For Adriana Danaila, a artistic profession hasn’t simply been about creating her craft. It has been about undoing years of inherited cash mindsets. Based mostly in Romania, Adriana has skilled firsthand the expectations positioned on Japanese European creatives to undercharge and the unstated pressure between being seen as inventive, female, and financially formidable.
By trial, error, and the occasional five-figure month, she’s constructed a contract follow rooted in self-worth, sustainability, and freedom. On this candid interview, she displays on pricing as a follow, the recommendation she took from her carpenter uncle, and why her id won’t ever be outlined by work alone.
How did you be taught to navigate pricing, salaries, or negotiations in your discipline?
Principally via plenty of trial and error, in addition to books, programs, on-line deep-dives, and studying from fellow freelancers who had been a number of steps forward of me. Pricing is the second most essential ability after your craft, and I actually want I would given it extra consideration at first of my profession.
I’ve gone via all of the phases, from dry spells the place I questioned every thing, to five-figure months that felt surreal. However pricing is not a one-and-done factor. It is a fixed course of, and I am nonetheless studying.
Each couple of months, I take time to analyse my pricing and take into consideration what influenced it, whether or not it is nonetheless aligned with the worth I deliver, and the way I can transfer issues ahead.
The market shifts, my confidence evolves, and so do my objectives. So my pricing has to maintain up.
Have you ever ever skilled pay disparity or monetary challenges in your profession?
Sure, fairly a bit. Being Japanese European, I observed early on that many purchasers anticipated me to cost much less simply due to the place I am based mostly.
For some time, I went together with it, assuming that was simply how issues labored, and I did not query it a lot. Over time, although, as I grew extra assured in my expertise and the outcomes I used to be delivering, I began to see issues otherwise. I realised I did not want to cost based mostly on my location, however on the worth I used to be bringing to a undertaking.
That shift helped me discover higher shoppers and construct a extra sustainable freelance profession.
What’s the very best piece of economic recommendation you’ve got acquired as a artistic skilled?
The most effective recommendation got here from my uncle, who was a carpenter. At any time when somebody supplied him a job he did not need (because of the shopper, timeline, or unhealthy vibes), he’d quote a ridiculously excessive worth. The sort the place he hoped they’d say no, and typically they did. However typically… they mentioned sure.
That caught with me. Once I began making use of the identical logic – charging extra for tasks I wasn’t enthusiastic about – I used to be stunned how usually shoppers nonetheless agreed. It utterly stretched my mindset round what individuals are keen to pay.
Within the instances the place they did not, I used to be nonetheless glad, as a result of at the least they walked away realizing that the service may price that a lot. In a small means, it helps normalise truthful pricing for the remainder of us within the trade.
How do you steadiness making a dwelling with doing work that feels significant?
For me, work is figure. I do not connect my id to it, and I do not imagine in the entire “comply with your ardour” mantra — at the least not in relation to making a living.
In my work, I give attention to being nice at what I do and delivering actual outcomes. That is the place I get my sense of professionalism and satisfaction.
However in relation to which means and fervour? That lives in the remainder of my life. I’ve constructed a life-style full of dance, performing, journey, sports activities, pet sitting, household, and shut mates.
That is what offers my life depth — not simply my job.
I am working to earn cash so I can have extra freedom, time, and power for the issues that truly make me really feel alive.
