Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business

Often times, we overlook the value of the pre-production process, when it’s actually an incredibly important part of what we do. In many ways, a little extra work up front, will save a lot of extra time on the back end. To help us all understand this better, I’ve brought in someone who truly knows the importance of this concept.  Evan Abrams is a fantastic motion designer who runs his own YouTube channel where he teaches motion design. With over ten years of experience, Evan has fine-tuned how he creates his projects from beginning to end. Not one to keep his skills to himself, Evan uses his YouTube channel to share his expertise with other motion designers. His recent videos about the pre-production process have me thinking that we too often ignore this essential part of creating animations. So today we’re talking about how you can streamline your pre-production process for better efficiency and more clients. Evan also talks about why it’s crucial to position yourself as an expert in what you do and to share that expertise with as many people as you can. To that end, Evan shares his advice about whether or not you should start your own YouTube channel.  Evan gives some great tips on using your expertise to get new clients by using your knowledge to get you in front of new audiences. Much of this involves being active in the right communities and offering each other support. Evan and I also dive deep into how important pre-production is to creating a great final project. By focusing on the process before the creation begins, we can better anticipate potential problems and streamline collaboration, not to mention reduce stress. It allows us to be able to do and consider more in the end by being more intentional from the start. In that way we should enjoy the process even more than the finished product.   In this episode Why you need to make content that is meaningful to you instead of trying to please everyone The importance of being an expert in your field and sharing your skills with others The most important thing to consider when starting your own YouTube channel Why planning and pre-production is the most essential aspect of your work even though it’s rarely discussed How pre-production helps you and your clients understand each other better from the start Why mood boards are one of the most important pre-production tools you can utilize Top tips for communicating effectively with clients from the very start of a project   Quotes “If you’re going to create something, you can’t please everybody all the time. That’s probably the biggest hurdle to get over.” [6:25] “I think we’re entering an age where secret knowledge is not valuable, but shared knowledge is. If you hoard all this behind the scenes stuff to yourself, that’s great, now nobody gets to know about your process. Your process is as valuable as the product you’re putting out. It’s often more valuable if you want people to work with you. They’ll need to see how you work.” [11:35] “Pre-production, in my mind, is the only way to achieve great production. It’s the party that happens before the party. You can’t get somewhere if you don’t know where you’re going.” [22:49] “It’s vital to remember, everybody is a person. No one is a robot. Behave less like a robot.” [46:38] “Great work doesn’t come fully formed into the universe. We all want to produce great work and it doesn’t just pop out of people’s heads. It doesn’t just show up. Most great work comes from collaboration, working the problem, the process. There is a system and systems are not to be feared.” [57:12]   Links Find Evan Abrams online Follow Evan on YouTube | Twitter Check out Evan’s pre-production series Milanote Creative Cow Motion Hatch Episode 19 with Caitlin Cadieux Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon Mograph Mondays Detroit The Freelance Contract Bundle

Have you ever felt stuck in your motion design career? Maybe you’re feeling like you need to do everything all the time but aren’t sure what is actually helping you move forward in your business or career. If you feel like your to-do list is getting longer all the time and don’t know what to do and you're feeling overwhelmed, this is the episode that you need to listen to. Today I’m talking to Jess Peterson and Christopher Bernal about what to do when you’re feeling stuck and overwhelmed. Jess and Christopher are mentors in our Mograph Mastermind Program. Jess runs Mighty Oak Studios specializing in handmade animation and design. Christopher is a Bay Area motion designer with ten years of experience working with internal production companies, agencies, and studios. In this episode, we’re talking about conquering your feelings of being overwhelmed by work and moving on to the next stages of your career. Jess and Christopher share some of their tried and true tactics for when they feel inundated with work. As my guests explain, a lot of this can be accomplished by prioritizing and categorizing your tasks. We also talk about delegating roles to other people, the proper mindset for not letting the amount of work you have to get out of hand, and knowing when it’s okay to say no to a job. We discuss the benefits of being part of a community like a mastermind and how that support is one of the most valuable things a freelancer or small business owner can have.   In this episode Actionable advice for dealing with having just too much work to do Why taking the time to reflect on your business and work is an important part of moving forward with it Knowing when it’s time to delegate various tasks of your business The mindset needed to help maintain a healthy and sustainable work-life balance The power and payoffs of being part of a community   Quotes  “When I start to do these things, are they interconnected? Are they going to help set off a chain of things that can show me a path going forward? Every once in awhile, there will be lots of interesting things coming up on my radar, but it’s not really an opportunity if it’s just a distraction.” [8:19] “If you can take the other parts of your work that are on your plate an invest in someone who is also naturally good at that to help you, you find that the work goes so much quicker and that it is more cost-efficient, it’s more successful, it allows you to be a better creative or small business owner.” [14:48] “I just have to normalize that not everything that pops up is an opportunity. Just because it’s all happening at once doesn’t mean that it’s going away.” [20:54] “If you don’t know when you’re going to get close to done, then you feel like it’s never going to end. And that’s most often when we burn out. If you can give yourself opportunities, if you can plan projects out, it kind of gives you those markers to know it’s not forever -- there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.” [24:24] “Who you know in an authentic way is incredibly valuable to growing your business. You shouldn’t have to be sending out cold emails.”  [32:19]   Links Mograph Mastermind Program Find Jess at Mighty Oak Studios Follow Jess on Instagram | Facebook | Vimeo | YouTube Find Christopher at Designer of Motion Episode 16 with Jess Peterson   Find the full show notes here Keep up with everything Motion Hatch   Follow Motion Hatch on Twitter | Instagram If you haven't already, would you mind leaving us a rating and review? It really helps!

