[Grinner Hester]

I can’t think of any benefits but being listed can be a handicap.
When I see a company throw money toward that, I see a company that has a need to. That’s a red flag to me.
The BBB creates better business as much as the IRS privides some sort of service.
If unions were created to protect the lazy, the BB was created to protect the guilty.

[Grinner Hester]

A Pirate Looks at 40
and
A Pirate Looks at 50
by Jimmy Buffett

These books will line your thinking up towards the big picture more than any marketing book can (in my opinion). In marketing, people sometimes get tunnel vision on a dollar and if they do that long enough, they foreget what they wanna be when they grow up. This is how bitter old men are made.

…and bitter old man can’t sell a freakin’ snowcone to a dehydrated dude.
Become happy to be there, wherever ya are, and what you want will gravitate to you.

troof.

[Grinner Hester]

When I started out, I totally offered discounts for quantity. I felt I owed them a thank you of sorts. Over time, I learned their thank you is my product and that’s what they come to me for. By that, I was only robbing myself (and my family). Today, normal rates apply all the time. I don’t overbill when a client has fat pckets and I don’t do half price gigs because they can’t afford me. We are either a match for what we provide or we aint.
Pitch away. Make em want ya. Charge your normal rates. Don’t forget how much they will mark it up. Let em. This is their win in the deal.

[Grinner Hester]

Half of your hourly rate unless it interupts other things.

[Grinner Hester]

[Alan Lloyd] “(They really don’t seem to like you over at B-Roll, do they?)”
It would seem a couple of news shooters there envy those in video production. lol

[Grinner Hester]

right you are.
I was only immature till I turned 40. Now I’m young at heart.

[Grinner Hester]

troof
At the last major network that I staffed for, we’d edit using the nice studio monitors. When time for the final mix, all was routed to the mono 25″ Curtis Mathis in the middle of the room. That’s how ya know whatcha got. Nevr were levels not tweeked a bit while doing this. It always aided to the final product.

The only headphones in the building were in the cubicles of producers.

…and select janitors.

[Grinner Hester]

It does and it’s true. So is positive reinforcement though. More so, in my opinion.
For example, the common religion in our society uses fear as the motivator. Offer some horny virgins though and a brother will freakin off himself for the cause.
I’m just sayin’.

[Grinner Hester]

I am indeed.
Sometimes while hanging with friends and family, they will comment in how much world I have gotten to see in my travels. I grin and nod but kind fo think, yeah, I’ve seen alll kinds of different make shift sets, road signs and airports. lol
When I grow up, I’d like to visit some of the places I’ve shot at.

[Grinner Hester]

Of course the economy will get worse before better. It’d help if people started seeing it for what it is… which is a depression, not a recession. Broke folks still don’t even turn the freakin’ light off when they elave a room and continue to plan vacations they can’t afford. The overall amercan mentality will change before recovery will be possible. Even when that happens… things will have changed never to go back to how they were when we were a society of fat kids buying candy on a whim. Freedoms will be lost, attitudes will bitter, and the way people approch their video needs will not go back to calling a crew of 5 for a shoot that requires a dude with a camera.
I feel good about this year. Having readjusted my approach, workflow, and services, I am booked through May and that is something that has never happened all the years I’ve been in business for myself. Change is required. Simple as that. The world is changing regardles of habitual behavior by individuals.