Trusting your instincts

Here’s some tough love, brace yourself.

As a freelance creative, some people will see you as an opportunity to be exploited. They assume your passion and drive to do great work means you’ll do it for free. That your love for the process is payment enough. That you should be grateful just to be let anywhere near their beloved brand or ‘big-money disruptive idea.’

Some people will waste your time, tease you with the promise of future work, and drop you like a bag of cold sick without a second thought.

Shared experience

Any freelance creative who’s been in the game for more than a couple of years has a story like this. And frankly, we deserve better.

Even after 14 years, I still sometimes struggle to trust my instincts when a new client comes along with a tempting project.

There are always little ‘tells’ that set my spidey senses tingling — maybe it’s the classic “we’ve got loads more work down the line” line or a reluctance to discuss budget. Sometimes, it’s more subtle, like an almost too eager rush to get started. It’s hard to define, but you feel it in your gut when something’s off.

And every time — every. single. time. — I’ve ignored that instinct, it’s come back to bite me. At some point, their real motives become clear, and things go south. At best, you finish the project feeling taken for granted and glad to see the back of them. At worst, you do a ton of work and don’t get paid.

Trust your gut

Freelance creatives deserve better. Our time is just as valuable as our clients’. And just because we love what we do doesn’t mean we should be taken advantage of.

That’s why we’re creating tools to help freelance creatives — like our briefing tool, which we use to vet clients before we even get started. But however you work, whatever your processes — trust your gut.

By Matt Goodall