Freelancing School Year 2: Creating Your Brand

01/20/16 • 96 min

After last week's surprise interview with Don Bluth, we're back with part 2 of the RubberOnion Freelance School and this time we're talking about what would be the goal in your second year: creating your brand. We talk about using your own personality and voice to shape the tone of your brand, how to market yourself, the importance and limitations of a niche market and a bunch more. Sign up for the newsletter or become a Patron on my Patreon page to get the more detailed ebook in February on starting a freelance business.

And don't forget to check out the companion blog post with this podcast to read a more structured write-up on what to expect in your first year of being a Freelancer!

Listen for floating and hammocks, Gary Oldman Craigslist, Rob's Baked Buttered Beans, and Rabbi Schwarzenegger

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Topics & Timestamps: (7:52) Recap of the previous Freelance School (#1) (13:34) The word: Brand (19:11) Using a Niche Market (21:51) Arnold Schwarzenegger (27:07) Analyzing last year's data (31:37) Using a personal style (34:18) The "jack-of-all-trades" marketing problem (37:45) Using the same name as a moniker and business name (41:05) What's unique about you (44:21) Branding... the verb (48:36) Having a business "voice" (51:01) Logos, Style, and Tagline (58:10) Marketing, and what to do with a scattered presence (1:09:46) What can you do that people want? (1:14:38) Shifting your brand when it stops working for you (1:17:46) Testing the success of your brand approach (1:22:50) Using your voice (1:28:17) Putting it all together Media Referenced During this Episode:

Stephen's "My Friend the..." series

Stephen's VLOG series

RubberOnion Review series with Stephen & Rob

Check out more of your hosts:

Stephen Brooks Rob Yulfo

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes

Subscribe on SoundCloud

... and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you're at it! (=

And don't forget to check out the companion blog post with this podcast to read a more structured write-up on what to expect in your first year of being a Freelancer!

Listen for floating and hammocks, Gary Oldman Craigslist, Rob's Baked Buttered Beans, and Rabbi Schwarzenegger

Please Rate & Review us on iTunes

And you can now listen to us out on SoundCloud!

Stephen's "My Friend the..." series

Stephen's VLOG series

RubberOnion Review series with Stephen & Rob

Check out more of your hosts:

Stephen Brooks Rob Yulfo

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes

Subscribe on SoundCloud

... and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you're at it! (=

Previous Episode

Don Bluth Interview

This week I bring you a very special interview with DON BLUTH (Dragon's Lair, Secret of NIMH, American Tale, Land Before Time). His Indie GoGo campaign to make a sizzle reel for a "Dragon's Lair" movie pitch closes this Friday, January 15, so if you want some of the perks like autographs, tutorials, animation cells, a masterclass, and more you should check out the page!

We talk about his time at Disney and decision to leave, his thoughts on sequels, CGI, the current landscape of animation and the internet, the importance of not dumbing things down for kids, and a bunch more stuff. We also took some of your questions so thanks to those of you who submitted! Check out the Indie GoGo campaign by clicking the image below and enjoy the show!

Listen for animatronics, dog sneeze, cgi and hormones, Gary's playboys, and death... this was a fun episode!

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Also be sure to check out Don's Website and definitely like him on facebook!

And you can now check us out on SoundCloud!

Topics & Timestamps: (3:24) Death and Don Bluth movies (7:00) What lead to the decision to leave Disney and start his own studio (10:55) Thoughts on CGI (12:34) On the importance of good scripts and not dumbing things down for kids (14:34) The role of the internet on the resurgance of traditional animation (19:35) Thoughts on sequels (21:09) Secret of NIMH production (26:50) Dragon's Lair the game (29:29) Dragon's Lair the movie - IndieGoGo Campaign (33:30) AUDIENCE QUESTIONS: (33:45) Lamont: "Who will they would pitch the Dragon's Lair movie to?" (34:41) James T Nethery: "I've always heard from people who have worked for you that you would usually cast your animators by sequence instead of by character like the Disney studio did. So instead of an animator working on one character throughout the film, they'd get a bit of every character. Was there a specific reason for this style of casting?" (35:37) "Gary & his Playboys" story (36:18) Kaishu: "How was your experience working on plays?" Check out more of your hosts:

Stephen Brooks Rob Yulfo

Preorder Stephen's Animation Tutorial Book:

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes

Subscribe on SoundCloud

... and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you're at it! (=

Next Episode

Freelancing School Year 3: Make More Money

This week for art 3 of the RubberOnion Freelance School we're talking about the likely goal in your third year: making more money. There are a lot of things that you can do to shake up the status quo and get some more green in the bank but the number one item is to charge more. That, however, is much harder to do than to say so let us break it all down for you and give you tips, stories, analogies and metaphors to help you set your monetary goals and meet them!

Sign up for the newsletter or become a Patron on my Patreon page to get the more detailed ebook in February on starting a freelance business.

And don't forget to check out the companion blog post with this podcast to read a more structured write-up on what to expect in your third year of being a Freelancer!

Listen for clay head, "eben" flow, plateau-sneeze, live 'n let die, the painting elephant that will die now, and "grammar... it's hard."

Please Rate & Review us on iTunes

And you can now listen to us out on SoundCloud!

Topics & Timestamps: (6:53) The big difference between freelancing and a salary-job (11:11) The "diet" analogy (14:59) The Artists' Pay Insecurity (22:13) Modern art example (28:10) Plateau (33:18) How to define "career progress" (38:52) Setting the goals you need (41:55) The Red Bull example (47:42) Charging per-hour vs per-project (55:42) Tips on how to raise your rate (1:10:51) Opposite approach: making a lateral move (1:18:05) The real reason one animation makes more than another of the same quality Check out more of your hosts:

Stephen Brooks Rob Yulfo

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes Subscribe on SoundCloud ... and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you're at it! (=