How To Set Yourself Apart From The Other 500,000,000 Freelancers In The World | Part 2

Brian Hood (0:00)

This is the 6 Figure Creative Podcast, episode 301

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.

Hello, and welcome to the 6 Figure Creative Podcast. I am your host, Brian Hood. If this is your first time listening to the show, first of all, so glad to have you here. Welcome, I'm two-hand waving if you're watching on YouTube. I don't know why. This podcast is for you if you are a freelancer, you offer creative services, and you want to make more money from those creative skills without selling yourself. That sounds like you, you're in the right spot. For our returning listeners, this is a continuation of the series we started last week. Now, you don't really have to go back and listen to that episode if you're new or you missed last week. This episode will stand alone value all in itself, but I want to kind of back up a little bit and set the stage for what we're going to talk about today, because this is something that every single person listening to the show should absolutely be thinking about. It should be top of mind for you right now. This should be a burning pain for you right now. And I'm going to back up and say the sign behind me says, it takes more than passion. Pointing at it back behind me, it's this custom little neon sign I made. I spent like $1,000 on it, I think. Maybe $600 or $800, maybe $1,000.

I spent a lot of money on it because I had one of those epiphany moments where I was just on a walk, and I was thinking through people that listen to the show, and thinking through what is the universal message that I want to send to anyone that listens to the show.

And that phrase just came into my mind, because so many of us came into this profession freelancing by accident. We were passionate about something, and we started realizing we can monetize it in some way, and then we started getting a few clients, and then it became maybe more than just a hobby. It became an actual side gig or side hustle, and then it became maybe even a full-time thing for some people, and then it became a legitimate business. And maybe you have freelancers to work under you, becoming more of an agency. The path can go so many different directions, but it all starts with passion. We are passionate about something, but it doesn't end there. So the second we decide to become a professional freelancer, aka we are accepting money for our services, now we have so many other things that we need to think about. And one of those very important things, probably one of the most important things that you should be thinking about right now, a thing that should be top of mind, burning pain for you right now, if you don't have an answer for this, is answering this question. We call it the Cornerstone question. You've heard me talk about this on the show, if you're a long time listener to this podcast, but it's having a great answer for the Cornerstone question of, why should someone hire you instead of all the other options that they have? It doesn't matter what you do. If you are offering creative services, freelance services for money, then most of the time, 99.99% of the time, there are other options out there besides you. So if you're a music producer, there are other music producers. If you're a graphic designer, there are other graphic designers. If you're a videographer, there are other videographers. If you're a copywriter, there's other copywriters. If you're an illustrator, there's other illustrators. If you're a photographer, there's other photographers out there. So why should they hire you instead of all the other people that are out there? I'll pause and let you think about that for just like five seconds.

Now, do you have a good answer for that? Chances are, if you're like most people that I've ever talked to about this, they do not have a great answer for this.

You'll have some surface level things, I have the great customer experience, or we have great portfolio, or our quality is better than everyone else. And those might be true. But if you can't point to specific things, specific differentiators, very tangible things, many of them very measurable things, if you can't point to those immediately and say, that's what separates me, then I guarantee your clients, or actually the people that are not your clients, your leads, your potential clients, prospects, all those other people out there, you want to hire you, they don't have an answer for that either, for why they should hire you over all their other options.