Creativ Rise Podcast

Watch This Video Next - https://youtu.be/fHx33G_FJs0
Ever wonder how some creatives get paid to travel, shoot in the mountains, and work with the outdoor brands they already love?
Most talented creatives can make a great video. The hard part is explaining what that video does for a brand's business. Without that, it's tough to land bigger clients, and even tougher to keep them around.
That's exactly where Ian McFadden was when he moved to Colorado to go after brand work. He had the skills, but no proof and no clear sense of what brands actually wanted from him.
In this episode, recorded late at night in Canmore, Alberta, right out of Ian's camper van, Joey sits down with Ian to talk about how he built a business as a content strategist for outdoor and travel brands. He shares how he learned to put words to the value he brings, why founder-led content is driving growth for small brands, how he plans a month of retainer content, and the communication habit that has kept one client around for almost three years. Plus, this one lands on the six-year anniversary of the Creativ Rise Podcast!
Explaining the value your content brings to a brand
Using founder-led stories to grow small brands
Planning retainer content with content buckets
Keeping clients for years through constant communication
Building momentum with your personal work
Get clear on the value you bring, and brands will want to keep you around for the long haul. 🚀
P.S. Ian says the biggest thing the Mastermind gave him was hearing the business side over and over until he could say it confidently on his own sales calls. The Creativ Rise Mastermind November cohort has 10 spots, and inside we'll work through your pricing, your offers, and your pitches with you. Get on the waitlist at www.creativrise.com.
FREE TOOLS & TRAININGS
→ Pricing Calculator: https://www.creativrise.com/pricingcalculator
→ Pitching Masterclass Course: https://www.creativrise.com/pitchingmasterclass
→ Sales Call Formula Course: https://www.creativrise.com/offers/RM2ZPtZx/checkout
→ Productivity Course: https://www.creativrise.com/productivity
→ Money Management Training: https://www.creativrise.com/moneytraining
→ Fix Your Inquiry Form: https://www.creativrise.com/inquiryform
LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE
→ Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/creativrise
→ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/creativrise
FOLLOW ALONG
→ Instagram: @creativrise | @joeyspeers | @christyjspeers

Booked $4,500 this month and completely exhausted? Had an amazing sales call, then got ghosted? Pitched your dream brand and got offered a free jacket?
These are three of the most common spots we see creatives get stuck in. And the longer you stay there, the more it wears on you. You start to resent your clients, dread sales calls, and check your phone every five minutes hoping it's them.
Most of the time, the fix comes down to how you price, how you close, and how you pitch.
In this episode, Joey puts Christy on the spot with three real scenarios she's never heard before, and she walks through exactly what she'd do in each one. You'll hear what red flag pricing is and why it can cost you bookings, the refundable date-hold deposit that keeps a great sales call from going cold, and how to answer free product offers with a pitch that brings in paid work. Plus, we share the mock sales call we ran with Hudson from Harbor Film Co and shout out this week's Mastermind wins, including a $12,000 month of tourism work.
​Auditing your offers and pricing when you're burnt out
​Spotting red flag pricing and raising your rates
​Booking clients before you hang up the sales call
​Setting a follow-up date so a great call never goes quiet
​Turning free product offers into paid pitches
Every one of these scenarios has a clear next step. Take it, and you'll work less, close more, and actually enjoy your business again. 🚀
P.S. Getting around creatives who are already booking the work you want changes everything. The Creativ Rise Mastermind November cohort has 10 spots, and inside we'll work through your pricing, your sales calls, and your pitches with you. Get on the waitlist at www.creativrise.com.
FREE TOOLS & TRAININGS→ Pricing Calculator: https://www.creativrise.com/pricingcalculator→ Pitching Masterclass Course: https://www.creativrise.com/pitchingmasterclass→ Sales Call Formula Course: https://www.creativrise.com/offers/RM2ZPtZx/checkout→ Productivity Course: https://www.creativrise.com/productivity→ Money Management Training: https://www.creativrise.com/moneytraining→ Fix Your Inquiry Form: https://www.creativrise.com/inquiryform
LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE→ Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/creativrise→ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/creativrise
FOLLOW ALONG→ Instagram: @creativrise | @joeyspeers | @christyjspeers

Ever send a proposal, hear nothing back, and decide they must not be interested?
What if that silence has nothing to do with you?
Last weekend at Lake Tahoe, Christy spent a good chunk of the afternoon yelling at her identical twin sister Leslie from a hundred yards down the shore, trying to get her to jump off a cliff. Leslie kept shaking her head. But Christy could tell she wanted to do it.
Most creatives treat a quiet inbox like a no. They send a cold PDF, get ghosted, and move on. Meanwhile, the client is standing on the edge, interested and just too nervous to take the step.
In this episode, Christy tells the full story of how Leslie finally jumped, and we break down the sales lessons hiding inside it. You'll hear why hesitation usually comes from fear, how Mastermind members Haley and Gabriella stack small yeses before a client ever gets on a call, and why getting closer to your clients changes your close rate. Plus, we shout out this week's Mastermind wins, including a $12,500 branding project and recurring revenue that doubled in six weeks.
Why hesitation rarely means a lack of interest
How to remind clients what life looks like after they say yes
Using micro yeses to build trust before the big ask
Swapping cold PDFs for sales calls and Loom walkthroughs
Walking clients through your process so the decision feels safe
Selling doesn't have to feel pushy. When you understand how people work, getting a client to yes feels a lot more like helping someone off the rock. 🚀
P.S. The October cohort of the Creativ Rise Mastermind sold out within hours, and 9 of the 10 spots went to people on the waitlist. Applications for the November cohort open October 21st, and inside we'll help you build a sales process that gets your dream clients to yes. Get on the waitlist at www.creativrise.com.
FREE TOOLS & TRAININGS
→ Pricing Calculator: https://www.creativrise.com/pricingcalculator
→ Pitching Masterclass Course: https://www.creativrise.com/pitchingmasterclass
→ Sales Call Formula Course: https://www.creativrise.com/offers/RM2ZPtZx/checkout
→ Productivity Course: https://www.creativrise.com/productivity
→ Money Management Training: https://www.creativrise.com/moneytraining
→ Fix Your Inquiry Form: https://www.creativrise.com/inquiryform
LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE
→ Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/creativrise
→ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/creativrise
FOLLOW ALONG
→ Instagram: @creativrise | @joeyspeers | @christyjspeers

