Chris Do: [00:00:00] Hey everybody, Chris here. We're trying something a little bit different than what we normally do for the podcast. We're doing solo episodes. These are shorter, more contained, built around certain themes and questions I think are very relevant for us to be talking about. So wherever you're listening to this, however, you're seeing this, let us know in the comments and the feedback, what you think, and we'll make some adjustments.

Today, I want to talk about balancing content creation with doing actual client work. And this is a struggle that many of you have, and you feel like it's this burden to do content creation. You just feel like, Oh, and for some of you, it's like fingernails on a chalkboard. It just kills you to do this, right?

Here's the problem. Let's just take the [00:01:00] label of content creation away from this, which is, we'll just call it client acquisition. Do you have a client strategy? Like how do you plan on getting new clients? Let me phrase it maybe a different way for you to think about it. Let me tell you a story as a cautionary tale for many of you.

When times are good you're busy feasting and you're not planting any seeds in the field so that eventually your food stores, your warehouse will run out of food and you'll go hungry. And this is a problem that many of us have, is we're working in our business and we're not working on our business. I have friends and I've seen this happen to them time and time again.

They get fat. Not, not literally figuratively. And they get a little bit lazy because clients are coming in. They think they're the shiznit at this moment in time, because they're just falling over bids and like, Oh, I don't know what to do with all the bids in my life. And they take their foot off the gas pedal and they stop working on client acquisition strategy.

And what happens, and this always [00:02:00] happens, that always happens. I can guarantee you like death and taxes. It's going to happen. Your clients eventually change. They become tired of you and then they go elsewhere. And this has happened to agencies who've built up their entire agency around one big automotive company.

And they think they'll never go away because we built them. We built them. So they say, but 10, 20, 30 years later, They think we need fresh, creative. We need a new perspective. And they pretty much pull the account from the agency or they take half of it or more and give it to another agency, which is devastating for ad agencies.

And we see this happening on a base scale. We see it happening on a small scale. At some point, your clients will decide we need fresh ideas, fresh energy, or some young up and coming competitor will have figured out something that you haven't because you've taken it for granted and you've not made any preparations.

So if you know this is going to happen, this is an inevitability. Then you need to prepare for this and what do you need to [00:03:00] do? Well, while you're doing the client work, you need to be focused on client acquisition. This can happen in many different ways. You can do networking, like in person networking, go to functions, go to dinner parties, become part of masterminds and constantly be working it that way.

You could be doing old school sales calls, like knocking on doors and just putting your foot in the door and saying, Hey, Just want to show you what we're doing. All of those things take time and energy. Those kinds of efforts are not scalable. There's only so many of you that can go around. There are only so many meetings that you can have before you run out of opportunities, but there's one thing that you can do, which has infinite scale, infinite reach potentially, which is to do content marketing, which is to create content to broadcast to your audience.

Tell a story, figure out a need, put your finger on the pain, and use the language that they use so that you can attract new clients. Because all of us would be much more confident if we had more [00:04:00] customers to serve than we had capacity to do.

The Futur: It's time for a quick break, but we'll be right back.

Chris Do: When I started my motion design company Blind in 95, there was a lot I didn't know, so I tried reaching out to other business owners and professionals for help. What did I find? Many saw me as competition, and those who didn't, thought I was a fraud. weren't able to give advice that made sense for my line of work.

Thankfully, I was able to find my first and only business coach, Kira McLaren, who mentored me for 13 years. I also learned that my story isn't unique. Many entrepreneurs feel like they're left to figure everything out on their own. It's why I created the future pro membership, the community I wish I had when I first started.

And I'd like to invite you to check out all that we have waiting for you inside at the future. com slash pro.

The Futur: And we’re back, welcome back to our conversation. [00:05:00]

Chris Do: This is an important concept, but we have more customers, more opportunities than capacity. This is a David C. Baker concept, business of expertise. Then we'll become more confident. And who would not like more customers? And what would that mean for you? Well, it would mean that you could be choosier.

You could turn away work that doesn't fit your schedule, doesn't fit the creative brief that you had in mind, or doesn't pay you the kind of amount of money that you want. And I know from my own personal experience, when we're hot, and there's a moment in time when you're hot, you're able to find who you are, you can develop systems, you can hire the best people, and you can continue to raise your rate until you find whatever theoretical ceiling you're going to find.

You can only do that because you gotta say no to everybody. And the best way to say no is to raise your price so only the ones who can afford you will say yes, you put the decision in their court. So if we look at this now as client acquisition strategy, maybe it's a little bit more important than you think.

And maybe you don't have to feel like it's such a [00:06:00] burden for you to work on, like, my God, because when you dread something, it influences your state. And if your state is like, Oh, I hate this. I don't want to do homework. I don't want to read this book. I don't want to write a report. I don't have to give an oral presentation.

You're going to be dragging your feet through the sand. And we all do this. And what is the result of this? And you know, this, if you're grumpy, if you're not excited, you're going to give it some partial effort and you self sabotage. And then the outcome is exactly predictable at that point. Well, the content I wrote didn't get anybody excited.

It didn't lead to any customers, Chris. Well, yeah, because you didn't care. You didn't put your love into it. You look tired and uninspired. Yeah, that's going to win over clients. So we need to reframe this. We are so lucky to be living in this age and time in which the media, the advertising is free. All we have to do is create the content.

Back in my day, there was no social media, so the media was expensive to buy. [00:07:00] And the ability to reach people was questionable. And your ability to the results, the metrics, was impossible. We took out ads, old school ads in magazines and in books and directories. We sponsored shows and events. I'm not sure if any of them ever resulted in one new client.

So we should be grateful that we live in this time and space where you can quite literally communicate to the world at the amazing price of free. Okay. You're saying, Chris, I'm all in, man. I've been doing content. I've been riding that hamster wheel this whole time. And I'm spending 70, 80 percent of my time making content, but I'm not getting any results.

Well, that's a problem too. When we do something repeatedly and we put all our energies into it and we're not getting any results, what's that called? That's called insanity, I believe, to expect a different result. So if you're creating content, it's not that the content doesn't work. It's your content doesn't work.

It's not that the platform is broken. So your [00:08:00] content on that platform isn't working for the audience that you're trying to attract. So I hate to say this because it sounds self serving, but you got to learn a thing or two about storytelling. You got to learn how to write. You have to understand the wants and the needs of your customer, your ideal client avatar.

And you have to do the thing that's the most difficult thing that any business can do, which is to say, I'm going to be committed to this specific client. I'm going to niche down because I understand this client really well. Most of us can't make that commitment. So we broadcast generic messages to generic people.

And when does that ever work? So don't do that. Save your money or give it to me. I know, you know, that exists on YouTube and Instagram and other platforms, but a lot of people don't know that I'm actually very active on LinkedIn. So if you want to leave me a thought. Share your ideas, whatever it is, connect with me, comment on something and mention this episode in particular.

The Futur: Thanks for joining us. If you haven't already subscribed to our show on [00:09:00] your favorite podcasting app and get new insightful episodes from us every week, the future podcast is hosted by Chris Do and produced and edited by Rich Cardona Media. Thank you to Adam Sanborn for our intro music. If you enjoyed this episode, then do us a favor by reviewing and rating our show on Apple podcasts.

It will help us grow the show and make future episodes that much better. If you'd like to support the show and invest in yourself while you're at it, visit the future. com and you'll find video courses, digital products, and a bunch of helpful resources about design and the creative business. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time.

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