Recently, I have been in a dark cloud of negativity and the cloud only cleared when I listened to the advice of those close to me. I am great at what I do! I am confident in that and I am not afraid to make that statement. Could I improve? Absolutely! I firmly believe that we are ever-learning, ever-evolving beings and once you are certain you’ve reached the top – you’re already on your way back down.
So, since I started the first purpose-built podcast studio in Rochester, NY I had some people ask to pick my brain about everything from the equipment and setup to the business model to marketing. Now, I am an open book and always try to help my fellow human – which is the problem. I forgot that some people are disingenuous and may take advantage of kindness. This happened to me quite recently. That’s why I am writing this post.
If I give someone advice about something that I do for a living, I would consider that consulting. Consulting is (usually) advice that people are paid for. Sometimes, colleagues in related fields will give professional advice as a courtesy, which I would not categorize as consulting. Though professional advice, it is still advice because there is no financial transaction taking place.
You can be nice and helpful, but be cautious.
If I went to a fellow studio owner and asked, “Which microphone do you prefer for voice recording?”, I would probably get an answer in return. Mine is on my website, so obviously I don’t care about telling the world which mic I use. Now, if I went to the same guy and asked him to draw me a schematic of how he wired his studio or his mic techniques, I would expect him to laugh at me and walk away – or at least not tell me. Does a chef give out his recipe? Some chefs do – but you have to pay them for it.
This is a very important consideration for the small business owner. You don’t want to inadvertently give someone a course in how to be your competitor. Now, I try to be as positive as possible and I almost always give people the benefit of the doubt. Helping other people out is kind and thoughtful, but in business, that can be downright dangerous.
I felt like I had to share this information with my audience because I know many of you are entrepreneurs and are also super giving and generous people. Two things you should have in your back pocket at all times are:
NDA – Non-disclosure agreement. This is a legal form stating that your client cannot talk about this to anyone under penalty of lawsuit.
Non-compete agreement. This is a contract that states the person whom you are giving consulting services cannot turn around and use that information to start a business and go after your clients – for a certain amount of time or in a certain geographical region.
I am not a lawyer and am not qualified to give any legal advice, but I cannot stress enough that you must always look out for yourself and NEVER assume people have the best of intentions. Remember, they are usually looking out for their own interests and not everyone has the same moral compass.
What would I do if I had $100,000.00 in my bank account right now? I would make this movie. What am I going to do even if we don’t surpass $18,000.00? I’m still going to make this movie, because failure is when you give up…when you stop trying – and I’m not stopping.
We’ve been running a crowdfunding campaign for almost 60 days and have only gotten to $3,485 – as of this writing. That’s 3% of the goal! It is hard to not be frustrated and discouraged. In the past, this would send me on a downward spiral of negativity and self destruction. I’d probably start hitting the bottle a lot and getting angry while I watch posts from other local filmmakers as they make their dreams come true while mine withered and died. Thankfully, I am not in that place anymore. Since my sobriety, I have been able to walk away from that cycle and spin things to the positive side!
Our budget being around $100,000.00 allows us to hire and pay a small but capable crew to work on this film. The lower the money, the less we can do – obviously. Our smaller budget means we can’t afford an Art Department – that’s makeup, wardrobe and set design/decoration. So, anything that makes it into our film is what we all personally have. Like, furniture, pictures on the walls, fixtures – basically everything you see in a scene.
I was really hoping that we would raise all the money we needed to shoot this film the way we intended. It looks like that is not going to happen, which means Steve and I will have to wear a lot of hats on set. More me than Steve, though. As the Director, he needs to concentrate on the actors’ performances. I’ll concentrate on everything else.
So this is it. 4 Days left in our IndieGoGo campaign and then we’re moving forward with what we have. It’s going to be great! We’re staying positive and we’re going to document the ride for all to see. We know that this community can be a filmmaking community – so we’re going after it. See you on the other side. NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER.
I’ve been a movie-buff ever since I was 3 years old and I was quoting from Mel Brooks’s masterpiece, Young Frankenstein, “What’re you doing in the bathroom day and night? Get out and give someone else a chance!” Of course the epic quote by the late great Marty Feldman. But this goes beyond movie-buffdom, it goes deeper. My Aunt Marian used to quote that all the time and I copied her, without knowing what it was. It wasn’t for many years after that I saw the film – then I was hooked!
When I was 12 I spent a few weeks with my Godmother, Marian. My mother’s younger sister and the hellraiser of the family. She was a maverick, she spoke her mind and didn’t let people take advantage of her. But she was a softy and had a heart of gold. That was when Back to The Future was big. I was fascinated with Marty’s JVC camcorder. I wanted to get one for myself so I could make my own movies. Aunt Marian would have bought me one, but back then they were very expensive. Aunt Marian always told me to go after my dreams.
In 2012 I was making my short film “Step 9”. My mother had flown up from Florida to watch my kids because my wife Kelly was the female lead, so we both had to be on set. Mom was nervous because Aunt Marian took a turn for the worse just days before. She was diagnosed with lung cancer and it quickly spread to her brain. It was a tough weekend…she passed away while we were shooting. My mom had to leave and fly to Long Island. I dedicated “Step 9” to her and I promised her spirit I would make my movies. She knew we were shooting a film while she was in the hospital. I loved her like she was my second mom.
So, Aunt Marian is always in my mind when I am focused on making this movie, because this one is the first one. All of my filmmaking friends who have made multiple feature films tell me that you have to get the first one done, no matter what.
So, that is just a little background into one of the major factors that drives me. I won’t give up on this dream and I appreciate you for reading this and supporting this project.
I have a belief that going the extra mile will get you an extra 10 miles when it comes to business…or even in life. I have a client who needed some re-records. It was part client changes and part fixes on my end, like pronunciations and an editing oversite. Our contract states that if the changes are at their request, I can charge a re-record fee – but if they are my fault, I can’t. I did the records and editing fixes and sent them back, but was trying to decide if I should invoice them or just let it go. I sought advice from others and got a bit of both sides of it, so I was still stuck. Then the client called back to let me know that there was another round of changes to record – but they were their changes and not mistakes on my part. Win! I could now confidently bill them for the work. But that’s not the point of my little story here.
When the second round came through they were very apologetic about having a round two. They knew it was an inconvenience for me considering my recording schedule was so tight – and I legitimately appreciated their concern for my schedule. I simply told them it was no problem and that I would consider it part of the first round of re-records and for them to not worry one bit. It was no big deal for me to act that way. I know people who would have given them the riot act – seeing it as an opportunity to bill again and go through that process. But I think that doesn’t do you any good for the long-term relationship with your clients.
My client was so happy with my attitude that she was happy to pass along how easy I was to work with to the CEO of the company. That is only good news. Now, I am on the CEO’s radar and that’s good capital. So, I put the quick buck aside and looked at the long-game….and if you’re not thinking that way, you’re doomed….eventually.