We were all likely told at some point in our lives that we need a formal education to succeed professionally. But much has changed. Nowadays, there are many highly successful motion designers never went to animation school. Today I’m joined by EJ Hassenfratz, also known as Eyedesyn. EJ is well known for his 3D tutorials, something he started doing to get over his fear of public speaking. He’s been in motion design for over a decade. Even without formal training, EJ has become a fully self-taught expert in this field, teaching others, speaking at conferences, and making some really fun animations.  In this episode, EJ and I talk about how people like you and me can find the majority of their work, the real value of education, and the limits of watching tutorials. EJ explains how to use your experience and promote your skills to find work even when you don’t have an educational background in your field. To that end, we discuss the skills that you need to hone to become a successful freelancer. In this episode The value and limitations of having an education and how to promote yourself without one The best skills you can have for becoming a successful freelancer Finding work through word-of-mouth and email inquiries and how social media plays a role in this How to properly use Instagram Stories to interact with your followers and other motion animators Finding inspiration and appreciation from exploring topics not directly related to motion design What you need to know to negotiate from a position of strength, not weakness Why watching tutorials doesn’t mean that you’re becoming a better artist Quotes “It’s such a rewarding feeling having someone discover something because of one of my videos, or feeling inspired enough to even get into 3D. That really is huge and way better than getting an email with a bunch of client revisions.” [4:43] “You can be amazingly talented, but if you don’t have the confidence to charge what you’re worth and even recognize your own worth, then it doesn’t matter… it doesn’t matter what school you went to.” [9:29] “If you have a client who’s trying to lowball you, put in that little extra effort to educate them on why your rate is what it is and why the value is there.” [41:21] “I think it’s okay to realize that you’ve been doing things the wrong way for most of your career.” [58:12] Related links Find EJ online Follow EJ on YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Vimeo | Behance | Dribbble Already Been Chewed Buffer Books by Austin Kleon Motion Hatch Episode 42 with Andrew and Pete Location Indie Wipster frame.io The Freelance Manifesto by Joey Korenman Hidden Brain - Close Enough: The Lure of Living Through Others Get the Freelance Contract Bundle here!   Find the full show notes here Keep up with everything Motion Hatch   Follow Motion Hatch on Twitter | Instagram If you haven't already, would you mind leaving us a rating and review? It really helps!

Many motion designers have personal projects that we would love to have the time to work on. But with the need to earn an income through paid work it can feel near impossible to find the time to work on them. However, as my guest is about to tell you, passion projects and paid client work have the amazing ability to support each other, providing you with the time and resources to work on both. Sander Van Dijk is an incredible motion designer who teaches Advanced Motion Methods through School of Motion as well as his own freelance course. Sander’s philosophy is centered around creating work that has true meaning for him while helping other motion animators do the same through his projects, tools, and community events. Today, Sander and I dive into how to what it takes to make it as a freelancer in our field. We explore the importance of being part of and contributing to a community of people doing the same work as you. We also discuss mindset and what it means to have our work be a force for good in the world as well as the importance of taking time for ourselves and our own personal projects. In this episode Finding inspiration from your passions and the world around you The importance of community for adding value to each other’s work and lives When to offer products and services for free and when to charge for them How diversifying your revenue streams will give you more time and resources to devote to your passion projects Recognizing your own values and interests when it comes to choosing direct to client work The undeniable importance of taking time for yourself The power of your personal projects to connect you with clients Quotes  “It’s very beneficial and helpful to have some kind of other interest that gives you inspiration on how to approach specific things in your own work.” [3:39]  “I’m driven by creating value for the community but I also know the value of my work and I’m not afraid to charge for it. As a result, I get more revenue so I can actually make more time available for the community.” [17:25]  “You can just see what you can do with the skills you have and your problem solving mentality as an artist -- what story you can help tell.” [24:52] “There’s a lot of different opportunities that can work for our motion design world, especially now that it’s so much more integrated into any type of business.” [47:05]   Related links Find Sander Van Dijk online Follow Sander on Instagram | Twitter | YouTube School of Motion Blend Conference Sana Labs Ultimate Freelance Guide - Sander’s Freelance Course  Find the full show notes here Keep up with everything Motion Hatch   Follow Motion Hatch on Twitter | Instagram If you haven't already, would you mind leaving us a rating and review? It really helps!

