Welcome To The 6 Figure Creative Podcast: Your Guide to Running A Profitable Freelance Business

151_Brian processed (2)

Brian: [00:00:00] this is the six figure creative podcast episode 1 51.

[00:00:04]

[00:00:22]Welcome back to the six figure creative podcast, actually not, not welcome back. Welcome to the first episode of the six-figure creative podcast.

[00:00:30] I am your host Brian Hood, and I'm here with my big bald beautiful purple shirted. Cohost Christopher J. Graham. How are you doing today my dude?.

[00:00:38] Chris: [00:00:38] So good now. Oh my gosh,

[00:00:40] Yes.

[00:00:41] us awhile, but we're

[00:00:42] back.

[00:00:43] Brian: [00:00:43] Yes. So for anyone who this is the first time you ever heard this podcast, this is the six figure creative podcast. We have just rebranded from a podcast called the six figure home studio, where we have been for 150 episodes talking about the business of running a recording studio.

[00:00:56] This is the first episode that we have to re shifted and rebranded into the six-figure creative because now we're branching out to learn from other creatives. That's the whole point behind this podcast is we now want to learn from other creatives and we want to kind of give you. In this episode, what to expect on this podcast, why to listen to this podcast, why to listen to us at all and what you can expect moving forward with the six figure creative podcast.

[00:01:17] So the first thing I want to address before we really dive into this is why the name and are we it's like some scammy podcasts. What's the, what's the one like blogger that was like knowledge man. Like he's in front

[00:01:27] of his Lamborghinis. people like that, no shade to him. Like, I'm sure he's like a good dude or something.

[00:01:31] I don't, I don't really know the guy, but people like that, the whole like Ferrari Lamborghini lifestyle person, like they give podcasts like ours, a bad name. And we kind of did to ourselves in naming ourselves the six figure creative. So I want to address that before anything else, because I don't want people to turn away from that.

[00:01:48] We don't talk about. Money just for the sake of money, we are just talking about building a sustainable business with your creative passions. You hear it in our intro. We talk about that. We just want people to, whatever that number is, six figures, whatever that means to you. That's too high. That's too low.

[00:02:01] I can never make that much. Or I won't even wake up out of bed to make that much. I expect to make seven figures, but some people just insert whatever monetary amount or whatever thing motivates you. We're just here. To, to learn from other entrepreneurs and to share what we've learned as entrepreneurs along the way, we just want to help share information to help people speed up their journeys to their creative passions

[00:02:20] Chris: [00:02:20] and when we say entrepreneur, what we mean as creatives is people who have a passion and they want to do it all damn day long for money. To me, that's success. The freedom to do the

[00:02:31] work that you want to

[00:02:32] do.

[00:02:32] Brian: [00:02:32] And let me, let me talk about that again. You just said for money, because that puts us icky feeling

[00:02:36] on the creative side of

[00:02:37] things, because we have to keep in mind, not everyone has been on this journey for 150 episodes. And so when we start talking about money, oh my gosh, I feel icky now because I'm going to get paid for something that I love to do all day.

[00:02:47] Anyways, listen, listen, listen, listen. The reason we are called the sixth figure creative the reason we talk about one of the reason we're doing all this stuff is because if we want to be able to do something we love for a living, we have to be paid for it. There's just no other way to do it. You can't sit around all day doing the thing that you love to do for free, because now that's just a hobby and hobbies.

[00:03:04] Don't feed your kids. Hobbies. Don't pay your bills, hobbies. Don't. Pay your rent, your mortgage, your debt, whatever you have to pay for six you're creative. We just want to make sure you're monetizing something that you love to do. waking up going to like a day job, but you hate what I call a soul-sucking day job.

[00:03:18] Not all day. Jobs are bad, but if it's, if it's a job that sucks your soul away, that's a bad thing. That'll poison your creativity.

[00:03:24]Chris: [00:03:24] I just wanted to make art for a living. That's how I got into this. I think that's how we all got in, got into it, but I think the problem. Is you either can't find enough customers and then you feel like that's a reflection on you as a creative. It might not be, it might just be a reflection on your lack of knowledge about basic high quality, high integrity marketing techniques.

