Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jacob Zirkle. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Jacob, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright, let’s jump into one of the most exciting parts of starting a new venture – how did you get your first client who was not a friend or family?
I had been doing youtube for a little while getting small views on videos, but I was mainly doing it as a private catalog of my work. Some videos started to do well and it was right around the time I was about the graduate from film school. I decided to make a demo reel because I was looking for employment for studios to start my career, but then 3 days later the hollywood writer’s strikes hit and so all of the studios I had interviewed for stopped hiring. As a last ditch effort I decided to share the demo reel on my youtube channel which had around 25k subs at the time. The video ended up getting half a million views which really surprised me as there are countless demo reels posted online and none had gotten any traction. Once it was out there, after a month or so I got an email from someone looking for an artist for a Resort Commercial. Of course I had never thought of freelance and so I was horrible at communicating and pricing my work. Looking back it was definitely as extremely cheap rate for what I was doing, but I was just happy about getting to work on professional stuff and getting my name out there. I actually think because I did a good job and cheaper rate than others because I didn’t know better, the client recommended me to others and that started my career off a little faster than if I tried to get more. After posting that demo reel, I realized the power of freelance and self marketing and so started to push for it more and more and the work started snowballing after that.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m a visual effects artist and digital content creator. I work in the film, TV, advertising, and music video industries. I’ve worked with clients such as Nvidia, L’Oreal, Hershey’s, and Hulu. As visual effects artists, we are basically the ones that bring the imagination to life. Right now I mostly work with advertising agencies and where I stand out is that I have a wide range of artists that I know that I can bring onto a project so that the agency doesn’t have to look for themselves. That way through my own company, I can hire a team of artists that specialized for the task at hand. This allows a lot of flexibility for not only me, but also my clients. On the side, I also run my own YouTube channel and online community of artist. I love sharing all the information I’ve learned over the years as well as getting to interact with amazing people throughout the world.
Have you ever had to pivot?
When I went to Film school, I knew that I always wanted to be in a visual effects studio. However, three days before I graduated the Hollywood strikes took affect and so all of the studios that I had been interviewing with for months were suddenly not hiring anymore. Because of that I had to pivot from the studio route and to a more freelance approach. At the time, I was very afraid of freelance because of the uncertainty, and at the beginning, it was definitely more slow to pick up, however, after a few months of getting my work out there and really working on my craft, I was able to get my first job as a freelance artist and then everything else picked up from there. From now on I’ve learned to live life one moment at a time and just go with the flow because anything can happen and I need to be ready for it
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
I always tell students or people who ask that in this day and age you have to almost be your own self marketer. I think now more than ever it’s super important to not only just have a demo real, but also start posting stuff on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, etc. That way instead of people finding just one of your pieces of content, They can find multiple pieces of content that can ultimately lead to you. I found this strategy works really well with gaining new clients because you never know who is watching and if your work speaks for your quality, then people will reach out.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jacobzirkle.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacob_zirkle/profilecard/?igsh=MXh6MTNrY3U4OHFicw==
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-zirkle-95065a20a?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@jacob_zirkle?si=H-uDQYhT5n5K7tpu
