I'm not editing this video. You know why? Look, I'm a video editor, that's what I do for a living, but I'm not even editing my own stuff. You know why? Because I have less than a thousand followers on TikTok, I have like 300 followers on Instagram, nothing big, right? So, why would I go and spend a couple hours, even more, to edit my own videos and add some effects here and there, some some text, some graphics, some animations. Why would I even do that for my own Instagram or social media when I don't have a big following? This is often the mistake that clients make, right? They say, hey Zach, we want to do this, we want to do that, we want these effects, but then you look at their social media, bro has 100 subscribers on YouTube, less than 500 followers on TikTok. Now, this is what I learned from talking to potential clients like this. I say, instead of going, hey yes, let's do that, let's do that and then just getting the money, taking the money from them, I actually say, hey, I don't think it's going to give you a lot of leverage if we focus too much on the editing. How about you hire me as a consultant and we don't put too much emphasis on the editing. Let's let's focus more on the thumbnails and get people to click, because if we focus on the editing, all of that is going to be great once they click, but if they don't even click, the thumbnails are not thumbnails are not optimized, then what's the point? So, I've I've shifted from being just a freelancer of just taking on video editing projects, everything, just making some money, making money, that's it. I've turned from that into being a consultant, into being on the same page as my clients. If I know that if we go crazy on the editing and I know that you're not going to get as much results as you possibly can with that, I'll say, hey, let's not do that. We want to optimize for clicks first, let's do thumbnails. Or if not thumbnails, let's work on our scripting. I will help you script it. Let's focus on our shooting, you know? If you shoot content, I'll be on the same Zoom call with you, I will help you, I will guide you while you're doing it. Something like that. You will you will transcend from just being a video editor or a graphic artist into being just a whole consultant, like like a whole like you're in the same team with them and you're really sharing the same vested interest and you're you have the same goal. Because if you're just a freelancer, your goal is to make as much money as you can, right? Why would I decline an edit when I can make money off of that? But if you come in as a strategic partner, your goal is the same as theirs, so you would not lead them astray. You would not tell them to do this even if you know that's not going to get them the results. And when you do this, you actually will get them results, then you can charge higher. So that's how you make money, not on the upfront just taking on whatever project that you can.
