The preface of this episode stems from some recent free work I was selected to create. I feel this could yield some value to you if you ever get stuck in the same situation.
Recently, a local pizza joint, Urban Pie, opened up close to me and they put out a call to local creatives through Facebook. They asked for help in designing their massive chalkboard menu as well as their cornerstone quick bake pizza oven. By now you need to know that I’m weirdly passionate about pizza art so I figured why not inquire for more details.
It came back as exposure work…
If you’re like me then you’re not a fan of crowd sourcing artists and paying them in exposure. A lot of companies do this to try and position it as they are benefiting the artist when in reality; they are the ones who are winning.
Before you go rolling your eyes I want you to hear me out.
After consulting my mastermind group and asking the question, “When do you think it’s okay to do free work?”
I got a ton of great responses. I thought packaging up their answers would make a great episode incase you ever got in this position yourself.
Safe to say I took the job. I couldn’t be more excited about it because of several factors that I share in this episode that benefited me in doing free work.
Free Work Can Lead to Bigger Breaks or Help Someone in Need
I get it, you want to build a career of doing the work you love. Why would you ever want to do work for free?
I’m at a point in my creative career where I’m making a big transition in taking my freelance game to the next level. There are plenty of bills and loans laying around that need paid and my time is sacred outside the day job.
A part of me tells myself that I shouldn’t be donating any of my work for free as it’s not paying the bills.
Then again, there is another part of me who sees the value you in it…depending on the situation of course.
I’m not telling you to do free work all the time and get taken advantage of—I respect the creative hustle.
Not everyone is going to agree with me on these and that’s alright.
This is about the 7 ways free work may be in your best interest. I’m looking for the win-win scenarios here.

When You’re Just Starting Off

A great time where free work helps you out is when you’re just beginning to pursue your work seriously.
During this time, you’re still developing a style and name for yourself. It’s rare that people are going to throw a lot of money at someone who doesn’t have a body of work showing what you’re capable of. You have no leverage.
Doing projects for friends, family or other acquaintances can help you:

decide quickly which type of work you do and don’t want to do more of.
get familiar with the client process…even if they aren’t the best clients.
learn how to handle situations like feedback, revisions and handing off work.
develop your skills and get word of mouth for future jobs.

You have to start somewhere, and that means doing free work in the beginning.

When it’s Work You Create in Your Free Time

If there is a specific style of work you’re already doing in your spare time, this could be a great opportunity to show what you’re made of in a more professional setting.
For me, I already create pizza art on the regular and the project I took on gave me a chance to do this with more intention.

When it Aligns With Your Goals

This was a driving factor for why I chose to take on the project.
I have a list of goals written down and it just so happens this projects hit 3 birds with one stone:

to get my first pizza related client
to do 1 of 5 murals
to build a strong creative presence in my community

When something aligns with your goals, I’d take the opportunity as you don’t know what it could lead to next.

When it Could Lead to More of the Same Work But Paid

This plays off #2 & #3.
If you aspire to do something and you’re already doing it for yourself in your spare time, doing it for free could open the window to do more of this same work, but paid.
Getting an opportunity to show of