E55: 7 reasons not to freelance w/ Michael Jones
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Release Date: 12/03/2019
101: How to niche down as a motion designer w/ Giuseppe Forestieri
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Should you niche down as a designer? We’ve all heard this advice! So, does niching down help you to win more clients or empower you to be seen as an expert? In this podcast, Hayley speaks with one of our students, Giuseppe about how he niched down his animation studio to work on projects he loves. About Giuseppe Forestieri Giuseppe Forestieri is the Animation Director of his own studio, and has a background in visual communication, specialising in animation and Illustration. Motion Aptitude is the fusion of two of Giuseppe’s biggest passions in life: creativity, and the great outdoors....
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100: Lessons learnt from making 100 podcast episodes w/ Hayley Akins
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Hayley Akins is a motion designer, animator and the founder of Motion Hatch. Hayley launched this podcast in November 2017! In this episode, Hayley explains how and why she started this motion design podcast and what she’s learnt along the way. She hopes these
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99: How to create motion design side projects that complement your day job w/ Charli Marie
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
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98: How Giant Ant became a leading motion design studio w/ Jay Grandin
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Jay is Co-Founder of Giant Ant, an animation studio in Vancouver. As Creative Director, Jay oversees nearly every project in the studio—leading the concept development and script writing processes as well as being actively involved in design and animation. In this episode, Jay unpacks how Giant Ant became a leading motion design studio.
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097: How to make six figures as a motion designer w/ John Filipkowski
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
John Filipkowski is a freelance motion designer from Chicagoland, with over ten years of experience. He’s worked with some huge brands on projects such as Dr Strange and Ant Man! In this episode we discuss how to earn six figures as a motion designer, the importance of outreach and how to build trust with clients.
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096: How to scale your income through productized services w/ Brad Hussey
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Brad Hussey is a web designer, online educator and digital marketing consultant based out of Canada. Brad has taught more than 600,000 indie designers, developers and professionals how to get better at their craft and make a living doing work they love. In this episode we explore how you can use a productized service model to scale your motion design business.
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095: How to make passive income as a motion designer w/ Justin Archer
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Justin Archer is a freelance motion designer who also makes passive income selling templates for final cut pro editors. He has almost 22k sales from Envato alone! In this episode we explore how he started making money through After Effects templates and how you can still be successful even if a market is saturated.
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094: How to get signed by a motion graphic design agent w/ Drew Melton
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
For some people, the idea of having an agent seems like a dream come true. But how do you actually get signed by a motion graphic design agent? What are the benefits? And once you’ve been signed, how do you make sure you get the most out of the relationship? Find out in our latest episode!
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093: How to work effectively with difficult clients w/ Ryan Koral
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Ryan Koral has spent the past 13 years telling brand stories through video storytelling. In that time, he’s learned a thing or two about working with all different kinds of clients. Join us as he shares his top takeaways on how to build a great working relationship, no matter the brief or project.
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092: How to use brand strategy to grow your motion design business w/ Melinda Livsey
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Melinda Livsey is a former graphic designer turned brand strategist. In this episode, she’ll teach you how you can use brand strategy to grow your motion design business and how to price your projects based on the value they’ll provide.
info_outlineAny freelancer knows that there’s instability in their work. Finding clients, managing your time, keeping your finances in order are all big tasks. And with the looming threat of recession, things might seem really scary. But it’s not all doom and gloom. My guest on this episode has taken a close look at all these issues and has some great insight to share.
Michael Jones runs MoGraph Mentor, a worldwide program that helps people get their motion design careers up and running. He recently wrote a couple of articles about the future of motion animation - one about what might happen in our industry during a recession and another giving you 7 Reasons not to Freelance.
Today we talk about some of the pitfalls of being a freelancer and why you might even consider another career path. Michael shares what he has uncovered while studying the effects of recessions on advertising and the gig economy. We also discuss our thoughts concerning earning more through content marketing, content creation, and some practical passive income ideas.
In this episode
- Thoughts on how a recession might impact people making digital content
- Why individuals and small studios could fare better than big agencies in hard economic times
- The challenges of most passive income streams and the ones that are worth pursuing
- Dealing with the stress and isolation that comes with freelancing
- Appreciating the freedom that comes with freelance work
- Transitioning from in-house to remote work
- Setting yourself up as an expert when working direct to clients
Quotes
“For those of us who make our living creating digital content, we might actually be in an okay position even in a really bad recession.” [4:36]
“The talent is the asset. Wherever the talent goes, that’s what the companies want.” [9:07]
“There’s an obvious pull towards freelance for so many people because so much time at a studio or agency is wasted time.” [32:17]
“Just do what’s right for you and try to optimize for your health and wellbeing. Don’t think about the fame and the glory.” [45:19]
Links
Follow Michael Jones on Twitter
Recessions, The Gig Economy & Motion Designers
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Some of the links above are affiliate links. Basically, this means that if you decide to make a purchase through one of these links, we will earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. You can be sure that we would recommend these products whether or not we made any commission on them. Please don’t spend your money on them if you don’t think that they will truly help you improve your business, although, in our experience, they will.