levels of approach to creating the best content for our clients. It can be visually stunning to my high standards or something straightforward that solves my client’s problems.
Our work will speak for itself if we align it with good customer service or positivity.
If we assume that producing good work speaks for itself, why are content creators who produce lousy work hired more frequently than those who can make good work and are hired less often?
Our work doesn’t speak for itself.
We speak for our work.
Thanks for reading!
