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I QUIT…. Working for nothing.
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I am rude because I call you on all of the haughty disrespect that you have had for one person after another in this entire exchange? I have noticed that in this entire thread, you have insulted nearly everyone who doesn’t agree with your way of thinking, even calling them delusional and other derogatory labels you feel free to use.
You have refused to even consider or in any way respond to some of the most thoughtful and helpful people who have offered many ideas from their own experience as to ways and means to reinvent oneself in this industry — people like Bob Zelin, Craig Seeman, Mark Suszko and others come to mind and there are many others.
I find you so disingenuous and condescending to anyone who isn’t espousing and regurgitating your point of view that I do not really care if you find my words callous or rude. As I have followed and considered this thread, I have found you so rude that I finally just had to step in here and call you on it. I do not do that kind of thing except maybe once every year or two or three — I think you are in one of my currently two or three year cycles. So welcome to that select small group.
And I will stand by my words: no matter what success you may have had in the past, you are 100% guaranteed to fail with your current attitude. If that offends you, I do not know what to do about that other than to remind you that I have been doing forums communities for over 17 years now and I have a pretty good idea of watching the ones on their way up — as well as how to spot those on their way out. You, Mr. Andy Jackson, are wearing the t-shirt of the latter club.
That you have succeeded in the past, I am happy for you. Congratulations. But with your current attitude that winning streak will not continue. That is a given.
Best regards,
Ronald Lindeboom
CEO Emeritus, Creative COW LLC
Publisher Emeritus, Creative COW Magazine
A 2011 FOLIO: 40 honoree as one of the 40 most influential publishers in America
http://www.creativecow.netCreativity is a process wherein the student and the teacher are located in the same individual.
“Incompetence has never prevented me from plunging in with enthusiasm.” – Woody Allen
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those that matter, don’t mind — and those that mind, don’t matter.” – Dr. Seuss
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OOPS!!!
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Not patronising, just honest. You’ve had your day Andy. If you can’t make money from all of the tools available to a media producer now, you never will again. If you do own your house and car and have no debt, why the hell are you creating a business model that competes with newbie producers, undercutters and cheapo firms? You have backed yourself into a corner with your clients by undervaluing your own product. Why bother to reference a case study for a guy who is hiring red camera and 4 man crews for €600? I guarantee I’ll be buying his kit from a bankruptcy auction in 6 months if that’s his business. Stop insulting people, paying no respect to advice or well aimed criticism and leave. The cow is for professionals, and you aren’t acting like one.
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OOPS No. 2!
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Walter,
I’m quite surprised that you would slice and dice my rant in and take it completely out of context. For example, I never said marketing was a waste. I pointed out that there is a diminishing return when based against the going rate for the service that you are marketing. And with current market conditions, it is easy to get there quick.
And of course there is my overall point, the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Good luck and fortune. It would be refreshing if those out there offering marketing (or other platitudes) as a panacea for whats wrong in this business would acknowledge that good fortune is probably a large part of their success in a dying market since there are so many variables which the fortunate have no control over. Did your marketing help? Sure. Power of positive thinking? Sure. Skills? Yes. Schmoozing? Sure. Change careers? Maybe. But so far none of the experts have offered up the magic bullet, because plenty of folks have done all that, and it still didn’t work for them. At the same time, some have done none of that, and had huge success. And my take on that is simply that there is no magic bullet, and that for the most part, it’s luck.
The last point I want to make is I’m quite surprised at the anger directed at guys like Andy when they post about their problems. IMO this is based on fear. The fear that they could be next. I suppose this goes along with denying the business as we know it is in a major state of decline. Whistling past the graveyard, a classic human response to fear.
It seems pointless to go on any further and discuss this.Scott Sheriff
SST Digital Media
Multi-Camera Director, VFX and Post ProductionThe Affordable Camera Dolly is your just right solution!
“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
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At least you can spell oops properly…
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Well observed …..
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Thankyou scott for your kind words.
It seems I am getting alot of flack from various members for my opinions. Some seem to be getting very personal.
The points we have highlighted may not be taken on board at the present time as there is so much denial within the industry.
When their work hits rock bottom and they can`t compete by charging high prices for the same services and quality ..at least we can say:
“Well we told you so!”
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[Scott Sheriff] “I’m quite surprised that you would slice and dice my rant in and take it completely out of context.”
I tried to respond point-by-point, so if when I broke it down that took anything out of context, I do apologize.
However, I still disagree with the whole of your point, which I interpreted to be that luck matters more than preparation. More on that in a minute.
[Scott Sheriff] “For example, I never said marketing was a waste. I pointed out that there is a diminishing return when based against the going rate for the service that you are marketing.”
