How Old Navy Indirectly Led to MythBusters' Pilot

F*ck You, Pay Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gie-cdO__U Join this channel to support Tested and get access to perks, like asking Adam a question during live streams: youtube.com/channel/UCiDJtJKMICpb9B1qf7qjEOA/join

One thing I've learned in 25 years of doing projects for clients is - never be afraid to fire a troublesome client. There are some clients out there who might pay in full, be repeat customers, but for whatever reason are an absolute pain in the rear to deal with. In the long run, it's not worth it. Let someone else deal with all of the hassle. Cultivate your clientele the same way you'd cultivate a garden. Don't be afraid to weed every now and then. The result is that 80% of our work is for clients who require no money up front because we know they are good for it.

I'm a professional photographer, and I do the same thing. I've done parties, portraits, and various events for the small 20,000 people town I live in. I always ask for half the money when I get there. After the event, or after I edit them, if the client wants that, I will show them the pictures on my laptop. The client does not get to touch the SD card with the pictures until the 2nd half of the money is in my possession. I don't accept cheques; I only accept cash or payment through Venmo/PayPal. Cheques are just too easy to get screwed with, and a lot of people don't take artists seriously.

Getting paid upfront is a must. I started selling art at 14 and over the years I’ve lost thousands of dollars because they commissioned an art work then just dropped out after I had spent money on and time on a project. Figure out a contract and stick with it. Don’t get screwed over because of bad planning.

Thank you, Old Navy, for nice shirts that fit me and also giving Adam $10 grand so he could get the tools and skills to make Mythbusters

To quote the drug deal payment plan from Loaded Weapon 1: Half today, half tomorrow, half on delivery.

Further to Adam's point that, by all means, follow your morals: if you're working through a broker or a recruiter to get work, and they want to put you in touch with someone whom you object to working with on moral grounds, tell your broker WHY you're saying no. It will help them with finding you work, and will help build your reputation as someone who cares about what you do, rather than someone who's purely mercenary about their work!

Oh how I wish I saw this vid and the "Should you ever do work for exposure" vid when I was at the beginnings of my career. It took a few years to learn this wisdom and insight for me. If you're just starting out or you have questions similar to what Adam is answering here, pay damn close attention and make notes and learn from what he is saying! Thankyou Adam for passing this knowledge on. Bless you sir.

When i had my custom wood-shop making custom cabinets and canopies for large aquariums I would always get people who wanted me to make things using cheaper, low quality wood and/or cut some corners in construction. I always turned down these jobs. I had a certain standard I built to which costs a certain amount bot money and since my name went on the fin I shed product I didn't want to known for that. No one would know i built exactly what the client wanted, all they would vase is a lower quality product

Fun Story: In 2017 I moved to Gardena CA and my landlord was into collecting hearses and gave me a deep discount on rent to store some of his hearses on the rental property. One day about a month after I moved in he pulls up with a 59 Miller Metro on a trailer and puts it on the side of the house and after I freak out a little bit I ask him if he knows what he has and what it could potentially be worth. He admits that he knows exactly what it is, but is never going to sell it because he doesn't want some fan of the movie to "ruin" the car(he doesn't want to take the commission because of what the client might do with it). A few months later we are chatting again and he mentions that he found a hand carved horse drawn hearse from the early 1900s, but it's too expensive for him to buy. I casually drop that if he sold the Miller Metro he could probably make more than enough to buy the hearse he actually wants. A few days later I am helping him take some pictures of it, and maybe a week after that these dudes from Sony come by to look at it for a movie they are working on. I'm pretty sure that it's the Miller Metro that they use in Afterlife because it had the casket/gurney lifting arm still in it and still fully working and that feature was fairly prominently used in the movie.

Regarding getting money up front from a client, it is essential. I've been a builder for 40 years, you need their money for cash flow, customer involvement, validating the contract, and leverage. A lot of ex-builders I know went under because they did not follow this simple rule.

Something to be aware of when using a makerspace for 'production' work is tool quality, condition, up keep and scheduling. I have run into issues on all of these. I always plan 'extra makerspace time' into my project time. Remember, the person before you might break the machine and it being fixed could take months. In the early days of the space I'm am member of, tool condition was always an issue so I factored in time to 'fix/improve' the machine. Some of my fixes are still in place many years later. My place limits time on popular machines as the space doesn't want someone monopolizing the equipment, though this doesn't stop members from breaking the rules and doing what they want (often without penalty). Members may ignore scheduling the equipment (assuming there's a reservation system), and when you show up it's "Oh juuuust one more minute and I'll be done" and that minute doesn't mean they will leave the equipment/work space in clean condition. Related, I went to use a V-mill and it looked like someone massacred a large amount of Alu. Easily spent 3/4 hr. cleaning it up so I could use it.

I'm in IT, but I can't believe the gall of some customers. Sometimes I get a call and they ask me to tell them how to do something. Sometimes they want it emailed in detail. WTF? I now answer: "Instructions are $1,000. Me doing it will probably be around $500."

I do tool repair work as a side hustle and always make everyone put down at least $50 up front non refundable if I think that a repair is possible and economically proper. When I'm done I give people 5 attempts at contact and 4 months before I sell their tool and be done with it. Customers having some skin in the game up front stops so much of the BS I would previously encounter.

Willie Mays…I was fresh out of the Marine Corps working for a locking company. Mr. Mays needed his Penthouse rekeyed. He was so mean to me. It broke my heart. I was so excited on my way over…and left that job just so depressed

speaking of web programming, i found in most cases it was not delivery of payment issue, it was the fact that india programmers would do a $1000 job USA quote for $100 to $200 India. Its hard to compete with that unless you already have a great reputation in the industry.

Grew up watching your content, glad you still make so much content on here, always great info to share as well, thank you for everything!

It’s crazy to me that this channel doesn’t get more views. Adam Savage was my entire childhood. Dude’s one of my heroes.

My first computer was a CompuColor (8080 based and same generation as Apple II/TRS-80). Lots of fun. Spent a big chunk of my summer work money on it in '79, I believe.

I learned my lesson about taking money up front when I built a complete office system for a business and when it was done, it turned out they didn't have the money we had agreed on and started asking for rebates and downpayment over 24 months, etc, as if my time was worthless. I did end up selling the same concept to multiple other companies though, so I ended up on my feet. But it wasn't a fun experience at the time.