Ask Adam Savage: Unlikely Career Advice That Was Actually Helpful

In this live stream excerpt, Adam answers Tested member Silver Defender's question, "Was there ever any advice you were given during your career that you originally scoffed at, which turned out to be something you’d often fall back on?" Thank you, Silver Defender, for your support! Join this channel to support Tested and get access to perks, like asking Adam questions and watching exclusive videos:

Intro bumper by Abe Dieckman

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[tested]

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[chriscubbernuss]

Hats off to Dieter for being honest and not taking advantage of young you, Adam. Thank you to him for helping to form present you and being an example for the rest of us.

[jfess]

I have to admit that I was initially confused with "In the beginning of my MODELING career". Of course I immediately formed a mental picture of Adam doing a Zoolander walk at a fashion show.

[TMWriting]

I’m a freelance copywriter who’s just starting, and I recently renegotiated my pay with one of my clients and he actively told me what I was asking for wasn’t enough and told me he was going to pay me more – it was definitely a valuable experience, and I’m very grateful to have had it.

[hyperion]

When I was in college I made a basic website for an artist friend of mine. I had no idea what to charge him so I said $50. The next day he wrote me a check for $500. He said his father told him that was the absolute minimum a basic website should cost. It was a valuable lesson not to undervalue your work.

[watermelonhelmet]

The hard part is people find it really easy to put a dollar value on physical things, but place no value on your time or expertise.
When I was commission painting (tabletop minis), I lost count of the number of times I heard "You want how much? For a bit of paint? You must be crazy!"
But... you're not paying me for a bit of paint. You're paying me for 30 hours of my time and knowledge, expertise and a skill set that you don't have.
Your time and skills have value. Never forget to factor that in.

[chadwcmichael]

Some of the best advice I ever got was: Don’t be too good at the job you don’t want.
Kind of the total opposite of your story, but balance and all that.

[TomOConnor-BlobOpera]

The "Don't do this for exposure" applies equally well to website design and development. Nothing good ever comes from doing work for free.

[Smokescale]

The idea of saying "No, that's not enough, the going rate is $XXX so I'm going to pay you that" is absolutely the correct course of action when someone is clearly not charging enough for their work. You'll find this A LOT among artists online, and it's why I tip HEAVILY whenever I commission artwork. I also encourage said artists to regularly increase their rates because they absolutely are not paying themselves enough.

[jayrtfm]

Photographer I apprenticed with did his quotes based on the flinch test. When he gave the estimate, if the client did not flinch, he would say "but of course XX and YY is an additional charge" but if the client did flinch, he would say "Realize this is a good deal since I will throw in XX and YY inclusive"

[chris-hayes]

As a software engineer, hearing that question I immediately thought of work estimates as well 😂
I remember after putting together my first estimate, my boss doubled what I had. I felt a little offended, but he ended up being right.
After a few years, I'm at the point where I try my hardest to overestimate. Maybe you don't win every bid, but for the sake of everyone's sanity, it's better when the work is expected to be done early. I've also learned to stop estimating "the work", and instead estimate "the process".

[cosmiclightbulb]

Adam, I work with a small after-school Theatre program at my school (middle school), and a few years ago one of my students offered to film two of our shows and edit them together into a full-length video. This is something I'd done for our previous shows, but this student is such a talented editor and filmmaker, I was stoked to turn it over to him. My partners in the program offered to pay him $50 for his time, when I usually charged a few hundred for the many hours of work it took. The ONLY difference between the two of us was age, and I put my foot down. I did not win that argument, and I still get steamed about it. I had a convo with the student to make sure he knew that it was important to value his work in the future, but still... How do you convince other adults that when a child is just as skilled and talented as an adult, their time and effort should be rewarded appropriately?

[BrennanLetkeman]

the whole "but you'll get your leg in with this company" (that isn't offering nearly enough now, and probably ever) thing is the best advice I ever got when I started freelancing.

like, okay, yeah, even if they handed you all the work in the world - is it worth doing? if you ask them for fair value later, will they balk? or are you just trapped working for too little forever because that's the rate and precedent now permanently set

[rontocknell]

I remember building an exhibition stand for a company called 'Fuel Boss'. It was a nightmare! I was out of my comfort zone (I was used to painting shop signs and had some woodwork under my belt), using materials with which I was not familiar. I built it at home as a 'knock-down' design so it could be dismantled and easily transported. It comprised not only the signage and display stand but also the shell. Only to find that the shell was already provided and I had to use that. So I had to juggle everything around to accommodate this existing shell (which did not fit any of the measurements for the one I had built). I got it done and they were happy. It came to the time when Shirley (the woman from Fuel Boss) said "How much do I owe you?". I knew exactly how much it had all cost but it was a much higher figure than I had ever charged for anything before and I needed time to pluck up the courage to give her the quote... so I said "I'll just go and work it out". Eventually, I took a deep breath and quoted the figure.
You know by the reaction when you've quoted a much lower figure than the client was expecting. This was clear. She was delighted... she even bought me a bottle of wine to compensate for the "inconvenience" of having to build a shell and then having to juggle everything else to fit into this existing shell.
They got a great deal and I got a week's worth of headaches and a bottle of wine. Lesson learned.

[nathansavage]

I have a neighbour a bit like Deeter. I do a small amount of drone photography on the side and one day he asked me to take some photos so he could update the land registry for some properties he had altered. It wasn't anything difficult and took half an hour so i thought that £20 might be pushing it. (I earn around £10 per hour on my normal job). Once it was done, he wouldn't let me walk away with less than £70 as that was the value i had provided for him.

[mrwinston_thepug]

Thats a blessing you had honest people to work with. Most people learn their lesson by getting screwed due to not being a good salesman.

[plasmashears]

One that got me scratching my head early on was the cost of expedited shipping. Turns out if 40+ people are waiting on one part to arrive, spending a few thousand dollars to buy that part a couple of seats on a private jet might make a lot of sense.

[lilieb]

I’m so glad it’s 2023 and Adam is in the same workshop 😊

[mannypdesign]

@5:42 I love how Adam lets one rip and doesn't miss a beat.😂

[Lemonmanism]

As a carpenter in my first year of self employed business, I still question if how much I charge for my time is too low as I don’t want to overcharge or take advantage of people in fear of scaring off potential work. This advice has been extremely helpful and made me feel like I’m worth more than I realise.
Thank you Adam.