Would You Hire Yourself?
A mirror for creative professionals who wonder why clients don't respect their work
Audio engineers who sell services for a living are asking me why they should pay for mine when free alternatives exist. Then, in the next breath, they're complaining that artists ask them the same question.
Let me be more specific.
Audio engineers and producers (people who ARE contractors, who sell their services for a living) are reaching out about working together. The conversation goes like this: They're hesitant to invest in my services because they're "not sure about the value." They want to see proof. They want guarantees. They want to understand exactly what they're getting before they commit a dollar.
Fair enough. That's normal buyer behavior.
But then, and here's where it gets wild, these same people tell me their plan for growing their business. They're going to run some Facebook ads. Post more content on Instagram. Maybe do some TikToks. They're convinced that if they just get their name out there, the big artists will find them. The major label projects will come. The dream clients will appear.
They expect to move up the ladder without demonstrating value. Without case studies. Without proof. Without anyone being sure about what they're getting. They expect artists to just... trust them. To take a leap of faith. To invest without guarantees.
Do you see it?
They won't invest in services without proof, but they expect clients to invest in their services without proof. They demand clarity before they spend, but they offer vagueness and hope that their marketing will somehow compensate. They want certainty as buyers but ask for faith as sellers.
The contradiction isn't just ironic. It's career-limiting.
And it gets more specific. I get messages like this:
"Why should I hire you and not just get advice from my mentor for free?"
"Why shouldn't I just use ChatGPT?"
"Do you even mix?"
"Why do I need to pay for a call with you?"
These are people who sell audio services for a living. People who charge for their expertise. And they're asking me why they should pay for mine when free alternatives exist. They're expecting my time to be free.
Or they leave me on read after I respond to their inquiry, then circle back weeks later wondering why artists ghost them after initial conversations.
That last question ("Do you even mix?") tells me everything. They've confused craft skills with business skills. And if they can't tell the difference when they're the buyer, how are they making that distinction when they're the seller?
Then, in the next breath, they're complaining about artists who say things like:
"Why should I hire you when I can just use LANDR?"
"Why shouldn't I just get my friend to mix it for free?"
"AI can master my tracks for $5, so why do you charge $500?"
"Why do I need to pay for a consultation? Can't we just do a quick call?"
And artists who leave them on read. Artists who disappear after initial interest. Artists who don't respond for weeks.
Let me make this absolutely clear:
What they do to me:
Ask why they should pay when free alternatives exist
Question whether I'm qualified ("Do you even mix?")
Expect free consultation calls
Leave messages on read
Ghost after initial conversations
Compare my services to ChatGPT and free mentors
What they complain about artists doing to them:
Ask why they should pay when LANDR and AI exist
Question whether they're qualified
Expect free consultation calls
Leave messages on read
Ghost after initial conversations
Compare their services to cheap alternatives and friends
It's the exact same behavior. The exact same questions. The exact same disrespect for professional expertise.
They're outraged that artists don't see the value they provide. That artists reduce their expertise to a commodity. That artists treat professional services like they're interchangeable with free or cheap alternatives.
But they literally just did the exact same thing to me.
Here's what's actually happening: They're practicing being the client they hate. They're rehearsing skepticism, hesitation, and resistance. And then they're confused when every potential client approaches them with that exact same energy.
You can't model the behavior you don't want to receive. You can't practice being a difficult client and expect to attract easy ones. You can't demand value while failing to demonstrate it.
This isn't isolated. I'm seeing it everywhere. Contractors who won't hire contractors. Service providers who don't value services. Professionals who treat other professionals like they're taking a risk, while expecting to be treated like they're a sure thing.
The market is full of people asking a question they can't answer themselves:
Would You Hire You?
And here's the uncomfortable truth: The reason you're asking "why should I hire you?" to everyone else is the same reason you can't answer that question about yourself.
Your resistance to hiring others isn't protecting you from bad investments. It's revealing exactly why clients resist hiring you. You can't articulate why someone should trust you because you don't know how to recognize trustworthiness in others. You can't prove you're reliable because you don't value reliability when you're the buyer. You can't demonstrate value because you don't acknowledge value when it's offered to you.
The way you evaluate other people's services (with skepticism, comparison to free alternatives, demands for proof before commitment) is training you to be evaluated the same way. And worse, it's preventing you from learning what actually makes someone hireable, because you're too busy looking for reasons not to hire them.
You're stuck in a loop: Unable to prove your value because you don't understand what value looks like. Unable to understand what value looks like because you refuse to recognize it in others. Unable to recognize it in others because you're practicing resistance instead of recognition.
The question "Would you hire you?" isn't rhetorical. It's diagnostic. And the answer points directly to why you're stuck.
When was the last time you hired a contractor? A plumber, an electrician, a designer, anyone who does work you can't or won't do yourself?
Now think about that experience. How did you treat them? What did you expect? What pissed you off? What impressed you?
You wanted them to respond quickly. You wanted clear pricing upfront. You wanted them to just handle it without you having to think about every detail. You probably got annoyed when they asked you a million questions.