The possibilities that something like YouTube has for motion designers to help take our careers to the next level are truly amazing. But where do you start? How can you build an audience, find professional opportunities, create great content, and make it all worthwhile? Today’s guest has done all that and is ready to tell you how! Kelsey Brannan, better known as Premiere Gal on YouTube, has helped countless motion designers up their game when it comes to creating amazing content. With over 130,000 YouTube subscribers, Kelsey must know a thing or two about connecting with her audience. Besides having her own amazing career making videos, she has made it her mission to share her expertise with people like you and me. In this interview, Kelsey shares what it takes to start your own successful YouTube channel and make money from it. We also discuss some of the avenues available for making passive income as motion designers. Kelsey breaks down everything from finding the right affiliate programs to selling without “selling out.” Much of her advice is all about making good connections and following your interests. After listening to our chat, I’m sure you’ll feel more empowered and confident to get started on your YouTube channel too! In this episode: Why making your own instructional YouTube channel will help improve your skills too Using YouTube as a way to get exposure and find clients The pros and cons of selling templates as a form of passive income Using affiliate marketing to make money while you sleep Advice for motion designers who want to start their first YouTube channel Why it’s not necessary to publish on any sort of strict schedule Building the right relationships to get great sponsors Quotes: “If you want to up your skills in anything, definitely make a YouTube channel.” [7:25] “While it may seem like you're just promoting template packs, you’ll probably get requests from a lot of different people who are looking for some custom graphics.” [16:51] “It’s not selling out -- it’s just being smart about how you’re presenting your work and working with good companies that believe in your voice.”  [28:45] “The great part about YouTube is once you have your channel and your audience, you can do other things and not have YouTube take over.” [36:36] “When you’re doing YouTube videos, think about how well you can present it uniquely and have fun with it. The last thing you want to do is have it be like a laundry chore.” [40:21] Links: Find Kelsey Brannan online Follow Kelsey on YouTube | Twitter | Linkedin | Facebook | Instagram Premiere Bro Envato Pond5 Social Bluebook Peter McKinnon on YouTube Get your free trial of Wipster   Find the full show notes here Keep up with everything Motion Hatch   Follow Motion Hatch on Twitter | Instagram If you haven't already, would you mind leaving us a rating and review? It really helps!

As motion designers we create content for our clients. But how can we use the content we create for our own marketing purposes? How can we use it to get clients who don’t even know what motion design is? I’ve brought two guests on today who are going to answer those very questions! Today we have Andrew and Pete on the podcast. They are content marketers who help small businesses grow and find customers through their company Andrew & Pete. These guys are great at explaining the often ignored, but incredibly crucial parts of marketing your skills and your business. Their goal is to help people like you and me succeed without hustling ourselves into the ground. In this interview, we talk about your potential for helping businesses with their content marketing and so much more. We discuss the role that YouTube can play, how you can improve your pricing strategy, and the usefulness of Linkedin. We also talk about discovering the content that you can create that will entertain or help potential customers the most. This episode is packed with great and actionable advice that you can start using today. How have you been marketing your business? Tell me about it in the comments! In this episode: What content marketing is and how motion designers can play a part in it How to use your content to attract your customers by making them feel happier or smarter YouTube’s unique potential to help you attract the right kind of clients for you Why it’s better to post nothing at all on social media than something mediocre Tips for using Linkedin to help find and connect with potential customers How to figure out if you’re charging enough for your work and why it’s probably time to raise your rates Quotes: “The beauty of content is that it reduces the need to be a bit more scrappy to get clients -- having to go to networking events and stuff like that. We haven't been to a networking event for years and years because all of our business comes from our content.” [6:11] “You’re in a content pure industry because your customers do not care about how you do what you do. They don’t want to learn how to create motion graphics themselves.... But you need to remember that content marketing needs to make your customers feel happier or smarter.” [8:12] “I would rather you do an awesome emotional actionable entertaining animation once a month than four average ones once a week.” [27:21] “It’s really easy right now to stand out on Linkedin with good video. Not boring video, but good video. Animation, stop-motion graphics, anything like that would go down as such a storm on there if you did it really well.” [31:42] Links: Find Andrew and Pete online Follow Andrew and Pete on YouTube | Facebook | Instagram Morningfame Keywords Everywhere vidIQ TubeBuddy Kurzesagt Find the full show notes here Keep up with everything Motion Hatch   Follow Motion Hatch on Twitter | Instagram If you haven't already, would you mind leaving us a rating and review? It really helps!  

