July 28, 2022 • 35 mins
Should you niche down as a designer? We’ve all heard this advice! So, does niching down help you to win more clients or empower you to be seen as an expert? In this podcast, Hayley speaks with one of our Accelerator students, Giuseppe about how he niched down his animation studio Motion Aptitude to work on projects he loves.
About Giuseppe Forestieri
Giuseppe Forestieri is the Animation Director of his own studio, Motion Aptitude and has a background in visual communication, specialising in animation and Illustration.
Motion Aptitude is the fusion of two of Giuseppe’s biggest passions in life: creativity, and the great outdoors. In this episode, he explains how he found his niche and hopes he can inspire other designers to pursue the work they love.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Giuseppe (00:00):
If you want to serve a community, it's, our job not not
just to create the contentitself, but to dig into their
communities, find out where theytalk about the issues,
communicate them, engage them onsocial media, and ask questions.
Because unless you know what theissues are, what the problem
(00:20):
they want to solve I say problembecause in our design community,
we we tend always to to to findto find a problem to solve. You
know? If you want to help youryour niche to overcome the
issues and help them tobasically enhance the level of
their communication.
Hayley (00:39):
Hey, hatchlings. Welcome to the Motion Hatch podcast. I'm
your host, Hayley Akins. I spokewith one of my accelerator
students, Giuseppe Forasteri,about how he niched down his
animation studio to helporganizations working in nature
conservation. If you've everasked the question should I
(01:00):
niche down as a designer or howdo I find my ideal client or
niche?
Then continue listening to thispodcast because we answer all
these questions coming up. Butbefore we jump in you might be
wondering why is Hayley suddenlyback for a podcast and where
have you been? Well sinceOctober 2021 we've been putting
a lot of effort into our weeklyYouTube videos, giving you tips
(01:22):
and advice around the businessside of design and animation. So
if you haven't checked out ourchannel yet you should really go
and have a look at our videos onhow to price your work, how to
scale your business and also howto get clients even if you're
just starting out. So I hope tosee you over in the comments on
our YouTube channel.
Hey, Giuseppe. Thank you so muchfor joining me.
Giuseppe (01:43):
Hi, Haley. Thank you thank you for inviting me.
Hayley (01:46):
So do you wanna tell us a little bit about your
background and what you do?
Giuseppe (01:50):
Yeah. Definitely. So I have a I have a background in
visual communication. Inparticular, I'm specialized in
illustration and, animation. Weas a studio are specialized in,
in adnishing down in natureconservation and animal welfare.
So we basically combined ourpassion for, nature and animals,
(02:12):
with our passion for creativity.
Hayley (02:14):
Yeah, well, it sounds like a really good mission. What
made you choose that as a niche?
Giuseppe (02:20):
You know, over the years, I I when I was working,
as a full time employed, in astudio, like, I was producing
general animations. And at somepoint, I was although I was
happy, regarding the work I wasdoing, I thought that something
was missing, you know,something, I wanted something
(02:41):
that fulfilled me as a personbeside as a as a professional,
as an animator. So I I had todig, into my childhood, my
passions, and trying to find,give meaning to what I was doing
as an animator, as a studio. Andso I wanted to combine, for
example, I'm I'm a I'm a loverin, of outdoor sports like
(03:03):
snowboarding, kite surfing. Igrew up in a farm in Italy.
So I kind of like loved that ina way that even though it was
part of me, it wasn't entirelybecause I wanted to make it my
work, giving the reason why Iwake up in the morning happy to
do to do my job.
Hayley (03:21):
Yeah. I think a lot of people feel like that. And I
think one of the struggles isis, obviously, I hear from a lot
of designers and animators thatthey want to do something
around, you know, maybesustainability or environmental
causes and things like that,which I think is incredible.
We've talked a lot about itbefore. But I think what's
interesting about the niche thatyou chose is because you went a
(03:42):
little bit deeper than that.
Do you think that's helped youto get a bit more clear about
who your clients are?
Giuseppe (03:49):
Yeah. Definitely. You know, I I strongly believe that,
niching down I don't think thateverybody should niche down, but
in my case, it did work becauseI wanted to help organizations.
I wanted to help universitiespromoting their research, their
reports, in a different way. Youknow, these communities, this
(04:11):
sector, generally use some,like, traditional way of
communicating their stories,promote their research.
So through my characteranimation full of like colors, I
help them to engage theaudience, engage people in a
different way. And to be honest,with the organization I work
with, they loved the way Iengage the audience with my
(04:34):
stories through visuals. Sodefinitely for me, it helped me
to nail down and and to focus onsomething I care about, and
therefore, I my clients see thatthroughout my work.
Hayley (04:48):
So you're talking about how the universities felt like
they obviously had an issue ofgetting their research out
there. Is that something thatyou actively thought about
before you kind of went afterthese clients is how to target
them and and maybe what problemsthey had that you could solve
through animation.
Giuseppe (05:06):
Yeah. This is a really good question because, you know,
if you want to serve acommunity, it's, our job not not
just to create the contentitself, but to dig into their
communities, find out where theytalk about the issues,
communicate them, engage them onsocial media, and ask questions.
Because unless you know what theissues are, what the problem
(05:29):
they want to solve I say problembecause in our design community,
we we tend always to to to findto find a problem to solve, you
know. And so if you want toreally engage, if you want to
really help them, you need to tofind out what they need. And,
speaking to them, going to,like, networking meetings where
(05:51):
they talk about the issues, it'salways valuable if you want to
help your your niche to overcomethe issues and help them to
basically try to enhance thelevel of their communication.
Hayley (06:04):
Yeah. That makes sense. So do you actively go to events
and stuff like that? Is that themain way you're finding clients
in this niche, or is there someother ways as well?
Giuseppe (06:14):
Yeah. Looking at the recent past period, I would say
that I I started again after thepandemic, you know, as you know,
we've been 2 years locked downhome, so I was tricky to to
networking. So I attended quitea few online networking events,
while in in the past, I was justgoing, like, in general
(06:35):
networking event. Now I'm reallyfocused on this, community to my
niche because I think it's morevaluable, for us as a studio to
find the people we want to help.So I would say it's, 50% is,
like, through LinkedIn.
We use LinkedIn as a powerful,platform to reach out, try to
connect to people, engage inconversations. And then, we also
(07:00):
promote quite a lot of, like,animations, for example, for
awareness days, like related tonature conservation. We tend to
create, content that are relatedto this niche, and then people,
are attracted by our content andthen reach us to us. So I would
say 50% goes, through socialmedia and 50% through
(07:23):
networking, either online or orin person.
Hayley (07:27):
Yeah. I know we've discussed this a lot in our
accelerator as well, but itsounds like it's almost like
half doing the inbound marketingside of things that you're
saying, like posting stuff outthere that's related to what
maybe people are looking for andthen also communicating with
them on their post and thingslike that. And then half almost
like this going to events,direct outreach sort of
(07:49):
strategy. Would you say that'saccurate? And is there anything
that's that I've maybe missedout from there that you would
advise people to do if they'relooking to connect with their
ideal client?
