An Open Letter About "Collaborations" + Working For Free
AN OPEN LETTER ABOUT COLLABORATIONS + WORKING FOR FREE
I want to point out first + foremost, that accepting the terms of working for free is a two-way street. BUT, this letter points out that the street usually starts as a one-way street, and depending on how creatives react, it can either stay that way or become a two-way street. The choice is always yours.
To people who keep asking creatives to work for free:
STOP. Just stop. Stop asking us to make sacrifices to solve your financial issues.
STOP building your business on our backs.
STOP trying to convince us that the influence of your following will “eventually” pay our bills
STOP telling us to be grateful for the opportunity for the “exposure” you’ll bring us
STOP lying to yourselves thinking it’s no big deal. IT’S A BIG FREAKING DEAL!
STOP
STOP
STOP
STOP
Do you value us? Do you value what we do? Do you know the hours of work we put into a single project? Do you?
Do you know that it’s not our responsibility as creatives to sacrifice our time, energy, and sanity because you didn’t take the time to make a budget, work out your finances, do your research about how much hiring a creative will cost, and find something that works for your budget?
“If you don’t want to work for free, then why do you do it?” You may ask. Because sometimes, we don’t know how to respond, we want to be nice, we have the “community over competition” mindset, we think that it’s a good opportunity without thinking of what it’s really going to cost us, we don’t have a clear picture as to why we are doing what we are doing, or, in most cases: we don’t know our own value. But…
THAT’S
NOT
THE
PROBLEM
The problem is YOU.
The problem is you start the conversation with “I’d love to collaborate with you!” (aka, I want your work for free, mmmkay?)
I’m sick of this garbage. I'm sick of creatives not believing in themselves enough to say no to people who want free amazing content. I’m sick of other creatives having to ask themselves “Can I swing this? Can I afford to do this for free?”
Do you see?
Do you see why the problem is YOU? Because you start the conversation hoping we will accept nothing in exchange for our amazing content.
That is the problem.
Stop approaching us hoping we will work for free. It’s disrespectful.
Do you like to eat? So do I!
Do you like to have a roof over your head? So do I!
Do you like the idea that you can work for yourself and have the life you want? So do I!
We are not a commodity. Just because there are tens of thousands of us doesn't mean we are less valuable. In fact, I take that back. There aren’t tens of thousands of us.
THERE IS ONLY ONE ME. THERE IS ONLY ONE HER. THERE IS ONLY ONE THEM.
When you ask someone to work for free your focus is on what’s important for you only, rather than focusing on the unique qualities that only that single creative or creative group can contribute to your project and the effect your collaboration or project has on the entire group of collaborators, not just you. Collaboration, by the way, doesn’t mean free. By definition, it means the action of working with someone to produce or create something. It never mentions FOR FREE. See also: Cooperation, alliance, partnership, teamwork, and joint effort. These other related words have a focus, it’s about the collective group and not the individual. I dare you to hire a photographer that takes the exact same pictures as another. I dare you to hire a photographer and have an identical experience with them as another. I FREAKING DARE YOU.
For those of you who regret knowing you’ve done this: Now you know. Once you know better. Do better.
And because I’m a helping kind of person (which is why sometimes I get myself in sticky situations where I don’t get paid) I’ve come up with a few things that might help you navigate how to work creatives in a better, more balanced manner.
5 steps to help you change how you approach working/collaborating with creatives:
Do your own damn work. Know what you want and what your budget is. Like, actually make a budget. Use real numbers, how much things cost (in the real world, and not just what you *think* they should cost - This is called research)
Ask yourself: what do I value? What do I look for in a creative collaborator? What specifically do I want this creative to do? What is the scope of their work? How can I approach them so they would want to work with me that doesn’t on;y include general praise words such as “your work is “gorgeous” I just “died” when I saw your work. Explain why their work would add value to your project. Other questions to ask yourself: What are my strengths? What are my weaknesses? How can I find someone to balance me out? If I expect myself/friends/family to be paid for what they do best, shouldn’t I expect to pay someone for what they do best, too?