[00:03:45]But at the same time, maybe you have too many customers, but you never raised your rate like me back in the day and you never raised your rate. And now you're having like a panic attack every day, because you just can't keep up with the work and your clients aren't worth enough to you. For you to be able to sustain what you're doing over the

[00:04:02] long term.

[00:04:03]Brian: [00:04:03] about who this podcast is for. Well, this is not just going to be a blanket statement, but I'm going to give you a general idea of who this is for. This is for creative freelancers who offer a service,

[00:04:12] not necessarily like an Etsy person who makes like arts and crafts. That's a creative field, but

[00:04:16] Chris: [00:04:16] though. You'll learn a lot from this

[00:04:18] podcast.

[00:04:18] Brian: [00:04:18] Yeah. I mean, you could, you still can't, like I said, this is not a blanket statement, but we're just, we're just telling you who, who we are and who we're really speaking to when we make episodes. And when we go after people for interviews, this is the kind of person we have in mind, creative freelancers who offer a service.

[00:04:30] So photography, videography, graphic design illustration, Chris and my background is in actually in producing music. So I grew up , as a recording engineer, music producer, mixing engineer. Chris has done mastering work, so that's kind of our background, but we do creative services for our clients.

[00:04:46] And that's who we're speaking to when we do this podcast. So I leave any other kind of like groups of people out of that list, Chris, that I should have mentioned.

[00:04:53]Chris: [00:04:53] Freelance writers, I would say fall into this category as well. But that's the thing, the beauty of, of creativity is that there are going to be jobs a year after this podcast launches that didn't exist right now that are creative freelancers providing service. That's exciting. This is the number one growth industry in the world.

[00:05:14] And it always has been that's my argument.

[00:05:17] Brian: [00:05:17] Yep. So one of the things that I want to discuss as to why to listen to this podcast is something that I believe holds true in most creative freelance service industry, world things. This is like a fundamental truth. The best creative isn't necessarily the one who always gets hired. you kind of, you understand this, if you're a photographer, a videographer, maybe your competitor got hired, but you do better work. You're you're a music producer and the person that does inferior work to you got hired instead of you, this is going to happen all the time.

[00:05:42] We're going to hopefully help you solve that problem .

[00:05:44]Chris: [00:05:44] I think one of the things that's so heartbreaking about being a creative is you see people who lack talent, but who are getting the project that you wanted, that they lack some thing, at least you feel like they do. They're not as good as you and some area, but the client went with them. Instead. We see this on the radio all the time.

[00:06:02] Why does this piece of crap song, even on the radio, when there's this amazing song nobody's heard of. Being a creative is by its very nature kind of heartbreaking. We want to give you the tools to be able to fight in this battle, to be able to get your creative work seen and heard and to make it sustainable so that you can do this for a living for the long run.

[00:06:21] There's all this mythology around being a creative there's all of these ideas about what you can and cannot do. And many of them are lies. There are certain ones that are. You know, in the audio world, you know, we like to use analog gear for some reason, and you're not a real audio engineer, unless you use analog.

[00:06:38] That's not true. There's similar issues. And videography, you have to use a full frame camera, or you're not a real video. There's all these rules that don't exist. One of the biggest rules that exists for creatives as a whole, for what I like to call the fellowship of creatives, one of these biggest lies is that in order to be a good artist, you must be a starving artist.

[00:06:59]Lies not true, not true at all. There are so many unbelievable earth shaking artists that are filthy rich and that's

[00:07:08] okay.

[00:07:09] Brian: [00:07:09] Well, there's also many, many artists who will never be discovered because they couldn't make it work. And a lot of times they can't make it work because they can't devote the time, effort and energy necessary to make it work because they don't have the full package of what's necessary to be successful.

[00:07:23] So, one example I'm going to give, we were watching In the Heights last night, it's a movie that just came out recently. As the time we air this episode, it's a Broadway play adapted for movies, and it's done by the guy you've probably heard of the maker of Hamilton Lin Manuel Miranda. And as we left the movie incredible movie, by the way, go watch it.

[00:07:41] If you're a fan of musicals and stuff, my wife said something she's like, And this guy, he wrote every single word to this, all this melodies, all the songs and he acted in it. He's just like, we are so lucky to be in a generation where someone that talented can provide us with entertainment like that. And on the way out, I'm thinking.

