doing the most

because why would you be doing the least? a guide on charging premium!

most influencers are brats, but not in a very charli.xcx kind of way,

just bratty.

I have written a few texts on here about the D list treatment you get to experience as a *digital creator* by brands, PRs, freelancers, and anyone else that’s trying to humble you, so I thought it’s only fair if I switch sides for a minute. I do see both sides like chanel etc etc etc. this, I swear, is not a pick me, choose me, love me text, but I hope another puzzle piece that fits into whatever bigger picture I am trying to paint about valuing your work and yourself, in order for others to value it, and you.

last night, when I was meant to pack for a flight to new york (I am typing this mid air, lufthansa charging 27 euros for full flight internet is criminal btw), instead I opted for chasing down the hermes delivery guy (not the brand, the delivery service that refuses to ring my door bell) blocks away from my apartment, in pyjamas, updating the live tracking of the van every 30 seconds to track him. I am gonna find this (surely overworked and underpaid) asshole that just noted “I wasn’t home” when in fact I spent half my day home bound waiting for this stupid parcel. in said parcel are sadly no old céline vintage goodies but clothes I need for a job in another country in 10 days. the job requires an instagram post for me, but also for the client. that means around 15 images for me and 30 for them, considering they’ll approve hopefully half, and they all need to be different. all very doable, however besides my content deliverables I also have IRL deliverables, attendance of 3 events in one day, and I only have 24 hours in that city to produce anything, not very doable, at least not at the level I want to do things. none of that is the client’s problem at all, it’s also not their problem that I am on a different continent the day before and coming off a red eye, and ideally,

as an influencer that demands certain rates, I also don’t make it the clients problem.

an instagram story that a client needed, I took 50 tries and sent only 3 favourites to them that I was happy with. this is not hard work

they have enough problems saying yes to my rates, to my business flight only rule, to my plant based diet requests, to my only wearing black rule, answering the million questions of my management that no other agent of any other talent bothers to ask, to us asking for moodboards, full list of other attendees, saying no to a fourth hashtag even though no other talents complain about that, wanting to know who I am sat with, it’s a lot. and with all of that and probably a lot more, I have to ensure that the juice (my content, my presence at an event, my association with your brand or project), is worth the squeeze. ok so I feel at this point it’s pick me energy up in here, so I will elaborate.

(btw a lot of thoughts have been expressed on this podcast episode, “thoughts on effort”, it’s free and you should listen to it if you need a kick in the ass)

all of the work behind the scenes on and around my personal brand should be a given, and not something I want to be praised for, this should be baseline if you want to stay in business, any business. it should be a given that you turn in work done to the best of your abilities. but the amount of times people who work at brands have to be in airline hotlines because an influencer partied too long and missed their 15k round trip non refundable business flights, have to run errands they are not getting paid for (getting talents dr*gs or getting talents tampons), are informed that the talent has a belly ache and can’t make it to the dinner they flew in for, has forgotten the clothing item they are getting paid to wear, never read the product descriptions, shows up chopped (not in an act of resistance!) or just shows up with a bad attitude, it’s mind boggling. and things can always happen, but at a good five figures per post for most influencers that I am surrounded by, they shouldn’t happen. we are used to princess treatment but many are treating the ones that pay the rent like food leftovers that are kind of still too good to throw away but you def won’t eat any of it.

this is the disclaimer that maybe some people needed, I am talking about (big) paying jobs. not the ones asking you for free work.

my favourite line out of one of my favourite songs:

this is obviously about a very very very different topic, and still I replay “why would I want to do the least” in my head to myself every day, when it comes to anything.

I don’t want to be asked to re-shoot, ever, and don’t think I’ve ever had to (I can’t touch on wood in this plane right now). “re-shoot” (where a client asks you to do everything all over again, same price) is usually a result of bad communication, bad preparation, or a client not knowing what they wanted, which is never the talents fault. we try to leave very little room for errors. I make sure I say my words clearly, I make sure the light is good, the sound is good, the things that are meant to be in frame are in frame. and all of these things should be obvious but you would not believe the types of lazy work that often gets turned in without batting an eye. years and years ago my agent told me that a client is always going to choose your least favourite shot, your least favourite idea, your lamest caption option, so offering more than is needed won’t benefit you. it should as good, or better than expected, but sharp, to the point, and what they asked (and paid) for.