Money is a hard thing to talk about but it’s the root of the quality of the work you’ll deliver. Charge too little and you’ll resent the work and the client…It’s such an awkward conversation for creatives.
Episode Transcription
Den Lennie (1s):
Why is money such a hard and awkward conversation for videographers and any creative person to have today? We’re gonna look into why that is and how you can overcome this fear of talking about money with clients and give you some strategies on how to get comfortable. Talking about money as a videographer for some money can be a very hard topic of conversation to talk about, but it’s actually at the root of being able to create and deliver amazing work. If you are doing this for a living, if you charge too little, you end up resenting the client and not producing your best work. But sometimes asking for what you believe you’re worth can feel very awkward indeed, but there’s no point in wasting each other’s time if the expectations from both parties are completely at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Den Lennie (53s):
So you have to find a way to have that money conversation and get some indication of qualifying the client early on in the conversation. Now, one quick way to do that is to give some kind of price range in initial communications. I said this to Sony recently. They wanted me to do something for him, and I said, look, we typically work with budgets between 20,000 and a hundred thousand US dollars. If that’s within the scope of what you’re able to do on this project, then I’m happy to have a chat this way. You set your stall out early and you’re letting them know that you really are that good, that you have confidence in your pricing. But as I said at the beginning, for many creatives, money is a very awkward and difficult conversation to have.
Den Lennie (1m 35s):
So here’s five ways in which you can improve and understand why that is. But just before we get into that, the important subject here is about value. Now, of course, it depends on what you do, but what you are really doing in initial conversations is trying to understand the problem the client is trying to solve and demonstrate your value in terms of being a great provider of that solution. Unless there’s a clear connection between outcome and solution and investment and what kind of return they can expect in terms of what’s important to them. It’s very difficult to judge just on price alone, and I think this is one of the reasons that the money conversation is so awkward, understanding when to bring it up and how to bring it up.
Den Lennie (2m 19s):
If you’re new here, I am den. I have been in this industry for about 30 years. I’ve worked with every type of video production you can imagine. I’ve worked with some very big name celebrities, Duran Duran, Robbie Williams, Christiano Ronaldo. I’ve done multiple projects, probably the double digits for Sony and a lot of other manufacturers, but I’ve also done a lot of smaller corporate jobs along the way, so I’ve got a good understanding of how to talk about money, how to talk about price, and how to express value to clients from a broad range of experiences and many, many years in this industry. And I’m gonna share them with you today. Now, do me a huge favor. If you could like and subscribe and ding the bell to this channel, it really helps us to grow, and I want to be able to share more great content with you like this.
Den Lennie (3m 8s):
So let’s start with that elephant in the room, the myth of the starving artist. This stereotype suggests that true art can only be achieved through poverty and hard work. It suggests that if you’re not having some kind of financial struggle, you can’t be a true artist. And I think this works at a subconscious level for many creatives. The truth is financial stability doesn’t have to compromise your creative or artistic integrity. In fact, money should fuel your desire to work full-time as a creative and help others achieve their goals through your creativity by offering it as a paid service.
Den Lennie (3m 48s):
The late great Mother Teresa once said, no amount of poverty can change the world. In fact, it’s well known that any celebrity or well known personality, government leader, anyone with money who wanted to have a photograph taken with Mother Theresa, as she was shaking their hand, she was whispering in the ear, you’re gonna leave me a big check, aren’t you to help me here? And she was well renowned for extracting money from major donors through the idea that if they wanted to be photographed with her, they had to pay, and that helped her fund her mission. The second area that I think causes a lot of distress and perhaps understandably, is that many creatives haven’t had any exposure to financial education.
Den Lennie (4m 33s):
Videographers don’t tend to focus on financial education. They tend to focus on their creative education, how to shoot better, how to light better, how to calibrate better, what’s the new lens they should be looking at. Their focus is typically on honing their artistic skills, not their business skills. Consequently, they might simply just lack the knowledge and skills of how to manage their business affairs more effectively, and this can lead to discomfort when talking about money, because they’re not really in control of it. It’s essential to invest time in learning, financial management, budgeting, and investing correctly into your business. Then you will overcome this barrier. Most creatives tend to kind of put money in a pile over there and go, oh, I’ll deal with that later.