Giuseppe (08:00):
I would say that the main point is, to offer value.
You know, offering value on,without expecting nothing in the
offer value, you know, offeringvalue on, without expecting
nothing in return. If you offersomething to your audience, to
your community, on a genuinebase, eventually, they they will
notice you and then they willcontact you with like
opportunities, you know, eventhough they it might not lead to
(08:21):
like a a project, it's always away that, you know, if you
connect with people, eventuallypeople will introduce you to
other people, and, and this ishow it works, basically.
Hayley (08:32):
Yeah. I think that's the best way to do it is try and
offer value as much as you can.So if I'm a designer or animator
and I'm starting out, I'veidentified a niche, what do you
think the first step should beto giving value to someone who's
in my ideal niche?
Giuseppe (08:50):
Yeah. First of all, I'd like to step backwards a
little bit because finding yourniche is something that requires
time. You know? It's, at thebeginning, it's kind of
frustrating because, liketalking about my story, at the
beginning, I was frustratedbecause I knew that I I wanted
to do character animation. I Iknew I wanted to do explainer
(09:13):
videos, but I didn't know how toapply those skills into
something that had value.
So, finally, my niche was was apath. It's a was a path, and it
takes time. So I would advisenot to stress out about this.
Just reach out. Just look atyour passions.
Look at your what you love. Lookat what you liked as a child.
(09:33):
And then once you're there,offering value. Offering value
means that, for example, when Irealized I wanted to niche down
this specific sector, animalwelfare and, and nature
conservation, I startedgenerally to to promote, to
offer my skills on a volunteerbasis. And this really helped me
(09:53):
in so many levels because Ididn't want something, in
return.
But in the meantime, I I Ireceived something, which was
creating something, good in infor my portfolio, something that
had value to me and to my not myclient, but the the at that time
was the the Blue Cross. So itwas valuable for them because
(10:15):
they were seeing something, on avolunteer basis, and I was doing
something that fulfilled me as acreative person that could give
me the creative freedom to dosomething I loved with. And that
eventually, over the years, ledto something which was actually,
paid for. So the Blue Crossreached out to me, saying that
(10:37):
they they had a project for me.So I was always advised to work
your skills and offer yourskills in a way that might help
others because eventually peoplewill notice this act of kindness
in a way and, altruism, and thenit will return to you in a in a
in a good way.
Hayley (10:55):
Yeah. I think that's totally true, and I think one
thing that people often strugglewith is the fact that you said
you did this volunteer animationpiece for the Blue Cross, like,
a few years ago, and then itdidn't actually turn into a
project with them until a coupleof years later. So I kinda just
wanted to point that out in away because I feel like a lot of
(11:17):
the time everyone is expectingquick results and not really
thinking about the long termbenefits of reaching out to
these clients, you know,offering your services. So I
just wondered what you kind ofthought about that, and is is
that part of your, you know,strategy?
Giuseppe (11:34):
Yeah. In the first place, it was just something
that I wanted to do because Iwanted to give something back.
But then you have to see thisalso as an investment of your
time because what means thatdoing a project for free beside
the good things about doing it?It means that the value that
that piece of explaining video,in my case, that animation has
over the long run, it's enormousbecause you're basically putting
(11:58):
together work which is relevantto your niche, which means that
that work, which was donecompletely for free, will lead
to potential paid work becauseit's for example, at that time,
I didn't have almost nothingrelated to nature conservation
and animal welfare. So if youwant to build a portfolio that
(12:18):
is related to that, that peoplewill be interested in your work,
then that is a big investmentyou do and, as value.
You know, to me, that's a has alot of value because it allows
you to build up a portfoliorelevant to what you want to do
to do, basically.
Hayley (12:37):
Yeah. I think it's important as well to point out
that when you have a clear ideaof the kind of client that you
really want to target, I thinkthis is a great thing to do.
And, obviously, if you can goout there and you can get paid
for a project to do the exactthing that you wanna do, then
you should do that, but it'sit's not always possible. So
(12:59):
although I would say, like, Inever want people to work for
free, I think if it's done inthis kind of strategic way where
you're like, I have an idea ofwho I wanna work for, and I also
just wanna help this cause, Ithink it's really good, and I I
think it's really smart. And I Iprobably would advise people to
do that.
But I wanna talk a little bitabout should you niche down
(13:21):
straight away when you startfreelancing?
Giuseppe (13:24):
Yes. And again, I'd like to step back because as a
when you start your career, youknow, I started as, like, an
intern first, and then I movedto full time. And then I would
start my career first of in astudio. You know, I strongly I
strongly advise that becausethat will give you the
possibility to learn a lot interms of animation and
technicality of the animation,but also if it will give you the
(13:49):
opportunity to go to clients tohave, like, meetings with
clients, learn about yourcolleagues as a project
managers. These are all thingsthat then when you go freelance
or you open up your your ownstudio, will come back useful
because it's something that, youknow, we as a as motion
designers at the beginning, wejust care about, you know,
learning new techniques, Cine 4d, after the fact.
(14:12):
But if you wanna go and do yourbusiness on your own, you'll
need you need to learn the otheraspect of the businesses. And
while working in a studio, youlearn a lot from your colleagues
and your clients as well. So toanswer your question, I would
say that it really depends whereyou are, in terms of if you know
(14:33):
what you want. For me, it was apath. I needed to find what I
wanted.
I knew what I wanted after awhile, I would say, 2 or 3. It
took me 2 or 3 years to find outwhat I what I wanted, you know,
because it's, it's somethingthat it doesn't come straight
away. You don't wake up one dayand say, you know, I love this.
I want to do this. I want tomake it my everyday job.
(14:55):
So it really depends. If you ifyou're in a point that you love
something that has a reason toyou, then why not? You could
straight away niche it now.
Hayley (15:06):
Yeah. I think it's really interesting and it kind
of reminds me a bit of my storyand Motion Hatch as well,
because I think, like you said,it's not like you wake up one
day and you think, this is whatI'm gonna do. This is definitely
gonna turn into a business andsomething that I can put all my
time in and stuff like that.Like, it's almost like you have
all of these different doors infront of you of opportunities,
(15:37):
accelerator, which obviouslyyou're into, is some people in
our accelerator, which obviouslyyou're into, is that's
paralyzing, you know, having allthese opportunities in front of
you. So it'd be great to hearfrom you how you felt when you
decided to, you know, becausewe've been working together on,
like, your website and stufflike that to niche it more down
into nature conservation.
(15:57):
So how does that feel to you?And does it scare you sometimes
that maybe you're pushing otherclients away?
Giuseppe (16:04):
So first of all, I would say that you have to
embrace the uncomfortable. WhatI what I mean by that, that
unless you are uncomfortable,you're not going to grow as a
person and as a business. So youshouldn't really care about
something that puts you in asituation where you don't feel
prepared and something you justneed to dive into that. And,
(16:25):
eventually, you you will growday by day and see the result.
