Behind the Scope

Lorenzo is the founder of Eat Butter First, and in this episode he gets into the messy, practical reality of building an agency that runs on freelance talent. How do you find the right people? How do you know when someone is actually a fit versus just available? And how do you budget for a team when every project looks different?

We get into all of it: the hiring mistakes, the relationship dynamics between agencies and freelancers, why passion and fit matter more than most people admit, and how to stay adaptable when you're operating in industries that move as fast as social media and hospitality.

Guest links:
Website: https://www.eatbutterfirst.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eat.butter.first/

There was a project that didn't fall apart because the client was difficult. It fell apart because I let them run it. The timeline, the process, the decisions, I handed all of it over without realizing what I was doing. By the end I wasn't a creative director anymore, I was just executing instructions.

In this episode, I get into exactly how that happened, what it cost me, and what I changed after. But also why this is bigger than one bad project. In a world where clients can type a prompt and get a result in seconds, the idea that creatives are just executors is becoming normalized. And every time we let a client take the wheel, we reinforce it.

Design used to mean something. Now it's a $5 Fiverr logo and an AI prompt away. So what the hell happened?

In this episode, we're getting into the uncomfortable truth about how digitalization and globalization were just the beginning of what we are seeing today with AI.

We're talking about how design went from a specialized craft to a commodity, why platforms like Fiverr and 99designs accelerated the race to the bottom.

We also get into the ethics of it all: the outsourcing, the exploitation, the "exposure" economy, and what it means for creatives trying to build a real business today.

It's a common experience as a creative to lose out on a project to someone not as good. If we feel like our work is good, why isn't that enough? We kind of assume that if someone is the best option it should just be obvious. But clearly that's not how it works. A conversation on positioning and how communication can change everything.

Guest links:
Website: https://fromblandtobrand.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamara-from-bland-to-brand/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fromblandtobrand/

Photo credit:
© Arnela Kameric

Most people run their business around deadlines, clients, and expectations. The toxic "hustle culture" rhetoric online tends to glorify consistent high productivity and being busy. Why are we leaving out the fact that half the population experiences a menstrual cycle is it left out of the productivity conversation?

Guest links:
Website: https://www.femergency.at
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/femergency.at?igsh=MWhmdG5jemY0b25lZw%3D%3D

Photo credits:
© olivialaura.at