The Studio Source.com

Image by Ross Harmes

A few people have commented on a favourite saying of mine: the scent of desperation attracts vampires. I’d like to trademark it and put it on t-shirts. And lunch boxes.

Until my legal team finalizes the details on that budding corporate empire, I’m happy to tell you I was recently offered the opportunity to take a rather fanciful view of what happens when we act out of desperation and the vampires do come.

Image by William Warby

I once had a rather brief conversation with an artist about what I do here at the Studio Source. She asked about consulting and what I charge.

“A hundred dollars!” she gasped. Then, “Oh, just kidding.”

She wasn’t kidding.

She wasn’t really thinking, either. It was an instant reaction that had nothing to do with me or the services I offer. That horrified gasp was really about her relationship with money.

It’s an uncomfortable relationship a lot of us can identify with.

I’ll bet you a hundred dollars, and a hundred more, that belief system is seriously undermining her business. I’ll also bet you a big bucket of money it never occurred to her to ask one critical question.

Once upon a time, during one of my unfortunate stints in the world of business administration, I worked in a shared set of offices. One day a woman stormed in, red-faced and angry. She was holding a black velvet board with earrings pinned to it.

“Would you buy these?”

She phrased it like a question, but it was a demand. A furious demand.

I discovered she’d applied to a high-end show and the jury rejected her work. She decided to prove how wrong these misguided, awful people were by immediately selling her samples to anyone within earshot. My office was her first stop.

I stammered something about it not being my style, and she left without pressing me further. I was hugely relieved.

Because I lied.