The Art and Science of Being a Creator | Managing Creator Burnout, What to Charge Brands, and Building Your Podcast Clip Workflow

Welcome to Digital Creator. My name is Dylan Schmidt. I am bringing you this episode today from a park. I thought it would be a different ambiance to record in. I've never recorded at a park that I can think of. I have recorded while driving. I have recorded while parked, but never just at a park. Thought the change of scenery might inspire some creativity and help me connect through this recording to deliver you the best podcast possible. Question for you, have you ever recorded in an unconventional place or maybe unconventional clothing? Curious to know. Also, where is your favorite place to relax? I feel like that's an extremely personal question, but I'd be curious to know, where is your favorite place to relax? The park, sometimes a relaxing place for me, sometimes not. Today, it's, it's beautiful out. It's been raining a lot here in Los Angeles, but it's beautiful out today. So I will say it's a relaxing place to be. There's nothing major happening news wise that I feel, you know, that's important to share with you, and I'm not just gonna, like, cherry pick headlines for the sake of just recording. So I figured I would do some q and a. That should bring you more value than anything else right now. These questions are either directly taken, copied, and paste from something that somebody has asked me or it's a question that I get asked a bunch and I just formed it into 1 single thing. A lot of these come through my DMs. Feel free to always either email me or hit me up on Instagram is the primary spot where people will ask me questions. Let's hop into the first one. Dylan, do you ever get burned out making content? How do you manage everything? This is a good question, and it's something, obviously, every creator deals with, struggles with, has to maintain and manage. I do a lot. I don't even think it comes across in this podcast, how much I do, but I also don't do a lot. Like, there's definitely times where I'm completely offline. There's times where I'm, like, completely disconnected. And I don't know if it's ADD or, like, trauma that I went through when I was younger or something, but I am really good at just, like, shutting off when I shut off. For example, and this probably has to do with years of, like, working from home and just being good at managing myself, but when I'm doing something, I wanna be doing it. I don't wanna be kind of doing it, kind of not, and that helps me manage burnout. There's times, of course, where I felt burnt out or someone else has actually suggested to me, it sounds like you're burned out. I'm like, you know what? That actually probably is accurate. I didn't think about that. And so I manage it just by being more mindful of what I'm doing. And if I'm really honest with myself during those times where I am, like, you know, burning out, it's doing too much of something that I shouldn't be doing, doing too much of something that doesn't really move the needle or doesn't it's not really important. So it's the perfect time to, like, recheck my priorities, recheck my commitments, and check-in with myself and just be like, where can I, like, let some of this go? Now you may have heard me talk about before, the Pomodoro technique. I'm a big fan of this. So I have a timer on my desk and it's set to 50 minutes. And how I do it is I do 50 minutes of work followed by a 10 minute break. So in addition to having, like, my to do list for the day and my calendar set up, knowing kind of, like, where my boundaries are with when I'm starting and when I'm stopping, what commitments I have that day, whether it's a call or whether it's wrapping up a project or starting a project. When I'm actually in the weeds of doing the thing, one of the ways I can, like, stay mindful and on track is by using the Pomodoro timer, which is 50 minutes on, 10 minutes off. And what I have found after doing this for years now is, like, the Pomodoro Technique is awesome for, like, your body because you get up and you get your mind off certain things and you give the work that you're paying attention to a chance to just breathe. But what's fascinating about doing that technique is also, like, it gives you laser like focus because you know that it's not just this indefinite amount of attention that you're putting on a project. You know that you're only gonna be doing this for 50 minutes, and then it's a 10 minute break. Now the trick is if you've never done the Pomodoro Technique is what you do with the 10 minutes. Amateurs use those 10 minutes. They check social media. They do all the things that they, you know, probably aren't good to do, and then they get sucked into these rabbit holes where that 10 minute break turns into an hour break and the whole day's ruined. Intermediate and expert level Pomodoro aficionados do some type of chore or something that moves their body in a different way that they were using their mind for that 50 minutes. So for example, if I'm editing a video or a podcast or working on some type of document for, like, 50 minutes, during those 10 minutes, I'll leave physically leave the room I'm in. I'll go do, you know, the dishes, or I'll go do the laundry, or fold the laundry, or clean areas of my office, I'll dust the corners, anything that's like physically different