From Seth Godin – five steps to succeed for just about everyone and everything:
The number of people you need to ask for permission keeps going down:
When in doubt, see #1.
It starts with a phone call or email: “We’re interested in producing a video.” Sometimes, the project details are very clear with little room for changes. Other times, the media need is more vague, with the client only knowing what they want to accomplish with the video production. Most of the time, however, it’s somewhere in between–the clients knows generally what they want and how they want to accomplish it, but needs help getting there.
Helping the client understand their audience and how a video production can help communicate their message will build a very strong foundation for the project at hand.
To best understand what my client wants to accomplish with this video, I have a list of questions I ask them:
I use these questions with every new client when putting together a corporate video project. After these questions have been answered clearly, we have a much better understanding of the client’s needs. And, with this information, we can now begin budgeting the project much more accurately.
We then take this information and begin putting together the client proposal. We find that our proposals are simply their information provided back to them in our own format.
________
Russ Pond is the owner of Top Pup Media, LLC — a corporate video production company based in Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas providing production services for commercials, tradeshow videos, promotional spots, training media and a variety of other services.
This is great advice for those in the creative and media business world. From award-winning, advertising writer David Morgenstern:
1) Return every call and e-mail quickly. Show up on time, even if you’re the only one there. Dress like you deserve your salary. Believe me, that will put you ahead of a surprising number of people.
2) Write thank-you notes. Remember birthdays. Remember the assistants, and the secretaries, the coordinators, and the mailroom folks. This is a people business. And people never forget how they are treated.
3) Every day, you are placing a brick in the tower of your reputation. Remember, everything you do, big and small, either adds or subtracts from your reputation.
4) Watch what you say in elevators, in restrooms, on airplanes and in casual conversation. She could be the client’s wife. He could be the boss’s brother. She could be your competitor’s accountant.
5) Don’t care who solves it. Just get it solved.
6) Learn how to tell a story: Every client presentation, every report, every commercial-it’s all about stories. Stories are how human beings make sense of the world. If you want to succeed in this business, be able to tell stories in ways that capture your audience’s attention.
7) When emotions are running high, make sure yours are running low. Life is unfair, so learn to lose with dignity. And, learn to win with dignity. That means no excuses. No crybabies. No bragging. No trashing. Learn how to move on.
8) Proofread. Spell-check.
9) Good enough, isn’t. There is going to be someone out there who will sleep less and work harder, will give up their weekend, and give it one more shot. That is the person that I bet on to win.
10) Think different. Be brave. The world is full of people with conventional ideas who go along with the crowd. It’s the mavericks and the dreamers who move things forward. When you hear an idea that makes you nervous, makes you sweat, occasionally gather your courage, take a stand, take a risk, suck it up and go out on a limb. Hey, you might even be right.
I read this from Seth Godin today, and it’s good. You should ask yourself these 8 questions, especially for those of you in the business world:
And after each answer, ask ‘why?’
My brother sent me this video. It’s pretty funny. I’ve been on both sides of this fence.
For anyone who runs their own business or if you’re a freelancer, you’ll get a kick out of this:
I always enjoy reading articles and news about small business. As a small business owner myself, any information on how to improve your small business is excellent news to read.
So, I was quite interested in reading Steve Pavlina’s “10 Stupid Mistakes Made by the Newly Self Employed”.
Wise information.
Blogging, podcasting, rss feeds, comments, trackbacks, pingbacks, twitters…you name it. The internet has truly evolved into something different, something interactive.
Seth Godin explains it well:
You can contact just about anyone you want. The only rule is you need to contact them personally, with respect, and do it months before you need their help! Contact them about them, not about you. Engage. Contribute. Question. Pay attention. Read. Interact.
Then, when you’ve earned the right to attention and respect, months and months later, sure, ask. It takes a lot of time and effort, which is why volume isn’t the answer for you, quality is.
That’s a great way to get a job, promote a site, make a friend, spread the word or just be a human.