Remember that olde saying from back in the day…. “Don’t take no for an answer.” It was drilled into us from our mentors, favourite business gurus, and idols alike — those that achieved their dreams by never giving up. We fantasised about the day we would take our sellable skills out into the world and then immediately get rejected with that word — “no” — and then we’d embark on our own fiercely passionate, dedicated journey of discovering that life-changing “yes,” for-as-long-as-it-takes. It’s almost as if this was a time where actually talking to another human who would recognise our existence and give us the courtesy of a reply, was the basic norm. Gosh. They really were simpler times, weren’t they?
Then all of a sudden the world got itself into one big rush
Patience is no longer a virtue. Good things don’t come to those who wait. Attention spans only last the length of a TikTok choreographed dance clip. Immediacy and speed is now valued over composure and consideration.
Social media, new tech, an abundance of options, and the instant-gratification economy have all definitely changed us.
Nevermind not taking no for an answer anymore. Those days are long gone.
Today, just knowing I’ve been seen is good enough for me. Hell, if I even receive a “no” — I’ll do cartwheels around the living room and start doing skids in my slipper socks. What a victory! This client actually responded to me. They recognised my work and know who I am now.
In today’s world, we aren’t even expecting a ‘no’…we are expecting no response at all. We invest all this time and energy to make our CV’s, cover letters, proposals and portfolios just right, before we send them out into the ether — only to hear crickets.
It’s not about standing apart from the crowd anymore
It’s now about making your new potential client’s life as easy as possible.
Guys, I’m with ya…it becomes exhausting, demotivating, and downright insulting to never hear back from people these days. But sometimes, we really don’t do ourselves any favours.
Recently, I posted my first job on the Freelancer Club. It was a very attractive gig working on story-driven videos, with great pay, and so much fun to boot. It ticks all the boxes for a freelancer, and I got a lot of responses.
But, I was, admittedly, extremely surprised at the amount of profiles that contained empty Portfolios. The ratio between profiles bursting with visual creative work and ‘ghost-town empty’ was quite staggering, and I had no choice but to open each candidate application, one by one, and read their proposal — where the candidate would either send me away from the Freelancer Club site to their own personal page, or I was provided no external link at all…and had to actually Google their name to see if I could find any of their work online.
My fellow freelancers — I know you didn’t mean to, but you were making me work so damn hard!
No different to any corporate client looking for the path of least resistance when it comes to the tiresome and costly process of recruitment, I also wanted this to be as simple as possible.
It’s just as well I’m also a freelancer, not a corporate client
The irony is that the freelancer I hired applied with an empty profile, but without question, was insanely talented and had the exact kind of illustrative style and type of work I was looking for.
And, reassuringly, I also had other amazing options to contact if it didn’t work out with the above. The role was in safe hands — the incredible talent on Freelancer Club is in abundance. Makes me so proud to be a fellow member of our community.
But that’s just it, I’m also a freelancer. So I gave all the empty profiles the benefit of the doubt…and more importantly, I gave them my time. And thank goodness I did — because I found the talent I needed. My generosity is what rewarded me.
If I were a busy and far more ruthless corporate client, it wouldn’t have been a good look for the Freelancer Club. Scrolling my way down the application list, being greeted by all these candidates who, from the first impression, tell me they have nothing to show me. I may have simply gone elsewhere…and never returned.
Remember, in this new 'time is money' world, people are looking for any reason not to consider you — like a Hollywood producer looking for the first typo or formatting error on the first page of a screenplay from a new writer, and chucking it in the bin.
Be the freelancer who gets a reply…and gets a "yes!"
My dear fellow freelancers, please, if you haven’t uploaded a portfolio on your profile — I cannot begin to describe how much I urge to you do so in your next bit of downtime or weekend leisure. It does not take long, and the simple box design of the portfolio is very visually appealing.
It’s designed this way by our brilliant development team here to be just that — to be attractive and catch eyeballs.
Us freelancers are judged by our work, and our work alone, and I found it very concerning that so many of us haven’t taken 10 minutes out of our day to drag and drop our work over to our Freelancer Club portfolios.
Remember, the client is on our platform to hire through our platform. And we want their experience of the process to be painless, quick, and even a little bit of fun. It's us members who create that experience for them, by giving them eye candy as they scroll through the applications.
This client doesn't have time to be told about what you can do. They want to see what you can do.
Don't be the freelancer who is disregarded. Don't be the freelancer who is sick and tired of never hearing back.
Be the freelancer who gets a reply. Be the freelancer who gets a "yes!"
