“Fighting against the flow of mainstream habits and trends is not always easy. ”
An oversaturated market doesn’t mean it’s impossible to stand out, nor should you give up on your ambitions just because there are other people in the space. Maybe you’ve just decided you want to pursue a passion of yours and take it from hobby to your full-on hustle.
Here is our Editors breakdown of how these three things helped her break into an oversaturated market, make her mark and be seen by thousands.
Originality is key.
Being original doesn’t mean you have to create brand new concepts nobody has ever done before, it means being yourself and creating your work the way you want it, not because someone else told you to be like everyone else.
I find documenting and being personal with your work pushes people to get to know you more and relate to your work, once they see a bit of what goes on with your work and how you operate it gives them something to relate to and share with their friends. This helps you grow effectively.
Fighting against the flow of mainstream habits and trends is not always easy. It’s tempting to try and copy what everyone else is doing because they may have seemingly found success with their methods or niches.
You want to be fresh, you want to be remembered for what you do. To be remembered and to stand out from the rest you need to use the one thing you’ve always had but forgotten you had it. You need your originality.
Community over Competition
If you are not already familiar with this phrase get used to it and if you think everyone is your competition, take that mindset and just kick it to the curb. Connecting with like-minded creators and building a relationship will be your biggest asset in your career.
Growing alongside other creatives in similar and different fields opens opportunities that you may not have had the chance to take. During my time being in so many different groups and meetups for creatives I’ve seen this happen first hand. I’ve been able to see people get new freelance work, find business partners and start new projects, all because of the motivation and knowledge they have pulled from the meetups.
The more you work with those around you and build a community of like-minded, crazy, and fun people just like you, the more opportunities you have. This allows you to meet people you would have never met before and helps you grow faster than you could on your own. You will be able to collaborate and share with each other's audiences to further your growth.
True Grit.
Not the movie with Matt Damon, but the term. Having grit and stamina is what helps you win, being a creative or making your way in the world isn’t done overnight. It takes months if not years of hard work and dedication to get yourself to a point where you feel it’s worth talking about to others. Sometimes it’s not worth talking about it at all because your peers and the general public might not have anything nice to say. A majority of the time, you need to have grit and stamina because you are in it for the long haul. Remember you don’t have other people to rely on, you just have yourself. Being a one-person army, being the Creative Director, Marketer, Salesperson and Customer Support agent is really hard. I’m not going to pretend it isn’t hard, so just be prepared, get organized and work very very hard.
If you take the time to do all of these steps, you’ll find yourself seeing opportunities present themselves, and you’ll slowly get better at creating unique content. You will be offered gigs out of the ordinary and eventually, you’ll be asked how you got to where you are now. And when it comes down to that conversation you’ll tell them the same things we told you.
P.S. Don’t forget about us when you make it to the top!
All the best,
Written by: Mathieu Roy @themattroy
Head of Marketing at Creators Magazine