What I Learnt from a 25-Year-Old Today
Today I met up with a new freelancer. I try to meet with all the freelancers who are a part of CreativesAtWork – there is nothing like face time to get to understand how people work, and where their strengths lie!
This new freelancer is a young food photographer who just started her freelancing career. A mutual acquaintance introduced us, and we sat down over a coffee to get to know each other a little better.
I have to admit, my first impression when I met her was, “wow, she is really young! Does she know what she is getting herself into?” I started debating with myself how much I should share with her: do I tell her how challenging freelancing can be, and risk dashing her dreams? Or do I stay encouraging about how much potential freelancing holds?
But as that internal debate raged on inside my head, something else was happening as our conversation continued: she was showing that she was full of wisdom already! Slowly, I realized that I didn’t have to worry about her being overwhelmed, and instead I started to focus on listening to what she had to say. Slowly but surely I put away the assumption I carried with me into the meeting – that she wouldn’t know anything worth my time. And I’m so glad I did, because her proactive and positive attitude about developing her career was inspiring!
Coalescing our conversation, there are 3 attitudes I took away with me, which I think should be more widely shared and valued. These are:
1. Be courageous
I always like to find out more about people’s motivations for choosing the freelancing path. Often, the replies I get are about family commitments, a general fatigue with the corporate ladder, and a desire for change. But this young freelancer said something different: she said that she freelances to take charge of her own professional life, and to make a career out of her passion. “Be courageous and take the first step” still keeps ringing in my ears after the meeting.
2. Be Patient
When I asked her how her business had been lately, she said it was slow. She was only booked a couple of projects (which can be counted with two hands) over the past 2 months, and since she was still building her experience, she often had to accept the fee offered by the client, regardless of how low it was. I think many of us would be frustrated in her shoes! But with much enthusiasm, she told me that she will remain patient, and just keep going. She is confident that one day her reputation will grow and clients will come to her.
There are many times we are too quick to give up. It’s difficult to have the patience to build a client base that trusts us, and recurs year over year. But giving up too easily means that we often miss the results that come from hard work and good old-fashioned patience.
3. Learn from Others
This freelancer told me that in order to best develop her craft, she follows many talented food photographers, learning from the best. By doing this, she learned that they all have a food blog as a platform to show their beautiful photographs. All of them are influencers in their own right – they expanded their offering beyond just photography, and it worked for them. Learning from this, she created her own blog and Instagram account, using every tool at her disposal to exhibit her work. While she is not busy working on client projects, she develops her own online presence.
This attitude is very important. Learn from others and be willing to do what you need to grow your audience and your profile. Any good professional takes cues from established people in their field!
Those 3 attitudes will definitely serve her well in future, and I hope to congratulate her down the road for a wonderful career!
It’s important to remember that youth doesn’t necessarily mean a lack of knowledge. I’m glad to have met this young woman and re-affirmed some of these foundational lessons in my conversation with her, and I will remind myself from now on how valuable the younger generation can truly be in the freelancing community!
For all these who are keen to start your freelancing career but not knowing how, CreativeAtWork runs our own Freelancing Bootcamp regularly. Come on and join us! To find out more, you can visit us at Freelancing 101 Bootcamp or follow us on our Facebook for all the latest updates! To hear more about the expert tips on freelancing, you can also subscribe to our podcast series on Spotify, Stitcher or iTunes.
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