Category: Podcast

Being overwhelmed can stop you from achieving your goals and living the life you want. This can be especially damaging when you run your own business, so your livelihood relies on you alone.

In this episode, Chris and Brian talk about how they deal with overwhelm in their businesses and in life. They also discuss mental health issues such as PTSD, ADHD, and ways to cope as a self-employed creative.

Get ready to start 2022 in the right headspace for success: listen now to learn more!

In this episode you’ll discover:

• Why Chris Graham is not and never was straight edge
• Why episodes 75-125 were our best episodes… For now
• How to handle overwhelm
• Dealing with PTSD as a business owner
• Addressing the symptoms and the root cause of an issue
• The news is a giant timesuck
• Surrounding yourself with people who support you instead of tearing you down

For decades, recording studios around the world were able to thrive in a healthy music industry full of platinum albums, hefty recording budgets, and, most importantly, ACTUAL profits.

Things have steadily declined over the past 15 years with large commercial facilities closing down left and right. For many studios, the final nail in the coffin was the COVID-19 lockdown. 

While many are failing, some are still thriving despite the struggles of many other studios. In this week's interview, our guest has turned things around in a big way in an iconic LA studio called Total Access Recordings. 

Listen now to learn more!

In this episode you’ll discover:

• What it takes to get your foot in the door at a “legacy” studio
• How fresh ideas can save older recording studios from going under
• Reducing your overhead by using extra resources you have
• The cheesy romcom of one Socal studio in the late early 2000s
• Growing out of a brand image you struggle with
• Making a name for yourself in the local scene
• Finding a need and basing your business moves on that

In 2017, John McLucas was homeless and sleeping on a foam pad in his one-room, windowless recording studio. Just a few years later, he's earning a six-figure income as a producer working with pop artists to provide a high-value, white-glove service.

How did he make this massive change? While there isn’t one thing John did right, there are a few big things he did that you can start doing today to put your own freelance business on a similar trajectory. 

Listen to this episode of 6 Figure Creative now to learn more!

In this episode you’ll discover:

• How John went from sleeping on his studio floor to earning six figures… In three years
• Why offering a premium service is one of the best decisions you can make
• How to differentiate your business from the competition
• Thinking ahead 10 years: will people still want to work with you?
• How to deal with online haters and trolls
• The power of harnessing TikTok to generate leads for your business
• Why it’s important to avoid overworking yourself
• Methods of dealing with plateaus in your business
• Learning to invest in your education to grow your business and skills

Humor is a great way to connect with your friends 1 on 1, but it’s one of the most difficult things to do right in marketing (1 on many).

Allie LeFevere of Obedient Agency has spent the last six years helping companies find the sweet spot between lame, lifeless jokes and cringy, over-the-top humor to get their marketing just right.

Listen now to learn how Allie has built her business from a two-person partnership to a thriving agency with 8 people on the team!

In this episode you’ll discover:

• How you can make your brand memorable
• Why your brand shouldn’t always fall in line with your personal tastes
• What goes into good humor in copywriting
• How Allie systematically creates amazing copy
• Why being different is vital
• How to crush objections before they’re mentioned by your clients
• What happens when a robo vacuum meets a literal pile of sh*t
• How to handle yourself with confidence
• Why you don’t want to be the business who does everything

Most freelancers shy away from the corporate world because “they’re special snowflake creatives who will never sell out and could never possibly be fulfilled working with corporations”. 

The reality is that any creative work can be fulfilling. 

The beauty of working with corporate clients is they actually have budgets. 

With budgets come options…

• The option to actually make great money as a creative. 
• The option to turn down clients who don’t have budgets. 
• The option to do bigger, better, more creatively-fulfilling projects. 

This week’s guest, Daniel Clark Cunningham, is a perfect example of this. 

He’s worked with many household names – from Discovery Network to Dale Earnhardt Jr., to Chevrolet – and he’s learned a lot along the way.

He’s also taken a very unconventional path to get to where he is today. 

Listen now to learn how Daniel used “the war of attrition”, constant failure, and email marketing to build his photography business. 

In this episode you’ll discover:

• How to level up from broke clients to well-paying gigs
• The three things needed to succeed as a freelancer
• Why internships are sometimes a necessary evil
• How to outlast your competition
• When to work on projects for yourself
• The key to understanding your clients
• How being ready to say “yes” brings opportunities

How to explain why you’re worth what you charge

The words you write have the power to build trust and win clients, but they also have the power to bore people to death and turn away clients. 

