This month I think I’ve heard the phrase “feast-or-famine cycle” about 37 times. And I hate it. Then RevThinker Ashley and I were speaking with a motion design studio owner in NYC. We were discussing how the latest best practices in sales is, ironically, recognizing that most sales problems aren’t sales problems… They are marketing…
Insights
In our latest podcast, Marcel Ziul explains why the term “consultant” is all wrong. I agreed. So like Don Draper of Mad Men (who famously wordsmithed, “Why I’m quitting tobacco…”), now you understand my subject line, “Why I’m quitting consulting.” That said, I’m no quitter. Creative studio owners may not need “consultants” per se, but they…
Happy Monday. “No, we don’t have a budget. Just send us a proposal, ok?” Has a client ever said this to you? Did you believe them? Don’t fall for it. Ever. Here’s why… Years ago over drinks I challenged a client of mine (a VP/Creative Director at Discovery Channel) and he laughed: “Of course, yes,…
(Because I have this discussion with multiple owners multiple times every week, I thought it would be helpful to collapse my thinking here in a shareable format.) By now, we all understand the importance of narrowing one’s positioning. But how to narrow is where most owners get it wrong. Perhaps you’ve heard yourself say something like…
After a full week at Promax in LA, I thought I would share my biggest takeaway from the conference. You might expect I’m sharing a big insight into the seismic shifts in the entertainment industry… or the evolution of branded content → brand content → content… or the rise of Netflix / Hulu / Amazon…
Do you feel stuck? If you run a up-and-coming creative studio, you’re in familiar territory. It’s ok. Every studio / production company gets stuck in the Painful Season at some point. (My studio Impossible Pictures was stuck there for its first 7 years!) Some get stuck there indefinitely. You’ll know you are in the Painful…
(In case you missed my email on The Spectrum of Replaceability referenced below, find it here.) I so appreciate readers who share feedback with me drawn from their own experience running a creative studio. Case in point, I found this note from Brandon, owner at ColourMovie in LA (shared with permission) particularly interesting: “I just…
More than a few readers who listen to our podcast have asked me, "Why do you hate testimonials?" Meet Dave, my good friend who is a marketing consultant. For years, I've been ribbing him to nix the testimonials on his website. Each time, Dave hemmed and hawed, but the testimonials remained. Now then, in addition to...
We can safely assume that you’ve received bad news like this before: “Sorry but you didn’t win the job because blah blah blah…” But in that conversation, did you also hear: “blah blah blah… price… blah blah blah… cost… blah blah blah… efficient…” I hope you were paying attention to the signals. Did you hear...
While onboarding a new client (a studio at the very top of their niche in the world), my spidey senses were telling me something. What came to mind was classic bit of RevThinking which I shared with them. It goes like this: The best firms charge the highest prices. Right. But why? Because they produce the best…