[00:07:55] Yeah, but how many people are we missing? Because they didn't have the confidence or the connections or the know-how to make it. In this world, how many people like Lin Manuel Miranda? Do we just not ever know existed because they couldn't quite make it work. And so I'm not saying we're going to save the next person that is like that, but I'm hoping that we can help out as much as we possibly can by bringing our own insights and bringing on guests who can help our listeners so that they are equipped to make it as a creative.

[00:08:23]Chris: [00:08:23] Oh, Brian. That is so right on. So I've got a couple of thoughts based on what you just said. I'm so glad you didn't tell me anything of what you were going to say just then that we did all that, did it all just live. So I am an aspiring photographer. I love photography. I buy vintage lenses all the time.

[00:08:40]You know, I work with Sigma photo.

[00:08:42] I'm sponsored by

[00:08:42] them.

[00:08:43] Brian: [00:08:43] You're the person who, when we talk about gears, not the solution to your problems, you're the person we're talking to

[00:08:48] Chris: [00:08:48] Right, but I love photography and photography. There's a lot of different skills that you need to be creative and to do great work. You need to have a great creativity when it comes to color so that you can compose interesting pictures from a color perspective. There's also a geometry aspect of getting pictures that have, you know, an interesting geometry that leads your eye. I'm better at the geometry creativity than I am at the color creativity. These are two different arts within photography. And so I do a lot of black and white photography because I understand black and white photography. I'm still working

[00:09:22] on

[00:09:22] color.

[00:09:22] Brian: [00:09:22] what's your point?

[00:09:23]Chris: [00:09:23] My point is that the business of photography is another one of these creative arts within photography as a whole. So while you might be really good at black and white and terrible at color, that doesn't make you a bad creative. If you're really good at black and white and good at business. You've got a pretty good shot at building a career in photography.

[00:09:44] If you're pretty good at black and white and good at color and not good at business, you don't have a very good chance at sustainability as a creative in

[00:09:51] photography.

[00:09:53] Brian: [00:09:53] And we see this all. I'm glad you finally got to the point there, Chris, we see this in all areas. I want to actually make one, one quick point here on our podcasts. We're not here to really talk about the skills of any creative field. We're not gonna talk about black and white photography or color photography.

[00:10:06] We're not going to talk about making music. These are the areas that we there's plenty of other podcasts and resources out there about creating the actual art,

[00:10:12]Chris: [00:10:12] we're not going to talk about like what lens you should use to be a professional photographer or what microphone you need to be a professional recording engineer. We're not going to talk about the tools. We're going to talk about the philosophies and the principles, not the tool.

[00:10:27] The tools are nice. And sometimes some tools help you do things that no other tool will help you do, but that's not. It's, that's 2% of the conversation in my opinion.

[00:10:38]Brian: [00:10:38] So to kind of bring this back on, on track here, our vision for this podcast moving forward is you, you mentioned something, Chris, that I love this phrase, we'll adopt it and probably use it from now on the fellowship of creatives.

[00:10:48] We want to create, create essentially a fellowship of creatives that we can all learn and grow from. Some of the interviews we have lined up on this podcast already that we've already recorded are freaking amazing. Like, I cannot wait for some of you people to hear what we're doing like, one of the other big benefits of this just from learning from each other is also getting different perspectives.

[00:11:04] One of the upcoming guests we have is making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year off of Fiverr, and that offers a perspective. As someone, myself who has always been anti Fiverr, I always tell people. And I've, I've been so blanket statement about this, like stay off of Fiverr those things. Well, it's good to get another perspective because whether or not I, I really agree with getting on Fiverr is irrelevant.

[00:11:26] We have it. If someone that's earning multiple six figures a year on Fiverr and. That's why I love the fellowship creatives, because we can see different perspectives, Chris and I, we don't have all the answers for you. We never pretended to, we never will have all the answers. So that's, it's great that we are now branching out, doing more interviews.

[00:11:43] So that we can start getting other perspectives, even perspectives that challenge us, even perspectives that go against what we may have said or believed because that's the way creativity is. It is, there is no blanket statement to this

[00:11:54]Chris: [00:11:54] I love that, which is ironic because there is no blanket statement to, this is a, you guessed it a blanket statement. Oh. But yeah, I'm so excited to share all these interviews that we've done because I'm learning faster than I had ever learned podcasting with you before. I am taking notes with our guests and being like, oh my gosh, I need to do that.

