Looking back, I made a lot of mistakes that coste me my time and money.
These are the ones I’d avoid if I were starting again:
I accepted too many barter deals In the beginning, I was so focused on building my portfolio that I accepted almost every opportunity. It helped me get samples, but I stayed in that phase for too long.
I focused too much on making videos look pretty Good lighting and aesthetics are useful, but brands need content that can hold attention and communicate the product clearly. I started paying much more attention to hooks and storytelling.
I had too many random samples in my portfolio I thought having more videos would make my portfolio stronger. Later, I removed the weaker ones and kept samples that showed different formats and ad styles.
I didn’t understand usage rights properly Early on, I treated the content fee as the entire deal. Later, I learned to look at how and where the brand planned to use my content before agreeing to a price.
I disappeared after delivering the content I used to consider the project finished once I sent the final video. Now I check in with brands, ask how the content performed and stay in contact.
I relied too much on cold pitching Pitching is important, but some of my better opportunities eventually came through previous clients and people I met in the creator space.
I didn’t track my numbers I wasn’t properly tracking pitches, replies, deals, rates or repeat clients. Once I started tracking these, it became much easier to see what was actually working.
Overthinking is not thinking too much. It's thinking the same thought too many times
In November 2011, police in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, walked into the cramped apartment of Anatoly Moskvin, a 45-year-old historian, linguist, and expert on the city’s cemeteries, expecting a routine grave-desecration case. What they found instead were 26 to 29 life-sized “dolls” propped on couches and stacked among books: mummified bodies of girls and young women, ages 3 to 25, dressed in wedding gowns, knitted hats, and lace, their faces wrapped in fabric with painted-on eyes. Moskvin, who spoke 13 languages and had once applied to adopt a daughter (and was rejected), told investigators he slept beside graves to sense “contact” with the dead before digging them up.
His own elderly parents had lived alongside the collection for roughly two years without realizing the “dolls” they thought were his odd hobby were actual corpses. Moskvin was later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and committed to psychiatric care rather than tried in open court.
: Everybody goes through this phase, You send pitches and hear nothing back, You make videos and wonder if they’re even good enough, You apply to brands and get rejected again and again.
I went through the same thing, It took me 3 months to land my first paid ad, Those 3 months felt slow, but they taught me a lot and gave me the experience I needed to keep going.
So if you’re in that phase right now, don’t quit.
Keep pitching.
Keep creating.
Keep improving.
Your first yes could be closer than you think. Just keep pushing.
I used to complain about how brutal college was, until I realized that coursework wasn't the real problem. It is actually my habit of doing every schoolwork and review until the last minute. Most of the students rant about on here doesn't actually come from the difficulty of what they're studying, but from the procrastinating.
You need to stop cram weeks of studying into a single study session. The key point is once you stop procrastinating and actually give yourself time to learn the lessons. In that way college becomes easier for you.
What was the strategy you guys that finally helped you break your own procrastination cycle?
[effacé]