I took the train downtown yesterday afternoon to have coffee with one of the guys I met in the SEO class I took in February. I arrived at the station early and pulled out my iphone. Two others pulled out their blackberries. This is the mating call of the Corporate Jungle.
“What do you do?” Armani Man asked Prada Woman. She is a Mary Kay consultant. He is a real estate agent.
Half-eavesdropping, I laughed — not at them, but at Janice’s Fats Waller quote. The iphone is like crack. It’s also like having a puppy; everyone wants to be your friend as soon as they see you have one.
“Is that one of the new iphones?” the real estate agent wanted to know. I explained to him that it’s one of the old ones and that, as an email addict who hangs out with a lot of other email addicts, I was peer-pressured into getting one almost immediately. I told him how much I love it — that I even blog from it.
“Really?” he asked, squinting over my shoulder through the sun’s glare at the tiny type. “You blog?”
And so it began, the conversation that gets me more accidental gigs than I know what to do with — only this time, I had an audience of half a dozen bored nosy people gathered around me like I was one of those clever commercials on the Super Bowl.
The real estate agent told me he just recently had a blog designed but hasn’t launched it yet. He said his closet passion for photography was what made him want to start a blog — he takes tons of photos of every property — but that writing isn’t his strong suit. I told him I’d love to see his photographs sometime. I also told him my business partner has a background in real estate law and was at one time a real estate agent in the city. I gave him my card and asked for his.
The Mary Kay consultant asked what her blog looked like on an iphone. I pulled up her blog and showed her. She made a comment about wishing she had more time to write her blog but confessed she wasn’t sure what to write about. I gave her my card and told her I had some ideas. I also told her that my sister was a Mary Kay consultant for years but quit once she had her baby. I asked her for a catalogue. This made her inclined to want to sit with me on the train.
As I thumbed through the Mary Kay catalogue, I commented on all the new products and how she could easily incorporate product information and reviews into blog posts. I asked her why she was headed downtown, and she told me she hosts group makeover sessions every Wednesday night in the city. I suggested she snap some photos and interview some of the ladies — easy blog post, or maybe several posts! She liked the idea so much that she asked me to come cover next week’s makeover session for her blog. She also gave me a bag with a ton of free samples as a thank you for sharing my insights.
I got home last night to an inbox full of photos from the real estate agent. This morning I emailed him a proposal my partner and I drew up, and he hired us to write his blog. I also just shot off an email to the Mary Kay consultant with some other suggestions I thought of for blog posts, which I told her I’d be happy to help her with between now and next Wednesday.
My point in telling you all this? To illustrate that the best way to find work as a freelancer is often simply to talk to the people around us, wherever we happen to be. I talk about what I do all the time, wherever I go, whenever I get the opportunity to bring it up. Last weekend I got a client by asking the owner of the new café down the street if she had a website yet. I got a job writing a press release last week from the guy who owns the cell phone shop where I bought a spare charger when one of my pet rabbits chewed through my cord. Opportunities are everywhere, if we simply open up our minds – and our mouths – and let them find us.
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
I so want an iphone. I don’t even like talking on the phone much, but the iphone, it is way up there on my list.
I laughed so much yesterday….so much fun.
Janice Cartier’s last blog post..A Goal Setting Template- Part 4
I need to get out more. The only problem is that I’m pretty shy in person, at least with strangers. So, I’m not sure I’d be diving into conversations like these. I am working on it though!
Melissa Donovan’s last blog post..July News and Announcements
Janice — I hate talking on the phone too. I love it for email and surfing the web. I totally need to get a job as an iphone salesman, because I’ve turned like a billion people onto iphone since I got mine. LOL
Melissa — I’m shy too, in a way. (Those of you who know me in person can stop cackling now.) Luckily, I’m incessantly chatty when I’m nervous or hungry — and yesterday I was both.
That’s some great advice mixed into a cool story. My favorite line: “This is the mating call of the Corporate Jungle.” So true. I’m a slave to my BlackBerry…and I like it!
