Adding your clients to your holiday lists, living longer as a freelancer, and some upcoming WIFV events that might interest you.

Holiday marketing for Freelancers

Your holiday to-do list isn’t just limited to your personal life. Your business deserves some holiday love, too, and that includes your clients!

This is a great time of year to reach out to this year’s clients to show them how special they are to you, and it might just result in a 2025 booking!

You need to make sure you take the opportunities that allow you to connect with your clients. That means going to the holiday parties that you get an invite to. Dress festively, and don’t go less than business casual (unless it’s an ugly sweater party!). If you do nothing else, send a card to your clients from this year. Need an address? Get one! Contact the person you emailed your invoice to, and ask for a mailing address for the person who you had the most contact with on the job….and hopefully, that’s the same person who might call you for the next job. Want to up your game a notch? Order customized cards with your business’s logo, or at least your name in a fancy font on/in the card. Vistaprint can turn these around quickly. Vistaprint is also great because you don’t need to order a minimum number on items. Use the promo code HOLIDAY50 to save some dough.

Here’s some other ideas:

Promotional items that are easy to mail, such as sticky notes, phone wallets, magnets, thumb drives, etc. All these should be customized with your business name/logo.
A gift certificate for the recipient to save money on a 2025 booking with you. Vistaprint can also create these for you for $1 per unit.
A mousepad with fun pictures from a shoot with you ($8 each through Vistaprint).
A video message! If you’ve got the capability, shoot a personalized video message to send to clients. I do this for my personal holiday cards to friends and family, too. I create the video message, and send it in cards through Punchbowl.com. Your message can be up to 2 minutes, and less than 150 MB. You can either upload a video you’ve created, or use the app to record a message on your phone’s camera to insert into the card.
Happy Holidays to YOU, my freelancing friend!

Live Longer as a Freelancer

I recently was listening to a great podcast on NPR about Blue Zones, and the traits of them that result in so many centenarians that live in those areas of the world. The idea of being a centenarian is a thing on my radar at this point in my life. This summer, my grandmother’s partner of 20+ years finally passed away. He lived to 101, after given a 6-month prognosis three years ago, and a heart functioning at 20%. Not promoting it, but the man still smoked a pipe every evening. Up until the last days of his life, when people asked how he was doing, Frank would say, “I’m vertical, well-fed, and well-loved.” I like to attribute his long(er) life to having a reason to wake up every morning…my grandmother. She’ll be 98 this month, and shows no signs of leaving us anytime soon. She takes no medications whatsoever.

You might be wondering what this has to do with freelancing? Well, a lot, actually. The three main traits present in the blue zone areas are attention to daily fitness/activity levels, healthier diets, and socialization. You don’t get to live longer by only paying attention to one of these.

And so, as a freelancer, what does this mean for you? Each of these features probably has room for improvement in conjunction with your work life.

If your freelancing specialty is a more physical one, meaning you spend most working days on set, you already know that your physical activity is important. You need to be strong to lift jib weights, move gear bags and cases, carry tripods and cameras from place to place. You’re getting some physical activity when you’re working. And it’s important to have physical activity on the days you’re not working, too. Just a 20 minute walk every single day can add 4 years to your life! Do SOMETHING daily. If your freelancing talent is more sedentary, such as editing or computer work, you’ll need to make a bigger effort to work in physical activity. I usually get my exercise in first thing in the morning, and I’m done, showered, and at my desk by 9 am. If I think I’ll get it in later in the day, I’m wrong.

Healthy eating is a challenge for many of us. When you don’t have a say in what’s provided for on-set meals, do your best. If there’s a vegetarian option, take it. You can’t go wrong with choices from the Mediterranean diet, which focuses on healthy fats, leaner meats, lots of fruits and vegetables. Avoid processed foods as much as possible. If there’s nuts and crackers, go for the nuts. The less work it took to produce the food that’s set out for you from when it left the farm, the better it is for you.

Finally, there’s socialization. I think this is easier for us when we’re younger, but as people age, and particularly when they leave the workforce, and friends and family are not as available, it can be easy to slip into a more isolated world. As a freelancer, it’s a good idea both professionally and socially to attend networking events, educational opportunities onsite, and group activities that play to your personal interests. If you’re not sure what’s out there, when it’s happening, or where it’s happening, Meetup.com is a good place to start.

You may not have a goal of living to be 100, but these daily considerations will most certainly extend your life, and most importantly, make the extra years that you have more comfortable for you physically, with less trips to the doctor. I think that’s something that everyone can aspire to!

Adding your clients to your holiday lists, living longer as a freelancer, and some upcoming WIFV events that might interest you.

Holiday marketing for Freelancers

Live Longer as a Freelancer

Upcoming WIFV events for freelancers

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