Why artists don't make money.

So before we even start this video, I want to ask you one question. And that is, why do you want to make money as a creative person? Why do you want to make money with your art? What is it that that money will bring you? If you can't answer that question, that's okay. But you need to know that the lack of answer to that question is a big part. That's like the bridge that will get you over the reason that that artists don't make money. So we're about to get real here so that you can get to a place that most creative people truthfully just aren't willing to go. So buckle up and hang on because this might get a little bit bumpy.

The way I see it, there are three things that need to happen for you to start making money as a creative of any kind. You need a product, you need a person to sell that product to, and you need to ask that person to buy your product. So it's a super simple concept, but not easy to execute. And honestly, I think all the best things in life are that way.

So I think it really boils down to one thing, and that one thing is fear. It's being afraid that someone will make fun of you, or that they'll say you're a sellout, or that you don't have enough information to start putting out content, or that you'll look like an amateur, or that you'll look salesy, you'll look like sleazy when you try to make an offer to somebody. These are fears that all of us deal with as creative people. Early on in my career, I remember charging way less money than I should have been charging for my production costs. We're talking like 15 bucks an hour. Some of you might be saying, like, 15 bucks an hour, that's not bad. Yeah, $15 an hour isn't bad. But the problem with that, and you probably do this too, is that when you charge $15 an hour, there's all this other time that is accrued that you're not actually billing anybody for. And there's all these other things that you have to do. There's all these other expenses. And so we're not accounting for any of those things. So by the time we get paid, we're making like $4 an hour.

So in my house as a kid, money was like the necessary evil. It was the thing you had to bust your butt over. My gram would get up at literally 3:30 every morning to go and serve tables in a small town to make enough money to like, put away and buy property and do these other things. Like, she had to work her butt off to do that. So for me, if I felt like I wasn't working my butt off to make money, I felt guilt. I felt like I wasn't doing enough. And this is the culture that we live in, right? And I had somebody tell me, and this was one of those moments that was, like, incredibly frustrating and also very freeing. They said, the only thing, Lennon, that's keeping you from making more money is asking for more money. And I made every excuse to say that I wasn't ready to charge more money. And for so long, I let those fears keep control of the situation. If you're frozen somewhere, the only reason that you're not moving to the next place is because your reason to move is not stronger than your reason to stay still. At that moment, I was kind of okay. It was like, okay, it's easier for me to stay here. I didn't have a real reason to push forward. But something has shifted for me, and that is this idea that money is not a necessary evil. Money is an exchange of value. When somebody gives me money, they are telling me that they trust and appreciate me. And when you start to trust yourself more, when I started to trust myself more, I served people better. I started to see people that were paying me not as buyers, but as people that I was working alongside. So you start to develop healthier relationships with money and with potential clients. When you have a healthier relationship with yourself and when you have that, you use that money to serve your mission. Money is not the end result. The mission is. That's the why. That's the thing you have to figure out. Right?

And do the fears ever go away? No, I don't think they do. But I told somebody the other day that I think these fears are like magazines in a grocery store. Because they literally said to me, like, this is the price that we have to pay as creatives is feeling this guilt and this fear and this shame. Like, so screw that noise. Like, the fear is like magazines at the grocery store. They're always there. When you get into the checkout line, they're always going to be there. The only time they have some sort of power is when we glance at them, right when we see them. The only time that fear costs us is when we pay the cashier and choose to take it home with us. We have that choice as individuals. Will we give that fear that power? Or will we choose to go home only with what we need that we know is going to serve ourselves and our families better. So the next time that fear gets in your way and you start to question it and you start to wonder, well, what if? What if? How. How am I going to do this? What if when those things start to happen, go back to why you want this thing. Go back to your why and ask yourself, if you push past this fear and. And you get that why, you get what you actually want. Not the money, but the thing that the money's gonna get you. If you got that, would it be worth it? Or would it be better for you to avoid making that money at all just for the sake of being comfortable, if only in that very moment? Because you and I both know that as creative contributors, like that drive doesn't go away. There's something stirring inside you that is stronger than what you realize, and that's not gonna go away. So pushing the fear aside, you. It's only gonna come back, and the discomfort will come up in different ways. All right, I'm sending you love. I want you to check out this video right here. I picked it because it makes sense. After this, you need to go watch it. I wish I had a better pitch for it. I should, but I don't. I'm just. I got passionate. I got riled up. It's all I can do. Just go watch it. Come, let's hang out more. Promise not to be as, like, revved up. Maybe I am. I don't know. All right. Love you. I'll see you soon.