Eva G.’s last blog post..LinkedIn: My Take
Carrying a clever prop like an iphone (or a puppy!) is a great way to get people to come to you, then you can separate the weeds from the flowers. Congratulations on your new projects.
Elizabeth (Beth) Westmark’s last blog post..Walk To The Gate
Amy,
Aargh. You have been taunting and teasing me for months and now I just can’t stand it. When the new iPhones come out I’m doing it.
“Cuz I can’t have a puppy in this apartment.
Seriously, getting out and talking, though difficult for me (I’m kinda shy, which will probably come as a shock), is the very best thing you can do. Even web workers tend to forget that you don’t HAVE to get clients from around the world, you can get them from around the block. Face-to-face is the best way to convince someone of how great you’d be to work with.
Why do so many WFH people think that all the jobs are Someplace Else?
Great post. You hit it right on the head.
Happy 4th. Just checking in before I go play in Philly. Looks like rain.
Regards,
Kelly
Kelly’s last blog post..6 Signs That Mean Your Business Is Going to Have to Try Harder
Congratulations on marketing yourself and getting money out of it!
A friend of mine has her own business and is horrible at marketing herself - she wouldn’t even let me keep a couple of her business cards because they were so expensive to make (!) and has shot down all of my marketing suggestions - she’s got a new agey business, and I used to work in a new age bookstore, so whether I like it or not, I know a thing or two about folks into new age things.
It’s really hard to listen to her whine about how hard it is to get going when she continually kills all of my ideas - because I haven’t taken the same entrepreneurial classes she has. And I’m younger than her, so what do I know anyway?
french panic’s last blog post..vital information
Eva — I used to be a slave to my blackberry too. When I worked at the law firm, I was SO excited when they told us paralegals could get them. It was my favorite toy. I actually missed not having it once I quit. So of course, as a workaholic freelancer, I just HAD to get an iphone.
Thanks for liking my post. (That is my favorite line too). 
Thanks for visiting…
Beth — Thank you. I’m allergic to puppies, but your big pup is very handsome. I’ll bet you get a lot of people coming up to you!! Separating flowers from weeds is a great way to put it, too. Thanks for visiting me here.
Kelly — Philly, eh? Weren’t you just in Albany last week? You should get yourself a travel writing gig.
So what’s happening in Philly this weekend? Oh, and I’m not sure why most work from home people think that all the jobs are Someplace Else. Other than perhaps that most of us are more shy in person than we are over the web? (For the record, although I’m obnoxious in person — like here — with people I know, I can be painfully shy with strangers. Shocker there too, I’m sure.)
FP — I totally feel your pain. I have a friend like that who bitches to me regularly about wanting more clients, but then I suggest things and she’ll be like, “Oh, that’s too much trouble,” or, “I could never do that.” Even when I offer to do the blogging for her or have a friend redesign her website at a discount, she still grumbles and eventually never does it. (She did give me some of her cards though.) She is older than I am, and I’d never made that connection of her possibly thinking “what do I know anyway?” but maybe you’re onto something there. This chick’s never taken an entrepreneurial class; I think she’s just lazy… which is fine, but then don’t bitch about lack of results stemming from lack of action. (Sigh. Never get me started on a rant. LOL) Thanks for visiting me. How’d you find my blog? Cool people with dreads hardly ever find my blog.
ha ha - “cool people with dreads”. Ha. I think I’m only cool in my own mind, but I’m also not one of those dumbasses who can’t take a compliment. Thank you.
I can’t remember how I found your blog. I’ve been reading it for a while, and I suspect I came here via some clever witticism you left on some other blog. What blog? Who knows. I have haphazard blog reading habits.
