https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/4C8dCrmRyhTAvqli4kyaVOaWz1xSutnoi7FX56GcLedNvsY_WPEbV2WtSnc5ExlTxw8V3RXMjTYtd8-KO9an4RCoG5rob1v1HCFVHPT5FSF_IL4rl_7RTlnMhiSn83_DHcQ9yBJJ
Idea notebook: otherwise known as a bunch of writing that no one cares about unless you show up. Entry from October 27, 2021
The summer when we were nine, my best friend Claudia and I wanted to elevate our business ventures. We had run a lemonade stand and held a yard sale, but we wanted to make a product. It was June 2012, and school had just let out. We threw away our spelling practice sheets and brainstormed what we could sell. Woven fabric coasters came to mind. “Could we actually get people outside of our families to pay us to make what was basically a craft project?” we wondered. Nine years later, the 30 dollars we earned isn’t that valuable to me. Instead, the lesson I learned about the power of showing up is what empowered me to take my current video editing business from idea to reality.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/JvF1I7FtJPWldja5o5CC7plf_JtyZK0rkvMgWgSV5SALxMJgpIWpYNH96k3054fgZht4-jKIowYE8ZBxdxo67IJv_Xj1y2BIrt9VPqVZBYCe_5avSLTRFXixqE_lmo-P9tZk6gGW
Me and Claudia circa 2007
Back to 2012. We wove three example coasters and made a hand-drawn sign-up sheet and attached it to a clipboard. We dotted our i’s and crossed our t’s. Next, time to sell, time to show up. We headed into our small-town neighborhood and started knocking on doors determined to make money.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/U6GVT59xBS_IYsBqBw5lqkiwiY8lc1tBFp564OLYRgwA5lUpbgToHu5WV__exY0FQwDe7RjClhHSo6DCjf2AUM_40KHq7gCscaQ_M_VQEzpYttWrmkXKJS_Zz30RTtZ2zjNl8MMz
Sample papers from our “business folder,” including some explorations we’d explore after coasters, like soap making and pet sitting
A lot of people didn’t answer. When someone did open the door, they often couldn’t tell what we wanted. Our pitches lacked clarity and our sample products were limited. But we closed a few deals. The no’s didn’t stick with us because we had orders to fill. Real orders from people outside our families! We spent the next couple weeks weaving coasters. It took hours to weave each coaster. We were making less than a dollar an hour. But we had customers! We delivered our products and collected payment. I still have a folder of our “business paperwork,” adorned with My Little Pony stickers. Showing up and asking for what we wanted was the difference between paper sketches and a closed deal.
Flash forward nine years. I’m 18, and I want to get clients as a videographer and video editor. I’m overwhelmed. There are so many details I don’t understand. There’s this underlying fear that I’ll never gain a client. Like never.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/1mTTsE-lMq4zzIfco6p8M6vxmT4aYzDc0ZwhSoxkWkCf0Z3Ay0grnjE0lEGhssS5e-da6tHRSKx_yEsMTUXhyKkFdbmE9lmpkfukWtT7p_632coNBV_v0y5viVraOQQKScF43i5w
I push the fear aside, attend my town’s Business Networking International meeting and pitch myself to local business owners. A few are interested, but no closed deals. Time to keep trying, keep selling, keep showing up. I send cold emails offering my video editing service to YouTubers whose messages I like. I go to a different business networking event and introduce myself and my video editing business. When an acquaintance mentions they might want a video to promote their side hustle, I send them an email with a storyboard that would communicate their message. I keep showing up. Slowly but surely, I get responses.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Qf1tDzD7pk91B4eSq3wel5YA1WWeSUpbYlZ7MnZsVQwcul1S46d7X8rZHGHhaKbWLYVwQUqlL0TkRpZb5m4zG3b212LTFcy9w1DNvCXONKW0uLTzM4cgZ3aG5KeVzL1gMpgGMCW6
I got business cards printed the night before that first Business Networking International meeting, right before Staples Printing closed. My email printed too small, so I rewrote my email on 300 business cards that night. Preparing to show up. December 2021
I have meetings with potential clients and close my first deal. Before I know it, I’ve closed two. I’m trying to figure out how to create an invoice and adding the logo that, just a few months before, had been a sketch on my chalkboard. Claudia and I being able to get paying customers for our coaster business by showing up and knocking on people’s doors showed me how to transition my video editing business from lists and sketches in a notebook that nobody but me will ever see to meetings with real people, pitching my services to real problems, and, the best part, closing deals.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/lyN7FuZKIOLl65syefDhpYFpnPJrmH_4Aoxj2cfZ_kGwaf5ihlharF3Er_4FEmf4BP2Na80R0TI7RDZsHXEIndZv3Ysd0ud_TY8FpXbH4jHi0ZwtnmWwnB6XDnNcMY9MSxYlQfSz
Early logo creation to first ever invoice. The first step to creating my first invoice was Googling what an invoice was! October 2021 to January 2022
Disposable Photo to Motion Collage (The first episode of my YouTube series, Everyday Affairs Made Fantastical):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3Pwog_RhN8&list=PLlNA7DEQDgPKxXgFQlGhA2T381tBFx_gC