than what I'm doing. What's wild too about doing the Pomodoro technique is you realize there's only so much you can do in a day. Tony Robbins said it best, we overestimate what we can do in a day, and we underestimate what we can do in a year. I think that's what he said. Sounds great to me, but it's true. We think we can do so much in one day, but the reality is we can only do a few things. Well, over the course of time, we can do a lot. Last thing I'll say on this topic of, you know, burnout is I've had a meditation practice for 10 plus years now and it's been super beneficial to me. Meditation leads to mindfulness and that mindfulness is an important aspect of knowing what you need, which is at the end of the day, the most important thing. Next up is, Dylan, what's a reasonable rate to charge this new brand I'm working with? First things first, in case nobody told you today, you are bringing so much value to the world. And this brand that is inquiring about working with you, you will be bringing so much value to the brand. It doesn't matter if it's your 1st time or your 200th time, you are bringing value and that's not to be undersold. Far too many creators undersell themselves because they don't fully see the value that they bring. Brands need you more than you need them. And if they're reaching out to you, you're even more in the spot of having something desirable that someone else wants, and there's likely a reason that they reached out to you. Now if you're familiar with Think Media, they make a lot of content on YouTube. I happen to actually catch a clip of a video they posted. I don't know the title. Sorry. But it was basically something about, one of the people from the Think Media team was talking about how and I apologize for my voice. I'm hopefully on the tail end of, being sick. This person from Think Media was talking about how sometimes brands don't expect to make a direct ROI from working with influencers. For example, you know, they spend $15,000 on a campaign and it's more about awareness. They just want creators talking about the brand. That's it. So they don't expect you to, you know, sell all these things. It's different than just like a normal job. Now with that being said, you know, there's calculators out there that can help you kind of get an idea or a ballpark of what you might charge. Whatever the calculator gives you, allow me to just add a 20% fee on top of that. So whatever the calculator gives you, add 20% Because let's face it, that 20% is just making you a premium creator because if you're listening to this, I can tell you a few things about yourself. You have a high attention to detail. You care about making a positive mark on the world, and you're an authentic creator. Meaning, you're not phony, you're not a snake oil salesman, like, I can tell you those things for sure, because those people are absolutely repelled by the things I talk about. So add that 20% premium on top of the calculator. You can just Google, you know, influencer rate calculator out there, and that's just a minimum. Because these brands, they have budgets and adding 20% is like nothing. Just look at it as like, my fee that you don't have to pay me, but I'm giving you permission to charge more. And if this is like your 1st time working with a brand, I'll just say this. It can be a little nerve wracking. So if you charge on the lower end, like your first one or whatever, totally fine. It's not like you're gonna screw something up and you can never charge higher on the next one. If you feel more comfortable starting out lower, cool. Just get the jitters out of the way. Focus more about going through the process and experience of the whole ordeal rather than, you know, the exact monetary exchange, because just look at it like you're getting reps in. But a couple key things that I think you should consider is, number 1, the complexity of the project that you're gonna be working on and realize, like, we all have these, like, rose colored lenses on when it comes to this stuff. Like, oh, it'll be easy. I'll do this. Usually not. Usually, it's absolutely more work than you thought it would be or something goes wrong. So, like, factor in those. For example, you shoot it and they're unhappy. Well, how many revisions might they do? You don't have to explain everything. You know, you don't want them to feel absolutely worried that they are choosing the wrong person to work with, But, like, have that in your mind. Are you satisfied with the level of your compensation that if things go wrong, you'll still be satisfied with the level of compensation? Also, turnaround times, think about your own schedule, like, what can you realistically do, and then add a couple days on that. We all have our regular obligations in life and sometimes we're like, you know, I can slot this in faster when an emergency pops up or something happens and you have to push it out. So plan this project into your life. That's important. And then lastly, think about your production costs. If they're, you know, paying you money and you spent money on gear, it is only right that you're fairly compensated for the work you do. Now what that compensation is, there's a lot of variables. That's why I say use a calculator, add at least 20% more on that, and you're rolling. Last question. What's my workflow for creating clips from my podcast? Well, if you follow