And here's the brutal part: Did you respect them more or less when they offered to discount their rate before you even asked?
Now ask yourself: Would you hire you?
Would you hire someone who takes two days to respond to messages? Would you hire someone whose pricing changes based on vibes? Would you hire someone who needs their hand held through every decision? Would you hire someone who immediately offers you a deal before you've even decided if you want to work with them?
You wouldn't. And neither would anyone else.
The way you evaluate contractors is exactly how people evaluate you. But somehow when you're the service provider, you forget every single thing you hated as the buyer.
You're Investing in the Wrong Thing
"I'm investing in my business."
Are you, though?
You bought another plugin. You watched a three-hour mixing tutorial. You spent Saturday learning about a new compression technique that will make your mixes imperceptibly better in ways clients will never notice. You tell yourself you're improving.
But you're not investing in your business. You're investing in the technician. And the technician isn't the problem.
Most engineers who reach out to me are competent. Often very good at the technical work. That's not why they're stuck.
Real business investment looks different:
Building a pricing system so you stop improvising rates on every call
Creating an onboarding process so clients know what to expect
Hiring someone to handle your invoicing so you stop chasing payments at 11pm
Learning to have sales conversations without apologizing for your rates
These things make you 10-20% better at running a business. The plugin makes you 0.1% better at mixing in ways no one will notice. You're already competent at the technical work. That's not what's holding you back.
The person who invests in learning one more mixing technique will be slightly better at mixing in a slightly worse business. The person who invests in systems will be equally good at mixing in a dramatically better business.
Buying a plugin is easy. Building a business is hard. So you buy the plugin and call it an investment. But here's the thing about all this resistance to investing in your business, all this nickel-and-diming: it doesn't just keep you stuck. It trains your clients to treat you the same way. And nowhere is this more obvious than in how you handle free work.
The Free Work Contradiction
You know what's fascinating? The same person who asks me for free advice, free strategy calls, free "pick your brain" sessions will turn around and complain that clients keep asking them for free work.
"People don't respect my time. They want free revisions, free consultations, free spec work. How do I get them to stop?"
Easy. Stop doing it yourself.
You want people to pay for your expertise while simultaneously asking others to give you theirs for free. You want clients to respect your boundaries while you ignore everyone else's. You want to be treated like a professional while acting like someone who doesn't value professional services.
The cognitive dissonance is stunning.
Here's the pattern: You don't value what you get for free. Nobody does. You ignore the free advice. You skip the free trainings. You bookmark the free resource and never look at it again. Free feels like zero risk, which means zero commitment, which means zero follow-through.
But when you pay, you show up. You implement. You take it seriously. Because now there's skin in the game.
When you're handing out free work, free calls, free revisions, you're not being generous. You're training people that your time has no value. And then you're confused when they treat it that way.
The engineers who complain most about clients not respecting their rates are the same ones who don't respect anyone else's rates. They're always looking for the discount, the deal, the workaround.
You can't want premium respect while modeling budget behavior.
And this confusion you're creating for your clients? That's on you too.
Your Clients Are Confused (And It's Your Fault)
Think about the last contractor you hired. Where were you confused?
Was it when they explained the process and you had no idea what they were talking about? When the price seemed random? When they asked you technical questions you couldn't answer? When the timeline kept changing with no explanation?
Now think about your clients. Do you think they're confused?
Of course they are. You're throwing technical terms at them they don't understand. Your pricing feels random because you're making it up as you go. You're asking them questions about their session that they can't answer because they're not engineers. Your timelines are vague because you haven't actually mapped your process.
You're creating the exact confusion you hated experiencing.
The contractor you respected most was the one who made it simple. They asked you what the problem was. They told you what they'd do about it. They gave you a price. They told you when it would be done. They did the work. They left. You paid them. Done.
No drama. No confusion. No complexity.
That's what your clients want from you. But you've convinced yourself that your work is too complicated to be simple. That you need to educate them on every detail. That they need to understand the nuance of your process.
They don't. They need to understand what they're getting, what it costs, and when it's done. Everything else is you creating confusion because you haven't clarified your own offering.
Every Project Is Someone's Creative Life
When was the last time you made a record? Not mixed one. Made one. Wrote it, recorded it, produced it, lived with it for months. Poured your heart into it. Had the melody stuck in your head for weeks. Stressed about whether people would understand what you were trying to say.
When was the last time you cared that deeply about something and then put it in someone else's hands?
Because that's what happens every time someone sends you a project. They made something. They care about it. Some of them have been working on it for years. They've played it for their friends, their family, their partners. They've imagined what it could become. They've bet their credibility on it.
And then they send it to you.
Are you treating it with that level of care? Or is it just another project? Just another $400? Just another mix to get through before the next one?
You know the difference. You can feel it when someone actually cares about your work versus when they're just processing it. When the barista makes your coffee with attention versus when they're just getting through their shift. When the contractor respects your home versus when it's just another job site.
Your clients can feel it too.
Most engineers have lost this feeling. They've done so many projects that everything has become transactional. They've heard so many mediocre songs that they've stopped believing anything they work on might be great. They've been ground down by difficult clients and tight budgets until they're just surviving, not serving.