To once, your question relatedto if I was scared about pushing
down some work, I say that ifyou decide to to take this path,
it's because you believe in it.
If you believe in it, you areyou are open to the fact that
it's gonna take time. You know,it's about seeding every day.
(16:46):
You know, if you see it, youwill see the plant, you will see
the flowers in months. So it'snatural that if you start
something, it's gonna take alittle bit of time to take it
the way you want. So be preparedand embrace the fact that it's
something new, and then if youreally believe in it, you're
(17:06):
gonna see the results.
Hayley (17:08):
Yeah. That's great. So talking about results, have you
made more money with your nichethan you did as a general
freelancer, let's say?
Giuseppe (17:20):
I would say, it's more or less the same at the moment
because I, I started just like,1 year, 2 year 2 years ago to
niching down. And then, withwith with with your course, with
the accelerator course, workingwith you, I'm also, finding,
like, some correction to go outand find the best way to make me
(17:42):
and position myself in a waythat is like I'm the person for
the job and helping forspecific, organization that need
my help. So in that case, Iwould say it's the same at the
moment, but I have I have to saythat money is not my number one
goal, you know, and I appreciatefor if some people money are
(18:03):
their number one priority. Butfor me, it's the flexibility.
For me, it's the fact that I'mfulfilled as a person.
And for me, it's important togive a meaning to what I do. So
in that case, money is like, Iwould say, my 3rd or 4th
priority in the least. Don't getme wrong. I heard enough, and,
(18:23):
it's good for for what I'mlooking at in terms of, like, to
live my life the way I want.And, it does sound I'm
completely satisfied.
And again, it's going to to it'sgoing to be a progress, and,
it's always gonna grow. And asit was when I first started my
freelance career, I think in my1st year, I made like 30 k 6
(18:45):
years ago and it has alwaysgrown, every year every year has
grown. So I'm I don't see thisas a as a as a as an issue, but
I see this as a way of, like,seeing your business grow, and
you grow along with it.
Hayley (19:02):
Definitely. I think it's really interesting that it's
like a lot of the time, youknow, people don't wanna take a
pay cut, but they wanna moveinto a different area. So it's
the idea of keeping itconsistent, but building towards
something that at some point Ithink will have an potentially
and then that will enable you tomake more money and potentially
(19:23):
hire more people to help you andthat kind of thing. Whereas if
you stayed not niched down asmore of a general freelancer, I
think that that potentiallywouldn't wouldn't give you as
much income potential and asmuch of a kind of forward
thinking business strategy asthis type of business.
Giuseppe (19:44):
Yes, definitely. You know, we as a studio, it's it's
me, as an animation director.And then, I work with other
other professionals likecopywriters, illustrators,
motion designers. So it reallydepends on how how busy we are.
We always need the help of,like, specialized people in
(20:04):
other expertise.
We work we work with voice overartists, and so we are a studio
that thank you in a way, youknow, COVID brought a lot of bad
things, but in a in a way, I'm abig advocate of remote working.
And and the way I'm the I'm I'mdesigning, my business, Motion
Active, is the way I think manyother business will do in the
(20:27):
future. For motion active, theway I see it in the future is a
it's, a studio which is far fromthe conventional way of working,
but which connect different,people from all around Europe or
the world that can help me, todeliver the animation I like to
deliver and to help my clientswith their communication.
Hayley (20:49):
Yeah. That's great. So I wanna ask you next about what
your biggest struggle was whenyou started to niche down and
how you overcame that problem.
Giuseppe (21:00):
Yes. Again, it goes down to understand how to
highlight yourself and to be,valuable to to this specific
community. So for me, it was away of, like, reading books,
going into, like, email list,webinars where these people,
(21:26):
this community were talkingabout the issues about
diversity, about about animalwelfare. So the issue was to
understand where these peoplewere in order to be there and
present and speak to them andunderstand that. So As with
everything new, you don't knowhow to start.
But once I understood that and Iwent to, like, LinkedIn groups
(21:53):
trying to connect and reach outto people. Then people presented
me and introduced me to, like,other colleagues, or other
expert in in their field. Andthen it's all about connecting.
You know? It's about the rightconnections.
And, I can't I can't stress itenough and say that, really,
people have the power to leadyou to to to new opportunities,
(22:17):
basically. So the answer is,like, to find the right place
where the people you want toconnect with are.
Hayley (22:24):
Yeah. Definitely. And building those relationships
over a long time as well, Ithink, and not just expecting
the results to happen instantly.I think that's really important
and something that I thinkyou've done very well and
continue to do as well.
Giuseppe (22:38):
The advice would be that in order to reach 100% and
work 100% with your niche, whileyou do that, you can continue
work with other, for example,other not related to your
community work, you know, thatcan sustain you while you're
reaching and trying to find thejob you want to do? So it's it's
(23:00):
a process that you, again, youhave to embrace and, naturally
it takes time, but, if you ifyou strongly believe what you
do, you're gonna get there forsure.
Hayley (23:10):
Yeah. Definitely. What's the biggest success that you've
had since niching down?
Giuseppe (23:15):
The biggest success, I would say, that is my strategy.
You know? The way I I put ittogether and position myself as
the expert, you know, as as thestudio, we started to publish
more content which is relevantto our community to the
community we want to work with.And then we had we have seen the
(23:36):
result by doing that, you know,by by putting work out there
which is relevant. We have seenpeople that, have contacted us
and we had a lot of discussionand we are going to work on a
few projects starting fromSeptember, which is related to
our, community, to our niche.
(23:57):
So the big success is like toand challenge as well. You know,
success for was a challenge inthe first place, was to put a
strategy plan that worked andcould make us visible as the
expert in the field.
Hayley (24:12):
Yeah. So the projects that are coming to you now, what
do you attribute those to andand these results?
Giuseppe (24:19):
Yeah. No. The the clients that contact the rest of
us, they said that, well, ourcontent that we we we publish
weekly, basically, they theynoticed it. We did, like, a
little GIF, animated GIF forWorld Oceans Day or like a
garden wildlife week, and thesewere little animation that, were
(24:40):
offering values in terms like,advice about how to build, I
don't know, like, hedgehoghouse, for example, or a
birdhouse. And those were like,we created this content, this
animation, then we linked someuseful information for the WWF
how to build these houses.
And basically, this animationwere, like, attracting a lot of
(25:03):
people interest. And one ofthese or actually 3 of these,
contacted us saying, no, we sawyour animation and we are
interested in talking aboutabout the way we could present
our story and our report in thefuture. We basically had
Hayley (25:31):
group, and I'm and I was just so proud. I was like, yeah.
It's happening. You know? Thethings are coming together, and
it's kind of making sense.
