Scaling Your Team

I may answer thisother question,I know this is kind ofworking in reverse order.Bonnie asked this questionabout scaling your business.How do you do it?When did you knowyou're going to do it?So here's the thing.I know a lot of people thinkthat it's only recentlythat I've been able tomanage and work with a team,but it's almost since thevery first days in 1995when I started thecompany that I'vebeen working with other people.Now here's how my mind works.I'm pretty quick.I'm a little lazy and I'msuper like about optimization.My mind is reallyfocused on optimization.So even in the early days,Bonnie, I just got workand I just gave itto somebody else.That's as fast as Ican get a project,I just gave it to somebody else.And what I did in the early dayswas if they can only get therelike 70% of the waythere of what I would do,that's fine by me.I would coach andtalk to them and workon the files myself toget that last 30 percent,and over time, my involvementwould become less and less.And then I gotbetter people as Iwas able to affordhigher qualitytalent so that at some pointthe team that I employed.Are better than me.So I know that's a strangeway to phrase thingsnow when we're talking aboutphotography or illustration.I get that that's quitedifficult because it's reallyyour eye and your sensibilitythat is able to do that.So then what Iwould think about isand I've seen many verysuccessful photographerswork this way.They're surrounded by assistantswho do 90% of the work,and the last thingthe photographer doesis grab the cameraand hit the shutter.Really, that's what happens.So I was in Asia.In China, I'mforgetting her name.Her name is Chen.If you look upChapman's work, she'sone of the biggestphotographers in China,and she's having multiple shootsgoing on at the same time.That's how popular she is.She has a ginormous studiowith multiple stages.And I watched her work.Basically, she has a couple ofdifferent assistants setting upthe lighting and doingall that kind of stuff,getting the camera all readyin the flash and the strobe,and everything is set up.And they're doing testsand they show her.And then she walksin, I'm ready and thenwhatever talent comesin and then she'sready to rock and roll.And then as soon asshe's done pushing this,she literally hands thecamera off to somebody else.They pull out the memorycards they download.They sing, they test, ooh,somebody's mute themselves,please.Thank you.Right and then they'reshowing the client,so she's just sittingback and talkingto the models of the clientand everything is happeningautomatically for now.Luckily for her, she hasa very distinctive styleand a way of shooting thatpretty much all her systemsknow exactly what shewants, and she might makea little tweak here andthere, but that's howshe's able to systematize this.So just about anycreative profession,you can get people to domost of the work for you.If you have thatkind of mentalityand you have to have that desirethat you want to grow and scaleyour business beyondyourself and youhave to think about this andthis is really important.I like the idea thatwhen I go on vacation,the company moves forward.And we still make money.I like that idea that ifI were to get really sickor if I'm in bed stuck orwhatever reason, the companyand the business can continueon for a period of timewithout me.That, to me, is agood insurance policy.All right.What you say was your mostchallenging aspect of that,but was it just prettymuch natural for you?You say it was prettynatural for me,but I know what the mostchallenging part of itis for most of you.And the mostchallenging part is you.You don't want to let go.You think you're thebest at everythingand you just you'retoo impatientand you also have amental hang up with that.It's just honest tocharge 1,000 an hourwhile you paysomebody $28 an hour.You can't get over that.Luckily, I've nothad that problem.You mean?I mean, if you guysbuy an Apple computerand while Steve Jobswas alive, do youthink Steve Jobsdesigned the computer?Do you think he putanything together?Do you think he touched themachine in the assembly line?There's very little thathe did, except for to say,you know what?I know where we're developinglike a tablet device,but I think that would workmuch better as a phone.Let's scrap the tablet.For now, let's build the phone.That's the genius ofSteve jobs, because hehas the objectivity, the30,000 foot view, wherehe can look atsomething and say,you know what, I seebetter application.I'm not married tohow long it tookto make this and the energy andeffort, and I can now see itand I can make thatchange like this.That's what you wantto be able to do,because when you'restuck making the