Bouncing back - Photographer and Videographer Charlie Budd
About this episode…
Bouncing back — Photographer and Videographer Charlie Budd
Charlie started taking photos when he was 8 years old, but it wasn't until he fell and broke his back in 2017 that his current freelance journey began.
With no insurance and a long recovery ahead of him, Charlie was left with zero income. He chats to Steve about how he slowly bounced back from the fall and built a new freelance business in the process.
Read the highlights in the next tab.
Recovering from the fall
Charlie was a self-employed painter and decorator when he fell off some scaffolding and broke his back.
“I didn’t have any insurance. I thought that even if anything happened to me, I'd find a way to earn. I thought I was indestructible, but of course, nobody is. My income dropped to zero immediately.
“A friend suggested that I make a Christmas calendar to try to earn some cash. I had a hundred printed, I put it out on Twitter and they all sold within three days. So I had more printed and they kept selling out. Those calendars paid the mortgage for two months.”
Six months after the accident, Charlie had his first photography job.
Connecting and helping people
“I’ve always had problems with my speech, so going out and talking to people was pretty scary. But being able to talk to people online was great, so I've always really enjoyed Twitter. I've always liked to connect with people, to chat with people, to help other people to connect.”
In the early days, Charlie didn’t use social media for commercial reasons, he was just building relationships. After his fall, he began letting his followers know that he was available for photography work.
A couple of years in, Charlie got some help from a business coach.
“He's really helped me to not be afraid of the sales process. Not being salesy in kind of car-salesman way, but to take people on a journey to find out if I'm the best person to help them.
“And if I am, then to try to work out how I can help them and how much it'll cost. My coach told me not to think about it as a sales process, because he knew I had a problem with that language. He said think about it as helping process instead. You're trying to work out how to help them.“
“You have to put yourself out there.
“You have to put yourself out there so that there are always people wanting your services and you're having to turn people away.
“It's not just being very good at what you do and improving and diversifying, but it's making yourself popular.
“It’s being clever in that you're not just always looking for one type of job or one type of client.
“So it’s being flexible, being great, but also making sure that you're in demand the whole time.
"And you can do that. I mean, I did it as a painter and decorator. I'm doing it now. So if I can, anyone can.”
More from Charlie Budd
Transcript of the Being Freelance podcast with Steve Folland and freelance photographer and videographer Charlie Budd.
Steve Folland: How about we get started hearing how you got started being freelance?
Charlie Budd: Well, the really quick answer was I only started in my current freelance role properly when I fell off scaffolding and broke my back on Halloween 2017... But there's a bit more to that story.
Steve Folland: It's a good start. I'll give it that.
Charlie Budd: I'll take you back till the age of eight. I was given a camera when I was eight, the first roll of film that I took once I got it developed… I became an instant addict. I can remember some of the pictures - I can remember looking at the pictures at that age and I'd taken a picture of rhododendron and a cricket pavilion and a school building all in glorious golden light. And it's kind of quite hard to say this with, creatives often put themselves down, but even at that age, and even instantly, it was clear, I was not bad at taking pictures.
Steve Folland: So you became freelance at eight or was there more to that?
Charlie Budd: I wish. Oh, no. Yeah. I, I was photography in enthusiastic, but I, I was also, I've always been enthusiastic about lots of things about the countryside about academia. I've, I've always enjoyed learning new stuff. So I ended up doing environmental science at university. I did though, in my teens, I did some work experience shadowing, a press photographer at the bath evening Chronicle for a week, which, which was a brilliant experience. He was a really old school photographer, but one thing I realized is that to be a photographer, especially as a press photographer, which was the only kind that I really knew about at that age, when I was a teenager, you had to be good at directing people and I've always had a problem speaking. I'm speaking about as fluently as I can speak right now because you're just such an easy-going guy and I feel quite relaxed but especially growing up I really had trouble with my speech and I thought like, I can't be a photojournalist if I can't direct people, if I can't actually tell them, okay, can you stand there?
