There’s nowt wrong with being nice
Here’s another post expanding on a little gem from 2018’s, ‘40 freelance copywriting survival tips‘.
Point number 14 says:
When the job’s finished, they won’t remember whether or not you hit the deadline or if you were cheaper or more expensive than anyone else. They will, however, remember the quality of what you did and what it was like to work with you.
Last year, I had a very welcome reminder of the truth of that last sentence. In particular, how clients remember ‘what it was like to work with you’.
The same incident also snuggles in nice and neatly with point 13:
Be patient. It will happen.
Let’s start at the beginning. In 2017, I started a series of Q&A blog posts that I named, ‘Probing the creative mind’. The second interviewee in the series was an old chum and Graphic Designer, Riz Jaffer-Clarke.
After we’d got his post in the bag, I asked Riz if he could recommend any other designers who might be up for an interview. This led me to the very lovely and massively talented, Dave Taylor.
So, interview done and dusted, Dave said he’d put a word in for me with his bosses, because “we use freelance copywriters now and again”.
This happened at the end of 2017.
21 months later, I got an enquiry through my website:
Hi Jonathan,
Your details were passed on to me by my colleague Dave Taylor.
I’m looking for a copywriter who can do concepts/strategy as well as help us to create a brand ecosystem for a corporate brand…
Would you be interested/available?
Well paint me blue and cover me in hazelnuts!
Turns out they’d been working with a copywriter who’d let them down big time. It wasn’t the quality of the work, but the attitude. A stroppy, I know best-ness had spilled over in front of one of the agency’s clients. The somewhat miffed client had then asked for the writer to be taken off the job.
Patience – 21 months worth of it + another copywriter acting a bit of an arse.
It’s a magic combination. One that’s led to 10 projects for 8 different clients, and counting.
Put simply, be nice, believe and your just about half way there.
Good luck.
Jonathan Wilcock (that’s me) is a Senior Freelance Copywriter.
You can drop me a line here, or email jonathan@sowhatif.co.uk