The Chief Marketing Officer of a large company called me:

“Do you know a composer who could write music for a commercial?”

I had 3 ideas.

1. An established composer.

2. An emerging composer.

3. A student composer.

I called all three.

So who got the job?

I bet you can tell me based on the response I got.

1. The established composer didn’t call me back.

2. The emerging composer replied after week and was wishy washy.

3. The student composer answered right away. She was all in.

The student composer off and running with a  lucrative opportunity. 

In my many years of making creative projects, I’ve found one thing sets people apart:

A can do spirit

Notice that I didn’t say talent.

There are so many talented creatives/artists in the world.

I like to work with people who hustle.

And who approach a project with a can-do spirit.

We all have our reasons for saying no or being wishy washy. I’m not faulting folks.

I’m just saying what I see gets rewarded.

Solve the Client’s Problem

When a hiring producer calls a creative, what is the producer actually saying?

“I have a problem, can you solve it?”

When I worked in banking, I responded right away to clients.

I was in the business of solving their problems.

I’ve found that many creatives don’t see projects like this.

And that’s fine.

But the one’s that see client work as “solving problems” are the ones that get repeat work.

Don’t wait for hesitancy

When I work on a creative project, I value the can-do spirit in my collaborators.

For example, years ago I was in talks with an artist about working on a film project for a large corporation.

The artist didn’t seem terribly excited by the opportunity but we were still chatting about collaborating.

Going through the motions.

When it was time to start making the project, the artist declined (via email not the more personal phone – even though we had multiple phone calls about the gig).

I was actually relieved because the artist didn’t exude can-do spirit.

We found another artist quickly, and the new artist did a wonderful job,.

The client rewarded her with a second even more lucrative opportunity.

Creative work, like making music for a television commercial, can be a roller coaster.

Many revisions and edits.

The creatives who say “Yeah, let’s make it happen,” are the ones that usually get the job.

They do well.

And they attract even more lucrative opportunities.