Charlie Budd: And I can't get words out. So I thought, well, I'll do it, environmental science because I was a bit of a nerd and I liked animals and plants and trees and all of that stuff. So then I went on to do a master's because I was quite enjoying university. But then got disillusioned with academia because I thought it's not really achieving anything. It's, it's interesting. I'm learning a lot, but it's not actually making any changes. So after a bit of time unemployed, trying to find different jobs, I ended up working at Brighton council as it was, then it's now brightening who city council in the environmental education and community health education. And I worked there for a number of years, which I really enjoyed and I thought I was achieving something. I thought we were making a difference, but I don't think we really were.
Charlie Budd: I think a lot of it was, was trying to get people to do things and people weren't. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But didn't actually do them. So trying to get people to change their behaviour, to be more environmentally conscious, to look after their health, all that kind of stuff is, is, is, is hard work. And we're talking about the 1990s here. Climate change wasn't really that much of a thing. Then it was talked about a bit, but it, it, it wasn't really a thing. So I quit that job and became a wildlife conservationist for a charity. And I ended up working in the UK and South Africa doing that for about 10 years. Wow. I was a humanitarian worker in the Himalayas for about 18 months. So all of that was, was really practical work and it, last time we were doing something that made a difference.
Charlie Budd: So that was great. But one of the people who, who ran the charities was should we say if I said that the kind of alpha male temperament, so definitely the person in charge, definitely person who everyone has to do exactly what he says. And I remember after a few years of working in the charities, kind of doing the odd photography job at that time, I was doing the odd wedding for friends and family. I was doing the odd print. I, I was involved in a photography exhibition, aged 18, and I sold a few prints then. So, but then this guy said you're crap at photography. You should give it up. And, and because I kind of admired him as a professional and he was a wildlife photographer and, and higher up in this charity, I thought, Oh, so I did, I gave it up.
Charlie Budd: After a year or two, I sold all my photography equipment basically to pay the rent. But also I thought, well, there's no point having it. So for a few years, I didn't do any photography at all. This was the time before smartphones, so no photography. But then once, once I quit doing the wildlife conservation work, which was great, achieved a lot, but very stressful especially with this alpha male guy. So I quit that came back to the UK from working in South Africa within a few months I bought a camera and I thought, Oh, I'm actually not crap. Cause I started to sell prints within a few months and it all came flooding back. So I guess from that point, I started to do the odd photography job, just trying to learn the ropes. I sold the odd print.
Charlie Budd: I sold some calendars here and there. I was the official photographer for the National Arboretum for a time. So I'm starting to get really into it and really enjoying it and realizing that it was something that I loved to do. But also after coming back from South Africa, I had to earn a living. So I worked as a painter and decorator and being the type who will always loves to learn new stuff. I kept on improving and I got better and better at it. People kept on wanting me to decorate their houses and it got to a point where it was very hard to give up because I was earning really well. I was booked up a year ahead, but it got to a point where I'd learned so much that I could do most of it on autopilot and it wasn't creative enough.
Charlie Budd: And I was kind of yearning to use the photography and I was starting to get into video at that point. So I had a plan that by 2020 I would quit decorating, become a photographer and a videographer. But then due to overwork and climbing up scaffolding and not paying attention on October the 31st, 2017, I fell off the scaffolding, landed on my toolbox. And my L one vertebra basically exploded. And I was on my own at the time. There wasn't anyone else there. So I kind of lay on the ground for a wee while not really knowing if I was hurt. Like I thought I was probably okay. Tried standing up, which is not probably a good idea when you've broken your back, but I didn't know. So like, like I crawled indoors to lie down indoors in my client's house, but started to feel a bit odd, started to get these odd pains in my legs. So I phoned my wife and went I feel a bit odd. I fell off the scaffolding. Do you mind driving over? So it took her about, on about 20 minutes, half an hour to get there. By that time, it was quite clear. Something was really badly wrong because she heard me before she found me and I was trying to dull the pain basically by playing heavy metal on my headphones and yelling. So, yeah, that was the end of the painting and decoration career.
Steve Folland: Jeez. What a story now out of interest though, because technically when you were a painter and decorator, you were self-employed, right? You had your own business. Yes. Did you have any form of like in insurance or, or income protection or like, you know, all of those things, which meant many of us hear about, and then we don't put them cause we think, Oh, then never happened. Like, did you have anything like that?
