070: Why You Can’t Find Consistent Clients
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Release Date: 07/07/2020
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_outlineFreelance life can go from feast to famine in an instant. As a Motion Designer, it can be easy to get discouraged when your business is down. Plus, even when you have a project, there’s no guarantee that you’ll have work waiting when it’s done. That’s why I love consistent clients.
In this solo episode, I want to talk to you about what it takes to land clients that keep coming back to you. To be successful in Motion Design you should regularly be engaging in client outreach. It may not be your favorite part of the job, but it’s critical to your long-term success and sanity.
Maker Time vs Manager Time
In the episode, I talk about two distinct ways to structure your work time, “maker” time and “manager” time.
- Maker Time - Large blocks of time (~4 Hours) used to focus on creative work.
- Manager Time - Smaller blocks of time (<1 Hour) dedicated to doing administrative tasks like accounting, client outreach, email, etc.
As artists, it can be easy to focus your full attention on ‘Maker Time’. After all, you didn’t get into Motion Design because you like accounting. However, by not engaging with potential clients at all times, you risk finding yourself without work. The ups and downs of freelance life can catch you in a cycle of instability. Creating a system to generate client leads will break you out of this cycle.
It’s important for you to identify tasks that involve creating and tasks that involve managing your business.
Mornings for Creative, Afternoons for Business
By separating “maker” tasks and “manager” tasks into distinct blocks of time, you can ensure that one won’t intrude on the other. Consequently, you’ll have more time to devote to client outreach that won’t disrupt your creative process. I personally like to keep my mornings open to maker time and my afternoons dedicated to manager time.
In This Episode:
- How to Stay in Touch with Potential Clients Even When You’re Busy
- How to Avoid Getting Stuck in a Cycle of Too Much and Not Enough Work
- How to Do Client Outreach Even When You’re Busy
- How to Organize Your Day Around “Manager” Tasks and Maker Tasks
Quotes
“We’ve become the motion designer, the marketer, the producer, the project manager, the creative director, and maybe even the accountant.” [7:22]
“Have a regular block of time where you sit down and you put your manager hat on and do your manager tasks.” [8:34]
“Consistent effort leads to consistent results. That means consistent outreach will lead to consistent inquiries which will lead to consistent clients.” [10:25]