They've forgotten what it feels like to hand your work to someone and hope they treat it like it matters.
Every project you touch represents someone's creative risk. Their vulnerability. Their hope. Maybe it's not your taste. Maybe you think the song is mediocre. Maybe you're right. But they made it, and they care about it, and they chose you to help them realize their vision.
When you rush through a mix because you have three more due tomorrow, you're not just delivering subpar work. You're telling someone their art doesn't matter. When you half-listen to their reference because you think you know better, you're dismissing their vision. When you apply your template and call it done, you're treating their months of work like it's interchangeable with everyone else's.
You wouldn't want that for your own work. So why are you doing it to theirs?
The engineers who break through aren't the ones with the best ears or the most expensive gear. They're the ones who still treat every project like it matters. Who listen like they're trying to understand what this person is actually trying to say. Who care about the outcome beyond just getting paid.
You can't fake this. Artists can tell.
The Hypocrisy Test
Here's the uncomfortable truth: Most creative business owners are hypocrites.
They want clients who:
Respond quickly to messages
Pay on time without reminders
Trust their expertise without questioning
Don't haggle on price
Respect their boundaries
Value their time
But they themselves:
Take days to respond to opportunities
Negotiate everyone else's rates
Question every professional they hire
Look for free alternatives constantly
Ignore other people's boundaries
Waste time asking for free help
Let me make this concrete. You ignore an email from a consultant for three days because you're "busy," then get frustrated when a potential client takes 48 hours to respond to your quote. You don't see it, but they're the same thing. You just devalued someone's offer and wondered why they don't value yours.
You ask a business coach for a free 15-minute call to "see if it's a good fit," then complain when artists want free consultations before committing. You negotiate a designer's rate down by 20%, then feel disrespected when a client tries to haggle. You compare a strategist's service to ChatGPT, then get offended when someone says AI can master tracks.
You cannot ask for treatment you don't model. You cannot expect respect you don't give. You cannot demand professionalism you don't practice.
The way you treat the professionals you hire is training for how you'll be treated. If you're a nightmare client, you'll attract nightmare clients. If you're a dream client, you'll attract dream clients. The market mirrors your behavior.
This isn't karma. This isn't mystical. It's pattern recognition. You're teaching yourself what's acceptable. And your business becomes a reflection of what you've decided is normal.
But You Think You're Different
Right now, you're probably thinking of reasons why your situation is different. Why asking for free advice is justified in your case. Why comparing someone's services to ChatGPT was a reasonable question. Why leaving that message on read wasn't the same as when clients ghost you.
It is the same. The only difference is perspective.
You had a good reason for not responding immediately. You were busy with client work. But that client who ghosted you? They were busy too. You were just weighing your options when you asked about free alternatives. But that artist comparing you to LANDR? They're doing the same thing. You genuinely wanted to understand the value before investing. But that client who asked for proof of your work? Same motivation.
The behavior is identical. You've just given yourself permission to do things you won't forgive in others.
This is the gap. The space between what you excuse in yourself and what you expect from others. And that gap is exactly as wide as the distance between where you are and where you want to be.
What Actually Moves the Needle
If you're serious about changing this, here's what real business investment looks like:
Will this make my business 10-20% better at operating?
Not 0.1% better at your craft. Not slightly more knowledgeable about something you'll never use. Actually, measurably better at functioning as a business.
If you can't articulate how something will make your operation dramatically more effective, it's not an investment. It's a purchase. Maybe a good purchase, maybe not, but it's not moving the needle on your actual business.
A new plugin? Purchase. Might be a good one, but it's not transforming how you operate.
A pricing system that stops you from undercharging? Investment. That pays for itself in one project.
A tutorial on advanced reverb techniques? Purchase. Interesting, possibly useful, not changing your business reality.
A system for client onboarding that removes confusion and reduces revisions? Investment. That saves you 10 hours a month forever.
The test is simple: Will this change how I operate, or will this make me slightly better at something I already do well enough?
Most of what you call investment is just spending money on feeling productive while avoiding the actual work of building systems.
Close the Gap
You wouldn't hire yourself. Not as you currently operate. You'd find someone more responsive, more clear, more professional, more systematic. And that person probably charges more than you do, which you'd resent, even though they deserve it.
The gap between how you evaluate services and how you deliver them is the gap between where you are and where you want to be.
Close the gap. Not by getting better at mixing. By getting better at being the contractor you'd want to hire.
Stop asking for free while complaining about people asking you for free. Stop negotiating rates while complaining about clients negotiating yours. Stop being confused by pricing while presenting confused pricing. Stop investing in fake improvement while avoiding real improvement.
The business isn't separate from you. The business is you, every day, in every decision, in every interaction. You're either the professional you'd respect or the amateur you'd avoid.
So: would you hire you?
Your clients are asking that question right now. Every time you ghost a consultant, negotiate a rate, or ask for free advice, you're rehearsing their objections. You're teaching yourself how to be dismissed.
Stop practicing failure. Start modeling the treatment you want to receive.
That's not a rhetorical question. That's your roadmap.