work,it's very hard foryou to step away.You know, I know hespent so much time on it,but that's really notsolving the problem.You can't.It's sunk, lost biasat work right there.You're so vested in that thingand the creation of that thing,you can't get out of it.And that's the problem.Sorry, I have a follow up.Yes, David, go ahead.How do you?So let's say you give yourwords to somebody else.How do you price thator how do you make it?Reasonable for them to work, Iguess, because like right now,I'm basically at workas a web developerand I give my webdevelopment to somebody else,and it works fineby a split of 50-50because I think that'swhat it should be.It's, in my opinion, right,because most of the workis done by somebody else.So how would pricing of that?What would be reasonable?OK why do you wantto be reasonable?Because it's my friend.I guess that's why.OK, hold on a lot.If your friend asked to bepaid a certain amount of moneyand they're happy to getthat rate all day at nightand not have to deal withthe headaches of workingwith the client, are you beinga good friend by paying themwhat they ask for?Yes or no?Yeah OK, so whatwe have to do iswe have to get around thismentality about what is fairand what it means to be honestor to be a good friend to me.I don't even want to be friendswith the people I work with.All I want to do is bea good job provider.And I'm pretty sureif I ask this group,I think there are 36of you on this call.30 five, if I ask all of you,whatever work that you wantand whatever priceyou want to charge,if I gave you all that workas much as you can eat.Would I be the best friend inthe world to you right now?Right? yeah, right.So has nothing to dowith what I get paid.It's just that youget paid and we allare part of this mechanism.Think about it.An agency, an ad agencyhires us to createa commercial for them.We submit a bit of aquarter million dollars,right, because we thinkthat's a good price for thisand we still makemoney and it's all goodand we get to work onthis wonderful project.I could care less if theagency goes and sellsthat same project to theirclient for $4 million.It makes no difference to me.The reason why I don't feel badabout that is I cannot commandthat price.I do not have accessto that client.I need the agency to set allthese things up in place,and for that, they shouldreceive as much moneyas they can reasonably get.All I want to do is get paidwhat I thought was fair to me.Right that's a big difference.OK the price in whichyou quote the clientshould have no bearing onwhat it costs you to make.That's a big mindset change.I know a lot of youguys can get over that,and I understand whatever timesand time and materials youput into the creationof your projectshould have little bearing onthe actual price of the client.So then you'rewondering, well, what'sdriving the pricein the first place?What's driving theprice is how much valuethe client perceives.That thing that you'redoing is to them.And that's the big difference.OK, so believe it or not, I'vesubmitted a bid for a millionwhere the developersaid, Chris, we'dbe thrilled with gettinga quarter millionand I'm like, fine.But I think the clientcan afford a million.I'm going to ask for it.So you see, I'm going toget paid three times as muchas the person who's doingalmost 100% of the work.I have no issue with that.And if you guys tuned in lastweek, we talked about this.I have this friend in Asiaand he's a graphic designer.He makes more moneythan the personwho's doing all the work.And all he did was connectthe client with the artistand he got him bothwhat they wanted.OK, so the reason why I getpaid more money than some of youis I know where the clients are.The reason why I canmake money is because Iknow where the artists are.The artists don't knowwhere the clients are,and the clients don't knowwhere the artists are,and they don't want tomanage them both ways,it works both ways.So all I'm able to do is connectthese two parts together.The better I'm at,at figuring outwhere the highpaying clients areand where I can getreally high qualitywork done for nota lot of money.The more money I get to make,and that is a boon upon me,right?I get to reap those rewardsbecause I spent decadeslooking for and curating andlearning about who's goodand who's not good andhow much is a fair price.How much is not a fair price.And that's really whatyou should strive towards.I hope I answeredthat question, David.You did.Thank you.All right.So the minute you guyschange that mindset,that mentality around price,you're going to be set free,man.The shackles willcome off and you'regoing to run aroundnaked in the forestand you're going to dance andthis is going to be wonderful.