Charlie Budd: No, absolutely not because well, I, I suppose arrogant really. I, I thought that even if anything happens to me, I'll find a way to earn I, I'm pretty good at working through, even if I'm male. And I thought I was pretty much indestructible, but of course, nobody is. So I didn't have any income protection at all. So my income dropped to zero immediately. And my wife's business at that point, she was just building up her business. So I was the main earner in the household and all of a sudden our income kind of dropped by 90% and not a lot we could do about that.
Steve Folland: So, I mean, so what happened next? Because clearly, you don't just become a videographer and photographer cause I'm guessing a broken back isn't even something that you just bounce back from.
Charlie Budd: No, I mean I did actually get bounced a bit when I hit the ground, but not straight into photography. Although when I was in hospital, I was in hospital after that for only about three weeks. Cause the brilliant NHS, I bloody loved the NHS. I really do totally and utterly. They basically screwed me back together. So I've got four of my vertebra screwed together now. And during the time I was in hospital, after I had the operation, which was about two days after the accident, once the anaesthetic had worn off and I'd stopped talking about wanting to be a Hindi superhero, seriously, I don't know what drugs they put me on in the hospital, but I had the best dreams ever. I can't be an, I can't be a superhero guys. I think it was because the doctors who treated me were Asian. So I had these dreams about Hindi superheroes. But I said I couldn't join them cause I had to go back home. But there you go, you get great drugs in hospital if you break your back, but I wouldn't recommend breaking your back just to get those drugs.
Steve Folland: So how, how long was it until you were able to work again while you were in…
Charlie Budd: Hospital? I was chatting to people who I knew on Twitter and Instagram once I was able and an illustrator I knew from Instagram suggested because this happened at the end of October. So it was coming up for Christmas. She said, why don't you do a calendar to try to earn some cash? And I'd done them for family and friends. And I sold a few here and there. So I thought that was a great idea because hopefully I'd be able to do that from home. And so I started to plan the calendar in my head in hospital. Once I got back home I was able to work my computer for about half an hour a day. So I started immediately on that calendar. And it took me a few weeks to choose all of the pictures of my archives to design it, to find a printer, all that stuff. I had a hundred printed and I put it out on Twitter and they pretty much all sold within about three days. Wow. so I had more printed and then I had another note printed catch one selling out. So those co-founders actually paid the mortgage for about two months,
Steve Folland: Which wow. What I did. And it was all just sitting there on your hard drive.
Charlie Budd: Yeah. Yeah. So that was very fortunate that I already had those pictures and like I'd already got a reasonable social media following. I think I had four or 5,000 followers on Twitter.
Steve Folland: Actually sorry to interrupt and say, look, we're you like putting yourself out there as a painter and decorator or putting yourself out there as a photographer, like who these people on Twitter or Instagram who were following you? What was that for your photography?
Charlie Budd: That's a really interesting question. I mean, I started on Twitter once I got back from South Africa because I moved up to Cheltenham and I didn't know anyone. And I, I got my first ever computer. This was, I think it was 2008. And I thought, how do I make friends? And I saw this new website called Twitter. And I thought that looks interesting. And I saw people were using hashtags and that you could find people tweeting in your area. So I started chatting to people and I started to really enjoy Twitter. And what I loved about it was being able to have really quick conversations without having to speak, because always having had problems with speech actually going out and talking to people was still pretty scary. And being able to talk to people online was great. So I've always really enjoyed Twitter.
Charlie Budd: And I didn't even mention I was a painter and decorator for years. So I was just really being me, just being interested in other people, tweeting about interesting things being generally positive. I've, I've always tried to be supportive of the charity work of creatives. So I kind of grew a Twitter following really from doing that. And then after a few years started to mention the painting decorating a bit to get more work, but it was mainly just me. It was mainly posting the odd picture. So people knew that I wasn't a pro photographer the whole time that I, I did the occasional job. But I was just really being me and that hasn't really changed much. I hardly ever promoted anything on Twitter. I hardly ever used it really for commercial reasons. It was just building relationships.
Steve Folland: Mm you've. Had success with the calendar to jump back into your story. Yeah. So
Charlie Budd: I wasn't really able to work kind of I was at home pretty much the whole time for about three months trying to recover in a brace for three months. I remember my first photography job because I had completely given up the painting decorating and I've even done virtually none at home. My wife is a bit cross about it because I was very good, but I just don't want to do it anymore. So I think my first photography job was taking some headshots for an environmental consultancy firm, I think in April the following year. So that was about, let me think one, two, three, four, five, six months after the accident. So and Jules, my wife had to come with me to carry equipment and stuff because I could just about carry a small camera bag, but that was it.