And I I feel like over time,what will happen too is it will
start to kind of snowball aswell because then, obviously,
when you do that animation forthat that company, then they
might recommend you to anotherone and that kind of thing. And
(25:53):
then this is how you kind ofmake a name for yourself and
sort of become the animationstudio for that industry. You
know? So I'm I'm really excitedto see where this goes as well.
Giuseppe (26:05):
Yeah. Because, for example, with direct clients,
you know, it's very importantbecause they want to see work
that you as a studio producewhich are relevant and in line
with what they do. So it's veryimportant to produce work if you
want to attract similar similarclients, work with similar
organization in my case. Soyeah. 100%.
(26:25):
Yeah. That goes down as well tothe, fact that when I produce
the animation from the BlueCross, because that led us to
other opportunity opportunitiesas well.
Hayley (26:35):
Yeah. Definitely. I think it's really good. So what
you would say to someone who'sthinking about is maybe looking
at themes around their idealclient or niche and potentially
I think that maybe as well, theycould think about what problems
are these clients trying tosolve, and how can you maybe
give them, like, a little pieceof that in a social media post
(26:57):
or something like that? Youknow, maybe talking a bit about
how animation can help them tosolve those problems too.
Giuseppe (27:05):
For example, one of the things I I often do and we
we do as a studio is to lookinto the, the social you can
propose, for example, and reachout to this client, this
(27:26):
organization and say, you see,you know, we have few ideas that
we can, translate and transformthis written content into a
nicely, explain the video,animated video that can engage
even more people than what youcurrently have. So again, it's
about offering volume. Perhaps,proposing to them, like, few
(27:49):
ideas on a mood board orsomething like that. And they
they they they they areinterested for sure, you know,
even though it's not, like,straight away. But again, it's a
it's an opportunity to reach outand see, you know, I I'm out
there.
We do this, and perhaps in thefuture, you might be the right
person to to help us.
Hayley (28:10):
Yeah. Definitely. I think that's a really great
idea. So I know you went on apodcast as well in that was
aimed at people in the natureconservation industry. How did
that come about?
Because I think that's a reallyinteresting idea of of getting
opportunities that almost shouldpresent you to many of your
clients instead of just goingafter, like, one person in that
(28:34):
industry?
Giuseppe (28:35):
Yes. So that was, you know, it's always that is a
really good question becausethat really make you think about
how connection works. Forexample, I'm part of, a a a hub
called WildHab. It's a placewhere all the conservationists,
people that care about theenvironment, experts in the in
(28:55):
the in the sector, they hangout. You know?
They're they connect. They talkabout the webinars, reports. So
I was invited there by aconservation optimist in Oxford.
And once there, I reached outactually, a guy reached out to
me, and, we had a conversation.You know?
(29:17):
This guy produced, like, comicbooks about about the planet,
the conservation. And basically,he introduced me to Calvin,
which started his podcast. It'scalled Calvin, Conservation
with, the species. We are thespecies. And so know?
(29:43):
You know a person that, invitesyou to a to a group. Within that
group, you you meet anotherperson, then you have a chat,
and then this person introduceyou to another one. So it's all
about relationships, you know,you really see the potential of
this and you never know thatperhaps someone watching the
podcast with Calvin,conservation with the species,
(30:06):
might look at my interview,might reach out to me. So again,
it's always a connection andit's, it's a chain, basically.
Yeah.
Hayley (30:14):
Yeah. And I think it's really smart to do things where
you're presenting to, like, manypeople. So for example, like,
any talks that you could domaybe that were in kind of
these, Maybe they have, like, Idon't know, nature conservation
conferences or something likethat or potentially like
podcasts and, like, YouTubechannels like we already
(30:35):
mentioned. And also potentially,something that we talked about
too is is, you know, creating aa webinar or workshop around how
animation can help in natureconservation. And, obviously, if
for anyone else, it would belike how animation could help in
any industry, you know, and howit can directly that I know a
(31:02):
few of our students areexploring, including you.
And I think, I just think it'sreally exciting, and I I can't
wait to see the results of thoseas well.
Giuseppe (31:10):
Yeah, definitely. You know, again, it goes down to
offering values. And, again,even though you go, like, do a
webinar, either online or inperson, you have the opportunity
to meet people and makeconnection. And it doesn't
matter whether this leads you tostraight away to opportunities.
But it's an opportunity for youto be out there and to reach
(31:31):
people and to reach to people.
You know, at the beginning, itwas kind of uncomfortable, doing
these kind of things. But if yousee result, it's, it's,
something that comes out of hardwork. And I would I would
actually point out that if yousee to to see results, you need
to work hard. But in order towork hard, you need to be
(31:52):
passionate about what you do. Soit's it's very key, you know, if
you want to put the effort onwhat you do, for example, I I
tend to work late at night andearly in the morning, but that
always comes to me as somethingthat I do it because I love it
and the times expired.
So, again, it's about passion.
Hayley (32:09):
Yeah. Definitely. What would you say to a person who's
looking to niche down? Whatadvice would you give them?
Giuseppe (32:17):
I would say that the first thing to do is to read
books about the the your theniche you want to aim to work
with. Try to connect, withpeople relevant to your niche,
trying to reach out. Again,don't be too salesy, but try to
generally reach out and say,that you are an expert, yet you
(32:38):
are passionate about what youdo. Because for me, I'm I'm a,
environmental enthusiast first.And then because of that,
because this is what I love andwhat I want to put all my effort
in, that relates, generates aconnection with the person
you're trying to reach outbecause you have something in
common.
You know? When you reach tosomeone new, on LinkedIn or via
(33:02):
email, it's always better tofind that connection. You know?
And if that connection is partof your passion, that's way
easier and people will see thateventually.
Hayley (33:15):
Yeah. I think that's great advice. So what does the
future hold for motion aptitudethen?
Giuseppe (33:21):
Yeah. We we we want to grow as a studio. We want to
grow as a studio again in a waythat's it's different from the
conventional way of working. Youknow, we love remote working,
and we we truly believe thatit's a bridge to higher to a
higher quality of life. So Ilike to continue working with
other freelancers, all aroundEurope and the world because
(33:44):
that's the way we love workingwith.
And then people that arepassionate about the environment
and people that are passionateabout, something that we have
to, you know, not just raiseawareness, but we need to take
action on. So if you can combineyour skills with something you
love with, we're happy to workwith with these people as well.
(34:05):
And, again, we are always keento work with the organization
that help the environment and,look at the animal, well-being
as well.
Hayley (34:15):
Yeah. That's awesome. So if people wanna find out more
about you and your work and yourstudio, where can they go?
Giuseppe (34:21):
They can go to, our website, motion aptitude.com,
and they can see the work we do,our mission, our vision, and our
purpose there. And then our mailis elo@motionaptitute.com. And
I'm on LinkedIn as well.
Hayley (34:37):
Great. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining
me, Giuseppe. I reallyappreciate it.
Giuseppe (34:42):
Thank you, Eddie, for inviting me. That was great.
Thank you.