Nobody wakes up and decides to have a flat year.
But plenty of creatives get to December with the same revenue, the same pricing and the same empty calendar they had last January, and no real explanation for it.
In 2021, Joey put on a shirt and realized he was 20 pounds heavier than the year before. He was playing sports, going to the gym, and eating tacos three or four times a week. He never decided to gain the weight. He just never decided not to. That's drift, and it works exactly the same way in a creative business.
Here's the part that makes it dangerous: drift only ever moves in one direction. It never takes you toward better clients, better pricing or a fuller calendar. It takes you away from all of it, quietly, over about twelve months.
In this episode, Joey breaks down where drift hides in a creative business and what actually pulls you out of it. Not more hustle. A narrow focus on the real problem, and then building the thing that solves it.
Why "something will come through" is the most expensive plan in your business
How to spot drift in your lead gen, your pricing and your money before it costs you a year
Turning one-time clients into recurring work so next month isn't a guess
Giving every dollar a job before it lands, so six figures doesn't feel like nothing
The build, book and deliver audit for finding exactly where you've drifted
Twelve months from now, your business will reflect either a direction you picked or a direction that picked you. This episode is your reminder that it's still early enough to pick.
P.S. Drift ends when you stop guessing and start building with people who hold you to it. That's exactly what we do inside the Creativ Rise Mastermind - a 12-month program where Joey and Christy work with 10 creatives per cohort to build a six-figure business. Applications for the October cohort are open now at www.creativrise.com.
FREE TOOLS & TRAININGS
→ Pricing Calculator: https://www.creativrise.com/pricingcalculator
→ Pitching Masterclass Course: https://www.creativrise.com/pitchingmasterclass
→ Sales Call Formula Course: https://www.creativrise.com/offers/RM2ZPtZx/checkout
→ Productivity Course: https://www.creativrise.com/productivity
→ Money Management Training: https://www.creativrise.com/moneytraining
→ Fix Your Inquiry Form: https://www.creativrise.com/inquiryform
LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE
→ Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/creativrise
→ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/creativrise
FOLLOW ALONG
→ Instagram: @creativrise | @joeyspeers | @christyjspeers

$1,450 for a newborn session, and the client says yes without blinking. 👀
If that sounds impossible in the portrait space, this one is for you.
The portrait space comes with a story attached, and most of us got handed it early: this is the work you do because you love it, not because it pays. Sessions get priced at $200. Packages get sold by the hour. And the whole model quietly trains you to compete on time instead of on the experience you actually deliver.
Amber Brown has been building the other version. She's a family and birth photographer in Roseville, California, a mom of a four year old and a two year old, and she crossed six figures in the first eight months of this year. She closed 2024 at $22K and 2025 at $80K.
Local family sessions are now $1,250. Newborn sessions are $1,450. And the month she's about to post her best numbers in is her lowest session count all year.
In this episode, Joey and Christy get the whole build out of her: the move off hourly packages and onto value-based offers, what goes into a session a client happily pays $1,450 for, the Instagram ad funnel bringing her one to three inquiries a day on $5 to $20 of daily spend, the sales move that takes the risk off the client and gets the date locked, and how she runs all of it on two babysitter days a week.
Why value-based offers change what clients ask you about
What a $1,450 newborn session actually includes
The three-ad set and message funnel doing all of her lead gen
The fully refundable hold that gets people off the fence
What she spends on childcare, and how that math works
You don't have to shoot more to earn more. You have to sell something that's worth more. 🚀
Want the funnel drawn out? DM us “FUN FUNNEL” on Instagram and we'll send you the video where Amber maps it end to end.
P.S. Amber built this inside the Creativ Rise Mastermind, and she's still in the room today. The next cohort is capped at 10 creatives and starts October 1st. Public applications open September 15th, and if you're on the waitlist you get access earlier. Get on it at **www.creativrise.com.**
FREE TOOLS & TRAININGS
→ Pricing Calculator: https://www.creativrise.com/pricingcalculator
→ Pitching Masterclass Course: https://www.creativrise.com/pitchingmasterclass
→ Sales Call Formula Course: https://www.creativrise.com/offers/RM2ZPtZx/checkout
→ Productivity Course: https://www.creativrise.com/productivity
→ Money Management Training: https://www.creativrise.com/moneytraining
→ Fix Your Inquiry Form: https://www.creativrise.com/inquiryform
LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE
→ Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/creativrise
→ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/creativrise
FOLLOW ALONG
→ Instagram: @creativrise | @joeyspeers | @christyjspeers