[00:12:13] Oh my gosh. I didn't realize that was the thing. Oh, like I'm learning so fast. And I think that our audience as a whole is gonna like, we're about ready to go into overdrive compared to our last season of the podcast.

[00:12:25]Brian: [00:12:25] So now let's kind of bring things to us, Chris, because one of the biggest. Issues with listening to a new podcast. If you're just tuning into this podcast for the first time, is should I invest into this podcast as a listener? And I think one of the important parts of that is the relationship you have as a listener with the hosts.

[00:12:41] Sorry, I, we have to talk a little bit about us. Not that you care about us, because again, You're the listener. This is all about you. We were trying to make this a podcast.

[00:12:48] a win for you, but we do have to tell you about our background. So you understand where we come from. So, you know, our perspectives so that you can make your own decision of whether you want to listen to our advice or throw it aside.

[00:12:57] And that's up to you. We're not gonna claim to be the one with all the answers, but we do know a little bit about business that

[00:13:02] Chris: [00:13:02] We're not creative.

[00:13:03] Jesus's.

[00:13:04] Brian: [00:13:04] right. right. But we are creative rear successfully creative. So Chris's background is again an audio. He is a mastering engineer.

[00:13:11] He has built a multi he's, made multiple six figures and six figure a year business as a master engineer. And you've been doing this for years. So that is like the, your background and the way you started. And you can tell people about me, cause I don't want to talk about myself. That's why I started with you.

[00:13:27] Chris: [00:13:27] well, Brian is a producer and a mix engineer. He got his start in metal and

[00:13:31] he was in a

[00:13:32] Brian: [00:13:32] Heavy metal by the

[00:13:33] way.

[00:13:33] Chris: [00:13:33] Heavy metal. yeah,

[00:13:35] I tried to watch one of your old music videos from your old band with my kids. And I was like, Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope. Hit that guy is on fire. I'm going to turn this off. It was intense. And then you got into recording music in the studio and that took off and it blew up.

[00:13:47] And then lo and behold, we joined a mastermind group. Have a number of people in the music recording industry. And we bonded over a love of spreadsheets and systems and business books and eventually coffee. And we started this podcast. I just did it as an excuse to hang out with you. And then it went viral and I turned into a

[00:14:10] business coach.

[00:14:11] Brian: [00:14:11] Yeah, so just real quick, it took me about six years to have my first six-figure year as a recording studio. And. Along that journey. There was a, there was a point where, and I'm not going to go into the full story here because there's other places that talk about this, but there's a point where I had my kind of my entrepreneur like spark lit.

[00:14:28] It was, I was with someone who was a restaurant owner and he shared with me how he built his business. And it was just super interesting. And I started listening to podcasts and going on that kind of journey that you may be going on right now. , and so our goal now is like taking what we've learned and just share it with people.

[00:14:40] Like we're not trying to. Scam you out of anything. We're not trying to tout ourselves. Someone who is more than we really are. We are someone who does, I didn't have all the answers, but we have some answers and we're willing to share and be an open book to people. Chris and I are very open about things.

[00:14:53] You want to go listen to the first 150 episodes. Most of them will be relevant to you regardless of whether or not you're an audio engineer, recording engineer, a music producer. If you're a creative freelancer, most of those first 150 episodes on this podcast are still relevant to you. And you can hear more about our backstory and a little bit more about us in those.

[00:15:08] If you're interested,

[00:15:09]Chris: [00:15:09] Well, and that's one of the, one of the reasons we launched this podcast is we were making a podcast for people that brand recording studios. And we kept getting people all the time, reaching out like, Hey, I'm actually a really successful brewery owner. Or, you know, I make guitar pickups for a living. We had all these people that weren't making, recording studio businesses that started listening to the show and getting tons out of it.

[00:15:31]One of our first interviews is with somebody who built a, a lyric video company where they make YouTube videos for artists. It's got nothing to do with recording studios, but He benefited a lot from the

[00:15:42] podcast.

