439 - The Print Mafia Intervention
What happens when you bank everything on a dream? Sometimes it works out, sometimes you fall on hard times. Jim from Print Mafia has fallen on said hard times and it’s brought the business to an impasse. In one of the most honest, raw and powerful episodes of AID, Mark “Broprah” Brickey attempts to navigate their situation. This interview is so real, nothing is perfect and even the best in the business sometimes need help figuring things out. This episode brings out the importance of laying out a strong foundation for yourself.
Talking Points Include
- When art direction and the client’s personal taste becomes too much of a burden on your creativity
- The consequence of a professional “meh”
- Frustrations with client communication putting a strain on your working relationships
- What to do in a do-or-die financial situation
- When an artist’s “shimmer” turns to “rust”
- Being optimistic to a fault
- Going back to the day job near the end of the poster boom
- Deciding to leave the day job and go full time, but at what cost?
- Allowing yourself to have a dream over a weekend at Uncle Dream’s cottage
- Establishing and maintaining a financial baseline
- Taking a chance in order to feel like you’re giving 100%
- Coming to terms with feeling like your time in the sun has passed
In The Circle of Trust
- Branching out from your old work in order to play to your strengths and regain your passion
- When Rome is burning, you can’t figure out what you really want to do
- Using a financial baseline to do what you want to be doing instead of what you have to do to survive
- Stopping spinning your wheels to get money in the bank
- Learning to stop thrashing in the water to let the lifeguard bring you back to shore
- Creating a healthier business partnership
- Negotiating with a troublesome client or to just say no
- Determining what makes you different from everyone else
- How kids can impact your self-driven business
- When balancing two jobs can actually improve productivity of one
Today's Notes Thanks To Colin Duerrstein
My name is Colin Duerrstein and I have the unbelievable privilege of writing the show notes on today’s episode. This interview is one of the most important interviews, or should I say interventions you’ll ever hear. I’m young, I work a day job that pays the bills where I run idea after idea through my head over what the next step is towards getting out on my own. If you’re thinking about making that step, there are 100 or more things to learn from listening to today’s episode that will really help to strategize the growth of your aspirational business. To reiterate, from one jerkoff to another, this is the most important interview you’ll hear this year.
And if you hated these notes on the show this week, sincerest apologies and once David is back they’ll be back up to par.