Are you worried that being a freelancer and a parent are incompatible? It’s not uncommon for freelancers to have concerns about taking care of their kids among all their freelancing commitments. Since questions about this are so common in the Motion Hatch community, I’ve brought in the experts to answer all your burning questions. With their own podcasts and communities for freelance parents, Steve Folland and Frankie Tortora have a heap of knowledge on this topic. They’ve built successful freelance careers while raising their children and now help others like them navigate the same hurdles that they encounter on a regular basis. Steve and Frankie start off this fascinating conversation by explaining some of the parallels between parenting and freelancing and how one can help prepare you for the responsibilities of the other. They go on to share some great ideas about how you can find enough time and energy to be fully present for both your business and your family, such as bringing in more people to work alongside of you and really understanding the value that you provide for your clients. It can be really tough to navigate these issues that can get in between work and family. After speaking with Frankie and Steve, this doesn’t seem nearly as daunting as before. The recurring theme here is that being self-employed actually means that you can be there more for your kids and since it provides significant benefits that traditional employment doesn’t. Even if you’re not a parent, you’ll still find tons of wisdom and great advice in today’s episode which includes some great productivity hacks that we can all take advantage of.   In this episode: How the flexibility offered by freelancing can help you be more present and involved in your child’s life What to consider when raising your rates when you’re starting a family Useful tips for retaining your regular clients when you have to take family leave The pros and cons of starting your freelance business before and after having children Maintaining the stamina necessary to take care of both your business, your children, and yourself How having kids is actually a super-charged productivity hack How to make more time in your schedules while parenting full-time without getting burnt out Quotes: “They just suddenly give you this little human and nobody tells you what to do with it. It’s a bit like freelancing, really. Nobody tells you what to do with that either and you kind of muddle it out by hanging out with other freelancers and you muddle it out by hanging out with other parents.” [4:46] “The only predictable thing about having kids and being self-employed is that life is unpredictable. That is the one thing that you can count on.” [6:41] “I think there is a lot of pressure to try to do all the things, especially when you see people who don’t have kids doing all the things. But I think you just have to keep an eye on how you yourself are coping with that sort of stuff.” [24:11] “Certainly having children doesn’t make you less productive. I think it makes you more time efficient. Then it’s what you choose to do with that time.” [38:46] “Your career might pivot and it might change, but it’s not the end --  it’s the beginning!” [1:00:59] Links: Find Frankie at Doing it for the Kids Follow Frankie on Linkedin | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook Find Steve at Being Freelance Follow Steve on Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube Find the full show notes here Keep up with everything Motion Hatch   Follow Motion Hatch on Twitter | Instagram If you haven't already, would you mind leaving us a rating and review? It really helps!  

