How To Get People To Want To Work With You

Yes it pays to have a refined skill at what you do. However it also pays to have a little charisma and like ability.

I’ve been fascinated with expanding my people skills over the past couple of years. This builds my confidence to show up authentically and build real connections with who I’m working with.

There’s a few key things that you can remember to help get the ball rolling in the direction you want when starting off a professional relationship.

Talk less.

Often when we meet new people we can default to this nervous state of feeling like we need to prove ourselves. We’ll try to impress them with all the things we’ve been doing or all the stuff we know, in turn we can rub off as sounding a little desperate. I’ve had to practice talking less. After some time it does start to feel more natural.

It also helps when you do keep your social medias up to date with what projects you’ve been working on. You’ll feel more confident to not talk as much as you know your online presence will help to speak for you.

When we shift the focus away from ourselves and what we’re doing, we’re able to see what opportunities lay ahead and build deeper connections with who we’re talking to.

Ask more.

You might find it hard to believe but socially I’m actually pretty shy.

I overthink what I say and really want people to like me.

The game changer for creating easy conversations with anyone is to ask questions. It’s really simple but sometimes we forget. People love it when you ask them questions and you show enthusiasm and intrigue about the topic.

This is fantastic too as you don’t need to ‘know it all’. Some people get nervous about asking a ‘stupid’ question. I don’t think there is any such thing. When you ask a person something it shows that you’re engaged in the conversation, listening to what they’re saying and you’re human in that you don’t know it all.

Finally I know I said there’s no such this as ‘stupid’ questions, I still stand by that however I do believe that there are such a thing as ‘great’ questions. You can actually demonstrate your level of understanding by asking great questions. Maybe it’s a meeting about a project and you’re asking questions about a specific detail that others would have overlooked. This displays your attention to detail and raises your perceived value.

This again helps to build a better rapport and connection with someone/potential client.

Work with integrity.

You may just be breaking into the creative industry therefore haven’t been fully exposed to it yet. However since being in it one thing I’ve witnessed good and not so good ethical practices.

I won’t go into any details, however what I will highlight is the importance of what work you do and who you work with.

When you’re a self employed artist, you are your brand. Your reputation is one of your most valuable assets. Secondly, you can be associated with groups/people through your work. It’s important to hold value to your name and be selective about where you place it.

I’ll be honest it’s often not glaringly obvious that someone/organisation/business may not have the same beliefs and morals as you until you’ve already built a working relationship with them. A lot of these things are also out of your control. Which is why it’s not a do or die situation. It’s just something to consider.

A good selling point to get people to want to work with you is your integrity and honesty. It’s sometimes hard to find but when it’s there it builds trust and authenticity.

Make it easy.

You want to get more people to work with you?

Then make it easy.

When I refer to making it easy, I mean it in the sense of booking you. I’ve seen a lot of artist profiles where they have no email or website linked.

Work towards making these key areas very user friendly, easy to navigate and visually appealing:

• Clear presentation of your work via website and social media

• Easy to find contact info ‑ having your email linked on all your social media platforms and contact page on your website

• Social proof ‑ reviews and feedback

• Google business page ‑ You’ll get higher ranked in google searches

Word of mouth is your best seller.

Do an incredible job for the clients you already have and you will naturally attract more like them.

Word of mouth is more effective than any other marketing technique. If you’re struggling to get more people to work with you. How well did you look after your previous clients?

You can also ask for referrals to gain new customers.

Not all referrals will come right after you’ve completed the work. It could come 1 month or 1 year later. However, the work you put in becomes accumulative, over time is stacks up, enough people know you, enough people recommend you, it gets to a point where this is now your full‑time income.

Great ways to help this journey along is by asking your customers to leave you a review. I have my website and google business page set up for people to leave reviews. You can also say this to existing clients:

Hi,

I have really enjoyed working with you and loved creating this project/commission.

I am currently focusing on growing my creative practice.

Do you know anyone who would benefit from my services? I would be grateful if you could connect us so that I could reach out to them to see how I can help.

Best wishes,

Natasha