We only have $25,000 for our project, will that work? So sorry, no, to do what you are asking would be at least ten times that. Oh ok, let’s do it. In the end, they spent $850,000. High fives and smiles all around.
When anyone asks me what is wrong with creative business today, this is it. There is an unknowing, trusting client on one side and a hungry creative on the other. Trust is manipulated, preyed upon so that the desire for the emotional return overwhelms the benchmarks set to get the process going. Here is the thing —a $250,000 project is NOT an $850,000 project and to convince anyone that they can get what THEY want for $250,000 when what they want is $850,000 is criminal. Maybe not in the legal sense, but in the business sense. And no it is does not matter how awesome it all turned out. The relationship was built on a lie and deception.
If only this isolated to one creative industry or a few bad apples in each industry, then we would be able to say so sorry for the bad actors. Nope. Literally, I see it celebrated just about everywhere I go. The client did not really know what they wanted so I gave them what they wanted and they went for it. The reality though is that you promised them one thing but sold them another.
The counter is that the client does not know what they want and if you told them the real number they would go to someone else and you would never get to convince them of the value of you, your art and your creative business. Better to get them in the door and then work on the budget.
So you lie because you know someone else will if you do not. Oh how far we have to go.
Owning your own power, the integrity of what you do and what matters to you is priority number one. The manifestation is to know what you are selling and to stand firm in that light. Anybody that will trust you with their profound hope for transformation, the deep desire to express themselves as the best they imagine themselves to be, deserves to know what that will cost — within a 10-15% range of the number you quote.
Here is where the rubber hits the road. If you say $250,000, you cannot show anything that would make the total production cost more than $287,500. If this underwhelms your client, then that is your own fault. You get paid to know what your client does not and you do not get to be manipulative with that power imbalance.
We can, as creatives in our respective industries, demand better of ourselves. We can shun those who would be unwilling to own their space and see the opportunity in candid conversations upfront with our clients. And when a creative business owner celebrates his bait and switch, we can call him on it instead of applauding it.
It is time to stop apologizing for who we are and what we do. Pride of authorship is owning the cost of authorship. The tools available to artists and clients alike warrant the conversation. Integrity will demand it. The future awaits if only we shun those who refuse to move forward. Hold trust as sacrosanct and the rest will take care of itself.