[00:15:43]Brian: [00:15:43] Oh, by the way, it's this the next episode you're gonna hear after this one. And it's freaking amazing. Like it's. It did I still got to say it's one of our best episodes ever and I, and I, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So let's just talk about now really quick about what to expect from this podcast. Because I just want to make sure we kind of set the stage and just note that anything we say here could change.

[00:16:00] Like if you listen to episode one and we talk about our, you know, very episode, one of this podcast where we talk about setting the stage for the six figure home studio,

[00:16:09] Chris: [00:16:09] creative, which means we're going to come up with better ideas than what we already have

[00:16:12] someday.

[00:16:12] Brian: [00:16:12] Yeah, Yeah, this is, this is where we think we're going to start and who knows where we end up going, but we're going to do a few things.

[00:16:18] The first is expert interviews. And I put in my outline here, I put the word expert in quotations because that's kind of like a dirty word, like experts, they're all over the internet. And there's like, it's kind of a scamming world. And so like, what we mean is like people who are out there doing the work.

[00:16:33] They're in the trenches doing it themselves. And we try to find those people and then bring them on the podcast to learn from them. They're not the people that are out there just being gurus and driving around in Lamborghinis and stuff. But we're trying to find the people that are actually doing it and bring it on the podcast and just drill in and get as much out of them as we can, and then become friends with them because we want to have friends in this creative world to build our creative fellowship.

[00:16:53]Chris: [00:16:53] Totally. And I think one of the things that's fascinating about this entire idea of bringing on quote-unquote experts is when we say experts, what we mean is that they're doing something nobody else is doing to me, expert means that they are blazing a new path. Creatives blaze, new path is past. It's what we do.

[00:17:12] If you are not blazing a new path somewhere, It's borderline not a creative career. You have to be doing

[00:17:19] something

[00:17:19] new.

[00:17:20] Brian: [00:17:20] Well also like I'm sure everyone understands, especially in photography, videography, especially in music, like it's So much more saturated that was 10 years ago. So if you do want to be successful, you have to do something new or interesting or different. You have to have a good answer for the question.

[00:17:33] Why should someone hire you instead of the person down the road? If you don't have an answer to that, you're going to continuously struggle. You'll get side projects here and there, and yet it'll be a side hustle for you, but if everyone make this a full-time business from your passion, then. It's going to be a struggle.

[00:17:46] If you don't have a good answer or a good solution to that problem of why should someone hire you over someone else? And that's where we start talking about people that are pushing the boundaries in some way, shape or form.

[00:17:55] Chris: [00:17:55] Well, and you can even go one further and say, what type of project would you be the best in the world at. That's pushing boundaries. That's blazing a new path. And having people like that that are doing something totally random, totally unique. That's fascinating to me, you know, Anthony, that's on the, on the, our next episode, it's the number one company in the world.

[00:18:16] As far as lyric videos go, they make more and they make better lyric videos than anybody else. And they've worked with artists that you've heard of. That's weird. who sets out and says are willing to be the number one alert. It's a bizarre niche that you fall into and then end up mastering.

[00:18:31] And to me, that's the most interesting thing, which isn't a sailor talk about niching real quick, Brian, we don't have this on our outline. We're going to talk a lot about the power of niching about why doing one thing extremely well is really good, the standpoint, but what that doesn't mean is that the niche that you choose is the only creative work.

[00:18:51] That you were allowed

[00:18:51] to

[00:18:51] do?

[00:18:52] Brian: [00:18:52] Yeah, I

[00:18:53] call it your you're dating the niche. You're not marrying the niche.

[00:18:55] Chris: [00:18:55] yeah.

[00:18:56] So you find a niche that you dominate and that you get paid well and that you enjoy doing. And if that goes well, that should give you the opportunity to go on side quests, to do side projects where you are working on a project. That's just interesting to you.

[00:19:09] It doesn't necessarily make you any money. Maybe there's a possibility that it will someday. That's how photography is for me. It's not my, my main thing. It's not my niche. It's a side quest, it's a side project and I love it. And it nourishes me and makes me better as a creative in the areas where I am going

[00:19:26] after it.

