What if Clients Won’t Hire You?
By Levina Kusumadjaja
“What if I’ve quit my 9-to-5 job to become a strategist, and then nobody wants to hire me?”
“And then I don’t get income... and I have to sell everything I own... and I end up homeless?”
Have you ever thought about these questions before? For me, they have kept me up at night many times. The underlying reason why we all want to make the pivot from just doing designs or some other creative work, to making strategy the main part of our process, is because we want to do meaningful and purposeful work. And more than that, we want to get paid well in doing them. But how can we achieve any of that if we can’t find clients? What if we have given up everything we had to pursue strategy and find that meaning we have desperately wanted to find, but then nobody wants to hire us?
Ultimately, we cannot force people to want to work with us, right? We have absolutely no power over what other people think about us, and that’s why this is a scary thing. It’s unknown and it’s something we can’t control. However, we do have full power over our own actions and responses. The easiest thing to do is to stop at the questions above, move on, and quit doing strategy—safely conclude: “I’m not fit to do strategy.” But... then what? Back to the 9-to-5 job? Back to the passion-less, meaningless work on that office cubicle that we have been trying so hard to breakout from?
Don’t take the what-ifs personally and evaluate objectively.
What we need to do is ask ourselves: “How would we like to respond?” If we were to come to a place where we are not getting hired at all, how would we like to respond? Because obviously, something is wrong. Some things aren’t in the right place because we are not reaching the people that we should be reaching. So, instead of taking in our what-ifs as a personal attack to who we are, let’s evaluate the situation objectively. Let’s not give in to the fear and let’s accept the fact that some things need to change because we are not getting closer to the goal we want to reach.
You can only choose your actions; you can’t control the outcome, and other people’s actions.
Let me share 8 questions that have helped me evaluate the gap between where I was and where I wanted to be as a strategist. Instead of focusing on what I cannot figure out about my clients, these questions have given me pointers to build a concrete action plan towards my growth. They helped me make sure that I have done everything that I can from my end to connect and get clients. Here they are:
Am I selling the wrong products and services to the right people? Do I actually want to work with the people that I’m trying to reach, but what I’m offering isn’t something they actually need?
Am I selling the right products and services to the wrong people? Are these actually the best products and services that I can offer, but I haven’t been targeting the right person?
Or maybe, they are the right products and services, targeted to the right people, but I am planted in the wrong community? Are the people I’m trying to reach engaging in a different platform?
Have I made it easy for people to find me and reach out to me?
Have I put in the effort to connect with people enough, that people know me and what I do, so that even if I’m not directly connected to potential clients, I have people who can connect me to them?
Have I been focusing on giving value and helping people, or have I been focusing on taking value and benefiting myself?
Is my process not working?
Is there something wrong with my pricing?
In my personal journey, the questions were a great place to start. I was able to identify areas where I needed to improve, and once I worked on them, I saw improvement. And although they haven’t resulted in a sudden flood of new clients knocking on my door, I saw how the changes did bring me many new friends and potential leads.
Bottomline: Keep going.
Fear tells us to stop and to not try again, because it teaches us that stepping into the unknown is scarier than learning in the journey. However, the reality is, there will always be things that we don’t know and can’t control. Does that mean we should quit all the time then? Of course not! We should do the exact opposite. The people who ask the what-if question and let fear have the last say won’t be successful. We need to keep going. You are bound to get somewhere if you just get going. If you set that goal, and fix your mind and your effort towards that goal, you will eventually break a threshold.
What if clients won’t hire you? Keep connecting, keep improving, keep looking for opportunities. Don’t give up, just yet.
Cheers!
Levina
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About the author:
Levina is a writer based in Indonesia. Because of Melinda Livsey, she recognized the power of brand strategy for every creative. She is sharing about her learnings as she goes to help creatives have fun in their growth and journey of building brands. Connect with her on LinkedIn and say hi!