Hayley (34:46):
Thank you so much for listening all the way to the end
of this show. If you would likemore from Motion Hatch, we are
doing weekly videos over on ourYouTube channel. You can check
those out atmotionhatch.comforward/youtube.
We will be coming back with morepodcasts soon but in the
meantime, we'll see you over onthe YouTube channel. Thanks so
much for listening.
(35:07):
I appreciate you. See you.
If you want to serve a community, it's, our job not not
just to create the contentitself, but to dig into their
communities, find out where theytalk about the issues,
communicate them, engage them onsocial media, and ask questions.
Because unless you know what theissues are, what the problem
(00:20):
they want to solve I say problembecause in our design community,
we we tend always to to to findto find a problem to solve. You
know? If you want to help youryour niche to overcome the
issues and help them tobasically enhance the level of
their communication.
Hayley (00:39):
Hey, hatchlings. Welcome to the Motion Hatch podcast. I'm
your host, Hayley Akins. I spokewith one of my accelerator
students, Giuseppe Forasteri,about how he niched down his
animation studio to helporganizations working in nature
conservation. If you've everasked the question should I
(01:00):
niche down as a designer or howdo I find my ideal client or
niche?
Then continue listening to thispodcast because we answer all
these questions coming up. Butbefore we jump in you might be
wondering why is Hayley suddenlyback for a podcast and where
have you been? Well sinceOctober 2021 we've been putting
a lot of effort into our weeklyYouTube videos, giving you tips
(01:22):
and advice around the businessside of design and animation. So
if you haven't checked out ourchannel yet you should really go
and have a look at our videos onhow to price your work, how to
scale your business and also howto get clients even if you're
just starting out. So I hope tosee you over in the comments on
our YouTube channel.
Hey, Giuseppe. Thank you so muchfor joining me.
Giuseppe (01:43):
Hi, Haley. Thank you thank you for inviting me.
Hayley (01:46):
So do you wanna tell us a little bit about your
background and what you do?
Giuseppe (01:50):
Yeah. Definitely. So I have a I have a background in
visual communication. Inparticular, I'm specialized in
illustration and, animation. Weas a studio are specialized in,
in adnishing down in natureconservation and animal welfare.
So we basically combined ourpassion for, nature and animals,
(02:12):
with our passion for creativity.
Hayley (02:14):
Yeah, well, it sounds like a really good mission. What
made you choose that as a niche?
Giuseppe (02:20):
You know, over the years, I I when I was working,
as a full time employed, in astudio, like, I was producing
general animations. And at somepoint, I was although I was
happy, regarding the work I wasdoing, I thought that something
was missing, you know,something, I wanted something
(02:41):
that fulfilled me as a personbeside as a as a professional,
as an animator. So I I had todig, into my childhood, my
passions, and trying to find,give meaning to what I was doing
as an animator, as a studio. Andso I wanted to combine, for
example, I'm I'm a I'm a loverin, of outdoor sports like
(03:03):
snowboarding, kite surfing. Igrew up in a farm in Italy.
So I kind of like loved that ina way that even though it was
part of me, it wasn't entirelybecause I wanted to make it my
work, giving the reason why Iwake up in the morning happy to
do to do my job.
Hayley (03:21):
Yeah. I think a lot of people feel like that. And I
think one of the struggles isis, obviously, I hear from a lot
of designers and animators thatthey want to do something
around, you know, maybesustainability or environmental
causes and things like that,which I think is incredible.
We've talked a lot about itbefore. But I think what's
interesting about the niche thatyou chose is because you went a
(03:42):
little bit deeper than that.
Do you think that's helped youto get a bit more clear about
who your clients are?
Giuseppe (03:49):
Yeah. Definitely. You know, I I strongly believe that,
niching down I don't think thateverybody should niche down, but
in my case, it did work becauseI wanted to help organizations.
I wanted to help universitiespromoting their research, their
reports, in a different way. Youknow, these communities, this
(04:11):
sector, generally use some,like, traditional way of
communicating their stories,promote their research.
So through my characteranimation full of like colors, I
help them to engage theaudience, engage people in a
different way. And to be honest,with the organization I work
with, they loved the way Iengage the audience with my
(04:34):
stories through visuals. Sodefinitely for me, it helped me
to nail down and and to focus onsomething I care about, and
therefore, I my clients see thatthroughout my work.
Hayley (04:48):
So you're talking about how the universities felt like
they obviously had an issue ofgetting their research out
there. Is that something thatyou actively thought about
before you kind of went afterthese clients is how to target
them and and maybe what problemsthey had that you could solve
through animation.
Giuseppe (05:06):
Yeah. This is a really good question because, you know,
if you want to serve acommunity, it's, our job not not
just to create the contentitself, but to dig into their
communities, find out where theytalk about the issues,
communicate them, engage them onsocial media, and ask questions.
Because unless you know what theissues are, what the problem
(05:29):
they want to solve I say problembecause in our design community,
we we tend always to to to findto find a problem to solve, you
know. And so if you want toreally engage, if you want to
really help them, you need to tofind out what they need. And,
speaking to them, going to,like, networking meetings where
(05:51):
they talk about the issues, it'salways valuable if you want to
help your your niche to overcomethe issues and help them to
basically try to enhance thelevel of their communication.
Hayley (06:04):
Yeah. That makes sense. So do you actively go to events
and stuff like that? Is that themain way you're finding clients
in this niche, or is there someother ways as well?
Giuseppe (06:14):
Yeah. Looking at the recent past period, I would say
that I I started again after thepandemic, you know, as you know,
we've been 2 years locked downhome, so I was tricky to to
networking. So I attended quitea few online networking events,
while in in the past, I was justgoing, like, in general
(06:35):
networking event. Now I'm reallyfocused on this, community to my
niche because I think it's morevaluable, for us as a studio to
find the people we want to help.So I would say it's, 50% is,
like, through LinkedIn.
We use LinkedIn as a powerful,platform to reach out, try to
connect to people, engage inconversations. And then, we also
(07:00):
promote quite a lot of, like,animations, for example, for
awareness days, like related tonature conservation. We tend to
create, content that are relatedto this niche, and then people,
are attracted by our content andthen reach us to us. So I would
say 50% goes, through socialmedia and 50% through
(07:23):
networking, either online or orin person.
Hayley (07:27):
Yeah. I know we've discussed this a lot in our
accelerator as well, but itsounds like it's almost like
half doing the inbound marketingside of things that you're
saying, like posting stuff outthere that's related to what
maybe people are looking for andthen also communicating with
them on their post and thingslike that. And then half almost
like this going to events,direct outreach sort of
(07:49):
strategy. Would you say that'saccurate? And is there anything
that's that I've maybe missedout from there that you would
advise people to do if they'relooking to connect with their
ideal client?
Giuseppe (08:00):
I would say that the main point is, to offer value.