It’s your choice whether you want to put in the work to write website copy that does all the “selling” for you.

Most freelancers, unfortunately, leave copywriting as an afterthought. This creates a massive opportunity to stand out from your competitors by taking the time to nail your website copy. 

This week’s guest, Rachel Greiman, is a freelance copywriter who works with nearly 100 clients per year. 

Not only is she earning 6 figures from her freelance work, she’s also writing website copy for other 6 figure freelance photographers (our guest from episode #172 is actually one of her 6 figure clients).

That makes Rachel the perfect expert to bring onto the podcast to teach us all about the process behind copywriting for freelancers. 

In this episode you’ll discover:

• How great copy can affect your business
• Why copy should come before your website design
• How to understand what your ideal clients are looking for
• How to package your offering so the client buys what they want and gets what they need
• Why niching is so vital to your business
• How systems help Rachel have six figure years over and over
• How to go from $500 projects to $5,000 projects
• Why some businesses shouldn’t have repeat clients

You always struggle to make progress in your business.  

Everyone seems to be against you. 

You can’t hire anyone because they’ll never do it as well as you can.

You simply can’t bring yourself to leave the security of your day job.

These are all symptoms of negative mindsets that are holding you back from your full potential as an audio engineer and entrepreneur!

By working to defeat negative mindsets, you can be much more comfortable in your own shoes and teach yourself to succeed rather than waiting for someone to hand things to you on a platter. 

Listen to this episode now to find out how you can identify and eliminate five different toxic mindsets that are ruining your chances of success!

In this episode you’ll discover:

• Why you need to work on eliminating negative mindsets
• Which negative mindsets might be affecting you
• How the “blue-collar” mindset can hold your business back
• Why outsourcing low-paying tasks can increase your hourly earnings
• Why reacting negatively to someone else’s success is a sign of a bad mindset
• How playing the victim will stop you in your tracks
• Why holding grudges steals your time and energy
• How fear negatively affects your business
• What mental blocks the fixed mindset causes… And why they’re wrong
• How Chris and Brian both overcame a fixed mindset to become successful business owners

We’ve all hit the point in our lives when we’ve faced this question. 

“Should I just quit?”

Whether you’re considering giving up on your entire business, or you’re simply considering quitting a new approach to marketing you’ve been trying out, it can be difficult to keep going when stuff gets hard. 

So should you give up and go back to the way things were when it was “easier”? 

Should you push forward and keep trying even when everything sucks? 

That’s what I discuss in this week’s super short podcast episode.

I love learning about people who are earning 6 figures in a relatively obscure niche… especially when they’ve grown that business to where it is in just a few short years. 

Sean Oblizalo has built an incredibly successful adventure elopement photography business. If you’ve never heard of that before, you’re not alone. 

While elopement photography may be relatively obscure, what isn’t obscure are the strategies he used to build his business to 6 figures in such a relatively short amount of time. 

This interview is a gold mine for any freelancer who’s struggling to get website traffic, leads, or clients. 

In this episode you’ll discover:

• How Sean built a six-figure business in just three years
• What inspired Sean’s unique business idea
• How you can harness the power of SEO for your business
• Why Facebook ads aren’t for everyone
• Why incredible copywriting is crucial for your website
• How to get incredible copy even if you’re a terrible writer
• Why systems and processes are crucial for building trust with your clients
• The hidden benefits of building trust with your clients

Do you run a successful business, but find yourself stressed out about finances?

Does it affect your creativity to the point that you aren’t making your projects the absolute best?

If your finances are a shambles, chances are your business isn’t very stable, and neither is your personal life. It’s time to make a change.

A big welcome back to Graham Cochrane of The Graham Cochrane Show as he talks about potential solutions and fail-safes to make sure that you can survive difficult times in your business and come out the other end swinging!

In this episode you’ll discover:

• Why service-based businesses should have some scaleable income streams
• How a retainer model can boost your business’ income
• What opportunities overwhelmed consumers provide
• How eliminating your fear can make you bolder, to take good opportunities and leave behind mediocre ones
• Why poor personal finance is the downfall of many businesses
• How trading up cars and paying car payments to yourself can buy you a new car in the long run
• How growing your business too much can hurt your family, creativity, or life
• How you can start to safely save money for retirement, as well as keep you – and your business – alive during spare months
• Why you should discuss financial priorities with your family to see if you are overspending or can cut back