My favorite dance of the self employed is the ‘how busy are you?’ dance. We encounter it almost daily as we try and prove to all the other self employeds that our company is so damn successful we don’t have time to sleep. The pitfall to this is, there will ALWAYS be slow times. And that’s OK.
To most people, a slow period will feel like the end of the world, like it is time to scrape the bottom of the barrel for more work. But if you take a step back and look at it as the gift it truly is, you will learn to love the slow times as much as the busy ones.
You see, being slow gives you the chance to make a couple things happen. One, reconnect with yourself and your loved ones. This is important because pretty soon you won’t be slow anymore, and you will be wishing you had taken that extra moment to hang out with your kids, your wife, your girlfriend or boyfriend. These moments are critical in our world as they help maintain a strong relationship, and that in turn, keeps you sane when you are slammed at work.
It also gives you the time to hone your craft. One thing I see a lot of is people in my industry who have all the toys in the world and are just waiting for work, because after all, these aren’t toys for playing, they are toys for working. The toys collect dust, and their skills get rusty, and then next thing you know their creative drive is gone. They are now just in it to systematically pump out very cookie cutter videos. I think it should go the opposite way. You have the toys…USE them. Take the quite moments to do something stupid that you have always wanted to try, or learn a new technique that you have not quite mastered. I used to sit on the side of the road and practice my focus pulls on cars passing by, in order get better and pulling focus on fast moving objects. Shortly after that I was hired on to shoot an entire movie about motorcycles racing by me at 200mph. I’m not saying one is the reason for the other. But I am saying if I hadn’t taken the down time to work on a skill I felt I was falling behind in, I would have failed when my moment came.
This is also the time to sit back and dream of the project you have always wanted to do. So many people wait for the 48 hour film fest as their chance to do that. And then it becomes their one outlet a year. I say, if that is your passion, make a small film every time you find yourself slowing down. It doesn’t need to be a long project. Even just something as simple as a 30 second short. But at least you are doing something you love, and that keeps you inspired to do the best work every day when the pace starts picking back up.
I strongly believe that the slow times are not bad. They are the opportunities for you to take your product, and make it better. So I encourage everyone to embrace the slow. To fully acknowledge it’s presence and then use it for what it is. Just another tool on the belt.