You know, offering value on,without expecting nothing in the
offer value, you know, offeringvalue on, without expecting
nothing in return. If you offersomething to your audience, to
your community, on a genuinebase, eventually, they they will
notice you and then they willcontact you with like
opportunities, you know, eventhough they it might not lead to
(08:21):
like a a project, it's always away that, you know, if you
connect with people, eventuallypeople will introduce you to
other people, and, and this ishow it works, basically.
Hayley (08:32):
Yeah. I think that's the best way to do it is try and
offer value as much as you can.So if I'm a designer or animator
and I'm starting out, I'veidentified a niche, what do you
think the first step should beto giving value to someone who's
in my ideal niche?
Giuseppe (08:50):
Yeah. First of all, I'd like to step backwards a
little bit because finding yourniche is something that requires
time. You know? It's, at thebeginning, it's kind of
frustrating because, liketalking about my story, at the
beginning, I was frustratedbecause I knew that I I wanted
to do character animation. I Iknew I wanted to do explainer
(09:13):
videos, but I didn't know how toapply those skills into
something that had value.
So, finally, my niche was was apath. It's a was a path, and it
takes time. So I would advisenot to stress out about this.
Just reach out. Just look atyour passions.
Look at your what you love. Lookat what you liked as a child.
(09:33):
And then once you're there,offering value. Offering value
means that, for example, when Irealized I wanted to niche down
this specific sector, animalwelfare and, and nature
conservation, I startedgenerally to to promote, to
offer my skills on a volunteerbasis. And this really helped me
(09:53):
in so many levels because Ididn't want something, in
return.
But in the meantime, I I Ireceived something, which was
creating something, good in infor my portfolio, something that
had value to me and to my not myclient, but the the at that time
was the the Blue Cross. So itwas valuable for them because
(10:15):
they were seeing something, on avolunteer basis, and I was doing
something that fulfilled me as acreative person that could give
me the creative freedom to dosomething I loved with. And that
eventually, over the years, ledto something which was actually,
paid for. So the Blue Crossreached out to me, saying that
(10:37):
they they had a project for me.So I was always advised to work
your skills and offer yourskills in a way that might help
others because eventually peoplewill notice this act of kindness
in a way and, altruism, and thenit will return to you in a in a
in a good way.
Hayley (10:55):
Yeah. I think that's totally true, and I think one
thing that people often strugglewith is the fact that you said
you did this volunteer animationpiece for the Blue Cross, like,
a few years ago, and then itdidn't actually turn into a
project with them until a coupleof years later. So I kinda just
wanted to point that out in away because I feel like a lot of
(11:17):
the time everyone is expectingquick results and not really
thinking about the long termbenefits of reaching out to
these clients, you know,offering your services. So I
just wondered what you kind ofthought about that, and is is
that part of your, you know,strategy?
Giuseppe (11:34):
Yeah. In the first place, it was just something
that I wanted to do because Iwanted to give something back.
But then you have to see thisalso as an investment of your
time because what means thatdoing a project for free beside
the good things about doing it?It means that the value that
that piece of explaining video,in my case, that animation has
over the long run, it's enormousbecause you're basically putting
(11:58):
together work which is relevantto your niche, which means that
that work, which was donecompletely for free, will lead
to potential paid work becauseit's for example, at that time,
I didn't have almost nothingrelated to nature conservation
and animal welfare. So if youwant to build a portfolio that
(12:18):
is related to that, that peoplewill be interested in your work,
then that is a big investmentyou do and, as value.
You know, to me, that's a has alot of value because it allows
you to build up a portfoliorelevant to what you want to do
to do, basically.
Hayley (12:37):
Yeah. I think it's important as well to point out
that when you have a clear ideaof the kind of client that you
really want to target, I thinkthis is a great thing to do.
And, obviously, if you can goout there and you can get paid
for a project to do the exactthing that you wanna do, then
you should do that, but it'sit's not always possible. So
(12:59):
although I would say, like, Inever want people to work for
free, I think if it's done inthis kind of strategic way where
you're like, I have an idea ofwho I wanna work for, and I also
just wanna help this cause, Ithink it's really good, and I I
think it's really smart. And I Iprobably would advise people to
do that.
But I wanna talk a little bitabout should you niche down
(13:21):
straight away when you startfreelancing?
Giuseppe (13:24):
Yes. And again, I'd like to step back because as a
when you start your career, youknow, I started as, like, an
intern first, and then I movedto full time. And then I would
start my career first of in astudio. You know, I strongly I
strongly advise that becausethat will give you the
possibility to learn a lot interms of animation and
technicality of the animation,but also if it will give you the
(13:49):
opportunity to go to clients tohave, like, meetings with
clients, learn about yourcolleagues as a project
managers. These are all thingsthat then when you go freelance
or you open up your your ownstudio, will come back useful
because it's something that, youknow, we as a as motion
designers at the beginning, wejust care about, you know,
learning new techniques, Cine 4d, after the fact.
(14:12):
But if you wanna go and do yourbusiness on your own, you'll
need you need to learn the otheraspect of the businesses. And
while working in a studio, youlearn a lot from your colleagues
and your clients as well. So toanswer your question, I would
say that it really depends whereyou are, in terms of if you know
(14:33):
what you want. For me, it was apath. I needed to find what I
wanted.
I knew what I wanted after awhile, I would say, 2 or 3. It
took me 2 or 3 years to find outwhat I what I wanted, you know,
because it's, it's somethingthat it doesn't come straight
away. You don't wake up one dayand say, you know, I love this.
I want to do this. I want tomake it my everyday job.
(14:55):
So it really depends. If you ifyou're in a point that you love
something that has a reason toyou, then why not? You could
straight away niche it now.
Hayley (15:06):
Yeah. I think it's really interesting and it kind
of reminds me a bit of my storyand Motion Hatch as well,
because I think, like you said,it's not like you wake up one
day and you think, this is whatI'm gonna do. This is definitely
gonna turn into a business andsomething that I can put all my
time in and stuff like that.Like, it's almost like you have
all of these different doors infront of you of opportunities,
(15:37):
accelerator, which obviouslyyou're into, is some people in
our accelerator, which obviouslyyou're into, is that's
paralyzing, you know, having allthese opportunities in front of
you. So it'd be great to hearfrom you how you felt when you
decided to, you know, becausewe've been working together on,
like, your website and stufflike that to niche it more down
into nature conservation.
(15:57):
So how does that feel to you?And does it scare you sometimes
that maybe you're pushing otherclients away?
Giuseppe (16:04):
So first of all, I would say that you have to
embrace the uncomfortable. WhatI what I mean by that, that
unless you are uncomfortable,you're not going to grow as a
person and as a business. So youshouldn't really care about
something that puts you in asituation where you don't feel
prepared and something you justneed to dive into that. And,
(16:25):
eventually, you you will growday by day and see the result.
To once, your question relatedto if I was scared about pushing
down some work, I say that ifyou decide to to take this path,
it's because you believe in it.
If you believe in it, you areyou are open to the fact that
it's gonna take time. You know,it's about seeding every day.