Den Lennie (5m 18s):
In fact, back at the beginning of my freelance career, I used to just put all of my receipts in a shoebox and once a year sit down, figure them all out, and hope that I had enough expenses to cover off any impending tax bill. That was not a good strategy. Nowadays, I have financial meetings with my accountancy team once a month, and I check my numbers daily at any given time. I know exactly how much cash is in the business, exactly how much is coming in and exactly how much is going out. This gives you a far greater sense of control over your financial affairs and allows you to make better business decisions. Then there’s the fear of selling out again, a hidden peer pressure restriction on your ability to run your business effectively.
Den Lennie (6m 1s):
I think this is a big reason why some creatives struggle with talking about money because of the fear of selling out on their art. The idea of commercializing your videography or commercializing your art can be unsettling as some might fear. It will compromise their artistic integrity or vision. However, earning money from your art, making videos, doing something that you love, it doesn’t mean you’re selling out. Why shouldn’t you be able to enjoy your work and do something that gives you great pleasure every day and make a lot of money? They’re not mutually exclusive. Just because you’re having fun doesn’t mean you shouldn’t also make a lot of money. It simply means you’re being rewarded for your talents and it enables you to keep creating and investing in the stuff that you enjoy.
Den Lennie (6m 41s):
That’s super smart. Pricing, creative work. Now, pricing, creative work is where I think a lot of people get stuck because there isn’t a set method for pricing, creativity, and mostly creative pricing comes from your confidence at understanding the value of what you’re delivering and also what limiting beliefs you might have about value and money. For some setting the price of creative endeavors can be really tricky. Many videographers actually underprice their work or struggle to put a monetary value on the true value of what they’re creating, which leads to inconsistently underpricing the work that you’re delivering.
Den Lennie (7m 23s):
Sometimes this is because you think, well, it’s only a day shooting a day edit, and I can do it really quickly. But that doesn’t mean that the value of what you’re creating isn’t worth many, many more times what you’re charging to the client. So you’ve gotta think in terms of what is the outcome the client is getting here and not measure the amount of time or labor you put into something as being the measure of the value. Now, one of the dangers of pricing is if you ask the wrong people about what they’re charging, it’s far better to be in an environment where there are business leaders who are charging what you’d like to charge already, and you can ask them how they did it.
Den Lennie (8m 4s):
There are many amazing creative communities, but one of the dangers is that there can be a bit of a me too movement in terms of, oh, well, I only charge this much. Oh, so do I, and so do I. Or I don’t think I could get away with charging X or Y because I don’t think the client would pay for it. And so you’ve gotta be very careful where you get your advice from. And of course, there’s a simple way to look at the actual labor involved in aspects of the production, but there’s all the parts of the production that aren’t as labor intensive, the thinking time, the creative ideas, your years of experience to come up with an idea that will provide a solution quickly and efficiently for a client. So as well as charging for the equipment. You’ve gotta figure out ways to charge for your creative process and your intellectual property, things that you have built up from years of grinding.
Den Lennie (8m 50s):
It’s really important that you charge effectively for that. Do not be afraid to charge what you’re worth. In fact, a quick tip here is if when you present your price you don’t feel just a little bit uncomfortable, you’re probably not charging enough. Then there’s the emotional connection to the art of videography. Videographers often have a deep emotional connection to the work that they produce. We’re empathetic people. We love to get under the skin of a story and help someone in front of camera feel comfortable enough to share sometimes their deepest, darkest secrets. That is one of the key skills of being a great video producer, and in some cases you might find that a difficult thing to sell, but think about the value of what you’re doing in that moment.
Den Lennie (9m 34s):
You’re recording something which is gonna benefit the world at a much greater scale because of your skills. So in fact, you’re doing a great service by using your skills to extract great stories, transmit them through a camera lens, edit them into a beautiful film, add sound design, add color grading, add other effects to make it seamless, to engage a human being in having an emotional response with your work. By putting a monetary value on your work, you’re not in fact cheapening at all. You’re actually enabling others to experience your creations on a much wider scale. Money shouldn’t be a taboo subject for videographers.
Den Lennie (10m 14s):
Embracing a healthy financial mindset can actually encourage and support more creative endeavors. Start thinking about how you can embrace a more healthy attitude to money and finances. If you found this video helpful, don’t forget to like and subscribe, and let’s start breaking this myth of the starving artist together.
You’ve been listening to the Video Business Accelerator podcast with your host, Den Lennie. If you are a video business owner who is tired of going it alone and would benefit from mentorship, support and weekly accountability, then mouseover to www.videobusinessaccelerator.com to learn more about how the accelerator program can help you today. Don’t forget to subscribe and rate the show over on iTunes, and we’d really appreciate you taking a few minutes to leave a review.