me on social media, you know I don't post really clips from this podcast. This episode's audio only. I've been doing a lot of audio only episodes lately. I've just been liking not having a camera on. But with my company, Content Clips, we've made thousands of clips for people's podcasts, and we have a really, you know, streamlined workflow that produces high quality clips for a lot of podcasters. So I can share more so about our process. And the goal is templates and simplifying the whole thing. So if I was designing a clip workflow for you and your podcast, here's the things that I would consider. What actions happen after a podcast is recorded? For example, if you're recording a virtual interview in Riverside, where does that recording go after it's done? Now there's software out there like Riverside, I know has like a Clips feature or if you're using SquadCast, you could grab grab Clips and Descript. But regardless, you know, you can interchange these like widgets here. I use SquadCast and Descript, but if you're using Riverside, whatever. Same thing. And let's just say for the sake of doing it, you're doing it yourself. Everything should go into your calendar. This kinda goes back to the first thing we're talking about, around Pomodoro technique, time management, things like that. Everything should be accounted for, and that is, like, time and energy. Right? You only have so much creative energy in the day. And realistically, there's just only so much you can do. So clips may not be a part of what you can do, and that's okay. And I want you to not feel bad about not having the energy to do clips. I just want it to actually be accounted for when we look at what's possible. So because I have a company called Content Clips, I know about how long it takes to make each clip, and it depends on the style and, you know, the type of client that we're working with. Some clients, it's absolutely way easier to extract clips from their content. And other clients, it's like harder. It takes way more time because we have to dig through and really refine the clips that we do get. So it depends on the speaker too that's in the episode. But I know because I track it how long it takes, and then I can account for that time when it comes time to, like, okay, they're getting this many clips per month. Now let's say you do an episode every week, and the recording takes an hour, and then after that, like, you just go on about your day or whatever, and then you publish it, whatever. Well, depending on, like, when the episode goes out, and let's say you record on a Monday and the episode goes out, Wednesday or maybe you batch and it goes out later, whatever, You need to have on your schedule then to have the clip production that next day. If it's, you know, you record on a Monday and it goes out on Wednesday, Tuesday should be probably clip day or Monday after you record or whatever it is that you can fit in your schedule. And then you should schedule that time, have that hour to make the clips or whatever, and have a goal of, like, I need 3 clips, and I need to clip them and schedule them to be published on social media in an hour. That's realistic if there's not a lot of editing going on. But maybe you can start to see, like, how it's a time management issue so much more than the actual tactical, like, step by step thing, because the editing style that you do will change like that. That's something that will, evolve with tools and your skill level and you'll get faster. So it's important that you set aside the time in your schedule and repeat it. Now when it comes to tools like I mentioned, I use SquadCast to do virtual interviews, and then I use Descript to more fine tune the edits. I use MetraCool to schedule the social media posts, and that's both for myself and for clients. And then I use Canva or Descript depending on how intricate the templates are. But templates, templates, templates, templates. Things should have a consistent look and feel so that your whole process goes smoother, and you have expectations around how it will look, and you have that start to finish idea. It's not just a mystery of like, I gotta create clips. It's this art part of it. It's not really an art as much as it is a science, a science behind the topics you choose to clip up, the science behind, like, why did you choose blue for your brand colors? Like, all of that stuff is a bit of a science, not so much an art. In fact, the more artistic you make things, they're often harder to understand on social media. So have a scientific method kind of approach to things. And that wraps up this week's episode. If you have any questions you would like me to cover on a future episode, feel free to give me a shout either in the Creator Club or in, the direct messages on Instagram. If you're already in the Creator Club, I hope to see you during our next weekly live call on Wednesdays. If you're not in the Creator Club, come check us out. You can check out a free 7 day trial to see what all the buzz is about. There's over 800 creator resources in there. I'm adding new stuff regularly. We have weekly live calls. It's like the most supportive, awesomest community for creators that's online that I've ever seen. It's so generative. It's super welcoming, and you are invited. We would love to have you be a part of it. That's it for now. I will catch you in the next episode.