Charlie Budd: And just gradually I started to get more and more work, but it took time to kind of grow the reputation is as being out there as a pro. I was helping Jules's business as well, doing quite a lot of photography for her. She a couple of years up to that published a book. So I did all the photography for that. And then she started to do some video a bit reluctantly. So I started to practice with her really. And the more I did the more inquiries I got in it, it gradually grew, but it took me about a year after the accident to get back to 80% health. And I, right now I'm about 95% back to where I was, I suppose. I S I still have pain, but I'm, I'm unaware of it probably 98% of the time which is great, but I'm extremely grateful that I'm not hurt even more badly than I was. But also grateful that I'm a, I'm an optimist and I've got a very positive outlook and I think, well, it could have been worse. So even if my back is hurting, even if I'm not able to do everything I was able to do, I'm just so incredibly grateful for where I am now. It's fine.
Steve Folland: Yeah. So how did you get those first photography clients? It sounds like things picked up off recommendation and stuff pretty quickly, but how did you get them to start with?
Charlie Budd: Yeah, so I suppose it was really using social media because I wasn't able to get out and about much. It was just telling people that I was available. It was posting pictures as often as I could, but without being too salesy, because I've always struggled with trying to sell myself. I'm better at it now, but I've, I've, I've, I've always struggled with trying to tell people to buy my stuff as it were. So it almost grew organically. Really people started to get to know I got a lot of recommendations and again, a lot of that was through the friends I've made through Twitter, Instagram, especially, but then, the Twitter friends I've made because I'd moved up to Stratford upon Avon for love to be with drills. And I made quite a lot of friends from the area through Twitter through attending tweetups when they were a thing. And I suppose that kind of reputation of being good with a camera, cause I'd often take a camera to events. So people, even though I was a painter and decorator people knew that I was a good photographer as well. So it was just really through recommendations. And, and that still is predominantly how I get the majority of my work brilliance.
Steve Folland: No one, one thing I know that you do now, I don't know when you started, it was you put out an email, don't you like a regular email and I think some, sometimes freelancers, but, you know, we hear, Oh, we should, you know, we should have a mailing list. We should be doing this. And then a lot of us don't really know what to put in it. So can you explain what you decided to do?
Charlie Budd: Yeah. I know you're supposed to do emails that promote your business, but as I said, I've always struggled with trying to promote myself and tell people to buy my stuff. So I thought, what kind of email would I like? So I thought I'd quite like an email every week with positive news in it with inspiring stuff. So I thought, well, why don't I do an email like that? I might put the automation that I did a photography job or a video job at the beginning or at the end, but it will predominantly about people who are doing good things and positive stories. So I started that, I suppose. I think it's a couple of years ago, I got something like 30 or 40 subscribers and it's grown very gradually. I mean, I probably lose about a subscriber a month and it's up to about 500 now who read it regularly.
Charlie Budd: And it, it wasn't ever really a way to get work, but it was a way for me to give to people because a lot of the news that's on TV and in the papers and online it's bad news. And I thought I wanted to kind of create a little bit of an antidote to that. So on a Sunday you get an email with positive things in it and a wee bit of humour. And then I might include the odd picture and it's evolved a bit and that's really how it, it, it started, but quite a few of my clients read it now. And some people who read it have become clients because it also gives people an indication of the kind of person I am about my ethics and about being generally positive and liking a bit of humour. So that's kind of how it grew. And even though it takes me somewhere between three and four hours every week to put together, I love doing it. And I love people emailing back and going, I really enjoy did that piece. I thought it was really hilarious or enjoyed that because it reminded me of a time in my life. So I get like, well, I think I get even more out of it than the people who it goes out to.
