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Lesson Info
1. Meet Isaac Johnston
Lessons
Meet Isaac Johnston
03:53 2Problems Becoming A Fulltime Freelancer
02:45 3The Tool I Use To Create
21:22 4How To Know If Your Hobby Should Be Your Profession
05:10 5Showing Your Work Daily
02:55 6Getting Support
03:05 7Handling Fear of Failure
03:08 8Creating Your Own Unique Value
08:39My Workflow
19:24 10How I Approach A Brand
07:07 11How To Build A Proposal
08:46 123 Strategies on Increasing Exposure
04:47 13How To Meet Artists You Love
06:19 14How To Find Ideas
07:53 15My Techniques To Shoot Photos
05:45 16My strategies to make better stories’
08:48 17Writing Videos For The Internet
07:56 18How To Be Comfortable In Front Of The Camera
06:08 19Final Thoughts & A Note On Obsession
01:55 20Getting Work and the Post Covid Goldrush
27:20 21Live Lesson: The Covid Goldrush
1:05:34Lesson Info
Meet Isaac Johnston
Welcome to my workshop. I'm Isaac Johnston and I wanna give you a little overview of what you can expect. I'm gonna deal with the problems that you'll encounter when becoming a freelancer. And if you're already a freelancer some of the problems that you've encountered and maybe haven't gotten over. I'm gonna cover my gear, the gear that I choose to get outta the way so I can get on to creating. I'm gonna talk about my workflow process, all about simplicity. I'm gonna talk about how to find your creative community, your own unique voice. And I, I want to touch a little bit on how to deal with the mental game of being a professional creator. How to find specific techniques that will amplify your work without a huge social media following and how I make my stories and videos. I'm gonna touch on all that. So, I'm really excited you're here and let's jump into it. All right. So, if you don't know my story, my story shapes me a lot. So I'm, I'm gonna just give you a little rundown. I am four...
th generation from Montana, which is very lucky. I grew up here in the Flat Valley near Glacier National Park. And from a very young age, started working for an outfitter at 10 years old. At 13 years old, I was driving a stock truck loaded with horses into the Great Bear Wilderness. Didn't have my license yet. We don't need to tell anybody that, but I kind of had this Wild West growing up and it was so full of adventure that when you're a kid, you just don't know that other things might come along like a 40 hour work week and things that are called responsibilities. I didn't live in a spot where I thought that was gonna happen to me. I just thought, for sure, I'm gonna have all the money I need and I'm gonna do all the adventures I want to do. Um and then that doesn't quite happen. You turn into your twenties and responsibility hit me pretty hard. I had a, a lot of time in my twenties trying to sort out who I was, what I wanted to do. And I, I had some processes, which I'll cover later in the workshop, that helped me during that time. But what I wanna jump into is probably what you guys know me about is my freelance work as a photographer and a filmmaker. In 2015, I was working for a vacation rental company, loved my job. I kind of thought I figured out what I wanna do with the rest of my life and entered Alex Stroll. He came as a guest, stayed at one of our cabins in exchange for some of his photos and we kind of hit it off. So I started helping him find locations and go on adventures. And we became friends and Alex had some big projects at the time and needed somebody to help with logistics. And at, at that time, because I had all the resources in the area, I was very helpful in that way. And he asked if I wanted to quit my job and go help him do logistics and insinuated that I could be a freelancer to cover the difference. I was super, super, super skeptical, (laugh) and it was not an easy choice for me. So, eventually, my wife and I had some conversations and that's how I started in the freelance world. As we said yes to Alex, started traveling with him. I did that for a year and then jumped right into what I'm doing now, photos and videos. It was a very rough transition for me. I had, when I left the job, a very steady income, a family, two girls, two and four when I left. It was not an ideal situation. I wasn't like in college with a bunch of free time and no responsibilities. Uh, but what I found out is through trial and error that giving people value all the time- and by that, I mean, doing whatever I can to be helpful, being pleasant to be around if I could, you know try to be as pleasant as I could, and really just making my work as best I could at the same time that I was giving value to other people was really an asset. So, those are some of the touchstones that we'll we'll talk about in this workshop ways that I learned through that struggle through a lot of weight being on me. Through basically, if you fail, it feels like the end of the world. We're gonna talk about that. And yeah, that was my journey. And, and I'm excited to kind of tell you what I've learned so far.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Ken Neubecker
A great course/workshop, one of the best I've seen with CreativeLive. While at 71 I'm not looking at starting a full new carrier in freelance photography or video work, doing the work helps keep me off the street. It has given me inspiration to do a stoty about what I am going through now as a full time caretaker for my wife, who has been suffering the declining pains of Alzheimer's for a few years now. No one with Alzheimer's travels that final journey alone. In a sence it is an adventure, mostly for those close to the one with the disease. While it's not like the travels I did 50 years ago when what today is called "adventure" (canyoneering, something we used to simply call a hike in the desert...). I spent a lot of my life running rivers and working as a wilderness wanderer and guide/instructor. Now my travels are pretty well limited to long walk with the dog and occasional fishing outings with my wife who used to be a guide herself. Maybe thats not all that interesting or exciting as say going over a cliff with a bike and a parachute, but for many older folks it is the new story, the new adventure as their later years unfold. This in itself will be an adventure, at least for me.
Ryan David
Practical yet fun Great workshop and worth the time/money. Isaac is an easy to watch presenter and the various modules were each concise and practical. Time well spent!
asieh harati
honest advice from an adventure photographer who went through career transition I think a lot of us are mulling over the idea of transitioning to become a photographer. It's not easy. There are lots of fears and hesitations. It's a change that could affect our life. I'm at this decision branch for the second time in my life, and I still fear. Isaac shares with us how he overcame those very same hurdles and fears. He is genuine, practical and proves that you don't need expensive gear to start or even continue to become good enough. The pitch deck example, the starting up a conversation with a prospective client, the way to deal with blockers, all are real. I cannot wait to put them in place and start my first pitch. Thanks Isaac for sharing your journey!