I offered to help a guy I met at a conference with copy for his truly shiteous website and he actually SNORTED at me, because he has a website and I don’t and so of course the people will just be FLOCKING to his site. The “if you build it they will come” mentality. But the thing is, when I DO get my website up, it will be fantastic. His will still suck.
french panic’s last blog post..vital information
FP — Probably being cool in one’s own mind is all that matters, since the majority of people are idiots. And really, who cares if an idiot thinks you’re cool, right? (Disclaimer: I am not an idiot. At least, not most days.) My blog reading habits are pretty haphazard too.
I despise the website people. I’ve had about three billion people tell me I’ll never get anywhere in my writing career without a real website. My theory is, I must already be someplace, because I have so much work I turn a shitload of people away. Not saying there’s anything against websites, but hell — it’s not my priority, and anyone who thinks it should be can bite me. (Oh, and don’t even get me started on the “if you build it they will come” mentality. Oy.)
Great story!
Congratulations Amy.
Laura Spencer’s last blog post..Business Blogging: Do Fashion Stores Blog?
Thanks Laura. Hope you’re having a good weekend!
Amy,
Great ideas for drumming up work. It’s so easy to scour the internet for writing gigs and overlook the opportunities right in our own back yards. Just goes to show what a little honest-to-goodness communication with the people around us can do.
Jeanne
Augh! I have to get out more, too. And I have to get more business cards for these types of situations. (I threw them all out in a fit of something akin to rage a while ago.) Great story, by the way! Wow.
But it’s true, all my clients have been by word of mouth. Which has actually been a bit frustrating since I live in a town (of illiterates and non-spellers) where no one thinks editing is essential. Work is hard to come by. I’m trying to decide on how to revamp things now. Start over, more or less.
steph’s last blog post..Weekend Warrior
Jeanne — Thanks for stopping by. I hope you’ve found some peace on the article theft issue; I’ll have to stop back by your blog and see! But yes, just making small talk with folks has worked wonders for gaining me freelance writing business, online and off. Folks are much more warm to the idea of hiring someone they feel like isn’t trying to sell them something — which in most cases like these, I’m genuinely not when I start chatting. (If only my chattiness was so handy in other areas of my life, right??) Happy Monday! Hope you have a good week.
Steph — I was against having business cards for a while. I’m not sure why I was so adversed to it, in hindsight. But once I did get some, I only bought a small order because I know those fits of rage, and I also knew that with me, I’d want to change the design and/or the wording about a billion times before I was ever satisfied. Re editing — I can see how that would suck for you. I have a hard time convincing folks who already blog that they need me to blog for them (because they think they rock when really they’re not so great… generally). Much easier to find fresh blood. That wouldn’t work for an editor, for sure.
Twin,
I totally fail. I haven’t been checking my feeds and I had no idea you were back to posting regularly. Celebrations shall hereby ensue at the pub, to herald your return. Which I guess should have been a week ago, but whatever. We’re informal, and oblivious.
Yay for Amy!
Tei - Rogue Ink’s last blog post..Introducing The Money Talks
Tei - You are a funny twin.
But YAY for a party. (Instead of a party, could we celebrate by napping? Because that would rock. I’m way too tired for a Monday!!)
I agree simply talking can land you some awesome gigs.
My favorite story of how I got gigs happened at the gym I work out at (Bally’s Total Fitness) I was talking to a buddy in the sauna about a few articles I was working on, just so happens a few business owners where in there also who needed content for their websites.
I would love to have an iPhone; however, I don’t like being locked into one mobile carrier in the U.S. (AT&T) their service really stinks in areas I travel to frequently so I’m out of luck.
I had to laugh at your dreads comment.
I wear my hair in dreads or as I call them “locs”.
Opal — I love dreads. Unfortunately, my hair is very thin and slippery. I had them for a while when my hair was short and liked them, but I didn’t have the patience once my hair got longer.
The ATT thing DOES suck about iphone. But it works well for me here, which is saying something because I have had three other cell phone carriers and haven’t been able to get a signal on other phones in my basement apartment (aka “the cave”).
That’s great that you got some work in the sauna! I love that!!!!
Congratulations! That’s a wonderful story and very encouraging.
Alyice — thank you!!
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