“Work hard for what you want because the opportunity won’t just fall into your lap” is a phrase I would argue to be true because of the opportunity I had this past summer.
Being a journalism student over these last three years has been pretty stagnant. Most of the work that I have done has been mostly freelance such as writing for The Sputnik, Laurier Brantford’s school newspaper, writing for a first-generation student blog called “First Gen and Juice” and of course, writing for the one and only Her Campus Laurier Brantford all led me to being discovered to do an exclusive piece for a clothing brand.
Glate.co, a clothing brand based in Dallas, Texas reached out to me to write an exclusive piece for a rapper named Honie Gold who sported the brand in one of her recent music videos, “I AM”. I was so excited about being approached by someone to do work for them AND being paid for it!
During our first zoom call together, I asked him how he found me and he said that he read the articles that I shared on my Instagram profile and liked them.
A few zoom calls, interviews, and voice recordings later, I came up with my final piece and published the article on his website and it was a great hit!
The whole process of getting to know the CEO and also Honie Gold was the greatest part as it put me in the position to host an interview and ask core questions of who they were and what they do. This felt like the first stepping stone for knowing how to interview famous celebrities!
However, making sure to find time for our Zoom call that fit best according to our busy schedules presented some challenges due to the time difference.This taught me that my client may come from any part of the world and therefore, I have to carefully consider the times that work best for them depending on where they are from.
Despite this challenge, I got to conduct the interviews well, write my article and make my client happy! With its success, this taught me great lessons about the journalism industry and how social media can be a great tool for getting potential clients to work with you. If it weren’t for sharing my articles on social media, I might have missed the opportunity to use my writing skills and create an amazing piece for this clothing brand!
That’s why it’s important to share the work you create with the world because it might just pay off in the future. Whether it be in a portfolio or platform that shows your name and the work you do, someone might just fall upon it and show up with an amazing opportunity to create something greater than you would have imagined.
Here’s a link to the article here!