(16:46):
You know, if you see it, youwill see the plant, you will see
the flowers in months. So it'snatural that if you start
something, it's gonna take alittle bit of time to take it
the way you want. So be preparedand embrace the fact that it's
something new, and then if youreally believe in it, you're
(17:06):
gonna see the results.
Hayley (17:08):
Yeah. That's great. So talking about results, have you
made more money with your nichethan you did as a general
freelancer, let's say?
Giuseppe (17:20):
I would say, it's more or less the same at the moment
because I, I started just like,1 year, 2 year 2 years ago to
niching down. And then, withwith with with your course, with
the accelerator course, workingwith you, I'm also, finding,
like, some correction to go outand find the best way to make me
(17:42):
and position myself in a waythat is like I'm the person for
the job and helping forspecific, organization that need
my help. So in that case, Iwould say it's the same at the
moment, but I have I have to saythat money is not my number one
goal, you know, and I appreciatefor if some people money are
(18:03):
their number one priority. Butfor me, it's the flexibility.
For me, it's the fact that I'mfulfilled as a person.
And for me, it's important togive a meaning to what I do. So
in that case, money is like, Iwould say, my 3rd or 4th
priority in the least. Don't getme wrong. I heard enough, and,
(18:23):
it's good for for what I'mlooking at in terms of, like, to
live my life the way I want.And, it does sound I'm
completely satisfied.
And again, it's going to to it'sgoing to be a progress, and,
it's always gonna grow. And asit was when I first started my
freelance career, I think in my1st year, I made like 30 k 6
(18:45):
years ago and it has alwaysgrown, every year every year has
grown. So I'm I don't see thisas a as a as a as an issue, but
I see this as a way of, like,seeing your business grow, and
you grow along with it.
Hayley (19:02):
Definitely. I think it's really interesting that it's
like a lot of the time, youknow, people don't wanna take a
pay cut, but they wanna moveinto a different area. So it's
the idea of keeping itconsistent, but building towards
something that at some point Ithink will have an potentially
and then that will enable you tomake more money and potentially
(19:23):
hire more people to help you andthat kind of thing. Whereas if
you stayed not niched down asmore of a general freelancer, I
think that that potentiallywouldn't wouldn't give you as
much income potential and asmuch of a kind of forward
thinking business strategy asthis type of business.
Giuseppe (19:44):
Yes, definitely. You know, we as a studio, it's it's
me, as an animation director.And then, I work with other
other professionals likecopywriters, illustrators,
motion designers. So it reallydepends on how how busy we are.
We always need the help of,like, specialized people in
(20:04):
other expertise.
We work we work with voice overartists, and so we are a studio
that thank you in a way, youknow, COVID brought a lot of bad
things, but in a in a way, I'm abig advocate of remote working.
And and the way I'm the I'm I'mdesigning, my business, Motion
Active, is the way I think manyother business will do in the
(20:27):
future. For motion active, theway I see it in the future is a
it's, a studio which is far fromthe conventional way of working,
but which connect different,people from all around Europe or
the world that can help me, todeliver the animation I like to
deliver and to help my clientswith their communication.
Hayley (20:49):
Yeah. That's great. So I wanna ask you next about what
your biggest struggle was whenyou started to niche down and
how you overcame that problem.
Giuseppe (21:00):
Yes. Again, it goes down to understand how to
highlight yourself and to be,valuable to to this specific
community. So for me, it was away of, like, reading books,
going into, like, email list,webinars where these people,
(21:26):
this community were talkingabout the issues about
diversity, about about animalwelfare. So the issue was to
understand where these peoplewere in order to be there and
present and speak to them andunderstand that. So As with
everything new, you don't knowhow to start.
But once I understood that and Iwent to, like, LinkedIn groups
(21:53):
trying to connect and reach outto people. Then people presented
me and introduced me to, like,other colleagues, or other
expert in in their field. Andthen it's all about connecting.
You know? It's about the rightconnections.
And, I can't I can't stress itenough and say that, really,
people have the power to leadyou to to to new opportunities,
(22:17):
basically. So the answer is,like, to find the right place
where the people you want toconnect with are.
Hayley (22:24):
Yeah. Definitely. And building those relationships
over a long time as well, Ithink, and not just expecting
the results to happen instantly.I think that's really important
and something that I thinkyou've done very well and
continue to do as well.
Giuseppe (22:38):
The advice would be that in order to reach 100% and
work 100% with your niche, whileyou do that, you can continue
work with other, for example,other not related to your
community work, you know, thatcan sustain you while you're
reaching and trying to find thejob you want to do? So it's it's
(23:00):
a process that you, again, youhave to embrace and, naturally
it takes time, but, if you ifyou strongly believe what you
do, you're gonna get there forsure.
Hayley (23:10):
Yeah. Definitely. What's the biggest success that you've
had since niching down?
Giuseppe (23:15):
The biggest success, I would say, that is my strategy.
You know? The way I I put ittogether and position myself as
the expert, you know, as as thestudio, we started to publish
more content which is relevantto our community to the
community we want to work with.And then we had we have seen the
(23:36):
result by doing that, you know,by by putting work out there
which is relevant. We have seenpeople that, have contacted us
and we had a lot of discussionand we are going to work on a
few projects starting fromSeptember, which is related to
our, community, to our niche.
(23:57):
So the big success is like toand challenge as well. You know,
success for was a challenge inthe first place, was to put a
strategy plan that worked andcould make us visible as the
expert in the field.
Hayley (24:12):
Yeah. So the projects that are coming to you now, what
do you attribute those to andand these results?
Giuseppe (24:19):
Yeah. No. The the clients that contact the rest of
us, they said that, well, ourcontent that we we we publish
weekly, basically, they theynoticed it. We did, like, a
little GIF, animated GIF forWorld Oceans Day or like a
garden wildlife week, and thesewere little animation that, were
(24:40):
offering values in terms like,advice about how to build, I
don't know, like, hedgehoghouse, for example, or a
birdhouse. And those were like,we created this content, this
animation, then we linked someuseful information for the WWF
how to build these houses.
And basically, this animationwere, like, attracting a lot of
(25:03):
people interest. And one ofthese or actually 3 of these,
contacted us saying, no, we sawyour animation and we are
interested in talking aboutabout the way we could present
our story and our report in thefuture. We basically had
Hayley (25:31):
group, and I'm and I was just so proud. I was like, yeah.
It's happening. You know? Thethings are coming together, and
it's kind of making sense.
And I I feel like over time,what will happen too is it will
start to kind of snowball aswell because then, obviously,
when you do that animation forthat that company, then they
might recommend you to anotherone and that kind of thing. And
(25:53):
then this is how you kind ofmake a name for yourself and
sort of become the animationstudio for that industry. You
know? So I'm I'm really excitedto see where this goes as well.
