I’m guessing, right about now, the traffic on the web site of photographer Brian Bloom is spiking, oh, about 1600% over normal. And next week his phone will be ringing.
It’s what you get for having the stones to be off-the-charts amazing.
He recently did a photo shoot with marketing writer and entrepreneur Seth Godin, and apparently so dazzled Godin (who is not easily dazzled, I wager) that it prompted a blog post to Godin’s nine billion readers this morning:
. . . from the moment I walked into the studio, I discovered that he and his lighting guru were relentlessly pushing to change my perception of what was possible at the same time they were focused on overdelivering on the project. They had little interest in settling on merely doing a good job.
There’s a lot of pressure for freelancers to fit in, conform and comply. It seems easier to generate new business that way. That’s not really true. It’s easier to become an easily-described commodity that way, but the person who’s willing to push themselves out to an edge that matters is on the only path that actually leads to success.
He’s right. I sometimes think I’m doing okay when I’m consistently pleasing clients.
But that’s a sure route to oblivion. There are thousands of freelancers out there who can please clients. Maybe 20,000.
To bust out of the pack, you need to get clients so jazzed that they simply have to tell 87 people about it. Or 987,000.
Doing that is actually a lot safer, long-term, than playing it safe.
Now. That job sitting there on your desk.
How could you knock someone’s socks off with that thing?