The most valuable lesson I’ve learned is to ask for more money. I’ve done way too many team friendly deals and today I paid for it. It took me almost 15 years to ask clients to pay me a rate that I deserve, which means, I’m an idiot, but it is a process. I just recently started listening to feedback about my work and my projects and I’ve been undervaluing myself to remain in spaces, because I decided that I’m only good enough for a team friendly deal.
The graphics guy or the video guy is always the first to go, so I took team friendly deals to stay consistent. A corporate job is just routine work with no room for growth. It’s a place that lulls you into consistency and then boom, without warning, cuts you off of that consistency. I’ve never created anything to fall back on, so I kept taking team friendly deals. Now all the wells are tapped out.
My biggest fear is starting over and every year around March guess what? Last year when I came back from the screening, I should’ve started doing the things I’m doing now, but I was banking on a gig coming through where I could take a team friendly deal and coast. I was scrambling searching for a job, having to borrow money and at the very last moment, I landed something in June. I undersold myself again, and was about to pay for it, until I just asked for what I wanted. It was the first time I asked for a salary that I felt I was worth, and I got it. That was the realization. People value my work because it’s good and I can rationalize my price because people know the product is good.
Here’s why I stopped taking team friendly deals:
I started my company in summer of 2013 working with Revolution Physical Therapy. At Revolution I worked with some of the best athletes in the city of Pittsburgh:
I started making Lions videos and a couple of them caught on:
On April 6th, 2016, I posted my Crying Jordan 30 for 30 parody and it went viral:
That video got me my gig with TPS and allowed me to do so many other great things. I got to interview some legendary wrestlers:
I even got to produce an entrance video for tv:
I’ve been on tv, I’ve produced tv, I’ve entertained.
I made a movie: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt36326670/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_lk
My resume too fire for this and I’m starting to get the sense that I shouldn’t be settling for a team friendly deal anymore. I can find more clients and do client work. I can raise my rates, I can charge astronomical prices, I can do whatever I want, but long gone are the days of staying affordable for the sake of helping out the company. The price is the price and it’s beyond worth it. With that being said, let’s work. Today, I took a big L, but I’ll bounce back or whatever, I gotta dig myself out of my “Hole of Bad Decisions” one day at a time, and today is just another day.
So check out my store and let me help you take your brand to the next level. Sign up for a consultation today or email deqwandyoung@gmail.com and let’s get that idea off the ground. First talk is free (Here I go giving shit away again)
