How To Get A Complete Stranger To Hire You | Client Acquisition For Freelancers

Brian Hood (0:00)

This is the 6 Figure Creative Podcast, Episode 199 Welcome to the 6 Figure Creative Podcast, where our mission is to help you turn your creative passions into a stable, reliable income. If you're in audio, video, design, photography, or really any other creative field, and you just want to learn from other successful creatives, you're in the right place. Welcome back to another episode of the 6 Figure Creative Podcast. I'm your host, Brian Hood. I'm here with another guest-hosted episode. My substitute co-host with the most dis... Oh, that doesn't work.

I don't know what to do with it. Mark Eckert.

This is what, by the way, I'm just like, leave it all in, editor. Leave it all in. But this is what happens when we leave an episode to like Friday to record.

Mark Eckert (0:51)

I mean, Brian literally said before we got on, he's like, dude, it's going to be a good one. I was like, dude, yeah, I'm I'm all on board with you, bro. Just in case any of you guys are thinking, wow, what does Mark look like right now? I have a Winston cigarette t shirt on.

Brian Hood (1:09)

He does.

Mark Eckert (1:10)

He does.

Brian Hood (1:10)

I can confirm that.

Mark Eckert (1:11)

I don't smoke, but I got a bunch of gag gifts at my birthday party because, yes, I still have birthday parties because I'm very special.

Brian Hood (1:20)

How old are you now, Mark?

Mark Eckert (1:21)

I'm 28 going on 65

Yeah, I feel old as ever. I got gray hairs. I forget things. Things are going great, bro. By the way, I'm in a much better mood from last week.

Brian Hood (1:33)

Yeah. So last week was our burnout episode with Mark.

And I was like completely refreshed off my vacation in Cancun. So this is a fun fact. Since you're you're seven years younger than me and seven years ago was 22, 2015, friends when we met, if you're watching this on YouTube, you just saw me do math with my fingers like a second grader in 2015 I was this is fun because I'll just show you how much further along you are than me, Mark.

I had I just had my first six figure year and I was and I was just trying to figure out how to do this thing called business at a higher level and the six figure home studio, which was the first iteration of six figure creative this specifically for home recording studios was just launched that year. So wow, that's where I was in 28 years old dude. Yeah.

Mark Eckert (2:20)

Well, because we had a bunch of mutual friends and I like reached out to you and I was like, hey, bro, let's chat because I'm putting out ebooks and I don't know what I'm doing. You're doing it better. So talk to me.

And then I went out to Nashville because I was playing some shows and then we had like a bunch of mutual friends and then happily ever after. Now we're best buds for life. And you call me sexy and hairy all the time. And I just I call you up and complain about business. So it's great. Things are going great, bro.

Brian Hood (2:46)

So it's actually funny. You brought that conversation back then. This is why I think you stood out, was that like back in 2015, 2016, 2017, you were one of the first freelancers I had seen doing any sort of lead gen online. Most freelancers do not do any sort of lead gen for those who don't follow its lead generation. And this kind of goes back into Mark's history and why he's the substitute co-host on the podcast. If you haven't heard Mark's story and his background, go back to episode 68, where Mark talked about using Instagram marketing to build recurring income as a music producer, your background as a music production, just like mine.

And then you did another episode on episode 129

This was like a month into the pandemic, how Mark Eckert is running a thriving pop production studio despite being stuck at home.

Mark Eckert (3:31)

My claim to fame is I was the only one that was on there twice at the time. Stoked.

Brian Hood (3:39)

So for me, I've never done a proper introduction for you, really, because I just assume our audience knows who you are, but there's a lot of people that are just starting listening and they don't know anything about your background. So you've done a lot in the music production world, just like me. You were a six-figure freelancer before you eventually launched other businesses, and so that's kind of your background. But I want to hone in on a topic today that I think that you and I can riff on pretty well, because we both have a lot of experience with this, doing this in multiple markets and multiple businesses at this point. And that is taking someone that is a complete stranger, who's never heard about you before, who has no idea who you are, that doesn't care about you, and turning them into somebody who knows you, likes you, trusts you, and wants to pay you money to the point where they actually hand over their hard-earned dollars. It's a really hard transition, a very hard gap to close.