Giuseppe (26:05):
Yeah. Because, for example, with direct clients,
you know, it's very importantbecause they want to see work
that you as a studio producewhich are relevant and in line
with what they do. So it's veryimportant to produce work if you
want to attract similar similarclients, work with similar
organization in my case. Soyeah. 100%.
(26:25):
Yeah. That goes down as well tothe, fact that when I produce
the animation from the BlueCross, because that led us to
other opportunity opportunitiesas well.
Hayley (26:35):
Yeah. Definitely. I think it's really good. So what
you would say to someone who'sthinking about is maybe looking
at themes around their idealclient or niche and potentially
I think that maybe as well, theycould think about what problems
are these clients trying tosolve, and how can you maybe
give them, like, a little pieceof that in a social media post
(26:57):
or something like that? Youknow, maybe talking a bit about
how animation can help them tosolve those problems too.
Giuseppe (27:05):
For example, one of the things I I often do and we
we do as a studio is to lookinto the, the social you can
propose, for example, and reachout to this client, this
(27:26):
organization and say, you see,you know, we have few ideas that
we can, translate and transformthis written content into a
nicely, explain the video,animated video that can engage
even more people than what youcurrently have. So again, it's
about offering volume. Perhaps,proposing to them, like, few
(27:49):
ideas on a mood board orsomething like that. And they
they they they they areinterested for sure, you know,
even though it's not, like,straight away. But again, it's a
it's an opportunity to reach outand see, you know, I I'm out
there.
We do this, and perhaps in thefuture, you might be the right
person to to help us.
Hayley (28:10):
Yeah. Definitely. I think that's a really great
idea. So I know you went on apodcast as well in that was
aimed at people in the natureconservation industry. How did
that come about?
Because I think that's a reallyinteresting idea of of getting
opportunities that almost shouldpresent you to many of your
clients instead of just goingafter, like, one person in that
(28:34):
industry?
Giuseppe (28:35):
Yes. So that was, you know, it's always that is a
really good question becausethat really make you think about
how connection works. Forexample, I'm part of, a a a hub
called WildHab. It's a placewhere all the conservationists,
people that care about theenvironment, experts in the in
(28:55):
the in the sector, they hangout. You know?
They're they connect. They talkabout the webinars, reports. So
I was invited there by aconservation optimist in Oxford.
And once there, I reached outactually, a guy reached out to
me, and, we had a conversation.You know?
(29:17):
This guy produced, like, comicbooks about about the planet,
the conservation. And basically,he introduced me to Calvin,
which started his podcast. It'scalled Calvin, Conservation
with, the species. We are thespecies. And so know?
(29:43):
You know a person that, invitesyou to a to a group. Within that
group, you you meet anotherperson, then you have a chat,
and then this person introduceyou to another one. So it's all
about relationships, you know,you really see the potential of
this and you never know thatperhaps someone watching the
podcast with Calvin,conservation with the species,
(30:06):
might look at my interview,might reach out to me. So again,
it's always a connection andit's, it's a chain, basically.
Yeah.
Hayley (30:14):
Yeah. And I think it's really smart to do things where
you're presenting to, like, manypeople. So for example, like,
any talks that you could domaybe that were in kind of
these, Maybe they have, like, Idon't know, nature conservation
conferences or something likethat or potentially like
podcasts and, like, YouTubechannels like we already
(30:35):
mentioned. And also potentially,something that we talked about
too is is, you know, creating aa webinar or workshop around how
animation can help in natureconservation. And, obviously, if
for anyone else, it would belike how animation could help in
any industry, you know, and howit can directly that I know a
(31:02):
few of our students areexploring, including you.
And I think, I just think it'sreally exciting, and I I can't
wait to see the results of thoseas well.
Giuseppe (31:10):
Yeah, definitely. You know, again, it goes down to
offering values. And, again,even though you go, like, do a
webinar, either online or inperson, you have the opportunity
to meet people and makeconnection. And it doesn't
matter whether this leads you tostraight away to opportunities.
But it's an opportunity for youto be out there and to reach
(31:31):
people and to reach to people.
You know, at the beginning, itwas kind of uncomfortable, doing
these kind of things. But if yousee result, it's, it's,
something that comes out of hardwork. And I would I would
actually point out that if yousee to to see results, you need
to work hard. But in order towork hard, you need to be
(31:52):
passionate about what you do. Soit's it's very key, you know, if
you want to put the effort onwhat you do, for example, I I
tend to work late at night andearly in the morning, but that
always comes to me as somethingthat I do it because I love it
and the times expired.
So, again, it's about passion.
Hayley (32:09):
Yeah. Definitely. What would you say to a person who's
looking to niche down? Whatadvice would you give them?
Giuseppe (32:17):
I would say that the first thing to do is to read
books about the the your theniche you want to aim to work
with. Try to connect, withpeople relevant to your niche,
trying to reach out. Again,don't be too salesy, but try to
generally reach out and say,that you are an expert, yet you
(32:38):
are passionate about what youdo. Because for me, I'm I'm a,
environmental enthusiast first.And then because of that,
because this is what I love andwhat I want to put all my effort
in, that relates, generates aconnection with the person
you're trying to reach outbecause you have something in
common.
You know? When you reach tosomeone new, on LinkedIn or via
(33:02):
email, it's always better tofind that connection. You know?
And if that connection is partof your passion, that's way
easier and people will see thateventually.
Hayley (33:15):
Yeah. I think that's great advice. So what does the
future hold for motion aptitudethen?
Giuseppe (33:21):
Yeah. We we we want to grow as a studio. We want to
grow as a studio again in a waythat's it's different from the
conventional way of working. Youknow, we love remote working,
and we we truly believe thatit's a bridge to higher to a
higher quality of life. So Ilike to continue working with
other freelancers, all aroundEurope and the world because
(33:44):
that's the way we love workingwith.
And then people that arepassionate about the environment
and people that are passionateabout, something that we have
to, you know, not just raiseawareness, but we need to take
action on. So if you can combineyour skills with something you
love with, we're happy to workwith with these people as well.
(34:05):
And, again, we are always keento work with the organization
that help the environment and,look at the animal, well-being
as well.
Hayley (34:15):
Yeah. That's awesome. So if people wanna find out more
about you and your work and yourstudio, where can they go?
Giuseppe (34:21):
They can go to, our website, motion aptitude.com,
and they can see the work we do,our mission, our vision, and our
purpose there. And then our mailis elo@motionaptitute.com. And
I'm on LinkedIn as well.
Hayley (34:37):
Great. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining
me, Giuseppe. I reallyappreciate it.
Giuseppe (34:42):
Thank you, Eddie, for inviting me. That was great.
Thank you.
Hayley (34:46):
Thank you so much for listening all the way to the end
of this show. If you would likemore from Motion Hatch, we are
doing weekly videos over on ourYouTube channel. You can check
those out atmotionhatch.comforward/youtube.
We will be coming back with morepodcasts soon but in the
meantime, we'll see you over onthe YouTube channel. Thanks so
much for listening.
(35:07):
I appreciate you. See you.
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