Swallow your pride and realize that, if you’re building something worth anything in this world, it’s going to COST YOU MONEY. Start your business right by HIRING PEOPLE to do what they are good at. Investing sometimes feels scary, and incredibly painful but here's an inside tip: the person who you want to work for free PAID TO LEARN WHAT THEY DO. Yep! A lot of creatives have a 4-year college education. WE ARE NOT DUMMIES! If they happen to not get a 4-year degree or decide to not use their degree for their career, they have spent hours and hours on youtube, online classes, community college classes, in-person workshops, mentorships, and training to get to the point in their career where YOU are reaching out to THEM because of their stellar work. They didn’t just “become awesome” at what they do, they paid in time and tuition to learn, grow, and CHARGE WHAT THEY ARE WORTH.
Google “cheap horse drawing meme” It’s funny I know you don’t want to end up with the “cheap” version of that horse. Oh heck, I’ll include it. See below.
If you don’t have the money to pay someone their fee, don’t ask them what they can do for you. Ask yourself what you can do to work with them. “What can I sacrifice to make this happen because this person is so awesome?” “What can I do to solve my own problem instead of making it someone else’s?” I guarantee you that the creative you want to “collaborate” with will want to work with you, even more, they’ll most likely create their best work just for you because they felt respected and seen. Because you gave a crap about them, and not just about yourself.
To creatives. No, you’re not off the hook.
STOP
QUESTIONING
YOUR
VALUE
I beg you. I see your hard work, your late nights, your passion, and your dreams. I see that because I am you. I have been taken advantage of, lied to, stolen from, and devalued publicly too many times to count.
And you know what I do?
I blame myself. “Oh, they didn’t mean to do that, I wasn’t clear. They respect what I do, they just don’t have the budget, I’ll help them out. They didn’t mean to misguide me, I didn’t know how to navigate this…”
Instead of asking for what I needed, being honest with myself, respectful of my value, and be courageous enough to show up in this world demanding to be treated fairly, I cowered and stayed silent because I was too damn ashamed to fight for my own dreams because I didn’t understand my true value…. until now.
So, to you creative, you awesome, awesome creative hear me when I say:
YOU ARE WORTH EVERY PENNY YOU ARE PAID (AND MORE)
Don’t work for free.
5 steps to navigating collaboration offers (aka “free work”) :
Sit down + write a protocol in which “free” work is ok for you + your business. Create a set of criteria in which it would make sense and be worth it for you to create and use your powers for awesome, for free. THINK ABOUT THIS LONG AND HARD. Take a week, a month to figure it out. Then write it out.
Write a script about how to respond to free work over email or in person. Ex: Someone asks you if you’d be interested in “collaborating” with them (Note: even if they haven’t blatantly said the word “free” doesn’t mean that’s not what they’re looking for. If the person doesn’t lead with “I’d really love to work for you, how much do you charge” they most likely, don’t want to pay you.) Your response can be something like: “That sounds so exciting! Will you send me an email with details? “ or “That sounds fun! Let me think about it and get back to you.” This gives you a little buffer to help you think about your protocol you’ve made about the proposed “collaboration” without saying yes or no right away. Sometimes things work out and they want to pay you (which is awesome!). But, in the event they don’t want to pay you, you can put that ball in their court by sending them your rates. Pay attention to how they respond.
Listen to your gut. If you’re hearing things that don’t feel right to you, RUN. Say NO thank you. PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE. You do not owe anyone an explanation as to why you do or don’t do things.
Learn from your mistakes. Don’t make the same mistakes twice. Believe in yourself. Respect yourself enough to learn from your mistakes and move on.
Write an open letter like this one, and share it with others. The more this message gets out, the better. Our voices matter. Our livelihoods matter.