Steve Folland: Yeah. we'll put a link, of course, being freelance.com. I do recommend it to cheer yourself up, but also, I mean, I do a, I get a sense of you, but I also get a sense of the work that you do, because actually if you do mention it and there's maybe some behind the scenes photos or whatever after your list. And so I think it's a really cool way, a clever way of, of, of getting that across. And so do you, do you like trade as like your name or do you have a business name? What, what do you go with
Charlie Budd: That's actually changing? I mean early on when my Instagram account has always been the tool photographer. Yeah. That was my Instagram handle. So I thought as a business name, what do I call myself that because it's what I am, I'm tall and a photographer and people seem to quite enjoy that name and it's pretty memorable. So that's what I called the business. I am now changing it because 95% of the work I do now is video. So I am creating a new brand and a new website that will be out in June. So
Steve Folland: So, okay. Well, this is interesting. So how are you approaching that sort of dilemma then? Are you keeping the existing ground and developing another one or are you scrapping it or what do you do?
Charlie Budd: I'll keep the existing brand. But I think over time it will move over towards more being my art photography. So the prints to the calendars, all of that and the new brand will be the more commercial stuff, right. How you find managing
Steve Folland: Your workload because photography and videography have always struck me as just something, you know, it's quite intense planning and then there's doing it and then there's editing it and working that around various jobs that come in. So how do you manage your workload?
Charlie Budd: I'm improving,
Charlie Budd: But yeah, like it's very different to running a painting to decorating business, to start off with, because when I was a decorator, I would turn up at a client's property every day and I would do the work and to go home. So I was only at work when I was at work. So in a way, it was relatively easy to plan. I would go from a job to a job, to a job. The only hard bit to plan was not quite knowing when I'd be able to complete a job because problems come up. But as I got really busy and I got the kind of clients that I liked working for, they got extremely patient and were be quite happy to wait up to a year. So that wasn't really an issue, but doing photography and especially video because editing video can take a hell of a long time.
Charlie Budd: And that's something I've struggled with. I'm a lot better at it now I'm a lot quicker now, but especially early on not really knowing how to do the filming in a way that would make the editing quicker. I'd end up with huge amounts of content to try to condense in, into a small package. And that used to take days and days and days it's hours now. So I'm probably about, I don't know if I'm 10 times quicker, but it might be, but it, it does take a lot of planning and I am actually trying to recruit now I've got a freelancer who hopefully will be starting with me next week who will be helping with editing on the shoots, doing some admin as well. And I'm also gonna recruit an apprentice as well. Because the workload since November has been pretty constant and I've struggled to get everything done. I have, but only through putting in, I think I average 58 hours a week, which is not ideal when you want a life as well. But it's, it's not an ordeal though, because I love my job so much, but it's just a question of my wife going are you coming home then? Yeah. Yeah. Just have to finish editing this. Right. I'll see what home. All right. And then an hour goes by and I think, Oh, I really should get home.
Steve Folland: So, so you're not based your, you, you have a studio or an office or somewhere to
Charlie Budd: My wife's business has a studio, so I've, I've, I've kind of gradually moved in surreptitiously. And eventually, my wife has from next week, I will have my own room in, in her offices. So yeah, it really happened, especially during the pandemic, because I used to use coworking spaces quite a lot and work from home and then occasionally work up at her studio. But during the pandemic, obviously, everything else was closed. So we got to work at her studio and it worked really well. And it also helped to transform her business as well over the pandemic, having me up there mainly to do video. So doing the live streams and online courses for her. So yeah, I'm yeah, it's, it's, it's out outside of Stratford in the countryside. So it's generally quiet apart from when the music teacher next door has a drum lesson and then it's not
Steve Folland: Yeah. What, what does she do?
Charlie Budd: She teaches people dressmaking and she's got her own line of dressmaking patterns and she's got a haberdashery online store. So yes.
Steve Folland: Do you think it helps, like the fact that you both are running your own
Charlie Budd: Businesses? Yes. Yeah. I mean especially after the accident, it didn't really help cause it would have been great if she'd had a normal job and that regular income. So it was a struggle in the early years, but then her business started to grow and grow. I think she now employs five people and she's wow. Recruiting a couple more. So it is helpful that both of us are in business. It's helpful that both of us are creatives as well. And that we get along. So we don't argue too much up at the studio,
Steve Folland: Something else I wanted to ask you about, cause you met that, you know, you mentioned the importance of community, a lot of it being online, but going to meetups and stuff, there's something I sometimes spot in your email about cake. Is it a cake club or may have gotten the name wrong, but what's that
Charlie Budd: That's the creative cake storm, which
Steve Folland: You can see why my eyes were drawn to it go.
