Being Your Own Client

I've been sitting with this for a while, and even more so since I started working for myself.

Give me a brief, a messy problem, a brand that doesn't quite know what it wants to be — and I'll work through it. I'll build and craft the identity. It's the work I genuinely enjoy, and I like to think I'm reasonably good at it.

Ask me to do the same for myself and all reasonable thinking goes out of the window.

Since going freelance, I've found it so tricky to talk about myself and my work and where I want to go. There’s also terms such as “champion” and “thought leader” which I see and read an awful lot, and I’m even guilty of selling those terms to clients too - but when it comes to me, myself and I - I really don’t know where I fit in, within the industry.

What I've started to understand is why it's hard. When I work for a client, I have distance. I can see their brand clearly because I'm not inside it. With my own studio / business, every decision feels loaded with something more personal. The work is me. Getting it wrong feels different.

I can’t be the only one - surely this is widely accepted as “a thing” for other creatives.

So I've been trying to treat myself like a client. To give my output and personal brand the same rigour and honesty I'd bring to anyone else's brief. It's not a comfortable process. But it's the right one.

I’m still working on it.

Get in touch to discuss your next project. Email sam@samuel-harrison.co.uk