How to turn your hobby into a career
October 15, 2020
Hey guys it’s E and here’s the thing. I get a lot of questions about how to break into the sport videography business. If you’re a sport videography enthusiast yourself and would love to start making money from it, you’re in luck because in this tutorial, I’m gonna give you 5 tips that will help you turn your hobby into a career.
Ok so let’s giveaway some tips…
Tip #1 to help you turn your hobby into a career, GET INVOLVED.
Yes, get involved means getting involved by any means necessary, a.k.a. work for free if you have to.
If you’re a student, get involved with the sport teams at your school. It’s a golden opportunity to learn so much. You’ll most likely have full access to games and trainings, and you’ll also have an audience full of students eager to watch your videos and give you precious feedback.
If you’re older, already have a full time job but eager to get into the sport videography business, either as a side hustle or as a full time gig, talk to the local sport clubs in your area. Ask them if they want a volunteer videographer. I guarantee you it won’t take long before one of them says yes. Get some reps in, film games on the weekends, edit on your own time and get better at it every day.
Nowadays, you can turn a lot of hobbies into careers. If you’re a fan of sports trading cards and collectibles, there’s a career to be made in that too! The world is your oyster when it comes to turning something you live into a career.
Tip #2 Start Networking.
Get in touch with fellow sport videographers. Ask questions. Ask if you can tag along to their shoots as an assistant. Also keep in touch and build relationships because you never know when a fellow videographer won’t be available for a job and need someone to replace them.
Now, you may ask, E how can I network with people in an industry that I’m not even a part of yet? Well, don’t worry, I have the perfect solution.
You see, I recently started a new Facebook group called “Sports Videography Community”. This is a place where beginners and experts can come together from all over the world to discuss equipment, techniques, and anything else they need help with or believe can help others.
Members can also share content they created to ask for feedback. We even had a couple of job postings already.
So if you’re looking for a place to start networking with other sport videographers, I strongly suggest you join my new Facebook group and engage with other members as much as you can.
Tip #3 Always do your best work.
Yes, always do your best work even if you’re not paid much or even not at all.
Most sport clubs will hire you either as a freelance videographer or a full time employee based on two things: your experience and your portfolio. So these are the two things that you need to work on from the get-go.
That means that when you’re doing a job, you shouldn’t focus only on the expectations of your client or your boss but also the expectations of anyone who might see your work and then decide if you’re good enough to work for them.
You see, when you show your work to potential clients or employers, the last thing you want to do is have to justify an average-looking video by coming up with excuses like lack money or time. People don’t care about your excuses, if anything, they want to hire videographers who work magic with no money or no time.
So you should export every video you produce, no matter the budget, knowing that you would be proud to show it off to ANY potential client in the future. Which leads me to…
Tip #4 Build an online portfolio.
Your portfolio must be constantly updated and also easy to find. So I would suggest you use a platform like YouTube or Instagram.
Little advice if you’re going to use Instagram, make sure you create a professional account dedicated to your videos and not simply use your personal one. Because you don’t want potential clients going through pics of your latest vacation or a big night out with your friends.
Having a YouTube or Instagram account dedicated to your videos will make it easy for you to send links to people who want to see more of your work, and it will also make it easier for you to get discovered. One of the guys who does graphics animations for me is actually someone I found randomly on Instagram. He had a lot of sport-related stuff on there which looked really good and he happened to live in my area. So I slid into his DMs and the rest is history.
And finally tip #5 To help you turn your hobby into a career, keep learning.
As you start getting a few jobs and a few on-going clients, it’s easy to get comfortable with a formula. Especially if the videos you produce are all the same type. Whether it’s highlight reels or interview packages, after doing many of them in a row, people tend to get complacent. But please don’t. Try to find new ways of doing the same thing. Go on YouTube and look at what everyone else is doing. Also watch tutorials to learn new skills and new techniques.
