SSP 063: Your Work Won't Sell Itself, But This Is How You Can w/ Jason Wallis

It’s safe to say that as creatives, most of us absolutely we love what we do. But how much time to do we set aside to work on our businesses and not just solely focus on the work inside of our business. We would all love it if our work sold itself, but the fact of the matter is that we need to put just as much work into promotion, marketing, and maybe most importantly relationship building, as we do producing amazing work.

Jason Wallis is the owner of Central Standard Productions which showcases his compelling still and motion images and his commercial films. He began his career as a commercial photographer but he fell in love with filmmaking when he was forced to make a pivot in his business. These days, his diverse skill set allows him to offer both services, often to the same clients, on the same projects.

Jason gets real with us about the need to be authentic in your work and relationships with people, the importance of always to bettering yourself and your portfolio with spec work, and how to attract the agencies and clients that you really want to work with. Jason has some great insights into how you can cultivate your relationships to make them referral magnets for you, and shares with us some tips on how he’s built up his incredible network.

While relationship building and selling yourself and your skills can seem daunting and often overwhelming, Jason breaks it down so that you know how to come at it with professionalism and authenticity.

How do you go about building your relationships in the industry? What do you find works the best and what has utterly failed? Let us know in the comments below!

 

In this episode:

The importance of professionalism on and off the set and why how you present yourself matters Jason’s process to attract the right agencies and clients for you and your brand How to cultivating great relationships that lead to more and better work How to use your network to make connections that will lead to opportunities How to choose spec work projects strategically to get the work you want down the road

 

Quotes:

“We knew, #1, we wanted to take care of our crew, we wanted to take care of our client, and take care of our talent that is on set. So, there is a general way of treating people with respect and dignity and honor, and we want to take care of you, that was our #1 goal, always. And, with that mindset we always were successful.” (10:56)

“The local and regional stuff, it does become completely about trust. Most of my work was hired because someone knew me and trusted me versus, ‘Hey this is an awesome piece of work that you have done.’ In fact, a lot of people don’t hire based on my work; they hire me based on me.” (21:32)

“I have learned from creative geniuses and some really bold clients that did some things that I just had a lot of fun doing and I was kinda along for the ride. So, now I want to take all that experience and say okay, who do I want to present myself as on a national stage.” (32:49)

 

Links:

Jason Wallis

Central Standard Productions

Follow Jason on Facebook | Twitter

Studio Sherpas Episode 44 w/ Gnarly Bay

 

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