Post your last win here. The small one.
Not the highlight reel. The small one.
The rate you held instead of dropping. The email that finally got a reply after five months of nothing. The client you turned down. The invoice that got paid without you having to chase it.
Those are the ones worth saying out loud, because they are the ones that give somebody else in here a template.
I will go first.
Last month I sent a note to someone I had not spoken to in three years. No ask attached, nothing to sign, just a thing I thought they would want to see. Two weeks later they sent me a project. Three years of silence, then one message with no agenda in it.
Your turn. What is the last small thing that went right?
I'll go! Did a shoot for a smallish local brand. I've been casually chatting with them on and off for two years on social media. Got the job when a previously booked photographer called out last minute.
The number I ignored for years
For a long time I ran my business off the balance in one checking account.
If the number looked healthy, I felt healthy. If it looked thin, I panicked and took a job I did not want at a rate I should have refused.
That number lies. It is holding money that is already spoken for. Taxes. Rent. The vendor you owe next Friday. The pay you have not given yourself yet.
The fix is boring, and it works. Separate accounts, each with one job, and a fixed percentage that moves into each one every time money hits.
Income. Everything lands here first. Nothing gets spent from it.
Taxes. Set the percentage, move it, never touch it.
Operating. Gear, software, insurance, the real cost of running.
Owner pay. What you actually live on.
Profit. The account that makes the slow months survivable.
Twice a month you move money out of Income into the other four. That is the entire system. It takes about fifteen minutes once it is running.
What it buys you is not organization. It is the ability to say no to a bad job in February, because you already know exactly what you need to make.
Your turn
What percentage are you setting aside for taxes right now?
If the answer is "I do not know," say that. It is the most common answer in this industry and it is fixable in an afternoon.
The follow up rule: give something, ask nothing
Most follow up dies because it asks for something.
"Just checking in." "Any updates?" "Wanted to circle back." Every one of those puts work on the other person and gives them nothing in return. So they file it, and they mean to answer, and they never do.
The version that works does the opposite. You send something they can use, and you ask for nothing at all.
A link to work that genuinely reminded you of their brand
The name of a crew person they should know
A specific detail you noticed in a campaign of theirs, not a compliment, a detail
An article about their category that they probably have not seen
You are not asking for the job. You are staying in the room. Do that four or five times over a year and you become the person they think of when a job appears, which is the only thing you were ever competing for.
Your turn
Post a follow up you are sitting on right now. The email you have written in your head and not sent. Drop the draft here and I will tell you exactly what I would change.
Ask me anything. I answer every one.
Twenty one years in photo and video. Shooter, producer, line producer, and now on the client side deciding who gets hired.
That last part is the useful one, because I get to watch how the decisions actually get made. Who gets called back. Whose bid gets opened first. Why a great portfolio still loses the job.
Ask me anything about the business side of it.
What to charge, and how to say the number out loud without flinching
How to reach someone who has never heard of you
Why a bid got passed over
What a producer is actually looking at when they open your site
How to build a pipeline when the phone is quiet
When to fire a client
No question is too basic. The basic ones are usually the expensive ones.
Post yours as its own thread so other people can find it later. I answer every one.
I’ve got another question. How do you make a post about winning, placing or getting an honourable mention in a photography competition get attention? I don’t want to write something like - ‘ I was surprised and honoured to find out I got an award in…’? Do you talk about the story or image instead?
Welcome. Read this first.
You subscribed to a newsletter. Now there is a room attached to it.
I have spent 21 years in photo and video production. Shooting, producing, line producing, running campaigns, and now sitting on the client side deciding who gets hired. The thing that keeps proving itself is that the work is rarely the reason someone gets the job. The business around the work is.
That is what this room is for.
Who this is for
Photographers, directors, producers, reps, and freelance creatives who are already good at the craft and want the business side to feel as good as the work does.
Where to go
Start Here. You are in it. Read this, then introduce yourself below.
Wins + Work Landed. The job you booked, the rate you held, the email that finally got answered.
Ask Anything. Rates, bids, outreach, why a job went sideways. I answer every one.
Outreach + Follow Up. Cold emails, reps, and the long game of staying on someone's radar.
Money + Systems. Pricing, invoicing, cash flow, and the systems underneath it.
The Weekly Issue. Every newsletter lands here. Comments are open.
Do one thing before you close this tab
Comment below with three things: what you do, where you are, and the one part of the business you would most like to get better at.
That is the whole ask. I read everything in here.
House rules
Be specific. Vague questions get vague answers.
No pitching to the room. Take it to DMs if it is a real fit.
Share the actual numbers when you can. It is the only way anyone learns anything.
If you want to go deeper
None of this is required. The room is free and it stays free.
The Creative's Cash Flow Toolkit ($47). The 5 account system I use to separate taxes, operating costs, owner pay, and profit so one checking account stops running your decisions.
The 5 Stages of Cold Outreach for Creatives ($25). How to reach someone who has never heard of you, and what to send at each stage.
Cash Flow Setup Call ($297). Sixty minutes, one on one, where we set the whole system up on your actual numbers.
Glad you are here. Go introduce yourself.
The Drawing of the Three;
1. Photographer.
2. Sacramento, California.
3. Outreach, networking, and (being new to the industry) how to find out who is who, and how to find them. Then also, how to know what they're working on, projects they're involved in, and so forth.
Join Honored To Be Here Community
A working room for photographers, directors, producers, and freelance creatives who want the business side to feel as good as the work. Outreach, follow up, pricing, cash flow, and the systems that keep it all moving. Free to join, and built for people who actually want to talk shop.
