"If you are a creative and you want to make money with your art, you gotta do this one thing."\nIf you are a creative and you want to make money with your art, there\u2019s one thing that you HAVE to do and another thing you must absolutely AVOID.\n\nOver the past 20 years that I\u2019ve been making art, there are a few things that really have made me lose my cool \u2014 like, really, really made me frustrated. When I\u2019m working with somebody and they do one of these things, I just don\u2019t understand why they would do this to themselves.\xa0\n\nBy making this one mistake, they begin to ruin their reputation, their work, and even their art.\xa0\n\nIn this episode of ONKEN RADIO (formerly NION Radio), I\u2019m sharing the biggest mistakes that creatives make. My hope is that this episode inspires you to avoid making those same mistakes and, instead, do the very opposite so that you can establish an impeccable reputation as a Creative Alchemist in your space. Let\u2019s get started \u2014\nThe ONE Mistake You Should Never Make\nFirst of all, I want to say that this mistake doesn\u2019t just apply to creatives \u2014 this extends into everyone\u2019s life and career. If you continually make this mistake in your business and personal life, fewer people will trust you, value you, and give you their business.\n\nI believe that dishonoring your word is probably one of the most harmful things you can do.\xa0\n\nDishonoring your word can mean a lot of things, but in this context, I mean not delivering on the expectations that you have set for the job you\u2019re completing. This looks like going past deadlines, charging more money at the last minute, or just not being able to do what you said you could do for the client. In your personal life, this may look like going back on a promise, not supporting a friend in need, or just being dishonest.\n\nHave you ever been on the other side of this? Someone said that they would do X, Y, Z for you, but they never delivered on their promises? Or maybe, they said they would have your project done by a certain date, but they\u2019re constantly pushing the deadline back? It\u2019s probably one of the most frustrating things I\u2019ve come across in the creative sphere, and I\u2019ve seen it ruin careers.\xa0\n\nI\u2019ve hired a lot of creatives myself, such as graphic designers and web designers, who I\u2019ve had to chase down to get the finished product. And a lot of times, hiring creatives is an expensive investment, which means it\u2019s imperative that I get what I paid for. Sadly, it doesn\u2019t always work out that way.\xa0\n\nFor example, I hired this guy to redo my website, and he promised me that he was going to do SEO optimization, create graphics, design WordPress themes, coding, and everything else of that sort. He assured me that he had a full team to do all of these specialties, and he said it would be $10,000.\n\nHe gave me a contract saying that he would deliver the first round of updates within a month. So when that first month came around, I emailed him. I didn\u2019t get a response. I emailed again, and he came back a week later, saying that he needed more time because \u201csomething\u201d came up.\xa0\n\nNaturally, I was frustrated. This went on and on, and then I found out later on that he was doing everything himself \u2014 the SEO optimization, coding, design work \u2014 everything! He was a team of one. Obviously, you need to have a team of multiple people working within their own zones of genius to make a project like this work. No person can do all of those things really, really well, and he had promised to complete all of those things at a professional level.\xa0\xa0\n\nEight months later, I have nothing. I don\u2019t even have an outline of a design for the website. Remember \u2014 his original promise was that he would have something for me within the first month.\xa0\n\nFinally, I got a hold of him. He said he was still working on everything. I told him he needed to hire a coder to help him out. Eventually, he just dropped off the planet, and I never heard from him again. I\u2019m still out $10,000 because of this guy.