You’re right — looking back, I see that I did selectively quote around that — but I stand by my point, which was that some kind of marketing is the only defense against natural client attrition. We all lose clients for any number of reasons, but if we want to keep our businesses running, we have to replace them somehow. If not marketing, then what?
Going back to a point I made earlier, if your marketing costs more than it eventually brings in, then the market is telling you something. Either you’re marketing wrong, producing wrong, or both.
Andy says there is only one possible response: get a job somewhere else, lower your prices, and do production work on the side. I disagree.
[Scott Sheriff] “And of course there is my overall point, the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Good luck and fortune. It would be refreshing if those out there offering marketing (or other platitudes) as a panacea for whats wrong in this business would acknowledge that good fortune is probably a large part of their success in a dying market since there are so many variables which the fortunate have no control over. Did your marketing help? Sure. Power of positive thinking? Sure. Skills? Yes. Schmoozing? Sure. Change careers? Maybe. But so far none of the experts have offered up the magic bullet, because plenty of folks have done all that, and it still didn’t work for them. At the same time, some have done none of that, and had huge success. And my take on that is simply that there is no magic bullet, and that for the most part, it’s luck.”
I think I was very clear that I agree with you that there is no magic bullet.
While I do agree that luck can be a factor, I disagree that luck matters more to the outcome than what we do.
Jim Collins has rigorously studied top-performing businesses and published a series of very well-respected business books (Built to Last, Good to Great, How the Mighty Fall, and Great by Choice). His most recent, Great by Choice, analyzes and discusses luck in considerable detail.
Collins argues that high-performing companies aren’t actually luckier than their less successful counterparts — but they are better prepared to maximize the results from lucky events. He calls it ROL (return on luck).
See What’s Luck Got to Do with It? [link], Collin’s brief article in the New York Times, for more on this.
There have been concrete examples in this thread of people working to make sure they stay aligned with economic forces and stay in the best position to maximize their results when they do have some good luck.
[Scott Sheriff] “The last point I want to make is I’m quite surprised at the anger directed at guys like Andy when they post about their problems. IMO this is based on fear. The fear that they could be next. I suppose this goes along with denying the business as we know it is in a major state of decline. Whistling past the graveyard, a classic human response to fear.”
Where is there anger? I see some disagreement, and I see a number of personal attacks which arguably originate with Andy, but the bulk of this thread has been a really civil discussion about decline versus change.
What’s more, nearly everyone in this thread is actually trying to help! Andy is in a really tough spot right now, and I think everyone here understands what he’s going through. I agree that simply telling him “charge more” is overly simplistic, insulting, and frankly bad advice.
But there’s more to it than that. I’ve seen friends in the industry lose their businesses and even their homes in the last couple years. Looking back, every single one of them was just trying to do business as usual, and it burned them all.
I’ve also seen friends doing exciting new work, attracting new clients, and growing their businesses. It’s hard for me to hear that the industry is in a universal state of decline when I am seeing the opposite every day.
I object to branding success as nothing more than the result of luck, because I know too many hard-working successful people. I object to branding the view that the industry is changing instead of declining as denial, because I know too many people with growing businesses.
I’d agree that the discussions on change and adaptation here are more descriptive than prescriptive, but even though there is no magic bullet, I think there’s a lot of value here and I think the discussion is worth having.
I just don’t think that “business as usual” is a viable strategy in our industry today. I think that claiming the industry as a whole is dying is itself denial — the denial that we do have some degree of control over and responsibility for our own futures.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Andy jackson] “Thankyou scott for your kind words.
It seems I am getting alot of flack from various members for my opinions. Some seem to be getting very personal.”
No worries.
At times I’m perplexed by what goes on here.
Some Cow regulars will knock each other over in the rush to be first to help some undeserving noob that could easily self-help, by simply reading the manual. And then turn around and treat real colleagues that deserve help rather poorly. None of which is doing any of us any good, but I think it makes some them feel better. It’s rather sad.As far as your situation, I will admit I don’t have an answer. Your idea about doing the low-ball jobs as extra income seems like the best short term idea until something better comes along.
What I have done is to make sure that 100% of my gear is paid for. And I was lucky enough to get a house that had an apartment in it, which I remodeled into a studio, so I don’t have any of the overhead associated paying rent in a commercial space or any payments on equipment. At the same time I’m not seeing clients in a spare bedroom piled with laundry and cutting on a laptop in the corner. I have an outside entrance and everything a commercial space would have except the cost. So I can do the same work others do in a commercial space, but don’t need to charge the LA rates to cover my overhead.
Part of my good luck is that this type of home business is not prohibited, regulated or even taxed where I live.Scott Sheriff
SST Digital Media
Multi-Camera Director, VFX and Post ProductionThe Affordable Camera Dolly is your just right solution!
“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
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