How to get your first Customer - Creative Chat

Key Takeaways

hey my friends how you doing here's another creative chat today you want to talk about the topic how do you find your first customers because I think this is a question that is on the mind of a lot of people and I want to tell you it is super easy to find your first customers and at the same time it is super hard to find your first customers and I know that sounds like a paradox so I want to tell you why that is first I want to tell you about my mother she traveled the world for the last 25 years she has been in almost any every country and she has seen a lot of amazing places she has taken tens of thousands of great pictures but the thing is she never sold any of these pictures he never made a photo book or an exhibition or any kind of these things she never was invited to a TED talk all these kind of amazing things and it's not it's not like everybody has to do that but everybody can do that and the big difference is to go out there and show the people and have kind of the confidence to say hey you know what I did these kind of things and maybe you like them maybe you enjoy them so much you want to buy one of my photo books or you want to invite me to a talk or all these kind of things you know and I think it gives you a lot of self confirmation and confidence if you do these things if you know hey I have I have at least published one book and it sold a couple of times and I can be proud about that you know because for some reason we like this kind of confirmation of like being successful in a certain way and like saying yeah I did that been there done that and it's kind of cool you know so let's talk about the Commission why it is very easy and at the same time very hard to find your first customers so let's start with the hard part to get that out of the way the hardest part for most people and most people I would say most people are employed they have been they got out of school and started search for a job and have been with a company and you're kind of nested into that company everything is done for you and you have your little niche your little corner where you do this kind of thing that the company asks you to do which is almost always just a very small part of what the company does in the total and so now you think if I would have to do all of these kind of jobs that must be crazy hard you know and so people lack the confidence they get like really how do you say fearful about it and scared about it and they also think like my stuff isn't good enough my stuff isn't like there's a lot of people who are better at that thing that me so maybe leave the opportunity to those people no don't don't think like that you know don't think like that you have to have a certain skill you have to have a certain quality yes that's true but you can at least try you know and like think about it in that way there is people who sell coffee can you go in your kitchen and make a coffee I think the answer is yes can you go in your kitchen and make a tea I think the answer is yes and you know what there are people out there right now who make a living by cooking tea and cooking coffee and selling it to people so if these people can make a living why can't you make a living with a lot more creative stuff than cooking tea you know so if you're in that mind space of saying yeah okay hey my thing is a bit more complicated in cooking a cup of tea maybe people are interested in the other thing is and this is also a very important part we have different experiences in our lives you know so what you do might be super interesting for another person for example have you ever seen a documentary on television or online about a person who is for example a bus driver or a cop or is a baker or is a cleaning person at the airport stuff like that and you if you do the chop you probably think you shouldn't ride book about cleaning airplanes but a lot of people out there me included find these things super interesting and I like to watch these documentaries because this is something I don't do and I like to see these kind of things it's a peek into another world it's a peek into another universe and gives me new experiences even if for you this is everyday life okay so now that you know that your stuff that you do is harder than cooking a cup of coffee and it's interesting because other people's don't have your life because there are other people you know that there is potentially a market for you and how do you find out if there is actually a market for you well the thing is and this might sound too simple to be true but the thing is you just go out there and ask people if they like your stuff okay so I want to give you a really really really good advice on how to get into your mind space actually it's two kinds of advisors first of all business is exactly like dating how is business exactly like dating think about it if you go out on a date you don't go there and say the first sentence hey I want sex because that's stupid you don't do that okay um so what do you do instead you go out you sit down you have a drink you talk about your interests for an hour or two and then you maybe make an offer to say you know what I would like to kiss you so after you're comfortable with each other after you found out if you actually like the person after you found out if the person actually likes you after you have found out if there is actually something between you that might be interesting for both of you you can make an offer and say hey you know what let's start with a little thing you know like a kiss there we go and business is the same thing you go out there for example you can go to different art use two off spaces to art projects or you can do the same thing online if you're not living in a big city and you're kind of off in the country you can find groups or also galleries or all these kind of stuff maybe there's also live streams or all these kind of things where you can meet people and you can become part of that community and talk with them and you can see if maybe for example there's a lot of calls a call is an invitation for from from a group or a space to sense art projects to them some of them ask money to send in your project so maybe decide to go with them who go for free and especially if there is some call for we will print a book with your artwork but you have with your artwork but you have to send us like 300 bucks so you reprint it for you dough's are scams forget about those you want to rather meet and interact with people who actually have your like best interest in mind so let's go back to the example where you were actually at a city where you can meet other people so you go there and you mingle with them and you meet them and you see if you like the group if you like the space if you like the art if you fit in with that group and art and then at a certain point you open your ears and you will hear a lot of opportunities of people who search to work with other people on art projects who want to do exhibitions together there is also group exhibitions and all these kind of things are out there if you don't want to do an exhibition you can also go another route like for example you can try to have your book or your picture printed or get invited to make a talk about your kind of photography all these kind of things for example and this is a good example I got a job at a kind of a university to talk about Community Development and the crazy thing is they didn't offer that job at the time they were searching for a completely different job they said we need someone who can lecture our students about coding about programming soft we're and I said I went there to the heads of that department and said you know what coding is nice and programming is nice and making apps is nice but if you can't sell it if you don't have any interest and nobody is interested in your app it's dead in the water so what are you gonna do so we need to teach the students how to build a community around the app from the very first idea until the day it is published and then also afterwards and he said hey you know what that's actually good idea so I got a job there wasn't a great job I didn't select like this wasn't full-time I made I think in one semester I did three or four lectures so it was very small but I had my own class and I was teaching them about these kind of things so I came in there and without any invitation without them searching for it and presented them an opportunity and they said yes that's a good idea okay so that's the thing going out there listening what's out there asking people telling them about your dreams and visions and projects and some of them will bite and say hey that's a good idea that's a great thing and here's another thing and this is the second thing that I wanted to say to you because I know it's super hard to go out there and for me although I'm always having kind of a knot in my stomach is it like like like dating like I said to get your head in another space and also to like if you are scared like a little mouse like this and you're standing there I'm going to talk about your project people are like we don't like you look freaky if you're like yeah so to get your head around that imagine that the person in front of you is your best friend or like yeah your best friend in the world and you talk to that person and you explain to that person what you want to do or what your vision is and you will see that you suddenly start to smile and you feel very positive and you talk in a different way and you are a lot more open and friendly and relaxed and positive because you talk to your best friend at the moment and it's easy for you to imagine how you would talk to your best friend because you've done that a lot of times in your life okay so these are the ways on how to get your first customers it is easy it is hard you should try it give it a chance there might be a market for you there might not be a market for you the only thing you lose is a little bit of time so you should really try and this could really change your life and it is not about skill remember the guy who makes a living from cooking coffee and remember the person who cleans Airport plane but the life is super interesting and we want to watch a movie about that okay that's my advice for today that's the creative chat for today I hope it was helpful for you and yeah thanks for watching see you soon bye