It’s no secret that having a large social media following can help you share your work with a large audience as well as find more opportunities to work as a freelancer. However, actually gaining and maintaining a following is a tricky pursuit. Fortunately, you’re about to hear two experts who have helped their studio gain tens of thousands of followers share how you can make social media work for you. Tom and Henry Purrington are the twin brothers and studio animation leads at the animation studio Golden Wolf in London. They’re experience as animators and production managers means that they know all the ins and outs of production from managing a social media presence to hiring animators and creating stellar animations. Today, we’re talking all about the benefits of social media can have for your business. Tom and Henry admit that there’s no single formula for success in social media, but they share some of the techniques and tricks that have helped them. The key is creating something that you and your audience both like, so it can be shared and spread as vastly as possible. Henry and Tom go deep into their processes and I know you’ll come away from this interview ready to level up your social media game. In this episode: The work that goes into creating a large and growing social media presence How social media algorithms can work for you or against you Why it’s essential to build an audience that you can respond to directly What studios are looking for when they are searching for freelance talent What freelancers can do on social media in order to get noticed and get hired How to deal (or not deal) with the haters on social media Quotes: “Really by focusing your attention on entertaining people and keeping it relevant to our interests, we’ve built our following that way. As a studio, people follow us because they’ll see really silly shorts, they’ll see really fun unique bold animation.” [8:02] “Building up that audience that you can respond to is really important, because they will then all like it, and then their friends will like it, and then their friends will like it.” [13:24] “Everyone’s their own brand. You are your own brand as a freelancer, as a studio. The more small pieces of work and the more content you can get out, the more likely somebody is going to see it who can employ you.” [20:35] “The stuff we put on TV today will be forgotten tomorrow. You’re only as good as your last piece of work.” [22:00] “Don’t be afraid of it. Just get it out there and don’t be afraid of what people are going to say in six months whether it’s rubbish or not. It doesn’t matter, you just keep making stuff.” [30:09] Links: Find Golden Wolf online Follow Golden Wolf on Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Vimeo | Tumblr Follow Henry on Instagram Follow Tom on Instagram Twitch   Find the full show notes here Keep up with everything Motion Hatch   Follow Motion Hatch on Twitter | Instagram If you haven't already, would you mind leaving us a rating and review? It really helps!  

Do you find yourself spending too much time on the phone trying to get potential clients instead of doing the work you’re actually passionate about? Have you thought about automating this process but aren’t sure where to start? It’s not as daunting as many might think and my guest on this episode is an expert at getting it done! Greg Hickman runs a company called System.ly, where he helps service-based businesses with marketing funnels, scaling, and qualifying leads. In short, he shows you how to get perfect clients without the need for you to spend your time talking with people who won’t end up using your services anyway. His coaching programs are geared to help service providers scale and grow their business through automation systems and productizing. In this interview we talk about implementing systems to help you save time and get in touch with the right people for your business. There’s a lot of opportunity for automation that all of us can make use of to streamline our marketing and sales process. In the end, automation’s goal is to simplify your business and save you lots of time and energy. Greg shares some of his favorite tips on how to make this happen. We also chat about productizing your services. To do it right takes focusing on just one service so that you can make your systems streamlined and repeatable. This can be a tricky thing to do if you still want to stay true to your creative pursuits, but Greg shares some great ideas on how to pull it off. In this episode: What Infusionsoft is and how it can be a tool to help your business as in marketing automation Automating your marketing and sales processes to save you time and help your potential clients get to know you better Why having your customer “apply” to work with you will position yourself as an expert Easy tips and tricks to reduce the amount of time you spend on sales calls Finding the right niche to make your services easier to market and sell Productizing your services to add predictability to your business and allow you to finally take a vacation How to stay true to your creativity while still growing and scaling your business   Quotes: “Ultimately you have to look at what your business model is. As motion designers, or any business, what are you selling and how do you deliver it? Whatever the answer is to those questions, at some point you’re probably doing some sort of marketing that could be streamlined.” [5:59] “How many times do you get on the phone and say the same thing over and over and over again? If that’s the case, make a video; make it a requirement to watch that video before they get on the phone, and that call can now be twenty minutes or whatever. You’ve saved yourself some time.” [23:23] “If you want to build a more scalable business that is leveraged, you need to start to leverage these systems to remove yourself from the delivery.” [28:36] “As service providers we start as technicians and we have a technical business. But that doesn’t mean that you, the owner, need to be the one doing all of the technical work.” [29:48] “I think the biggest challenge for creatives is you’re doing this because you also love the creative element. So custom is important and that’s totally fine. You just have to make the decision of what’s more important.” [40:56]   Links: Find Greg Hickman online at System.ly Join the Scalable Service Provider Facebook group Infusionsoft Calendly Wufoo E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber Built to Sell by John Warrillow Splasheo Find the full show notes here Keep up with everything Motion Hatch   Follow Motion Hatch on Twitter | Instagram If you haven't already, would you mind leaving us a rating and review? It really helps!    

Donna McAvoy, an amazing freelance animator, shares her journey into freelance motion design and the importance of networking. She discusses finding work as a freelancer, raising rates, and the challenges of working in Scotland. The episode emphasizes the power of community and networking for freelancers, as well as the significance of breaking down goals and attending events. Cold emailing and online communities like Motion Hatch are highlighted as valuable resources for getting contracts. The hosts offer advice to freelancers, promote the guest's website and social media, and announce the opening of applications for the MoGRAF mastermind program.