Charlie Budd: Absolutely. it's that actually came from a question. Someone I know who is a costume designer for film and TV, put a question on Facebook aimed at freelancers, kind of asking how do you deal with the peaks and troughs of being a freelancer? How do you deal with being really busy and then having no work and then being really busy and then having no work? And I thought that was a really interesting question. Stratford upon Avon has quite a healthy, creative and freelance community. So I suggested we all meet up at a co-workspace and have a chat about it and quite a few people. Weren't a great idea. And I said, why don't we eat cake while we do it? And even more, people said, yeah, I'm interested. So it was kind of a brainstorming session for creatives whilst eating cake, thus the creative cake store.
Steve Folland: So creative cake storm. So instead of a brainstorm of cake storm, yes, I love it. And so it's, it's kind of like your own mini mastermind. You've I know you put loving the fact that you're not remotely using that word at all, but that idea that you all get together and it sounds like you throw out ideas and then you help each other pick out over problems or whatever.
Charlie Budd: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, it was we had, I know we had about a dozen people turn up to the first one and then it grew to about 20 people would come every month. Not just to eat cake, I hope. And it started to get a bit too popular. I can remember one time we had about 30 people, I think, and it was a wee bit of a squeeze to get us all into the room. Even though I did bring enough cake, so that wasn't the issue, but so I, I limited it to 20. And then of course the pandemic hit, so we moved it online. And it's, it's, it's been, we started to have it every other week online just to help people just kind of give people, give creatives and freelancers a space to talk about what was going on to ask for advice about how other people were handling things. And it's now every month on the first Thursday of every month, if I remember correctly,
Steve Folland: Love it. And w what would you say that you get out of that?
Charlie Budd: Well, like I love to connect with people. I came up with a phrase about 10 years ago that kind of describes me in a way, which has an extrovert with the tongue of an introvert. So I've always liked to connect with people, to chat with people, to help other people to connect. So that's what I really get out of it. It's, it's about helping other people. Really.
Steve Folland: You mentioned the fact that you really didn't like sales, but that you've got better over time. So I'm just wondering, what would you say has made you better at it?
Charlie Budd: Recently, especially over the past kind of six months, it's having a coach. I decided to get a business coach who did give me some free coaching sessions at the beginning of the pandemic, and they'd really helped. So I said, okay if I pay you, will you coach me? He said, yes, of course. So he's, he's really helped me to not be afraid of the sales process, but not kind of being salesy in kind of the car salesman kind of thing. But just to, in a way, take people on a journey to find out if I'm the best person to help them. And if I am then to try to work out how I can help them, how much it'll cost my coach early on said, don't think about it as a sales process. Cause he, he knew I had a problem with that kind of language. Think about it as a helping process. You're trying to work out how to help them unwind. Yeah. So approach it from that perspective. And that's kind of how I got through creating a sales process is by calling it a help process.
Steve Folland: Nice change the word and you can do it. You're helping people. Now, if you could tell your younger self, one thing about being freelance, what would that be?
Charlie Budd: I think definitely at the time when I gave up photography I would tell myself that not to trust what other people say, even if you respect them, it doesn't mean they're right. And it also doesn't mean you can't learn to be a lot better than you are. So I, I would definitely tell myself that I am a good photographer, a good image maker and anyone who says otherwise, that's your opinion. And I don't give up if you love it. And also to be more careful on scaffolding.
Steve Folland: Now one question you said was an excellent question and therefore, I feel like I should ask it as a question so that you can think I ask excellent questions is how do you cope with the peaks and troughs of freelancing?
Charlie Budd: Ah, yeah, that is, is really interesting one. And that's a, you have to put yourself out there so that there are always people wanting your services the whole time and you're having to turn people away. So it's not just being very good at what you do and keeping on improving and keeping on diversifying, but it's to make yourself so popular and being clever that you're not just always looking for one type of job or one type of client. So it's being flexible, being great, but also making sure you're in demand the whole time. And you can do that. I mean, I did it as a painter and decorator. I'm doing it now. So if I can, anyone can,
Steve Folland: Yeah. Nice Charlie, thank you so much. And all the best being freelance!
Charlie Budd: Yes. It has been an absolute pleasure talking to you. Thank you very much.