[00:19:27]Brian: [00:19:27] So let's continue on and what to expect on this podcast. The next thing is what I call in the trenches with Chris and I. So for those who haven't heard, or don't know, I'm actually starting a new, another, another new business called good fortune media. And this is a podcast production agency that I'm starting.

[00:19:43] And this is the first new service business I've started since 2009. So this is really fun because my studio for five, six recordings was started so long ago that, you know, starting a new business from scratch it. Today is so much different than it was before.

[00:19:57] So now I'm getting to basically start from the very beginning and I get to be in the trenches and it creates so much fun, new content that I'm gonna bring to this podcast. And that is bringing something that I call it.

[00:20:07] In-between a soda for, for this podcast. We've never had this before, as I come across something that's interesting.

[00:20:12] Or as Chris comes across something that's interesting or fun or engaging to talk about. We're going to pop on and just do random episodes that are to come out in between our NA our numbered episodes. So you see like episode 1 51, you might see an in-between the setup before the next episode comes out.

[00:20:25] And so you're just going to see these unnumbered episodes come out on the podcast. And here's the thing. These episodes might be the like, Felt cute. Might delete later kind of episode where we just put them up and like, or there might be time sensitive or something you never know, but we may delete them later.

[00:20:39] So if you want to make sure you get every single one of those little in between the seven episodes, make sure you're subscribed to this podcast so that you get. Updates notifications, whenever things go live, that's the only call to action. You're gonna get in this podcast for subscription because that's the most overused thing in podcasting.

[00:20:52] But, but we do have, now that we're like I'm starting a brand new business from scratch and their creative freelance world. It's going to be really fun to get content from that, which is one of the reasons I'm building that new business. If I'm being completely honest.

[00:21:04] Chris: [00:21:04] I love it.

[00:21:04] Brian: [00:21:04] So as we kind of wrap this intro episode up here just make sure every single Tuesday morning at 6:00 AM, you're checking your podcast feed for a new episode that goes live.

[00:21:13] And then randomly we have no schedule for this. The in-between a surge will be coming out as Chris and I come up with content that we want to share on the podcast. Some might be short episodes, some could be full length episodes. It just depends on what we're working through in our businesses that week.

[00:21:24]Chris: [00:21:24] Yeah, I can't wait, man. This is gonna be so fun.

[00:21:27] Brian: [00:21:27] Yeah.

[00:21:27]Chris: [00:21:27] Last week, by the way, we did a bunch of episodes. Oh no. This week

[00:21:31]Brian: [00:21:31] Yeah, this is like our fifth episode this

[00:21:33] week.

[00:21:33] Chris: [00:21:33] Yeah. This is our fifth episode this week, and this is the most fun I've ever had podcasting like to just do it way more. It's nice.

[00:21:42]Brian: [00:21:42] That was really creepy, dude. And so now if you're brand new to this podcast, you're kind of getting the feel of the Burton Ernie vibes here. Like Chris is the goofy one that I have to kind of reign in, but he's also fun. And you kind of love him even though he's he's. He's Chris,

[00:21:55]Chris: [00:21:55] A work in progress.

[00:21:56] Brian: [00:21:56] a work in progress. I mean, I am too, but you know, So I think that's a good place to end this episode, unless there's anything else you want to add, Chris? Usually you have some nice Poignant long spiel at the end that

[00:22:06] we

[00:22:06] call the mic drop moment.

[00:22:08] Chris: [00:22:08] beginning. Now I want to speak to directly to R R O G fans, people that are coming with us back from the six-figure home studio. We love you guys, and we are so excited to be back podcasting. Thank you for your patience with us. The last year has been complicated.

[00:22:25] We'll talk about that.

[00:22:26] Yeah.

[00:22:27]Brian: [00:22:27] You'll probably get a few more tidbits, especially maybe a full in between the side of why it's taken so long. Has it been eight months now? I don't know. September.

[00:22:33]Chris: [00:22:33] It's the craziest story I've ever heard in my entire life.

[00:22:37] That's all I'm going to say. And that's not an exaggeration

[00:22:39] it's yeah.

[00:22:40] Brian: [00:22:40] yeah. It's

[00:22:41] Like maybe national news stuff.

[00:22:43] Chris: [00:22:43] Yeah. Like it, it actually might. Yeah, you might actually see it in the news. So leave you with that. Subscribe.