SSP 038: How To Beat The Creative Bias And Market Your Work Effectively w/ Joe Simon

Have you ever heard the phrase “content is king”? It’s a phrase that is sold to creatives the world over encouraging them to continue to put their best work. We’re told that if we do, sooner or later, we’ll catch our break and get discovered. The thing is, it’s not enough. Sure we need to be putting out quality work, but our work alone, no matter how good it is, will rarely get us where we want to go. Joe Simon has been working as a filmmaker and DP for 20 years. He transitioned from starting out as a professional BMX rider and filmmaker focusing on action sports, to a successful and in demand wedding film company, and then again transitioned into a commercial and corporate film brand. He now travels the world shooting TV shows for networks like CBS and CNN, and workign with brands such as Norwegian Cruise Line, TD Ameritrade, Oakley, and many, many others. Today, Joe shares how even after 10 years working in film, when he started his commercial brand The Delivery Guys, he still fell victim to the creative bias, and quickly found out that great work alone wasn’t enough to attract the clients he wanted to work with. He tells us how you should be getting your work out to the right people to see, how to build a killer reel by utilizing your current jobs, and a whole bunch more. If you’re looking for advice from someone who’s lived it, Joe is the guy. In this episode: • How to handle hiring freelance editors to get the best results • Joe’s approach to capturing extra content on your current shoots and repurposing it to pitch to corporate and commercial clients • The ups and downs of travel jobs and how to prepare for them • Where Joe would begin if he were starting over again today • How to effectively market your work and get the right people to see it Quotes: “The Delivery Men was created off of b-roll content from weddings.” [18:27] “I think in general you just have to really hustle a lot, and to get work, it’s hard. When I first launched this company in 2012, I built the website and built the reel, and I thought that work would just show up, and it didn’t. It was a realization that no one knows who we are in this world, and so really having to get out and hit the street and build a network.” [25:00] “You have to have a network first before you can just get people to watch something.” [28:29]